dangerously scary...

It is dangerously scary how much medicine can be practiced without ever actually talking to the patient. 6 year med.

Dr D's words, not mine. Now apply this to your life no matter what practicing medicine looks like in your life. You don't' have to have a career - this apply to just being human and I think if one can admit it, you are farther along in the process than what you think.

From what we believe to what we claim is the gospel truth. Because of the internet, we know have millions and millions and millions of people expressing their opinions on most everything, all the time. Wanting to be fair, I am guessing 95% of us ( yes, I am including myself) believe that whatever we are talking about, we would claim as the gospel truth. From what we should eat to what we should wear. More dangerously, what we should believe and what that belief should look like.

Dangerously scary.

Pretty strong words. You could read a truckload into this and maybe you should. More and more we tend to think that while practicing medicine, we don't even need a patient. WE are quick to diagnose and slow to do any kind of digging or research. That takes time and we are all looking for ways to find more not less.

From politics to religion, we are more concerned with getting out the word rather than the truth. When you think about it, information is more easily available than every before. All you have to do is Google it. i found out this week that in some areas, Google has done more harm because the information it gives on certain topics is wrong and harmful to those who accept is as total truth.

Maybe it is time to run whatever is on our minds through a second filter, one that would ask questions. Is this helpful or harmful? or maybe, Are there 140 other words that might encourage, bring humor or joy, that I might share instead. Like the two little old ladies gossiping at the park, and the one doing the listening is asking for more details and Miss Chatty Cathy tells her, I've already told you more than I know.... Dangerously scary me thinks.

class of 2010...

It's official... The class of 2010 is on its way to Big Peoplehood. Congrats to all, love sharing the time with you...

oversharing...

Most of us do it and do it several times a day. We share from the mundain to the obscure. We share what we are eating and what is eating us. From politics to stand up comedy to what's for dinner, we share it all. And often and that is exactly what FB's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is counting on.

...Zuckerberg is betting that it's not unsettling enough to enough people that we'll stop sharing all the big and small moments of our lives with the site. On the contrary, he's betting that there's almost no limit to what people will share and to how his company can benefit from it. Time

A bit unsettling to me but this is how it is, like it or not, and this is why...

Sometime in the next few weeks, Facebook will officially log its 500 millionth active citizen. If the website were granted terra firma, it would be the world's third largest country by population, two-thirds bigger than the U.S. More than 1 in 4people who browse the Internet not only have a Facebook account but have returned to the site within the past 30 days.

FB house the largest photo collection in the world and adds 1 billion images every week. Then there is advertisers. The more update FB gets you to share and the more preferences it entreats you to make public, the more data is is able to pool for advertisers. I am not anti FB but I think everyone should be informed and make personal decisions for their families.

After immering myself in this completely, overwhelming, half court article, it was time to move on and in the next few pages found this little gem of familiarity,

We work a lot in Africa. Men are ambitious and restless, and all they want is a certificate. And the moment you give them a certificate, they leave the village and go to the city. So we began training illiterate rural grandmothers to be engineers — solar engineers. So far, we have trained 140 grandmothers in 100 villages in Africa, and they have solar-electrified about 10,000 homes. Not one has migrated to the city. Why would they leave? Their family is in the village. Time

It made my world bigger
It reminds me that some things never change, no matter what.
It made me smile.

Facebook and many more to come are here to stay. The only question is will I? Grandmother engineers is a much more interesting thing to think about - might even make me change my mind about visiting. Now that, would be Something!

family...

I ran into George today. We use to work together. It has been 13 years now but I still run into him - at the grocery store or the auto body shop and George and I catch up. Except for these little impromptu get togethers, the last time I actually saw George was at his 15 year old daughter's funeral. A car accident that just left a trail of sorrow.

He carries the hope of Jesus with him. I have told him, I can not imagine being in his shoes and he just shrugs his shoulders. He always has a smile and today was no exception except he was dealing with a loss that was worse than losing his daughter. His words, worse than losing his daughter. He just got back from Romania where he held his 90 year old mother's hand as she left this life. Even as he told the Story, you could see that the inevitably of losing his mom never quite became a reality until it did. He was the one who made a beautiful coffin that he used as a coffee table until his MIL needed it. It was a joke yet and when he told the Story, his eyes would twinkle. I heard it many times and it always brought a smile. The reality was another of our co workers lost his teenage daughter in a car accident before George lost his girl and he offered the coffin to him.

Even from another culture, the lines of who is and who isn't family are pretty dim. I saved George from being fired once and he could never thank me enough. He took home a pressure cooker for some kind of experiment, a dumb thing to do but I talked the Powers That Be down and demanded they look elsewhere for somebody to fire.
Families come in all different shapes and sizes, you have to look out for your own.

Today's conversation with him gave me cause to stop and think. I can't imagine having the death of my 90 year old mother being tougher than losing a 15 year old daughter. I don't know if that is a man/George/none of the above thing. The only comfort I could give was was to remind him of his hope. The twinkle came back in his eyes, and we parted ways. I will see him again, I always do but if I don't in this life - the hope we share will bring us together again Someday...

uncomfortable...

Missionaries to me are those who plant themselves in a country that is not their own for an extended period of time to make that place home. It’s a foreign place that becomes a familiar place, and it’s an area where relationships are built that will last for more than 3 days. Missionaries are people who are willing to abandon what is normal so that they can follow a calling that is socially unacceptable to most. They’ve typically sacrificed everything they call commonplace and exchange it for a different story. Pastor Ryan

I have always avoided anything mission. Not having a bit of gypsy blood, nothing about packing my undees and hitting the road, holds any interest for me. Even in the early days...and later days of going to church, if it had to do with missions or missionaries, I was gone both in mind and body.

Much later on, the definition of what a missionary looked like changed. It now included those who didn't go into the tropics or even staying in the states, you could be a missionary in your own town, and sleep in your own bed at night. I couldn't wait to sign up and do my time. Now I could get my missionary badge and mark it off the To Do To Get To Heaven checklist!

I have been very comfortable with my perspective. All fit nice and tidy in my little God box. Pastor Ryan's comment unnerved me last week. Why? - because I think he might be right. I don't like anything foreign. Let me say if I had been born in France or Ethiopia or Spain, I would have felt the same way.

Do we have to be in unfamiliar, uncomfortable circumstances to be all we can be? While I am not sure, I want to be open to the possibility that I may be wrong. I want to color outside the lines but in my own way. How many of us will allow the idea of being uncomfortable on purpose when we are uncomfortable enough involuntarily in this life.

Reading this made me uncomfortable.
I don't like being uncomfortable.
Do I stay or do I go?

For me, I am going to work through it. As much as I would like to deny or run away from being uncomfortable, I am going to play through. Not sure what it will look like on the other side and while there is the desire to run away as fast as I can, I won't. At least not today...

feed my sheep...

“They took a picture of my belly and I got to see it!”

“You did!” I exclaimed, mostly genuine.

I peeled off his filthy socks and lifted up his baggy, stained shirt to mash on his belly.

“That doesn’t hurt me. I’m being a big boy.”

“I know you are. You’re very smart and handsome too.”

I said that for me then, just as I say it again now, in hopes that live, hot, breath will make it so.

They had found him locked in his bedroom, tiny and dirty. So hungry that he’d actually taken to eating the drywall in his room, just to fill up his belly.

I tried to remember all the little things he said to me. I wanted them to mean something or to be funny. I wanted to appreciate him from my good and caring place, instead of pitying him like I did anyway.

He smiled at me and patted his bloated, broken, belly. “You think I got a baby in there?” he asked seriously.

“No way, kiddo. Your belly is just tired and needs some rest. We’ll get you fixed up!”

“Did you know they gave me TWO stickers? I didn’t even ask for none, and they gave me two.”

He sighed and curled up onto his side, as best he could with his swollen middle. No blanket. No socks. Clutching his stickers in one hand.

Being a big boy, I guess. 6 year med/Dr D


Feed my sheep. Not just for my pastor or yours but for each of us. We each have a circle of influence. Those we have been given to encourage, love and somehow, be a part of their lives. To know and grow. To share and grieve with. Whether family, friends or one hit wonders, no one in our lives is there by chance and there is Something about each one that is unique. Not to lord over but to lead. To direct and redirect. To show them where to get a fresh drink of water or how to look at the stars and be amazed. To face what is or to what Someday will be. Each of us are pastors, like it or not

tomorrow...

We all have days, weeks, seasons of life when it seem like we can't take much more. The truth is we can take more than we think but we want to keep the bad stuff in life, to a minimum.

When I think back to my late thirties, I remember thinking and truly believing, I won't survive this. I had a female surgery and because it was more extensive than what the doctors expected, when I woke up they proceeded to tell me I would be having gallbladder surgery in less than year. They were right, the pain became unbearable and another surgery with a long, long recovery time would be mine.

When you are in the middle of a hurricane, the scenery is pretty scary. You can only see a few feet in front of you and the world you have always known, is nowhere to be found. Dark and alone, you try to tell yourself, it is going to be ok.

Somehow you make it through the dust and debris to the light of a new day. It is always available for the asking. Remember Annie?

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

I dare you to get that song out of your head...You're welcome!

outside...

When Jesus chose his disciples, they weren’t a group of educators. Now this hurts, personally, because, well, if there were a broad category for what I do, it would be that of educator. I deal in ideas. But Christ chose a diversity of craftsman. Oh well, I always have Paul to identify with. Nevertheless, the genius here is that the gospel was at street level, accessible to the common man, not stuck in an ivory tower. The gospel translated by fishermen and carpenters might have been understood very differently than the gospel translated from a life-long academic or educator.

Are the leaders of your church as diverse as the Apostles, or are they mostly educators?

Now lets be fair. If you happen to be an educator, or happen to be somebody who likes the truths of scripture translated for you into doable steps, it might be hard to be objective. Would you still attend if, each Sunday, the pastor didn’t give a sermon but went over blueprints for how to build better well-drilling systems, all as an answer to Jesus’ request to bring water to Him when He was thirsty? What if church were not educational but action oriented and experiential? Would we still have the same leaders? Donald Miller.

Miller has a very valid point and goes on to say...

Two close friends of mine don’t attend church. Actually, more than two, but the two I am thinking of are interesting because, quite frankly, they are the two most influential people I know. I won’t get into what they are doing with their lives, but they are literally positively affecting thousands. And when I say positively affecting, I mean feeding them, getting them water, setting them free from slavery and so forth. And I seem to meet these guys all the time, people who love Jesus, love other people and are visionary leaders with no shortage of passion. And they don’t go to church.

For whatever reason, I found out a long time ago that whatever I had to offer was outside of the church. I had that verified later on by my pastor at the time. Don't know that I fully believed him then - it took a while, a really long while.

I know that at my church, they have had leadership classes. For those who wanted to be in leadership at the church. Helpful maybe, but I think everyone is a leader of their own influence and that if the Church wanted to help, teaching that kind of class what would be more helpful.(Let me say right here that when I talk about Church, I don't mean a particular church - I mean the Church universal. All christian churches. The whole not the sum of the parts)

Go to church, don't go to church - that is your call. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you don't fit the theme of your church, don't worry about, do your own thing. It might seem difficult to separate the two in your mind but it is easier than you think. A real Jesus Church knows about the outside and will embrace it. Realizing now that being outside is as good as being inside. Have a degree, don't have a degree - it doesn't mean a hill of beans to Jesus. You are the only you there is - if you are Walking with Him, letting Him lead, being on the outside is a wonderful Place to be. Either way, do His Thing and do it with all your heart....Jesus, I love you man....

delight...

Finished Dan Allender's, The Sabbath last week and trying to wrap my head around rethinking the whole Sabbath concept. I am a reactionary person. Happy, sad, glad or mad - are the way I feel in any given circumstance. Trying to learn the state of being in delight, has been a bit difficult. I tried last night for a long, long time to attempt to get there and failed miserably. Allender talks about being delighted in Sabbath for what it is, not for what we have learned we should be doing or not doing on that day. Different from gratitude, I think delight is something you have to own and maybe that is where I am getting hung up.

Like those who wish for world peace. There can be no dumber human thought than to think that this side of heaven, world peace is possible.

I wish for world peace... It's would be like wishing that elephants could fly, if we all just wished it so. Read Genesis, things start to go bad real fast and world peace is pretty much out the door at the Garden.

But, this is what I do know. When you are trying to unlearn Something and learn Something new, it takes time. Just like an athlete, you have do warm up. You need to flex, loosen up, stretch and then, get into the game. Last night, I forgot to warm up. I learned something and I am ready to try again.

Not sure how this is all going to look but hoping is short order, to have a better idea of how to delight without having to react. How to delight when it seems impossible and how to delight because that is what the Sabbath is all about and that is where my head is at right now...

happy...

Besides learning this weekend that there is Rock Band for the iPad, I also discovered Lightscribe from my fabulous friend, Miss A.

Have been pulling my hair out for ways to label CD/DVD for years and with less than $50 and a DH who now feels like a genius because the install went so smooth, I can do it better than I ever imagined. Overnight, my life was changed and I couldn't be happier.

Maybe I could... I was beaming Saturday night as my girl had her fist ballet recital. All that pink and her, the show must go on attitude made for a pretty happy time. As I sat in the auditorium with all the boys, I have thought about this day for a long time. The boys brought their iPods and sitting there watching all these boys watch their girl, make me pretty happy. When the boys gave her flowers after her performance, my happy meter was a bit off the charts.

Happy isn't everything but it is a wonderful short term feeling. It certainly comes with the little things of life, A bouquet of tine roses, boys rolling their eyes as they count down the dances and grown men at their first ballet recital ever. Some days, it just doesn't take much...

shelf life...

Most of us by habit now, check the experation dates on our food purchases. I always look for the latest day possible when picking up eggs, or milk. I feel confident that I am making the best choice at the Beat The Clock game and providing my family with the safest food possible. Does it really make a difference? I think so but not for the reasons that are obvious.

Like all that Miracle Maid cookware I bought some 30 years ago. All you had to do was show up, someone cooks you a free dinner and you go home... But somewhere along the line, you lose your mind and buy $800 worth of cookware.

IT WILL LAST FOREVER... and I believed it.

Now I know, cookie sheets have a the shortest life span with cake pans being a nto so close second. Interestingly enough, the electric fry pan will last longer than the 1 1/2 quart pan if you have walk away, forget and burn something nasty in it.

What I never could have imagine was the giant pot would cook artichokes and corn forever. There was a forever but not for everything.

That is life in a nutshell. Then, the way to live a full, happy life is to figure out what goes when and what stays forever. Sometimes we get confused with these things that have a shelf life - we want to keep the cookie sheets of life forever, yet ignore the big old pot, that is always around. Worse than that, Sometimes, we hold on to the burned, never to be used again 1 1/2 sauce pan and give it a prominent place in our lives.

Those things we hold so dear - thoughts, habits, the themes that we live our lives around. The way we make choices, how we choose the essential from the important and at the end of the day, what we can live with. That is the stuff of life, and that, is where everyday takes us...

Greyson Chance

This is only the beginning... a few million hits on YouTube Wednesday. Over 8 million hits on You Tube this morning and on Ellen this afternoon. That, my friends, is how we roll as a people now.

reading...

Just finished cruising a forum about reading and whether the Kindle was the way to go. Interesting dialogue as people weighted it about the various types of ebook readers that they have or are wanting. With so many options, there was not a clear winner. The ebook Love seemed to be pretty well spread out

Interesting that this ebook thing popped up some years back but didn't pick up any momentum. Way before Kindle, there was a push but it fell on deaf ears. I remember thinking I was ready then. For me, there is no romance in adjusting my eyes to the new font with each book. Then, there is page turning. Not a big deal in the scheme of things but with every page, extra effort is needed to read those words close to the binding.

Those days are over. I imagine that library and 50 cent books at yard sales will continue for a long time but got to say that being able to read in bed with just the backlight from the Pad while DH sleeps, has made me a new woman.

Had a Nook for a couple days but it was obvious to me, there were issues and quite frankly, they were not the only rodeo in town. I was deciding whether to pull the trigger on the Kindle when I heard that the IPad was on its way. I decided to wait and make my choice after its release. The rest is history.

Here's the thing. The average American buys one book a year. I have been in several bookclubs and it has been very good for me. You read things you might never have read. They are not all winners, but they push you out of your comfort zone and take you where you never would have gone, given the choice. My current bookclub is ladies I have know forever. Got to say I am not sure that knowing each other so well maybe a determent instead of an advantage. A few years back, I started a neighborhood bookclub where I knew no one and it certainly had a different feel. Thinking about doing it again this fall...will see.

Now because of technology, I can download samples of books before having to buy. I've got five on my ebookshelf right now. It is a new way to learn and the possibilities are bigger than we can even imagine. Cruising the App store today, downloaded a free bible app and a few said they are only toting their Pads to church now. Funny, the Message doesn't change, just the messenger...

wishing...

On one corner, Lance Orten sells T-shirts at his stall: across the street is fellow Vietnam vet Duane Jackson, a handbag and scarf vendor. Rallis Gialaboukis has his hot dog cart next to Jackson. And then there is Bullet, the homeless guy who darts from stall to stall, chatting everyone up. Their collective alarms went off when smoke started coming out of a Pathfinder, left with its engine running in front of a phone booth, already conspicuous because it was illegally parked in a bus lane....Time Magazine.

Cops were called, Times Square was evacuated. The people of New York dodged yet another bullet. Had the bomb gone off, it would have been devastating to people, property and anything else in is way. No way to sugar coated it, the intent was to do as much damage as possible to as many as possible.

It took less than 54 hours to identify and catch the offender. It was close, the airplane that he was on, was at the gate, headed for Dubai. At the last minute FBI stormed the plane and the suspect was taken into custody.

Looks like we were right on top of things.
Homeland Security is well and alive in America.
Nice Story, Good Job!

Let's go back to Lance, Duane, Rallis and Bullet. Had they not seen and acted, it would have been a whole different outcome. These four men seemingly had no special training to notice what they did. They could have just stuck with selling their handbags or making more hotdogs, minding their own business. Are they always so vigilant about what is going on around them, noticing when Something seems out of place? Did they talk to each other to see if the others had seen what they had seen individually?

Tells me you don't have to be a brain surgeon to be aware. No special training except to be a student of Life. We are each in situations everyday that no one else but us, see. Not always of an extremist nature, are we aware of what is going on around us? Not talking about living in a state of fear, far from it. The question is what is going on around us and how do we help.

We live in an age of so much unknown but instinctively, have the capacity to see much more than we realize. Whether the danger of the immediate, a overwhelming sorrow or the joy of a child, are we not only in the Moment but in the Moment that is all around us? Thanks Lance, Duane, Rallis and Bullet for the heads up and the life lesson. Wishing it might always be this way...

one on one...

Meeting my lunch companion today and knowing that a big bowl of Tomato Bisque soup awaits, is enough to make me swoon. Add a stimulating conversation where you come home needing to look up a particular parable, is just a added bonus.

I adore parables. Little Stories with Big Meaning. This one from Luke tells about the father whose children has already gone to bed and a man came asking for something to eat. and the father tells the man, The door is locked, my children are all down for tonight, I can't get up to give you anything.

The parable goes on as the man is persistent and comes back, persistently so, to ask for bread. Then the familiar, Ask and you will get, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open. Sunday school teachers that the man asking for food is us. What if... we are the children that God has safely tucked inside? What if we have misinterpreted the parable. Don't know about you but it certainly changes my perception of not only the Story but God Himself. Imagine what else we may need to look at with new eyes, to see beyond what we can see with only our tunnel vision.

I learned this about myself today. Not only do I love to learn, I love to do it one on one. Put me in a big group, and I start to lose perspective. I want to go beyond what I can see to what is possible. Not putting God nor His word in a box. One on one refreshes me. I walk away yearning for more. I probably knew this but today, it clicked. Don't know about you but any time I get another piece of My own puzzle, it is a good day.

Imagine, I am the child, locked up safely in my bed with God watching over me. No need to worry or fret... how does that look in my life right now? Tells me I am not as smart as I think I am and much more loved than I could ever imagine...

the weary kind...

This ain't no place for the weary kind,
This ain't no place to lose your mind,
This ain't no place to fall behind,
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try...The Weary Kind/Ryan Bingham.

When the world is treating you less than civilized or being downright cruel. They should be your theme song. When you think you can't take one more step, remember these words. We are wonderfully made in all our humanness. We call all be bent but not broken if we understand what is at stake.

weary expressive of fatigue. We are all smart enough to know when it is time to rest. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out but it does take discipline. Rest, before you get weary. This is going to take some practice, won't be done in a day. If you forget, start all over again. If you choose to ignore the warning and decide to continue on, remember that this world is no place to fall behind. While we are in these lives we have been given, it is no place to lose your mind. I think it is time to limit my time watching the news that is 90% bad. Not sure what you do when it happens in Real Life, like when my kids and gkids experienced a robbery in progress while dining at Costco Friday night? How do you plan for that?

Not talking about tragedy, those expected or those that come at us out of the blue. Just going about your everyday life. The bible says to put on armor of God to protect ourselves - sounds a bit familiar?

This is work, real work. There are preventive measures available for each of us. What is keeping you from protecting yourself? NO discounting the protection of the One who made us, using common sense is not anti God.

This world will make you weary, no doubt. There is a balance between being all you can be and living in a hurricane. Not sure it isn't a balancing act the whole time we are here. Not a task for the weary kind...

debt...

According to a USA Today article about debt, 78% of Baby Boomers have mortgage debt, 59% have credit card debt, and 56% have car payments. It takes a lot of will, discipline, courage and help to slay the debt monster. But it can be done. Imagine how much you could put toward retirement if you just didn't have a stinking car payment? This is how the wealthy really build their wealth. Debt is dumb. Welcome to the real world. Dave Ramsey

This is my generation. My people. How did we get here and what does it mean?

More importantly, what have we taught our kids and grandkids? We live on a modest income, I have told the grandkids when they ask why poppa and I don't have a dog, nana can spend her money on you or a dog...pretty much ends the conversation.

I like the idea of every generation working for the things they want. The Fun Run at Gage's school on Friday was to raise money for playground equipment. They are in a new school and have none. If each kid could get $25 in sponsor money, they will have a new playground next fall. This year, they started the school year with no grass. No grass isn't a big deal until you don't have any or worse, see green stuff growing but also see DON'T PLAY ON THE GRASS! signs every 3 feet.

Between the many Gage fans in the family, he will more than bring his share of the money. Next year when his brother and sister join them at the school, he will tell them he paid for the swing they are on or the piece that they are climbing on and he will be right. Will drive them crazy but he will be right. There is Something to be proud of when you have sacrificed and worked hard to achieve a financial goal. Mayb ewe Big People should run laps and collect money before we buy a new car. Maybe a yard sale to cover escrow costs when we want to buy a new home.

Money will always be an issue in whatever season of life you are in. The trick is to be in control of it instead of it controlling you. Took me a long time to learn that lesson but being a baby boomer and having a mortgage just doesn't make good sense to me...

nourish...

We are all born creative beings. As we grow and develop we either nurture this gift and it flourishes, or we neglect it and our creativity fades into the background of our lives. Our educational system, culture, beliefs and the people surrounding us all add to this. We either tell ourselves or let others tell us that we might go wrong and that fear of being wrong or being stupid makes us grow uncreative, if I may. We are forced to toe an imaginary line, taught to follow an unwritten rule and thus in the process, put an end to our creative aspirations. As Albert Einstein once said “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Amar Ramesh via Scott Bourne.

After all these years, today when I read this - it all became clear. After years of being in survival mode, even trying to extricate any creativity seemed a waste of time. Buried so deep that nothing short of a miracle could uncover the heaps of debris that would...should never see the light of day.

It has taken my more than a few years to see it in myself. I live with one who is natural creative and since I never saw anything like him in myself, I believed that like being musical - some of us got it and some of us don't. Anyone can learn to play the piano but you can tell when it just flows out of certain people. You can't help but notice, it just seems to surround them.

I think the key word is nourish. When I think about what it means to recognize creativity, nourishment is not far behind. When I see Something, whether a photo or song or anything man-made, I am being nourished. I didn't recognize it before, now it's all I can see.

nourish to cherish, feed, support, educate, suckle, preserve, to nurse, foster, comfort and encourage.

When your needs are met you are able to travel in the realms of creativity and start to bloom.

This Mother's Day, if someone has done this for you, say Thank you. If you are a child who have been a recipent of being nourished, start taking a few risks. If you are a mother, look and see how powerful this can be for your child. If you are the nourisher of your life, make sure you are doing it with all your might and then start acting like one who is ready to fly. Be someone who share something with the world that will create, inspire and maybe even teach others how to nourish those who have been given to them... Happy Mother's Day.

summer mode...

The last of the seniors. Graduation, party, summer. That is the drill. Flip flop are in, socks are out. Long sleeved shirts are put in the back of the closet and the summer tops are moved to the very front. We have had such a cold spring it has been a bit difficult to get aboard the short sleeved train but for me, it more of a biological mode.

I have summer rules.
I have summer food.
I have summer rituals.

I read in different places in the summer. Mostly outside on my porch swing. The mashed potatoes are going and potato salad is in. Our whole menu changes, not to be seen again for 6 months.

Just the like school year, summer is for doing whatever, whenever so any organized gigs are given up until next fall. No commitments in the good old summertime, just another rule.

If the weather starts cooperation, the hot cocoa is gone for a while. The pilot light on the fireplace is turned off and the summer bedding comes out while the heavy comforter hits the linen closet.

I am looking forward to it all. It gives me a bit of my childhood back. I am sure I remember California summers with much more love than actual clarity but nevertheless, it is as much a part of me and as real as it can be.

Even if we have had to wear coats a few days this week, the capri are out and the long pants - gone. Might not be the best look but you can't fight the mode...

Sandy Bullock...

Comedian George Lopez has declared himself "a proud uncle" now that the cat’s out of the bag on his pal Sandra Bullock's secret adoption.

"I am a proud uncle and [my wife] Ann is a proud aunt," Lopez told PEOPLE before hitting the links at his third annual Celebrity Golf Classic Monday morning, thrilled his close friend and the producer of his former sitcom is now a mom to Louis Bardo Bullock. "Sandra is a loving, giving person, and Louis could not be in a better home and she could not be happier." People Magazine.

I never liked Jesse James and quite frankly, I thought he was no good enough for Sandy Bullock. DH has followed Jesse and his motorcycle ways for a long time and he has always, always truck a bad chord with me. Call it woman's intuition and no one was happier than me to see her so happy at the Academy Awards and other events when her love was him was true and pure. I started to believe that I was way off base. Has happened before, and will happen again.

When the news came out, like the rest of the world - was stunned. How could he do that to her after she has declared him a saint, every change she could. If this could be done to her, I don't have a chance. What idiot would let all that love just slip away? Spouses cheat all the time. Is it the thrill of the hunt? Do they really think they aren't going to get caught? Especially those in the media, That is the only place where everyday Joe has a leg up on Jesse James, no one is going to come forward in my neighborhood to talk about cheating and if they did, no one, absolutely no one - would care.

The first thing I thought last week when the news broke about Sandy's baby was, it's is over for Jesse James, My mommy sense told me he has nothing to leverage with. No man bargaining chips trump baby chips. Little Louis is a full house to Jesse's pair of two. A woman who can put all her love and work out her pain by caring for a child who does nothing but love - every man on the planet would be in the same screwed boat. Game over.

I am so happy for her. I imagine George and his wife will make great uncle and aunt for this boy. I also imagine that Jesse James might as well fold this set of cards and move on. She has a new man in her life and with her maternal instincts in full blown mode, he doesn't stand a chance. She is filling the hole in her love heart with one that is as old as time and impossible to fight. Congrats Sandy and Louis, may you have a long and happy life together!

iHappy...

Let's go take some barn pictures for those empty frames in our bedroom, he said, Friday night after dinner.

It started so innocently. Doesn't it always?

Grabbed the camera and headed down the road. Then he decided we should head over to another landmark which now, puts us in grandchildren territory. Call the kids and we will meet up later, So far, so good. By this time we were less than a mile from Best Buy with time to kill. DH had not seen an iPad up close, extra time and since I know they have none in stock and please call back May 25. Sounds good, let's go.

For a Friday evening, BB was pretty quiet and I had warned DH that there may be a line to see the demo one - no line. Three available and no line. We each grabbed one and in a very short time, he was hooked. NO PROBLEM - none in stock...

Until the salesman said, Just got some in, Want one?

We looked at each other... and gave in. Now the proud owners of an iPad. I can now play the accordian, drums and 2 pianos. I can type on a typewriter and even write a book, chapter by chapter. I imagine that this will be my new BFF and change the way I do business. Imagine Someday, it will be the way we all do business and then we will all be iHappy

funny how fallin feels like flyin...for a little while

I was Going where I shouldn't go, Seeing what I shouldn't see, Doing what I shouldn't do, being who I shouldn't be. Fallin' and Flyin' from Crazy Heart/Jeff Bridges/Colin Farrell.

While there is not much Country Girl in me, I swear some of their lyrics feel downright gospel to me. While these exact words are not in the bible, their spirit oozes out of many chapters. Not technically the letter of the law, you would be hardpressed to deny, how true they really are.

Fabulous movie about behavior and consequences. About choice and reality. While drink may not register on your personal scale, I imagine we can each identify by inserting our own issue of choice. Have had countless conversations about why we do what we do and keep doing it for so long? Why does it take so long to learn and why can't we retain what we know to be true?

Why can't everything be as simple as riding a bike. Once you learn, you never, ever forget. You never see ads for refresher courses in bike riding. You learn it once and it sticks. I vote everything should works as well as bike riding. If I ever ran for President, that would be my platform. After a while, it would seems much more valuable than any legislative issues I could promise to fix.

The truth is most of life is not like bike riding, and more like a good country western song. Don't buy into the bad doesn't feel good thing, do yourself a favor and admit that sometimes fallin funny how fallin feels like flyin... for a little while .