Quarters For Thoughts

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is QUARTER

This prompt could take one’s mind in several directions, but I recalled the old saying, “A penny for your thoughts?” Actually I thought of a millennial comeback for that one:
There’s no point offering grandchildren a penny for their thoughts when our “penny candy” costs a quarter apiece now.

So I’ll just give my thoughts freely this morning. You can decide if they’re worth a quarter. 🙂

The Word of the Day prompt this morning is UNDERSTAND.

There’s no sense to most dreams; you gain nothing by trying to understand them. But just before I woke up I had an interesting one, a hodge-podge of several flash scenes I’ve lived or read about:
A friend and I were going to a mall outside Edmonton and I was driving, but didn’t know the way. So a kind lady who was going there herself showed us the way.  Turns out she managed a store there, so she led us from the parking garage into the mall and we followed her into her store.
It was a shoe store, and we’d just started looking at sandals when they started shutting out lights. We were dismayed to find we’d just got to the mall in the last few minutes before stores closed for the night. Worse, we’d just followed her in, and now had to find our way back to our car in that huge parkade.

This dream reminded me how some streams of thought work. You start thinking about something — often something you’re not happy about — and your mind follows the flow, rehearses all the wrongs, etc. But when you get to the conclusion that something just HAS to be done, you realize nothing can be done at this moment. Right here, right now, you can’t change a single thing. You’ve taken a road to nowhere.

Yesterday evening I was thinking about some people’s attitudes that really annoy me. Finally I had to admit that, yes, it irks me, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do this evening to change everyone’s attitudes. So I just shut down those thoughts.

There’s no point stirring up all the mud in the lake when this is the only water you have.

Here’s another example I think everyone can relate to:
Let’s say I’m unhappy with the way our government is running things, or the way they’ve responded to COVID-19. I might be certain this govt should be ousted before they bring the nation to ruin, or we all die like flies.
So what can I do on a quiet Sunday evening at home to force a vote and change the government? Nothing. Zip. What can I do to change the way the govt — or society — or health care in general — has already responded to the virus? Nada. Pursuing this stream of thought is like getting to the mall and finding stores all closed for the night.

There are better things to think about. My home. My family. My Father in Heaven and his thoughts toward me.

So now that I’ve shared my morning thoughts, I shall occupy my mind with making my home a neater place to live. When I can, I will do what I can for situations that need changing, but for today the world will just have to run itself.
🙂