At Easter my 14 year old and I went to the badlands of Alberta to visit his cousin. The two teens hardly looked out the window enroute, bent over portable technology. So it delighted me that they ran into the desolate terrain with abandon as soon as the van door opened.

When my 14 year old comes home at lunch from school, opens the door and says "anything to eat?" Generally I am engaged in something 'important' at the computer. His words align me with the pair of cardinals this week fledging their young in my backyard.

Right vs Left
I was preschool and this was the first time I recall asking that a concept be explained to me. No doubt learning before that was by subconscious absorption.
My mother expained that right and left were relative to vantage point.
In that concrete stage of brain development I internally balked and was offended at the fluid nature of right and left.  I must have developed a mental block right then and there because to this day, I have trouble figuring out right from left.
So I guess I never really did 'learn' it:  even though I trusted my mother as I assert in my previous blog.
In retrospect this has taught me that humans may shut the door to knowledge and wisdom when it transgressions the paradigms they are comfortable with.

What?  My mothers love for me
Who: my mother
Though now that I look closely at the photo, I see she has a knife in her hand.  :)

Morning confusion. I set the alarm for 6:01 and must have hit the hour button alongside setting the alarm because I now discover from the computer that it is 5:15 and CBC is playing national Australian radio.  I knew it played Radio Holland after midnight but did not know Canadian airwaves roved about all night.  ...ooo now it is playing Radio Romania International.
Two mornings ago I was nestled deep in sleep when at 8:15 my son answered the phone to find I was supposed to be at work at 8:00.

Maybe I have Vicarious Jetlag on behalf of my 14 year old who just got back from Japan 36 hrs ago and was zombiod all day yesterday 
Not having traveled in a long time, I have been jealous of his trip and this must be my unique way of experiencing it with him.  :)

Money does not buy happiness, but it sure makes a nice down payment.  :)

That old adage sprang to mind with todays question because of course, it is second it the list of what people want:  to feel safe; to not worry about material things.  So sometimes we yearn for a so much  $$$ that we believe we will never worry about $$$ again.
But what do people really want?
To feel connected.  To love and be loved.
The Myth of King Midas we learn preschool pretty much sums it up. 

"I hope I slept in"

I am working 4pm till 1am all weekend. When I come home I have to read a bit to wind down and after last evenings shift did not turn out the light till 2:30 as I stayed awake to finish The Shack.
My son and his girlfriend bounced into my room and when they announced it was 12:30 post-lunch, I was delighted to know I had a great long sleep.

Now I will be refreshed for my shift this evening.

I remember one dream: I had a large pot of something delicious on the stove and unexpected numbers started to gather round my kitchen. At one point I was aware that my ex husband S was there and was so happy to see him, but wondered if he would leave stormy when he realized my friend D was sitting at the kitchen table. S seemed to saunter happily off to the dining room with part of the crowd and I went to sit at the kitchen table with others. Once seated I realized that everyone Including both S and D had moved to the dining room with fun and laughter and that I was alone at the kitchen table - fretting over whether everyone would get along.
lol
I understand the dream completely: quit fussing about being responsible for whether others accept one another. Just love and live and allow them to make choices for themselves.

Mind you there is a detail of the dream I do not yet get. D had combed his hair all flat and parted it to the side. I was just shaking my head quizzical, no time to ask him about it but storing the question away to enquire later. He has gorgeous hair that is best left wild and curly like the halo of Michelangelo's statue. Why the heck would he plaster it down?

 

Otter asked if I am doing anything for Lent this year so I told her this:

I was raised Baptist and there was no mention of Lent.  Still, I learned about it from my RC friends who were always giving something up, usually food of some sort.  Kids are jealous of cultural details of their friends, thinking they are missing out.  I was jealous about Lent because my family did not have Lent.  My mother explained that it was an RC way of honouring Jesus and the sacrifice he made for us.  She said it was a nice little human way of saying thank you back and so all very well for RCs.  But she said, protestants simply chose to embrace the view that Jesus sacrifice was free, a gift, and that while he might smile benevolently as the RCs gave up treats at Lent, he really just wanted the same thing of all of us whether RC or protestant:  to accept his loving sacrifice freely and joyfully and to open up and allow it to change our hearts and souls and lives every day all year.

So that was that on lent for me. Until...my own stupid (lol) adult presbyterian congregation took on Lent.  Why?!  We are protestant.  My eyes rolled back in my head and I just ignored my fellow parishioner's prereformation regression.  Until...the kids' stupid (lol) Sunday School teachers told them all about the benefits of Lent and sacrificing for Jesus and that they were all to give something up.  I had no warning.  I did not know the SS was going to brainwash my little sheep who were now all convinced they must do this thing.  Sigh. The kids understood that for Jesus to be pleased they must give up something they truly liked.   

So Daniel (age 7) gave up fresh fruit

And Nathan (age 7) gave up chocolate

And Nic (age 9) gave up cake

Damn that stupid SS!

Mothers of kids that age have trouble finding dishes that the whole family can enjoy together because young kids often have strong likes and dislikes.  The ONLY dessert we all sat around in family fellowship enjoying together was chocolate fondue.  It was a highlight of family unity and harmony and joy.  Daniel adored and ate the cut up array of many fruits. Nathan adored the chocolate sauce and his cubes of cake.  Nic loved the ensemble and partook in all equally. David (age 5) joined in the fun and learned the process of sharing and taking turns.

(When pressed about lent, David gave up girls because he hated the girl next door and was forced to play with her.  He was the only sensible one and I was proud of him for turning the SS schmozzle to his own self interest which is what, I am sure, many Christians do each Lent)

Otter told me this about Lent and of course (as usual) she is exactly right:  "Lent isn't really about what you "give up" it's about clearing away obstacles in your life which are not allowing you to have as full a relationship with God as you could...Without the goal of bringing oneself closer to God, Lent would be just like making a New Year's Resolution - all sacrifice and no tangible immediate benefit - no wonder most people abandon their resolutions within weeks or days of making them."

Yes I agree.  The goal is to bring oneself closer to god and to examine the obstacles in our lives that obscure the path.  Fruit and chocolate and cake brought my children closer to god because they promoted loving fellowship.  The SS twisted the entire meaning of Lent giving them the impression that they would find more favour with god if they gave up abundant life. Whereas god wants us to clear away obstacles that impede us from embracing abundant life.  No wonder many kids raised in the church graduate never really having felt the loving arms of Jesus and the faith to sustain them when they are confused or hurt or broken.

The first thing that springs to mind are the old adages that apply to us all:
 1. Life is a sexually transmitted disease (but one could just as easily substitute the word gift for disease)
2. Life is a terminal disease (oops thats 5)

Those adages have always amused me because I agree entirely that my life springs from the celebration of life of beings before me, so it is a sexually transmitted condition.
And I agree that from birth we begin a process toward death, toward going back 'home'.  :)

So lets see...ummm... umm.... my six word story:  Forever reborn, enroute home. Accompany me.

Since yesterday I googled and exchanged a few email and it appears that many have already been working on a trap for bed bugs which would emit either carbon dioxide and warmth (Dr. Kells I believe) or phermones (Dr. Gries)
But my understanding is that traps are being developped for use by the extermination industry in order to better locate critter hideouts.
Whereas what I am imagining is that someone would come up with a trap that is AS attractive to BBs as sleeping humans and that could be used as a decoy  to avoid bites and to help deinfest by trapping large numbers of bugs.
My understanding is that people often hire professional exterminators repeatedly and the cost is quickly prohibitive - I am sure the professionals are charging a fair fee for their time and work - but it is clear current methods simply don't work without exorbitant costs in profesional time and labour.  Plus, apt dwellers pay $$$ only to be reinfested by neighbouring units in about 7 weeks.  Let alone the difficulties faced by shelters for the socially disadvantaged.
In my mind I see future people (especially in apt complexes) concentrating their elbow grease on their beds.  Keeping the bed fastidiously scrubbed and clear and putting their bed legs in buckets of soapy water or other mechanical deterent.  They would coexist in the long run with a bedroom BB decoy to pick off any BBs that hitchiked home or traveled through the walls on pipes and wires.  They would be free of the thankless cycle of reinfestation and reliance on the habits of neighbours; and free of costly professionals.
With BBs now traveling on subways and waiting to come home with us from theatres I doubt any of us can avoid eventually bringing them home.
I sure am hoping someone out there comes up with a solution before BBs come to my house.
:)
Oh, Dr Sorkin says some spiders eat BBs as do house centipedes.