COLOR

Life is interesting. When we have difficulties there are thing we do to make sense of our world. Everyone has their own coping skills depending on what they learned as a child. For many people food is a way of handling problems, especially if it involves chocolate. Other people turn to people. I think this is why the social media is so important today. Getting physical is a coping skill. Working out, driving a Harley around town, yelling and cursing, holding someone or something can bring comfort. I see and hear friends using humor and laughter when faced with a trial. Another way of dealing with problems is to turn to your religious beliefs. Prayer, scriptures, talking to those with life faith can be very healing.

I have to admit to using all the above coping skills but I think my favorite way of facing adversity is color. Jeanette and I have talked about the need for color when we are having real problems. Walking into a fabric store and touching bolt after bolt of colorful fabric is healing. Recently I visited my favorite art store close to the university and spent time looking at their colored pencils. Using the pad of paper aptly placed I colored with many of the hundreds of pencils. Choosing my favorite 5 I left the store feeling so much better.

“Without love, we are birds with broken wings.”

I have been rereading a family favorite book, Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. Morrie is so profound that you can read one paragraph at a time and feel the need to ponder what you have just read. There are not many books that leave you a better person for having read. I guess this is why it is so loved by me.


As I get older pondering becomes much more important. So it was with Morrie. He talked about his family: “The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family… If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from family, you don’t have much at all. Love is so supremely important.”


Kent’s trip was canceled this weekend because of a late March snowstorm. I think we cherished being together over the weekend because it wasn’t supposed to happen. We talked and shared more than usual. How wonderful to look back over the 42+ years of marriage and realize that it is getting better with each passing year.


As I played with 2 of my grandchildren yesterday I pondered my relationship with each of my grandchildren (grandpuppy) my children(spouses are all ways considered my children). Was it what I wanted it to be? Had I done enough over the years to feel that I deserved the love my family gives to me? What did I need to do to maintain that love and continue to have it grow? I know I can never be all that I want if I don’t have the love of my family. I am so grateful for each of them and I guess I need to tell them more often.

BECOMING

My thoughts this week have been on becoming. Others might call it setting goals but I am not really a goal setter and heaven forbid you ask me to make a New Year’s Resolution. My thoughts have been more on how we become what we want to be. The idea is to make choices that are consistent with what we want to be in the end. It is those small every day choices that determine the end result.

When I was young I desired to be important and to have recognition. I think this is fairly normal in a young person. However, it is that seeking to achieve the grand and important that keeps us from becoming a true hero. Again it is in the small every day acts that greatness is achieved.

I know I wasn’t a great mother but by all the small acts of mothering I have great children. I certainly wasn’t a great reader but when I look at the books I have read over the years I have read a great amount of good books. I haven’t ever rushed into traffic and saved a child but my life’s work quietly rescued many people. I know that for most of the people I have met I have already been forgotten but for a few I will always be remembered. I think that is all anyone can really want out of life.

WHO WILL I BE TOMORROW

We may look at someone and admire who or what they are. We may even covet their talents and skills. This upward comparison can be damaging or it can be a motivator for good. A true principle that I many times fail to remember is we become what we want to be by acting as if we are all ready there. If I admire my friends cooking skills I can act as if I already am a good cook. If I want to have a wonderful garden I can act as if I am prepared to be a gardener. If I want to take part in a marathon I can begin thinking like a participant.

What does that mean? Cooking skills are developed over a life time. I can’t use the Professor Harold Hill’s think method but I can plan and prepare foods in a way that would help me develop into a better cook. With gardening, indoors or out I can talk to others, read and prepare my soil and plants now when the ground is still frozen. The best athletes start by making exercising part of their routine. I can do the same.

With the upward comparison of character I can act as if I am the person I want to be. I don’t have to look at the past and think that is going to predict my future. If I have a habit I dislike then I need to act as if that isn’t a habit of mine. Yes, I might fall back into old ways but I can consistently be what I want to be until I am that person. I have to remember to never listen to naysayers who want to remind me of who I used to be. My destiny is my own.

MY HAPPINESS

I remember a college professor saying we had no control over our happiness. As students argued with him he maintained he was right. His argument was if you were in a natural disaster today then you would have unhappiness and you could not control when you would be happy again. While he was telling a truth it was only a half truth. I am affected by the sorrow and devastation in Japan and throughout the world but I can’t let the knowledge of others suffering or a future unknown keep me from being happy.

Ann Morrow Lindbergh said I can’t reach out and help all those that my heart reaches out too. (Sorry for butchering the actual quote.) As I did my taxes I noticed a donation to the American Red Cross. Last years catastrophic events are past and we don’t remember them because the events of this year seem to make last years events pale in comparison. My mind cannot comprehend the devastation in Japan but my heart and prayers can reach out.

I also can find happiness today. I can make this part of the world a better place because I have lived today. I can be a little kinder. Make a personal sacrifice so that I can donate more to the Red Cross or other charity that will be helping those who cannot be happy because of this terrible natural disaster. My happiness can not be robbed by man or nature. As long as I can reach out to others I can find a measure of happiness.

A LITTLE SPRING

Cynical

Pessimistic

Mocking

Skeptical

Distrustful

Suspicious

Contemptuous

Disparaging

Detracting

Scornful

Derisive

Dubious

Hopeful

Clear

Certain

Optimistic

Positive

Encouraged

Confidant

Assured

Secure

Cheerful

Upbeat

Unquestioning

Helpful

Affirmative

Sure

Certain

I MISS ME TOO

At the store today I passed a mother with her Down syndrome teenage daughter. The mother was distracted with shopping but that didn’t stop the delightful girl from talking non-stop to her mother. At one point the daughter stopped to look at things that interested her. Her mother continued to walk into the next isle. I passed the mother again but the daughter was no where in sight. Then a voice, “mom, I miss you.” The words continued over and over. The patient mother would reply, “I’m right her.” Finally the frightened teenager found her mother. I wanted to say to the mother, I’m sure you feel like you miss you sometimes also. That is how it is with raising children. I’m sure glad I didn’t get lost while raising my three. There were times I thought I was lost but it never really happened.

SHAKESPEARES' HAMLET

Last evening we were delighted to attend Hamlet. This play was all the words of the original Shakespeare but shortened for children. The actors ranged in age from 5 to 10. Not one thespian forgot their lines. These young people were amazing in their acting abilities. Now if you think these were seasoned performers you are wrong. One mother (Erin Rodabough) decided it would be a wonderful activity and got started. She invited friends and neighbors to become involved. A club house from a neighborhood became the theatre where the event took place. No one was there to park cars or direct traffic. Children from the production collected cans of food as the admittance fee. The food will be donated to a family shelter.

For the past 2 months there have been weekly practices and daily line memorization with parents help. Most of the children had not been on a stage before last night. Now I’m not sure which parents made all the costumes or designed and made the scenery but they are very talented individuals to say the least. While we grandparents and parents enjoyed watching these talented children I think the children benefited the most. They are not afraid of Shakespeare. They understand the tragedy of Hamlet. Thank you Erin for sharing your talent.

Official Photographers (blimbam.blogspot.com)