Grandma Fannie says…
I have previously written about many of the wise reminders of my Grandma Fannie. This morning I was thinking of her frequent reminder that, “The more things change the more they stay the same.” If one looks in up this proverb on the internet one finds it was quoted by the French novelist Alphonse Karr and by George Bernard Shaw in the ‘Revolutionist Handbook’. I am also sure that it is contained in the “Essential Handbook of Grandma words of wisdom.” Well, I made that last up although if one googles grandma sayings one will get a lot of hits. It seems grandmas more than grandpas are assigned the task of passing along the essential rules for spiritual health as well as the recipes for the perfect apple pie, biscuits which always rise at least two inches, the most succulent fried chicken and coffee which will levitate one’s body while it whips through the house dusting and sweeping the physical and emotional trash which accumulates in every home.
Grandma Fannie died long before the internet, video games, flat screen television, the home computer, and shopping on Amazon. She spent a significant portion of her life on the farm where milk came directly from the cow, the separator provided cream for coffee and ice cream, warm eggs came were gathered from beneath the chickens, and vegetables were gathered from the garden or jars which had been canned and kept in the root cellar. She only had books with pages and covers, pens which wrote letters and lists, and music which arrived via the radio, was sung in church or played on the piano, accordion, guitar or other carefully protected musical instruments.
If Grandma Fannie were alive today she would love the cell phone and email. She would be ecstatic that the libraries and museums of the world were available to her anytime of the day or night if the electricity was operational. She would also remind all children and adults that:
Mostly she would remind one that humans are still humans. We are capable of amazing and beautiful creations and of forgetting to turn on our brains and our hearts or carelessly leaving them lying around somewhere. Truly when it comes to essentials, “The more things change the more the more they stay the same. “
I was talking to a friend last night and I asked her if she had a strategic plan for her spiritual intentions/growth. She did not although she excels in creating strategic plans for work and home. She often talks of her mother who always had a strategic plan for spiritual centerness and growth.
We humans have apparently always noticed this life journey is very brief and, yet we continue to act as if what last is that which does not last; that love which is all that gives life a sense of purpose can be an afterthought or left for the spare time which may never arrive.
“The more things change the more they stay the same.”
Written May 30, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
I have previously written about many of the wise reminders of my Grandma Fannie. This morning I was thinking of her frequent reminder that, “The more things change the more they stay the same.” If one looks in up this proverb on the internet one finds it was quoted by the French novelist Alphonse Karr and by George Bernard Shaw in the ‘Revolutionist Handbook’. I am also sure that it is contained in the “Essential Handbook of Grandma words of wisdom.” Well, I made that last up although if one googles grandma sayings one will get a lot of hits. It seems grandmas more than grandpas are assigned the task of passing along the essential rules for spiritual health as well as the recipes for the perfect apple pie, biscuits which always rise at least two inches, the most succulent fried chicken and coffee which will levitate one’s body while it whips through the house dusting and sweeping the physical and emotional trash which accumulates in every home.
Grandma Fannie died long before the internet, video games, flat screen television, the home computer, and shopping on Amazon. She spent a significant portion of her life on the farm where milk came directly from the cow, the separator provided cream for coffee and ice cream, warm eggs came were gathered from beneath the chickens, and vegetables were gathered from the garden or jars which had been canned and kept in the root cellar. She only had books with pages and covers, pens which wrote letters and lists, and music which arrived via the radio, was sung in church or played on the piano, accordion, guitar or other carefully protected musical instruments.
If Grandma Fannie were alive today she would love the cell phone and email. She would be ecstatic that the libraries and museums of the world were available to her anytime of the day or night if the electricity was operational. She would also remind all children and adults that:
- None of the conveniences matter if we do not love and take care of each other.
- Life lasts, at best, only a few minutes.
- The chores have to get done no matter how one feels.
- No one cares whether you feel like doing the next right thing; you just do it.
- If one does not have an intimate relationship with mother earth one is likely to lose one’s way.
- Politicians fight and say all manner of things. It is what they do which counts.
- Marriages and other relationships are not made in heaven; they are carefully kneaded and set to rise daily.
- Alcohol does not solve problems but often creates them.
- There is always enough food for one more surprise guest.
Mostly she would remind one that humans are still humans. We are capable of amazing and beautiful creations and of forgetting to turn on our brains and our hearts or carelessly leaving them lying around somewhere. Truly when it comes to essentials, “The more things change the more the more they stay the same. “
I was talking to a friend last night and I asked her if she had a strategic plan for her spiritual intentions/growth. She did not although she excels in creating strategic plans for work and home. She often talks of her mother who always had a strategic plan for spiritual centerness and growth.
We humans have apparently always noticed this life journey is very brief and, yet we continue to act as if what last is that which does not last; that love which is all that gives life a sense of purpose can be an afterthought or left for the spare time which may never arrive.
“The more things change the more they stay the same.”
Written May 30, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
RSS Feed