This is good information to have in our back pockets. (ha ha)
I am coming off of a couple of weeks of one exciting, interesting, unique, fun event after another. And it’s all been really great, especially being with my loved ones. However, I am exhausted. I am “spent.” Energy is energy, and wherever you are spending your every load of energy, whether it be on good times or on bad times, it all needs to eventually be replenished, in order to get on with things, in a healthy way. I hope to replenish my coffers this week with some sleep, with some solitude, and with some unscheduled moments to just be.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
+ We just dropped our eldest son and his girlfriend at the airport after a lovely visit with them. That’s something you never quite get used to with your children, from the moment they leave your womb . . . . the letting go and the saying good-bye. But the reunions are always so wonderful. Like so many things in life, it’s two sides of the same coin.
+ We have our first grand-dog!! Our middle son and his girlfriend adopted a “furry Frenchie” from a rescue. He is beyond adorable! Frenchies do the “zoomies” like no other dog can do. Until I get an actual grandchild, I plan to be as obnoxious as I was last night, passing on videos of our “grand-dog” to anyone who will watch them. (or at least politely pretend to)
+ I learned a new wonderful word the other day. It is a German word. The word is “Nachkussen”. It means to do the kind of kissing which compensates for the lack of passionate kissing that has been needing to happen between two lovers for a while. Purposely schedule some “Nachkussen” with your baby tonight and then thank me in my Comments section tomorrow. (I want to see a lot of gratitude . . . .)
+ The author, columnist and poet Rob Brezsny said that one of the best compliments that he ever received was from one of his readers who said to him, “I want you to know how often your process of being yourself has helped me in the process of being me.” By being fully and truly your entire authentic self, you give others permission to do the same. How beautiful and inspiring! This is how we become “wayshowers.”
“Wayshowing means showing others the way by simply awakening to and living your truth. By being it rather than preaching it. Leave room for people to notice the incredible shifts you are experiencing and they’ll naturally want to have what you’re having.” – Embodying Wild
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
2982. Were you ever a member of a celebrity fan club?
I just read the unfortunate news that we lose an hour of sleep this weekend. This is always the time of year in which I could use an extra hour of sleep, not an hour less. Why do we still play these stupid games with the clocks???
I saw this yesterday in a store. The absolute truth:
Just for today, find the magic. It’s everywhere. Open your eyes and see it.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
I’m sorry. I know this one is a little profane, but I just can’t stop giggling about it. Plus “b*tchbag” is a new one for me. And it just cracks me up. I think it’s a keeper (at least in my mind.)
Last night we had a family Facetime, and my daughter was chastising her three brothers for not being more active on their sibling text chat which she had recently created. I jumped in with heaps of guilt, which is what I think that my daughter was going for . . . . (We moms are good at that). I threw in the old “it’s not just women who are responsible for the tending to relationships.” I probably said that statement about three times in different pointed terms, watching my daughter nod, smugly. The boys first tried making jokes, then excuses, but soon all three of them just looked at me and my daughter with goofy grins.
This morning our family text chat was eerily quiet, despite me trying to get the flow going. I finally used a line from last night’s guilt pile: “It only takes two seconds to respond. . . . just saying” My daughter finally responded with “The sibling chat has been popping off this morning, no hate” So, mission accomplished. I guess. I might be joining the “sibling chat” soon.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
1839. Does your family have a secret recipe and, if so, what is it for?
I’m headed out on a trip to visit with loved ones. I am feeling the need to completely let go of my regular daily routine, and that includes writing the blog. I’ll be back on Thursday or Friday, hopefully with my creative juices all amped up. I’ll miss you. Have a great week!!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
My daughter just texted me, “Are you okay? You’re being weird in the family chat” I answered, “Yes! What do you mean?” Her answer: “Okay good! You’re not liking the messages and are giving one word answers. Just looking out for you.”
I had just gotten up after sleeping in, and I was distracted by everything that I wanted to get done at once. However, I do think that it is a true sign of love and familiarity when people notice your habits and your idiosyncrasies and they notice subtle changes and care enough to ask you if you are alright. It truly is a blessing to have “the noticers” in our lives.
The part that really amuses me, though, is that none of our adult kids found it particularly weird when last night, we sent a video of our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, barking at a FurReal Tiger pet which I had purchased on impulse, at a street festival. I purchased the tiger from two Russian (perhaps Siberian?) ladies who had exotic scarves and jewelry intermingled with several of these tigers. I just couldn’t resist purchasing the tiger. Ralphie was not impressed with my purchase.
I guess being a little quirky and “out there”, and being especially ebullient in my texting, is what “my noticers” have come to expect from me. I hate to disappoint.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
1419. Do you think there is life on other planets?
To those of you who are about to embark on the empty nest, do not worry. They come back. They come back more than you would ever expect, even. Our daughter brought home a houseful this past weekend, and after they left, our youngest son arrived here right afterwards, almost like clockwork, to help us eat leftovers and watch football. And while he and his dad were watching the game, I handed them the big, warm pile of towels and sheets out of the dryer, for them to fold. Déjà vu.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
1716. What wild animal scares you? (One of the young women visiting here this weekend is from Connecticut. She insisted that they have no dangerous wildlife in Connecticut. They only have robins and squirrels and chipmunks, apparently. It took a long time for this lady’s mother to get comfortable with alligators being on campus. It was also shocking for her mother to find out we also have deer in Florida. Well, I suppose that the alligators have to eat . . . . 😉 )
I’ve been stalled in writing because I am waiting for my mind to thaw, and my fingers feel like stiff little icicles that do not want to be separated from each other. I feel guilty living in Florida and complaining about the cold, but it is currently 46 degrees outside which is typically unheard of in our neck of the woods. And my husband and I are incredibly stubborn. We won’t turn on the heat pump unless things become dire. We don’t like the smell of burnt dust. I read something on the internet that said that those of us complaining about the cold, just can’t wait for the days that we can complain about the heat. Yes, that’s about right.
When I was in my twenties I had a boss who liked to ask quirky questions. She once asked whether I would prefer to freeze to death, or to be overheated to death. While I pondered the question (and also why she was asking it), she mentioned that freezing to death is actually a very calm, gentle, easy-going death. I never asked her how she knew this, but I never forgot this particular moment either. When I think about this now, I honestly pick “neither” forms of death. I pick neither.
I always feel bad for people from up north who come to Florida in December and January and end up coming in to visit us during a cold spell. The stubborn disappointment is palpable. Everyone seems to think that Florida is always sweltering because they once went to Disney World in July. These defiant winter tourists still wear their shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops and they pretend not to notice that their toes are turning blue. And of course, we overly dramatic Floridians are bundled up like we are about to ascend Mt. Everest, as we layer on every old coat which we have ever owned (“it’s a good thing that I kept my high school ski jacket for days like these”).
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
Happy New Year!! Happy 2024!! I have really good feelings about this upcoming year. It’s going to be a good one! (We even get an extra day – leap year!) May all of your dreams come true for this year. And remember to dream BIG!
I already have our lucky New Year’s Day meal simmering in the kitchen. Pork, kielbasa, brats, sauerkraut, collards, black-eyed peas. It smells good in here!
I’m going to add a new daily addition to the blog. One of our sons got me a book for Christmas, called 3000 Questions About Me. He thought that they would make great writing prompts. I think that I will share a question each day that might work as a good writing prompt to any of my readers who also like to write and/or like to keep journals. Keeping with the theme of luck, here is today’s question from the book:
704. What have you been very lucky at?
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
