Embrace The Suck

"You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day/not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step toward your rainbow." Og Mandino (American Essayist and Psychologist) If removing every book, wiping away any residue of cat urine, rubbing a dressing of orange smelling oil into parched wood, and tossing out books that no longer seem relevant to my life puts me on the way to my rainbow, then boys and girls, I think I'm seeing color just over the horizon. Woohoo! There is a lesson to be learned in the fact that without even meaning to I discovered the stinky remains of my black cat's inability to find the litter box. Just think how many days, months, years (?) might have passed by without me giving the bookshelves in question a good going over. The chore itself has been kind of a pain in the ass, but I feel good about finishing the job. I especially like getting reacquainted with some old friends. And here's the kic...

"In the Koran, the first thing God said to Muhammad was `Read,' " Alia Muhammad Baker New York Times, July 27, 2003* It's funny how things happen. I was at Barnes and Noble the other day doing research for some upcoming posts. It's not that I fancy myself a "real" journalist so much as I was curious about the number of ABC books there are in the world. To my surprise and amazement there are many. In fact, there is a whole website dedicated to this most basic of primers. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ABC books. I can't tell you why. I just know I do. If I had a library in my house - you know, one of those big rooms you see in rich people's homes, lined with bookcases, with comfortable leather furniture, a big cherry-finished desk and fresh flowers on the table next to the window where a light breeze gently moves the sheer curtains - I'd have a whole section set aside for ABC books. But, as often happens, I digress. While crawling around on the floor che...

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is contantly making exciting discoveries." A.A. Milne Unless hit by a staggering bolt of get-off-your-butt-and-start-moving adrenaline, I'm often a slow starter. Suspecting the bottom shelf of books had been sitting in dried pee for months, I had trouble rushing right into the cleaning mode. I mean, really, who's going to be down on the floor sniffing the carpet? Who's going to suddenly want to read about gaseous Walter? Sure there was a natural resistance on my part to avoid the aroma of urine for as long as I could, but I think the main reason for my foot-dragging was the thought of throwing out so many beloved books. Which, I believe, begs the question what puts a book in the "beloved" category? I have a thing about books. I love to read. I love to collect. I love to stroll leisurely through bookstores, large or small, even on the internet. Can you say Amazon.com? As much as I like to curl up w...

I may be a churchy kind of girl, but I'm not much of a Bible student. I'll be honest, I don't spend time "in the word" even though I'm sure there is a lot of wisdom to be had there. Still, there are a few Bible stories I've heard over the years that they are somewhat recognizeable. Such as the one about King Solomon and the two women arguing over a baby. They both claimed the baby was hers. Wise old Solomon's advice, to cut the child in half, was something akin to what my father used to suggest when shown a little girl's booboo. Instead of kissing it and reassuring the daughter du jour that the limb containing the booboo will surely survive in one piece, my Dad would offer to cut off the affected leg/arm/foot/hand and let the blood drip in a bucket. Nice .... Without skipping a beat, the women considered the advice. Afterall it was given by the king. Lady 1 actually thought it a great idea. "Let the baby be neither mine nor hers, but divide it...

"What we need are more ways to experience our interconnectedness - it is a precursor to deep love. So in this quickening light, with the dawn of each new day, let us look for love. Let us no longer struggle. Let us ever become who we most want to be. As we begin to be who we truly are, the world will be a better place.” John Denver Last week I attended a funeral. While I believe memorial services are an important part of the grieving process, I find it a little strange that a person's death is often the only catalyst for his friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family to come together to celebrate his life. In my opinion, that's kind of backwards. It seems one's life should be acknowledged while a person is still alive to enjoy it, learn from it, and be blessed by it. In other words that's what birthdays are for! Maybe I'm just thinking that way because today is MY birthday! My father, who is going on 92, thinks I'm past the age of having birthdays; or should...

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. " Leo Buscaglia I was awakened this morning by the phone ringing. It was late enough that I should have already been up an moving, yet still early enough to start my day with that shot of adrenaline that moves one from a deep sleep to immediate action in the blink of an eye. Phone calls in the wee morning hours almost always mean an emergency of some sort. Either that or someone calling from another time zone who forgets to add or subtract the hours as the case may be. Or, now that I've learned about "drunk dialing" from AntiJen (http://antijen.blogspot.com), I guess the nerve shattering jingle need not be an emergency, just the musing of someone under the influence of too much Apple Jacks and Sauvingnon Blanc. My all time best experience with an early morning phone ...

"The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow From all I've been reading about middle-aged memory loss, it's apparently not a big deal. It's not uncommon. And, even though Iworry that forgetting where I put my keys is an indication that I am on the fast train to full-blown dementia, researchers are proving this is not the case. "Even in the 65-and-older age group, only 15% of people suffering from mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop Alzheimer's disease." * We boomers, who have long since passed our babyhood, are overstressed, don't always get enough exercise, and eat foods that are not good for our mental or physical muscles. Many of us our sandwiched between caring for (once a mother always a mother) our children and/or grandchildren who once flew the coop but now, for whatever reason, think there's no place like Grandma's, and our parents who can no longe...

"No one can be uncheered by a balloon." Winnie the Pooh And no one can stay angry when they see things like this: Or this: Or this: Or this: Or this: Not so pissy now, Merry ME

"Get mad, then get over it." Colin Powell How is it that one can lie in bed next to the man she loves, eventually kiss him goodnight, listen to his breathing as it becomes one with her own - inhale, exhale, inhale - thank God for this man's presence in her life then wake up the next morning and feel like she wants to kick him in the ass? Or yell at him, "What's up? I'll tell you what's up!" before her own eyes are even opened enough to see his sweet face? And since I'm asking, how is it that a person can sleep for six or seven or eight hours, and still wake up feeling weighted down and cranky? One doesn't need to be Sigmond Freud to diagnose a rather severe case of anger. And it might not take a rocket scientist to look at a certain girl's stressful life and see possible anger atoms swimming in every corner of the house. Even an American child, who's never lived in a place where he has to be careful of stepping on land mines, can tel...

"A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness." Elbert Hubbard * I need to be careful what I say about losing my memory because if the Law of Attraction is real then putting all my fearful thoughts into the universe could hurt me way more than being honest about the loss of my short term memory. Still I worry; and when I worry, I write. When I was young, I prided myself on my ability to remember things. Perhaps I couldn't always put a name with a face, but at least I remembered one or the other! Numbers were my specialty. There for awhile I could recite all my former addresses down to the zipcode; plus most of my phone numbers. I can still recite my ex's social security number even though there is absolutely no reason for this little tidbit of knowledge to be retaining space in my brain when remembering to put the ice cream in the freezer, not the vegetable drawer would serve me so much better. One of my best memorie...