City Slickers "One Thing"

[bedoin]

Well said.
Many of us played by the rules and the learning is discounted because we want to be paid " too much" while we are over charged for medicine and just about everything else by international conglomerates that drain our resources and outsource to third world countries. We all need to get very self-sufficient as our dollar value is about to plummet. The only thing you will be able to hang onto is that every education that is up in our heads that they can't take away... I need to learn how to raise chickens and game birds ASAP.... Thanks for the forum for ya'll seasoned road warriors....

 

[Camelot Farms]

Boaz commented that perhaps someone else could point out your 'one thing'.
6 months ago, I would have completely agreed, now I have a different take on it...

I spent 15 years workng in Human Services in a variety of settings...Family Violence, Court Advocate, Family Service Worker etc etc...And during that time, I was blessed to hear over and over from families that I worked with and my co-workers that 'this is your calling' 'you were meant to do this' 'you are so lucky to have found your niche in life'.

I am currently unemployed by choice, sort of, I quit my job because of anxiety and stress and now I am looking for my 'one thing'. I think that for all of those years, I was letting someone else decide what my one thing was because thats what they saw me as good at. And while I enjoyed each of my jobs, looking back now, I dont think I was ever fulfilled.

Maybe this sounds crazy, but maybe my one thing is to create a warm, safe haven/home for my children and stop trying so hard to make other people's lives better while letting mine fall by the way side.

Does this make any sense?

Thanks Boaz for keeping this great thread going.

 

[wegotchickens]

DH and I were talking about this very topic a few days ago!
DH says I am his one thing.

For me it's home, which includes him, my daughters, the cats & chickens & house & garden. The neighbors and landscape, and all. I just love our HOME!

 

[bedoin]

Well one of the most interest longitudinal studies is the Study of Adult Development that looked at 824 Harvard men from late teens to when they died asking these same questions. ....
What is the MAIN THING.... what is the best lived life? How can we "EVOLVE" outside of the shallow materialistic world around us to feed that "ITCH" for lack of a better analagy that is within each one of us.
One book that looks at this by one of the investigators over the long long period is Aging Well by George E. Valliant, MD. It probably can be bought used on Amazon for very little. It has some suprises and some things that are not so suprising such as:

A proper tool of retirement is to learn how to play.....

Money has relatively little to do with successful aging; and alcohol abuse has a great deal to do with unsuccessful aging...

A test of successful living becomes learning to live with neither too much desire and adventure nor too much caution and self-care....

A task of evolving life is learning how to maintain self-respect while letting go of self-importance...

These lives that were studied over 50-60 years were men of priviledge and men of poor means.... It is so expensive to do a study like this that it simply cannot be done anymore. It was started in the 1920's/30s and carried on off and on by several different research groups.
One of the men in the group was John F. Kenndy although no one knew that except for very very few until the secret service came and carried off all his questionaires/physicals/diary journals after he was shot.....

If one wants to know how important altruism and other aspects of giving it back are to one's own evolution and sense of self this book gives the backing scientifically in a retrospective way of what probably our Mother's and Sunday School teachers have said all along....
If anyone has any other books/references I could read as well as the Bible or other religious books I am very interested. Thanks

 

[Julie08]

Quote:
Don't think I am picking on you, but my dad died when I was 17, three days before my HS graduation, and I was lucky enough to keep my mom for another 20 years. She has been gone 18 years and there is hardly a day that goes by I don't think of her or remember one of her wonderful old sayings . . .I use many of them myself. . .I would give anything to have them back for a week, just to show them my kids (my mom knew my kids, but died before they were very old) and their kids . .. one afternoon isn't going to make or break your daily plans. GO SEE YOUR MOTHER!!! There is an old expression that I use whenever I hear someone exasperated about their parents . . ."no matter what you think of your parents in life, you will miss them terribly in death." I am not writing this to start an argument . . .just stating my opinions. I think I have been precious enough to most of my five kids for them to miss me when I am gone, and want to be with me while I am still here. There isn't a whole lot more I can ask for in this life, other than to love and be loved.

Some people would give their right arm to be able to drive a half an hour or TEN hours just to hang a picture for their mother and make her feel special.

Did she ever hang a picture for you when you were growing up?

 

[boaz]

One thing as in passionate about; I think our chickens are driven to forage. Roosting, eating, drinking are all necessary to accomplish this goal. People are different, our single most passionate efforts can be as illuminating as a lighthouse beacon to others or as dark as a black hole. I believe the choice is ours to make - daily.

So who was the best Wyatt Earp? Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster - am sure that I am missing someone.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Any of you notice that Boaz is trying to change the subject and hijack his own thread? Don't let it happen. Don't answer about Wyatt Earp. Why???? Because we just got back from lunch where I asked him, "O.K., so what is YOUR one thing?" He couldn't/wouldn't answer.

Mine.....No matter what I do I do it all out, with 100% of my God-given ability - doesn't matter if it's cleaning toilets or starting a new business - I can get excited about it and give it my all.

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Whoo, what a ride!!"

 

[boaz]

Ruth of course is right - please save Wyatt for another day! Ruth and I do talk in person and sometimes exchange ideas over the internet via BYC, she is feeding chickens right now. My one thing is not Ruth (I do love her) or the farm or kids or business but to stay the course, a course that I started not so many years ago. We are here for a purpose, I believe, to bring glory to our Father by our actions and even our thoughts. For those skeptics of religous themes, I fail big time sometimes in this effort. Many people are here for something more than strictly chicken chat, don't get me wrong it is extremely entertaining but sometimes not terribly filling, much like a Cheeto. It is so easy to eat the whole bag then want to know what's for dinner or should I say supper being down south and all.

 

[monarc23]

it was my husband. now it's my FAMILY

 

[HarlansHollowFarms]

Quote:
Religion is much like politics, something that should probably be discssed elsewhere.

Back on topic:

My one thing is life. Everywhere I go, everything I see, feel and experience are a combination of 'The One Thing'. To me, there can never be jut one thing, there are so many things that make me who I am, it would be an injustice to chose just one.

One last thing......Go see your mother, once she is gone you will no longer have that 'one thing'. And you will have missed memories!