Those Visa commercials...

...the ones that show busy retail and service establishments humming along nicely until someone starts to pay with cash, causing everything to grind to a halt...shocking customers and employees into stunned, then irritated silence as the poor, out-of-touch cash-user sheepishly forks over the coin of the realm...yeah, those commercials.

Well, they're true. Totally accurate. I'm traveling with my 81-year-old mother. She likes to pay her own way and she insists on using cash. She never learned to use a debit card, refuses to use her credit card, and doesn't believe for one moment that anyone outside her immediate home area would ever accept her check (she may be right about that one)...AND she always...ALWAYS wants to use correct change. I work hard to not display irritation or impatience, and most service personnel are genuinely polite and patient with her, but it's a marked interruption in the usual flow. Customers behind us are usually polite, but I have occasionally heard loud, long-suffering sighs and an occasional young person with no home training says something out loud. Fortunately, Mom is usually too engrossed in counting out the 47 cents for her purchase to notice, though her hearing is sharp enough.

The Visa commercials probably don't help the situation much. They paint the cash user as out of touch and the root of all evil in the race to get-and-go. Maybe a commercial that shows an old person frustrated by technology they don't understand just trying to buy some milk and bread, one that zooms in on trembling fingers and a mind that doesn't always click like it used to, would be better.

Patience, people...patience.

Making Volkswagens in Chattanooga...

...and making dreams come true.

Humbling, awe-inspiring moments of pure gratitude come at the oddest times and from the least likely sources.

I was shopping in a local Goodwill store today when the news broke that Chattanooga had been chosen as the site for a new Volkswagen plant. The facility is expected to provide about 2,000 new jobs between now and when the first sedans roll out sometime in 2011. All the employees of the store cheered - loud, happy, "Praise Jesus!" cheers - at the news. One woman was literally running toward the back to tell other employees, her face lit up like Christmas. You could feel the energy in the room change almost immediately. The whole place was suddenly full of potential, of possibilities, of hope.

I have a good job, one that pays me well and offers me all kinds of opportunities for personal and professional fulfillment. I forget just how wonderful that is sometimes. Seeing the excitement on those folks' faces and feeling the fresh hope wash over them humbled me, inspired me, and filled me with gratitude for my work and the opportunities I've had.

Chattanooga offers lots of jobs in information-based industries, call centers, insurance companies, hospitals, and the like. If you have those skills you can usually work and, while the salary may not be the greatest, you'll likely have access to decent benefits. But if you lack the education and skills for those opportunities, your choices are pretty limited. Hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and retail offer limited hours at incredibly low wages, usually with few, if any, benefits. When benefits are offered, they often end up being out of reach for some of the people who need them most. Could you support yourself and your family on seven dollars an hour? What if you had to pay a health insurance premium out of that? The prospect of 2,000 good paying jobs with decent benefits is a shining beacon of hope for those whose skills aren't likely to land them jobs at Unum or Cigna.

I'm glad Chattanooga got the Volkswagen contract. I'm glad that a couple thousand Chattanoogans will have a chance at a better life. I'm happy that some of those who remain in low-paying jobs in the service, retail, and hospitality sectors will benefit from the overall economic boost all those new jobs will bring. Most of all, I'm grateful for the reminder of just how good I have it.

Thanks. A lot. Again.

Fertility Engineer? Maybe...

...or maybe it's just Nature's way of getting things done.

This guy was in the garden this morning, busily moving from flower to flower. By the time I spotted him, he was so laden with pollen it's a wonder he could still fly!

Thanks, little buddy, for getting the work done. Hope you enjoyed your feast. We sure do appreciate the results.

After the rain...

...the sun comes shining through.

We watched a summer storm from the front porch a few days ago. What a beautiful thing! It was one of those delicious summer rains - big, fat rain drops falling straight down, thunder rumbling in the distance, trees dancing freestyle in the wind. As the rain began winding down, the sun broke through and streamed down through the rain.


After the rain ended, the whole yard lit up with twinkling lights - the sun glinting off the droplets of rain on every tree.
Isn't that the way of it? It rains sometimes...but even in troubled times, the light is still there if you look for it. When the rain stops, everything is washed clean...new...and just enough rain clings to the surfaces to catch the sun and reflect it back.

Attitude is everything.

Through my Mother's eyes...

We had a big Solstice party at our place this weekend. About 40 people brought chairs, food, drums, guitars, and kids. It was great! It was also the first time my mother has been around that many pagans at one time.

I was a little worried that she might be upset by bits of conversation she overheard or see something that unnerved her. I don't hide my path from her; I don't put it in her face, either. She's a Jehovah's Witness and 81 years old, neither of which makes her a prime candidate for an open-minded acceptance of paganism.

As it turns out, she had a great time! A friend from work, not a pagan exactly but definitely a new-age sort, spent a lot of time talking with her and that helped. I checked on her as frequently as I could between hosting duties, but she was largely on her own. I touched base with her the morning after the party:

Me: "Mom, did you have a good time?"

Mom: "Yes, I did. I had a great time! Those were really nice people."

Me: "They are nice people; we're really blessed with good friends."

Mom: "You sure are. I couldn't find anything wrong!"

And there you have it - insight into the way my mother views the world. "I couldn't find anything wrong!" was a telling statement. She enters every situation looking for the wrongness in it. It's as if she lives her life in a minefield of wrong and the least little pause in her vigilence could land her right in the middle of some heinous activity that she would then be on the moral hook for.

I'm glad she couldn't find anything wrong. I'd be gladder still if she didn't always feel like she had to be on the lookout for it.

Do you answer your cell phone in the bathroom?

...and other random thoughts.

I'm working from home today, taking a lunch break and enjoying the warm, gentle afternoon. I love my work-at-home days (usually two a week)... and the view is much better here than from my office. Because I cherish the privilege of working at home so much, I'm really careful to not do anything that might make folks at work think I'm slacking, so I carry my phone with me anytime I step away from my computer. This morning, I took it into the bathroom wtih me and then wondered what I would do if it rang? Would I answer it? Would you?

Before I started work this morning, I tripped out to the herb bed for some fresh basil (for my cottage-cheese-and-tomato breakfast). Mama had left some beautiful beadwork for us! Who knew squash plants could look so pretty!

Of course, my mind is running amok - as usual - with ideas and thoughts...things like, "Does anyone read this blog?" I tried to put a web statistics applet on here yesterday but haven't quite figured it out yet. If you're reading, leave a comment and let me know you're here! If you know how to install Google Analytics, better yet! And I'm still thinking about my writing career, the one that doesn't exist yet unless you count what I do at work, which is, in fact, mostly writing but not the kind I truly yearn to do.

Time is just so darned hard to come by! And it takes time to write. Ahhh...but therein lies the rub, does it not? We all have the same amount of time. Successful writers choose to devote a large portion of theirs to writing. I seem more inclined to devote mine to earning a living the less interesting but more immediately profitable way and helping take care of our home and land. Maybe what I need is a priority shift...or less sleep (though I can't really see that one...I don't sleep a lot as it is!)...or learn to not care so much about the other stuff.

A lot to worry about on a short lunch hour. My nose has been missed and must return to the grindstone immediately! Y'all stay tuned...more to come...and keep those cards and letters coming!