Thoughts and Prayers

 We see or hear it every day. Good news, or more often bad, is shared on social media, and the poster is flooded with thoughts and prayers, and hands clapping together. 

There are those who see this as the only response to these small worries and larger personal disasters.  Because they don't see the respondent pick up the phone to call, or their car keys to head over to the afflicted home or family.

Some even wonder if those posting thoughts and prayers are even actually thinking or praying. Or are they making the polite response? Like "How are you?" as a greeting, but not really listening or interested to know how the other actually is.

Of course they have actually had a thought concerning the matter. They could hardly have read the post, let alone replied, without having a thought. As for praying, what is prayer but a directed thought?

But these conversations can make one wonder. They can make one take a long, deep look at their own personal version of "thoughts and prayers" being a helpful thing to do.

For those who have Faith in a deity, it's a no-brainer. They know. Faith is belief without proof, and they don't need proof. The truly faithful will do 'extra' things like add the names to a prayer list and call to ask others to pray  also. They may do this, and be trying to think of how else they can be helpful to those in need. Or they may not. That is between them, tyheir faith, and their deity.

There are others who wonder. Can "thoughts and prayers" make a difference in the outcome? Can thoughts and prayers effect a cure, decelerate a situation, or have any type of result?  (There have been research studies done, with mixed results.)

Will the differences, if they do occur, be lasting or ephemeral? Does it matter more in the long run, or the short term?

Even more importantly, why would they work? Is there any kind of science that can possibly explain this phenomenon? What could it be? How would it work?

The place to start is with a thought. What is a thought? What makes a thought? 

It is a spark. A minute (or notso small) creation of electrical energy in the brain. Not necessarily seen, or smelled, or identified by any other sense. But energy where there was none somehow has become a fact.

According to science, everything is or becomes energy. Many energies cycle through the states of liquid, solid, gas. Many energies become different forms of energy, as a result of a spark. 

Once, there was thought to be three states of matter -- solid,liquid, and gas. 

Now a fourth state is recognized. Plasma. Plasma is matter turned to energy. There are experiments with the energy of plasma becoming matter. Some scientists say it is impossible; others say they have achieved success at molecular or atomic levels. What greater things can be achieved once they learn and acquire understanding of how this works!

It is my belief -- unproven at this time -- that that may be how thoughts and prayers work. It is energy that can (although no one knows how) be directed in a certain manner for a certain purpose.

It may be that some people can do this, without consciousness, just as there are some who can draw or carve or create music or songs. 

It may be that there are people who can be trained to do these same things -- paint a landscape, vibrate a reed into organized tones (that create an emotion), direct energy toward a stranger who needs healing. 

Of course, it is equally true that these things don't work that way, that they happen randomly or not at all, that they can never be taught if they do eist.

But they might.

Science is finding out. 

Science is learning.

Most of all, Science is keeping open to the possibilities.

Winter Morning. December 2019

This cold winter's morning, as the darkness edges away from the horizon, I find myself wishing that I was--elsewhere. And maybe elsewhen.

 
What would I be doing, and where would I be?

 
Sitting in a rocking chair on a porch, wearing flannels and wool, wrapped in a blanket, a quilt, a comforter. Which or how many of these would depend on the temperature of the air and the prevailing winds.
In my hands a hot drink. It doesn't matter what. Tea, coffee, cocoa, a toddy, hot lemonade.
The steam from the drink both warms and wets my nose. The warmth of the contents warms the cup and the hands that hold the cup.
Or do the hands warm the cup, keeping the fresh warmth from escaping?
No matter. It and I am warm and we hold one another in warmth.

 
Before me are treetops. Behind me, behind my home, are trees.
Layers of trees.
Rows of trees.

Rising solemnly in ranks and ledges and lines.
They stand silent, or Not-so-silent, in the breaking of day. They rustle, they murmur, reminding me of stretching and waking and the hushed voices of rising.
I smile and sip and look.
Below me, I see the stream moving, smoked silver in the pre-dawn. I hear the shushing of the water as it falls into the pool. I cannot see the falls -- not yet -- but I know they are there. I feel the cleansed air against my skin. I smell the freshness. I hear the soothing sounds, and
I walk away from my window looking out on the busy highway, and I wish -- Oh, how I wish! -- that the place I have been was somewhere I could actually be.

What Will It Take? (Vaxxing, pt 4.)

 Let me answer the obvious first. 

There are those who will not be convinced, persuaded, reasoned with, ordered, bullied, or otherwise even try to become vaccinated. Not against covid, not against flu, not against shingles, measles, mumps, diphtheria, rubella, polio, tetanus, or anything else. 

They have already decided.

They have already made up their minds.

They know all there is to know about it, no matter what variations come along and no matter what new discoveries, or prognoses come along. 

They have made up their decision. 

This is not for or about them. There are many people out there still studying, still wishing, still wanting to, but...

This is to give them a voice, however small.

One of the biggest changes in administration of the covid vaccine is that now the more at risk people are being encouraged to go for it. After time has shown a good 'protection' record -- not necessarily prevention -- and that the vaccine itself poses less -- but not zero -- risk of contracting the illness, it's been decided by medical professionals that the risk is on the side of vaccines. 

There are always risks. People -- persons -- are individual and react individually. DNA and environment and nutritional and attitude all combine to make the reaction to heal or to hell. 

THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES.

There never have been. 

However.

What is stopping those that want to, but?

Here are a few answers.

The vaccines are usually mostly available in high traffic areas. Usually in or around pharmacies or hospital/clinics where sick people gather. 

Even with an appointment, you have to wait. 

In crowds.

Of sick people.

This is not a good idea for anyone who is even partially at risk for contagion.

Another problem is that there are no clear protocols for how/when/where to go once you reach the facility. 

In the pharmacy, do you go to sign in at the drop-off for prescriptions, at the pick-up for prescriptions, in the waiting area with no window? Or somewhere else entirely? And remember that each of these areas will probably be filled with coughing, sneezing, feverish, sweating, people who don't want to be there either.

In a facility, do you go to admitting, or through an ER or Urgent Care, or maybe straight to the lab? Do you, as a patient, know where any or all of these areas are? 

Why do the signs say "Walk-ins welcome. Make an appointment first."?

Are the hours posted clearly? 

Is there anyone working that specific area during the posted hours? Or are the 'preventive' people  having to mingle with the contagious ones?

Why is everyone saying  free with no insurance necessary, and the next line reads, bring your insurance cards?

At this point, especially with the alphabetically named surges shoving each other out of the way, it seems/feels/is more endangering to go out in search of the vaccine than it is to stay home, mask, sanitize, and ding-dong-ditch deliveries.

After nearly two years, and now that out efforts have turned to the more at-risk persons, can we not have some logical organization that applies to everyone? If only signs at each establishment specifying each step needed. 

Not sign-in at pharmacy.  Sign in at row b line 3. 

Not go straight to lab with orders; only to be worked-in in-between patients who do have orders. 

These things were done better at first, but the organizations seem to have fallen away as we are getting down to the people who need it the most.

Let's fix this, so that everyone who WANTS to, CAN DO.

Christmas Calm

 This is my Christmas tree. Today is January 4. The tree has been up since the day after Thanksgiving. As usual.

As you can see, there are gifts waiting, for my sisters and mostly for my grandkids. 

I like looking at these gifts, ready and waiting for the children.

There are no spectacular gifts this year; at least I don't think so. They had no burning desires for anything special, except Warren wanted a real robot. I left that to Santa.

These are gifts that say "I love you." and maybe even "the silliest things make me think of you." Special for no other reason than that.

I had an opportunity to take their gifts to them on Christmas Eve, but they weren't wrapped. And they would be on Christmas break from their schools. Surely we'd somehow get together in that time.

But it did not happen. 

Life got in the way, with all its complications and contradictions. Illness, wellness, work, cars, the current pandemic. (Current for nearly two years now. That's a long time for a "right now" event, don't you think?) All sorts of stuff; the 'stuff' of daily living. 

Life got in the way.

Once upon a time, this would have infuriated me, or insulted me, or any of many intense negative emotional reactions. 

But I'm not mad.

They'll get them sometime.

When life allows.

In the meantime, I can look at the gifts and be pleased that I have gifts for them. There have been times -- many, many times -- when that couldn't didn't happen. 

I can wait for the giving. 

I can wait for the children.

I can wait for life to return to normal, or something approaching that.

Life will never be normal again.

Too much has changed.

But love doesn't.

The joy of giving doesn't.

That is the normal I can wait for.