A friend asked in a Facebook group, “Can you confidently and openly call your friends out on their toxic behavior? Or are you afraid they will take it wrong and you would prefer not hurt them?” I said “We call each other out on our stuff, and are glad when they do the same for us.” He responded, “Man, I wish guys shared this mentality.”
I said, “The ones who can’t and don’t didn’t recognize or target any role models for it. Their dads weren’t taught that, nor their dad’s dads. It was a harder life then so the rules were diff. Doesn’t make it right but leaves them without tools to build “real” friendships. Hanging out and partying is fun to a point, then as friends slip away into other relationships and other priorities, so many guys are left alone with insufficient communication skills, which makes them lead lives that could be much happier if they’d practiced that skill all along.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Cursive Writing and Analog Clocks train our minds to be analytical
On the loss of cursive writing and analog clocks, a Facebook friend remarked “Life moves forward and it’s no big deal. We no longer use sun dials.” It actually is a HUGE deal when we lose analytical skills that are easy to teach. Those skills teach us to extrapolate correct answers to complex questions. They help us understand increments and how one thing ties to another, how things are “related.” All our societal woes can be tied to not understanding how everything is related. There are entire generations who were not taught to analyze data so they can’t spot or decipher clues, they mistake historical references and fight wars over it, not knowing they don’t understand.
Andrea’s March 2021 Editorial
Hello and welcome to the March 2021 edition of Horizons Magazine. Spring has definitely sprung, As the oaks over my property get their leaves back, the jungle is returning! In October when they finished building the house next door, it took away many oaks and pines that shielded my property from view. Suddenly partially exposed, I planted 30+ loquat saplings and 40+ turks’ cap bushes just inside the property line and they are all coming up. Sweet!
In October I also began growing vegetables and herbs from seed: The bush beans, collards, kale and lemongrass are in the ground and I’ve been harvesting every few days. On the kitchen windowsill, I harvest daily from the celery, romaine and scallions I grew from grocery scraps. Parsley from seed is taking off in the hanging pots outside. I love parsley.
Andrea’s February 2021 Editorial
Hello and welcome to the February 2021 edition of Horizons Magazine. Friends are glad for the new administration. For me the last 4 years went quickly. Once it was clear at the first press conference that he wasn’t telling the truth, I stopping listening. Period. I know friends in the military with kids who received benefit from his policies. It didn’t affect me either way. Covid 19 affected me and that was mishandled but otherwise, despite the horrors that I know otherwise occurred, I was unaffected as a result of the policies of the last 4 years. Yes, some I knew had immigration fears but that wasn’t me personally.
I lost “friends” in the last 4 years, not due to difference of politics, but due to them becoming so rabidly mean and hateful on Facebook, name calling, mocking those they opposed. But it’s not fun to be around folks like that anyway so it’s no real loss. I’m all about keeping it real and keeping it fun. Continue reading
Please watch over your elders, they may be scam targets
Going thru old files page by page looking for a legal doc that might be mis-filed, I’m reminded that my husband and father in law fell prey to many investment scams. Lee died in 96, Dad lived just 3 miles from me. I invited him to live with me after I stopped by one day after getting no answer. The rule was he would “call me each day to make sure I was ok.” He said he heard the phone ring but he was doing the daily mail so he didn’t answer.
Um, he’s 84, what kind of “daily mail” was he doing? I asked if I could help him and he had me sit at the dining table. It was covered with dozens of scam mail (this was 1999) solicitations and he spent much of each day filling them out and sending them in. That and attending “business lunches” which were those free restaurant meals for seniors who sit thru the investment opp presentation. The rest of every day was watching news and Jerry Springer, then more news. He came to live with me in 99. I asked if he could help me feed the squirrels each day. Continue reading
Andrea’s January 2021 Editorial
WELCOME TO THE JANUARY 2021 HORIZONS. Here’s to hindsight being 2020. The big changes of 2020 forced me to make big changes in my own life. At first, when the pandemic arrived and the income tanked, I didn’t think, “Oh phooey, what am I gonna do now?” only because I’d learned to have a Plans B, C, and D-Z ready to go. Still, change is hard. With one income stream halted, it also halted a lot of expenses and freed up time. I didn’t take long to debate, “should I wait this out or jump on Plan B right away?” I knew that if I could begin doing mundane daily chores and look at them as spiritual practice, in awhile my thoughts would clear, leaving room for guidance and new ideas.
“Show me a way,” I asked, “Make me notice opportunities where I‘ll find meaningful and fun and satisfying work.” I can’t ask that, tho, unless I’m prepared to do my part: look at everything that comes after that request as part of the puzzle piece of the answer.
Andrea’s December 2020 Editorial
WELCOME TO THE DECEMBER 2020 HORIZONS. Ok, by now you’ve read the December Horizons already but in case you didn’t, the December issue is now online and here are the horoscopes. The big news in my life (I mean besides having the west woods I’ve known for 37 years completely removed in June for new construction — gahh! ) is the new neighbor moved in and is pleasant and nice. We wave and say hi when I’m gardening in the west yard and he steps onto his porch to let the dog run out for a few minutes. If you’re on my Facebook, you read about all the antics. We talked about the vines in the trees along the property line, he said if I’d cut them, he’d pull them down once they dry out. That made me notice the vines definitely hinder natural tree leafage, so they’ll be glad to be free. He’s got a big fish tank AND has city water, but my well water is excellent. I let him fill his tank from my hose. Since he’s got city water, when power goes out after storms, he still has water, so now so will we hehe Continue reading
Pride & Prejudice: Guest blog by Anne Marie Anderson
Before I knew his name, before I saw his face, before I ever knew what hit me, I responded, “I don’t reply to men without a profile picture.” Years and years of on-line dating had made me cynical. In the subject line he wrote: “Just Curious.” Innocent enough. . . yet, the communication, though normal, felt “charged” with innuendo. There was something in the way he scrambled to post his photo, trying furiously after many attempts to recapture and keep my attention. And before I could delete him, his photo popped up.
I vaguely remember being a bit surprised, but I clearly remember saying out loud, “Hmmm, this should be interesting.” I cringed as I read his profile. He was 13 years younger than me; divorced; in fact NEWLY divorced, (making me, ugh, rebound girl, a definite RED flag). His very first question was about the white paper I wrote to influence changing the disabled parking laws. I was bewitched.
Seth on THE NATURE OF PANDEMICS AND VIRUSES
You cannot begin to understand the nature of mass events of any kind unless you consider the even greater framework in which they have their existence. A person’s private experience happens in the context of his psychological and biological status and basically cannot be separated from his religious and philosophical beliefs and sentiments and his cultural environment and political framework
All of the issues formed together to make a trellis of behavior, thorns or roses may grow therein that is the individual will grow outward toward the world encountering and forming a practical experience traveling outward from Center in almost vine like fashion forming from the fabric of physical reality a conglomeration of pleasant or aesthetic and unpleasant or prickly events.
How to ask for inner guidance
Is your job, the life you’ve grown to know disappearing? DON’T FREAK OUT. You have access to lots more inner guidance than you’re aware of right now. If you could see where you’ll be 2 years from now, you’d smile that you were nervous and uncertain about it right now. Your world is just beginning to change is all.
HOW DO I GET THIS INNER GUIDANCE?
When you open your inner eye, you’ll begin to see your world in a new way.