Author: admin

Visions of Friday

Happy Friday!!!!! First Favorite Things Friday of 2019!!

“Make today so awesome, yesterday gets jealous.” – Mad Kitty Media

“Dear Monday, go step on a lego . . . it’s Friday!” – BonnyundKleid.com

Hi Readers!! Today I am taking the Bird Box challenge and writing my blog, blindfolded, so please excuse any typos. Ha! I’m not taking the Bird Box challenge. Netflix told me not to do it. Seriously, though, like most of America, we watched Bird Box over the holidays and it was really good. It is definitely worth a watch, especially if you feel the need to keep your muscles at their maximum tightness, for two hours straight.

New readers, on Fridays, I keep it all “on the surface.” I list around three favorite things, songs, brands, twitter feeds, etc. that I really enjoy and I encourage you to add any of your own favorites to my Comments section.

I’m going to go out on a limb today and talk about one of my favorite interests and hobbies, and that is following Astrology. (enter the groans of my very practical, science-minded sons) I realize that my more analytical, left-brained readers are now worried about my mental faculties and my more religious readers are now praying for my soul. (I have to say, I was amazed at how many astrological symbols I saw in various churches that I have toured in Europe – truly) That being said, I find reading about astrology fun and interesting and mysterious and fascinating. I’m a total amateur. If you really study it, astrology is pretty complex. I’m not sure if the position of the stars really have much to do with our personalities or what is going on in our lives, but it’s fun to read about and good to have something to blame things on, when life goes haywire. (damn, Mercury’s retrograde, that’s why my computer is on the fritz LOL) At the very least, when I read my very skeptical husband his horoscopes every morning, we both can agree that most astrologers offer good, solid, wise advice such as thinking before you speak or being careful with your money. All in fun!

I can’t just limit my favorite astrologers to just three. When I really like something, I like A LOT of it. So here are sites to check out and see what are a good fit for your fancy:

MOST ACCURATE – I did a test where I wouldn’t look at my horoscopes and I would just experience my day and then I would look back to see which ones described the day I just had, best. I found MyStarshoroscopes.com and Broadly horoscopes to be the most “spot on” and I rarely miss reading them on a daily basis.

MOST THOUGHT PROVOKING – I love Holiday Mathis horoscopes because she just makes me think and ponder. She does a great question and answer session at the bottom of her daily horoscopes, too and the analysis is fascinating. I also love to read Daniel Whelland Dowd because he just seems like a fascinating, down-to-earth guy from Buffalo with high sights for the future of us all. (honorable mention in this category – British astrologer, Oscar Cainer. His horoscopes read like riddles or metaphors.)

MOST HIP – The Astrotwins are really cool. Their write-ups have kept me socially hip and aware for years. They are thorough and have a NYC vibe to them. They write horoscopes for Elle and other publications, so they are probably among the most well-known astrologers in social scenes. I have to put the Astro Poets on Twitter, in this category as well. The memes that they make about the various signs, are hilarious!

MOST THOROUGH – Susan Miller is one of the most well-known, longest published astrologers in our day and age. Her monthly horoscopes are pages long and thoughtfully prepared. I don’t ever miss her monthly and I even make little notes on my calendar regarding her advice. (honorable mention in this category – Crystal B. Astrology)

BEST WEEKLY HOROSCOPES – Every Wednesday, these four astrologers post their weekly horoscopes and I don’t miss them. Rob Brezny (this is another guy who is well-read and makes you think- a very positive person), Lovelanyadoo (I love the way Jessica Lanyadoo writes. She seems so confident and loving), Kristin Fontana (very spiritual, thoughtful and thorough) and the Mountain Times horoscopes by Cal Garrison (a.k.a. Mother of the Skye) (this woman holds nothing back, a “say it like it is” kind of a person)

Btw, I’m a Sagittarius. What’s your sign, baby?

“Maybe if we all sit extremely still, Monday won’t be able to see us.” – ultragoodvoyeur.tumblr.com

Have a great weekend, friends!! I think that a good weekend is in the stars for all of us!!!

What You Said?

It seems like at the start of the new year, there is so much information out there about how to improve yourself. The magazine covers are filled with diet ideas. Articles abound on the internet about de-cluttering your house and what your reading lists should be for the new year. Everyone is capitalizing on the “fresh new start” and the impetus for change. One article I read talked about words that many of us commonly mispronounce and how to pronounce them correctly. I’ll give you some of the words on the list, but I’m not going to tell you how to pronounce them. Come on! You already know how to pronounce these words correctly, right?!? Some of this list is as follows:

Chipotle, cache, gyro, ennui, espresso, prescription, candidate, sherbet, Sudoku, niche, cavalry, bruschetta, Celtic, prerogative, liable, chicanery, hummus, caramel, wheelbarrow, asterisk, raspberry

I felt like I did pretty well with most of the pronunciations, although some of them did surprise me. Certain words, I constantly stumble on their pronunciation, even when I have looked them up and practiced dozens of times. I avoid trying to say certain words or I try to say them really quickly, so whomever I am talking to, gets the “gist” of what I am saying and hopefully doesn’t catch that I’m still unclear on the pronunciation of the word.

I love it when you find a word that is just fun to say and you look for an excuse to say it. My husband and I were at this beautiful farm market and they were selling mostly prize winning cheeses. What really attracted us, though, were their jars of escabeche. My husband thought the escabeche would taste wonderful and that it would make a great garnish on our sandwiches and salads. I just thought it looked lovely and colorful and I love saying the name. I love saying escabeche. It’s just really fun to say. Escabeche. Escabeche. See, fun to say!

When my daughter was little, she had three “talky” older brothers who constantly talked over her and for her. I think that she still has to deal with that annoyance, when we are all together. It took her a while to get her grammar points down, because frankly, she didn’t have to do it. She had three loud mouths to make the point that she wanted another cookie, was not excited about having a babysitter, or had to go to the bathroom again. When she didn’t hear what someone had to say, she would ask, “What you said?” It drove me crazy, trying to correct that particular grammar mistake she was making, until I finally decided to just roll with it and even used it as my email password. Like all things we parents lose sleep over, her grammar mistake passed and quickly, especially when I decided to just let it go.

What are words that “trip you up”? What are words that just roll off of your tongue in the most delightful way? I think that is the great fun of the new year, contemplating all of the ordinary stuff with a fresh, interested point of view.

Three Steps to Nowhere

Well, this is the earliest that I have been awake in a while. My husband headed back to work today. Break over. This is going to take some “easing into.” Probably like a lot of us, in the last few days, I’ve been reflecting a lot about what I want to do in 2019. I’ve also been thinking a lot about my blog and what direction I should take it.

I read recently that people love to read blogs that offer numbered steps to perfection or numbered tips to achieving your goals. So, if I wrote a blog entitled “Three Steps to Your Perfect Life” or “Five Guaranteed Ways to Lose All of the Extra Holiday Pounds”, they would most likely be my best looked-at and most read blogposts. Unfortunately, I don’t have all of the answers to make bullet lists to cover all (or any, for that matter) of life’s predicaments. In fact, the older that I get, the less I feel certain about any of my “sureties”. I’m not a disingenuous person. I can’t pretend to be an expert on something that I’m not.

I read once that maybe life’s journey isn’t about becoming anything, but it’s more about “unbecoming” everything that we take on that really isn’t “a fit”; undoing everything that isn’t really authentically ourselves. I’ve heard and experienced, that people who live to be elderly, often revert back to child-like states in their last years – becoming more open, alive in the moment, and pure in their emotions. I’m not sure what steps to take to get back to that state of purity. Maybe that just happens in the natural progression of life. Maybe that clean simplicity is a great gift of aging. Sorry, but I just don’t have the answers. I don’t have the steps or the bullet points. But I do have the curiosity to observe it all, in this second stage of adulting, and I enjoy blogging about my experiences and observations. So, until those magic simple steps and perfect bullet lists appear in my head, this questioning and observing and discovering and the laughing at the absurdity of some of it, is the format that this particular blog is going to stay in, at least until my perfect answers arrive.

There is a scene, which takes place some time in the 1950s, in the excellent movie, The Wife, in which an older, very talented but unread female author tries to persuade the young, talented, aspiring heroine of The Wife, to quit writing. The older writer claims that all of the decisions about what makes good writing is decided by men and therefore, writing will be a hopeless and pointless career, for the young female aspiring author.

The young, and some would say “naive” writer firmly states to her older friend, “A writer has to write.”

The cynical, experienced woman retorts back, “A writer HAS to be read, honey.”

I agree with both of them. Thanks for staying with me. I look forward to our future connection, epiphanies, and awakenings, in the upcoming year!

“Any product that needs a manual to work, is broken.” – Elon Musk

Welcome, 2019!!

Happy New Year! Happy 2019! Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!

Today, my family and I will eat my favorite meal of the year. The lucky New Year’s Day meal is my all-time favorite, even more than Thanksgiving. Pork, sauerkraut, brats and kielbassi, collards, potatoes and black-eyed peas, make up this yearly tradition. Cooked all together all day long, with the savory flavors blending together, all with the promise of excellent luck in the upcoming year.

This is a tradition my family has had for years and generations and judging by the fact that my grocery store has all of these ingredients readily available at the front of the store, something tells me that we’re not alone. There is going to be a lot of good luck, excitement and hope, wafting around the houses of the world today. Fresh new starts abound!

“What A Wonderful Thought It Is That Some Of The Best Days Of Our Lives Haven’t Even Happened Yet” – Anne Frank

“What The New Year Brings To You Will Depend A Good Deal On What You Bring To The New Year” – Vern McLellan

On the Brink

Happy New Year’s Eve! Happy Last Day of 2018! May it be fun, fabulous and the perfect closure to the year! Happy Anniversary, Betsey! My beautiful friend Betsey got married on NYE and it was truly one of the most fun, festive weddings that I have ever been to, mostly because everyone was up for a really good time! It was also so beautiful and sacred. If you ever get the chance to get married on NYE, jump on it! It is the perfect day for a wedding and a wonderful way to start the new year, all in the spirit of love, hope and excitement.

Typically, I feel very spiritual and reflective on NYE. Years ago, I read about a NYE ritual that sounded really interesting to try, so my husband and I and some of our kids have done it on several NYEs now. We write two lists. On one list we write all of the things, experiences, habits, blessings, etc. that we are thankful for in this year and some of these events and ways of being that we hope to continue with, into the new year. We also write on this list, all of the new things, experiences, habits, blessings, etc. that we are hoping for in the new year. We then seal these lists in an envelope with the upcoming year marked on the outside and we store this envelope in a cabinet for the entire year. On our second list, we write a list of things that, while we are thankful for the lessons that these experiences have taught us, we no longer wish to have as a focus in our lives anymore. We burn that list during the evening of NYE, in a small camp fire with some white sage, again thankful for the teachings and good aspects that came from that particular event, experience, habit, but now wanting to say good-bye and to cleanse ourselves from any negativity, by burning that list away.

I just looked at my intention list that I wrote on NYE 2017 for the year of 2018 and I’m excited to see how much of what I had hoped for, actually happened this year. 2018 was a good year! It was a year full of excitement, change and growth for me. I’m excited to spend some time reflecting on what I hope to see in 2019 and writing it all down on a physical list to be stored in our cabinet this year. Truth be told, the list is probably already forming and preparing itself to be manifested on paper, but stored in my heart and in my hopes, for the year to come.

May everything heavy on your hearts be burned away with only the helpful lessons and blessings being retained, to help you on your Life’s journey! May all of your hopes and expectations for the new year come true, in even better form than you can possibly imagine! May happy surprises and profound lessons bless us all in the new year! May continued abundant blessings abound for all of us for the entirety of 2019!

Just Three Words

I was reading an interesting post on Smart Thinking on Twitter. The author asked his followers to describe 2018 in three words. Some people didn’t have such a great 2018. Here were some of their answers:

I no like.

Thank you, next.

Ha, I tried.

2019 Come Fast.

Waste of time.

Worst so far.

WTF

It sounds like some people had an above average kind of a year. Here are their replies:

Ups and Downs.

Not so Bad.

Follow Your Heart.

Learned to Forgive.

Persistence, perspiration and patience

Some people seemed to really like 2018. This is how they answered:

Change is good.

All is well.

Fun, teaching, travel.

Blessed. Loved. Strengthened.

A great year.

One person just came off as funny and clever. This is how he answered:

Two thousand eighteen.

If I were to answer the question, Exciting, Exhilarating and Exhausting came to mind right away. I wouldn’t mind for 2019 to be those same three words, although I somehow would like to change “exhausting” to “energizing.” I probably should put a little more emphasis on physical health this coming year, for that to happen.

I like reflecting on the past year, thinking about what I would like to keep in the new year and what has served its purpose, and now is time to discard. I read recently to not call goals for the new year “resolutions”, but more “intentions”, to keep the focus on the positive and the possible. I like that. I also read recently that if you are having a hard time deciding what you want in life, think about the things that you don’t want and turn that around to what you do want. So, if you don’t want drama and craziness in 2019, that can be turned around to what you do want – peace and harmony. Once you figure out what you do want, you can think about smaller steps you can take to achieve your intention.

I’ve always enjoyed this time of year. I find it, well, Exciting, Exhilarating and Energizing! How would you describe your 2018 in three words? How would you like to describe your upcoming 2019 in three words, using your best intentions?

Because, as one responder stated:

Life goes on.

Live Love

Today, my great aunt’s body is being put in its resting place. Her beautiful spirit is already free in Heaven with my grandmother, her other siblings and all those people she loved, who have already passed on. My Aunt Mary Lou passed on Christmas day. She fought cancer for 28 years. She held on as long as she could to be with those she treasured most – her beloved husband, children and grandchildren. They knew how much she loved them, because she never held back in that regard.

My Aunt Mary Lou was my grandmother’s youngest sibling and the last of the five of them, to leave Earth, and to go to Heaven. I was the flower girl in her wedding. Unfortunately, as these things happen with extended families, lives get busy, and our relationship dwindled to seeing each other on the occasional wedding or funeral and exchanging Christmas cards. Still, I never doubted her strong love for me and my family, ever. I had heard in early December that hospice had been called. I went to a little chapel where I like to pray, on Hope St. (that’s a real place) There, I lit a candle for her. I texted her some pictures. She texted me back that she loved me and my family so much. I have a lovely little ornament on our Christmas tree from her. She sent it to me when I was pregnant with my first son. It is a wooden heart and on it, she hand wrote (she had lovely, distinctive handwriting), “Baby – we love you already.”

Aunt Mary Lou wasn’t very rich or very famous, or very educated, but she knew what counts. She knew what was really important and she lived it. She lived love. It’s that simple. Rest in peace, dear one. Thank you for touching my life.

It’s Friday, Light a Candle

“Friday increases the happiness all around the world by 11%.” – Famous Quotes Daily

That’s just an average. I’m sure that on certain Fridays, that percentage is doubled, maybe even tripled in certain corners of the world. Happy Friday, my dear friends! This is the last Friday of the year of 2018! I hope that you have had a wonderful holiday season and an intriguing, exciting year with an even better year coming, in the future! New readers, I write about three of my favorite things or songs or books or websites, etc. every Friday, keeping Fridays what they should be – a break from all of the seriousness of life. Please look in the archives for other Friday suggestions if you are looking for ways to spend your Christmas money!

I’ve told you before about how much I like scented candles. I like them so much that I once lit our dining room table on fire (see July or August archives). I also like to float lighted coconut shell candles in our pool on special occasions. (you can order those from vendors on Etsy) Anyway, I have a closet full of candles and I love them all, but if I had to pick just three to keep, these brands and scents would have to be it:

Lollia Candles (out of Denver) – these candles come in lovely, colorful, cubed boxes that make them seem almost too pretty to burn. They make wonderful gifts for people and all of their scents are amazing, but if I had to pick one scent, it would be number 88 Velvet as Night. The scent is mysterious, sensual and exotic.

Blue Flame Candles (out of Stuart, Florida) – these candles are strongly scented in fabulous way. If you need to replace a terrible scent with a much better scent, this is your go-to candle. They have scents like I have never smelled before. My favorite of theirs is Golden Patchouli, but they are all very nice.

MVP Group Candles (out of Charleston, SC) – I have only bought this one particular candle of theirs because it has a neat, beachy look to me. The scent is fabulous. It is called Warm Beachwood. The container is a beautiful milky, light blue iridescent glass with an intricate carved, copper lid. I love it lit and unlit!

Feel free to tell me your favorite candles and scents. I can make room in my closet!

“It’s Friday! I haven’t been this excited since my phone got stuck on vibrate.” – Someecards

Conehead

Josie, our 7 month-old collie puppy got spayed yesterday. Since she is an older puppy, she’s already about 45 pounds and pretty tall. She has to wear one of those giant cones on her head for about ten days, so that she doesn’t lick her stitches. She looks like a walking, furry funnel. Josie’s being an amazingly good sport about it all. I already know that I will learn a lot about being good-natured and rolling with the punches, from her. When I feel myself being annoyed when she nudges me, making me feel like I am being sucked in by a giant suction cup, I think about how aggravating it must be to navigate one’s surroundings, with a giant plastic cone wrapped around one’s head, especially, when you are a little loopy on pain meds, to boot. Watching her eat and drink with it, is the most fascinating thing to watch. As a claustrophobic person by nature, I’m in awe that the cone isn’t making her crazy. But that just doesn’t seem to be her way of being. She’s definitely a “go with the flow” kind of gal.

Ralphie, our lab, seems a little disturbed with the conehead chasing him around. His new friend seems a bit more ominous with a big plastic vortex surrounding her head. It’s kind of like when a lizard expands its throat or a bird fluffs out its feathers, even though you know that logically, it’s the same small animal, you can’t help but give it a little extra respect, wide berth and a little more breathing room. Maybe Josie is focusing on the positives of this conehead experience – more power, sympathy and respect.

I have a dentist appointment this afternoon, that I’ve been dreading. It will involve some drilling. I’ve already rescheduled it three times. As I look at my fluffy puppy, sweetly trying to gnaw at her chew toy while not being able to hold it steady in her paws, I am gaining some courage and inspiration. Josie is just happy to be home again with her new family who is crazy about her. She’s focused on the positive.

“You’ll have bad times, but it’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.” – Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting

Back to Reality

So, Christmas is over for another year. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly everything gets back to “normal.” I woke up this morning and my mind went instantly to the “to do” list. In some ways, this feels good. A lot of the distractions are over and the focus can be on the upcoming new year, but it is always strange to have an event that is thought of and planned for, for about a month ahead of time, to all of the sudden, just be over. I guess this is when the dreaded “let down” happens for a lot of people. I’ve honestly never gotten that feeling too badly. I usually have reached my saturation point with all of the “out of the ordinary” – eating, drinking, parties, get-togethers, red and green decorations, extra stuff to sort and to put away, etc. I start to really crave and look forward to “the ordinary”. I’ve said it before, but I do think that it is an added blessing of the holidays, to start getting a true appreciation and desire for your own every day life. Maybe that’s part of the design of the holiday season.

“At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still and allow contentment to come to you.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.” – Albert Clarke