Someone's Baby Once....

If you're of a certain generation you may remember a line from the classic cartoon, Broom-Stick Bunny.  Hotly pursued by a hideous and scary witch, and about to become part of her brew, the usually wise-cracking Bugs Bunny is suddenly reflective about his pursuer:

"She may not be very pretty now, but she was someone's baby once."

I think about that line every once in a while.  Everyone...no matter how grumpy or dirty or beautiful or thin or strong or mean or ugly or wrinkled or rude or happy or hurtful...everyone was "someone's baby once."  Remembering that helps me to love better--even those who may seem particularly unlovable to me at the moment.  Because, you see, while it's true that we all started out the same--small and naked and helpless--from there it didn't work out the same for all of us.  Some of us entered into worlds of abundant love, privilege and care, but many did not.  Sure, we were all "someone's baby once," but we weren't all loved.  Some of us were abandoned.  Some of us were abused.  Some of us were bullied.  Some of us were rejected because of the color of our skin or the kink in our hair or the people we loved or the things we were good at doing.  Some of us were starved--for food, for affection, for love. 

Many still are. 

Friends, we all make choices based on the opportunities that exist for us in our world, from the foundations on which our lives began.  But what of those who have no foundation, whose lives are built on the shaky ground of rejection and starvation?  We may all have been worthy of love but we have not all been recipients of it.  It may be hard for some of us to imagine, but there are many in this world who have simply never experienced that loving gaze that tells us, no matter what, we are loved and all will be well.

Maybe it's time we tell them.

(c) Fiechter, 2016

Thanks for reading.  Please feel free to share--ask permission for reprinting please.  And remember, love is both a noun and a verb...and sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Overload <3

Not long ago I heard something that about knocked my socks off:  five hundred years ago, the average person would have received the same amount of new information in their entire lifetime as a person today receives in a single day.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Five hundred years ago, you would have had your entire lifetime to absorb and process the amount of new information you now receive in a single day.

Have you ever felt like your brain was going to explode?  Have you ever felt that if you had to learn one new password, figure out how to use one new gizmo or gadget, learn one new THING, that you might just go bonkers?  Have you ever looked around and wondered how it's possible that you've suddenly entered an episode of The Jetsons?  Do you remember back when you would call someone on the telephone--it was called "dialing" for a reason, BTW--and you didn't have to ask them where they were?  E-mail, texting, Facetime...OMG...we used to speak using WORDS...LOL!. 

Have you ever thought that the only constant in life is change...and by the time you were done thinking about it everything seemed to changed AGAIN?

For generation after generation life didn't seem to change much.  If things did change, you usually had some time to catch up.  But now there's no time for catching up--if you blink you're behind.

It can be overwhelming.  Whether you're trying to wrap your brain around new ideas like "gay marriage" or remember that "google" has long-since become a verb, it can be a challenge to keep up.  That's not surprising; emerging brain science reminds us that the human brain is still catching up with the amount of information that crosses our screens in this age of technology.  And they say we ain't seen nothin' yet!

But believe it or not, one thing hasn't changed: the greatest force known to humanity.  It is the power to bring about change and deal with it, the power to heal, the power to grow, the power to transcend every challenge.  We call it love.

Always have, always will.

"Faith, hope, and love abide.  And the greatest of these is love."

(Happy Valentine's Day to all!)

All of a Sudden....

It was another one of those weeks.  It seemed to start out slowly and then, all of a sudden, it was Friday!  Funny how that is.

Come to think of it, January was another one of those months.  The holidays were over and then, all of a sudden, Punxatawny Phil was hunting for his shadow.  Funny how that is.

Come to think of it, last year was another one of those years...the last decade another of those...

Funny, how it is.  Or maybe you're thinking it's not so funny any more, just too fast.

It's something about how our brains are wired, or maybe it's that time is relative.  When we're younger it seems as if we have forever--only when we're looking back does it all seem to have gone by so quickly. 

Which is only to say "enjoy today" because, before you know it, today will be over.  And there won't be anything funny about that.