Welcome Hong Kong

You are our 50th country!  Please come back and see us!

A wise man once said:

" Every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness." This man is Ralph Waldo Emerson. I would like to add a few other moods to this thought.  How about sad, depressed, irritated, and lost. I will leave it up to you to add any of your favorite feelings of gloom.  It bears thinking about since this is the season when people take their lives the most.  I, for one, am going to make a list of all the positive feelings I can think of to push all those moods away.  If I can do this for 21 days, then I will make a new habit.  Want to try it with me? 

A word from C@boy

In many places, winter is upon us.  As we pull out our warm coats, scarves, and hats, he wants us to remember that even though animals have fur, it is not meant to keep them warm all the time and under all circumstances.  He is fortunate that he has a warm home, many nests and blankets.  He is also a house cat.  What he wants you to consider is that if your animals are outdoor, like his best friend Bear was, they need shelter, water ( which freezes like anything else), even their food.  Sometimes we forget that.  So in the spirit of the season, make sure your beloved pets stay as warm as you do.  He is dictating this from his spot in front of the heating vent.

Shout out to

Arm and Hammer for celebrating generations of women who nurture their families.  May we all join them in this endeavor.

A male's perspective: What's your choice?

Our country was founded by refugees, fleeing from persecution, seeking a better life.  Their very survival depended on the generosity and compassion of the people who were already here.  In the spirit of the season, resist the venom being spread by pandering politicians  who want you to live life in fear and mistrust.  "Register non-Christians,"  REALLY?!? What's next?  a patch on their coats, or maybe off to the camp (for their own safety) This is what you should be afraid of America: It's much harder to do harm to someone who offers you bread as opposed to someone who greets you with a gun and a wall.

Attitude of Gratitude

In most places, today is Thanksgiving.  This year, I have decided to go small in light of all that has occurred in the world lately.  Here is my list:  I am grateful for just waking up in the morning, being relatively healthy, having a warm house and power, a car that runs, a mind that still works (most of the time) a sense of humor, my wonderful C@boy and all those who I love and who love me.  This year, I want to celebrate all things, my check engine light went off by itself. My neighbor was not crushed in her car during the wind storm (her car did not fare so well) my dear friend is on her way to pushing cancer out of her once again. I will celebrate C@boy sitting in a ray of sun, and the fact that it is shining.  I want to get down to the ESSENCE of life and be grateful every day for ALL THE WONDERS that take place that I sometimes miss.  I wish for you peace, love, and heat, and that you will join me, EVERY DAY, in an attitude of gratitude.

If you don't have one...

start your gratitude list today.  I know it is the day before Thanksgiving, but it is never too early to make this list.  It seems as if people talk about what they are thankful for on the holiday, but it is good for us to feel the gratitude every day of the year.

With all our goodness...

we have in the world, lately, it is a pretty sad and scary place.  What we must remember is that "Peace begins when you choose to let go of fear."

Good Neighbors make...

wonderful people.  I was talking to my neighbor about the weather events of the past week.  We were speaking about the good that comes out of the bad.  We were smiling and laughing.  It felt good.  Then I had to put these 40 lb. bags of sand in my car. Yikes!  But to my happiness and wonder, this nice man offered to put them in the back of my car!  I have wrapped him in light as I do for all those out there who help people out out of the kindness of their heart.  

Let's hear it for...

Campbell soups!  They have a new commercial celebrating our diverse family units.  All children deserve loving parents.  They come in all types.  It is the love that is important.  We need to remember that!  Thank-you Campbell's!  I will continue to celebrate all the people and companies who support ALL of us!

Pulling Threads revisited

I loved my mom with my whole heart.  She made sure I had everything I needed: love, curiosity about life, appreciation of art and music, and an excellent education.  She modeled kindness and sensitivity and unfortunately, she was a bigot.  She died young and I wonder if that poison killed her.  Fortunately, this feeling of hers propelled me in the opposite direction.  We never spoke of it.  The truth is we are all part of a beautiful tapestry.  Each one a unique glorious, and irreplaceable thread.  Pull even one out and it diminishes and weakens our fabric.  Looking at our world we can see what happens as threads are pulled.  It saddens me to think anyone could feel good about doing this.  I want to believe if my mom were alive today, her mind would be changed.  Make a ripple, honor diversity, see what happens. (this is a post I wrote January 16, 2014

Be mindful of

the  EYE!  I live in one of the states that had the big windstorms this week.. It took power from hundreds of thousands of people all over our state.  Cold, dark, nothingness is still covering many places, and I feel for them.  One year when my daughter was young, our furnace went out.  It was in January, one of our coldest months.  I remember it as if it were yesterday.  Not Fun.  We had no  money to fix it for several weeks.  BURRRRRRR!  The only thing that happened to us in this particular storm, aside from yards that looked hurricanish, was our cable went out.  It continues to be out, leaving us with NO EYE TO SIT IN FRONT OF!!!!! At first, it pissed me off.  How will I ever live without my soaps and cooking shows?  How will I miss NAT GEO?  What about Pit bulls and Parolees?!!!  OMG!  What I am learning, slowly and reluctantly, is that I can converse with my daughter!  We can play games together.  C@boy gets his quiet room back to sleep and not be disturbed.  Hmmm... More time to do real things like read.  No awful news. I even seem to want to eat less!  Don't think too many more days will go by until I get these "wonders" fixed, but I will really think before I turn them on for hours and hours and turn back  into "couch potato extraordinare!"

A male perspective: Knee Jerk

Like climate change and weather, immigrants v.s. refugees are different things.  They are similar, however in that they both elicit a reaction based on fear or ignorance from certain elements of our political spectrum.  We have a process in place where we can protect our security while still showing compassion toward the world's most vulnerable.  We can do this because that is who we are as a society and this sends a powerful message.  So step back from the rhetoric, let the system work, and don't be a jerk!

Blown Away

Well, we just made it through the worst wind storm in history where I live.  I have destruction all around me, but here I sit, unscathed.  Most of my friends have no power.  I feel for them.  But I love to see people at their best, doing all they can to help their neighbors.  My friends and I called each other last night to see how everyone was doing.  It warmed my heart to have that many people worry about how I was doing.  It was even better today, to see how so many people were pitching in. All I want to say is that if this many people can work together to clean up and repair things, it should be easier for us to pay attention to our daily lives and offer a hand whenever.  I am not just talking to you, I am talking to myself, which I do frequently......  Sometimes my best conversations are with myself! 

Today

Shine the light!

The past

is just that, the past. We can carry it around like a heavy weight around our neck, affecting virtually everything in our lives, or decide it is the PAST and we can take the lesson from it and discard the rest.  We all know what happens when we decide to keep the past with us, nothing good!  Guilt, remorse, and the fact that it colors things black, are what we are inviting into our lives if we choose to hold on to mistakes we have made.  That is no way to live.  There are ways to let this loose. The most important thing is to forgive ourselves.  Then, re-write the story in the way that would benefit us, the way we wanted things to happen.  When we dwell on that instead of the darkness, we will set ourselves free.  Isn't that the way we were meant to be?

Why?

I was wondering to a friend exactly why I continue to write this blog.  The reason became clear to me when I took a look at the world we are living in now.  It seems as if the news goes from bad to worse.  We do, after all live in chaotic times, to be sure.  But where is the glimmer of hope we all need?  I guess that is what my job is.  I feel like I need to file off the sharp edges, and shine the light on good people and what is working.  I want to find that tiny shard of light shining through all the debris, and allow us all to find something light-hearted.  I want us to think past the pain, and know there are better things out there.  Our minds and hearts are much stronger than we think.  If we haven't been using them much, lets start with everything we have.  Love conquers all.  Please, lets not forget that.  Know I will remind us every chance I get!

Taken from the nightly news

(translated) "IN THE NAME OF WHAT?"

If you can

dream it, or visualize it, it can happen.  I didn't used to believe this.  It doesn't always come as fast as you might want it, but I am here to say, it does happen.  If I think of a place I want to park, even in busy times, it is there.  My friends call me the "parking savant!"  But the fact remains, if we can picture something in our mind and really focus on it, many times, it will happen.  It sure is worth a try, don't you think?!

A Male Perspective: "STAND UP!"

Black athletes on the University of Missouri football team recently stood up in protest for a continuing pattern of racial discrimination.  This course of action took courage because they had a lot to lose.  I applaud both the players and their coaches for supporting a long-standing student protest against the slow-moving administration dedicated to maintaining the status quo. The result: People in power realized change MUST take place.  I wonder what changes we could make if we put our own self interests aside and summoned the type of courage it took for these students, athletes, and coaches to STAND UP!

Every experience

has a lesson wrapped up in it.  Some weeks, or days, I feel like going back to bed.  It isn't that often, but I know you have been there.  Get up, stub your toe, slept through the alarm, phone rings and you can't get to your coffee, the shirt you put out has a spot on it.  O.K.  Then things continue to go down hill.  Wait, stop!  What did I forget to do?  Oh, that's right.  I forgot to say, "what is this telling me?"  Or, we forget to realize that we can hit the pause button and decide to change course. But the bigger picture is that there is always a lesson here.  Probably, there will be some random stuff, but, maybe it is to go to bed earlier. Maybe it is that we are having the bounce back test.  Maybe we have been ignoring our toe and it wants to be heard.  I don't know.  It is worth thinking about.  Some of my best lessons have been wrapped in what seems like chaos at the time. 

Celebrate and Honor

Your veterans and their contribution to all our well-being, today and every day!

It'a true!

Forgiveness always triumphs!

Thought for the day

"What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?"  I have a little figure with this written on it on a mirror.  It is something to think about when we are feeling "brave."  It is also something to think about when we are not feeling brave.  I have decided to make a list.  Want to join me?

Rain, rain

gently tapping on my windows and roof, sending me into a deep sleep, greening up the fall shrubs who have started to turn color, nourishing all.  Rain, rain, liquefying the leaves that have clustered on the street into some sort of orange pudding, slip, slop. Rain, rain, causing me to wear a coat and hat, giving me the most beautiful air to breathe!  Rain, rain.

We all fail

and no one likes to.  The truth is, some of our best lessons come from failure.  Look at Thomas Edison, how many times did he fail?  In fact, if we looked at some of the best minds ever, they failed more times than they could count.  It isn't the failing that counts, it is the getting up and trying again.  I personally don't like the word "fail,"  probably because of it's connotation, but I do know that when things don't turn out the way I want or expect them to, the only way I fail is if I decide to quit trying.

Welcome Jamaica!

We are so happy to see you!  You are our 49th country!  Please come back!

A male perspective: Go figure

Recently the nation's highest honor, "The Congressional Medal of Honor," was awarded to one of our brave servicemen for defending our freedom.  However, I do find it ironic that "Congress," and "Honor," are included in the same text. Go figure.

It's just ONE vote!

I was speaking to a younger friend of mine about the state of affairs in our country recently.  The party I am NOT affiliated with and who are only for the "1%," seem to be taking the lead in the country.  The two people at the top of their list know NOTHING about politics.  They both say what people want to hear, one a blowhard, the other on a book signing tour currently. They are both pandering to people's angst! Frankly, it scares me that anyone would want to support these people.  They have absolutely no substance, NONE.  So, I am talking to my friend about it.  They say, "I don't vote, after all, it is just ONE vote.  I shook my head.  "How many hundreds of thousands of people say that?"  "Oh," they said.  Yes, OH!  If we want the world to be a good and safe place, if we want EVERYONE to have the rights they need and deserve, if we want to grow and prosper, ALL OF US, not just "the few," we need to make our needs and wants known.  We need to put people in office who have ALL OUR BEST INTERESTS at heart!  It is just ONE vote, but if you add them up, we could be going in the CORRECT direction, instead of where we are headed!

You don't have to explain

yourself.  For many years, I found myself trying to explain whatever my actions were.  You see, I march to a different drummer!  What I am learning is that what I say and do come mostly from my heart and though I see things with a "different eye" much of the time, it is O.K.  There must be more of you out there who are like this.  Let me tell you, it is a hard habit to break after so many years, but, when I can do it, I feel so much better, and relaxed about who I am.  Just sayin.

11/3

We are either part of the problem, or part of the solution!  If we don't vote, we can't complain.  GET OUT THERE!

When things go sideways......

start over!  When you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, start over! When you get up and C@boy has left you a surprise, start over!  When it has rained 3 days in a row and it is getting dark earlier, and  you feel like the funk-monster start over!  When you have put your foot in your mouth, start over!  The point here is we can always pause and START OVER!

Welcome Mexico!

So glad to see you! Please come back and see us!

Not slow, not fast, but

half assed.  That used to be a saying I heard a lot.  Here is a job, give it your all, Not slow...not half assed! It is a funny saying, but it does make a point.  In many places, the weather is getting cold.  It seems to make me worse at starting new things and not completing them, so this year, I am going to start and finish, to the best of my ability, one thing at a time.  I have a spiritual goal, and I have a home goal.  Those are the two things I will concentrate on as I hibernate for the winter.  I am not saying I am going to stay in my cave, but I will slow down and give my all to these very important goals.  Then, in the Spring, I will have energy and some things to feel good about as I start anew just like the spring dictates.