Bird Droppings April 6, 2012

Hope’s direct opposite is despair!

 

“Man can live for about forty days without food, and about three days without water, about eight minutes without air … but only for one second without hope.” Hal Lindsey

 

As I sit here thinking back to Red Cross training and severe bleeding reminders, that a person can bleed to death in three minutes this Lindsey quote intrigued me. Perhaps this is an exaggeration that a person can only live one second without hope, but as I thought about it when we lose hope so often there is nothing left to live for. I generally start my morning getting up fixing breakfast for my wife and getting her lunch packed and then I sit down and read emails and blog posts and settle in to writing reading and pondering. Many mornings I will wander out into the darkness to sit and think meditate if another word is needed. I enjoy listening to the stillness although being close enough to a four lane highway there is generally even early in the morning a steady flow of cars and trucks enough to provide some human interference with natures soothing sounds. But sitting and listening to the first birds of morning and the crickets and tree frogs it is hard to despair. Hope is a powerful word.

 

“If one truly has lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so.” Eric Bentley

 

We start another week in a few days and back to school again for six more weeks and for me back to work after a little over a week off. An interesting feeling that great desire to get back to it and a desire to go lay back down and close my eyes for a few more hours that I was able to do all of this past week if I so chose. I have been spoiled being able to nap and lay back down and really no schedule for a week although I have really made a dent in my yard and garden still much to do however. But as I sit thinking and wondering today an experience from a few years back made me think about the word hope.

 

“To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.”  Pearl S. Buck

 

My father lived well into his eighties had been periodically having urinary infections the last year or so that he was alive which would cause his blood sugar to drop. When he was bottoming out on his sugar he would become very morose. As I talked with him back then on one hand he was asking about our future my sons, my wife, and me. Yet on the other hand how he would talk about how near the end of his time was. He would refuse to eat and would only take a few sips of orange juice trying to raise his sugar. A call came in from the visiting nurse and the recommendation was made to give him a few teaspoons of honey. My mother went in and told him she had some medicine for him and several teaspoons of honey later his sugar levels were back and he wanted to change the channel on the TV. I thought back to a Disney movie and song, “a spoonful of honey makes the medicine go down”. Although I think Mary Poppins sang about sugar.  

 

“Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.” Lin Yutang

 

In a National Geographic from several years ago there were several excellent stories ofAfricaone in particular that caught my attention. The article was focusing on the pygmies trying to hold on in their forest home as modern encroachment was coming. Interestingly enough civil war while hard on the pygmies was keeping illegal logging out as it was too dangerous and in so protected the forest of the pygmies. The original inhabitants of the Ituri Forest of Zaire are the Bambuti Pygmies and several tribes lived through the forest area inZaireand lived similar lives. They were migratory moving as they followed game and the hunters lived in little huts built from bent branches and large leaves. The pygmies are fearless hunters tackling even elephants with their poison arrows. For several tribes a right of manhood was to kill an elephant.

As I read one or two paragraphs caught my attention it was about honey. The entire tribe would stop everything when a honey tree was found. They would gorge on honey often to a point of falling into a stupor. The season of the year would also determine the type of honey be it light, medium or dark depending on the flowers being visited by the bees.

As I thought about honey another thought honey literally doesn’t spoil often staying on a shelf for years.

 

“Honey is a source of simple carbohydrates. Its composition on average is 17.1 percent water, 82.4 percent total carbohydrate and 0.5 percent proteins, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The average carbohydrate content is mainly fructose (38.5 percent) and glucose (31percent). The remaining 12.9 percent of carbohydrates is made up of maltose, sucrose and other sugars.” National Honey Board

 

My research pointed to modern uses of looking at antimicrobial properties of honey and uses as a wound dressing and for weightlifters as a source of quick energy. I was thankful for a rise in blood sugar and a rekindling of hope with my father back then.

 

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.” Robert Ingersoll

 

Getting all my materials ready and together to head to school next week and maybe I should grab a spoonful of honey although I keep several flavors atop by the Kruieg for mixing in tea. Who knows what the day brings and that honey could do the trick. There will be many new stories and events to catch up on from students and teachers. A few more weeks of school and its summer again and for me back to school and try and finish up a long overdue dissertation. At least my classes are finished and soon I will be sitting researching, reading and I can finish writing my dissertation.

Earlier as I went out the morning and you could feel the cold front moving in. Sadly although it will be easier to work outside it will be chilly today after a week of summer weather. New leaves on the trees and surrounding foliage are helping to muffle the sounds and soon the crickets and frogs will be back after the cool air tonight and my morning choir and orchestra will be serenading me again each morning.

I watched as a wisp of smoke circled about with little breeze it hung in the air moving as I moved and soon wandered off into the trees. As we go into these times so many issues coming to the front eventually we are responsible and it is up to us to vote and or not vote for whom makes our national decisions.

 

“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” Christopher Reeve

 

There is hope and we can be the catalyst so please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and to always give thanks.

namaste

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