The Gift of Salt

Just like water... a little salt can be refreshing as well.  

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Salt

“Always have a unique character like salt, its presence is not felt but its absence makes everything tasteless.”

Unknown

Salt.  It’s just a mineral right?

Salt adds so much to a dish.

It can make a bland dish come to life.

Salt can preserve, brine, and scrub things clean.

Salt is an intricate part of human history.

Salt was used as currency in some places. 

The high cost of salt helped start a revolution.

Salt was traded for gold in some traditions.

The virtue of salt in human history is unrivaled to some other culinary additions.

Have a character like salt.

Add some taste and brininess to all that you possess.

Not too much because too much salt might ruin the dish.

Make your life transform from tasteless to a culinary masterpiece seasoned to the perfect degree.

In our home there is always a small container of kosher salt on our counter, I also keep iodized salt, Himalayan salt…. Etc..   If we run out it would be a great catastrophe in our house.  When we cook we throw a little over our left shoulder for a pinch of luck.  Salt is probably one of the most basic building blocks to a recipe.  So much so that folks that cannot have salt there are salt substitutes galore.  Salt has a very long history in humanity.  Phrases like “Salt of the Earth” means someone who can be counted on. In the South being called a Salt of the Earth person was a very high compliment.  Salt in the Biblical sense is to practice good deeds to lead others to both continue the cycle of good acts and lead others to God.  Too much salt is not good in a dish, too little can really cause the dish to not be as tasty.   Salt in history can be traced back quite long ago.  Salt at one point in history was one of the most important trading commodities.  Salt was used as coins in some societies.  This little spice that we can find quite easily and use regularly was once so very important in society.  So why be like salt?  Because we can build up others around us.  Be just enough salt to others so that they can be a better version of themselves.  Not too much as it would spoil their life dish, but just enough.  One practice that a friend of mine imparted to me was to find a stranger and compliment them on their hair, their eyes or their smile.  Just watch how they light up.  After putting that suggestion into practice, wow! Their smiles were infectious.  For those who are in your life on a regular basis.  Try to find a new way to listen by saying, “I hear you saying fill in the blank”.  Just to be heard is what others crave.  My husband is constantly reminding me… the talker… that we have 2 ears and one mouth. Which means we should listen more, right?  Sometimes others just need us to listen.  If you think about all the shows on television, how many of them yell over each other rather than listen respectfully and then give their answer or rebuttal.  Restoring civility requires us to be more like salt.  Salt is needed in our professional life, our personal lives and even in the lives of those we do not know.  In closing dear readers I leave you with this quote.  “People don’t enjoy salt.  They enjoy what is salted.  We are the salt of the earth. We do not exist for ourselves.”  John Piper.  Go and sprinkle a little salt all around you.  

Source:

Forbes.com

Britannica.com

My Books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

Clean it Up!  Wash it Up!

Coming Soon!

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Appalachian Allegory

The Gift of Clean Sheets

I took this at a Naval Base in Rhode Island.  It just reminds me of your mind after you spent time cleaning inside...  a beautiful canvas that can be built upon.

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Clean Sheets

To be clean, what does that mean?

To be washed from dirt and impurities. 

To be refreshed and given a new scent that doesn’t contain the foul smells.

To be dried in the sun or dried with heat.

To make sure the item is free of germs.

What needs cleaning in your life?

What have you neglected for a long time?

Have you cleared your mind of constant negative thoughts?

Have you cleaned up your words?

Have you cleaned up your actions?

We all need a little cleaning to wash off the dust of daily life. 

So take a moment, do a little cleaning. 

This will change your actions. 

You know that feeling of laying down on freshly laundered sheets?  It feels amazing!  Maybe that is specific to our family but clean sheets are quite important. Having children in the military, they take clean to another level. Our twin boys attend a military college.  Each week their room is inspected for cleanliness.  The hangers have to contain exactly one finger length between each shirt or pants.  They have to own a footlocker for your miscellaneous items.  The floor has to be clean, the bathroom spotless.  If something fails inspection they get demerits. Pretty astounding, right?  Think about when you do not clean things in your home.  We are all guilty of this activity.  What happens?  The dirt, dust and grime build up because of neglect.  When you do finally reach the moment to cleanse and polish the items it takes twice as long to scrub, dust, sweet and mop the area.  Not only does this take extra time, you have an increased chance of getting sick because the dirt, dust, germs deteriorate air quality in your home.  If you have clutter everywhere what happens?  You trip and fall and in some cases get hurt.  I can hear you saying, “I hate to clean.” Agreed.  I know a handful of folks who like to clean but the necessity to clean never goes away.  Now, let us move this into our everyday life.  What happens if you do not take a little time to wash off and sanitize our thoughts and our spiritual life? We start to thrive off negative thoughts and emotions.  If you wake up in a negative mindset that sets the tone for your entire day.  Positive folks want others to be happy.  Even if their circumstances are vastly different.  Recently I read a quote that said, “It’s hard to be happy when you do not clean up or even throw out what is making you sad.” It is not always easy or even possible, but perhaps a little dusting off would help you make it to a better place mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Those of us who have kids, particularly a quiver full fought the battle of cleaning constantly with kids when they were little.  When our daughter was about 8 years old she was quite distraught because she could not find a particular stuffed animal that was important to her.  My husband and I walked into her room and it looked like a tornado had blown through not once but several times.  It was utter chaos. Our parenting style was we were not going to do everything for them but rather start helping them and guiding them and ultimately they finish the job.  We told her to start by picking things up off the floor.  Find the garbage and put it in the trash, put the clothes in the basket, etc. Our daughter took everything, clothes, stuffed animals, trash, everything and deposited said items onto her bed.  She came to us quite proud that she had “cleaned” her room.  We walked into her room and well, yes the room was clean but the bed looked like the tornado just picked everything up and put it on her bed.  In all of her “cleaning” she still had not found the all important stuffed animal.  We told her to perhaps actually take everything off the bed and put it in their special place.  After all, she will eventually have to go to bed and well, it would be hard to sleep on that pile.  “I’ll just sleep on the floor.” She said, with a sigh we were in for the long haul helping her clean her room.  We threw away the garbage.  Put the toys in their special place and what do you know?  Her important stuffed animal was at the bottom of the pile.  How many times do we chuck everything into a corner or pile our “dirty bits” on top of a metaphorical bed?  I know I am guilty of these actions a lot.  We all need to take a little time each week or each day to put on those clean sheets.  Clean out that pile of negative emotions, find that small sliver of clean and start to declutter our life. I would add in this particularly dark time in the world it is so necessary to clean those spiritual sheets.  Wash our minds, scrub our souls.  Pray for others.  I leave you with a witty quote from Lauren Bacall: “The best things in life are clean living, good works and big sapphires.  And not in that order.”

  My books are on Amazon:  

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

Clean it Up! Wash it Up!

Coming soon:

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Appalachian Allegory

The Gift of If You Want To

 

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of If You Want To

 "If you want to, you can find a million reasons to hate life and be angry at the world." Or, if you want to, you could find a million reasons to love life and be happy.  Choose wisely."

Cari Welsh

 

If you want to, you can see all the gray on a rainy day.

Or if you want to, you can see the green and verdant colors washed by the rain.

If you want to, you can hate the soul-sucking heat.

Or if you want to, you can be happy for the seasons that bring cold, warm, hot and crisp fall days. 

If you want to, you can see that you don’t have everything you thought you would have. 

Or if you want to, you can count your blessings and be very glad. 

Be glad for a home, a place to lay your head. 

Be glad that you even have those blasted chores, which you dread. 

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Or if you are truly creative, you will see that the glass is refillable.  

If you want to, you can look around and see that blessings abound even in the smallest of things. 

Choose some if you want to bits each and every day.

If you want to, you can pave a more positive and fulfilling road ahead.

Make the path lovely; make the path kind.

Teach the "if you want to" mindset to others.

Help others see If you want to, there is beauty in just about everything we see.

 

If you want to.  What a choice of words, right? One must admit that there are days that you just don’t want to.  Am I right? So much of life is how we look at it.  When I see the news and what is going on with the countries ravaged with war, it is an immediate attitude check. Days like today where in my little blessed world it was a no good, very bad day.. I only needed to look at the suffering of those around the world..  Even the suffering that is near.  It gives perspective.  

What If you want to moments do we have  do we endure on a daily basis?  I have a friend who finds brushing her teeth a bit tedious. I have always thought this was funny. She decided that for the three minutes that she was brushing her teeth, she would pray for a varying list of folks. She puts that list on her mirror and proceeds to brush, brush, brush, and pray. I read a few days ago that when people hate something, it is accompanied by a bevy of emotions. They are trying to connect with a life situation or a person (even if that connection is not necessarily good) out of fear. It's almost as if you're looking for a sense of belonging, even if the emotion isn't particularly well-designed. There used to be a lady who lived at the senior center where I work who sat at the front entrance each and every day, and when you asked her how she was doing, her response was, "Terrible! Just terrible!  I hate it here! "Get me out of here!" After getting this response from her several times, I asked the management if she was indeed okay. They told me that she was upset because she had to leave the home that she had shared with her late husband for many, many years. She never got over having to leave. She kept complaining so much that the management had to move her sitting area away from the front entrance because she was scaring off potential tenants.  She eventually went to live with her children, which made her much happier. This was a truly instructive moment to find the "if you want to" when life gets tricky. My husband has a lifelong friend who has been in the Army for a very long time. War is ugly all around. If there could be a world without war, that would be amazing. This friend has done several tours of duty in the Middle East. He has seen friends killed, quite honestly. My heart goes out to him. Sure, he chose to serve, but God bless those who choose that role. One very grave time, he was in a convoy, when suddenly a suicide bomber blew himself up right in front of their group of trucks. His shoulder was injured, and some other soldiers had minor injuries, but no one lost their lives that day. He recently shared a video with us that was recorded right after the event took place. He looked at the camera and said (paraphrased) that this could have been much, much worse.  But I am alive, everyone in the group is alive, and we are going to be thankful for that. God help us that we never endure a situation of that magnitude.  I would say that this was a much heightened example of if you want to. Right now, as I write this, there is a war raging in Europe and the Middle East. It is a world away, yet the media lets us see just how terrible this can be. Let this be a motivating factor for us to choose, if you want to, and steer it in the direction of thankfulness.

My books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

Clean it Up!  Wash it Up!

Coming soon:

Appalachian Allegory

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

The Gift of Storm Clouds

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of a Storm Clouds

“Grey has no agenda…Grey has the ability, that no other colour has, to make the invisible visible.” 

Roma Tearne

I had to change the name of this little writing because it was flagged when I just called it “The Gift of Grey” 

I have so much on my mind this morning.  As I contemplated what to write about today… or what to pull from that I had written in the past…. This immediately came to mind.  It is a Grey time in life.  I opened my app and read the news.  I stopped quite a while ago actually watching the news.  I wanted to yell at the screen, “Just the facts man!  No commentary!”   Yes, I like the English spelling more than the American spelling.  This crossroad in life has led to more prayer, more contemplation, more discipline.  More just, crying out to God for help… for myself and others.  If every day was roses and parties would that be a way of living?  I would think not.  Once again, God has shown that He gives us gifts to our future selves if we allow Him to do so.  I wrote this last October.   Seeing the news, seeing the struggle that folks are going through.  We have to find that hint of grey.  Today the storm clouds are coming through and rain will appear in the south.  I couldn’t help but admire how the leaves pop in their changing colors on this very grey day.  Find the color in the midst of grey. 

Grey is a muted color, some folks would say.

Grey is boring, dull, and lifeless and speaks of rainy days.

Grey conveys sadness, gloom, and despair. 

Grey means old in some circles and therefore is not worth a care.

But grey is an underrated color that can bring vibrant hues to life.

Verdant green, rosy red, fiery orange, all come to life with the backdrop of grey to cause an explosion of delight.  

Grey means things are not always black and white.  

While other colors have a place on the wheel, grey is a tone that has the ability to shape the way you feel.  Whether that is the growth and renewal of green, or the love and passion of red.  The joy, warmth, and heat of orange.  Grey gives all these colors pronounced appeal.  Grey represents neutrality and balance in daily life, because without the color grey everything would be black and white.  Most of life happens in the tincture of grey that makes the invisible visible to us each and every day.  

Grey, an often overlooked color.  You bring in black, white, red and other colors and grey is sort of an afterthought.  How many times have you heard, “Ugh, it is going to be a grey day today!” It is a very natural and human reaction to repel grey.  Sunshine is wonderful, but so is grey!  Andre Gide once said that the color of truth is grey.  Is it?  I recently read that most of our lives are lived in the grey area. If life was all black and all white that would be a life of complete high times and low times.  When life is going through a time of grey, that means you can be purposeful about the path of your life.  My husband has a saying that has stuck with me for years, “I want to do ordinary things in extraordinary places.”  Social media has given us an overly flawed perception of life.  It is all parties, all trips, all clean houses, all well behaved kids. So much of life is doing ordinary things, the colors come in when we do it in ordinary and extraordinary places.  Sometimes we need to be grey so that others may shine.  In grey we live in truth, purpose, and intention. Small gestures, kind words, and a simple prayer for a fellow human being can help fellow human who is all grey shine with the verdant color of a smile, a feeling of hope or a renewed sense of the beauty of the human spirit.  We need it right now, don’t we? I leave you with the words of Ridley Scott: “Life isn’t black or white.  It’s a million grey areas, don’t you find?”

The Gift of Life is Beautiful

Pray dear friends.  

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Life is Beautiful

“Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it's a good place that we're all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it.” “Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”

Life is Beautiful

Life.  It is supposed to be beautiful. 

Humans should love each other. 

Look at the news, see the suffering. 

There is no evidence of that love.

Common respect, love for your neighbor.

Those tenets have clearly fallen out of favor. 

There has to be goodness out there. 

Surely, there has to be. 

Prayers, fervent prolonged and urgent

They are needed for those who are suffering such terror. 

The suffering is too much to bear. 

The mother crying for her child.

The family slaughtered, the hostages taken. 

The violence, it is just vile.

What can we do?

How can we help?

What can we say? 

Again dear readers, first. Pray.

After that, be kind to your neighbor. 

Give them the gift of care.

Give them a smile.

Lift them up.

Find what brings us together and make that your goal.

Tell those who seek to divide us we stand for one common goal.

Do good, be good. Love your neighbor as yourself. 

Stop the river of hatred. 

Release the dam of goodness, gentleness and care.

I have no words for the news that I have been listening to today.  I cried.  I mourned.  So much evil in the world.  Children are being killed.  Mothers are bearing so much pain.  Families are being slaughtered.  I just have no words.  I know that some folks say, “Take those prayers and actually do something.”  Well, I would say to you, that prayers do work. To know that someone has you on their mind when you are going through immense struggle is indeed a comfort.  To know that there are those who pray for peace.  It is a great comfort.  I have spoken to a couple of folks who are impacted by this situation in that part of the world.  They have asked explicitly and implicitly for prayer.  Friends.  Pray.  For those of us who are parents, pray for those who have no clue where their children are located.  Can you imagine?  I would be crawling out of my skin.  Recently I read the book that is associated with a movie from the 90s called, “Life is Beautiful.”  It was based on a family that was taken to death camps during World War II.  The family was separated.  The father was with the son, he did not want his young son to really know the severity of the situation.  He made their imprisonment like a game.  A game that was played during their entire time in that camp.  When the liberation was at hand, the father told his son to hide in a box until morning.  He knew the liberation was coming.  Shortly before morning came the father was captured and executed.  The son waited until the morning and was met with US Soldiers who were freeing those who were captive.  The son emerged from the box thinking he had won the game.  He was completely unaware that his father gave the ultimate sacrifice to save him.  He was eventually reunited with his mother.  The book ends with him reflecting as an adult just how much his father did to protect him through some pretty harrowing circumstances.  Friends, I have to wonder if that is going on right now.  Fathers, mothers, protecting the innocent from the ravages of war.  Yes, we must pray.  We must be good to those around us.  We must count our blessings.  We must see that diamond in the rough.  We must because life is indeed beautiful.  Life can also change in an instant.  Find the beautiful. 

The Gift of Seasons

Life seasons can teach us so very much... much like nature.

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Seasons

“Never judge someone based on a season.  One season David was a shepherd, the next season he was a King.”

Unknown

Nature gives us a quite wonderful show. 

It gives us the seasons of heat, cool, bitter cold, and snow. 

The leaves change like the colors of a beautiful canvas. 

The snow brings the earth into quiet clarity.  

Spring gives us blooms and varying shades of green.

The flowers blossom, their fragrance fills the air like a glorious natural perfume. 

The summer gives us heat and fireflies. 

Late nights sitting on the front porch, watching the beautiful skies. 

Nature can teach us a wonderful lesson about life, the universe and everything. 

We only need to look and listen and watch things change.

The birds sing, the cycle of life, the changes all have a purpose. 

To give renewal. To show glorious purpose.

Our lives are much like seasons, they change, they flower, they grow. 

Sometimes the bad parts have to wither to allow new and better growth. 

Take a little time, watch nature’s change.

Let that change give you life clarity. 

To know that each and every season is a chance to grow. 

To be better, to see better, to think better and start tasks anew. 

So don’t judge the seasons of life. 

Let them gloriously guide and teach you. 

Once again the news is filled with so much war.  My goodness, those poor souls who have lost loved ones. I would guess that a lot of these folks were innocent folks trying to make it through the dance that we call life.  These situations call into sharp focus just how blessed we are across the pond here in the United States.  Sure, politics are well.. Awful.  Prayer is a much needed and fervent act that needs to be practiced several times a day.  As I was sitting on my front porch this afternoon, enjoying the fall breeze,and the leaves falling like raindrops, I started to think about seasons.  We all have them in life.  In the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible there is a whole chapter dedicated to seasons of life.  In Chapter three it talks about how everything has a time, season, and purpose under Heaven.  Isn’t that very true? What season are you currently working through in life?  In our lives it is grown kids, an empty nest.  A very quiet house.  There are days I miss having little children like you would not believe.  At the time they were little, they drove me nuts.  I had four kids in diapers.. All under the age of four at one time.  But now, I look back and think about all the lessons all six of my children have taught me through the years.  Your season could be a new job, a new way of doing things.  I have read a lot recently about folks who have decided that even though they have reached a certain age they are not going to give up.  That is admirable. Seasons can teach us how to be better people.  If you have never studied this particular passage of scripture in Ecclesiastes, I highly recommend doing so.  The premise is that in each season of life, (just like the seasons of nature) they can teach us.  They can teach us how to deal with life as it continues to flow.  It can teach us discipline that we never knew that we had. Seasons shape us for a better purpose.  Why did I mention David from the Bible above?  Well, he is a prime example.  He went from a shepherd to a King.  If you are going through a difficult time I would encourage you to think of it as a season.  A time to grow.  In another writing I mentioned that you have three choices when going through something that is difficult.  You can let that situation define you, destroy you or strengthen you.  That strength is not giving up, even when it is hard.  That strength is saying, what are the blessings in this situation?  That strength is knowing that you can go from being a shepherd in the situation to a king.  I leave you with the origin of the phrase: “This too shall pass.” It is Persian in its origin.  It has been translated into many languages.  The basic meaning is as follows: It reflects on the temporary nature of the human condition.  Things are temporal and quite changeable.  This concept originated from the Sufi poets of Persia.  I am quite sure we have all felt in the midst of the situation that it will never change.  In some cases it might even seem hopeless.  But I encourage you to find that hope.  Find that season, let it teach you and perhaps one day you will be a King.  Not in the literal sense obviously, but you will be a much better version of yourself. 

Source: Quora

My books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot books 1-3

Clean it Up!  Wash it Up!

Coming soon:

Appalachian Allegory

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Christmas Ornaments