By Olivia Fowler
Staff Reporter

The first cup of coffee in the morning starts the day. It’s a morning ritual. My favorite place to drink it is on the front porch in the stillness of early morning.[cointent_lockedcontent]

I sit there and sip, watching the butterflies swirl around the lantana on the walkway. How do they sustain themselves?

Have you ever wondered what butterflies do for a living?

We know their lives are short in comparison to our lives, so what do they do in their short time on earth?

Apparently they exist to be beautiful and to make us wonder.

We usually fly through each day so busy we forget to enjoy the moments that make it up.

We turn away from living in the moment and rush through the day, stressed out with the attempt to complete another task or check something off the list.

“Have to” and “should have” are phrases that pepper our speech. And of course we turn our backs on many beautiful opportunities because we say we don’t have time.

I can’t do this because I have to do that.

What would happen if we broke that cycle?

What do you think the butterflies think about our frenzied lives, or do they even pay attention to the humans?

The butterflies don’t impose this sort of stress on themselves.

“Hurry up” doesn’t seem to be a phrase they’re familiar with.

There are zebra swallowtails hovering around the lantana and hibiscus. They’ll light on a stem near a bloom and enjoy the pollen.

The honey bees are willing to share. There seems to be plenty for everyone.

This particular morning, I saw several of the ones we call mourning cloaks. I’m not sure what the official name is because I lost our butterfly book long ago, but mourning cloak suits them well enough.

Starting out the day watching the butterflies flit about is a very peaceful way to put the day into perspective. How best can I use this day?

Some days I give myself permission to step off the treadmill and just be. It’s a form of meditation, but it helps in every way.

Each day is a gift. We should open this gift carefully and enjoy all the generosity we benefit from.

The beautiful wings of the butterflies are a promise of the beauty and intricate structure of our world.

We are part of this world, but it is foolish to try to impose our own limited, narrow perspectives onto the vital and powerful thing called life.

Look at our world and really see it. The immense and unlimited variety of every life form is spread before us. Don’t walk by blindly focused on your cellphone. Look and see.

Butterflies are free.

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Choose Wisely

Dear Editor,

Is it just me, or have you noticed that you “doubt” anything you read anymore? Are you doubting what is real and what is just propaganda or hype? Are you doubting Snopes? Are you doubting the news on TV?

I can remember a time when if you saw it on the 6 p.m. news at night you knew it was true. This is by design, people. They want us to believe there are no absolutes … everything is relative … everyone has a valid “reason” for everything they do that is clearly against God’s covenant with His people in the Ten Commandments.

I suggest to you that many of us are at fault for this happening in how we rear our children. When they misbehave or do something blatantly wrong, the first thing out of our mouth is “Why did you do that?” Folks, this is setting them up to think “well, if I can come up with a good enough excuse, I won’t be in trouble.”

Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are the party of excuses. They are the party of playing the victim card. They are the party of denying God’s word as absolute. They want us to believe wrong is not really wrong — it just depends on the circumstances. They want us to believe sin is not sin — because there are several religions and each should person should choose the religion that suits “their” needs. They want us to believe one can break the laws if they have good reason.

There is only one God, and He has told us what the absolutes are in how to know what is morally good and what is morally wrong.

In the 2016 election, we have two main candidates, both who have sinned and fell short of the glory of the Lord, like we all have.

However, Hillary refuses to admit that she does anything wrong and that she is above the law.

Trump is for securing our borders and not allowing people in who don’t honor the rule of law.

Please, please understand that this election cycle will prove if we are a people who believe there are absolutes or we are a people who believe everything is relative. Or in other words, this election is morality vs. conformity.

Vote Trump, because Hillary has proven she lies so much she has begun to think that even if she lies it’s OK because she had a good reason for it. She is no more different than the terrorist Islamists who claim it is acceptable to lie as long as their goal is jihad and world domination. She is a power-hungry woman who has no moral compass, period.

Sure, Trump has sinned, too, but he truly loves America and he truly understands the number one job of the president of the United States is to protect its citizens! He will secure the border and he will bring jobs back to America! And he knows capitalism beats socialism every single time. Socialism does not work — never has, never will!

You are responsible for the direction of your life.

Are you going to let government be God?

Individualism vs. collectivism. Absolutes vs. relativism. Morality vs. conformity. Right vs. wrong. Capitalism vs. socialism. Trump vs. Hillary. Choose wisely, because your future depends on it.

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

In too many senior patients, going under general anesthesia for surgery can leave a lingering problem with impaired concentration or memory. It’s called post-operative cognitive dysfunction, and in some cases, the effects might be permanent.

The potential damage can depend on the degree of anesthesia. Add that to the trauma of the surgery itself, and there can be damage to the central nervous system.

A study done in Brazil might have an answer to this growing problem: a drug called dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory. If given before an operation, the drug can help avoid problems while under anesthesia.

For this study, researchers looked at 140 patients (ages 60 to 87) and gave pre-surgery tests to determine their mental status. During surgery itself, the patients were divided into four groups and were given varying levels of anesthesia. Only some of them were given the drug. The testing was double-blind, which means none of the participants or researchers knew who was getting what.

The bottom line: All participants were tested on Days 3, 7, 21, 90 and 180 after surgery, with their cognitive and mental skills compared to their pre-surgery levels. The group that had superficial anesthesia plus the drug had 15.3 percent post-operative cognitive dysfunction, but within six months all those patients had returned to the pre-surgery testing levels.

If you’re scheduled for surgery, have a atalk with your doctor and your surgeon about the level of anesthesia you’re likely to receive. Deep anesthesia might not be required, and it shouldn’t be done routinely. Ask about the dexamethasone, too. Not everyone can take it, but it’s worth asking about if it helps preserve cognitive function.

(c) 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.

A former Marine in Nevada has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a nationwide scam involving millions of dollars taken from the pockets of trusting people.

The scam involved Nigerian oil wherein the perp claimed to be a Shell Oil heir, an oil expert who’d already sunk $500 million of his trust fund into the venture. Investors’ dollars would go toward the purchase of an oil refinery in the Bahamas, where the crude oil would be shipped. Among the charges were conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, passing a fictitious financial instrument, lying to the feds and failure to file income-tax returns. Oh, and he also submitted false claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The good: He’s going away for a very long time.

The bad: While the case dragged on, he was a free man. For over two years his attorneys filed repeated objections or requests for delay. It was the tenth one where the judge drew the line: DENIED, it said on the court documents, when an attorney claimed he hadn’t had enough time to review the case.

Why, one wonders, if he was raking in all that dough, did he also insist on defrauding the VA? Part of the multi-agency suit against him was for claiming service-related injury, which got him “decades” worth of disability benefits totaling thousands of dollars per month.

How was he injured? He hurt his knee playing basketball in 1970 and was given a medical discharge. Apparently he claimed benefits for his knee all these years, saying he couldn’t work.

Which begs the question: How is it that he could claim benefits for so many years without anyone checking? Without even being brought in for an examination or X-rays? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that a basketball injury might get better in a few years?

(c) 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.