Living in Goodness

Have You Ever Wondered Why

our world and its civilizations still exist? How many times have you heard the phrase “our world is going to hell in a handbasket” or another similar expression? Going to hell in a handbasket means deteriorating rapidly, a situation where a complete ruin or failure is inevitable. If someone uses this phrase, they want to say the situation is quickly getting out of hand and heading swiftly downhill.

I’ve thought a lot about this expression recently and what it would mean if it were true. Is everything in our world deteriorating so rapidly that its doom is inevitable? Is that true? I believe it feels like it’s true when we are the ones directly affected by a senseless shooting, a violation of our property or privacy, children being disrespectful, education becoming more difficult to manage, or morals appearing shaky or nonexistent.

These extreme behaviors don’t seem to make sense when we are having to deal with such issues firsthand. However, I also believe the reason our world continues to exist and hasn’t completely fallen apart is because good is alive and real. It’s the yin and the yang, or the balance of being.

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” — Aristotle

I have discovered more recently that what keeps this balance in the universe is experience. Once we have taken an active part in an event, occurrence or situation, we are changed. Typically we can more easily relate to others who have been through something similar. These are the moments when the seeds of good are rooted within us and others. We become more kind, considerate and patient toward others, which in turn generates more appreciation, gratitude and humility.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller

I’ve always thought of myself as kind and considerate of others. However, I also always wonder if I could be even more so in certain moments or situations. Where do I draw the line of kindness? Do I draw a line at all? In recent months a family member has had incredible health challenges. This has resulted in a need for considerable medical care, a walker (rollator), nursing care, physical therapy, change of lifestyle and so on.

All of a sudden days are filled with a different set of demands that had never existed before. You are surrounded by people who use wheelchairs, canes, walkers, oxygen tanks and other devices that enable them to function as normally as possible. You are exposed to the people who care for these people in need and observe the demands placed on them to bring comfort to those who are suffering, all while making it seem like no trouble at all.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” — Charles Dickens

I say a quiet prayer for each person I pass who isn’t smiling, who walks slower, or doesn’t walk at all. I say a prayer of thanks for caregivers who show up to make sure those in need have someone to look after them. The prayer is that they feel the presence of Divine Love surrounding them, comforting them, elevating their consciousness to a higher level rather than a lower one. To see and feel the good filling them up full so there is no room for doubt of its existence. To have a pure calm sense of trust and peace wash over them, to keep them steady and help them feel grounded.

With these recent experiences I have noticed a deeper well of patience for others, less judgment and self-righteousness. My depth of gratitude and humility for the compassion and understanding from others has increased.

These were some of my experiences of noticing why the world is, in fact, not going to hell in a handbasket. People are good, kind, encouraging, helpful and patient. Life experiences will continue to happen, and will continue to shape us into having greater awareness of the needs of others and the abilities of ourselves. This will in turn enlarge our capacity to handle more with greater ease and keep good growing.

“It would be nice to feel that we are a better world, a world of more compassion and a world of more humanity, and to believe in the basic goodness of man.” —

Barbara Walters

Jennifer Durand is the owner and operator of The Nurture Nook Day Spa & Gift Shoppe; she is a certified QiGong and Breathe Empowerment instructor, a skin care and makeup specialist, an InterPlay leader and is licensed in massage therapy and somatic integration. Let her help you find your personal “ahh . . .” factor by visiting nurturenook.com or calling 615-896-7110.

WANDER THROUGH THE QUAINT LITTLE TOWN OF WARTRACE for some Valentine’s Day fun and shopping. Enjoy complimentary treats in each shop and get your I ❤ Wartrace shopper’s card punched in each store for a chance to win a prize basket. Door prizes vary by each shop.

PARTICIPATING SHOPS INCLUDE: Rock

Growing Up in Murfreesboro

Gave Me a Lot to Love

FEBRUARY is the month of love, so I thought it would be appropriate to discuss how love had shaped me over the years (and possibly how it has shaped you over the years) here in Murfreesboro.

According to the dictionary definition, love is an intense feeling of deep affection or a great interest and pleasure in something (for example, a love for football).

We also have biblical definitions like Corinthians 13: “For love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud.” And there’s the passage from Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbor as yourself . . .”

I can remember in my youth going to Campus School. I love my classmates who today are still some of my closest friends, and my teachers. I love my experiences on all of the field trips we would take, for example to the children’s theater in Nashville. I also loved going with my class to Huntsville, Alabama, to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

We all knew we were getting close when we saw that rocket near the Interstate, which unfortunately was recently announced would be taken down. I love the G-force machine where we all stood up on what looked like a carnival ride. This G-force machine spun around and around and gave us the experience of what it felt like going off into space. The ride came to a complete halt when someone threw up their breakfast. Luckily, I was not infringed upon.

One other thing I loved to do growing up was getting to go to LBL—Land Between the Lakes, near Dover, Tennessee—my first experience of camping with my friends.

I don’t remember this, but I’ve been told I wanted to call home for my mom to come get me. Ha ha. Going to LBL was like a rite of passage that meant I could do things on my own. I remember getting to canoe with Mr. Alsbrooks, our gym teacher, and one of the chaperones.

My love of history began while at Campus School. In the early ’70s man had just landed on the moon a few years prior, and I vaguely remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon on TV in 1969. I began to love the explorers in history.

Well, in Ms. Moser’s fifth-grade class the students got to pick an explorer to dress up like and be for the day. I chose Hernando de Soto because he founded Memphis and explored the Mississippi River, and I was a huge Elvis fan, having just seen Elvis in concert at Murphy Center. So, I let my mother help in preparing me to be Hernando de Soto. I had her use mascara to draw me a mustache and a little goatee. She made me a really cool conquistador helmet. I also had my great- grandmother’s black cape tied around my neck to complete the costume. Nanny had worn it in the late 1800s. I’m so excited I could barely sleep the night before. On Monday, as Mother dropped me and David, my little brother, off at school I was in full regalia. I had cool boots, pants, a cape, mustache, goatee and conquistador helmet, ready to close the deal as Hernando de Soto. I knew this was going to be cool, and naturally all the little girls were going to be thinking the same thing. I opened up Ms. Moser’s classroom door—in the basement of Campus School on the left as soon as you walked in from the Lytle Street entrance—and I made my grand entrance.

As I started to walk into class, the teacher, along with the other 26 students, looked at me. Ms. Moser said “Bill, what are you doing?” and I said “Ms. Moser, I’m Hernando de Soto who founded Memphis and the Mississippi River.” She looked me with her still blue eyes and said “Bill you were supposed to dress up like him next Tuesday.” My heart stopped for a few seconds, but for the whole day I was Hernando de Soto. To this day I have friends who call me Hernando.

Another thing I loved was going on a trip to New England while in the seventh grade at Central Middle School. There were two or three bus loads full of seventh graders.

The year was 1979 and I got to experience my first Broadway play, Sweeney Todd, and see the final four of the NIT basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden. My favorite part of the trip was getting to go see the World Trade Center in New York City.

I remember the elevator being huge and it took a couple minutes for us to make our way up to the 110th floor at the top. We also got to go see Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home; Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home; the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Capitol in D.C., and we got to see where the Boston Tea Party took place and where Paul Revere hung out in Boston. A lot of my love of history came from that trip.

In 1980 I started high school at Riverdale. I loved going to the party tree on Sulphur Springs Road and Elam’s Mansion off of Elam Road. My high school fraternity, Phi Sigma Chi, would have kangaroo court inside the old pre-Civil War home that had been abandoned for years. One weekend night as a group went inside the house we heard “mooooooo.” There were cows inside.

We loved to go gather with friends and park with our dates at Tiger Hill, behind the Walmart on County Farm Road. There was a lookout tower on top of Tiger Hill that some people would climb up to get a better view of downtown Murfreesboro with all the lights.

We also used to go hang out at the Bill Wilson Bridge on Betty Ford Road near Lascassas. We would park our cars on the side of the road and we would cautiously walk down under the bridge. Someone would start a campfire, which we thought was cool. You knew a party was going on from all the smoke that bellowed out from under the bridge. It’s a wonder we didn’t burn the bridge down.

We loved to go to the land owned by Sarah Huey King at the corner of Greenland Drive and South Rutherford Boulevard. That home was a huge white home with a red roof. Today this area is called Kingdom Square and Scotland Chase. Along with Family Billiards and the car wash, these were a few of the places we loved to hang out. Also in high school we loved to go to dances, either at one of the high schools, the country club, or at the Ag Center, where Adams Tennis Complex is today.

These are just a few things I loved about growing up here in Murfreesboro in the ’70s and ’80s when Murfreesboro had maybe 30,000 residents.

I hope y’all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. If no one has told you they love you, I do.

Tune into WGNS at 100.5 FM or 1450 AM each Sunday at 9 p.m. for The Mr. Murfreesboro Show or find the podcast on Apple Podcasts.