These words should be every person's mantra.

We've moved into a pretty conservative area.  Lots of 'Red' (small pun intended). Many residents were born, raised and grew up here... then married or bought a home here to start families of their own or just remained here as adults, purchasing a home in the same area.

I can't blame them. It's a beautiful place to live. We absolutely love living here.

Within your own block, even your own yard, you see and coexist with mother nature and all the wonder which comes with that.

Bald eagles, hawks, turtles big and small. Rabbits, fox, sand hill cranes and an occasional bob cat. My brother saw a panther on the bank when kayaking through a canal on the lake. Deer and their fawns are every where and visit every yard. Bird feeders stay busy with birds, squirrels and chipmunks. I try and avoid the snakes, but have learned to accept and appreciate the black snake which resides in our yard. Sometimes a gator will wander onto or across the road, thankfully I haven't witnessed that yet...but am well aware they're out there, and pretty close by.

Our neighborhood is at the end of a three mile road (four miles off the main road) which dead ends into a nature preserve...on both sides. A state park is located at the other end of the road leading out of our neighborhood and also has a marsh reserve on the other side of the road, along with a (different)lake on either side.

You couldn't ask for a better place to live if you love nature.

And I sure do.

It's truly a hidden gem, seven miles off the beaten path of life, red lights and busy intersections.

It's a gun toting community for the most part.

I learned that quickly.

 I remember when COVID panic started and they all talked (on social media or on walks by the house) about being stocked up on ammo. I'm still not sure what ammo has to do with a pandemic, but they were all locked and loaded.

 After the murder of George Floyd and protesters (both violent and non violent) marched the streets of hundreds if not thousand of cities, once again the community boasted about being ready if things got ugly in the/our  "hood."

Seriously?

Do you really think protestors are going to march ten miles just to protest in our neck of the woods? Or do you think they're gonna get bused in?

I'm pretty confident most of the angry peeps don't even know we are back here.

Then they posted how they were patrolling the neighborhood at night in golf carts to make sure we were all okay, and posted more than a few times how all guns were loaded and by their front doors.

Are you kidding me? 

Then I posted this sign by our mailbox.

It took a couple of weeks before it was taken, but the smiles, waving and stopping to talk went away pretty much immediately... and I spend most all of my time out in the yards every day.

Someone brought it back after they found it in a trash pile on a cul de sac where houses haven't been built yet.

Something tells me this wasn't a teen age prank...although all social media comments in the 'hood' attributed it to mischievous youths.

Then I put up this sign:

Notice I put it by our front door.

 I'm not very popular anymore with a lot of peeps who used to stop to chat and  comment or offer advice to me on the social media neighborhood page.

One neighbor flat out refused to acknowledge three different messages I sent on messenger...but their little profile pic popped up every time letting me know they had seen it.

Before my sign went up, they answered messages I sent.

These are now the people I smile the biggest at or wave to the most, every single time they pass my house or yard.

Since when did having different views make me an enemy?

So they like guns.

I don't.

They are welcome to their weaponry if they have a permit, I've just never been a fan of killing things.

Isn't that basically what guns are made for?

So they like Trump.

I don't.

He's a bully and a con man, plain and simple.

So some of them don't share my views on the human race in general; especially pertaining to equality.

That does bother me.

A lot.

Here's my issue.

If you're so right (small pun) in your thinking...why can't I feel the same way about my thinking?

*Bonus points how about me not shoving my views down your throat while screaming loudly and waving a rebel flag... or flaunt it in your face like a baited hook*

So I'm a Liberal.

Sue me.

You won't get much and will need to get in line behind the IRS.

We're still paying off a $28,000 debt we unfortunately got stuck with when a business deal we were involved with went south (another pun).

We pay our debts.

I don't like guns. I've never owned a gun. I've never wanted one. My parents never owned one, yet I still grew up and have somehow made it to the age of over sixty. My husband has never owned a gun either.

So Go me (us)!!!

I know I'm crazy.

It's my best quality, and sincerely mean that.

I know some (probably a lot of) people meet me for the first time and walk away wondering why they even let me out of the house.

I think my family feels that way a lot of the time...but that's okay too!

At least it's never boring, even if it should be.

When using the term crazy, I'm meaning the third definition.

Crazy: (of an angle) appearing absurdly out of place or in an unlikely position

That's me.

Talk about a glass half full!

That's a Life Win in my book.

Everyone has to find their own way in life. Sometimes you figure it out the first time. Sometimes you're lost. Sometimes it's trial by error and sometimes it's trial by fire.

I've been high (another small pun) and I've been low (a reality). I've had plenty and I've had almost nothing.

I know one thing.

You've got to keep on keeping on, especially when you feel like you can't.

We  need to love everyone. Everyone is someone...and one day you may be the someone who needs everyone.

It's plain and simple to me.

Be a good person. 

Don't shove your views in the face of others, express your views by your actions.

Actions speak louder than words...and volumes more than a huge freakin' banner screaming "No More Bullshit" on a flag pole in your yard.

Are you calling our country bullshit?

By all means feel free to move.

I wasn't going to bring up the Rebel flag...but then again, why not...since I was born and raised in Georgia.

What are people thinking when they proudly fly it?

What, exactly are they proud of?

Why would you want to celebrate a time when we kept people in chains or on a leash like abused animals?

Not to mention the raping of many women, young and old, for years and years and years.

Many "boys" suffered the same....when they got tired of farm animals and were too lazy to go find the girls.

#Truefacts

It's humiliating, even to my (albeit) peas sized sense of intelligence.

Yes it's history (in the past) but it happened and it was horrific, so why rub it in the faces of all their descendants?

You know what...I'd have a chip on my shoulder too, especially considering how society has continually kept yanking the (not so proverbial) chain... time after time, after time, after time...and then again.

The same with Native Americans.

WE are the real immigrants, and haven't  exactly done a banner job of accepting nor acknowledging these facts.

Think about that as you sit around the Thanksgiving table with your own loved ones.

Because of them, we have everything that was theirs....and gave them nothing but grief in return.

 

We can do better than this.

We must.

If I have to be a liberal pariah of the neighborhood, so be it.

But I can tell you one thing,

 if you ever need help...no matter what, I'll do every single thing I can to try and help.

Every single time.

Remember, I'm the good kind of crazy.

Till next time...COTTON