UP UP AND AWAY………

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Ever watch a balloon floating in the air?  Any kind of balloon!  I am partial to the huge colorful ones with the gondola’s in which you can ride?  I want my balloon to take me to Oz.  No one can seem to find it so I have never had a ride in one!  Balloons are one of the reasons I loved living in St. Louis as the sky was often full of balloons floating by.  They had a special celebration called:

http://www.greatforestparkballoonrace.com/

At this time it was fun to sit on the deck and just watch as they drifted above our home.  If you ever have a chance go see it. 

This morning I am feeling buoyant.  I think there are many reasons.  It is a beautiful day outside our cottage.  Dad came for coffee and seems to be in good shape.  I had lunch with one sister yesterday and dinner and a movie last night with the other.  I have the promise of a visit from my brother tonight or tomorrow.  My sister/aunt will be in town today so I can see her as well.  I am having lunch with some girlfriends.  I am getting excited about my first time upcoming visit to a spa for a few days beginning on Sunday.  I am enjoying the hope emanating from the Republican Convention.  I am impressed with all the wonderful women who have told their stories.  The speeches have been powerful from all.  The news of Isaac is getting better and Robin Robert’s farewell for a while on GMA was lovely and hopeful.

Today, I think at about noon, I will reach the quarter mark of my one year attempt to write daily.  It is invigorating!  I want to jump high and say I did it!  I am such a hard task master on myself I cannot do it as I missed one post on August 16^th.  Written and not posted is a struggle for me?  Did I meet my goal of writing a blog daily or not?  For me it is a real dilemma.  My immediate answer is not – good luck this next quarter.  The person that is trying to not be so tough on me says I made it.  This will be mulled by me for days.  In the end I can at least say I have made a good effort for sure.

That brings me to the word goal.  To me it has ever been a dirty four letter word.  As bad as some others we all know and occasionally speak.  Goal was a word I could not ever seem to achieve.  I would decide to do something and set a goal and fail over and over again.  I got tired of my own failures.  Failure is a dirty word as well and few may know how much I have failed. 

To me failure is unacceptable and yet I do it so often.  I decide to clean my desk and get diverted.  I decide to write a few letters and the paper sits out for days.  I decide to … I decide to… I no longer decide.  I tell myself if I can do one thing on my list each day then I am okay.  I no longer set goals until I decided to write this blog.  It seemed I needed a reason to do so and an end date.  I set the goal of one year of writing each day.  So far I have written each day.  The 8/16 posting was a miss and luckily I did not let it be a deal breaker.

I was sharing my dislike of the word goal with a friend years ago.  He gave me an acronym which I cannot remember for the life of me.   It was something like GOAL is God’s Objectives Attained Lovingly.  That I can accept.  It is the lovingly which means loving me despite my failures that is my struggle!  Perhaps it is others as well.  Today I will be kind to myself and let the buoyancy of the day and my mood carry me I WILL accept that I made a goal to write and have had success this first quarter!  I will continue with the joy of knowing that whatever I do God has me in His hands.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

EASILY INSPIRED

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to both of our ‘girls’.  Our daughter was on the road driving home to Texas via St. Louis, MO.  Our Goddaughter was not enjoying her day off as she did not physically feel very well.  The second situation allowed us the opportunity for a long overdue long phone visit.  She lives in N.C.  The whole conversation was wonderful!

She reads my blog daily and was very open with her praise along with a couple of critical questions.  One was so very insightful in that she believed at a point I was struggling for material.  She was indeed right.  She also said part of my postings sounded more like a journal than a blog.  That I thought was an interesting point.  What really is a blog?  Will be thinking on that for awhile.  She was also telling me about sharing one of my posts with a co-worker.  It was the one from my birthday.  She was sharing with the co-worker that it inspired her.  The co-worker asked if she was easily inspired.

Those two words have stuck with me all night into this morning.  Easily inspired?  Was the co-worker suggesting that this is a bad thing or a good thing?  I have been thinking about this ever since our conversation.  Is it good to be easily inspired or is it not so good?

If you are not easily inspired I imagine it would take a huge event or statement or vision to inspire you.  Will it take a view of the Grand Canyon to create WOW for you?  Will it take the birth of a child for an ooh or aah from you?  Does it take the words of Shakespeare or a poet laureate to illicit emotions in your soul?  Doesn’t this lead us to the conclusion that only large events or moments are necessary for inspiration in this case?  From this then can we not reason that many small moments of life pass by without acknowledgement or recognition as important or inspiring?

I AM easily inspired.  I have decided this is a good thing.  I marvel at the morning sun which I may not want when a rainy Monday is my preference.  I marvel at the birds in my backyard.  I love the bunnies that run here and there in the same yard despite my husbands BBGun shots to keep them off his grass.  Give me the words of our grandson reading out loud, despite his stutter, over Shakespeare’s words heard in a theatrical production.  Let me watch this same grandson playing a game of Charades over a Broadway play when I know he is shy about performing in front of others and cannot be on a stage without fainting!  Give me the yellow flower done in pastels by our granddaughter with chalk all over the furniture over Rembrandt.  Let me look at our youngest grandson holding a stuffed animal won from a fair that is bigger than he over the Grand Canyon.  It is the little moments for me.

In the mid 90’s we moved to the Memphis, TN area.  I found myself one evening on a paddlewheel boat in the middle of the Mississippi River.  I had to go outside as I could feel myself welling up with tears.  I stood in the dark on the rail of that ship and cried.  I was from a small town of 1800 people off the coast of Maine.  I read Huckleberry Finn in high school.  Like many in my class I dreamed one day about seeing the Mississippi River.  I had no way of knowing that it might just be possible.  Here I was a grown adult not seeing it.  I was experiencing the river like Huck.  I looked at the stars and moon shining on the river.  I could see the water flowing swiftly and feel the boat under my feet.  I realized how dreams can come true.  Silly?  Perhaps.  It was a small insignificant moment to many inside the boat.  To me it was a dream come to life.  Easily inspired? YES!!!  Please let me ever be so!

If I have mentioned this experience before please excuse my repetition.  It sticks with me still.   As I have concluded, I am easily inspired.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…