By: Hettie Basil Lighttower
Garbage in. Garbage out. We all love garbage day. That’s when all that smelly stuff we have thrown away all week gets discarded. We have to deal with the fact that whatever we put in there has to eventually get taken out. And it never fails that somehow it always smells MUCH WORSE by the time it sits in the bin and when we actually take it out. Ugh… It’s too bad that we can’t put meat wrappers, food scraps, dirty diapers and rotten produce in and when we go to take it out it smells like a rose garden blooming in full or like our grandmother’s lilac bush or even fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!!! That would be nice!!
But the reality is true that what garbage goes in is what garbage comes out. This was a phrase I learned as a child. And I was told that by the grown-ups in my life. It was in reference to what I absorbed in my brain, what I experience, what I pay attention to. Be careful what you watch on TV, or who you listen to or just in general what you allow yourself to be subjected to. It was a much easier task back then than it is now. If you are around griping or cussing or drinking or insulting….that is all garbage. It doesn’t “smell good” it doesn’t feel good and it takes away from the good. If you are not exposing yourself to it then you won’t be absorbing it, internalizing it and getting tricked into thinking it should be “the norm”.
It only makes sense that what you allow to be a part of your life is going to come out in your verbiage, your actions, your thought patterns and the general way you carry yourself. I am also now thinking of a little song I learned in Sunday School. It went something like this….Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love so be careful little ears what you hear! And then the next verse goes, be careful little ears what you hear….. then be careful little hands what you do….. and then be careful little feet where you go….be careful little mind what you think…… It is a fun little song and it is also so valuable. All of the advice in it is great even for us big kids.
Now days it is so difficult to avoid things we don’t want to see or hear….the main stream media slips in crazy and sometimes embarrassing things into commercials. In sit-coms whew…. humor is taken to far in the extreme sometimes and exposes us to things we just did not need to think about or things we just did not need to visualize. I stopped wasting my money on cable years ago when I realized there were more channels I was paying for that I was trying to avoid than ones I wanted to pay for and enjoy. And don’t get me started on regular TV. UGHhhhhh….. So, what do I do for winding down in the evening?
Well, I pick and choose topics I want to see or learn about or enjoy by watching YouTube! With modern technology you can now be connected to the internet on your TV and can access Netflix and pick a movie, or YouTube and pick a movie, or show or podcast, or lesson about something. Recently, I have been learning about different painting techniques. Of course, Bob Ross…. But also one called Jooney Art, David Jansen and a few others. It’s like going to school in your pajamas and no one is grading you or criticizing your work. You can stop and pause, replay or whatever you want. It is a way to control the opposite of garbage going in, it is more like joy in, joy out!! And it’s a way to make sure no garbage gets in. Most of the time you can even skip commercials.
Garbage in, garbage out. It is not just for kids anymore. Choose wisely. Live life in joy. We drink filtered water. We should drink in or consume filtered life. Send in your notions and comments to [email protected]. I will include them in the next available column as per their arrival relative to the publication deadline. If you wish to be anonymous, let me know. Kindness is contagious~*