Stopping to catch my breath... seems to go faster than I...

You have to go, when you have to go... and walking your heart may be all that you can do, make sure you do it. There is a world out there, as I pondered that I don't go as fast as I once did. But if you dwell on what isn't there, the fear builds and you may not appreciate what is there for you.

As I walked I noticed an apple tree, from back in the day when we took care to grow our own food sources close to home. It has seen many better years, and the bugs and weather have beaten the fruit till what hangs now is not worth harvesting, but we are spending our great-grandchildren's money at Safeway for Apples from Chile. I know they aren't born yet, but no one has figured out how to turn the existing politicians off, and clean house on laws and regulations that are going to kill the economic engine.
If you looked through my blog roll, I like people that take care of the land, plant and harvest. That tree is on property awaiting a developer to add forty more housing units and cut down the fertility of the former farm.

Everyone does the best they can, and are diverted from really important things while they have their best earning years. There are also pressures to conform, just get along, and what makes you special? Envy and coveting your neighbor's stuff, there are so many traps out there, and you think if you are crossing the Donner Pass or something similar, that if you get stuck you can call 911 and the Park Rangers will save you from the flies looking for dead flesh to feed their babies...

I have to thank God for all that I have, it wasn't some President, a political party, a public education system that I was ready to drop for boredom at fifteen or so. I was given to the right parents that had dreams and values, I was actually part of their dream -- I was wanted. Brother and sisters were wanted. Not expected to be perfect, but always expected to be trying and trusted. Lying is so easy, unless you betray trust and fall short of your parents' expectations. I could have been a very similar man with the same parents in many of the former British Empire's now independent nations. I am an American, which doesn't sit well with those folks that think they are a lot better than I, and want me to live their way - with themselves in charge. Sorry, I am one of the People, and that means Liberty. Putting a leash on me to control my behavior won't work.

I have often noted that the laws against something have never really made much difference in my life. I was drinking underage, but most of my years as an adult I just didn't drink - if you changed the drug laws - I wouldn't use drugs - I do get smarter as I learn, but I am engaged in learning as an adult which means to question everything except gravity.

Everything you need to know about firearms within a civilized nation is shown in Israel and Switzerland and America (where there is still FREEDOM!). Everything you wanted to know about real money (pardon me, I am shouting at a Democrat justifying the Payroll tax cut, but not thinking that every income should be taxed at that rate -- instead of cutting it off just above a $100,000) is in the Swiss Franc. That country makes the Dollar look like Monopoly Money... but I mentioned that long ago and far away. Gutless wonders! UGLY! UGLY! Why am I watching politicians lie?

I don't think I have that much time left, but I have been wrong before. I am having lots of trouble breathing well enough to work a little harder. If I am not working, I have no problem. Oh, I am not working. The need to stop going up the hills, to stop at the top of the hill, to enjoy talking to a younger old guy, because he remarked I look like Moses with my staff, to enjoy the young woman with Evergreen Wreathes in her car that stopped and wished us a Merry Christmas (neither of us recognized her), the neighbor lady that stopped to tell me I wasn't going to stay warm at that slow a pace. Stop to catch one's breath is a good thing, the stress level is lower and the oxygen burn controlled. Thank God for His goodness, love and my life at any speed, remember there are snails slower than I.