Sunshine Blogger Award!

The Sunshine Award!

I smiled with joy when, upon opening a comment, I discovered that the writer had given me the Sunshine Blogger Award! What a treat and an honor. So thank you, Jay Morris, for honoring me so. I think my readers will also like your blog, which is The Wayward Journey (link will open in a new window).

I must admit I’m embarrassed to be so late announcing this. Jay actually wrote to me at the beginning of January. However, it’s been a rough couple of months health-wise, so I am behind on many things! Now, I am feeling better, and the beautiful Gerbera daisy above heralds the beginning of spring.

The requirements for accepting this award are that I tell you seven things about myself and that I nominate ten other bloggers for the award, not to mention letting Jay know how much I appreciate his award to me.

Let’s start with the seven things about me that you may not know.

1. I’m a cat person. I like dogs and had them while I was growing up, but I adore cats. I love their independent spirits, their ability to take care of themselves when I leave for a few days, and the way they curl up in balls when they sit in my lap.

2. I’ve traveled to South Korea, Japan, Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico.  I lived in Korea for nearly two years and loved that wonderful country and its friendly, loving people who always had a smile for this expat. I took an eco-hike on St. Croix and learned many things about herbal medicines from the naturalist who led the hike.

3. I’ve been in every state in the Union except for Maine, Massachusetts and Alaska. I would love to visit Alaska one day. It’s been a dream for many years.

4. I have one daughter, who is 39. She is a woman of many talents. I adore her and her son, who is the light of my life. When he moved back to be with his dad during his teenage years, I missed him so much I could hardly stand it. But I am so grateful for the spending most of the first ten years of his life near him in person. We had wonderful times and still do have beautiful, warm talks and hugs when I see him!

5. My favorite color is yellow. My sofa is yellow, and the chair that goes with it has lots of yellow too. Yellow is such a sunshine color and always makes me feel great, whether it’s in my own living room or at the store buying flowers. I hope my daisies will come back this year.

6. I love gardening and I have had several wonderful combination veggie/flower gardens. Unfortunately, because of my health now, I can’t garden like I used to. However, I can do container gardening. In 2012 I had way too many containers with plants and flowers and veggies! It took me 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to water them each day. But they were beautiful.

7. It is still my dream to travel more. I would like to go to the holy healing places of Medjugore and Lourdes. Maybe God will send me a miracle healing if I go there. Of course, maybe He’ll send one even if I don’t! Next, I’d like to go to Israel. It doesn’t seem like a very safe place right now. I always pray for peace in that region. Finally, I’d like to go to Eastern Europe and see the Czech Republic and some other places. I hope one day I can achieve this dream. But if I don’t, I feel blessed and grateful for the traveling I’ve already done in my life. Many folks haven’t even been out of their home city or state.

Okay, now for the nominations.

1.  Monce Abraham is a writer who lives in India. His blog posts will really make you think. They’re not fluff at all!

2.  Lead, Learn and Live is David Kanigan’s inspirational blog.

3.  Piya Singh is an Indian Artist, currently living and working in Germany. I think you’ll like her creativity.

4.  Charlie and Tom are photographers whose work is lovely. Their blog is PhotoBotos.

5.  Shannon Elizabeth Moreno writes about her strong faith in Revelations in Writing.

6.  Marney McNall scribes her volunteer experiences in The Volunteer Fringe.

7.  Rebeca Bud has a different take on her blog: Taking the Kitchen

8.  Loolie and Poolie have a fun blog about their vacations: The Adventures of Loolie and Poolie.

9.  Dianne Gray is an award-winning Australian author. Her blog is Writing and Loving Life.

10.Speaking from the Heart is an out-of-the-box blog by a woman who is a holistic health practitioner.

Home

Annie and Bootsie on my chair

Home. What we all long for. What some of us have. What some of us don’t have.

Home — what does it mean? Does it mean having a house, an apartment a condo? Does it mean having a large cardboard box for the homeless? Yes.

Or does it mean where we grew up, the house at the end (or the beginning) of the street. The house where we lived and laughed, cooked and cleaned, played Parcheesi, slept and sat at the dinner table…does this represent home to you?

For me, it did…for a long time. Now that house is sold, my parents are no longer living, and the four remaining children are all grown up with homes of their own. Very different homes. But homes they are, not just houses.

And what about the folks who have only a tent or huge appliance box as shelter? Do we ever think about them, want to help them? Or do we just walk by them when we see them holding out their hands.

Most of us have never seen these people’s living (if you can call it that) arrangements. No, those places are in a part of town (or under the bridge) that we don’t frequent.

I’ve seen these forlorn places. I’ve talked to the people who live there when I was getting information about the homeless situation in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the article was never published, as the small magazine it was to appear in went out of business.

I love my home today, and it has provided me with a very comfortable place to live and to heal — from my COPD, from lost loves and from the move of my beloved grandson to another city far away.  And though I never lived on the street, I almost did — several times. How sad I was then. And how blessed I am today.

I believe in counting my blessings each and every single day of my life. I don’t think about what I don’t have anymore. I only thank God for what I do have. That works for me. Do you do that, too?

Lots of people have a home, but they want a bigger one, a newer one, one with more land or one with less land. People grumble about mowing the lawn, repairing the roof, and washing the dishes or doing the laundry. People complain about a lot of things, but I think the world would be a much better and happier place if people sought ways to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters, spent less money on stuff and took some time off each week instead of working so many hours that they die of heart attacks at a fairly young age.

That’s it for me tonight. How about you? I would really love to hear your comments and thoughts on these things. I hope you’ll click the comment box. Have a blessed day.

Everything is Bits and Pieces

My two special pieces: my daughter Molly and my grandson Hammie

I am thinking about bits and pieces today. Everything in our lives, as well as our lives, our bodies and our Earth, comes in bits and pieces. Or it’s put together that way. Or not. Sometimes the pieces are huge, such as birth, death, divorce, marriage and so on. Other times, the bits are so very tiny we can’t even see them, such as the thousands of particles emitted when a wood fire is burning or the electricity that is only visible when we see lightning or sparks coming out of the wall outlet.

Today is the day before the 4th of July. That makes it the 3rd of July. I have just gotten out of the hospital again this week. That makes 12 days out of the last 52 that I had a nice little private room, no rest, peanut butter and crackers (no salt on the top) at night, and thousands of milligrams of Prednisone. I had my vital signs taken over and over, three IVs had to be replaced and found out they don’t allow hair dryers in hospitals (at least not here) because of the possibility of a short.

Friends and family called and came by, always making my day brighter. One friend sent flowers, the beauty of which will always remain in my memory. They were yellow daisies and lilies in a short, square vase. Yellow is my favorite color. The bits and pieces of my life in the last nearly two months are clear and cloudy. In between hospital stays, I went to Atlantic City, watched my beloved grandson graduate from eighth grade, swam and walked so much my muscles were sore for days afterward and won $14 (my gambling limit was $25).

A couple of people got angry and frustrated with me, my cats missed me more than anyone else I think (they refuse to leave the room I’m in now, no matter what room!), and my feelings ranged from elation to despair. I had wellness to drop-dead headache pain, watched the rain fall and the sun go down, and now I’m trying everything I can to just STAY well and GET healthy.

I’ve lost ten pounds in the last ten days. I haven’t done it on purpose. It just happened. That’s a blessing compared to the 30 pounds I gained the first time around on Prednisone. Prednisone – a miracle drug that wreaks havoc on your body.

Everything we have materially, all things we say either verbally, in writing or in sign language, and the whole fabric of our life experiences comes in bits and pieces.  Our cloth is made of plaids, stripes, stars, lying down and getting up, music and silence, and warm and cold. We can never predict what will happen each day.

How we go with the river of rapids and pools determines how we feel each day. If we fight the rapids, we’ll probably drown. If we never get past the cool, blue pools, we might not see a tomato plant growing day by day.

There are so many side stories to these last nearly two months of my life. But the most important story is that God blessed me today by giving me these words to share with you. I hope your holiday is safe for and friendly to you. This is an amazing country that we live in. And each day, our lives can be wondrous testaments to that and to life itself, or they can be cesspools filled with bacteria and viruses waiting to eat us alive. It’s really ours to choose. What will you choose today?

Sit by my side, come as close as the air…

I heard Phil Ochs’ song “Changes”on a folk album today and decided to share it with you. You can click on the link and it will open in a new window, so you can listen to it while reading my belated blog.

“Sit by my side, come as close as the air
Share in a memory of gray
Wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes.” – Phil Ochs

“Change,” my ex-husband once told me, “is the only thing that is for sure.” We had a lively argument about that statement, and for years I don’t think I believed it. But now, in my ultimate wisdom of 62 years, I know he was right.

Tomorrow I fly out of here to go to my grandson’s eighth grade graduation. To be honest, I forgot they had graduations at that age (I probably had one too and just don’t remember it). So I was really surprised when my daughter told me about it a few weeks ago. I called Hammie and asked him if he wanted me to come. “Yes, Nana, I would really like that.”

Atlantic City, New Jersey is the last place I expected to be on June 15th this year. I pictured myself walking through World War II memorials and ruins in Poland, straining my neck to see the Sistine Chapel ceiling or visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. But Atlantic City? Never in a million years. Just goes to show you how wrong I can be. And how changes affected my life in one incident.

Change. It’s something we relish and dread. If we’re moving, we are excited about our new place (usually); however, we abhor packing and getting ready for the move.

If we’re going to the hospital for an operation, we look forward to getting better, but we do not get all giggly at the thought of someone cutting into us.

We eagerly anticipate the coming of spring and the crocus and daffodils brightening up yards everywhere. Then again, you’ll hear some people complain that they don’t know if they want to do all the work of a garden this year.

The river of life carries us to places we never thought we’d go, where we meet people whom later become our dearest friends. Or it carries us to dark places in our minds where we imagine every possible bad outcome to any situation.

How we deal with changes tells people (and us) a lot about who we are, what our true character is like, and a lot about our faith (or lack of it). I like to picture God laughing in delight if we wind up praising Him during a crisis. If we don’t, my mental picture is one of God saying, “Tut-tut…guess we still have some work to do, don’t we?”

As for me, I’ll try to make the most of this jaunt to Atlantic City. Hugging my grandson after he gradudates will make everything else pale in comparison. And I’ll tell him about the song.

I hope you have someone to sit by your side today, and your upcoming changes bring growth and happiness to your heart.

Soaking Wet – Nurturing My Inner Child

Oh my GOSH! This photo is so perfect! Another offering from morguefile.com. This time it was taken by Kakisky: http://morguefile.com/creative/kakisky

I was watering my hanging flower baskets and container veggies when all of a sudden I noticed there was a leak in the handle of the spray attachment on the bright yellow hose. My glove was dripping wet. Before long, more water was coming out and part of my pants  was also soaking wet.

I laughed out loud, remembering the days of running through the sprinkler, getting caught in sudden downpours, and falling down while water skiing. It was perfectly acceptable to get wet in those circumstances. But sprinkling yourself until your pants are dripping? Well, that’s a little iffy in my book.

My mind is not my friend. “That was stupid. Why didn’t you just tighten it up when you noticed it was dripping?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think of it then. I was having too much fun watering the plants and watching the rainbows I made with the water and the sun.”

“Well, don’t you think you’re a little OLD for stuff like this?”

“Not really. I feel younger than I have in years. Do you have anything else to say, maybe something constructive?”

“Not really.”

I remember when I taught my grandson how much fun it was to jump in a rain puddle. His mom was none too pleased with the results of wet shoes and pant bottoms, but we had a great time that day.

A few weeks later I taught him how to drag a stick along a metal fence to make fence music. He liked that and so did I. That’s why being a grandmother is so much fun. You don’t have to worry about the day-to-day things like parents do.

Now he’s 14 and graduates from the eighth grade next week. Jumping in puddles doesn’t interest him anymore, but playing video games and making animated films does. Time does more than fly — it whizzes by so fast the older you get that you wonder how you can keep up with anything.

When I was sick as a child, my dad used to bring me records from this favorite shop of his in San Francisco. They cost him $1.00 each. He brought me musicals because he knew how much I loved them. I knew all the words to all the songs in Carousel and South Pacific before I ever saw them in the theater or on stage. Thanks, Dad, for a good memory. I bet you and Mom are having the time of your lives in heaven.

Nurturing your inner child can be done in a myriad of ways. You can fly a kite, catch a butterfly, dig a hole, ride your bike, play catch with your own kids or friends, pick some flowers from the garden and present them to your Mom if she’s still alive or enjoy them yourself.

Eating dessert before dinner is a great way to let your inner kid come out to play. Didn’t you always wonder why you had to eat dinner first when you were young? I did. Today I do that sometimes. It feels fabulous.

Dying Easter eggs with your own or others’ children, doodling while you’re attending a boring business meeting, taking a different way to work, watching re-runs of “Leave It to Beaver” or “Happy Days,” or playing with a yellow duckie when you take a bath will all keep you young longer.

I have two inner children, the one that loves to come out to play and the one that is wounded emotionally. It used to be that I spent a lot more time holding the hurt kid. But today she only comes around every so often. Today I spend a lot of time recognizing the one that wants to play and the little things I do or someone else does to make that possible.

I hope you will take care of your inner child today in some way. I know you’ll be glad you did.

Ice cream, anyone?