Letters from Josh, Vol. 81

Big Thoughts

Letters from Josh

Big Thoughts                                                                    Letter 81  5/9/22

  Howdy, folks!  A happy belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!  I hope you got a nice card or something.  I got to thinking: good thing that bees can’t draw or use crayons.  Imagine how many bad handmade cards the Queen would get.  “Oh, look, it’s a picture of the hive and all fifty thousand of us!”  Honor thy mother.  While I had a great time (I’m a rare lucky one), this holiday can bring up a lot of emotions for other folks, though.  Not all of them are good. Isn’t it something that we don’t talk about feeling sad more often?  I walk a fine line here: these letters are to lift you up.  When I was an activities director, that was my job description. Rally the troops!  Are you ready for some BINGO?! However, it seems this leaves out the full human experience. Everyone’s carrying some cross, and well, we don’t talk about that much, do we?  When I’m confronted with pain, be it physical or emotional, the first thing I want is for it to go away.   The second thing I want is to acknowledge it. I stub my toe, immediately wishing I hadn’t.  Then comes the holler of “OW!”  I was driving along a dark rainy highway recently, feeling like I was dragging a ten thousand pound rock of loneliness down the road.  My thoughts turned to you all - I pictured some of you in the lane next to me, feeling your own cross weighing you down.  I’m continually impressed at the grace with which you meet big challenges.  I’m playing T-Ball, and it’s nice to see some Major Leaguers out there.  Still, it’s a baffling topic (Life, that is.) It seems a good first step is to start talking about it, especially with folks who have lived it a while.  I call it “putting it on the workbench”, so we can look at it, and contend with it.  What do you think?  How do you face the difficult stuff?  Drop me a line:  JoshUrban@Protonmail.com.  And now, dig this quote:  Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.  Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. 

Brief farm updates: the fields are lush, the leaves are fully out, and the summer birds are settling in.  I went looking everywhere for snakes, but only found one: a small, harmless hognose snake.  He hissed, and I chuckled.  Fascinating stuff everywhere, man!  Be well over there, stay strong, and talk to you next week!

• Josh