THANKFULNESS

A series of essays....

EXTREMELY THANKFUL FOR THE BEAUTY OF NATURE;
MOST GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE WHO CHOOSES TO KEEP IT THIS WAY!

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

THANKFULNESS

and gratitude are the two words that we often use to express the benefits we receive in life. Most people do not fully understand the difference between the two, yet each finds its way into our day-to-day life, one way or another; opening the door to joy and happiness as we go about our daily business. We are thankful for the kind gestures bestowed upon us as when someone treats us kindly and with a smile on their face, allows us to go ahead in a long line, or passes the butter to you at dinner after asking them politely to do so. Thankfulness usually happens as a reaction from someone’s action and is, generally, not an occurrence at random moments when the mind is set on ‘idle.’  Offering a polite ‘thank you’ for a simple act of kindness is a gregarious expression of your appreciation and is a social norm applicable in general situations. Thankfulness is often associated with either words or a gesture of appreciation; a ‘tip of an imaginary hat’ act of kindness to be bestowed upon another human being in good faith.

Gratitude is the special manifestation of spirituality, love, and affection. Being grateful is a very intense sense of feeling that happens at a deeper level and comes from within your heart and very depths of your soul. Thankfulness can often be the first step and then we manifest approval and great emotion as we appreciate the people and things that have been of genuine assistance to us in this lifetime. Perhaps it is being grateful for the faithful pair of hiking shoes that have seen you climb a mountain or two, or expressing gratefulness to a spouse who has always been there for you through the ups and downs that life has to offer, or expressing our gratitude towards the sister-in-law who has devoted much of her precious time to her beautiful Mother suffering from dementia for many years. Gratitude is the act of being authentic towards someone by showing love, commitment, and devotion for the meaningful relationship you share. Think of it as if our minds and hearts give birth to the belief that others help us feel good about ourselves, share experiences, and promote the understanding that the universe has conspired to connect us together, then we can feel grateful from within and express our feelings even without the use of words or gestures. It is possible to express how we feel about our own financial blessings and transfer this feeling of gratefulness on by paying for a stranger’s meal. The act of gratefulness can live on in our memory indefinitely, always there to remind us of those we feel grateful toward many years later; suddenly recalling the importance of our loved ones no matter how many years transpire since the last physical reunion.

To be a thankful person is a benefit in life that we should never take for granted. Practicing the art of gratefulness is a step above and beyond thankfulness. Combined, it is the best way to live a fulfilling and enriched lifestyle and the key to happiness is keeping gratitude at the forefront of everything we do. We cannot afford to be thankless or ungrateful for all of the good in our lives, especially now when many lives are feeling the pressure of despair, depression, and hopelessness within a very thankless world. I will always be eternally thankful for the nutritious variety of food that is painstakingly prepared for our Thanksgiving feast either by myself or in conjunction with the people I love. And, I am most grateful for all of those same people who graciously surround me with their kindness and affection, making this particular holiday so special. When we focus on how privileged we are, it makes it easier to want to bless others and express our deep sense of appreciation toward all of the good in the world around us.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE! MAY YOU ALWAYS BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF THE BLESSINGS IN YOUR LIFE...!

Photo taken in September of 2019 at Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve in Arcadia, Michigan.

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

MAKE AMERICA SMART AGAIN

 A series of essays....

....as seen through my eyes!

 

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

To make America smart again, you would have to assume that it was smart at sometime in the past.  

And, it was....before Washington D.C. became 'the swamp' following the November 8, 2016 election, it had been a semblance of a fair and balanced ecosystem that incorporated all people, faiths, and ideologies within its borders. In a heartbeat, it was being drained of its kindness and left vulnerable and open to greed, fear, and foreign influence!

You would be correct in believing that we've always been vulnerable to all of the above. And, I could now list a litany of opportunities by the USA that many of us believe could and should have been resolved years ago such as the constant struggles with women's rights, racism, gun control, and climate change.

What we are fighting hard for today is to retain our democracy, reinstate check and balances to aid in a more stabilized balance of power, and save our Constitution from collapse by insuring that its general principles remain functioning as our Founding Fathers believed they would in order to protect all of us, not just the few who believe that money is more powerful than kindness and love.

When I see people fighting for our rights such as Representative Adam Schiff who has taken great pains to clarify exactly why the impeachment inquiry is taking place, tears come to my eyes. 

Said Schiff, "When the founders provided a mechanism in the Constitution for impeachment, they were worried about what might happen if someone unethical took the highest office in the land and used it for their personal gain and not because of deep care about the big things that should matter." 

Schiff concluded by saying, "The president believes he is above the law, beyond accountability. And, in my view, there is nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes they are above the law." We are most fortunate to have this gracious man fighting for us and the Constitution of the United States. 

Thank you, Rep. Schiff and the many others who are fighting to retain our democracy and make America smart again. We do appreciate all of you!

Yesterday was a much simpler time. I was young, accepting of authority, and embraced life through a child's eyes. Authoritarianism, Humbleness, Consolation, Maturity, and Loyalty all helped to mould, shape, influence, and build my character as an adult.  

AS A YOUNG CHILD living with my parents and three brothers, I was young, naive, and authority figures surrounded my everyday life. They wore grown-up clothes which included suits and ties, long black 'habits' that covered everything with the exception of their face and hands, and high-necked dresses adorned with silver chains from which a studious-looking pair of eyeglasses dangled from, often resembling an awkward piece of sculpture resting on their bosom. Authoritarianism

THIS DOESN’T INCLUDE the male authority figure who would preside at daily mass and then hide in a small cupboard as he listened to our sins, offered the forgiveness of God, and sent us out of the cupboard to pray for that forgiveness. I recall being on the playground when this holy man would stride by on his way from the Rectory to the school building. Silence would prevail as we silently prayed he could not recognize our voices, connect them with our faces, and remember what we confessed to him during the week! Humbleness

OUR RESPECT FOR policemen went without saying. They were there to protect us from evil. Although, at such a young age, I really didn't know what that evil consisted of. Those were the days when the family doctor came calling at our house to check my throat and declare I had strep throat.....again, and prescribe bed rest and medication. Consolation

GROWING OLDER, my world greatly expanded and my own thoughts, lifestyle, and habits began to mould and shape my individualism and formulate my ideas as an adolescent and young adult. Maturity

FEAR WAS AN obsolete term for me as I approached adulthood. I may have only applied it to the fact that I feared losing my parents one day....the only authority figures who would naturally have power over my life. Loyalty

I am, significantly, older now. I have lived through so much while making many decisions along with minor/major life changes. I have become book-smart, responsible, commonsensical, often goofy and carefree, with one of my greatest attributes being the ability to listen to what others  have to say. Everyone is important and everyone has something they need to tell someone else. But, not everyone has the patience to....listen to them.

Aging and living a full life has taught me how important life's lessons are, whether good, bad, or indifferent.

While I was living out my childhood under the thumb of the authority figures who impacted my everyday life, I, more than likely, was making mental notes about what was going on within my own small world. Did I know or care about who the President of the United States was, what his job or purpose was? Probably not as much as I should have.

I refuse to go backwards into the future!

Basic control over what others may say and do.....is that what this new administration believes will make America great again? 

The definitive progress made by mankind in the last several decades that was guided by mutual respect and understanding for one another and Mother Earth is about as far back in time as I choose to go. Most of us have worked way too hard to have all of our long fought battles reversed by people who want to shake-up our government, take back jobs that have been mechanized and are now non-existent, who fail to understand that lies and deception are the new rules and guidelines set-up by the very person they voted for, and take the benefits of a decent life of education, health care, earned rights of Social Security benefits and Medicare back into the dark ages.

If 'The Dumbing-Up of America' serves the handful of enormously rich and greedy characters that desire to deny Americans their basic freedoms, hope will go by the wayside. The once great United States of America will tumble into a heap of rubble that cannot and will not be respected by the rest of the world. This decline has already become evident to many of us.

Is it too late, fellow Americans, to 'Make America Smart Again?' If it isn't, we had better get our act together NOW and do something to renew our hope and faith in a nation that is quickly melting into the hands of foreign powers, unhealthy greed, and the frigid bonds of dictatorship.

I offer strength to Adam Schiff and his committee who is working so hard to correct the wrongs and reintroduce the right approach to our future and well-being. 

Author’s Note: Based upon my story published on December 15, 2016, entitled THE TASK OF MAKING AMERICA SMART AGAIN; back when the United States openly and officially lost its status of being Smart....

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

                                                                                  

ACCESS TO LIGHT....

A series of essays....

OLAFUR ELIASSON--REALITY MACHINES
A 'WALK-THROUGH' INSTALLATION OF ART

        Courtesy of  ArkDes



....as seen through my eyes!

 

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Never take what you see around you for granted. Your eyes will always be the windows into the multi-layered world of shape, color, textures, and....light! If we capture our view of the world thinking in these terms, we will better understand how to perceive our surroundings and return to Mother Nature all of the love and respect she deserves.

I remember waking-up in the middle of the night as a child and being so excited about greeting the next day; giddy about celebrating another birthday, getting to wear my Halloween costume to school, or hoping Santa liked his cookies and milk before leaving gifts under the tree. It always took awhile before falling back to sleep. Anticipation is an amazing thing. I still feel this youthful enthusiasm about life. We stimulate our lives, enhance our excitement as human beings, and open-up the creative mind by allowing ourselves to enjoy the simple beauty of the life and light that surrounds us.

Having access to light is our opportunity to benefit from everything the world has to offer. 

COLOR SPECTRUM KALEIDOSCOPE - 2003
OLAFUR ELIASSON

As a child, light helped to keep the scary Bogeyman at bay while we snuggled under our blankets in preparation of sleep. We got to create interesting shapes and write our name in the night’s darkness by the glittering light of a sparkler, a popular firework that emits little sparks when lit. A flashlight hidden beneath the covers, its intense light held beneath the chin, allowed us to be the Bogeyman we hoped to avoid a few months before. The cone of light from the corner streetlight permitted you and your friends to play another game of Hangman using chalk on a slab of sidewalk during many warm, summer nights.

Our teenage years endeared us with our family by knowing that the porch light would always be on, welcoming us home from a date, a long day at work, or a weekend home from college. To understand that someone was inside to greet us and make us feel safe gave that light the utmost importance during our vulnerable years of challenges and uncertainty.

As an adult, we have been given ample time to take in and appreciate all of the natural beauty that makes up the world around us. In terms of light, we may have already built our careers around light as a photographer or photo journalist. We may have been bedazzled by the configurations caused by the natural electrical phenomena of light in the northern skies known as the Aurora Borealis. Or, unforeseen setbacks due to job loss or illness may have us looking longingly at the proverbial ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for answers to our future well-being and progress.

SUNRISE OVER NICE, FRANCE

AUTUMN SUNRISE IN KALAMAZOO

Who among us has not marveled at a rose-splashed sunrise or the brilliant orange glow of an elaborate sunset? These are truly God’s display of art via light and offered to anyone willing to look up into the heavens to enjoy them. 

SUNSET OVER LAKE MICHIGAN

MICHIGAN SUNSET

I believe that as we age we become more attuned to the world around us. Indeed, we have more time for observation and analysis and appreciate many things we had taken for granted for so many years. 

Good friends recently had, literally, tons of huge rocks and boulders, buried since the last ice age, dug up on their farmland to be sold to landscapers to build natural walls and rock gardens for major projects around Michigan. Since many of them outline the border of the farm, Janis has discovered a genuine passion for these beautiful specimens that have anchored the Earth for centuries. And, after they’ve been brought back into the daylight, it is inspiring to see how time has shaped, colored, and artistically painted each one; like 'solid' snowflakes, each possesses its own design, value, and characteristics. It’s easy to see why my friend has become so enamored by their beauty and calculated strength within the history of our amazing Earth.

THE ARTIST HIMSELF ~
OLAFUR ELIASSON

Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist of high acclaim, works with light, water, and air temperature in various ways in order to create many of his large-scale, ‘walk-through’ installations of art. He is often asked if it is The Design of Art or The Art of Design that labels his inspirations. He will tell you....both! I have become fascinated by his spatial research and his personal discovery of light and how it impacts all of us in different ways.

Are you feeling SAD? Even though scientists agree that winter depression remains a mystery, they do agree that people who suffer from ‘seasonal affective disorder,’ or SAD, have one thing in common: They are particularly sensitive to light, or the lack of it. Because winter days are shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, we get less exposure to sunlight and this plays havoc with our system and mood. We can replace lost sunlight with bright, artificial light....but, a trip to a sunny climate for even a short time might do the trick much better!

Mother Nature is an entity that has been crying out for love for a very long time.

NERI OXMAN

Neri Oxman is an American-Israeli designer and professor at the MIT Media Lab where she leads the Mediated Matter research group. She is best known for her art and architecture that combines design with biology, computing, and materials engineering. Her goal is to demolish plastic in the world and utilize all natural materials such as silk, layers of glass, pectin from apples and other fruits, and cellulose, one of the most abundant polymers on earth which comes from plants, and chitosan, (polymer extracted from ocean crustaceans).

“There are two ways to live your life: One as if nothing is a miracle and one as if everything is a miracle.”    ...Neri Oxman. 

I choose the latter concept always, truly believing that everything is a miracle...

Mother Nature can be the answer to all that ails Her these days, given enough time, finances, and dedication by people like Neri Oxman who believe in Her power and abundance. This could be the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for today, tomorrow, and many generations to come.

PHOTO TAKEN IN A TUNNEL DRIVING
ALONG THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY - 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

WALTER CRONKITE AND ME

A series of essays...

WALTER CRONKITE ~ AS I REMEMBER HIM FROM MY CHILDHOOD

Courtesy of RBR.com

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

What exactly makes a person tick? What can breathe life and meaning into their soul and encourage them to discover more about themselves so that they may progress deeper into their personal ‘meaning of life’ narrative and be able to direct their passion into the particular story that will shape or shadow their life, forever?

Examples may include impressionable events such as the assassination of a sitting United States President, baking cookies and cakes alongside Grandma while using the wood burning stove in her farmhouse kitchen, watching the evening news and the war in Vietnam, reading a Nancy Drew Mystery a week until you’d read them all and the school librarian suggested The Hardy Boys series, or taking eighth-grade French class and you just knew that France and the French language would become a large part of your life.

Then...there was Walter Cronkite.

Was it his voice? A bit stodgy yet staunch and reliable with a firm sense of loyalty and commitment, it was a Grandfather’s voice that could soothe away all of your troubles. Was it his looks? As a young reporter, I don’t believe I’d even recognize the mature, stalwart man that sat behind the CBS News desk each evening for nearly twenty years. Facial hair has never been my thing however, Walter’s minimal mustache gave him an edge when it came to style and distinction. 

A YOUNG REPORTER ON THE BEAT

                                                  Courtesey of UO Blogs - University of Oregon

SIMPLE BASIC JOURNALISM

                                      Courtesy of CBS

Walter Cronkite exuded impartiality and journalistic integrity and famously reported the news, not what he thought of the news, in a slower, more reasonable cadence that helped viewers understand him better. He began anchoring the CBS Evening News when I was an impressionable eleven-year-old with a penchant for writing and traveling around the world. His soft spoken style formed budding writers into potential journalists, picking-up on the desire to do research, travel, interview the people involved, and then tell the world about what they discovered and witnessed.

Will Bunch, opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote in 2018, “The reporter's intellect and instincts of Cronkite still echo a half-century later, at a time when a U.S. government is telling lies and threatening basic democratic norms on a scale that once would have seemed unthinkable, even back in the tumultuous 1960's when the Pentagon and the White House kept falsely assuring the public there was "a light at the end of the tunnel" in Vietnam. In 2018, can journalists look past the blinders of contrived objectivity, stare straight into the camera, and speak the plain truth? And when they do, will America listen the way it listened to Walter Cronkite in 1968?”

When he began, the evening news was only fifteen minutes long. After Walter’s first year, the program expanded to an unprecedented thirty minutes. Competition, I must admit, was minimal given the fact that we lived in an era where ABC (if you could pick it up at all), NBC, and CBS were the only broadcast networks.

Walter Cronkite soon became the voice and face of the American news media. It was an era, between 1962 until he retired in 1981, when his nightly exposure insured him great influence over the American viewer. Also, Walter was never afraid to express his emotions on the air. Both women and men could identify with this honest man when he became choked-up over the moon landing, teary eyed as he relayed to us that our president had been assassinated in Dallas, and displayed his own angst while editorializing about the stalemate in Vietnam. These true feelings, viable emotions, made us feel he was a part of our family; the Grandfather at Thanksgiving dinner who caught, plucked, and cooked the most delicious wild turkey with enough leftovers to feed an entire nation.

WALTER CRONKITE'S BROADCASTS INFLUENCED
LBJ  AND CHANGED THE WAY WE
PERCEIVED THE VIETNAM WAR

                                       Courtesy of CBS

I was hooked! By the time I graduated from high school and headed for classes at Indiana University at South Bend (IUSB), journalism courses dotted my freshman class schedule. I was going to be the female equivalent of Walter Cronkite, traveling the world over and writing op-eds to be published by all of the prominent newspapers and magazines. I would be honest and truthful just as Walter had always been, yet plucky and bright as I helped to usher in the new generation of writers and reporters. 

I always felt that Walter was looking over my shoulder as I was being negatively influenced by my early professors and always hoped that he would guide me in the right direction. Eventually, I truly believe he did. Feeling disgruntled and cheated by the teaching that “If your story isn’t strong enough to sell, then embellish it enough to make it stronger,” mentality taught in class, had me asking about the age of Walter’s honest journalism; when had it transitioned into an unreliable entity based upon sales and money? This was back in ‘68, only six years after Walter began anchoring the evening news. I was naive. However, I still believed in honesty and truth.

With Walter always at the back of my mind, I transferred to Michigan State University in order to pursue a writing career. In those days, most schools did not offer creative writing courses and I was advised to enter a Secondary Education English program while opting for a double minor in Theatre and French. 

My writing was always number one with me. I always felt that if I were to embellish upon stories, it was because they were my fictional stories to begin with! But, I seriously believed that I was in the right place for the first time and that Walter had something to do with it. The kindly, soft-spoken, older gentleman I used to listen to talk about worldly events as I slid into a familiar chair each evening with my parents by my side would have been okay with my choices. He would have understood how I could still make a difference and help change the world for the better. 

Sue, a dear, sweet friend of mine, reminded me of the many people, past and present, with whom I share birthday celebrations. Some poets and prose writers were on the list along with a British Princess, a musical composer, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, while a famous actor or two got ‘top billing’ and the humorist and actor, Will Rogers, began blazing his own trail on November 4 back in 1879. Not too shabby! Thank you, Sue.

WHETHER HE WAS SMILING, PLAYING
WITH HIS GLASSES, OR SMOKING HIS PIPE,
HE WAS KNOWN AS 'UNCLE WALTER'

Walter Cronkite is on this list. I’ve known we shared a birthday since I was very little. I believe that we are fellow wanderers and seekers of ideas and truths and that our paths crossing like this has always encouraged me to continue learning, has recharged my passion for creativity, and always helps to breathe life back into my very soul.

Even though the world lost the man on July 17, 2009, I can still hear his famous sign-off catchphrase, “And that’s the way it is. November 4, 2019.”

Happy Birthday, Walter!!!

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved