Month: September 2022

Pot of Gold

I’m sorry to be delayed with today’s post. I had a “slumber party” at the beach with one of my best friends from college and I just got home. We have known each other since we were 18 years old. There is something very special and unique to lifelong friendships. We have shared a lifetime of getting to know each and every version of each other, as we have moved through the different stages of adulthood. So we delight in the growth in each other stemming from our lifetime experiences, and yet we also hold sacred the foundation of love and connection that we first felt when we were young ladies, meeting each other, and sensing that spark of kindred spirits.

We both are going through some major changes with our families growing up and having to make decisions about our next moves in our lives. We both have different stresses happening in our lives, yet we are hopeful and excited about the future and the unknowns which lie ahead before us. We were fortunate to wake up to a giant rainbow, glistening and shining over the water. A man at the pool remarked loudly about going out to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I looked over at my loyal lifetime friend, and I thought about how we first met each other at our wonderful university, and we had so many fun, shared experiences there. I thought about the lovely, lively evening which we had just spent together, getting caught up on each other’s lives. And I thought about both of our incredible husbands (whom we both also met in a college) and our beautiful children and families, and our amazing, mutually shared group of lifelong friends, and I thought to myself, “We already have our huge, gleaming pots of gold. How lucky we are! How truly lucky!”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday’s Majesty

Credit: Gregorio Catarino, Twitter Photographer of Queen Elizabeth, age 10, in July of 1936 was Lisa Sheridan

RIP – Queen Elizabeth II

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

When we judge people, we often forget that we all started out the same, as innocent little children, new to this world and to this living experience. No matter what anyone thinks of the British royals, or of the monarchy, no one can deny Queen Elizabeth’s unwavering commitment to her duties, carried out with a deliberate dignified stoicism, from childhood on. It is difficult not to respect people who are wholly devoted to something bigger than themselves, for their entire lives. It is only when these people pass on, that their constancy and loyalty is fully and truly appreciated.

Happy Friday, friends!! On Fridays, I discuss favorites. Life is an experience and there are so many wonderful things to experience in a lifetime. My favorite for today is Karen Nimmo who is a clinical psychologist and writer from New Zealand. She has so many practical, no-nonsense self-help tips in her articles, her 4-minute therapy sessions on Facebook, and in her books. I always glean helpful wisdom whenever I take the time to read one of her articles or to watch one of her short videos (plus I delight in listening to her wonderful Kiwi accent). Her blog on medium can be found here: https://medium.com/on-the-couch And her Facebook videos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/KarenNimmoPsychology (I see that she has already posted a video about grieving people whom you don’t even know, such as for Queen Elizabeth)

Have a wonderful, restoring weekend, friends!!!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

If You . . .

If you ever struggle with feeling like you are not doing “enough”, remember that you are just one tiny little cell of an immense, intricate ever-growing living organism. Do your own cellular function and know that it is enough. Know that your life is an important function to the life of the whole world, just as any tiny cell, helps to support the life of a whole body. Just one human body contains 37.2 trillion living cells.

If you ever struggle with gratitude, think about what Steve Jobs wrote above. Be thankful for all of the other “cells”, past and present and future, who have helped to co-create the life you have lived, the life you are currently living, and the life that you will live tomorrow. You will quickly become overwhelmed with immeasurable gratitude. You will be awestruck.

If you are struggling with anger, fear, frustration, resentment, indignity, try to step out of your own little “cell” for a moment, and see the bigger picture. Perspective often cures and frees the darkest of emotions. Steve Jobs died about a year after he wrote this poignant email to himself.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

A Little Romantic Story

I am an eavesdropper. My regular readers know this. I understand that I shouldn’t do it, but certain stories are too compelling to shut my ears. And honestly, I got the sense that these people wanted their story to be told. Their story sounded like a Nicholas Sparks book-and-then-movie, in the making.

As we were leaving our flight, I overheard a spritely, older couple talking to the flight attendant. The couple had flown to a mountainous area to go back to a spot which had been enticingly romantic to them, when they were first dating many, many years ago. The couple (now in their early seventies) felt that if they had waited any longer to do this trip, they might not have the physical fortitude to achieve this special journey.

When the couple were young and newly in love, they carved their initials into a beautiful little rock, and then they buried this particular rock in a certain spot, high up in the mountains. The couple had taken this specific journey, just this past weekend, far, far away from home, to see if their precious rock, which they had buried a long time ago, still existed. And yes!!! Miraculously, this adorable couple were able to find the exact spot (remember that they buried this rock years before GPS technology existed), and they unearthed their lovely, little rock that had marked the beginning of the foundation of their shared lives. The rock was just as they had left it, with their shared initials still clearly marked in the stone. The couple decided to bring the rock back home with them, but they told the flight attendant that they were very careful to get the coordinates of the spot where they had buried the rock, because they wanted their children to put their ashes, at that same exact spot, when they die. Then they laughed mischievously, saying that their kids would probably be in their seventies, themselves, and having to make that same difficult hike which the couple had just completed, by the time it was time to put their parents’ ashes to rest, in the spot in the mountains where the enduring story of this couple’s shared love, and the life of their family, all began.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Invitation

Good morning. This is travel home day, so I don’t have a long time to write like I usually have on Tuesdays. That is the beauty of travel, it opens up your inner and outer landscapes, but it also makes you appreciate the wonders and comforts of home.

More than many times on this trip, I felt thankful. I felt thankful for full flights, and for being on crowded shuttle busses, and I felt thankful for waiting in long lines at national sites. I felt thankful for crowds, and I am not one who generally likes crowds. I mostly felt thankful that we all felt safe to be fully alive again, after the scourge of the pandemic. There are silver linings to everything, and these silver linings are often painted by a brushful of gratitude.

I typically save poems that I like for Sundays, but I will share this one today, so that you don’t feel cheated by a short blog post. It was by the elevators in one of the places we stayed in this weekend. I think that it is a lovely, soulful poem.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday-Funday

Yesterday, my husband and I decided to do some hiking. We approached a trailhead marked “Black Diamond” which meant steep and difficult. A fit, sprite woman, in adorable hiking regalia, who appeared to be in her sixties came down from the trail.

“Was it strenuous?” I asked her.

“Well, that depends on your age and your joints. You see I’m 90, so I have to take it a little more slowly.”

“WHAT?!? You’re 90?! Wow, I am looking at aging goals right here!” I exclaimed wondrously.

“The key is to keep moving,” she said. “Just keep moving.” She then smiled proudly and jauntily headed down to her car at the foot of the mountain.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

When I travel, I enjoy seeing historic buildings and unusual terrain. I love partaking in different kinds of food and celebrations. I get inspired by clothing styles which are unique to an area. I am amazed at all of the landscapes and creatures which are different than what I am used to seeing. I love experiencing an overall ambience that is entirely unique to itself. I suppose I would say I like to get to know the rhythm and the poetry of where I am staying. Every place has its perfect poetry embedded in its DNA. Here is a poem which was left on a card at one of the lovely places we have stayed in on this current trip. It was meant for Soul Sunday, the day devoted to poetry on the blog.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Young and Free

So I am in a state several thousands of miles away from my home state of Florida. We did what many other giddy, “throw caution to the wind”, newly created empty nesters do. For the holiday weekend, we bought last minute plane tickets, arranged for a rental car, and we decided to just “wing” the rest of the trip. And so far, it has been exhilarating! I feel young and adventurous – two of my favorite feelings.

I probably won’t be writing much this weekend. I want to saturate in the experience. What has already become abundantly clear to me, just a day into this adventure, is that the United States’ greatest strength is the diversity of its people, all coming from so many varied cultures and heritages. It is our freedom which has allowed us to keep these traditions alive and strong. You wouldn’t imagine that my state and this other state are even in the same country, as our foods, our architecture, our festivals, our traditions and our landscapes are so vastly different. Yet we are fellow Americans, and we can celebrate our differences and our unity, all at once, and be awestruck and so immensely proud, all at the same time.

“This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation.” – Ronald Reagan

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

My Sweet Friday

Cauliflower. Albino broccoli. When did it become amazing? It feels like it was just in the last few years that we have truly explored the wonders of cauliflower. When I was a kid, I loved white chocolate. (Who am I kidding? I still love white chocolate.) Anyway, every single Easter, the Easter Bunny would bring me a big, white chocolate bunny which I would gnaw on throughout the Easter season. Once, when I was out in my yard, and my white chocolate bunny had become just a little white nub full of teeth marks, my snoopy next door neighbor yelled out to me, “Dear, what is that, that you are gnawing on?” I explained that I was feverishly gnawing on what was left of my white chocolate Easter bunny. “Oh silly me!” she exclaimed. “I thought that it was hunk of cauliflower.” That’s then when we both doubled over in hysterical laughter. Feasting on cauliflower! Was she crazy?!? If this had happened nowadays, versus in the 1970s, I would have better understood her confusion. Cauliflower is good! My favorites for today, on this Favorite Things Friday are two cauliflower crusted pizzas, and a delicious bag of non-potato “tater tots”, made of, you guessed it, cauliflower. These items are delicious. They are not quite as good as white chocolate, but I would put them right up there, and they are not full of sugar.

Kirkland Signature Supreme Cauliflower Crust Pizza (a supreme pizza with meat) and Milton’s Craft Bakers Roasted Vegetable Cauliflower Crust Pizza (no meat) are both delicious brands of cauliflower crusted pizza that can be found at Costco. We get them every time we go to Costco (which is a lot, of course, because we’re a middle-aged married couple) and we haven’t tired of them yet! They come with two pizzas to a box. And you should be able to get Green Giant Veggie Tots Cauliflower, Cheese, & Bacon at any self-respecting grocery store. Try them, you’ll love them. And maybe, because of the pride that you’ll feel for yourself for eating healthier options, you might be able to add a little white chocolate in the mix, for dessert.

Have a delightful, holiday weekend, friends! So long, summer! It’s been real.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Free Range Adults

Every first of the month, I go to Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone. Susan Miller has been doing astrology for a long, long time, and without fail, on the first day of every month, she writes a little excuse as to why the horoscopes aren’t ready yet. I can’t remember the last time the monthly horoscopes were ready to be read on the morning of the first day of any said month. Today’s excuse was a headline, highlighted in green. And I laugh to myself, as I wonder why Susan Miller even bothers to write excuses. First of all, her monthly horoscopes are FREE. She doesn’t owe me, or any other reader, jack doodle. And when the monthly horoscopes finally do appear (usually within the first few days of the month), they are delightful to read. They are thoughtful, usually 5-7 pages long, replete with a summary, in case you don’t have time to read 5-7 pages, and you just want some highlights. So convenient! If I went to Astrology Zone this morning, expecting my horoscope to be prepared to be read today, that’s on me. And if I feel disappointed that it isn’t ready, my disappointment was caused by my unrealistic expectation, not by Susan Miller. If you have a friend who is always late to things, adjust your expectations. You can try to express your concern with your friend’s tardiness with them, but if this direct communication doesn’t work, you must make adjustments. Adjust the time you show up for meetings with this friend, or even decide that your frustration is not worth meeting one-on-one with this person. Decide that you’ll just see this person at celebrations or gatherings which include other people whom you can mingle with, until the tardy person saunters in. If we can learn to be realistic about our own expectations and what we actually have control over, a lot of our angst can be solved for us. And honestly, excuses are useless.

And in other news, I went to our veterinarians’ office yesterday, to pick up our 81- pound Labrador retriever’s prescription diet kibble. (Actually, we found out that this is Ralphie’s ideal weight. He was hovering around 100 pounds during COVID lockdown. I am seriously considering going on this kibble diet myself. I could stand to lose my pandemic weight gain, and this is a prepackaged, no need to cook, easy diet plan. Yes, it’s true. This kibble gets more and more enticing every single day that jeans-wearing weather gets closer on the calendar.) Our awesome veterinarians are a married couple, who are about the same ages as me and my husband. The wife saw me picking up the food, and asked me how things are going with me. I told her that we just officially became empty nesters. Dr. Sarah (as she is fondly known) is a bubbly, smart, energetic, Hispanic woman. She got animated and her eyes lit up, when I mentioned empty nesting. “Ah yes! We are now empty nesters, too! It’s so peaceful and quiet and our house stays clean and neat and we are going on a trip this weekend, just the two of us. I feel kind of guilty saying this, but I am kinda liking this empty nest.” I smiled at her knowingly. “No need for guilt, Dr. Sarah. I feel the exact same way.” And as we each talked excitedly about our weekend plans, the receptionist, whose kids are in elementary school, gave us both the side-eyed stink-eye.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.