Hi, this is Kris, welcome to my blog. I don’t usually do back-to-back blog pieces, but I really wanted to talk to you about this topic as there are so many rallies going on right now
I have wanted to share my feelings about abortion for some time, and even though I may be a day late, that’s OK, sometimes a little voice is heard more than the voices of many. I hope this will be the case.
I would like to start with a poem I wrote which will be the only words I transcribe into this blog; the rest will be me talking because I have a lot of ground to cover. So, just look at my poem, sit back and hear what I have to say. Afterward I would certainly like to hear from you so send me an email through my blog page.
I think my poem says a lot. I’d like to suggest you read it several times. Every time I say the words out loud, I am surprised by their power. It’s very intense, and I think it says it all right there in just a few words.
I do not write poetry. This poem came to me after watching some folks on television picketing against abortions and their counterparts preaching a “women’s right to do with her body what she wants” which makes me sick. So here is my poem because sometimes we just need to say what is in our hearts.’
I have a poem
Some say My Body, My Choice. Then comes coupling, obscuring the voice. one heartbeat, then there are two. One must die, who will choose. Little voices screaming in my head. You can’t be here, you are dead. Bits and pieces on the floor. How can you stand all that gore? My Body, My Choice. Can’t you hear its tiny voice?
(I have attached the whole document in case you wanted the whole transcript)
I am going out on a limb here, but I have been up all night with these thoughts rambling around in my head. Finally, I couldn’t take it and decided to put my thoughts on paper.
When does the “me of me,” become me? At what point in the development of this ball of cells does the “me” enter into the equation?
No, I am not kidding! When do I enter the picture? When does the “me of me” become me, and where am I until that moment?
Do I enter this creation of cells at the moment of impact when sperm meets egg? Or the first doubling of the cells? Or do I enter after the hundredth? Or is it at the millionth?
When does the “me of me”, the feeling, sensing, thinking part of me come into this great ball of replicating, developing cells?
Where am I until I become the “me of me?” Do I exist at all? At what part of this developing creation do I enter? At what stage?
Science can not answer this question. No one can. The greatest minds have never been able to answer the question of when the “me of me” becomes me, during this life giving process in the development of a human being.
This form that is sitting here typing out these questions was specifically created for me. The I of me was placed inside of this huge mass of cells. It is me but, where is that part of me that feels, thinks, remembers, cries, loves, and creates? What is my location inside of this mass of cells? Am I in every cell? Am I inside my brain? Am Iinside my knee? Or am I inside my heart? Where am I in this mix of cells? No one can answer these questions!
there’s both my girls
Do you know that some research has said that the human body is 1/2 to 1 pound lighter right after the moment of death! Is that me leaving this pile of cells? Or is the poo leaving my colon?
Science argues over the description of life and when it matters. It argues over when it is okay to destroy that ball of cells. It argues over when it is viable. But, it never mentions when it becomes “me” as the cells are churning and creating a human being. It never mentions when the “me of me” becomes part of these cells.
So, when you take those deadly sharp instruments and hack away at the cells inside, do you know that you are destroying the “me” of those cells as well! The “me” of those cells that was specifically created for the “me of me.”
How many abortions occur a year? What is the current statistic? A million, tens of millions, how many?
I worked college health for over twenty years and I can say for certainty from my own experience that over 90% of the young women who came into our office for information on abortion felt ” it just wasn’t the right time.”
These young women were not victims of rape. They were not giving birth to deformed monsters they didn’t want. They didn’t have a clue, ” it just wasn’t the right time.!”
The moment a sperm meets an egg and implants is that moment of creation. What becomes of that creation is up to nature, and the woman carrying that creation.
Abortion should not be used as a form of birth control. There are plenty of other options to use, abortion should not be a choice.
It seems that sex is in the news all the time in some form or other to sell everything from magazines to underwear. Every time I open yahoo someone is posing nude to ” show off their beach body”, so why are we so uncomfortable with our bodies, and what occurs at the time of intercourse, that we don’t take responsibility for that moment when creation occurs, and say to our partner, ” hey wait a minute.” It could save a life.
I would never have wanted to miss this moment.
I know many of the responses to this question, ” we didn’t plan it”, it was a one night stand”, “I don’t even know him or her that well,” ” I am not ready for a baby,” and on and on goes the merry go round.
Sadly what abortion has allowed to occur is that no one is responsible. You can just rake it out, dead or alive. No worries, ” it’s your body.”
I think as a society we have failed our young. We must educate them that intercourse can and will result in the creation, let me say this again, in the creation of another human being if we are not careful. That is what nature intended. Intercourse is the method, most times, by which another human being is created. It is how human beings continue on this earth, usually.
Do we tell our children that intercourse can and will result in the creation of another human being? Do they teach that in school? Do they USE those words.
It is not just about what disease they may catch, it is about what can and will occur if they have unprotected intercourse.
I have heard all the arguments so spare me. I know the drill, but along with my questions about the “me of me,” and when that begins, I want to ask another philosophical question or two!
What is your purpose in life? Who were you meant to become once the “me of me” entered your pile of cells? How do you know what your role will be in the creation of the “me of me” should you create another human being, if you just rake it out?
My girls!!! Thank you Lord.
Who decided the time was right at that moment when you were created? Was it really an accident or planned? Is life just one great big random moment in time?
Millions and millions of abortions a year! Millions and millions of ” me” that will never exist. Think about it! Could you have been a ” me of me” that did not exist? Was it the right moment for your sperm and egg donor to have a ” me”? Ask yourself that question!
I believe that most of us were just moments in time. Not planned at all. We just became the ” me of me” once those cells started replicating. So where is the ” me of me” until it meets it’s great big pile of cells? Who will take responsibility for that creation of life? Think about that? And as I always say, have a great day, you and I deserve it.
Silence from my end is not a good thing being a poor blogger but my excuse, if you even care, is that I have been in a total state of shock as I have watched and listened to the stories of violence and destruction that have exploded all over this country.
How do I even have a conversation with you when there are so many earth-shattering events occurring? The feelings that are surging through each one of us, every single day is so toxic. I’ve sat back for months watching, listening, crying, shaking my head so disturbed by what has been happening that I am left speechless. Frozen. I move through the day like a robot functioning on auto pilot.
I ask myself is there anything of value that I might have to share? Who gives a shit what some no name individual thinks or feels? Who am I to talk about any of this it is so horrible.?
I want to know how do we overcome these wounds? How do we heal from these profound injuries to our hearts? How do we stop the chaos?
I know that anything I might say to you has probably blown through your mind at one time or another just as it has mine. Somehow, some way we must come together.
There is so much hatred spewing out into the world I can’t even imagine how we can contain it. We humans are so vile to each other in so many ways that I fear for my life. For your lives. For my children lives. The fear is unimageable.
Stories pour out of every news outlet available. Some offer vivid pictures if you can’t imagine it yourself. I have no doubt everyone is talking about all the destruction that is and has been occurring. There can’t be anyone who isn’t shocked, ashamed, and disgusted by what one human can inflict on another.
I move through my day-to-day business in a state of shock. I interact with my family and friends. I go to work, pay my bills, but there is this impending feeling of doom inside my chest that is so new to me that I can’t even grasp how to express it or to eliminate it. This fear is embedded deep in my heart.
Saying we must come together is not enough. The words are meaningless. The horror that has happened in the last of couple years has shaken all of us to our very core. Sometimes I stand and just stare at the television feeling like a trapped animal. I don’t know how to make things better. I don’t have any answers on how to change it except for platitudes like “We need to love each other. We need to help each other. We need to come together. “ Bullshit, we need to stop the violence on all spectrums, against ALL PEOPLE.
I know that there are great individuals out there doing wonderful things. There are organizations and groups of people that are plugging along trying to make it a better place, but I think we all feel so helpless, and for me it’s not a feeling that I’ve often felt, so I am frozen and frightened and don’t know where to turn. Our leaders don’t have an answer, and the tide keeps moving in. How is it going to end? How can we make it end?
How do we as individuals, and as a group take control of this violence? How do we step into the storm of hatred and bigotry to bring an end to this? People are dying, children are being murdered, strangers are assaulting strangers for no other reason than they feel hate at what they see before them.
The color of one’s skin is something to hate. The nationality of another is something to loathe. People’s sexuality is despised. Rich hate poor, and poor hate rich. Your religion is a reason to hate despite what your holy book preaches, and someone just doesn’t like the way you look.
I’m not a religious person. I don’t go to church. I have not had great experiences with preachers who run churches, and although I was raised a Catholic, I gave that up because the nuns and priest looked down their noses at the poor in our parish with no money to give. We were a very poor family. Not a good experience for us.
In the past I was not one to believe in the end of the world theories told by religious leaders to keep us all in tow. Discussions by those leaders that the world was going to come to an end in fire and brimstone. These preachers and such liked to fire up the fear and hysteria in its congregants. It was part of the reward of being a “leader” the power to evoke sinners to be less sinful. But after witnessing all this violence. The hatred. The bombings and wars. Murders, rape, and genocide, I think those prophets who have said the world is going to end are correct.
We humans are going to be the catalyst that ends our world. This world that has been given to us is going to be destroyed by us because we are so foolish and stupid that we let our extremism, our extreme racism, are extreme sexism, extreme religiousism get in our way of appreciating all that has been given to us. I mean you add any ISM to any bigoted idea that you have and that’s what we’ve become, a people of intolerance and hatred who disrespect their world and each other with total disregard for human life, total disregard for the animal kingdom, total disregard for the oceans of the world, and the planet that God gave for our safe keeping.
Despite my personal feelings I will share with you that I do believe in a higher power. I do believe in a God, and I think it is time for all of us to come together and offer up a prayer to our God for the strength, knowledge, and courage to evoke a change in our world right now.
I ask that together we stop everything that we are doing and say a prayer in whatever language we speak, asking whatever higher power we pray to, to help us heal this world. Those of a scientific mind probably are aware that there have been many studies that verify that prayer can and does make a difference. Put aside your doubt and be open to that fact that as a massive world of people we can come together in prayer, and perhaps jump start our humanity back on track.
I will pick a time and together we will say a prayer to bring these horrible events to an end and bring all of us back into balance because right now, we are tilting out of orbit as humans.
Let us get together tomorrow at sunrise, or any sunrise that works for you as (there are 7,868,872,451 people on this planet right now as listed on google so there will be a multitude standing by your side whatever time you say your prayer.) Get up, face the rising sun, and offer a prayer to God that sanity will be restored to our people. Image the multitudes standing beside you as you say your prayer for our world and each other as well. And as I always say, have a great day today, you and I deserve it.
I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. I pray that you are staying cool and dry.
It seems that people are either flooded out of their homes or cooking like lobsters from the heat. My hope is that you are staying safe and comfortable.
I want to share with you that I have a dream. It is a big dream. They say if you are going to dream make it big, so I am! I would love to go on a long-distance hike. A journey all by myself. A pilgrimage of sorts. I want to walk the Camino which is a long-distance hiking pilgrimage across Spain.
One of the many websites I examined stated “ the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. http://santiago-compostela.net/
Pilgrims, that is what you are called by the people of Spain, can choose to walk 50 miles along these ancient routes. Sixty miles is a nice number. Three hundred and fifty is very daring. And the five hundred mile trek is for real hikers. I mean diehards. But, no matter the distance your choose, the journey will take you across the beautiful countryside in your quest to reach your final destination, the church of St James. Pilgrims have made this journey for thousands of years. That’s right, thousands of years.
Over 300,000 people a year trek across the country following these routes for a variety of reasons. For some it is a spiritual quest. For others it is a chance to get away and rediscover themselves. For me it would provide some much-needed time for reflection, quietude, and peace.
Travelers who make this journey do so for any number of reasons. My goal is that I want to push myself farther than I ever have before. I want to walk alone. I want to listen to my inner chatter without the voices of others calling to me with their needs.
I want to take care of only me. And the first step in this journey is finding a decent pair of shoes and socks in order to walk more than 3 1/2 miles a day. That is right, the first and most important step is to be able to walk along without sweaty, achy feet.
My sweetie
Let me say here that I have been walking between 2 1/2 to 4 miles a day, most days, for over five years, that’s right five years, and it is no fun. Okay some days are good, but most end up focused on my dam feet, and how awful they feel.
This all started when I got my dog and felt guilty that she was stuck in the house all day while I worked. I wanted to make her happy. She loves to walk and snuffle. It is her greatest joy. For me it has been a struggle.
I have read so many reviews on socks and shoes that I want to throw up. I have read hiking blogs, and shoe reviews. I have spent hundreds, yes hundreds of dollars on socks. They say socks make all the difference, they haven’t, and now I have become the dreaded lady at Kohl’s “ who is here to return another pair of shoes.”
I have used the Internet to the best of my ability to look for a good pair of hiking shoes to walk the Camino. I have looked at blogs by some of those who have already walked across Spain. I have read hiking blogs until I cannot remember who is who any more.
In my search for comfort, I have personally purchased and sent back five pairs of expensive shoes that felt horrible on my feet. I own two pairs that barely make the 3 mile mark, despite feeling good to start with, and I spent hours in the best shoe store in town trying on pair after pair of recommended shoes to only discover that there is not a “good “shoe “for my cranky old feet. What can I do?
I mean really, should this be so difficult? Google says there are an estimated sixty-four name brand athletic shoe companies. With many of these brands offering different styles in each brand. There are also off name brands. Store brands, and recommended brands. How does someone find the right dam shoe?
I have tried multiple brands and they have all been flawed. They are flawed because of my old feet. Usually when I get a pair of shoes, one shoe feels great, the other not so much. I have also bought hundreds of dollars’ worth of different socks trying to find a pair of socks that are comfortable and will not leave my feet hot and stinky. Also, my legs swell, and most socks are like tourniquets by the end of the day.
Skipping ahead, let us leave behind the shoes and socks for a minute and talk about weight and backpacks. No, I am not talking about my weight, I wouldn’t dare. I am talking about the recommended weight a hiker can comfortably carry along these mile long ancient routes. If you do not stop and consider the weight that your shoes must support as you walk, you may end up tossing your precious stuff along the roadside as you huff and puff in your crappy shoes.
Do you choose food over water in this weight equation? Do you really need to wear panties, and are they the panties that will keep you cool and dry, or are they the ones that will stick to your butt. I mean you really need to consider these things as they can make or break this “special pilgrimage.” You do not want blistered butt cheeks, or so I have read.
Now, let us jump back into the shoe dilemma as that may keep me stuck on the home front for all eternity. Forget all the other things to consider when planning a long trek across the plains of Portugal and Spain like clothes that wick away moisture, socks that do prevent blisters, shoes that fit, potty bags that you can carry, and “where the heck do I do a number one or number two?”
That’s what my closet looks like, okay no wires.
The shoes are by far the most important. The sad thing about buying shoes that others have rated so highly is that we cannot take them home and actually walk in them before making a purchase. Walking around in a shoe store for few minutes is not going to tell you if the shoes will work on a long walk. No way in hell.
I have bought shoes that felt great in the store but crapped out while actually walking my trail. I will admit to owning some very stylish “ mowing” shoes due to this technique.
I am not just ranting here. I really need help in finding the bests shoes for my feet so I can begin training for my pilgrimage. I need to start increasing my mileage and right now that is not possible.
Now there was one tiny helpful trick that I stumbled across in searching the databases of the world, and that is “Changing the way you lace your shoes to make your feet more comfortable. That is right. Changing the way, you lace your shoes!
Let me stop and ask you has anyone, anywhere ever showed you, or suggested that you change the way you lace your shoes to improve your comfort level. I can honestly say “no” to that question. And, I might add that it pisses me off as I bought two pairs of shoes that were touted as the best for pain on the top of your foot. The top felt fine, nice and soft, but the support was crappy. There went $180 bucks. The shoes couldn’t even carry me four miles without pain arising somewhere in my feet.
This new lacing technique has been a revelation. I would never have thought of it myself. I have never paid any attention to lacing my shoes. I have always left them the way they come laced. I thought you had too.
I did not know there are different lacing techniques for different foot issues. Google and YouTube are wonderful resources. I have said it a million times, and I will say it again. Wonderful…. They have saved me a number of times.
The shocking thing for me first up was finding these instructional videos on lacing your shoes, and the second thing was that none of the “experts” I read or talked to ever suggested trying a new lacing technique. I mean do they not know? Do they just not want to share this secret technique?” Is it only about the sale and not the customer?
It feels wonderful
I tried on five different shoes brands in the store, none felt right, and no one said “hey let’s look at your feet and how you lace your shoes.”
And it does make a difference. I am shocked. The technique that I came across on the Internet is parallel lacing. It can relieve some of the discomfort that laces can cause on the top of your feet. Sometimes the top of my feet hurt more than the bottoms.
I have read that your feet can swell and grow at least one shoe size while out walking, so be mindful of this and make sure you do not need a larger size shoe to start with. Then look at your laces. Then look at your socks, and then look at the shoes again. And the final assessment is how they feel on the long haul….?
Sadly, we cannot take them out on a long haul without first buying them. What a mess for us hikers with bad feet.
I will admit that all my shoes are now laced with this secret parallel lacing technique. This simple trick has certainly helped the top of my feet. Amazingly so, I might add, but the problem is still going the distance. I need the right shoes.
So, if you are bothered by sore feet and have found a solution or if you are a hiker and know of a good brand of shoes, I would certainly love to hear from you. My feet would love to hear from you. And so would my wallet.
I cannot order another pair of shoes just to send them back again. The ladies at Kohls might just go on strike if I show up.
I think my solution will be to ask for help from the shoe companies. Maybe I will write to them and see if they will sponsor my research into the best shoe for cranky old, knobby feet. Do you think they will sponsor me? I won’t hold my breath, but you never know until you ask. Never be afraid to ask. It can lead you in amazing directions.
I hope this “simple trick” I’ve shared of changing up how you lace your shoes helps with any foot problems you may be having. Share this tidbit with others, the shoe salesman certainly won’t, and for today, as I always say, have a great day today, You and I deserve it. And remember, each journey starts with that first step, and a good pair of shoes.
