Theoriginalneanderthal

Some decisions in life prove to be life altering, such was my decision to start studying Martial Arts. I had always had an interest, but had never tried any until a 6 week women’s self defense class was offered where I was employed at the time. I took it and figured I had learned just enough to get myself into some serious trouble should I ever need to defend myself. I looked around and the closest karate school to my home was on Main Street in Rogersville, Tn. Kelly’s Heroes. I went down, signed up and changed my life.

I had no idea at the time where this side journey would take me, but it grabbed me and challenged me and gave me the leverage I needed to end an abusive relationship. With my feet solidly under me, I threw myself into my study and competed all over the south and northeast. I made great friends, I won grand championship trophies and was eventually nominated for and accepted into the Isshinryu Hall of Fame. Life changing.

This past weekend The Original Neanderthal was privileged to be able to give back to the school that has given us so much. We sponsored two exceptional karate-ka as they competed in Kelly’s Heroes annual karate tournament. Giving back to our community is important to Savanna and I and giving back through this school more so. Congratulations to Abby and Sawyer for a great showing in the tournament.

Life changing. Starting a business is the same. Win or lose, find your niche or go broke, life will not be the same going forward as it was before stepping out, embracing the challenge, and stepping into the unknown future. Nothing is guaranteed. Like stepping into the ring and discovering that your opponent is not standing across from you like everyone thinks, your opponent is inside your skin.

Who are you and what are you made of? What can you do to overcome the obstacles placed between you and your goal? How bad do you want to succeed? How much blood, sweat and tears are you willing to put into it, because nothing worthwhile in this world is freely given. How many times are you willing to get up when you’ve been knocked down? How many times are you willing to step in and try again when your last efforts were a total disaster? My husband says that some people just know how to win, I think those people are people who just refuse to accept failure.

Success with the Original Neanderthal is our goal. And we will not lose sight of the things that make up success. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is how one defines success. To me, being able to have a business that is profitable, that will allow us a platform to encourage people; to give back to the community and support the people who have supported us will define our success.

For some reason our society seems to glorify selfishness and many folks seem obsessed with themselves. That is such a small picture of the world, it is depressing. Step out look around, reach out and touch a life, it is amazing what that will do. Life changing. Think about it.

One of my most memorable and epic adventures was a midsummer’s hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and an overnight, Full Moon lit, hike back up out of the Canyon. We caught a bus to the South Kaibab Trailhead before daylight. With a small group of likeminded souls we headed down the trail towards Ooh Ahh point to watch the sun rise. When it peeked over the horizon, highlighting the distant cliffs, time suspended, catching and holding me in that moment.

The rays of the sun, the mixture of shadow with light, the hints of color in a landscape so foreign to me mesmerized me. The desert cliffs of the Grand Canyon are a far cry from the temperate rain forest I call home. The alien landscape caught my imagination and transported me outside my time and place in the world as I understood it, and opened up vistas in my mind that beckoned me towards the unknown.

I am, admittedly, a late bloomer to this whole travel thing; but I am hooked. There are places to go and things to see. Every year since that memorable trip, I make plans for a new adventure and off we go. Well, I did, until the 4 horsemen rode out and Plague broke free of the formation and wreaked havoc with our lives.

I had to cancel my plans to camp out on a subtropical island when the world shut down. It has been starts and stops since then and who knows what to do? Who knows what’s going to happen as we stagger along here.

How many of us are in a holding pattern, just waiting? We are waiting to see what this pandemic is going to do to us. We are waiting to see if the economy has enough life left in it to survive the hits it is taking from all sides. We are waiting to see if and when our lives can go back to some semblance of normalcy even as the media incessantly bombards us with tales of impending doom.

It is dark. It has been dark for a while now. We have had glimpses of light. We have heard whispers of promise, but the dawn seems to be holding out on us. And so we wait.

Take heart! The sun will rise. The rays of light will break the horizon and erase the shadows revealing the truths that have been hidden. The landscape will be revealed and the path forward will be navigable once again. It is for us to turn our backs on the darkness and move towards the coming dawn. Each of us, as individuals must choose, darkness or light? Hope or despair?

TheOriginalNeanderthal.com

Sometimes what Sustains us isn’t convenient

We are spoiled by the conveniences in our lives. When we want food we go to the grocery store. We get sick, we go to the doctor’s office. We have gyms to work out in to stay in shape. For the most part, the majority of us do not go through day to day life worrying about our chances of survival. Inconvenience is the greatest thorn in our side.

We pull into the grocery store lot and someone else slips into the parking slot we were eyeing. We go to the fast food joint and have to stand in line. We call or text and someone doesn’t answer us right away. The list of minor annoyances generated by small inconveniences could go on and on.

One summer it seemed like everyday I had off and wanted to go on a hike, it would rain. It rained and rained. Days that I worked, the sun shone and the weather was great. Finally, I decided, along with 2 of my friends, to just go, rain or shine, and we did a few hikes in the rain. I discovered it wasn’t so bad. The trail is a living thing and every facet of it has something to offer. The rains nourished the flora and the world was lush and verdant with growth. The rain kept us from overheating on the summer days we ventured out. Here in the south heat and humidity together can zap one’s energy quickly. There is always something positive in every situation if you care to look for it. Our hikes were new experiences and we met other hikers who gave us great advice on how to dress to work with the elements not against them. If you are going to be out in the rain, you are going to get wet.

Sometimes, what sustains us isn’t always convenient. It is too easy to acquire a sense of entitlement, to believe that because you are you, you deserve things to always go your way. This is a fallacy that nature and circumstances will correct given time. Perhaps, it is not good for us in general that life is so easy for us. Hardship hones us, sharpens our wits and forces us beyond our comfort zone. It challenges us to find within us what it will take to overcome. When a person had never experienced real hardship, when it arrives there is a decision to be made.

The ease of everyday life hasn’t prepared us for some of the harsh realities of our trip on this planet. The easy thing to do is give up, complain and slip into victimhood. It is so easy and so predominant that victimhood is a status some actually seek. There is no sustenance in victimhood, there is no growth. There is a temporary wellspring of compassion that fades without leaving anything nourishing in its wake.

The more difficult thing to do is meet the challenge head on. When we step up into the unknown we will discover what it has to offer. There will be discomfort, even pain but we can bear so much more than we think we can. There will be dark days and fear and frustration, but there will also be moments of discovery, moments of victory, moments that redefine who we are and what we are capable of.

I do not know where we are heading these days. Uncharted territory looms unfavorably ahead. There is a lot of information vying for our attention and much of it is contradictory. Who to believe? What path forward do we choose. Do we let someone else make that choice or do we take personal responsibility for ourselves and set out.

We are made of sterner stuff than the media would have us believe. We will survive and when we come out the other side we will know who we are and what we are capable of. It’s not about convenience anymore; it is about sustenance.

This little business venture is about proclaiming to the world that it is good to choose the path less traveled. We are individuals, original, alive and capable.

Check us out at TheOriginalNeanderthal.com. See you there!

On any hiking adventure the trail twists and turns its way up the Mountain. What awaits around the next bend is a mystery until the distance is covered and the turn is made. Sometimes, it is just more of the same. Other times…ah yes…other times a panoramic vista opens up and the world stretches away into eternity. In that moment all things seem possible.

The journey we are on with The Original Neanderthal has been an adventure so far. I have learned quite a bit. I have discovered strengths and highlighted a few areas in need of improvement. Our survival for the next few years will depend on forces within our influence but outside our control.

I imagine our namesakes faced this daily. Survival for the Neanderthals depended on their ability to adapt to whatever the world threw at them. They were faced with very basic challenges, as basic as food, clothes and shelter. Questions concerning survival arose with each effort made to secure it. How did the hunt go? Was it successful, was there meat? Did everyone who ventured out return? Was everyone OK? Evidence indicates that most Neanderthals suffered traumatic injuries. How did the gathering go? Were the plants they depended on producing this season? How easy was it to preserve their food? How long would it last before they had to gear up and go out again?

Sometimes, as I roll these questions around my head, I realize how blessed I am to live in a comfortable house. I drive to the supermarket and fill my buggy with food. I have plenty to eat. I have leisure time to spend as I wish. I have social interactions that don’t involve staving off starvation or the cold of a winter that will not end in my lifetime.

The survival of The Original Neanderthal will play out over time. What awaits us around the next bend is exciting to anticipate as we close the distance and make the turn. We are going live with our retail site now. A lot of work has gone into preparing it. Family and friends have been critical to getting us this far. Rounding this bend I see the world stretching away into eternity. Right now, at this moment, all things are possible. Help us make it so!

Visit our retail site Theoriginalneanderthal.com. All photos used for this blog and for the retail site are originals taken on adventures around the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and other great Public lands. Leave us a comment at our email, Theoriginalneanderthal@gmail.com. We are looking forward to what lies ahead.

There is a sense of timelessness when standing looking out over the Mountains rolling away into the distance. They seem like they go on forever. It is with a deep sense of awe I contemplate the scene before me every time the Vista opens up or I come to an overlook on one of my many hikes. I feel the tug on my roots and the Mountain air smells and tastes like home. It is hard to imagine the mountains being subject to the same forces that dictate our daily lives. They seem so large, so permanent, so solid and yet a study of their history details many changes.

From Paleo Indians to the Cherokee, indigenous peoples tended to live more in harmony with the natural world. Co-existing with nature, living on the fruits of the land, hunting, trading and practicing early agriculture, groups would build villages near streams and rivers where the fertile land provided. They roamed the mountains and valleys and left their mark on the land. Early settlers were more inclined to cultivate the land in larger swathes and they cut the trees to build houses and fences and changed the landscape with their activities. Thriving communities grew in the foothills and in the hollers. Remnants of these communities can be seen in the buildings preserved by the National Park.

There was money to be made in the mountains. The loggers came and the giant old trees fell to the saw. Great logging camps sprang up all around the Smokies. My own grandfather worked on a logging crew. The terrain changed. When people began to realize what was being lost to the advance of civilization, efforts were made to preserve the land. The Great Smokey Mountains is the most biodiverse park in the National Park system, according to articles on the NPS webpage. The number and variety of plants, animals, fungi and other organisms is extraordinary. With the effort to protect this environment the formation of the National Park changed this land once again.

My grandfather went from logging to working for the CCC to build the trail system that I enjoy today. When that ended, he went to work on Douglas Dam and settled in Jefferson County. Change…it marks us and defines us from generation to generation. If you consider where you are now and where you have been you can see how change has brought you here.

The Neanderthal were victims of change. Their species evolved to survive in a certain climate and when it changed the effects were devastating. Change can affect each of us the same way. If we fail to adapt to change it can indeed be devastating. Looking back over my life, some changes were sought after and the effects expected. Other changes came unexpectedly and turned my world upside down. When this happened I had to decide to pick myself back up and make the best of what I had left.

Starting a business is a big change for me. I have never done anything like this and it is intimidating even as it challenges me to bring my best efforts to bear. I look forward to the changes it will bring as it grows and thrives. None of us have ultimate control over our lives, there are too many variables that affect us, too many interlocking pieces upon which we have little or no control. Each person we interact with, each task we do, every place we go, they all affect us and none are static. It is my desire that those who interact with me leave me with something positive to show.

Neanderthals lived in Nuclear Family groups. Evidence from excavations indicate that these groups of 13 to 15 individuals were mixed with all ages from elders to small children. To survive in the world they inhabited, they had to depend upon one another, work together for the security and safety of the young and old. Without the support of their family groups their very survival was in jeopardy.

,Some excavations being studied look like gathering places for family groups where they could trade, share the bounty of hunts, acquire tools and weapons and, like all other human beings; catch up on the happenings in the greater world. Survival depended on cooperation between the small family groups. People with an invested interest in one another can accomplish much more than an individual alone.

An amazing thing happened after we released our first Face Book video introducing The Original Neanderthal to a wider audience. I received a message from my first cousins on my paternal side of the family. Like many folks of my generation, generation X, I grew up a latch key kid after my parents divorced. I remember that as a small child up through middle school years we had strong family ties. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were all close by. When the divorce happened it was like we divorced a whole side of the family and I lost touch with my paternal relatives. I would see them mainly at funerals and I would promise to be in touch and the years passed.

The messages from more than one cousin came on our Face Book page. They told me they were intrigued by our new venture and wanted to see our products and they wanted to support us. I loaded up a couple of tubs of our merchandise and rolled to the family farm where I had spent my early childhood. Much had changed, but the things that mattered the most had not. I spent the afternoon catching up on too many years gone by. I left warmed by their enthusiasm and wondering how and why I had let that side of my family alone for so long.

There is warmth and truth to be found in close family ties that should provide a shelter for our battered souls. There is a common past from which we spring that should be a foundation for our growth and a bastion for our preservation.

Our society has, for reasons unknown, devalued the Nuclear Family unit, and as the schisms grow our very survival as a viable culture seems in jeopardy. It used to be that family was the one place where they had to take you in. Now the family unit itself is in danger as radical ideology runs rampant through popular culture.

When the day ends and you look up from your tasks, who do you see? Who cares? Who has a vested interest in your well being and success? Who do you love? Who loves you? Families were the backbone of our Nation and we were strong. As the family unit weakens we jeopardize what matters most.

The extinction of the Neanderthals tells the tale of deteriorating family life. As the climate became harsher, family groups became more isolated, food became harder to acquire and interbreeding weakened the species. The appearance of Homo sapiens didn’t help matters for the Neanderthal either. With the rise of modern man the Neanderthals faded to history. We should embrace what made them strong and avoid what contributed to their decline. Embrace your family.

Life can throw curve balls at us when we least expect it. In 2016, I was thrown completely off the rails and set adrift in a life I had never imagined. For 28 years I worked for a company I believed in so much I encouraged my children to work there, and then one day I was caught up in a Rif and escorted out the back gate and the bottom fell out of my existence. If I had been paying closer attention would I have noticed signs that this might be my fate? I don’t know. I remember feeling hollow as I pulled away from the place I had invested so much of my life and self worth into.

Over the next few months I sank into a dark place. I struggled to find some kind of purchase and right myself as I careened around a world that looked the same in many ways but wasn’t the same. My brain had a hard time wrapping around my change in circumstance. I found a job that didn’t suit and tried my hardest to do something I wasn’t cut out for. I worried about a future that looked nothing like the one I had envisioned for so long from the security of my well paying job.

Eventually, I lost the job I wasn’t suited for and found one more in line with my skill set and slowly began to adjust. One morning, I was walking out the driveway and as the sun rose it caught my imagination and I took the above photo with my iPhone. I took a deep breath and realized that I was all right. My story wasn’t over. A chapter had ended badly but I had not. My self worth and future were mine. They didn’t belong to anyone else to determine. I breathed in the clean country air, and stood in the rays of the rising sun, the gentle heat warming my skin as it rose and I chose to see the beauty in the day.

There is beauty in every day and each one of us has the opportunity to embrace that beauty. We are sold a tale of fear and darkness on a daily basis. But the sun rises, every day we draw breath, and everyday we draw breath we get to choose what we dwell upon. As long as we are breathing we can embrace hope. The story isn’t over.

In fact, here, at the Original Neanderthal, it is just beginning. Don’t let circumstances define you, my friends. Live Free of doubt and fear. You have more influence over your path forward than any other force. Circumstances won’t always be great. Things will happen that change your world in unexpected ways. Know in your heart that you are more than anyone dared to believe you could be. Step out, embrace the beauty in each and every day!

To live free is an opportunity and a privilege. At The Original Neanderthal we encourage everyone to explore what it means to live free as we celebrate this holiday.

Our forefathers came to this land in search of the freedom to worship the creator as they saw fit. They escaped a repressive society to establish a community where they could freely express their religious views.

Our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence asserting the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They sought to establish a government that ruled by the consent of the governed not by power over the people.

In both of these contexts, the idea of freedom led to radical changes. And in both these contexts the idea of freedom existed within the constraints of moral and ethical Boundaries.

We have many freedoms in this country not enjoyed elsewhere. We are free to choose our path forward, we can get an education and apply our abilities and energies towards personal growth and excellence. We have freedom of speech. We can share knowledge, debate, disagree, and be OK with that.

And yet, some how the idea of freedom has morphed into ‘I am a free person. I can do whatever I want. I am not bound by any constraints.’ In this context society trends towards anarchy and chaos as there are no moral or ethical boundaries to keep us from indulging our most selfish hedonistic proclivities.

On this Independence Day let us come together, clear the debris off the common ground, and encourage one another towards excellence. We are by nature social animals. We cannot grow, innovate or excel without one another. We have the opportunity to choose our path forward. The future will be determined by the choices we make during this trying time. Will we choose resilience? Or will this great nation become a footnote in history?

This is a fun adventure and it is moving forward slowly but surely, Check out our Face Book page, The Original Neanderthal. We are also introducing merchandise as we accumulate it into our inventory. Over the past few weeks, I took some time to research the Neanderthals.

Here are several interesting things I gleaned from the Internet Search I did using Wikipedia.com, donsmaps.com, and Natural History Museum http://www.nhm.ac.uk. There are many other articles from the Smithsonian, Science magazine and other sources on the Internet for a more in-depth investigation if interested. For this blog, following are some of the Fun Facts gleaned.

• The original Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in the Kleine Feldhafer Grotte in the Neander Valley in Western Germany.
• Neanderthal means Man from the Neander Valley.
• The discovery of the Original Neanderthal bones is now considered the beginning of Paleoanthropology.
• The bones of over 400 Neanderthal individuals have been identified.
• A distinguishing feature of the Neanderthal is the prominent brow ridge.
• The skull size of the Neanderthal is well within modern skull size for Homo Sapiens.
• Oldest known date for Neandertal remains is 430,000 years ago.
• The last known date for a Neanderthal discovery is 40,000 years ago.
• These folks were around on this earth for over 390,000 years.
• They ranged from Western, Central, Eastern and Mediterranean Europe as well as Southwest , Central and Northern Asia.
• Neanderthal technology was quite sophisticated with a stone tool industry, the ability to create fire, cave hearths, adhesives, simple but effective clothing, sea travel, medicinal plants and the ability to treat traumatic injuries and sickness.
• They were robust, adapted to conserve heat in a cold environment.
• Their total population remained small.
• As hunter gatherers they lived in small extended family groups.
• They lived in a high stress environment with high trauma rates.
• They were intelligent and accomplished humans.
• They were proficient hunters and able to communicate well.
• They looked after their sick and buried their dead with simple ceremony.
• They completely disappeared from the fossil record around 40,000 years ago, it is believed that rapid and dramatic climate change along with interbreeding due to small family groups contributed to their extinction.
• Many modern humans have Neanderthal DNA.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Neanderthals that are being shattered as scientists discover more about these interesting peoples. Hang with us as we go forward with The Original Neanderthal LLC introducing merchandise and sharing ideas.

Hello! It is time, launch time! This is a soft launch to be sure, but it is our first effort to get our concept out there sharing it with as wide an audience as possible!

We can’t do this on our own. We would like to invite you, our family, friends and those discovering us on line for the first time, to share our Face Book Page. Read our blog, share our story.

The Original Neanderthal LLC is an effort on our part to take something that was intended as a denigration and turn it on its heel. We want to take something meant as an insult and make it into something fun and positive.

As human beings we have an immense capacity to determine our state of mind. We do not have to accept the intentions of others as we make our way through the days and nights of our lives. This journey of ours has many twists and turns and we often decide which direction to take.

We would like to invite you along with us. We have tee shirts with our company logo on them in many different colors, we have magnets, stickers, keychains and vinyl all weather decals for your ride. More than that we have big plans. Follow us on our journey, grab some merchandise and support us. Then let us know when and where you spot our favorite Neanderthal and what he is getting into!