Romance

Our melting pot culture sometimes leaves much to be desired. Especially when it comes to romance; because the US’s is composed of many sub-cultures. There is no standard norms as a culture for Americans. We each bring our sub-culture norms to the table, allowing for many hurts and misunderstandings. Be it table manners? How people raise their children? How we show love and affection. The list is endless.

Men and women, have misunderstandings in general just on how they think and react to situations. Now add the sub-culture to romance and based on their own sub-cultures you can have a variety of expectations. Varying from realistic to expectations from families to romantic partners.

Is it any wonder there is a high divorce rate and lack of satisfaction with relationships in general. Depending on the culture, some people can come off as stand offish. Other’s being interpreted as overly affectionate and depending on societies trends. These cultures can be looked as acceptable or lacking based on the popularity of the trends.

There seems to be so much lack of satisfaction and judgment going on in relationships. It doesn’t seem to matter if its young couples or older couples. There seems to be such a clash of expectations in the courting ritual. It’s almost amazing when the right couples finally find each other.

The perfect romance starts in the brain and when the reality starts to clash. The end of the relationship isn’t far behind. One starts to wonder if the ideal romance isn’t some unrealistic script written off the pages in Hollywood where none of the characters could ever live up those expectations in the real world?

One starts to wonder if it is truly fate that plays a hand in matching up the two people or something else entirely.

Penny J. (MN, USA)

Love

This is an interesting topic. People always think they know what love is. There are so many people in this world that haven’t even got a clue. They think it’s about manipulation, shaming and control. I see more people doing things they don’t want to do just so their parents will love them and vise versa.

Here’s the thing, just because you have kids doesn’t give you the right to think that you own them. They are not possessions! Relationships have it wrong too. Thinking that you own another person because you love them is pretty crazy too. Most of these crazy beliefs have come from Government, religion and all other types of dogma.

Real Love, is not about controlling or manipulating another person. There are so many people who just don’t get this! You should never have to give up your personal power to anyone.

Penny J. (MN, USA)

 

The New Factories!

In the 21st Century Corporations have become the new factories. They treat their employees like a metric game. They expect production norms to apply to professional careers as well as their plant employees. They expect nothing less than they’re numbers on a spread sheet. Many forget some important things, people have feelings and limited amounts of time to give to tasks. People are not robots or machines. Many people have financial responsibilities that require a certain income to be met in order to accept jobs.

The US has become a third world country for many americans instead of a prosperous country with opportunities. Many have watched their income become slashed to that of an unskilled worker and are treated as such. Universities are not a key to a better living any more. Tech & Trade schools are an opportunity to reclaim one’s independence and freedom. Working for one’s self is the only key to determining how much you will make based on this current economy.

This is a very crucial time, we will see if the next American Revolution is around the corner as people get pushed to a breaking point.

Penny J (MN, USA)

 

What will you be giving up?

This time of year people think of it as a time to make a sacrifice in their life. Why not think of it as a time to purge the things or people who you’ve out grown. It might be a time to stop allowing people to dump their drama all over your life.

Yes, life happens and there are unexpected events that occur beyond our control. There are also cause and effect dramas that are not beyond Peoples control too. Instead of trying to solve everyone’s problems. See if they can’t start learning from their mistakes. These are the one’s that they caused all by themselves.

Think of it almost as parenting skills to allow a person to find their own solutions on their own journey in life. Sometimes life gets really dirty and messy too. No one learns anything when people are constantly rescuing them from themselves.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t be emotionally supportive when life throws a person a curve ball that no one expected. Sometimes these lessons are a test to help a person learn new skills or to make them emotionally stronger to survive a future event.  This does not mean the person is a bad person and that’s why these things happened to them.

Just remember everything that you’ve learned is never a waste of time. You will use it in some capacity in the future to help yourself or others.

Sometimes it companies or services that we’re forced to use that are causing us unnecessary stress and drama. If it’s a company that you work for? Maybe its time to look for a different position either inside or outside of that company. If it’s a service, you always have the right to refuse to use it. There is nothing worse than a service that consistently is not meeting it’s promises.

Caller Id like voice mail is designed as a tool to weed out unnecessary calls. Weed out is the key word here. If your goal is to have more peace in your life your going to have to weed that garden sometime. You will be amazed at how much more peaceful and enjoyable your life becomes.

Penny J (MN, USA)

Valentine’s Day

The Card companies would make you think that they created this day to be thoughtful to other people. The same for the rest of the retail industry with their spin on it.

Whether your coupled up or not. Be sure to enjoy or own this day just for you. This day is special, because it’s a celebration of taking time for yourself and making this day your own. You get to decide how you will spend it.

Just make sure that you have fun and go the extra mile for yourself. If you have pets it makes it the perfect day to spend sometime just enjoying the time you spend with them and doing nice things for yourself that you might not usually do.

Society seems to think that it some how has the right to make people feel like shit about themselves. When people think about doing something nice for themselves it’s usually accompanied by guilt. This day is not about asking for permission. It’s about just doing things, because you want to and not having to explain or justify your choices!

So take some time to plan or be spontaneous and see how your day unfolds.

Penny J (MN, USA)

 

 

 

Human Resources

Some people believe that HR in companies is there to protect their rights when faced with unreasonable bosses. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are there to protect the companies they work for from having law suits brought against them.

How do they do this, they get you into little groups without your boss around so they can create a false sense of safety. They want to really weed out the employees that would cause problems. How would they cause problems?

They would basically fight to protect their civil rights in the work place. They might demand equal pay, fight against discrimination. Demand raises that they are due, better working conditions. All the liberties that they are guaranteed under the law. Imagine that?

When the economy went into the tank, a lot of businesses took advantage of their employees and became almost modern-day sweat shops in regards to wages and work. More employees are having to work two and three jobs just to make ends meet; not because they are living an extravagant life style. The bottom fell out from under them in their life as far as income.

Just remember the next time your HR is trying to get you to squeal about anything wrong in your company. It’s a great big trap! You will be the one looking for another job. They aren’t looking to fix anything about their company culture. They are trying to get rid of problems.

Penny J (MN, USA)

Valentine’s Day

Time to reflect, time to check in and see if your life is the way you want it. If not, don’t panic! You call the shots and you can make changes. This is the perfect day to plan your fantasy day! If your single it’s all about you!!

If you’re in a relationship, it’s a nice time to do romantic or spontaneous things for each other on that day! Each person can help plan what they want to do on that day or not. Think as it as a journey or destination.

Every person has a different idea of what’s romantic or fun! You get to make the rules and have lots of fun on this day. Entertainment unfortunately needs to be planned out sometimes depending on what that means to you. If you weren’t able to do it this year there is always next year.

Plays, concerts, art museums are some fun ideas for some.  Watching that favorite movie and planning a delicious meal are other ways to indulge. What will be your next destination?

Theater is always interesting, especially if it’s a classic where it is imitating the realities of current life. Music and art can be entertainment of the senses.

Whatever you do, make sure to take some time for yourself!

Penny J (MN, USA)