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Proud to be An American

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Happy 4th of July!! I am proudly patriotic. So, is my husband – it is one of the things that I love so much about him. He had our flag flying yesterday. We are both military brats and we both have seen enough of the United States to know that it is a beautiful, beautiful country filled with vibrant, diverse, good people. Sure, we have our differences and our divides, but in the end, we come together to form one of the most dynamic, awe-inspiring, freedom loving, generous, productive nations, history has ever known.

I live in Florida, by the beach. I was just out in Montana, hiking and attending rodeos. Our states’ terrains could not be more different (mountains and rocks versus swamp lands and sand), our style of dress is entirely different (cowboy boots versus flip-flops) our scary animals are unique to our each of our states, but equally as ominous (bears versus alligators), and even our life pace were two different things. (slow and easy, versus crowded and high-charged) Yet, we are all fellow Americans. We all lay claim to the beauty and abundance and unique attributes that both states provide for us all. And that goes for every magnificent state in this great nation. We share a bountiful, breathtakingly beautiful land, filled with generous, creative, individualistic humans and we have created a country – a structure, that supports that generosity, creativity and rugged individualism. I am so grateful to be an American.

Enjoy the fireworks tonight, friends! Try not to tear up when Whitney Houston’s unbeatable rendition of our national anthem is played. Know that even in times of turmoil, frustration and strife, our country stands strong. Our country is great. Our country is a precious gift that deserves our grateful acknowledgment for all that it bestows.

Sticker Shock

I’ve been going through the fun experience of “sticker shock” as I have been opening up our credit card bills corresponding to all of our summer fun and the finishing up of our house renovations. It’s not that we didn’t consider our budget when planning all of this. We had a good general idea of the cost of all of this fun and upgrades. It’s just when looked at, as individual costs, they didn’t look so bad. All lumped together, it’s breathtaking. It’s daunting.

I get “sticker shock” at certain stores every single time I check out. Costco and Target come to mind as my biggest, “Oh Wow! Did I really just spend that much? There must be some sort of mistake.” It happens every time. My daughter and I now laugh at ourselves when we say we are just running into Target for Advil or toilet paper. Ha! My favorite experience is when I try to hone myself in and I try to get away without getting a shopping cart. I still end up hobbling up to the checkout counter with a toppling pile of awesome stuff, often running into other shoppers because I can’t see over the pile of things that I am trying to carry, to the checkout line, to buy.

Costco is another harrowing experience of sticker shock. The checker usually whispers to us, the amount of money we owe, I guess in fears of setting us over the edge. How do incredible bargains add up to incredible sums owed, so fast? The person at the front of the store, assigned to check people’s carts, who are leaving the store, never bothers to check over our cart very much. We hand the person our mile long receipt with the scary sum total owed and they just highlight it real fast with looks of fear and sympathy, as they pat our backs on the way out of the store.

Don’t worry, readers. We are fine. Our bills are paid. I am not going to be adding a tip jar to my blog. Once again, I am just trying to get a laugh at what I hope is often a universal experience. I am going to age myself, when I say that I grew up at a time when things only had sticky price tags attached to them (UPC codes, huh?), and moms walked around grocery stores with little plastic clickers to keep a check on how much their carts were adding up to, in order to avoid the panic of literal “sticker shock” when the time came to write a check. Back then, no one got angry at people writing checks at grocery stores. I wonder if there is now a retro app on my phone, equivalent to the little plastic clicker. I guess that would be called a calculator. I may have to start using the calculator a little more handedly, if the ultimate “sticker shock” starts really affecting my health adversely. In the meantime, I’ll just nervously giggle.

Double-Edged Sword

My cell phone died on Thursday, when we were still on vacation. I was with my immediate family, so I wasn’t too stressed about it. My replacement phone arrived yesterday. It was interesting to me that I wasn’t incredibly eager to open the box and get it started. I found myself “finding” other chores to do, before setting up my phone.

When we were kids, my father bought my mother one of the first cell phones. (you know, the giant brick sized ones) We all thought that she would be thrilled, but she wasn’t overjoyed. “Maybe I don’t always want to be reached,” I remember her saying.

Our new technology is definitely a two-edged sword. I wanted to text my son to bring some things home from the grocery store and yet, I couldn’t, and I had complete FOMO with my friends. Still, the non-distracted peace, all to myself, was really intoxicating. The cable guy “fixed” our home phone line right around the time my cell phone was completing its re-installation. Both rang within minutes of each other. I felt something shift in me, hesitantly. I felt my pace quicken and my brain started whirling with texts to write and things to sort and look up. I think a small, peaceful, quiet part of me, let out a disappointed, resigned sigh and went back to her far corner, in the back of my mind.

“My mind is constantly going. For me to completely relax, I gotta get rid of my cell phone.” – Kenny Chesney

“I actually have this fantasy of giving up my cell phone.” – Julia Stiles 

Vacation Clean-Up

****Happy Birthday, G! My second eldest son is 21 today. It doesn’t seem possible. He is such an amazing guy. I’m so proud to call him my son.

Why do I feel such a desperate need to get back to “normal” after vacation? It seems like, in my mind, that things were perfectly orderly before we left, even though they weren’t. I am in a frenzy right now trying to get everything checked off of my list. Laundry. Grocery shopping. Returns. Appointments made. Bills. Paperwork. Cleaning. Pedicure.

I told myself that I would bring some of that fresh mountain peace back with me, but that was short-lived. I purchased a Native American CD when I was away and I played it on my way to taking my daughter to tennis and while I ran other errands. Even with the peaceful drumming and quiet flutes, I found myself tensing in traffic and grumbling at being stuck in lines.

I have zero phone access right now. I fell off of my fly fishing boat (long, funny story for another blog) and my ultra-amazing water proof cell phone, wasn’t so water proof. My home phone service stopped working about three days after the cable guy spent a day at our home. Not having phone service probably should make me feel peaceful, uninterrupted and un-distracted, but instead I feel antsy and irritable. And I feel frustrated that I feel this way. Phone-less could be such a freeing, natural way to live. The Universe is probably trying to teach me something, but I stubbornly seem to want to fight the lesson.

I am writing this on my blog today, in hopes that I am not alone. If anything, I hope that my honesty will give relief to others who might feel the same way. I wish that I could write that being out in untouched, beautiful nature for a week, awoke my inner zen and I am now unflappably calm and peaceful. That didn’t happen. But at least now I have the self-awareness to notice this fact. I suppose that is a step in the right direction.

Water Spiritual

Having seen many incredibly majestic waterfalls this past week, I have decided to post this beautiful poem by Anne Wilson Schaef. I hope that it moves you, the way that it touched me.

Water Spiritual

A waterfall’s

A lovely place

To sit awhile

And know God’s grace

Plunging home

To the sea

Oblivious to you

Unseeing of me

The water knows which way to go

Returning to the sea

It must be so

It’s not too complex

This water song

It just keeps moving

Right along

No care for this

For that, no thought

Life is so simple

We’d almost forgot

I sometimes wonder

What point did we

Forget to notice

Life could be free

To move like water

T’ward our home

Is an easy task

Not done alone

The Creator’s grace

Accompanies us

We’re not forgotten

This, we can trust

To worry is only

As we all know

A lack of faith

In what is so

To move like water

Powerful yet weak

Will bring us to

The peace we seek

Head On Home

It is the “pack it up and head on home” day of vacation. These types of days are always reflection and digestion days, for me. It is the time to really think about what I have experienced and how that experience has affected me. Have I changed in any way because of my experience? Did I learn anything new? How did this experience impact the relationship I have with my family members? Will anything that I have experienced impact or change my daily life at home? How did this experience influence how I view Life?

This trip is no longer the eagerly anticipated adventure in the future, but is now part of our family’s memory scrapbook. It is no longer a question of what awaits us, but now a story of what happened, in an adventurous week, in the life of our family. That story will be kept alive by shared memories, laughs, and some pictures to prove that it is part of our shared experiences. Yet, we all will digest it, in our own personal way, born out of our own perspectives and feelings and preferences. In that sense, the story of this year’s epic family vacation, will be the same story, yet a collection of individual stories, all at the same time. But, isn’t that true of all stories? Isn’t that true of Life?

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Friday Blues

Happy Friday, readers and friends!!! Happy Friday all!!! Honestly, this particular Friday is the first Friday, in a LONG while, that I wish it weren’t Friday. This Friday marks the almost end of a wonderful, memorable family vacation. It marks the end of something that we all have been looking forward to and anticipating for a long, long time. As my family grows up and out, I realize that each of these vacations are even more precious than ever, as our six schedules are becoming more and more complex to allow these long, interrupted periods of time with each other, to even be a possibility. Since I am experiencing my ultimate favorite thing – uninterrupted adventures with my family, I am going to stop posting and start adventuring and I won’t be listing my three favorite things. Please don’t let that stop you from sharing some favorites in my comments section and new readers, please check out previous Friday postings where I usually list three favorite products, tips, websites, songs, etc. that have wowed my world.

Happy Friday Friends!! Enjoy your day and have a wonderful weekend!!!

The Long Hike

I’ve decided that hiking brings the best out of people. Hikers are incredibly kind to one another. They always make way for people to pass through narrow pathways. They happily take pictures for other hikers. People come from all over the country, actually, people come from all over the world, to hike certain awe-inspiring trails, and the experience is always one of unified peace and pleasure, taking in the pure natural beauty of untouched nature.

Hikers never cut each other off, or jockey for positions on the resting rocks. The overall, unifying sense is one of unity, kindness, excitement, and care. There are all ages of people on hiking trails. I have seen babies in contraptions that didn’t exist when my kids were babies. The baby hikers are in containers that look like little Coleman tents strapped to their father’s or mother’s backs, and they all contain babbling or sleeping, precious, happy babies. Some people run the trails and some meander very slowly, their walking sticks poking at all the beautiful wildflowers and exposing what might be hidden underneath the blooms. Some hikers stop to take pictures at every bend, others hurry along, eager to make it to the highly anticipated destination in record time. And it is all okay. There is no one right way to hike a trail. The only thing every hiker seems to have in common, is an intellectual curiosity and an overwhelming joy to be beholding such unbelievable, marvelous sights. And then to look over at their fellow hikers and see that same joyous, anstonished awe-struck expression on their faces, reflecting their own feelings back to them.

I wish that we could live our lives like we were on an amazing, long, fascinating, sometimes harrowing, surprising, but always worthy adventure. If we hiked our lives with the same respect for other hikers, the same gratefulness for our natural world, and a genuine joy for the experience that one experiences when hiking one of many, many trails, life would be simple, but also grand.

Flocal

I bought this sign in an adorable little antique/curio shop yesterday. I’ll probably put it right above my desk. At the same shop, I also bought handmade earrings that I liked so well, I went to the etsy shop and bought a necklace made by the same local artist. The artist emailed me and we had a really fun exchange. In Florida, we call shopping the local little shops and farm markets, shopping Flocal. It is my favorite kind of shopping.