I know we should be upbeat… positive…be grateful we are still breathing… but at the same time I am feeling like death is staring me in the face…I cannot imagine the terror so many people who have died must have faced alone on the ventilators. The absolute terror their families experience…the pain of not being able to be there in the final moments for the people they love so deeply. Then not even permitted to mourn them in our usual manner…I post jokes now and then… songs & poetry now and then…in an effort to rise above the sorrow…this is just an incredible challenge to our human spirit. It very much emphasizes how much we truly need one another. When I first retired… it was a mini-version of this experience that we are going through collectively now. Some days I did not know if I would make it to the next…I needed purpose. I think this experience is not only a message for the Now—- but when it is over—- and one day it will be better—we need to remember the elderly who do live alone… the people who are isolated from society… the Homeless who feel displaced and unwanted…the parents whose children have gone on to live their lives—- it is a message to STAY CONNECTED! What we experience here among the elderly is a common thread throughout the world—- I have read many stories of people in other countries who end up in senior citizen apartments, beautifully designed—-as in Japan—serene landscaping—- but guess what? They die alone—one lady mentioned she has no one but managed to make a connection with a lady in another apartment across the courtyard. They don’t seem to really be able to visit, perhaps because of mobility issues— but she did create a somber message:”…If my window shade does not go up in the morning, you will know I have died. Please contact my family.” Imagine that is their only communication! When this pandemic takes a rest, please let us all remember to Reach Out and Stay Connected! We all need each other! …and, it also wouldn’t hurt to connect NOW with those alone!

Palmyra, WI
©Jane H. Johann
January 6, 2020

Possibilities always exist. “Anything is possible,” as the saying goes. We just have to believe.

Yes, there are always the naysayers, it seems, no matter what one undertakes. The disbelievers say “this is it?”…”no one ever came back from the Other Side”…”what good is prayer? WHY do people send prayers when something bad happens?”…” Prayers are about as much help as sending kind thoughts,” quipped another.

I guess all those statements can be true if we accept them as true and those thoughts become the mantras of our lives. However, the possibility of GOOD can also do the same.  Why, as humans, are we so readily able to accept the impossibility of something happening? Yet, not the possibility of something good happening?

How many of us have ever been inside the infamous Black Hole? How many of us have actually seen it or touched it? Yet, we believe in its existence because of the great power of quantum mechanics, which few of us understand, yet marvel at. However, to believe that something good can come out of a horrible situation, would take a quantum leap of faith, on the part of many of us.

When confronted with such opinions, I think, “Hmm, when someone says something negative to me about myself personally or about the world’s craziness and our inability to help one another, with fixation on imaginary boundaries and the present destructive state of the global environment—I think, “Yes, we surely do have great concerns facing us!” “Tremendous conflicts with frightening consequences!”  I feel with intensity the burden of those negative comments. So then I think, “Well, just imagine if we replaced those thoughts with good ideas–WHY wouldn’t they also have a profound effect upon us and the reality of the present life on our planet, Mother Earth?”Hence, the value of prayer and sending kind thoughts. Maybe those wishes our not exactly the response we want–but they carry with them “promise.” At the very least, these words carry kindness, concern and love.

Better to have good wishes than not!

Each of us brings a bit of ourselves into this world. Each of us has something to offer–no matter how small or how great–we each have something to give.

Today, I hope we each can believe a little bit more in the goodness of each other…despite those who build walls instead of bridges…despite those who wage war instead of peace…despite those who think one human being is less than another…BELIEVE in the Possibility of GOOD…let it flow from our beings to each other! Never give up!

Caballo Loco, AZ
February 14, 2019

Believe in possibility, even when there is darkness…never give up HOPE!

Baboquivari Mt. (Sacred Mountain of the Tohono O’odham Nation)
January 17, 2019

as the day draws to a close

I draw in the quiet of the setting sun…

I sit and thank God for all that I lived this day…

for all that I experienced and the joy received…

then I think of things I could have done better…

and ask for forgiveness…to develop more an attitude of living “for – giving”

then I drink in all the sweet, beautiful colors of the sunset…

and recall how much my Ma understood me…and knew how I loved the sunsets…

though I do not know if I ever explicitly said so…she knew…

that is the thing about Moms…they know even when we are silent…

absorbing the world around us….I can’t look at the sunset without thinking of my Ma…

she is a part of me every day…

I was blessed last January to see and experience part of the Southwest with my dear friend, Pat…

camping on the mountain facing Baboquivari Mt., or the Sacred Mountain of Tohono O’odham Nation…

a peaceful place to BE…

Memories like this are good to relive!

They give us strength and remind us of the GOOD in this world!

Sunrise –Caballo Loco, Arizona, USA
©Jane H. Johann
January 22. 2019

putting forth confidence

when the clouds cover the sky

putting forth enduring patience

when we want the response immediately

putting forth expectation

when all the responses point southward

putting forth trust

when promises have been broken over and over

putting forth desire

when all the windows seem shut

putting forth encouragement to one another

when we want to run in the opposite direction

H O P E

It is the first evening of the New Year, with some snow on the ground of southern Wisconsin and a bit nippy out in the cold air.  We have to believe that behind the dark night, there is LIGHT. We have to continue to hope and believe that love and compassion will win.  We have to believe we can build bridges instead of walls…we have to believe that deep inside each person there is good…and that GOOD will prevail. We owe it to all those who have gone before us– those who struggled through the conflicts and injustices of their time. We owe it to them to keep believing in one another.  We have to believe in the higher truth and not give in to frustration or despair. We have to fight for the rights of all to live and breathe on Mother Earth — and forget the lines of nations -those imaginary lines that actually do not exist. We have to breathe life into our children and hope despite all the savagery that blurs the reality of what it means to be truly human. We have to respect nature and the plants and animals we share the Earth with and do all that we can as individuals and collectively to save this beautiful planet. We have to replace our sadness with joy and truly believe that change is possible — never give up!

The sun is brilliantly rising somewhere on our planet…and in the night sky the stars are there to remind us…that as long as we seek the LIGHT we will find it and we will save each other as we walk on our tender Mother Earth.

This is my New Year’s wish for all in 2020:  keep HOPE alive!

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation.  It means understanding that something is what it is and that there has to be a way through it.” Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox is an inspiration to me and to many and I am so happy to see the thought he added to the phrase: “…it is what it is,” –THAT  “there has to be a way through it.”

That phrase, “it is what it is,” has irritated me since about 2010, when it seemed to permeate many conversations that I was either having or topics that were being discussed by others. It seemed so definite and defining and I guess I am the type of person that cannot readily accept things as permanent or without possibility.  I would say I am not one to follow the “status quo.”  It doesn’t mean that I cannot accept some things, such as the manner in which the sun rises or set. It does mean that when something seems to be an irritation or an injustice, it bugs the hell out of me that I can not do something to improve it or that we cannot at least discuss possibilities. I do not think that makes me a “negative person” because I get so upset with that idea of “it is what it is.” One reason I get upset is that when someone says that to me it expresses a finality and that I “should just get over it and move on.”  Ignoring an injustice is not something I can do easily.  If anything, I am hopeful that things can be better!

“There has to be a way through it” expresses to me that there are countless possibilities. No matter how bad a situation, no matter how difficult the experience, there is a way out or forward. If one approach does not work, we can try another. Not giving up on possibilities is being hopeful and optimistic. Not giving up on others, no matter how many times they have done every possible thing to drive you down into the valley, there is always the hill that can be climbed to new heights.

Lately, our country is experiencing many soul-stretching boundaries. We have to look at our beliefs and what we actually live and breathe. With every spurt of growth there is a little pain. We have to keep on hoping in ourselves, in one another, and in the common good of humanity. I know I fail at this many times. but each day I wake up and have to try again and not give up or say “it is what it is.”  No, I must add, “there is a way through it” and continue with HOPEFUL ACTION.