The Jeep Journals

I left my corporate job on 7/21/17 in order to help showcase Nature for Mother Nature fans online. I did not arrive easily at this decision since my corporate job paid extremely well and included amazing benefits. Alas, the one benefit I was not easily allowed was the time to immediately pursue any and all wild events happening any and all moments of every day throughout the world. I know it would have helped me greatly to see more Nature during the work week, so that is what I’ve set out to bring to you. Stay tuned!

Day Three, Enough For Me

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 5:12 PM

I’ve shared this photo before, but it goes well with pretty much every day that we have something to be grateful for. I am grateful for those who want to celebrate time with me and who take the time that is necessary to enjoy those long “get to the point” conversations… With me AND with others. In other words, it is sort of like Muhammad Ali said… “I don’t trust anyone who's nice to me but rude to the waiter. Because they would treat me the same way if I were in that position"

Today marks the birthday for one of my friends. For a moment in time, we were able to communicate ALL ways (i.e. always) while I remained of some type of value to them. For me, they never lost value. That brings me to the thought that sparked this entry. I was sharing insight about my dad’s dumpster dive guitar finds during his later years of life. I say later because of time, not because of absence. My father is still on this planet. In the same city, even.

My dad and I have not talked for a little bit of time now, and he certainly did not call to wish me a happy birthday. He never really has. I wonder how many fathers have decided to never tell their sons that basic Happy Birthday that makes every inner child light up. I wonder how many mothers tolerate and/or do the same thing. While I embark on my final day of a three day water only fast, I reflect on many things including the times that I did fast and who was “with me”.

Today I will spend tomorrow, as soon as it begins (i.e. after 12 midnight tonight, 12/23) enjoying a home prepared meal complete with trimmings. It is not my birthday, it is not my best friend’s birthday, and the world is ailing when it comes to basic communication skills. For me, I will enjoy THIS day and THAT day and THE DAY AFTER THAT forever as long as I am given the opportunity to do so. Today I celebrate the birthdaze wihout much fanfare. Torrow I celebrate the present.

Anyway, getting back to my dad… Recently he gave me two different guitars to work on. One was an acoustic and one was an electric. For both the electric and the acoustic, I added a handful of bits of hardware to restore both to playable condition. My dad let me keep the acoustic for a while but he’d wanted the electric to play. Turns out not long after the restoration he would set fire to his house which in turn took the guitar. Thankfully my father remained unharmed.

My dad’s family recently hid the whereabouts of my father while they robbed him of his burnt property. I wonder if he and/or they have ANY value to themselves to never think of others. When it comes down to it, I am talking about my third day of fasting which brings about clarity while asking quite humbly “What happens to the things that have connected memory to instances in life that we may be less than comfortable to take the time to reflect upon?"

For me, the question comes about often enough, this time while responding to a friend who is NOT destructive, about an unrelated topic. To ease you into this thought process, imagine, or reflect upon, for a moment, the thought that you are typing this after being extremely wronged by a family member that this item is associated with… In other words, I stopped typing the other response just to type this into THIS space, where you, the listener, can hear my concerns:

"That guitar was my dad's dumpster find that he wanted to play, so with just a small amount of hardware I made the guitar look pretty sweet. The covers I replaced were also the wrong type for the body. With just a little bit of igniter fluid, my dad reversed not only my own efforts, but his as well. Makes me wonder... If something was headed to the dump, should anyone ever have attempted to retrieve it?"

So… As I close the day and prepare to celebrate THE DAY AFTER THAT (i.e. the day after my friend’s birthday, the day after my third day of fasting, the day after yesterday, the day after I typed this, the day after something in the past), I continue to reflect upon THIS day. THAT day was then. THIS day is now. For whoever wishes to celebrate, celebrate with or without one another, just make absolutely steadfast certain that you are in fact celebrating and not just hating.

If you’d like to see the Video DocYouFlection, please click the corresponding link to start with Day One, or just backtrack through this blog itself to Day One (Birthdaze) and enjoy another new way to communicate using channels that are absolutely enriching instead of just flat out bitching. Also, if you cannot hear words easily enough to read this much typing, you may want to really backtrack to start from the very beginning of this blog. Love is Patient.