Tag: empty nest

I Offer You This Blessing

I love perfume. I own bottles and bottles of it. The sense of smell easily is one of my favorite senses. Recently, I purchased a bottle of Wen perfume. The scent is okay – nice and light and minty and fresh, but the best part of the purchase, is the blessing that came with it, printed on the perfume box. It’s such a good blessing that I cut it out of the box and I placed it on my desk, front and center. It’s such a good blessing that I would like to pass it on to you, my friends:

“May you be blessed with light, love, hope, strength, faith, joy, truth, honesty, understanding, wisdom, harmony, prosperity, success, health and happiness in all of the years to come. “

I highly recommend that you take this blessing, offered to you in love, and in gratitude and in earnest appreciation, soak it in, and print it out. Place it somewhere that you will see it every single day. (My husband’s grandparents used to tape blessings and Bible verses on their bathroom mirrors – a warm, wise practice which I have copied, over the years) Read it while you have a nice scented candle lit, or when you are petting your beloved pet, or while you are gazing at your favorite family photo – doing this, so that you associate your blessing with a wonderful, sensory experience.

Have an amazing day, my dear, dear friends! May your day be filled with light, love, hope, strength, faith, joy, truth, honesty, understanding, wisdom, harmony, prosperity, success, health and happiness!

25 Blessed Quotes - Inspirational Quotes About Being Blessed in Life

Soul Sunday

Sundays are devoted to poetry here at Adulting – Second Half. I either write a poem or I share a poem that has touched me. Today is a sharing day. Please share your poems in the Comments section, in the spirit of sharing. There is no judging here – just sharing our hearts.

About a month ago, my uncle passed. He was a very accomplished and enthusiastic pilot, flying both airplanes and helicopters, and teaching many others to fly, as well. On his memorial card, my cousin chose this beautiful, poignant and apropos poem to honor her father. This is the back story of this moving poem:

“The sonnet above was sent to his parents written on the back of a letter which said, “I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed.” He also wrote of his course ending soon and of his then going on operations, and added, “I think we are very lucky as we shall just be in time for the autumn blitzes(which are certain to come).” (Air Force Historical Support Division)

The poem was written by a Royal Canadian Air Force officer named John G. Magee on September 3, 1941. He was killed, about three months later, during a routine training mission, on December 11, 1941. Here is his beautiful poem:

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew-
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God

Boring

How is everyone doing out there? You have been awfully quiet lately. One of my all-time favorite things, in life, is “adventuring.” Certainly, I like vacations and far away trips, but I savor every day adventures, too. I like going to towns around me and trying out restaurants and going into quaint, unique stores, that I have never been to before. I like lingering in coffee shops and soaking in the ambiance, unique to that particular location. I like mixing my clothes and accessories into new ensembles and I get giddy when those ensembles just seem to fit together, in a whole new fresh way. I enjoy opening a new book, with eager anticipation, or starting a new, engaging TV series or a new, fun game on my phone. I like buying new perfumes or lipsticks with the idea that I will finally find my “holy grail” product and I will never, ever stray from it, for the rest of my life, or until it is discontinued and I have to treasure hunt for it on ebay. I like to adventure on hiking trails that are new to me, with the promise of the possibility of happening upon a plant or an animal that I have never witnessed in the wild, before.

I’ve been a bit mopey and lazy lately. I’ve convinced myself that my adventures have been curtailed and ruined. I’ve been telling myself how boring and mundane and routine and limited life has become with this coronavirus situation, at hand. I’ve had myself a pretty little pity party, in my own little wah-wah, dull blue corner, which I have painted myself into, these days.

I pride myself in my creativity and my thinking outside of the box, so it is time for me, to oil that ingenuity gear in my brain, and get excited again. Dust it off, girl!! It is time for some self reflection on areas of my life, that I am just going through the motions. Is it time to try some new grocery stores and give some interesting, unusual new recipes, a go? Is it time to try to read a genre of book that I typically don’t gravitate to? Does it matter that even though I don’t socialize much at all anymore, to still take the time to get a cool outfit together and like what I see in the mirror? Can I get excited about losing a few extra pounds, by setting a weight loss goal and get motivated by trying to achieve it? My life and my fulfillment is my responsibility. If I’m bored, I need to find constructive ways to fix that for myself, instead of destructive, self defeating behaviors and thought patterns, that just swallow me up in my own wallowing self pity. Being bored is an insult to oneself.  (Jules Renard)  

20 Motivational Quotes To Get You Out of a Funk | Tulip and Sage

Frenemy

I’m challenging myself to try new things, so I wrote a poem, using this writing prompt:

Writing Prompt
Write a 5-7-5 poem on any subject. The only rule is to follow the 5-7-5 syllable count (first line has five syllables, second line has seven, third line has five again).

Here is my 5-7-5 poem:

FRENEMY

I have a new friend.
She’s an unrelenting bitch.
Hypochondria.

Texting with my friends, it appears that Hypochondria’s friend circle has expanded quite a bit, lately. Why is she so tantalizing? Why do I spend so much time with Hypochondria? What really is the allure? She loves to create drama and fear. Hypochondria (let’s just call her Connie from here on out) loves to make something out of nothing, all of the time. She’s really in her prime right now. Connie has SO many followers, and her fan base keeps growing exponentially, every day, it seems. She’s always stirring the pot, and the media (mainstream and social) help her to do it. Every. Single. Day. The media is Connie’s flock of flying monkeys. The thing about Connie is that she tricks you into believing that worry is actually effective. Connie paralyzes a lot of other people, while in the meantime, she expends tons of her own energy, finding countless articles and websites and experts to make her worst case scenarios, seem utterly and entirely plausible, and on the brink of happening, all of the time. Connie sounds so awful and horrible and evil, when you take a step back, to see how she treats people, yet she’s really hard to let go, for so many of her intimate acquaintances. Why is that?

Others who have let go of Connie’s toxic hold over them, suggest these steps to get away from her:

  • Learning stress management and relaxation techniques
  • Avoiding online searches for the possible meanings behind your symptoms
  • Focusing on outside activities such as a hobby you enjoy or volunteer work you feel passionate about
  • Avoiding alcohol and recreational drugs, which can increase anxiety
  • Working to recognize that the physical signs you experience are not a symptom of something ominous, but are actually normal bodily sensations
  • Setting up a schedule for regular appointments with your primary care doctor to discuss your health concerns. Work with them to set a realistic limit on medical tests and specialist referrals. (The Center for Treatment for Anxiety and Mood Disorders)

In short, in order to get out of Connie’s evil clutches: breathe, take a walk, don’t go to her doctor – the infamous “Dr. Google”, find an all-encompassing interest or hobby, don’t go to a bar or brewery or break open a bottle of wine with Connie, remember that you know your own body better than anybody – certainly better than Connie knows it, and finally, go to a doctor who you can trust, a doctor who will help you to limit your exposure to Connie.

Connie is an emotional vampire. She zaps you of your strength and your practical reasoning skills. Connie does NOT deserve any of your time nor your energy. You need to protect yourself from Connie, during this difficult period in history. Do NOT succumb to her seduction. Connie will steal your time, and your peace and your sanity. She is the real enemy of your health (physical and mental) and of your immune system. It is time to say good-bye to Connie. Connie is toxic. She does not deserve any of our mind space nor attention. Connie’s a mean girl, and mean girls are not good friend material.

funny quotes about hypochondriac | hypochondriac. #medicalhumor ...

Screen Door

Trip, our new Boykin spaniel puppy, has created his own “doggy door” on our screened-in porch. He found a weakness in the screen, at the bottom portion of the screen door, so that when he was really teeny, he would just weasel through a little, loose corner of the screen, hoisting himself and then crawling out to the back yard, as quick as he could muster. I didn’t dissuade this because frankly, I thought that it was cute, watching his wiggly little puppy butt crawl out the door, and also, I assumed that he had to get out to do his business, in a real big hurry. Now that Trip is a bigger puppy, and he has that “spring action” going on, which spaniels are noted for, his handmade doggy door has actually become more of a flap, and his agility skills are highly noted by me, as he leaps outside, through his own creation, as if he were a one-puppy football team, bursting through a banner, headed out to play for the state championship win, in order to “go potty.” And it should be noted that I am his one-person-loud-yet-not-so-agile-middle-aged-lady-cheerleading squad. (In truthfulness, potty training is not yet perfected with Trip, and yesterday there was a Roomba disaster, but that’s for another blog. The Roomba is a perfectly wonderful machine, in my mind, except that it’s one flaw is that it absolutely needs a sniff sensor. Our family is so chaotic with kids and animals, that we actually have two Roombas going, at any one time. Thank goodness for tile floors, Fabuloso, and Eckart Tolle’s podcasts on mindfulness.) Yesterday, was definitely a classic Monday, with this messy fiasco occurring, and my husband getting a flat tire on his brand new car, despite the fact that we barely ever drive anywhere these days. Mondays. At least it’s over for another week.

So, now I will go back to the point that I was trying to make about Trip’s homemade doggy door. It struck me that when we are young and exuberant, we don’t see limits. We burst through the screens that are supposed to stop us, with nary a thought about it. We head out to our chosen destinations with excitement, exhilaration and a belief in all of the fun and adventures, that await us, in the big, outside world. I know that as Trip grows older and wiser and bigger, and we finally get around to fixing the screen so that it is more impenetrable, he will start accepting his limits. Trip will become a little more cautious about what awaits him outside, due to conditioning and his life’s experiences. Still, I hope that he always keeps a little bit of that puppy-like innocence and overreaching curiosity that gave him the impulse to create his own door out, in the first place. And I hope that when this temporary screen of fear and doom and unrest gets lifted for us, in this world, we can all burst through the doors, into the big, beautiful, outside world, with dreams and excitement and anticipation, that have been with all of us, all along, since the days that we were just little, innocent pups, ourselves.

Paradox Puppy

“I have a pouch below my belly, whereas I had a thin waist before. Now there’s this situation down there, low and grabbable. If it had a zipper, you could store stuff in it, as in a fanny pack.” ~@ANNELAMOTT

It’s called Pandemic Pouch and it’s all the rage! – Cindy Nye (Twitter)

The above listed is my favorite quote for today – a hot, messy Monday in July. And Cindy Nye’s response gives a classic name to a phenomenon/”fashion trend” that many of us are sharing these days. I’m just relieved to not be alone in carrying around a Pandemic Pouch, day and night, day in and day out. My Pandemic Pouch seems to have an expansion feature and I am getting really good at vacillating between decorating it with belts, and then trying to camouflage it, underneath colorful, flow-y, blouse-y bohemian tops. It seems that my Pandemic Pouch holds more than I ever knew possible.

I was reading this charming collection over the weekend, from southern writers, and of course, William Faulkner is always mentioned as one of the most unequaled authors of this genre. Here are two of my favorite quotes attributed to Faulkner:

Speaking of the south, my regular readers know that I temporarily lost my mind and control of my impulses, by insisting that we get a third dog. I somehow thought that raising a pandemic puppy, would help to ease the stress of this bewildering, sad, confusing and unusual situation. How paradoxical of me! Nonetheless, I am totally and completely, captivated, smitten and fully in love with our little guy, aptly named Trip. I came up with the name “Trip” because Trip is our third dog and he is a southern breed of dog. Trip is a Boykin spaniel, which by the breed being originated there, is actually “the official dog of South Carolina.” South Carolinians take their Boykin dogs so seriously that they literally have a day devoted to Boykin spaniels, every year. Boykin Spaniel Day is right around the corner on September 1st. “Trip” is a nickname often given to the third of anything in the south. Having gone to college in Virginia, I became friends with more than one “Trip”, in my tenure there. I also like to joke that we named the puppy “Trip”, because he is our summer adventure, instead of taking an actual trip, during this coronavirus madness. As it turns out, like most names and words, there is another additional meaning to his name that fits him aptly. Trip has become my Velcro dog. As I write this, he is warming my feet. Trip follows me everywhere, including the bathroom, the garage, my closet, under the covers – basically, he follows me wherever I am trying to disappear to, for some rare and fleeting moments to myself, while we are all mostly at home, trying to avoid catching the virus. I trip on Trip almost every single day and more than once. I hope that this tripping over Trip does not land me in the hospital. That would defeat the purpose of this puppy adventure completely. Again, I marvel at the paradox.

Soul Sunday

Hello, dear hearts. I was reading an essay about a writer who would go to her grandparents’ Kentucky home every summer and her favorite memory of that precious time in her childhood, is that everyone would call each other “dear heart.” It’s so interesting, when we look back at our lives, to see what memories really mean something to us and seem to stick out, as defining moments. Often, it’s the most seemingly inconsequential happenings that really make the biggest mark on our lives. When this coronavirus situation has finally passed, we will all just hold tidbits of memories and emotions that will forever mark this time in our lives. And even though we are all collectively experiencing much of the same event, we will all memorialize it differently, with a few random aspects of it all, that will be forever seared into our minds and into our hearts.

My regular readers know that Sundays are devoted to poetry. It is poetry workshop day at Adulting – Second Half. Here’s my poem for the day. Please gift us with your melodious, soul flowing words, in my Comments section. Thank you and bless you, dear hearts.

Home

The charming abode with the white picket fence,

Filled with apple pies and common decency,

Once became so unremarkable that it bored people to tears.

But in times of raging storms and bewildering uncertainty,

We seek the lovely, well-kept, placid cottage,

Brimming with integrity and the solidity of a foundation

Made from the salt of the earth.

And yet its location is not so easy to find anymore.

It turns out that the common places, weren’t so common.

They were precious. They got overshadowed by Darkness’ need,

for ravenous attention and the insatiable hunger to overtake.

Still, the navigation system lies within, to bring us back,

To the windy path, protected by the wise elders of trees,

And at the end of the path, is the place of our heartland,

That has always been there, with doors wide open,

Beckoning us in with a welcoming, warm embrace.

Reminding us that we can always return to the comfort

Of the indefatigable sunlit energy that sustains the lovely retreat,

This wholesome, beautiful, light-filled, sustainable cottage of our hearts.

Dire Needs

I read this on the internet the other day. I think that this quote was from Think Smarter (Twitter), but I can’t say for sure:

“There are two types of “tired”, I suppose. One is in dire need of sleep, the other is in dire need of peace.”

What are your dire needs this weekend? Attend to those needs first. Your body will lead you to where it needs attention, with a crumb trail of little aches and pains and stiff knots and cravings. Your mind might just need some relief from the difficult life challenges of today, with a little more focus on fun. Your mind might enjoy having inconsequential things to figure out, like crafts and puzzles and games, and the victorious feeling of completing something hard, yet relatively insignificant and manageable. Your spirit probably just needs to be noticed and recognized. Your spirit just wants to remind you, that you can always rest inside your heart. Try resting in your heart and in your spirit, a little bit this weekend. Stay still in prayer or meditation or just purposeful awareness, in a space or place that you consider to be very peaceful, and notice that your spirit is a plentiful, gurgling, clean fountain of renewable energy and joy. All that your spirit ever wants for you, is to remember that it will always sustain you, if you allow it to flow.

Heart Mind Body Soul Quotes. QuotesGram

Friday Quirks

Quarantine-Coronavirus-Jokes-Memes

I was in the restroom this morning and I used up the last of the toilet paper roll. I started to hyperventilate. I could feel a panic attack arising. I ran to the garage and saw that we still had two packages of toilet paper rolls, and I could breathe again. Now I realize that right now, there is plenty of toilet paper to go around. We honestly, had enough toilet paper to keep us clean throughout quarantine. I didn’t even have to ration it. Today, I can actually find a wide variety of brands of toilet paper in Publix and Target. Still, I think that I may have a little bit of PTSD around the toilet paper issue. I wonder if a lot of us will end up with “coronavirus quirks”, like our grandparents had their own peculiarities from going through the Depression.

“Why does great-granny start shaking uncontrollably when we run out of toilet paper?”

“Oh, well, honey, she went through the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020.”

Okay, back to why you really came here to Adulting – Second Half today. It’s Friday!!! Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! On Fridays, I typically list three favorite products, beauty items, songs, websites, etc. etc. that make living in the material world, a lot of fun. I strongly encourage you to add your favorites to the Comments section and please check out previous posts for more favorite things. Here are mine for today:

Favorite Feel Good Story of the Week (possibly of the month) – If you haven’t read the story about six-year-old Bridger Walker from Wyoming, do it now. Here’s a link:

https://www.ksl.com/article/46777242/real-life-superhero-in-saving-sister-6-year-old-wyoming-boy-takes-brunt-of-dog-attack

This darling little Wyoming boy saved his little sister from a dog attack, and ended up having to get 90 stitches from being ravaged with bites! What a hero! And the “feel good vibes” from this story, just keep coming and coming, including the fact that the Walker family has forgiven the friends with the dog, and the Walker family turned down a Go Fund Me, asking instead that all donations go to a Veterans’ Association and finally, Captain America (Chris Evans) is sending Bridger an official and authentic Captain America shield for his heroism! It’s children like Bridger who make us all want to be better people! Heroes come in the most unlikely of packages, sometimes.

Kinder’s The Blend Seasoning – This dream come true in a bottle can be purchased at Costco. All that it really is, is salt, pepper, and garlic, but this spice concoction is blended to proportional perfection. EVERYTHING tastes better with this seasoning: meat, vegetables, salads – okay, I haven’t tried it on dessert, yet, but never say never. My jar of Kinder’s sits right by our stove, so I don’t forget to cook with it. Ever.

Supercook.com – When we were a young married family and on a tight budget, my husband used to brag about my pantry creativity and innovation. Somehow I would manage to make a box of corn meal, carrot straws, a packet of sweetener, and a can of soup, into some kind of edible dinner. Now, I have never been a great cook, but I think I did find it fun (plus it saved me a trip to the store) to try to make “something outta nothin’. ” This website now does all the mental work for you. It saves you the trip to the store and the strain to your brain. You list what ingredients you have on hand, and this website will give you a plethora of recipes to make something, with what you’ve got.

Have a great weekend, friends!!!!

Breaking The Chain... | Its friday quotes, Happy friday humour ...

Happy Birthday

“I have started this blog for me, but if it is helpful to others that would be grand.  I have always felt that when people truly share what is really on their hearts, the world is a little less lonely.  I don’t know where my second half of adulting leads me but I am certainly in the contemplation stage.  And this new stage of my adventure is probably very similar to my son’s new experience – exciting, scary, exhilarating, freeing, introspective and necessary for us both to further develop into what we are meant to be in this mystery called Life.” – me (July 16, 2018)

Today is the second birthday of my precious creation, Adulting – Second Half. I started this blog on an emotional whim the day after my eldest son left our home, for his own adult life. I want to thank all of my loyal friends and readers (some of you who have been with me from the very beginning) from the bottom of my heart, which is overfilled with connection, gratitude, and love for all of you. You have given me your time, your validation, your insights and your love. Your gifts are so dear to me. I do not take you for granted. It is so wonderful to not have to write to a void. You are the other half to my writing process. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

When you start things on a whim, you don’t necessarily have a goal in mind. This blog was an impromptu outpouring of my emotions, my grief, my excitement, my fears – basically, my stored up heavy emotions, in the form of words. I think that’s mainly what the blog still is for me. Sometimes I get caught up into looking at the daily stats. Sometimes I think of grand marketing ideas of what to do with my writing, but mostly, every morning, I just get giddy to open up the browser to my blog and then open up my heart, to all of you. Writing my blog makes me excited for mornings, and I am honestly not a morning person.

A lot of life happens in two years. In the scheme of things we don’t necessarily think of two years as a long time. When we are dreading something arduous, we might even say, “Oh, I can handle it, it’s only two years!” And two years, does go by mighty fast and for some reason, years seem to go by, even exponentially faster, as we age. Perhaps this “speeding up” of time, is because we gain a deeper respect for the limited time we have to live, the closer we get to the reality of dying. Still, even as two years whizzes by, a lot of happenings happen in that relatively short amount of time. I can honestly say, that when I started my blog, going through a historic pandemic, never, ever, ever came to mind as a sub-plot.

Thank you for being my witnesses, my cheerleaders, my co-experiencers, and my teachers. Thank you for inspiring me to show up, to open up, and to practice and hone my skills. Thank you for sharing my life with me. This blog and by extension, the readers of this blog, will always be one of the fondest highlights of my life’s experiences. This I know for sure. You have changed my life for the better and that is a beautiful gift to give to anyone.

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