The Power Exchange
All mouse is and everything she could be, is wrapped up in that moment of surrender.
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Friday, March 19, 2021
Wouldn't it be Lovely?
Monday, March 15, 2021
Day Dream Believer
Friday, February 5, 2021
Crossroads
Master wants learning to be a family activity, not just something that children do, to get an education, learning should be continual throughout your life. As always, Master wants to model good behaviors for our brood, so we're turning the clock back a little. We're not living without anything, but rather exploring ways to improve family our family connection. More time spent reading, writing and less time staring at screens. We brought back the family Saturday meal, which is more a formal affair, where we dress up, and spend hours eating and talking. Everyone can bring up a current event that interests them. Together we're certainly learning about new things.
What We're Watching
Master splurged on a subscription to PBS Living, which gives us access to great cooking, travel, and home type stuff that we've been enjoying immensely. The cooking shows alone (lots of Julia Child), are worth the price. All the shows, Master enjoys the car shows and we both like Antiques Roadshow. It's a winner, since all the shows are fairly kid friendly. We're also doing an odd dive into shows that demonstrate (often by doing themselves) the difficulties of life long ago. While, as a child, mouse used to dream of living on a farm, waking at the crack of dawn to feed a milk a cow, living that lifestyle probably wouldn't suit her very much. Especially for women, it was very hard work. Who wants to spend a full week doing wash? Victorian Farm on Amazon Prime, scratched the itch nicely where a historian and archeologists tackle life as it used to be during the Victorian age.
What We are Reading
Master has been reading more for fun, which is a bit unusual for Him. While mouse still reads smutty or bodice rippers on her kindle app, Master has been reading more mystery stories. Our local library, while mostly closed does allow for the taking out of books. You tell them what you want to read and they bundle them up and He picks them up.
Games We Play
Each evening it seems, we are spending time together playing a game. Inspired by the Victorian Farm show, mouse dug out an old Christmas book that shows you how to make your own gift wrap, Christmas Crackers, and includes a chapter on games to play for parties. Games like Charades, and other guessing games have become a family staple, right along with a few board games, and of course puzzles.
All these things, while a mostly snowless winter continues, have served us well and improved our family connection and interactions. There's a calmness over the house that's bursting with people, yet we're all getting along just fine. This is to contrast the previous summer and fall when everyone seemed to have their nerve stretched so thin that anything would set off a powder keg.
A year ago, mouse was struggling with depression and while medications have been stopped for that, she needs to keep herself focused and mindful about her daily "feelings". Often there's no reason for feeling sad, nervous or whatever, but she has learned to accept it when it happens and go to Master. Not to have Him fix her feelings or even validate them, but so that He understands that mouse might go a little quiet, or seem to just be going through the motions of the day. Of course, if the feelings persist longer than a day or so or if they intensify, mouse can schedule a therapy appointment.
That being said, there hasn't been any of that so far this winter (which traditionally is hard on many of us). Also, Master has stepped up a bit in His expectations where His slave is concerned, as we settle into a more service oriented life, where Master extends even more control over the slave's daily life. There is even less room for personal decision making and more emphasis on how He wants things done.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Welcoming
Monday, December 21, 2020
A Time For Peace
Yes, we did ponder to not bother with a year-end wrap-up, but an extraordinary year requires at least a few words of reflection.
What a wild ride 2020 has been, something akin to Mr Toad's Wild Ride in Disneyland, which has also been closed since what, March? At some point, we were all smacked by a train and felt like sentenced to hell. Well, that's how the ride goes. It is well and good that we should pause a little and maybe contemplate the good and bad the year has brought. We're safe at home and reflecting on all the changes that we've all be forced to endure. It hasn't been easy and for many it's been downright impossible. There's a bit of privilege that we have to acknowledge that allows us some of the comforts of home staying. Master can work from home, the children can learn from home, while we can't exclusively order groceries to be delivered we have the money to pay for them, unlike so many this season. So many are struggling under the yoke of this pandemic and for many in this country its a truly losing battle. Many trying and struggling to do the right thing only to have those opportunities slammed shut.
We have witnessed people claiming this pandemic and illness it causes isn't a big deal, but when does anyone ever recall seeing refrigerator trucks being brought to hospital parking lots to house the dead until they can be buried? We volley back and forth between trying to do what's right, chaffing under the restorations and hoping for a better tomorrow.
Quite naturally, in the middle of this writing the laptop being used decided it needed recharging, so mouse paused writing and hoped she'd be able to mentally pick up the threads of what she wanted to express. It was then it occurred to her the short pause was a benefit, since it gave offered a bit of time to collect the thoughts. This year has been odd for us all, as mentioned Mr Toad's Wild Ride (for those unfamiliar with the ride, here's a link).
There have been moments, we played games with family miles from us via the internet, we cooked over Zoom, even shipped food overnight, with a video watch party invite. In some ways, almost oddly, we're more connected to family and friends because Master suggested we're putting in more effort into creative get together ideas. Ways we can be together, without physically being together. in that respect the pandemic has caused us to slow down and reevaluate what is truly important in our lives. The things we do miss, like movie theaters or taking our children to see the Nut Cracker Ballet, restaurants, walking around downtown and popping into a restaurant, Or the chaos of a busy morning, running behind and having to get the kids off to school.
One thought that is somewhat perplexing, are we addicted to being busy? If anything this time has shown us that we probably are. We've also learned, oddly, that all that running around we used to do we spent a lot more money than we are now. While we did eat most meals at home, there were plenty of meals or even breakfasts out with the family, add to that cost, movie tickets and we'd drop a couple hundred bucks on a day of fun easily. If Master decides to take mouse out later that evening, or we host a fancy dinner at our home, and the price goes up. There's a rhythm of chaos, excitement, birthdays and other social gatherings that have all just stopped because of the virus. We've been forced, like many, to reevaluate what's truly important to us.
This year has also brought to the surface and forced us bear witness to civil unrest, a real tempest brewing, as opposed to the fake outrage one finds frequently on social media, where privileged individuals complain endlessly about minutia when there are real problems others are facing, like discrimination and abject racism. Even Master has noticed an increase in the lack of tolerance and that disturbs Him. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor forced many to deal with inequalities, and we've also seen the swastikas spray-painted on Jewish cemeteries. Shouldn't we be beyond this? While we were satisfied with the election result in our country this past November, many were not. We have decided that we can't worry about that. We have to worry more locally, what our state representatives and county people are doing, to be better informed at our local level. To do better all around and help bring about positive change (at least we hope).
Many people filled their time with home improvements, we weren't that ambitious, but did manage to do a few things around here. Birthdays were delivered by Amazon, and while it bothers us, there wasn't a lot we could do and in the drone of each day running into the next, Master forgot mouse's birthday all together. Yes, He made up for that. Just another sign that 2020 isn't a normal year. It's true many times we just wished we could fast forward through this, the worry would settle, what if we fast forwarded too far and discovered we're not here. That's a morose thought, isn't it? Going a bit beyond the middle age years makes you think that way.
Looking ahead there is some light in the tunnel of darkness, a vaccine, which we are all grateful for, as that can certainly help end this madness or at least diminish much of fear surrounding it.
It does lead us to an equally interesting question. What do we want 2021 to look like?
Will we continue to stay home more or slowly let this odd time slip into the past and resume our old ways of doing everything?
What lessons did we learn from this and do we want to carry those lessons into our future?
As mouse looks out the large picture window and sees the cherry holiday lights on our neighbor's homes juxtaposed with the lifeless landscape, we can't help but to pause, reflect and perhaps, just let it all go.
Master who is all about keywords, after discussion said we might choose three or four words to reflect what we want most for 2020, as something to focus on. Randomly we opened a dictionary and pointed to words on whatever page, it took several tries to get words that were appropriate (the word, Word was dismissed and others like that) The final words were: Purpose, Hope, Service, Connection.
Maybe, going forward we'll incorporate those words into thoughtful posts in 2021.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Happy Changes At Last!
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Handle with Care
“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.”― George Harrison