HEAVEN ON EARTH #318828

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Is there somewhere that you go that leaves you breathless?  I hope so.  I hope it is not far away and that you get to visit often.  The place does not have to be the most beautiful place or the most majestic place or a palace for kings.  It could simply be your home when you walk in each time you have been away or at the end of the day and you look around at the accumulation of your life and say ‘thank you God this is good’.  It could be walking into the home of one of your children and being thankful as your breath is taken away by the joy of their happiness.   Or the breathless of walking into their home and seeing the grandchildren that are now part of your life.  This breathless feeling is best described as the occasional intake of joy that leaves you breathless with amazement. It is an overwhelming feeling of wonderfulness.

The word feeling is a noun.  The meanings are below.

1. the function or the power of perceiving by touch.

2. physical sensation not connected with sight, hearing, taste, or smell.

3. a particular sensation of this kind: a feeling of warmth; a feeling of pain.

4. the general state of consciousness considered independently of particular sensations, thoughts, etc.

5. a consciousness or vague awareness: a feeling of inferiority.

As I read these it appears feelings cannot be planned.  From the descriptions above they are spontaneous.  The description in number 3 best describes what I feel.  That is what I am describing with the breathless a feeling of warmth and #4 includes the spontaneity.  It is a moment that just hits you and you take in a breath in joy, pleasure and amazement.  I am not talking the amazement of stupidity. I am focused on the joy and happiness on this dreary rainy Sunday.

Every time I walk into the Head of the Harbor Cottage I am breathless.  I am immediately filled with joy as I look around the small living space and kitchen.  I am home.  It is the home I had not ever dared to dream.  It is the home that was procured with a leap of faith and daring to dream the impossible.

Home is a noun as well.  The meanings are below.  My home is with my husband of course and the second meaning references that and I am glad it used the word affections.

1.a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household.

2.the place in which one’s domestic affections are centered.

3.an institution for the homeless, sick, etc.: a nursing home.

4.the dwelling place or retreat of an animal.

5.the place or region where something is native or most common.

It is the last two that come to mind when I think of this cottage.  It has been a retreat of sorts for me in my native area.  I love it.  I walk in here and all care seems to melt away even though my to do list is long.  Even when it was just a one bedroom ramshackle shack.

The history of this place is probably part of the happiness.  I had been talking with a friend, a teacher and the mother of one of our daughters best friends.  She was talking about investing and buying land and property and getting ahead.  I was a stay at home mom and going through some self worth issues in that I brought no money into the house.  I think I’ve mentioned the growth of a woman’s movement that said we all had to be equal.  A stay at home mom is equal to what?  I decided we needed to invest in property and since we were going to retire to my home area it seemed logical to buy something there.  It was an island and they were not making any more land up there.

We looked for a couple of years actually.  The realtor that we went with was the only one that kept in touch with us even when we did not call her.   She knew what we were looking for and that we had little money.  When this place came on the market we looked at it and we were not wowed yet it would be perfect for our needs to rent it to pay for itself, give us a small tax deduction and make it work for us until we could live in it ourselves.

It has done everything we planned and more.  We now use it on the shoulder seasons of summer rentals.  We use it as much as we can.  I more than anyone else as I have the freedom to come and go as my ‘job’ has no time requirements.

Every time I walk in here all that history floods me as I look at the home we have created from four walls and open windows that were left after hurricane Gloria had gone through in 1986.  I am filled with love of memory of my very cautious husband trusting my instincts and saying yes ‘offer them $500 more and please stop crying’.  I am flooded with the thought that my grandfather used to live up two doors down.  My dad as a young child played in these fields.  I lived across the street as a toddler.  We cut Christmas trees in my youth from part of the acreage that we now own with this cottage.  It all comes back to me as I feel, almost physically, a blanket being placed around my shoulders to shelter me from the cold.  My feet are on earth that has had connection to my family from way back.  I am home.  This time truly as I am not alone.  My husband has taken time to come with me.  We have work to do to prepare for the summer rentals yet last night as we sat on the couch with a small fire in the woodstove all was well and I was completely home, body and heart.

Now we hope that our rental season is filled with lovely people.  Thus far we have a family coming from Maryland who have not ever been in New England before.  In fact they have only been in our country for 20 years arriving from China.  Another is a family from the Midwest.  They have not ever booked through homeaway.com and were a bit concerned about the process.  I tried to simplify it.  We also have our special Liz and Ken who are from Maryland as well and they will be coming back for the sixth year in a row.  This is one lovely couple and we even met them one Thanksgiving.

We have 8+ weeks left to book.  It is my hope that we do.  Yes of course I want the defray our costs.  More though I want people to come to share our ‘home’.  Not only this building, even more the island of Mount Desert and Acadia National Park.  Some of the most spectacular vistas I know.  Then again I may be biased.

view from the porch

television area

Commercial break – if you are interested in booking a week at this cottage please go to homeaway.com #318828!  Here are some pictures that take my breath away.  You may believe  that it does not take much to make me breathless.  I hope you now understand that while this cottage is very comfortable and welcoming, breathless is more than simply the building.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

CELEBRATIONS – GRADUATIONS – ANNIVERSARIES

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Two weeks left of this one year challenge to myself.  I am lining up topics and honing in on a direction for this blog.  Still not certain of the changes and do know that there IS a change coming.  Until then I am going to utilize my time this morning as a journal and sending well wishes to some special people.

It is coming around to graduation time again.  This week we ordered supper from The Great Wall Restaurant.  Their flyer says

“Szechuan, Hunan & Cantonese Cuisine

Chinese Food To Take Out & Eat In”

AN ASIDE:  A smile is crossing my face and a chuckle is in my throat. Those who know me and even some of you who have been reading for a long time may look at the previous two sentences and know I will make sense of it at some point.  Yet they are such totally different thoughts!!!

It really does make sense.  You see the owners of the restaurant live across the street from us.  When I call for take out she recognizes my name and says “157 right?”.  I get an extra hello and they always give us a discount.  Their food is so good I am uncomfortable taking the break.  The thing that eases it is I think they do it for all in our subdivision.  The other thing is I take them a large box of goodies, cookies, jams, breads, at Christmas.

I do not even know their names.  They rarely interact with us and are rarely out “playing” or working in the yard except to mow the lawn once a week.  Still we have seen the 2 boys grow up these last 7 years as they come and go from school.  When the food arrived this week it was being delivered by the oldest.  I asked where he was in school now and he said a senior with two more days to go!!!  We chatted briefly about where he was going and the school he was now attending as he had on a shirt with the school logo.  So thus Chinese food and graduations do go together!!!

I got me to thinking about celebrations and remembering that today is my husband’s sister and her husband’s wedding anniversary.  I think it is their 54th.  A few years back we all gathered in Florida for their 50th.  Every year is special for a married couple.  The longest married couple found this year in the US was over 80 years I think.  Anne and Tom have a real shot at that as they are very healthy and take good care of themselves!!  Hope they have a great day.  I remember their 40th well.  We were unable to attend that party as we were in Paris.  We toasted them on that day and will remember them tonight in our prayers.

Another anniversary is coming up next week.  It is the 11th anniversary of some of my dear ‘old’ friends.  I may have mentioned them earlier – certainly I did her as Liz’s birthday card was one of my first posts last June.  She and her husband, Dale, were both childhood friends of each other and me- and still are friends.  As kids they used to fight in school and NEVER dated nor wanted to do so!  As life happens paths are not straight and the winding road led them back to a dinner with another friend which led the two of them to talk and talk and talk and then the wedding invitation arrived.  Could have knocked me over with a feather!!!  Life is good and next weekend they will celebrate their anniversary.  They celebrate their love and lives every day they tell me as they awake thanking each other for their happiness.

No matter what you celebrate – be it a big day or simply the fun of going to get a grandchild for the weekend make it the best day ever!  You have a choice in that!!!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

HALF A CENTURY – HAPPY 50

GOOD MORNING WORLD

When you write that 50 is half a century it really sounds like a lot of years.  It really is a lot of years.  They simply fly by as you are living them.  It is amazing to me how fast time goes.  I remember those draggy school days when you thought the bell would not ever ring to bring it to an end.  That was only 6+hrs!!

Six hour school days dragged?  There are 4 six hour spans in 24 hrs.  There are 8760 twenty four spans in a year.  In 50 years there are 438,000 hours or 19,500 6 hour spans to drag.  They do not!  I passed the year 50 almost 16 years ago and I have to tell you TIME REALLY DOES FLY!

A half a century ago on this day I learned much about how babies can enter this world.  While I knew where babies came from at almost 16 I was not really thinking about the whole process.  Butterfly McQueen’s first role would become her most identifiable – as Prissy, the young maid in Gone with the Wind.  She said the words, I was thinking 50 years ago today, “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!”

So here is the scene.  We have just finished supper.  We are clearing the dishes and washing them.  My dad is on the phone checking in with his supper call as he is a traveling salesman and on a road trip.  All of a sudden there is water all over the floor in front of the sink.  I said to my step-mother, “Boy did you splash” as she had her hands in the sink.  She said, “No my water just broke.”  Enter Prissy’s words all in caps!!!  I relay the information to Dad in probably a not so calm voice and he says he will call back as there was a lot of activity in our kitchen at this point!

After all the hub-bub and clean up we were sitting there three girls – sisters – with one of Dad’s bosses wives (the Anna I wrote about last year) as her husband has my step-mother in his car on the way to the hospital.  He was going that way anyway for a board meeting at the local bank so Marie hitched a ride and Dad was on his way from his trip to meet at the hospital.  The next thing I knew I was being awakened in the wee hours of the morning with the news that I had a brother.

All in all this was really good news.  He has turned out to be a really neat man!  I am not so sure I would have given those odds earlier on in his life.  As cute as he was as a baby he was loud some nights with crying when I wanted to sleep.  Our house was very tiny and the walls thin so of course he could be heard everywhere!

He was a wild child full of energy.  He was here he was there he was everywhere – and indeed – so beware!  The most interesting thing is that when he went to school his teacher said he sat still and paid attention.  Go figure!

He was great date bait!  In my small town a boy was a potential basketball player, our only winter sport, so when we would take him for a ride in his carriage guys would pay attention some!!!  

I have many stories I could share.  Most are better kept off the paper.  One I remember as it involved me directly.  It was Nov. 9, 1975.  We were at Bill’s folks in NY having our daughter baptized at the church in which my husband grew up.  We had just finished dinner and the phone rang.  My mother-in-law answered and called me to the phone.  Who knew I was there except my dad.  It was Dad.

My first response before I heard his voice was that he had remembered our daughter’s special day.  Being a single parent at that time since my stepmom’s passing 4 years before I really did not think so.  Then he spoke and his voice was shaking.  He said that my brother had been hit in the eye with a BB.  I started to get upset until he said he was okay.  I think Dad just wanted to tell me.  My sister’s daughter was also very ill with a very high fever.  Things were not good on the home front.

It seems my brother and his friends had been shooting windows out of a bus.  I am thinking it was a school bus and may have involved some punishment after the fact.  Not so sure about that.  The BB ricocheted off the bus and hit my brother in the eye.  Blessedly the only harm was his tear duct does not work.  This was one lucky kid! 

When I think about his life he has been quite fortunate overall as some of his choices were less than good!  He has managed to come out of it all on top of the world!!!  His work life is a testament to that as well.  After working for corporate companies he decided to leap out and start his own business company.  It is doing quite well.  Is he a millionaire – I do not think so.  Nor do I believe that is the goal.  Is he happy – I know he is.  He is a man who is pleased with his life.

I believe the quote from Harvey says it best in summing up my baby brother.

Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, “In this world, Elwood, you must be” – she always called me Elwood – “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.

—James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd

When he was named my father left a business card in a package of cigarettes on Marie’s table in the hospital.  On the business card he had put the roman numeral II after his own name.  Dad did not want a Jr. and he did want a namesake!

Happy Birthday Leslie William II.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

MOTHER’S DAY 2013

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there.  It is a day to pamper this very special lady.  Ladies it is a day to allow your family to pamper you.  That is the thing about mother’s it is easier for many of them to do for others than all others to do for them. It matters not whether she is a mom of birth or otherwise.  Moms are wonderful!!!

I gave birth to two children and am the mother of three and MOM T to even more!

My first Mother’s Day card this year was purple and sparkly!  My daughter #2 (the one from another mother) knows me well.  I loved it and I loved the sentiment inside.  I actually read the words!!! It is now on our mantle adding much color to that space.

I remember making Mother’s Day cards in school.  We also planted seeds and did crafts as I think back.  I have received some of the most wonderful “kid” gifts on Mother’s Day.  Some I still have and use or they are framed.

The history of the day can be found at a website called The Holiday Spot.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/mothersday/history.htm

I also looked at Wikipedia.  It seems it traces way back to the Virgin Mary and in modern Times to Anne Jarvis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day

Main article: Mother’s Day (U.S.)

The modern holiday of Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. She then began a campaign to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday in the United   States. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Jarvis’ holiday was adopted by other countries and it is now celebrated all over the world. In this tradition, each person offers a gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers, grandmothers, and/ or maternal figure on mother’s day.

Various observances honoring mothers existed in America during the 1870s and the 1880s, but these never had resonance beyond the local level.[6] Jarvis never mentioned Julia Ward Howe‘s attempts in the 1870s to establish a “Mother’s Day for Peace”, nor any connection to the Protestant school celebrations that included “Children’s Day” amongst others. Neither did she mention the traditional festival of Mothering Sunday, but always said that the creation was hers alone.[7] For more information on previous attempts, see the “United States” section in this article

http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/mothers-day-history.html

History of Mother’s Day: Julia Ward Howe
The idea of official celebration of Mothers day in US was first suggested by Julia Ward Howe in 1872. An activist, writer and poet Julia shot to fame with her famous Civil War song, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Julia Ward Howe suggested that June 2 be annually celebrated as Mothers Day and should be dedicated to peace. She wrote a passionate appeal to women and urged them to rise against war in her famous Mothers Day Proclamation, written in Boston in 1870. She also initiated a Mothers’ Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June in Boston and held the meeting for a number of years. Julia tirelessly championed the cause of official celebration of Mothers Day and declaration of official holiday on the day. Her idea spread but was later replaced by the Mothers’ Day holiday now celebrated in May.

http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/mothers-day-history.html

To begin with Anna, send Carnations in the church service in Grafton, West   Virginia to honor her mother. Carnations were her mothers favorite flower and Anna felt that they symbolised a mothers pure love. Later Anna along with her supporters wrote letters to people in positions of power lobbying for the official declaration of Mothers Day holiday. The hard work paid off. By 1911, Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union and on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Interesting little bits of trivia today – one lady did not acknowledge the other.  Supposedly Anna Jarvis who never had children of her own was disturbed by the commercialization of the holiday.  Me – I like the cards and pampering!!!  Today is a gorgeous day here in my neighborhood and I plan to do nothing in particular.  I will probably watch all the Sunday news shows, do some needlework or read and simply enjoy the breezes on the porch.  Since I rarely do ‘nothing’ this will be great and there will be no guilt!

I wish to specifically wish a Happy Mother’s Day to my mother Millie.  She reads my blog everyday she says.  So today I am taking the time to tell her and the world that I love her.  I am rarely on time with cards.  Today I can change that.  On the actual day I am sending this as a card though no flowers or sparkles.  She can imagine them.  Hope it counts.

I am notably late with gifts.  I can put this habit to rest today (at least) and also tell her (and the world) that I am not late with a gift this time!!!  There is a gift certificate – her favorite thing to receive – waiting for her at A.C. Parsons to help with some landscaping she wishes to do around the house.  Does that score as two points my favor??? I hope so.  Love you Millie and enjoy this on time greeting and gift from me and all of this family!!!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

MAY A BIRTHDAY MONTH

GOOD MORNING WORLD

I had intended to write about one specific birthday today with additions of two others that I knew.  When I went to face book briefly I saw many other birthday wishes being offered to friends and children of friends and acquaintances of friends.  May evidently is a big birthday month.  Looking from that perhaps a conclusion could be made that September is a month for romance?  Shine on Harvest moon?

Today is my Aunt Pauline’s birthday.  She is my dad’s young sister.  She is 88.  She is one of the kindest women I know.  I do not think I have ever heard her say a bad word let alone speak ill of anyone.  She cares for her family and worries for them and others.

I often think about her as a young woman.  She is and was very pretty.  As quiet as she is now I am assuming she was very shy.  It intrigues me as to how she came to marry my uncle.  He was a gregarious fun loving and big in stature as well as nature.  They were an interesting couple.  He gave her the world almost literally as in their later years they traveled often in their RV in the US and other countries.

One of my favorite Aunt Pauline stories is about a car.  After my mother died she, and Dad’s other two sisters, helped out as often as they could.  One summer day my sister and I wanted to go swimming as did my two cousins.  Aunt Pauline pulled up in this huge blue Cadillac with fins as large as an airplane’s almost.  It was a new car and she said she told Uncle Archie that she would only drive it occasionally as it was too ostentatious.  As a kid I thought it was wonderful – it got us to the lake and that was all I cared about!!!

I think I can probably say without too much exaggeration that the best gift she received was on her 46th birthday when her only son and his wife gave her her first grandchild!  I mean really how do you top that?

That grandchild, Matthew, was the first in the line of second cousins.  Matt’s dad is the LE2 I spoke of a couple of days ago.  His wife Janet, my sister Paula (named for Aunt Pauline) and I were all pregnant at the same time.  Matt came first in May.  Our son came next in June and my niece was born in July.  I have some really cute pictures of the three of them when we would get together.  We lived away from the other two so this only happened occasionally for us.  The other two cousins grew up together.  So Happy Birthday to Matt as well.

The last birthday is Miss Joanna.  She is the daughter of one of my BFFs.  Unfortunately my best friend died suddenly a few years ago.  I know I have spoken about her previously as we honor her every year on her birthday with a toast!

After she passed away Joanna and I remained in touch through emails occasionally.  This led to a continual contact so much so that when I was in Maine last month I invited her and her crew down for a Sunday dinner with birthday cake as they ALL have birthdays in May.  Happy Birthday today Joanna, and on the 13th to Drew and the 15th to Maia!!! I already wished Trish a Happy birthday on May 7th!!!

I joke that Maia is 2 months to the day younger than our grandson Beau born on March 15th and I think we ought to simply betroth them and keep the family connection going forward!

May the birthday month.  What a wonderful way to celebrate life!  I celebrate these wonderful people today!  We could also celebrate John Wilkes Booth (?), Donovan, Pat Summerall, Rick Santorum and Bono who were also born this day!!!

I love birthdays and am grateful for every one I get.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

SOMETHING ABOUT A SUNDAY/CINCO DE MAYO

GOOD MORNING WORLD

I decided to let the reader choose the title.  Today is Cinco de Mayo.  Last night we celebrated the Kentucky Derby with Burgoo for supper.  Today for lunch we are going Mexican – chicken enchiladas, tacos, nachos and limeade instead of Margueritas as it is easier and there is a grandchild in residence.  One drink for all is easy.  Should be a fun meal.  We do not celebrate this lesser holidays much excepting for the fun of food!

For history sake I checked Wikipedia.

History of Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Battle of Puebla and is not Mexico’s independence day like it widely thought. The Battle of Puebla took place when France was trying to invade Mexico and Napoleon’s 6500 men came against 4000 Mexican men in a bloody battle. Mexico won and that is why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo today.

Puebla celebrates Cinco de Mayo with fiestas, dancing, decorations and food. Women dress in brightly colored dresses, and men wear authentic western clothing to commemorate the holiday. There are parades, Mariachi bands and people dancing in the streets. Cinco de Mayo is a truly a fiesta grande in Puebla and many other Mexican states celebrate it as well, but not to the degree of Puebla.

Aside from all of the above it is a favorite cousin’s birthday.  He is named for my dad and of course a super guy!  When he was learning to write his name Leslie he ended up with Le2lie…..love this guy and he will ever be Le2 to me!!!  He is a blessed man with a wife who loves him through thick and thin and two great kids who married well and with their spouses gave him 4 terrific grandchildren.  Make your day a great one LE2!!!

AND it is a Sunday.  My first Sunday home in a couple of weeks.  Looking for laziness this day.  After making lunch I think I will pick some lilacs for the table.  It is sunny and cool out.  At church this morning the Shawl Ministry is looking for more shawls so I think I will see what I have for yarn and start something to help.  These are shawls and lap robes so there is versatility for my choice.  I may try to make the baby blanket pattern work for this activity.

And at church this morning the guest priest had a wonderful message.  He related the church to a structurally sound 100 year old house going through refurbishing.  The foundation is firm and the house in confusion due to rework.  He mentioned that the recent changes in the church have brought us back to the foundation of our beliefs.  While this is good for the church it can create some confusion like the dust and mess of refurbishing a house.  I really liked this analogy.

I looked around our congregation.  I know few people there.  We are active in our parish though not as much as we have been in others.  I looked over to see Jacob.  He is an elderly man.  A few years ago when we were speaking about Worldwide Marriage Encounter at church he came over and chatted with us jokingly at first.  Before he left we were aware he had just lost his wife and he would give millions to have her back.  It appeared that he had settled into this new life alone.

I saw the sweet little ethnic lady come back from communion alone.  I have not decided if she is Italian or some other ethnicity.  Italian seems to fit for some reason.  She used to follow her husband up and down the aisle.  Of late she is alone so I pray for her as he is either in a home or passed.

Then there is William alone with his two children, Clare and Louis.  Meghan has had the new baby!  What a busy Sunday morning William had with Louis deciding to be a busy busy boy.  Even the apparent Grandfather could not help.  God Bless them all.

Now I am home to make what I want of this day.  I can see real relaxation on the horizon.  Last night we watched a couple of movies.  One of them has stayed with me and I think will get more thought.  It was “Hope Springs” with Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep and Steve Carrell.  It was a movie about marriage.  With our ministry I was interested in how they were going to spin it for the viewing audience.

The movie focused on the mundane of their lives.  The predictable.  The sameness.  It led you to believe it was boring and uninteresting.  From my perspective life is what we make it.  Mundane, predictable, sameness, boring, uninteresting……..some days those can be welcomed gifts.  Perhaps the key is to not take anything for granted.

Today I am voting for a quiet relaxed Sunday.  Our grandson’s mom will come for our Cinco de Mayo lunch then to take him home.  Quiet will then rule this house.  All activities will probably be single as we enjoy our own hobbies.  I may catch another movie as I do needlework.  I may catch a nap.  I am going to enjoy this lazy day.  There is something about a Sunday.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Well it is here.  This is the one day of the year that I watch sports.  I am going to make another confession.  I like contests that have history and strength and resilience and that are over in 2 minutes.

CONFESSION – This is another love affair!  I am quite fickle!!!

I love the Kentucky Derby.  I love the hype, the colors, the over the top announcing, the paddocks – the hullabaloo about a bunch of horses running around a track! If I can I am certain that I am in front of a TV on the first Saturday of May.  One year I wanted to see it so much that since we had friends coming for dinner I made it a Derby theme and gave everyone race cards and forms and we cheered on our favorite.

I made burgoo stew and mint juleps and thoroughbred pie.  The stew was glorified beef stew.  The pie a big chocolate chip cookie and the mint juleps were nothing but sweetened bourbon.  As the evening wore on mine became more sweeten as the bourbon burned!  We had a great time as this was the year of Barbaro and one of our guests was a Barbara.  The sadness after the run was hard to handle.

I usually do not get much into the stats anymore until the day.  Today I will check the paper to see who is running – well now the internet.  I will look over the horse’s lineage and the history of the stables.  Not in depth just a cursory look.  I will watch the owners with their trainers and jockeys.  I will then choose a horse that I will cheer for as the race begins.  Picking a winner is not important to me.  Watching the horse I pick is the fun of the race.  It is not about winners and losers for me.

This year is the 139th and there is a big deal going on in Kentucky as the first woman jockey is entering the race.  I am so surprised that a woman has not tried this before simply due to stature of women being smaller than men.  I know others have tried and Rosie Napravnck has won.  Go to the Derby website and check out the article.  The author says that gender aside she is on of the world’s best jockeys.  She will be riding Mylute.

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/news/2013/05/03/poised-derby-stage-set-rosie-napravniks-charge-history

So while writing this I have taken time to look at the field.  The longest odds 40-1 are on ‘Falling Sky’ and ‘Giant Finish’.  As of this writing I am looking at following ‘Oxbow’ 24-1 from Calumet Farms.  The reasons? I have driven by this farm and it is gorgeous and no tiny farm.  It goes on for miles it seemed as we traveled the highway.  I came home and looked it up on the internet to see where we had been.  Now I am able to do this on my smart phone as we travel!!!  I like the black and gold colors too!

Churchill Downs is a pretty impressive place to pass on the highway.  I will look forward this day to hearing……”they’re off”!

Another reason for the title ‘Southern Exposure’ is that I have a cousin being married today in Georgia.  This seemed a really nice place to send them a hug and tell them I will be praying for a lovely day today for them.

Married is an interesting way to spend your life.  Not unlike horse racing actually when you think about it.  You know the track has a beginning and an end.  While a race is two minutes it can be done quicker than that.  A marriage is to be a lifetime and we know not how long that is for any of us as it can end without choice if someone dies early.

Newlyweds begin eagerly chomping at the bit to get their lives going.  They want to be together in a way that makes walking away hard thus they make the commitment to marry.  Otherwise people could simply live together and move around when the ‘love’ is no longer there.  I would tender that it is not the ‘love’ that is no longer there.  I would suggest that the ‘lust’ has gone and the real love, the love that sticks through thick and thin was not there to begin with at the outset.

I know I know I hear you.  I am not judging.  I am only suggesting that a marriage born in trust and love and faith with no escape clause can overcome just about anything even infidelity, alcohol, drugs and other issues.  Help is available for most.  Many do not look for it.  Many simply opt out.  Some look for help and it still does not work so divorce is the only choice.  There is no right or wrong for anyone.  For me it is a lifetime commitment and while for the most of the life thus far it is wonderful it has not always been easy for either of us.

Back to the analogy of marriage and horse racing.  You pay your money you take your chances!  Our marriage license cost $2.50!  The price of a bet is what you want to wager.  You can even bet the Derby online!

Once you are married you learn about each other.  I love to hear couples talk about living together as a way to learn to live with each other for marriage.  Statistics prove it.  It makes no difference at all.  The toothpaste still is squeezed a different way and the toilet paper only has two choices of how it goes on a holder.  The work of marriage is overcoming the obstacles lovingly and kindly and with just the right amount of strength and tenderness.  Words matter in how this is approached as well.

Not unlike a jockey guiding the horse around the track as he pulls the reins, lets them out, speaks to the horse with his voice and knees and crop as urges his horse to the finish to be the winner.  Again – not suggesting a crop is appropriate for marriage! Though……….

Seemed kind of a fun way to tie these two events together.  It is a second marriage for my cousin and his soon to be wife.  They have had to put the sadness of the end of their firsts behind them.  They took time to grieve and heal and come together as resilient people.  Willing again to make a lifelong commitment to another person.  That is courage.

I have seen this couple and how they look at each other.  There is a gentleness to their gaze.  There is kindness in their touch.  My cousin’s demeanor is calmer.  I look forward to getting to know his new wife.  I see much hope for their future.

Like the Derby.  I like to see the people who own the horses and how they interact with the announcers, each other and their trainers and jockeys.  Much can be said by the kindness of words and actions, even on Derby Day, and in life.

Face it – I am an easy target for a love story.  I read “Black Beauty”, “National Velvet” and “Secretariat”.  I’ve read “WutheringHeights”, “Love Story” and I have lived a happy 44 yr marriage.  The sun is shining the birds are singing and it is a Southern Exposure sort of genteel kind of warm welcoming day out there.  Blessings abound!  Good Luck to Kentucky and Love and Blessings to Georgia.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

A LOVELY DAY INDOORS

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Yesterday was a beautiful day outside.  The sun was shining the air was clear and cool.  It even seemed to warm up into the 60s.  After I did some errands I was indoors all day long.  That was a good thing.  Lesson learned for me.

Years ago, and we cannot exactly determine how many, I made a quilt for my 2nd sister.  I came across some fall colors and she loves fall so it seemed a perfect fit to me. I found a crazy quilt pattern that I wanted to attempt and it all fit ever so well as this sister’s life had been more crazy than most of us.  On top of it she beat cancer twice!!! No going into all of it as it is unnecessary.  Crazy life crazy quilt in fall colors it worked!

We think I gave it to her in 2006 and surely before 2007 as the picture I have of the completed quilt was taken in a home we left in 2007.  It was literally handmade.  Every stitch was done by hand.  I sewed the squares by hand, joined them by hand and quilted and finished it with a blanket stitch by hand.

When I was planning my trip to the cottage she asked me if I thought I could repair it.  It seems she uses it every day.  It sounded like it needed a new back so I said I would bring some fabric or could get a sheet as being more sturdy.  She assured me she would bring the quilt and sheet so I could do the repair.  Oh my!

When I saw the quilt I was not sure whether I should laugh or cry.  It was terribly faded from lots of washings.  Did I mention this sister is a neat freak borderline OCD???  The edges were tattered and torn and looked like a flag that had been battered by wind and rain as it fluttered in the breeze.  It reminded me of all the “Annie” dolls I have in my closet and cannot toss.

Our daughter loved Raggedy Ann.  She would hold Annie’s hair in her fingers, her blanket wrapped around her hand as she sucked two fingers watching TV or sleeping.  I transplanted more red Annie hair than I care to remember.  Bought more dolls.  I believe I have at least three dolls in that bag in various stages of tattered.

Yesterday I stayed indoors to make the repairs to my sisters quilt.  I had to first fix the back.  The sheet was too small so I had to rip, fit and improvise ever thankful that I had some more fabric with me that is also green though does not match.  It is a square corner to remind us of the ‘fix’.  I have a very small sewing machine in the cottage so was able to stitch that piece together.  There was no way however that the newly turned edges would fit through the machine.  What to do.  I decided that I would tie knots to hold the back to the front and then blanket stitch around the edge once again.

It took me over 6 hours to do all of this.  I am usually not one to stick with a project.  I have many such projects in my basement – my sewing girl cave as it is.  I have been noted to say that I rarely worry about what to do as I have something I can go to at all times.  The fact is my follow through is not what it could be.  Yesterday was different for some reason.  I could have done some and put it aside to work on the next few days while I am here.  I did not.  I sat at the large round kitchen table moving the quilt around as I made the knots at certain corners.  Then I started the stitching of the edge.  I was watching some inane movies on TV as entertainment.  I sat right there and sewed until it was completed.

I did not realize the determination I had when I began.  It also seems unreal that it took that long to sew around the edge of this quilt.  It did.  I realized at one point that my back was aching and got up and sat on the couch for a bit.  I chose another show to watch and back to it.

As I sewed I marveled at the fact that the whole quilt was still intact and it was just the edges that were frayed.  As I said it was faded.  I sewed more.

I thought how through the cold Maine winters this quilt had kept my sister warm as she read or watched TV or just enjoyed sitting on her couch looking at the snow.

I entertained the thought of putting it away and doing something else and did not.  I could have as I have a few more days and I could give myself a break.  I did not and could not understand why.  I am not one to stick with any project for hours at a time as I have said.  I felt almost compelled to complete this task  on that day.  I did.

As I look back on it I am still mulling what kept me on task.  I thought determination and know I can beat that word with a cockeyed rational of why I could stop.  I thought perhaps it was pride that my work had stood up and now could again be used?  I am not a prideful person so this did not ring true.  I thought of expediency and getting it done and then again I can rationalize a way not to put something off.

I am very good at that.

As I type today I still do not know actually why I sat there inside on a sunny day and completed the task.  Does it really matter?  Maybe not.  It is done and looks pretty good though is an inch smaller all the way around!  I may not ever know from where my energy and determination came.

What  I do know is that I am pleased I made that quilt.  I am pleased my sister loves and uses  it. I am not close to hug her often and if this faded quilt does this than I am happy.

I suppose I could look at it as a metaphor for life.  If we are solid in our foundations and relationships in our lives then we can survive when life pulls at us and tatters our edges.  Everyone is entitled to one (or more) do-overs and this was what I was doing for this quilt – giving it new life. After what my sister has overcome I guess perhaps I thought I could stick to this task.  It turned out to be a very satisfying day!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE MAN I MARRIED

GOOD MORNING WORLD

April is a busy birthday month for our family.  I am no longer, well not that I ever was, good about sending out birthday cards.  I have a sister, nieces, nephews, friends getting older and marriages being celebrated this month.  On the 8,9 and 10th there is a birthday I try to remember.  In fact 2 on the ninth and three on the 10th!  Today our daughter from another mother, our Goddaugther’s, dad celebrates his birthday and is exactly 10 years younger than my birthday hubby!!!

This is the hardest birthday for which to buy gifts.  As I said yesterday, ‘He is a man of few needs and lesser wants’.  As a writer I was grooving on the wording of that sentence.  I worked on it a bit to get the real flavor of the man.  My wonderful husband is the most self-contented person I know.  He takes life as it comes.  He is logical, usually not moved to rash choices and careful with his own words.  He loves easily and forgives easily and forgets even quicker.  He epitomizes the Eagle Badge he earned and proudly wears for Scout ceremonies.   In fact he still serves the Scouting movement as an assistant Scoutmaster and goodness knows we are beyond having kids in scouts!!!  He is a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and friend and has a great sense of humor. 

The ultimate gift for him has yet to be found as far as I can see.  He is ever happy with what we do give him and rarely asks for something specific.  This year I heard on Sunday, “You could get me a new pair of running shoes.  The coupon is right here.   I’ll get them later in the week.”  My comment was something along the lines of “So you want me to put the coupon in a card?”  I will do it.

The best gift I think I ever gave him was his satellite radio.  Then I was upset to realize it only got one station – the one that played Bluegrass Music!  That was the big joke as he only went to channel 61.  I am surprised it did not get stuck there.   I later discovered there are hundreds of channels when I got my own.

Years ago we attended a workshop on the book “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman.  If you have not ever read the book I highly suggest it.  It helps you understand your spouse better.  The Five Languages each have a specific way of being conveyed to show love.  The way my husband accepts love is by acts of service according to this book.  When I do small acts of service for him he knows he is loved by me.  Well for many that would be the easiest language.  For me not so much.

A small act of service would be to keep the house clean or his shirts all ironed or put his tools back in the same place when I use them.  I try and try is the operative word.  As you have noted in my posts I am failing miserably these last few weeks.  Tonight I WILL shine with a lovely dinner and fixings.  The way to this man’s heart IS really through his stomach by cooking good food for him as an act of service!  That will be the gift of the day – lots of stuffing and gravy!!!

Together we have celebrated 45 April 9th birthdays.  I have given him bicycles, trains, gadgets and clothes as gifts.  Yet the best gift of this day is celebrating his birth.  Without it I would be quite lonely.  The real gift of the day actually is mine in that he chose me to walk with him in this life.

Easy blog to write today.  Happy Birthday My Love.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

GOOD MORNING WORLD

In my faith walk as a Protestant I had no real conception of the first Sunday after Easter as being Divine Mercy Sunday.  It frankly did not exist in my world.  It was not until the last few years that I knew of its existence as rightly so.  It was a lesser feast and new to the Catholic Church as being established in 2000.  It now draws thousands to Stockbridge, MA.

http://catholicism.about.com/b/2013/04/07/divine-mercy-sunday.htm

Divine Mercy Sunday is one of the newer feasts on the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar. Established on April 30, 2000, when Pope John Paul II canonized St. Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the Octave of Easter, the Sunday after Easter Sunday.

It was really brought to my attention when my cousin was the Director of Music at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Massachusetts.  Bruce is a wonderful man, husband, father of 6 now director of his local church’s music and mostly self taught in his musical endeavors.  Much of his music is also written by him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QlRfg4Rw-g

As I was thinking of writing this today I thought about what is the divine mercy that is given to us.  In church this morning the priest suggested it is like a graduation.  Up until this last two weeks Christ led the Apostles.  Today He came back in the Upper Room and Thomas doubted and Christ sent them all off to preach the word and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then for a second time He said “Peace be with you.  As the Father sent me, so I send you.”  We are then told that He breathed the Holy Spirit on them.  He further went on to say “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  The priest today also said that forgiveness is to the church like oil is to gears.  Each needs its component – forgeivness to sin and oil to gear –  to keep everything running smoothly.

One of the things I have had on my mind of late is how we treat our children.  This probably came about as I saw an incident in Wal-Mart.  I also have had the joy of having our grandchildren with us these past 10 or so days.  This morning in church it all seemed to be the same topic.  I want to logically walk though this and that may be a challenge.

Starting way way way back……….years ago a friend told me that when chaos and noise ruled a home then satan was in the corner smiling and clapping his hands.  I actually tried this once when I was in an argument with our son who was in his teens.  I thought of what my friend had said, told my son, we stopped and sat and talked about the issue for over an hour in calm and came to resolution thus kicking satan out of the corner and our house!

Next, when our children left home I asked each for forgiveness for anything I had done to harm them as they were growing up.  I did not believe I was a bad parent and still knew I was not great.  It was confirmed as late as yesterday that I was in fact on occasion (+/-) a ‘yeller’ for which I am greatly sad.

In Wal-Mart last week, shopping with the kids, I saw a young family pass me.  One child I guess was acting up as I heard the father say words that if the child did not stop that he would take down his pants and smack him in the middle of the store.  I said to the clerk how sad to hear that and she said the father was probably raised that way too.  I gave my grandchildren lots of hugs that day I think as a way to assuage any guilt I have about not being a perfect parent to their parents.

So to tie these seemingly unconnected ideas all up to my understanding………In the beginning of the Apostles ministry they were told to spread the word with Peace and Forgiveness.  If parents are screaming at children then there can be neither peace nor forgiveness in the house.

As I was thinking of this I was covered with despair.  It felt cold and gray like the cold chilled steel of playground equipment in the winter.  I could feel a bitter taste in my mouth like vinegar.  Tears streamed from my eyes.   How can we undo any damage we inflict.  I like to think that asking forgiveness works totally though my humanity has me wondering sometimes.  I trust it does.  I wish I had stopped the Wal-Mart man and asked him to please find peace and discipline and love his children in a better way.  They are with us such a short time.

I worked hard to find an uplifting thought to erase the feeling of despair that came upon me and I got a text from my Lady J.  They are all so wonderful – our three grandchildren.  Each of them individuals.  The text brought a smile.  Like erasing the chaos of satan with the Peace of Christ, indeed a divine act.  Children are so loving and giving and desiring of love to please us all as they inevitably teach us.

I am nothing more than a person in this world trying to serve the Lord through my life work and ministry.  When I have failed (I know I certainly have) I heard that forgiveness is mine when I ask.   Sometimes the person I need forgiveness from may even be myself.  Forgiving myself is the hardest!  I heard that Peace must reign so that in all of our actions we must make an effort to find a way to love and foster and discipline in a way pleasing to Christ.  If I am to be in relationship with my family and fellow man on this journey how can I not believe this?  How can I sit in a church each Sunday and go home and scream at my husband or children. Or be in a store and speak in a vile tone to a child?  Or to a clerk?  Then again Wal-Mart man may not go to church.  AHAH???  One more thread to the wanderings of my mind today.

Is faith, belief, church something that is missing?  Have we all bought the lie that satan does not exist?  Do we even bother to think of the difference?  None of us is perfect and believe me God knows my many imperfections.  All we can do is strive to live the best life He has chosen for us.  Today my understanding is we have to have peace and forgiveness in our lives.  We cannot talk one way and act another.  We cannot ask for help and then not allow others to do so.  We cannot face the future without a grasp of the past.  We cannot berate our fellow man and expect cooperation.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday I am going to step out and challenge myself to walk the talk I am writing.  In the meeting I have later today I am going to pay it forward and bring love and peace and hope.  The next time I see a Wal-Mart man or woman I am going to pray for words to share so they may love those beautiful children that God has entrusted to their care.  Children are with us for such a short time.  When you think of it life itself is not here that long.  Peace and forgiveness seem pretty good choices on a daily basis as we live the days with which we are gifted!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

PS – please note I have not capitalized satan.  My spell check says I must do so.  I choose to give no importance to the name.

SPRING BREAK GOODBYE

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Spring break used to be the same week every year almost thoughout the nation.  Now we have what is called a rolling spring break.  I have no idea why and I do not like it.  One of our grandchildren had last week off and the other two had this week off.  The other side of the coin of not having them all together for the full week though is we get some special time with each of them and that has been wonderful

The inevitable comes and goodbye has to be said.  Last Sunday night the littlest said goodbye to us and his two older cousins and it was really hard.  They only see each other a couple of times a year in a good year and usually only once and he is crazy about his big cousins.  Our oldest grandson is really kind to play with the youngest all the time.  Probably not too hard as they share the same interests in Pokemon and other video games.  Our granddaughter sometimes joins in and then the giggles get contagious as she and her younger cousin are gigglers!!!

Today, Saturday,  we will say goodbye to the other two by returning them to their parents halfway between our homes.  We will still be able to enjoy them all morning long as we drive to the meeting point.  This Grandmama has to say it gets tougher and tougher to say goodbye.  I wish they lived closer like our 8 yr old so we could see them often.  The last day they are with us we continually say we are NOT going to think about tomorrow!!  Tomorrow still comes.

This thought of goodbyes led me to think of movie good-byes as we saw “Les Miserables” the DVD over this last weekend.  I was terribly impressed with the whole movie.  We saw the play as a family years ago and loved that though I believe it was a fairly colorless show – literally.  The lighting and clothing led to darkness.  The movie had some of that and yet it brought more real color into the story which I found wonderful.

I do not remember the end of the play as much as I will the end of this movie.  It was so well portrayed with the use of current technologies.  Of course I cried.  I like the end of “Field Of Dreams” and I cry.  Many movies with sad endings find me in tears and that is not a bad thing I do not believe.  It shows I can empathize.

I will cry today ONLY after I get back in the car.  I try not to let the kids see my tears as I want them to be happy to go home to their folks and not feel bad for me for their leaving.  As I get older and my emotions sit almost on my skin – well more so than they used to – it becomes more difficult.  Then again since I might cry I have to think it may be okay to show them I love them and will miss them.

Spring Break is over and normal must be established once again.  I fail to understand why……

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

COFFEE WITH BEAU

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Years ago after March 15, 2000 I started writing a book.  One of the many ‘starts’ of books.  Completion is a word I have yet to see.  The title of this book was “Coffee with Beau”.  It was going to explore the wonderment of our first grandchild as he grew up.  I went to look for it on the stick that contains all the information from our old computer and it is gone.  This took me on a further search.  In the end I found lots of stories I had started and notes on others and a printed copy of the book for Beau – all eight pages of it.

Today, the Ides of March, is our grandson Beau David Niemann’s 13th birthday!  I simply cannot imagine it.  Truly where did this time go?  The story I started for him on March 25th, 2000 was going to be a gift for him.  In the introduction to this book, I wrote that the day before I had received three emails about family.  I wanted him to know my family story as I said I believed family is all we really have in this life.

I told him that he was very new to the world and had captured our hearts already.  I said ‘Love is like that – it happens.’  I went on to speak about my Great Grandparents and Grandparents, the town I grew up in and the island upon which the town existed.  It actually as I reread it would have been fun and still a bit boring.

As I sit here once again with a cup of coffee in my hand I am thinking about this little man now teenager.  Believe me when I say I know what love is.  I have loved and been loved.  It is not a new emotion to me.  Holding this new creation, our first grandchild, brought a whole new meaning to those four letters.

He came into the world with a huge scare due to some birth complications was airlifted to the local Children’s hospital.  One of the most wrenching times in my life was standing by our daughter’s bedside after his birth knowing that she had not held him and holding her hand as she cried.

The first time we saw Beau he was at Children’s in the neo natal unit and ever so tiny.  He recovered and came home and joy ruled and reigned until he kept crying.  Poor little guy had hernias that had to be taken care of at 8 weeks.  I used to hold him and sing to him which would help calm him down.  Now if any of you know my voice you might wonder why that would be calming.  Regardless the song “A you’re adorable, B you’re so beautiful…” sung in this raspy voice would usually calm him down as I held him tight.

He survived that, and my singing!  He grew up a little more.  He would come to our house at about age 2+ and run through the door arms spread wide and say “Grandmama, I found you!” like he had not seen me in years not simply a couple of days.  He would give me a huge hug.  Imagine my sadness when a few years later he informed me he was not a ‘kissy or huggy person’ anymore.  I still manage to be graced with both of these when we see him.

We celebrated every birthday with him until age 8.  At that point he was living in Texas and we had moved to Maryland.  They went to the plane to catch it to come for a visit only to get hung up in security and were late to the gate according to the attendant.  They were there in time – within ten minutes – and she had already closed the door.  It was rainy in Dallas and no other flights flew that day!  We were one heartbroken family.

He started school and did well though diagnosed with dyspraxia a little known part of the autism spectrum.  You would not know it.  This child is bright.  I watch him take legos and create with little or no attention to the directions.  Hundreds of pieces become the picture on the box.  He does not read books he devours them.  He is intense and beats most video games with consistent effort.

He is kind and caring especially with younger cousins.  He will do whatever is asked of him even when he sometimes does not want to do it.  An example was last year during Grandcamp.  It was paint T-Shirt day.  He was not thrilled and participated and made a  T-Shirt with swords and spears from Greek Mythology and put the words “It’s all Greek to me” on the back.  I thought it quite clever.

He even had the patience with me during Grandcamp to have the annual “Cousins Picture” taken so that I could have our three all in one portrait photo array.

He is in junior High and I know one day it will be High School and then college.  This first born grandchild can become whatever he chooses.  To me he will ever be a teacher.

He taught me how to be a Grandmama.  From the time he was sitting in his little seat on our kitchen counter he would giggle when I spoke to him.  His eyes would light up when I put my hands on his cheeks and said, “Say hello to your Grandmama” in a high silly voice or when I would say “Zoom Zoom” from the Mazda ad.  He loved it.

He taught me a new kind of love.  He taught me a generous love.  A love that can give and give and not ever run out of the desire to want to give more.  It is a love I believe that I had as a parent yet then I had to discipline to raise good kids.

Now as a grandparent I no longer am required to do that.  I now understand how my father allowed our kids to stand on tables.  My world for our grandchildren is a magical kingdom.  The only rules are to love and be kind to each other and make good choices.  It is a wonderful place to live.  Our grandchildren can do no wrong in my eyes.  My love is unconditional and forever.

I live from visit to visit when it comes to our grandchildren.  Right now I am enjoying the memories of our road trip last summer.  It was such fun and we laughed so much as Beau and I drove with his sister back to Maryland from Texas.  Three for the Road for two days!!  Free of parental rules all three of us!!!  I will see him and his sister and parents again in a few weeks for Easter.  I am betting this time he will be taller than me and that will bother me some!

On this day our Beau will turn 13 with the world ahead of him.  Such a gift for us and the world.  He is going to be some sort of scientist I am sure.  Whether it is computers or the stars he will do well.  I am holding him to the promise to create the ‘transporter’ ala Star Trek that he promised me years ago so we could be together whenever we wanted.   I miss him.

I also love him and wish him the best 13th birthday EVER!!!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Today is my sister’s birthday.  She and I had eleven years together before we were joined by our next sister who was 5 years old when she (and her mom) came to the family.  We are three years different in age.  As the oldest child I remember taunting her and I also remember sticking up for her.

She was very small and quiet as a child.  She had this really unique way of sitting.  She would sit on her calves with her butt a few inches from the floor.  For hours she would sit this way.  Try it – it hurts.  Perhaps this was the forerunner of her interest in exercise.  She has taught aerobics forever.  She was a runner and a biker.  Active always.  Even after knee surgery she walks all the time and still teaches exercise classes.

She knew that she wanted to be a beautician all her life.  I am still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  She is now, after retiring from years of running The Grand Design Beauty shop, a successful real estate agent.  She does not stop.  Her husband and son have also just bought a Sears franchise!  The energy bunny could have her name emblazoned on it’s chest.

On top of it all she is pretty inside and out.  She would give you the shirt off her back and if it was not the right size she will go find one that fits.  She has a heart as big as all outdoors.  When her grandson was diagnosed with cancer she hurt for him and turned her world upside down to help.  When she was diagnosed with cancer she would not let it keep her down and kept on working through the whole experience.  She is heroic!

She is and has ever been her own woman.  She marches to her own drum beat with her still 60’s white toe nail polish (which is popular again) to the most current style of dress.  She is classic.  Quietly barely making waves and succeeding in changing her world for the good daily in some way by calling someone or bringing cookies or goodies to a sick friend.

She said she would never leave home and did not.  She lives around the corner from where we grew up.  She and her high school sweetheart raised their children in the same place they grew up themselves.  Her life has been lived on her own terms as much as she could plan.  Her gardens are a reflection of that.

In the spring, as early as she possibly can in Maine weather, she begins to clean out the garden spots.  She plans what is going where and through the spring and summer plants and weeds and tends them all.  They are free flowing spots of color for the whole season.  Something is in bloom all spring/summer and fall all around her house in the ground or boxes.  Even in the winter when the gardens are fallow there is the anticipation of what will come next year.  The decorative stones/rocks are still there waiting to be surrounded by beauty and even strawberries to eat!

No longer do we have the big birthday parties as we did when we were children. My sister did have the first in home dance party for a birthday.  On her 50th she decided to have a “Crystal Ball” and asked for donations and raised over $3500 for a local child who was sick.  Didn’t I say she was full of energy and heroic?  Add generous to that!

I am grateful to be able to share the joy of her date of birth.  Today in words I celebrate the joy of Paula Joyce!  As usual my gift will be late.  This year I got her a bonsai tree to prune to her own grand design as she has carved out the life she wanted to live.  If she reads this she can now anticipate just what shape the tree will take under her loving care.  I am certain it will be unique and thrive as everything else in her life has, including her 3 children and 7 grandchildren, from her love.  I wonder if this blog can count as a card???

Have the bestest day and I love you Jo!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

TIME – TOPIC DU JOUR

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Keeping the French flavor from this week.  Du Jour meaning today!  Today Time is on my mind.  Tonight we ‘spring forward’ as we move the clocks ahead an hour and lose an hours sleep.  Oh Joy!!!  I cannot find enough sleep now I am going to have to toss away one hour!

When I was a kid this was a favorite time as we could stay our and play longer in the evenings.  As I grew it became less and less important and then changing the clocks to fall backward to a snugger darker dinner hour became my favorite day.  I wrote about that last fall.  Tonight or early this morning rather we spring forward to more daylight time.  I had to look up the reasons for this inane practice.  Wikipedia seemed informational enough for my purpose today.

Daylight saving time (DST)—also summer time in several countries[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] in British English, and European official terminology (see Terminology)—is the practice of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.[8]

The modern idea of daylight saving was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson [9] and it was first implemented during the First World War. Many countries have used it at various times since then. Although most of the United States used DST throughout the 1950s and 1960s, DST use expanded following the 1970s energy crisis and has generally remained in use in North America and Europe since that time.

The practice has been both praised and criticized.[8] Adding daylight to evenings benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours,[10] but can cause problems for evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.[11][12] Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting (formerly a primary use of electricity[13]), modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.[14]

DST clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment,[15] and sleep patterns.[16] Software can often adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST protocols are changed.[17]

Arizona never did nor does move their clock.  Sometimes one of my BFFs is 2 hrs earlier others 3.  Very confusing.  We still manage to talk and her kindness to call when she perceives distress in my blogs in wonderful and usually timely.

The next thing that went through my mind speaking of time was the song “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce.  He had a short lived career.  He wrote the song “Time in a Bottle” in Dec 1970 after his wife told him she was pregnant with their first child.  The words tell the story.

Time In A Bottle

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

According to the internet this appeared on his debut album “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” in 1972.  The song was never intended as a single until Croce’s untimely death in a plane crash in September of 1973.  The 7″ vinyl became his second and final #1 hit posthumously.

His son Adrian James “A.J.” Croce was born Sept 28, 1971. AJ grew up in California with his mother Ingrid.  At age 4 AJ was completely blinded by a brain tumor.  Between ages 4 and 10 his eyesight gradually came back in his left eye.  During this time he began to play the piano while listening to music.  He played his first “gig” a Bar Mitzvah at age 12.  By 16 he was playing in clubs in the San Diego area.  His house burned down when he was 15.  He forged on married and has two children.  He has his own recording label and 6 CDs the last being released in 2006.  He has been a front man for famous performers, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles to Earth Wind and Fire, Santana and Rod Stewart and on most if not all late night and early morning TV Shows.

This young man’s perseverance is a testimony to his mother I believe and his father’s legacy as well.  Father’s and sons, mothers and sons, mothers and daughter and fathers and daughters.  Interesting subject referencing time and how we are impacted by unforeseen events.  They can make us or break us.

TIME TIME TIME….special days as in spring forward. I noted earlier this year that there are days when we know exactly where we were and what we were doing at a specific time when unforeseen events occur.  Today is one of those for me.

As I grew this day became my cousin’s birthday.  Sam and Liz’s anniversary – I wish everyone could know this special wonderful couple.  It also is my friend Laura Clark’s birthday – another very special person.  I celebrate those days now as the joy of this day.

Yet no matter how old I become I never can forget where I was when Alice Tapley came to get me in my class on that Girl Scout Wednesday.  My world changed on this day many, many years ago.  I can only pray the ensuing years of my life have been a loving kind testimony to those who raised me from that devastating time.  If I could have time in a bottle……..

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

 

…AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM…

GOOD MORNING WORLD

This past weekend my husband and I participated in our ministry with Worldwide Marriage Encounter.  This is a weekend for married couples.  It has the potential to take good marriages a step further to even better marriages.  If you believe what we tell you it can keep your marriage strong intimate and great for many years to come.  The couples attending have a choice and most find themselves happily enriched with each other by weekends end.

There are occasionally couples that attend that have us scratching our heads as to why they came to begin with on the weekend.  It does not seem that they are interested in renewing their marriage or even spending time with each other as the weekend format suggests.  It leaves me speechless and frankly makes the weekend stressful as I want the others to not be derailed by their distractions.

We had one of those this past weekend.  The situation kept trying to push me and the others off ministry into doing a job.  I stuck to my guns following through with words that I can only say came from somewhere else to try to heal.  I came home tired and exhausted not invigorated as usual.  For one brief moment the thought of why am I doing this crossed my mind.  It certainly is not the pay of $0.00 though of course I am hoping I will reap a heavenly reward.

I got up and posted my blog yesterday and then spent a bunch of time catching up on the snowstorm and news on facebook before I got to my day.  What a storm it appeared to be.  The most fun was to see a video of my young cousins jumping from a hot tub to making snow angels and going back to the hot tub.  There were also pictures of our youngest grandson tubing down a slope after having been hauled up by a lift. Now that looked like fun!!! These were helping to move my mood from the negativity and tired to the positive.

Then I came across a post by our daughter that created wet spots in my eyes.  It speaks for itself.  It was really needed after the weekend I had just experienced.

Our Daughter’s post:

As I was going to sleep last night, I kept thinking about my grandfather. I was all of a sudden struck in awe of the perfect example of Christ’s love that he has been. He may not always be perfect but……………. He has buried two wives, and currently is married to my grammie…….He raised two little girls with the help of family. Then two more children after his second wife died. He has watched his children and his grandchildren not make great choices…….But you knew EVERYTIME you walked in the house, you would hear I love you and a receive a hug. Much like our heavenly father, He doesn’t always like our choices and when we turn away, He won’t chase us. He will sit and worry, like my grandfather. But the moment we return, we are received with open arms and now questions. I was just struck by the level of unconditional love I was shown as a child from my grandparents and then my parents. They didn’t always like my choices, but I never questioned if they loved me, I already knew. That great example of Christ’s love has been such a blessing in my life. Do I know everything about Him, no? Just like I don’t know everything about God. Some things are not for me to know. I pray that in my life I can show that level of love to my kids, my nieces and nephews and family. I may not love or even like your choices. And please understand, when I have to not be there, you are doing wrong and I can’t support it. But NEVER doubt that I LOVE YOU. I will always be here with a hug and an I love you……………Love the example my Grandfather has set forth for our family… Love you Grandfadoo!!!!

There also was a sharing from our son about a mayonnaise jar (http://en.avaaz.org/843/remember-to-make-time-for-the-really-important-things-in-life) and how we needed to take care of the big things and the little would fall in beside.  In a different sharing the same child asked me to read a chapter in the Bible.

Our second daughter, as quiet as she is, shared some inspirational posts as well on my wall this very same day.

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure” (Matthew 11:25-26).

God is indeed good!  Thank you my children for leading me this day!!!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

SPRINTER VS RUNNER

GOOD MORNING WORLD

I have decided I am a sprinter rather than a runner. Of course the fact that I never put on sneakers to do either is completely irrelevant. In this case I really do not like sneakers as shoes. I’ll wear anything else just not sneakers.

Think of the name ‘sneakers’. Who wants to wear shoes that have a name like that? Sneaking connotes furtive, secretive, slink, skulk or thievery. These are comfortable shoes I understand. They lull you with comfort to do furtive things? I know silly! I simply do not like sneakers.

I see people running or jogging all over the place. They are in parks or roads or on treadmills. Did you ever see one of them smile as they were doing this? Who wants to do something that has you grimace or sullen the whole time you are participating in this activity?

I looked up runner in the online free dictionary and came up with all these meanings.

run•ner n.

1. Sports One who competes in a race. 2.a. Baseball One who runs the bases. b. Football One who carries the ball. 3. A fugitive. 4. One who carries messages or runs errands. 5. One who serves as an agent or collector, as for a bank or brokerage house. 6. One who solicits business, as for a hotel or store. 7.a. A smuggler: a narcotics runner. b. A vessel engaged in smuggling. 8. One who operates or manages something: the runner of a series of gambling operations. 9. A device in or on which something slides or moves, as: a. The blade of a skate. b. The supports on which a drawer slides. 10. A long narrow carpet. 11. A long narrow tablecloth. 12. A roller towel. 13. Metallurgy A channel along which molten metal is poured into a mold; a gate. 14. Botany a. A slender creeping stem that puts forth roots from nodes spaced at intervals along its length. b. A plant, such as the strawberry, having such a stem. c. A twining vine, such as the scarlet runner. 15. Any of several marine fishes of the family Carangidae, especially the blue runner (Caranx crysos), of temperate waters of the American Atlantic coast. Also called blue runner.

Look at all these meanings. Toss out the ones about sports, the ones about furniture and floors and you are left with some sly meanings. Bank Collectors, narcotics smuggler, gambling, creeping vines and channels that move molten metal? All pretty questionable ideas? Smuggling- Gambling – creeping – who wants to be a runner?

Again I note who wants to participate in any activity that does not let you smile?

Now look at sprinters. The definition of them is simple. Not lengthy like that of a runner. The definition of sprint is ‘a short run at full speed’. A sprinter does small things quick and fast.

AHAH! That is me! Blogging is writing a thought in short form. Well except when I go onto many tangents. Then I can become a creepy vine entwining myself with words though, on second thought, there is usually one thought involved so still sprinting. This analogy is getting tricky. Sprinting does have an element of running as of course you are actually doing that activity. The difference is there is a short distance to the goal instead of miles. Sprints are usually referred to as some numbered meter dash. Dash is quick and short so the form of running to complete this is a sprint. PHEW! There back to the original short spurts which I believe are truly me.

I like water color painting vs oils as they dry quickly and you have to get your color down and set before the drying. It takes thought and quickness and in about 1 +/- hr you have a picture. Sometimes I have taken my time or a couple of days, not months or years, if it is an intricate picture like the fall landscape I did for our son-in-law. I used little water treating the medium more like water based acrylic paints than the sheer water color. Oh I’ll never be a master. I like to play with paints like any little kid!

When I take on a project I make a plan, carry it out.  I am all in and full of passion until it is done. Unless of course it is a lengthy needlework project like a quilt or embroidery piece. I lose focus and have to be reignited to do another sprint. Multiple sprints and the project is complete.

Like housework – oh so boring and my chosen field. I can only do it well if I look at it as a series of sprints. One room this day another the next. The laundry piles up and I get it done a sprint at a time. The trick is to not let it linger in the house or on my mind. Here I can fail and I can then feel pangs of guilt. Realizing that I am a sprinter is allowing me to let go of some angst. To know myself and to be able to divide things into pieces lets me sprint to the finish.

That is really me in a nut shell. I am a Jill of all trades master of none. This knowledge allows me to try many things and not have to worry about being successful at any. This way I have lots of fun and variety. Is not variety the ‘spice of life’? My life is thus pretty tasty!!!

The only place I can think of where this does not apply to me is in love. In this area I am an iron man. If I love you or call you friend I am there for life whether you like it or not!!!

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

TULIPS PAINTS QUIET

GOOD MORNING WORLD

I awoke this morning with not one idea but three.  I had three thoughts slipping in and out of my mind as I struggled to decide if I really wanted to get up or not.  It was early and chilly.  I hit the shower with this blog in mind.

The first thought was a vivid picture in my mind of a salmon colored tulip standing all alone.  I had the impression that I had seen it recently in the wild.  Since I have not been to the south and we have had snow cover I am guessing the picture is clear in my mind only.

The picture is so clear I could almost touch the green stem.  The tulip was not yet open.  Just beginning to spread its leaves.  You can still see the lighter colored veins on the petal.  The salmon color is not pink, not orange, not the color of a peach skin.  It was a bright clear color.  I had a sweater this color at one time. This color has a depth to it. If I were to paint it I would pick up some red on my brush and mute that with a touch of white to make it a pink.  I would then lob in a bunch of yellow to get to the right tone.  I used a red crayon actually on a white paper and added tons of yellow on top and the shade began to appear.

The simplicity of the picture makes it less interesting.  The tulip alone with a couple of leaves on the side of the stem as it sits on the side of the road.  Boring. It needs a bud vase or more of them in a pitcher.  It needs to be a gift to our third child the daughter from another mother. Tulips are her favorite.  Perhaps it was she I was thinking of in pictures this morning.

The second thought was a painting I want to do.  It is my hope I have saved the newspaper clipping.  It was a picture of a bridge repair going on in Delaware.  I am not an artist as such.  Some have said I have talent. I do not think of myself that way.  I paint.  If what comes out is enjoyable and looks like the model so be it!

I paint many things though stay with landscapes when I use watercolors or acrylics.   Pastel chalk or pencils find me doing more faces or plants or flowers.  Things you actually can touch.  Pastels usually have me ‘feeling’ my way around the subject.

The picture that I saw of the bridge had me thinking abstract for the very first time ever.  I could imagine a square of orange and a triangle of black and some spires of silver or grey to complete the whole.  I do not like driving or walking over bridges as they usually are suspended over something to cross.  I do love the symbolism of bridging the gap and our daughter is actually working to do that now that they have moved.  They believe they are on God’s path and yet struggles are impeding their travel. Perhaps she was in my mind this morning? 

The last thought before I got up was the quiet.  We had our youngest grandson all weekend long.  Due to car issues we had him an extra day and got to deliver him to his school yesterday.  He is a busy 8 year old and full of fun.  We giggle a lot.  Well we giggle a lot with all three of our blessed grandchildren.  We simply see more of Calle then the other two.

It was more quiet in our house last night at dinner.  This morning no one is running in for a hug as I sit at the computer.  I used to have this desk on another wall.  As I sat the kids could see me from across the room.  All three of them would start a run and jump in my lap for a hug.  It was great fun.  As they have grown they now saunter in and hug me except for this busy 8 yr old who still runs and turns the corner on ‘two wheels’ or heels!!!

It is quiet in this house.  Since his dad is our son perhaps it was he that I was thinking about as I awoke.  Then again maybe the thoughts were simply that.  Thoughts of a tulip, paints and quiet.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

FORD – AN ORIGINAL

GOOD MORNING WORLD

A little while ago I was reading my cheap women’s rags from the checkout line and hit a tidbit that caught my eye.  It was in a column entitled ‘It Happened This Week”.  Granted the magazine was at least 3 weeks old so it really happened the first week of January!

The item mentioned that that week in 1914 Henry Ford stunned America when he started and 8 hour workday for his employees.  He also, at the same time, enacted a $5/hour minimum wage for his employees.  The dollar amount more than doubled most of his worker’s salaries.  His employee turnover decreased and profits shot up over the next 2 years to $30 million dollars.  I found this astonishing.  I had no idea. Had to research it.

Seems that Unions did not get a foothold into Ford until 1941 after a hard fought battle.  In 1935 FDR enacted the Wagner Act which gave workers the right to collective bargaining and unfair practices by employers.  Henry Ford resisted for as long as he could having Harry Bennett, head of the Service Dept. take care of keeping the Unions out.  There was a real battle called ‘The Battle of the Overpass’ in 1937 that left Union organizers including Walter Reuther beaten and bloodied after they tried to hand out leaflets.  Ford Motor Company was found guilty and in violation of the Wagner Act in 1941 and ordered to stop interfering with the Unions efforts.

April 1, 1941 there was a walkout  at that same RougeRiver plant that experienced the battle.  The strike was held to protest the firing of some union members.  The strike inflamed racial tensions as black workers went back to work rather than strike.  Henry Ford threatened to close the plants rather than sign a contract with the UAW-CLO.  The story tells that he ultimately did sign after his wife threatened to leave him as she did not want more riots and violence.  Henry Ford was to have said that this was one of his greatest disappointments.

I was sad when I read all of this as I believe Henry Ford had a great vision to work with his people in private industry.  I believe that unions have outlived their usefulness in this country.  That is a whole other subject. It is just where the comment led me when I researched.

I like Ford.  As a kid we had Fords.  There were anachronisms for them – ‘Found on Russian Dump’ and ‘Fix or Repair Daily’.  In those days of the 50s and 60s there were Ford people and there were Chevy people and rarely did they agree.  I grew up in a Ford family and married a Chevy!!!  That could have created much angst had we not had the Catholic Democrat/Republican issue already.  Go back to Nov and read that post!

I learned to drive on a Ford Fairlane.  It was two tone with a white top and a red bottom.  It was a standard on the column shift.  I learned the classic “H”.  It was a fun car to drive – when I got the chance. We were a one car family and I rarely had the opportunity or need really to drive the car.   As I grew and my dad moved on to become a traveling salesman he was known for his big LTD wagons.  Now they were fun to drive!

Cute/horrid car story with one of the ‘company cars’.  This one was an early model, owned by the company and a green sedan.  We now had two cars and could not drive the company car ever.  My folks had gone on a vacation trip my dad won and I was home alone.  The other kids ere farmed out.  I was told NOT to drive the car.  Right!

I drove it to a friends for the evening, came back and all was well until I went to put it in the garage.  The new newly painted garage.  I cut it a little close and when I got out there was a white thin stripe all the way down the side.  Cry!  Tears!  Screams! Got to get it off! Brillo pad! Thank goodness I rethought that one in the panic!  I brought out a wet paper towel.  It cleaned right up and no one would have known it was there.  When they returned I ‘fessed’ up and am sure I was punished somehow which I do not remember.  Oh youth I am glad you are behind me!

Funny where a mention in a magazine takes you.  I also have to share a bit of financial wizardry on my part.  When the bailouts were happening for the automobile industry I was so very proud of Ford.  I wanted to do something about that.  Years ago I belonged to an investment club.  It had been mentioned that Ford stock was falling to all time lows.  Aha!  I have it!  I will buy Ford stock.  I called a stockbroker.

At this point I was feeling much like Miss Davis, the little lady,  from the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” as she asked George Bailey for $2.92, only a few dollars and cents.  I was not able to invest millions.  I asked to invest and buy 100 shares.  The broker would not let me do it until I signed a paper that said I was doing this all on my own without his advice in case it went further downhill!  The cost of the stock at that point was $1.82/share.  I invested $189.00 in Ford to honor their lack of taking federal monies.  Today it opened at$14.05!  Am I rich – of course not.  I do have a real sense of satisfaction however and an apology from the stockbroker when his company changed their rating of Ford!

Point of all of this – nothing really it caught my eye.  The Fords had a summer home on Mount Desert Island where I grew up as well.  Different financial circumstances and sides of the Island!!! The last Thunderbird ever made was delivered there in 2005.  From the Bangor Daily news:

Saturday, September 03, 2005 – Bangor Daily News

ELLSWORTH – It’s a sleek, silver convertible with leather seats, the last Ford Thunderbird ever built.

It was delivered Friday afternoon to a Ford family estate on Mount Desert Island.

The two-seater was a special collectors edition, one of only 1,500 made by Ford Motor Co. in 2005, the year the company is retiring the nearly 50-year-old model.

“People are saying, ‘I can’t believe it’s the last one,'” said Dave Gould of Dave Gould Ford, which took receipt of the fancy ride early Friday morning. “Everyone knows it will be worth a ton of money someday.”

The car’s intended owner was Josephine Ford, the only granddaughter of company founder Henry Ford. But the 81-year-old heiress, who owned a summer home in Seal Harbor, died June 1, 2005, at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Before her death, Ford owned 18 percent of the family stock. Known as “Dody” to her friends, she was a philanthropist to many art and education organizations and was a supporter of Acadia National Park, according to information on the Ford Web site.

The Ford name and their cars have been a part of my life peripherally and personally.  The point of all of this was to quench my interest and then to honor Henry Ford’s original action to do good for his workers in 1914 which of course did good for his company!  Somehow I think that is how America could, and does in some corporations, still work at its best.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

EXPLORATION – LIFE LESSONS

GOOD MORNING WORLD

I was brought to tears when I watched the video contained in this link http://tinyurl.com/cb9xp3u.  It took me briefly to a small place in my spirit where depression and regret sit.  It is a door I rarely open let alone walk through.  I keep this door slammed shut as I try daily to live an upbeat optimistic lifestyle.  It is a choice I believe.

I was okay until I heard the old man speak about living each day as if it was the first and last day of your life.  He told us to watch the sky other than for weather.  It occurred to me in that moment of a stab of pain of regret that it had been a long time since I had rested on my back and looked up and explored the clouds.  It was a momentary regret as luckily the phone rang to bring me back to reality.  Not soon enough however to keep this idea from forming in my mind.

When was the last time you explored anything?  Think of it honestly.  Explore…..not look or see or hear.  Explore.  What does that mean?  I was not going to bother to cut and paste the definition and decided you had to see it for yourself.  The visual is interesting.

explore [ɪkˈsplɔː]

vb

1. (tr) to examine or investigate, esp systematically

2. to travel to or into (unfamiliar or unknown regions), esp for organized scientific purposes

3. (Medicine) (tr) Med to examine (an organ or part) for diagnostic purposes

4. (tr) Obsolete to search for or out

Do you see what I am talking about?  Don’t understand what I am trying to say?

To explore is to investigate, travel into, examine and those first three all seemingly have intended actions associated with them.  The last definition is the one that caught me this morning when I watched the video.  It is categorized as obsolete.  Obsolete meaning not used anymore? To explore is simply to ‘search for or out’.

Used this way when was the last time you were an explorer?  I do remember during ‘Grandcamp’ one summer lying on the grass with our grandchildren and searching the sky for pure enjoyment of looking at it.  Occasionally as I sit at this desk I do turn my chair and look out at the world before me.  I watch the birds flitting on the trees or look to the sky to see what the weather looks like (intention or exploration?) then say to myself ‘you have to get back to work’.

When was the last time you listened to a piece of music and let the melody or sound carry you away from the action of hearing a song?  There are a couple of pieces of music that can inspire that in me.  One is by Rachmaninoff, another by Gershwin and another by Dvorzak.  I just sit and listen and can almost feel myself being lifted up by the instruments and carried away floating on the musical notes as if I was being held by the five lines of the written staff imagining that it is a hammock.  That is exploring without intention.  That is exploration and experience.

Or a painting. I cannot remember the last time I was in an art museum.  I have looked at art in magazines or on the internet.  I have not had the chance to sit and look at a painting for a long time.  I remember sitting in France and looking at Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ and being lost in the blues he used. That experience can be duplicated occasionally by looking at the many prints there are out there of it.  Not the same.  Or looking at my favorite I think – it is the ‘Wedding Feast at Cana’ in the Louvre.  It is (from wikipedia)

“a massive painting by the late-Renaissance or ManneristItalian painter, Paolo Veronese. It is on display in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it is the largest painting in that museum’s collection.”

Until I went to look for the artist’s name I had no idea it was the largest painting!  It was in the same room as Mona – the “Mona Lisa”.  I was more taken with the Cana painting.  We bought a small 12×12 print to bring home and frame.  It was framed an olive mat and intricate gold frame about 14×16 when completed and hung in our entrance hall in Memphis.

On another trip to Paris my husband (he had to work there occasionally-poor man) bought me a larger print and had it framed with a beautiful blue mat in a mahogany frame to match our dining room furniture.  He gave it to me for Valentine’s Day one year.  He said he had heard me say often that I wish we’d bought a larger print.  We gave the smaller one to a friend, in the Diocesan office in Memphis, who had helped us often with our Worldwide Marriage Encounter ministry.  That started us, after buying more prints of smaller sizes, giving prints of this painting away to other WWME friends.

I do meander don’t I?  And then yet isn’t that the point I am trying to make?  Exploration is not a destination it is a journey.  Think of a baby.  Place this baby on the floor and watch them.  They go this way, that way.  They touch this, shy away from that, move forward, move backward.  They are exploring.  They are learning their environment.  Even better lay them in their crib or on the floor and watch them play with their toes.  Wide-eyed wonder at something that is simply part of their foot!

Exploration takes time and suspension of all else in our way.  We are so inundated with our environment that I am not sure exploration is possible/allowed in our personal spaces.  Perhaps that is what I am doing with this blog.  Certainly I am exploring whether I can reach a goal.  That is intended so does not fit the premise.  I think that sometimes when I am carried away by an idea like the meditation by Tecumseh or when I go looking for more information I am an explorer in my way and world.

One of my favorite art projects that I did years ago was a drawing in red pastel pencil of my hand.  It was an interesting exercise.  I had to hold my left hand on a table in a position and draw it with my right of course on the paper.  I got to look at the lines and swirls and veins of my hand print.  I looked at the length (or lack of length) of my fingers.  The lines at each knuckle.  The rings of white gold encircling my third finger.  It was fascinating.  Try it!!

At least sit and look at your hands for awhile.  Explore the indentations, the scars from scrapes or of age.  Let yourself go to your memory and think of the things these hands have held.  Explore those reaches of your mind.

Without thinking too hard I have indirectly touched greatness as I held onto the railing in Springfield, Illinois that Abraham Lincoln touched every night he went upstairs to sleep in that house.  For tourists there is no other access to tour the upstairs except to hold this railing and the guide points it out.  It was truly a thrill.

My hands have created meals to feed and nourish my family.  My hands have caressed foreheads to soothe sadness or nourish hearts.  I know for certain that my hands have held God in the person of my husband, our babies and our grandbabies.

…..and there it is – exploration needs to be a life lesson.  We must – no I cannot tell anyone what to do.  We can choose to take time each day for us.  Five minutes might be enough.  Pick up that item on your desk or look at the picture you see everyday and do not give a second thought.  Look it over – enjoy the memories – explore the possibilities.  Or even better leave you desk and go look at your world with new eyes.  This is the first and last day you will have right now!

This is Sunday.  I have an additional question.  Could it be that exploration is a form of prayer?

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

ARE WE INEPT?

GOOD MORNING WORLD

This week preparedness has been on my mind.  I even wrote about it.  Yesterday it was very apparent that we – meaning me – have become lazy.  Or worse did not know how to fix things in the beginning.

THE INCIDENT:  The water in our town tastes horrid to me.  I have to admit I am spoiled by the well water we have had and do have elsewhere.  We prefer to drink the filtered very cold water that comes from the refrigerator.  That sentence in and of itself speaks to laziness doesn’t it?  What happened to an ice cube in a glass of water?  Ice cube made from a tray in which you have put water and set in your freezer not have it spit out of a chute in the door of the appliance!

I went to get a glass of water and nothing happened.  The water did not come out.  To this I said out loud to the general public, “The water in the fridge is not working.”  I tried again and then almost in a panic I said the same thing only louder.  I do not know what I expected.  Was the tone of my voice going to make this thing magically work?  Was my husband going to turn into Mighty Mouse and save the day?  Fact is the water in the fridge does not work and the ice cub maker and the crushed ice maker do.  Do I call a repairman for this? Not sure.

THE POINT: What it brought about in my mind is that many of us have become very reliant on our conveniences.  Could we do without?  Further I was thinking of all the disposable stuff we use.  Do we not know some basic skills to fix things to reuse them?

I pondered.

Our son show his son over Christmas how to make wind chimes for gifts.  I knew it was in creation.  When I opened it Christmas morning I was duly appreciative and of course tearful.

{This Grandmama cries when a pin drops.  Poor Caleb our 8 yr old grandson was so flummoxed when I opened a gift from him that he had made with his mom.  It was a plaster square painted in yellow with a red heart in the middle of it with other colors and glitter.  It was one of the first gifts I opened and I really started crying.  His face was priceless.  He could not understand if I was sad or what.  The teachable moment was that I was able to explain so he could understand that sometimes in Grandmama’s tears are a good thing.  Later that morning when I got teary over a gift of the movie “Serendipity” his reaction was a face and shoulder shrug that said ‘there she goes again’!}

Sorry I do get carried away.  The point was our son knew HOW to make a wind chime.

What do we know HOW to do today and are not some of the skills being lost?  The fridge was given the once over and after reading the book and examination it was determined it may be beyond us.  We changed the setting and are waiting a couple of days to see what happens.

The toilet that was not working properly was fixed yesterday.  Many other chores big and small around our home are handled by us.  We call the repairman as a last resort unless it would nullify a warranty.

Could the average person fix the handle of a toilet by changing the plunger system?  Are they currently able to do the tiniest of household fixes?  Do they know how to sew to fix a seam in a pair of pants?  Do they, and I am using ‘they’ loosely and figuratively, know how to fix a car?  Change the oil?  Fix a lawnmower?  Change that wheel?  Tire?  Fix a washing machine?  How about simply cooking?

I am afraid skills are being lost.  I can sew and do most needlework projects and fixes.  I have even in my lifetime made a suit coat with welt pockets for my husband.  Used to make him wool slacks regularly zipper fly and all.  I made my wedding dress.  Granted it was simple satin with chantilly lace sleeves still I made it.

My husband can fix most things around the house.  If we added up all the repair costs we have not had to pay over these last 44 years it probably would buy us a nice little vacation somewhere.  That is not even taking into consideration all the oil he has changed in our vehicles or the mufflers or other minor car repairs.

So I ask again are we prepared?  I look at NJ/NY after Sandy and see these people having to rebuild their lives and my heart physically hurts for them.  In the next web news I see these residents all pitching in to help each other.  Communally there are probably enough skills to do it all up just right with the exception of electric or anything else that has to be hooked up to the city by union employees.  These are people of my generation and maybe older or our sons age. Could the grandchildren make these repairs or will they have to rely on the government to come to their rescue?

I have shingled a roof, doing the capping of the whole thing alone and put board and batting on that house.  It was our neighbors and she taught me how.   In one of our homes I removed one concrete columns in a basement – it was in the way of decorating – and replaced it with a post and lintel arch made of 8X8s.   The house is still standing!  I changed the tire on one of our cars over and over as there was a slow leak we could not find.  Our children have been shown all the skills we know or where to go look for information.  Their children will be educated this way as well I hope.  What of the children in our society who have no parents or parents that pay no attention or are addicted or too busy?  We need not to lose these skills.  We all need to be jack or jills of all trades or hire someone who is a jack or jill.  That is the other thing the tradesmen and skilled workers are fewer and fewer.  Hopefully they will not go the way of the needles and pins man!

You do not know the ‘needles and pins man’?  Years ago when I was a very little girl back in the dark ages a man would come to our house every year maybe twice a year and sell needles and pins.  Mumma was a seamstress on her own and worked for “Some’s Store” doing alterations in our home.  I remember little about this man except a slight figure and warm smile.  It was the same with the Grand Union Tea man who came around or the bread man or the milk man that all went door to door.  No longer.  Somewhat sad…and there it is.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…