A Bit of the Orange

Thoughts about the *opinion* quote keep running through my mind.

"I have resigned myself to having less and less resolute opinions."
-- a quote from Amel Larrieux, singer-songwriter, published on the side of a Tall Chai Latte
from the book -- How Starbucks Saved My Life by MICHAEL GATES GILL

I have been very opinionated in the past. I think obnoxiously so . . . hopefully my family can see some improvement in this area of my life.

Seems like over time my opinions are trampled in the dust. After awhile I start to wonder -- what is going on here?

This is the gal who had opinions about the care and upkeep of a house
the care and upkeep of vehicles, yard, gardens, outbuildings
-- how to raise children
-- how many children a family should have
-- how a child should behave in church, a store, in short -- everywhere
-- how a husband should act, speak, behave, etc.
-- how I should act, speak, behave, etc

opinions on debt . . . we shouldn't owe a ton of money
opinions on weight . . . we shouldn't weigh a ton
opinions on:
- speech
- dress
- activities for families, young people, children, etc.
- school, teachers, grading system, curriculum

- using things up, wearing it out, saving things in case you might need it some day . . . now they say you have a disease if you keep things for future use. I've been told -- if you dig in dumpsters for pop cans or other things to recycle you are a sick person.

- opinions on headaches and what to take for headaches
how to avoid headaches -- for instance don't make triple batches of two kinds of cookies and then get a headache and flee to your bedroom and leave your mom and Aunt Dawn to bake the cookies and wash the stacks of dishes
(sorry, Julia . . . now that I have a splitting headache and am experimenting with Tylenol versus Ibuprofen to get relief my opinions on all of that came home to roost)
In other words *I know how you felt*
Actually I feel like I have triple batches of ten different kinds of cookies in my kitchen (figuratively speaking)

I am truly feeling *lower than the belly of a snake* about now
Funny how these old sayings come back to be rolled over and over in my mind
Like this one my mother quoted for my sisters and me when we were little . . .
"You aren't the only pebble on the beach"
I suppose when we were fighting . . .

-- or this one in The Secret Garden

Dickon's mother, Susan Sowerby says: "Once when I was givin' th' children a bit of a preach after they'd been fightin' I ses to 'em all, 'When I was at school my jography told as th' world was shaped like a orange an' I found out before I was ten that th' whole orange doesn't belong to nobody. No one owns more than his bit of a quarter an' there's times it seems like there's not enow quarters to go round. But don't you - none o' you- think as you own th' whole orange or you'll find out you're mistaken, an' you won't find it out without hard knocks.' What children learns from children," she says, "is that there's no sense in grabbin' at th' whole orange - peel an' all. If you do, you'll likely not get even th' pips, an' them's too bitter to eat." '

For the life of me I can't figure out why I thought these quotes were connected with the many opinions I used to have -- unless those weren't opinions but very lofty, unrealistic ideals . . .

make that lofty, unrealistic expectations . . . of myself and my family.

My poor aching head.
It must be time to quit these ramblings.
Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.