Dancing in the Rain!

My darling and I danced every single chance that we got.  Sometimes it was with him in a wheelchair.  Sometimes it was with me in a wheelchair.  Sometimes it was sitting in chairs, dancing cheek to cheek.  We DANCED!
I have told this story before, so forgive me if you've heard it many times.  It's just a  perfect story to indicated the power and depth of Nyle's beautiful soul.  He was having a heart attack.  He had one the month before so he knew all the signs.  He wouldn't let us call an ambulance.  He had no insurance and it would cost thousands of dollars.  He wouldn't let us take him to the hospital until he presented us with gifts that he had purchased for us.  I think he felt that he might not be coming home alive.  The plaques said, "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to DANCE in the rain.  Somehow the gift of those plaques at that all too critical time summed up Nyle's personality.
If you look closely at this picture, you can see the love shimmering between us.  We went through Hell and Heaven in our marriage.  Yet that love we shared was unquenchable.  It wavered from time to time, It sometimes faltered for just the rarest of days, but ultimately, it could not be denied!
When I was 20, I worked in a department store downtown in a charming city.  One night we had a black out.  I had to walk two blocks in a black out city, to my car.  I was terrified!  I kept looking all around, and over my shoulders.  I think I thought that I could do something defensive if I saw someone coming to harm me.
Suddenly, the idea came into my mind to dance.  It was pouring.  I AM a huge Gene Kelly fan.  I think I've seen that movie about a million times.  "Singin' in the Rain."  So, I began to sing and dance down the street.  It was remarkable.  My fear left me as I splashed my way to the car, singing and dancing at the top of my lungs.  If anyone was looking to harm me they probably left when it looked like I had lost my mind!  :)
Today, I'm going to do my best to dance through this current storm.  I have the shingles.  Gratefully it's a mild case, but it is still not fun.  I will still dance, I will just be very careful not to do it around anyone that could catch this misery!

Talk Between Generations in 2016

I began working with computers in 1978.  In those days the way to access the main computer you had a keyboard, a small, light-up box to see the data you were entering, and a jumbo printer that could print out the data you were entering.  A mainframe computer usually filled at least one very large room.

I continued working with computers from the 1980's through 1997, including each and every new permutation of computer program that arrived.

I learned about where certain terms came from, like debugging, reboot, DOS prompt, and so forth, when they first were coined.

AND THEN?  Life happened, and I did NOT use a computer for professional reasons until 2012.  In fifteen years, a short span of time as related to things like dinosaurs, trees, or rocks, or sixty year old humans (notice similarity of the last to the first three items) EVERYTHING CHANGED!

That mainframe that took at least one very large room....now could be held in a teeny, tiny box in your hand.  A darling little creation became available for listening to music, it was called a Nanopod.  Then an even smaller version became available.  It was roughly the size of a large postage stamp.

Our children grew up.  Suddenly conversations became laced with terms like APPS, and Iphones, Ipads, Ipods, and other I types of creations!  By I, I am not referring to me, myself, and I.  No, I'm referring to each and every combination, and creation of Apple's latest brain trust.  Let's not forget, Iwatches.

Our 20 something children developed a rather large, and real generational gap with their parents.  Me, "How do I access the DOS prompt so that I can navigate between the programs?"  Them?  "HUH?"
Me, "Wait, do I use Safari for the worldwide web, or is Firefox a better choice?"  Them?  "Mom, you don't say Worldwide Web anymore.  It's just called the Net."  Me, "Don't you need to type in http://www?"  "Oh no, that hasn't been used for a long time!"  At the time, I believe that LONG time was in human time a year!  Again, time is very relative.

I do not mean to indicate that I'm slow witted, or that our children are slow witted.  Oh Heaven's, our children are anything but slow witted.  My 5 year old great-niece can move about in and out of the computer world with the speed of light.  (Wait, that phrasing hasn't changed, has it)?

When my Mom and Mother in law entered their late 70's, suddenly, they seemed to be unable to cope with "new technology," like, a CD player, surround sound, even cassettes seemed beyond their scope of use.  My Mom lived to be 95.  The last five years of her life she could not use a telephone because she could not remember to dial 9 in front of the phone number to get out of the facility where she lived.

Let me take us all on an "old school," stroll down memory lane.  If any of you reading are below 40 years old, do NOT leave NOW...it's just about to get interesting.  It is 1925.  If you wish to listen to music, you wind up the victorola.  It's sort of the size of a current large screen TV, only it's as wide as it is large.  You have to wind an arm on the side to make the turntable move in a circle.  You have a very large round thing (like a giant CD) that you put on the spinning wheel of the Victorola, and it plays a very, very poor sound quality recording of music.  Some big hits like, "Beautiful Ohio," or the slightly naughty, "Ain't She Sweet."

You can go to a movie...but there is no sound onscreen.  You have to read the captions to understand why somebody is tying that pretty young lady with Marcel waved hair on the railroad track.  There is a piano in front of the screen playing something called, "Mood music."  For a nickel you can watch several films in a row.

If you are young, you might use a phrase like, "Twenty-three skidoos," or "the Bee's Knees."  There is no television, there is no radio, sometimes there is not even electricity.  Which makes that old Victorola nice because it does not require anything but an arm to wind it up.  Of course, when the winding arm winds down the song becomes slower, and s..l..o..w..e..r, and s...l...o...w...e...r and it sounds as though the performer is now a Bass, even if it's actually a woman singing high Soprano.

What do you do for fun?  Well, you do NOT play video games.  You play parlor games, you know where people actually got together in person and spoke to each other?  Sometimes at home somebody plays an instrument and the family gets up and dances together.  I guess the common equivalent is a family dancing to "Just Dance."

Please, let's all remember that the world keeps on turning, changing, and re-arranging.  Our way now is not necessarily the best way that the world has ever known.  It's different, that is for certain.  Maybe, we could be patient across the generations.  I may never know the thrill of sending a "Snapchat," to a friend.  On the other hand, children may never know the joy of sitting outside on a balmy summer evening playing the guitar and singing.  Both methods bring joy, just different types of joy, and who says different is bad?

SIXTY IS THE NEW SIXTY?

When I turned 50 one of my friends sent me a t-shirt that said, "50 is the new 30!"  I suppose that now that I am SIXTY, and proudly so, I should retire that t-shirt....NOPE!  The point to me of that t-shirt is not about, oh phoeey, I'm 50!  No, the point is that even as you move through life to different years...16, 21, 30...40, 50, 60, etc. etc. even if your body becomes old, it's essential not to let your spirit become old, dulled by the hardest parts of life!

I do NOT claim to always master this elusive art.  Sometimes these days my spirit feels even older than sixty.  The point is that on the days when I am able I keep my spirit young.  I do my best to never say, "I'm too old, I can't learn new things."  I NEVER want to say that!

A dear friend in her late 80's told me, "You're as old as the newest cell in your body, and your cells renew every 5 seconds."  She was taking computer classes to better communicate with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She also was taking Spanish because she enjoyed the language.

My beloved Mama made over 80 quilts and sent them to Iraq in her 80's.  My nephew was stationed there and he would hand them out to children on the streets, or soldiers having a tough time.  She lived to be 95, and at that stage she could walk no longer, but she would sit in her wheelchair, put her feet down and move from place to place.

I love that image of her, she needed that wheelchair, her body was too worn out to support itself anymore.  Yet still, she found ways to move herself where she wanted to go! 

Esther, (can't remember her last name) went back to college in her 80's!  Yes, that's right, a Freshman in college in her 80's.  When people would question why she would do that she responded quickly, "Why not?  My children are raised.  My husband has passed.  Education is something I can take with me when I die.  Why wouldn't I want more of it, especially now!"

I have been so richly blessed with examples of women who continued living to the best of their ability until they died...and I believe that our spirits do NOT die.  They just keep growing and progressing when we pass.

My favorite example of a man who did not let age, or the progression of cancer destroy his youthful spirit is my beloved Papa.  Two weeks before he died, (he was bedfast at this point) a friend said, "Wendell, aren't you tired of fighting?  You've lived such a wonderful life.  Don't you just wish it was over?"  My Papa, and I can hear him in my mind roused himself and sang, "I LOVE LIFE, AND I WANT TO LIVE!"

With all of these remarkable examples I wish to share one more.  This one will make me a trifle tearful so it's a good thing I'm not writing this on paper.  My beloved Nyle died when he was 54.  In his very last days, when we knew that he was dying he was still making us laugh, still exhibiting the youthful spirit that was an integral part of him.  Our daughters brought a notebook and pen with them to the hospital to record any last words or messages.  The oldest said, "Papa, is there anything that you need or want to tell us?"  His response was, "No, I don't have anything to say."  Pause, pause..."Well write that down!"

I love life, and I want to live.  I know that there will be many more hills to clamber over.  I know that there will be dark days that threaten to eclipse my joy.  Yet I will do my darndest to remember yet another elderly man that I met in the dark days of my breast cancer.  He was dying, it was obvious just looking at him.  He gave me the brightest grin and said, "Every day above ground is a cause for celebration."  That line means a lot more when you're facing down the dark demon of cancer!  Yet, in his brief words he helped me understand that life is about more than merely surviving.  It's about THRIVING!  It's essential to find joy in even the hardest days.  (Feel free to remind me of that the next time I forget)!

I'm SIXTY!  I do NOT wish to live like I'm dying.  That is a foregone conclusion.  In the wondrous words of my Nyle honey, "Live like you're living!"  

Am I Old?

I had many times in my life that I was not certain that I'd live to be 21, and soon it will be SIXTY!  I'm excited for the new experiences, and the opportunities that remain open in my life.

Last week I realized that something in my perception has changed since I was young.  When I was young if I heard the words, "Something new is coming out..."  My heart raced, and I was excited for a new opportunity to learn, to grow!

Now I fear that far too many times when I hear, "Something new is coming out..."  I think, CRAP, something else to learn?  Why can't the world just stay the same!  This is a rather shallow observation in the realms of philosophy but true nonetheless. 

I have heard throughout my life the phrase, "The world is wasted on the young."  I disagree!  I'm grateful for their sharp minds, and the fresh eyes through which they see this old world.

Now, as I enter into years that most would title OLD, I also know that living this long gives you unique ideas and perspective. 

So the best yet, why can't we, young and old enrich each others perception of the world?

I like to watch "Just Dance."  Nigel Lithgoe is no longer a young person by virtue of the years that he's lived, but his youth lies in the vivacious enjoyment he gains from inspiring others to dance.  This year the program is spotlighting the dance talent of children from 8 to 13 years of age.  The young ones are mentored by adult dancers, and it's marvelous to see what happens when those two ages are combined. 

My Mother once said something to me about "Respecting my elders."  I was annoyed by that generalized pronouncement.  I responded, "I should not have to respect someone just because they're older than me.  I can respect them, IF they've earned my respect."

WOW...looking back on that statement I'm amused at the hubris I presented.  AND YET?  I do NOT wish to be respected by ANYONE simply by virtue of the fact that I have managed to stay alive for sixty years.  I want to be respected for having put life into the sixty years that I've lived!!!

In return I promise that I will not disrespect anyone JUST because they are younger than me.  I will listen and realize that they have lots to teach me.  I also will remember that there is still ever so much to learn.  There  is so much for ME to learn.  I'm excited for this opportunity.

 

On this Day we Celebrate Freedom

The 4th of July is celebrated in America as a day when freedom in this country truly began.  This was freedom from the English governance.  The English had put restrictions on America that proved to be unbearable.  I personally believe that it also seemed foolish to the American colonists that England, ever so far in miles, was taking away all of the profit from America's labors.

The restrictions from England continued to mount.  England truly was greedy and foolish in their handling of the young colony.  These were people loyal to their homeland.  If they had been restricted less, rewarded more, well who knows what might have happened?

Jail, penitentiary, restriction, guilt, limitations, exclusion, bullying, all these are words referring to a different type of lack of freedom.  We all understand that certain behaviors can result in consequences beyond our ability to control.  If we cause harm to others, chances are that we will be caught, tried, and put in jail.

What about having your freedom removed when you have done nothing wrong?  Elie Wiesel was a Jewish prisoner in a Concentration Camp during World War II.  He has written about the realization that came to him one miserable day.  Inspiration taught him that although his German captors could inflict all sorts of horrors on his physical body, he still owned his soul.  He was able to make active choices to act, not react.  He decided that he would not let the squalor of the camp, or the cruelty of the guards decide who he would be.

Corrie ten Boom was a Christian.  She, her elderly Father, and her Sister were hiding some of their Jewish neighbors when someone told the Gestapo about them.  Corrie and Betsy never saw their Father again, and Betsy also died in a Concentration Camp.  Corrie was released through a miraculous mistake in paper work.  She later discovered that she had been scheduled for execution.

After the war she traveled the country speaking about forgiveness, and healing.  One night after teaching a class a man came to her and said, "Your speech was very moving to me.  Thank you so much.  May I shake your hand?"

Corrie looked up and realized that she was in front of one of the cruelest Concentration Camp guards that she and Betsy had faced.  She realized that he did not recognize her.  She had nice clothes on, and was about twenty pounds healthier.

Her speech had been about forgiveness.  How could she forgive this man who had been especially cruel to her frail Sister, Betsy?  Several times she attempted to pull her arm up to shake hands with him.  Her arm would not move.

In her mind she prayed, she asked that she might feel God's love for this man because her mortal love was not strong enough to forgive him.  She describes feeling a warmth that flowed from her shoulder to her hand.  It propelled her arm upwards until she shook his hand.  At that moment she also saw God's love for this man.  She realized that in a way he had been a prisoner just as she was.  He was imprisoned by a horrendous war that brutalized soldiers into doing things they would never have done in peace times.

What prison are you in this morning?  Does your appetite imprison you in a body that is overweight and unhealthy?  That is also one of my prisons.  Maybe you endured some version of trauma in your tender childhood that has left you with eating issues.  When I was nineteen and in fabulous shape as a dancer I was cruel in my mind towards others with weight issues.  I could eat anything that I wanted and never gained a pound.  I thought, "Why don't they just exercise and eat better?" 

AND THEN...along came multiple car accidents that left me with severe chronic pain.  I have bone, muscle, and nerve pain.  My back has too many issues to try and repair it.  The issues are not severe enough to put me in a wheelchair, yet...but someday?

I gained ninety pound over five years time.  I still had the voracious appetite but I was either in a recliner or my bed.  Walking was very painful, and sometimes I would drag one leg.  I developed severe central nerve damage.  My feet quit knowing the difference in floor or ground levels.  I would walk from a wood floor to a carpet, and I would fall because my foot did not automatically shift for the different level.  Several falls made the back, knee, and wrist pain and damage worse.

I repent daily for the foolishness of my judgment towards heavy people in my youth.  Now that I have joined the ranks I understand that when somebody is living with constant pain, often the only pleasure that they feel is food!  I wish that when my pain was terrible that I craved broccoli.  Not really, not so much...nope, bring on the sugar and wrap it in something chocolate!
Even if I eat next to nothing my body still doesn't want to lose weight.  I'm in constant fight or flight mode and my body tries to hoard weight to protect me from starvation...except that I'm NOT starving.
 
When I married I carried with me the foolish idea that it was my husband's duty to make me happy.  How is this a prison?  My moods went up and down like a roller coaster depending on my husband's moods.  I was trapped, unable to develop and maintain my own emotional stability.

My poor husband was trapped trying to keep me happy.  I'm certain that he was often exhausted from the effort.  I do know that he was grateful when I finally matured enough to realize that I, ME, MY, was responsible for my own happiness, nobody else.  I also learned that you CAN be happy even when somebody that you love is unhappy.  Oh you feel empathetic towards their pain, but letting it pull you down doesn't help them, and it certainly doesn't help you.

One of the most important things you can do in life is to objectively try and determine if you   
if you are in prison.  Sometimes it's necessary to have a therapist help you.  There is no shame in getting help to improve your life.  I believe that everyone could benefit from education and therapy.

To end this post I wish to share a little story.  My husband criticized me one day for something that he had observed.  I did NOT accept his version of the experience.  I immediately became very angry.  I walked to the kitchen.  I began slamming the cupboard doors as I prepared dinner.  I stomped, and fussed, and fumed as though I was five years old instead of thirty-five years old.

In my mind I thought, "If you continue this behavior you will make your entire family miserable!"  I responded in my mind, "He makes me SOOOOO angry!" A thought returned, "Nobody can force an emotion on you without your permission."  "Wait, back up, what he said MADE me angry!"  "I understand that his words were hurtful.  On the other hand, nobody can force an emotion on you.  You always have the freedom to choose NOT TO BE HURT OR ANGRY!"

WOW!  I was dumbfounded at this idea.  I walked back to our bedroom and said to my husband, "What you said really hurt my feelings.  On the other hand, I choose not to let it ruin my day or make me angry."

My husband had a look of wonder on his face that I will never forget.  He said, "Good for you!"  There was no sarcasm implied in his words.  He was genuinely happy that I had begun the journey of determining my own happiness.

Today, this very day, choose to be the owner of your own emotions.  Do not let the actions of anyone else imprison you in negative emotion.  To sum all of this up I remember a very wise saying from my childhood, "I'm rubber, you're glue.  Anything you say bounces off me, and sticks on you!"  




 

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Tragedy, stark, ugly, bleeding tragedy once more in the United States of America.  In this country...a land where we relish diversity, celebrate tolerance, and do our best to love our neighbor, (at least that is the country I wish to believe we are), somebody was outraged by seeing somebody kissing in public.  Two males kissing.  He was with his children when this event occurred.  For some reason he felt that this gave him the duty to take a machine gun and shoot fifty people...fifty STRANGERS that he didn't even know!

I have gone with homosexual friends to a bar.  I'm heterosexual, and I do not drink alcohol.  However, I have dear friends that are homosexual and do drink alcohol.  I have gone with them to dance, talk, and giggle.  Imagine yourself in that setting.  A man comes through the door with a machine gun and begins to randomly shoot people.  Would it matter to him that you weren't homosexual?  

In his confused, troubled world when there is something that offends you, "Pluck it out," as it says in the Old Testament.  I do not believe that you were intended to pluck that offense out with a machine gun!  I do not believe that without any process of law whatsoever (remember it was called the Mosaic LAW)? you felt that you were invested by God, or hatred, or outrage, or whatever justification that you could find to kill people. 

Unfortunately, throughout the history of the world, many, many people have lost their lives because someone else stood in judgment of the choices of someone else.  The Salem Witch Trials, the Inquisition, and more recently ISIS, all were involved with somebody thinking that they had the moral right to end the lives or those whose choices they disagreed with.

I have fought long, and hard, to preserve my life on this planet.  I was born with very little immune system, and severe, severe allergies.  I am basically allergic to every substance on this planet.  When I was born the only solution for asthma was to give oxygen, pray, and hope that you survived.  Asthma was more terminal than chronic.

Then there were ten car accidents (I'm a very safe driver, but have poor taste in the people I ride with), breast cancer, and a number of other close calls to death.  Through it all there were also joyous times, family, friends, music, more music, and my greatest strength, my belief in a loving God. 

Life is VERY precious to me.  There were thousands of nights in my life between birth to twenty when I would be awake for most of the night because I could not breathe.  Your body will not allow to sleep much when you are not breathing well.  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is usually caused by a number of factors other than asthma, or pulmonary disease.  It is rare for your body to allow you to stay asleep when you are NOT breathing. 

On those rugged, ragged nights when I had struggled through the dark hours to dawn my Mama and sometimes my Papa would be with me.  They would do their best to make the bad situation better.  I remember Mama often saying to me, "Honey the birdies are singing.  We've made it through another night.  Somehow the approach of light, and living, usually helped my body to relax, my airways to open.

When your life is threatened again, again, and still again, you may either become extremely bitter, or you may learn to see miracles in tender moments throughout the everydayness of life.  I choose the later.  I still feel my Mama close to me (she's been dead for several years) when I hear the birdies sing early in the morning.  The sparkle of starlight nights, and moon filled sky fill me with joyous wonder.

To think that fifty people, FIFTY PEOPLE WHO HAD NEVER DONE ANYTHING TO THIS MAN, lost their chances to learn, love, and live this life to the best of their abilities because one disturbed man decided it was his job to kill them?  That is completely unbearable to me.  I have no doubt that when those people arrived in the spiritual realm they were TICKED! 

What comforts me is my rock firm knowledge that it will be made right.  I believe that there is an eternity, and we are eternal creatures, and it WILL BE MADE RIGHT!  I would not want to be that man when those fifty enraged people, or broken hearted people have the chance to tell that man what he has done, what he has denied them all.

I feel anguish for those that are left behind...those that will NEVER see their loved one's face, hear their voice, or share life with them again.  I lost my sweetheart when he was only fifty-four.  He died from multiple causes that triggered sepsis.  I have gone through the heartbreak of knowing that I have a life to live, WITHOUT HIM!  Sometimes the grief almost overwhelms me.  Yet I know that the love we shared will give me light to live my life by.

I pray for all those broken hearts that are grieving!  On the other hand, having a gun in your briefcase or purse is NOT the answer!  The last thing that we need to do as a country is to become like the colonial days of our country, or the wild west when everyone needed a gun for protection.  They mostly used those guns to protect them from bears, or to hunt for food for their families.  They NEVER used machine guns.

We in this country like to think that we are a civilized society.  There is nothing civilized in people who are mentally unstable being able to procure guns...especially machine guns!  I hear about the 2nd amendment  in the constitution until I become weary.  I feel that if we are meant to live the exact constitution as it was instituted originally we must be true to all of its ideas.  That means that we must take away women's right to vote and own property, and while we're at it, slavery could be nice, I mean come on, having somebody else to do all your work?  (That statement was sarcastic in case you missed it).

What can we do?  Is it hopeless?  Should we all just decide that the Apocalypse has arrived and climb in a well equipped bunker?  EMPHATICALLY NO!!!  We can enact better background searches before guns are issued.  We can make stricter laws about the use of guns.  If our country will have guns then they must learn safe use.  We teach our children responsible methods to drive cars, why couldn't we teach our citizens safer ways to use guns? 

I believe that we must educate our children about this issue.  We must teach them love, love, love, love, love.  We must explain the consequence of hatred, prejudice, and intolerance.  Perhaps instead of sending our children to other countries to study and learn about the culture of others, we could send our kids to homes where loved ones have been lost to hatred and intolerance.  I don't think that we should now learn to ignore the cultures of other lands, on the other hand, we MUST learn a better way to live in our own culture.  We must teach the next generation a better way to live than to kill and hate!

Living Life Large

I was born old, very, very old.  It quickly ages a person when they are unable to draw oxygen into their body.  Asthma...in this era is annoying, but there are many, many medications that minimize the effects it has on your body.

That was NOT the case when I was born.  There were two treatments in Western medicine for asthma, oxygen, and pounding.  Pounding is NOT the proper name, but the treatment involved someone cupping their hands and then pounding on your back.  It was miserable, and frightening to a small child.  This treatment helped to thin phlegm that caused asthmatics and those with cystic fibrosis dangerous respiratory symptoms.  When this substance is too thick it quickly can lead to dangerous infections.

I also remember being encased in an oxygen tent.  That meant that my child small body of two or three was placed in a sort of clear plastic filled with the oxygen that enabled me to breathe.  I also remember hearing doctors and nurses around me whispering, "She will not live long, she's too highly allergic."  I was asthmatic, NOT DEAF!

Why do I discuss this experience?  It has had a profound impact on my life as I pass from my middle aged life into my older life.  My friend's health is now catching up to me.  I have struggled with health challenge each and every day of my life.  Big things, like breast cancer, to small things, like asthma (at least it's much smaller now than it was when I was a child).

As each year comes and goes I rejoice that I am still here!  I hear so many people saying, "Old age is not for sissies!"  In my life, NO AGE WAS FOR SISSIES.  The things that surprise others in this part of their lives, I have been coping with for ALL OF MY LIFE.  That does not make me superior to others, I do still whine and complain extremely well.  It DOES grant me a different perspective.

An example is this last year.  I had to have all my teeth pulled, and get dentures.  Then I had complications causing me to wait an additional year before I could use my lower dentures.  In addition I finally reached the point where it is necessary for me to wear glasses all the time.

At first, as I traveled through this unfamiliar terrain, I was extremely good at complaining about "old age."  Then I began to regain my perspective.  I have many friends who had to get dentures at a far younger age.  I have many friends, who have worn glasses since childhood.

I am entering a brand new decade of life on this birthday.  At first I found that a frightening idea...I mean, I'm definitely not young OR middle-aged anymore.  Then I remembered my perspective, "I'm still here!  I'm still able to learn new things, meet new people, travel to new places, reach new goals, and live life as fully as I possibly can!"

Oh there will be challenges that will flatten me from time to time.  The important thing for me to remember is that it's ok to be knocked flat.  What is NOT ok, is to stay flat, to give up, give out, or give in!

One of my beloved Grandma's who lived to the ripe old age of 84 used to say that she would get up and get dressed in the morning.  Next she would get the newspaper from her front porch.  She would eat, and open the page to the obituaries.  If she didn't find her obituary in the paper, she would proceed to plan for her day.  I love the good humor of her perspective.  I knew that she was joking.  She did NOT expect to find her obituary in the paper while she was eating her cream of wheat.  Nonetheless, even for me as a child I understood her way of coping with the idea of death within life.

Today, I am ALIVE!  I hope, and plan to fill my day with rejoicing, celebration, in the little things, like writing a blog post, playing the piano, even in cleansing my dishes (that last one may be too big of a stretch to find enjoyment).  I hope to sing, dance, sing and dance, and then work on laundry.  I enjoy the process of taking dirty clothing, and washing, drying, and then folding, creating order where chaos existed.

Today, however, I wish to remember that as Abraham Lincoln said, "It's not about doing what you love, it's about loving what you're doing."  That means that when I do the things I dislike, or loathe (dishes are in that last category) I can find ways to make the job bearable.  Remember as Mary Poppins said in the Disney movie, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, in a most delightful way!"