Bouquet of Roses

A Daily Prayer

Great Spirit,
 please take care of
 the children, the elderly,

and all those in between.

Great Spirit
please take care of
the hungry and thirsty,

the disabled, 

the paralyzed, crippled,

blind, deaf and speechless.

Great Spirit,
please take care of those
 confined to wheelchairs

 hospitals, and
nursing homes.

Great Spirit,
please take care of

the lonely, the suffering,
the sick and the dying.

Great Spirit,
please take care of 

those who stand and fight for

goodness, fairness, and freedom.

Great Spirit,
please take care of everyone.
Please kiss us good night and watch
over us while we sleep.

Great Spirit,
please take care of our
kitties and puppies,
goldfish and guppies.
Thank You.

Smoke and Mirrors

Looking to observe something today?  How 'bout National Smoke and Mirrors Day.

It's a day for us to think about the illusions in life.  Smoke and Mirrors means something is not really as it appears to be.  The source of this term comes from the magician who makes objects and even people disappear by extending or retracting mirrors in a haze of smoke.  The metaphor made its way into our everyday language to describe the act of putting up smoke and mirrors to hide something we don't want others to see.

Ordinary people learn the skill of tricking other people into thinking that they're more than what they really are.  In reality, though, they are jealous, manipulative, and self-centered.  We all know people like this.  They appear like they genuinely care for us as a person, call us by our first name, but beware that while we see syrup drip from their lips.....they're sharpening their knife on our heart.

These people are intelligent and know every trick in the book to hide their real identity.  They work terribly hard at maintaining the illusion, and they really don't care how they hurt others in the process.  They're like the jelly fish that floats and shimmers in the water.  They look sweet and fragile, but underneath their feelers are ready and waiting to strike and to sting.

Eventually we tire of people like this, and it gets to the point where we have to decide whether or not to delete them from our contact list.  I'll never understand why we all can't play nice and be done with it.

"Cunning is the art of

 concealing our own defects,

 and

 discovering the weaknesses of others."

~William Hazlitt, British essayist 

Baby Boomers Downsizing and Simplifying

The last couple of days I've spent time in the attic.  Sorting.....bagging.....tossing.....holding childhood toys for the last time......and wiping tears.  Hubby is tackling the basement.

We baby boomers are facing some heart and gut-wrenching tasks.  Our closets and storage spaces are packed with stuff we don't even know we have.  Monday of this week, the two of us joined forces to tackle the dreaded job of getting rid of 45 years of material possessions.  We've never moved from the house we started out in, so it's all here.  

Having no kids means that we're the sole pilots of our plane.  With the exception of a childhood rocker, a high chair that held three generations, gramma's sewing machine, and a clock.....there's really no family heirlooms to pass on.  The auction arena seems like the most practical place for it all to go.  Every generation has to deal with late-life partings and good-byes.  I just didn't expect my turn to come up this soon.  

The auction business has taken on wings these days.  It's gone global with the use of the Internet bidding, which gives the seller a better chance of making some money from the attic's vintage pieces.  Anyone can go to the local auction, but there may be someone in Malaysia bidding against you.  

The sentimental-sally in me can't help but wonder where my doll house furniture and Goldilocks rag doll will end up.  My doll house furniture was packed away for the last 55 years in my daddy's shoe box.  The price tag is still on the box, with a picture of the shoe style.  Back then the shoes cost $3.29.  Today, a pair like that would cost well over $100.  

Aging holds many fear factors, as we are finding.  We visit every day about it, the two of us.  Our worst fear is losing the other and the fuzzy one.  We are a world of three that won't last forever.  The attic, the basement, and garage are monkeys on our backs.  We're hoping to be around yet for a good twenty more years, but we don't want to carry those monkeys with us.  The ages 60s and 70s have blessings and burdens alike.  The challenge now is getting a grip on the burdens and aggressively getting rid of them.  

The book of our marriage, hopefully, has a lot of chapters left.  But, our friends are losing their spouses.  Whether we like to admit it or not, things could change in a heartbeat.  I'm one that doesn't want to be blindsided by the unexpected if there's something I can do about it.  That's why I'm spending a couple hours each day in the attic......preparing for the next stage of our life.....and Simplicity is going to play an integral part of how smooth that transition will come to be.  The last thing we want is for one of us to be left with the mess.  That just wouldn't be fair.

The trick is being strong-willed, realistic, and upbeat.  We're working hard at looking ahead at what can be.....not backward at what can never be.  And, I feel therein lies the difference between sadness and a new-found source of happiness.    

Trivia and Adorably Elegant Mature Women

• Vodka is Russian for "little water."
• 90% of women who walk into a department store immediately turn to the right.
• A car traveling 100 mph would take more than 29 million years to reach the nearest star.
• According to U.S. laws, a beer commercial can never show a person actually drinking beer.
• All major league baseball umpires must wear black underwear while on the job.
• At the closest point, the Russian and U.S. borders are less than two miles apart.
• Male iguanas have two willies......hemipene.
• Cast iron skillets used to be the leading source of iron in the American diet.
• The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
• The "g" in g-string stands for groin.
• Henry Ford, father of the automobile, is also the father of the charcoal briquette.
• If you flip a coin ten times.......the odds against its coming up with the same side showing each time are 1,023 to 1.

Silly trivia fascinates the heck out of me.  Maybe that's why I save sentences that jump off the page right into my brain.  Someday when I go to 'eat my pie in the sky,' those who will go through my endearments will find scraps of inspiration in drawers, books, under the bed, and probably even in my shoes.  Or, if I stick around long enough I'll shred them, leaving no trail of where my brain has been.  

On a happier note, I invite my readers around the globe to please join me in wishing my girlfriend in Arkansas a top-notch milestone birthday today.  Her captivating personality warms and tickles the hearts of all who are gifted by her friendship.  If I was in Arkansas today, we'd clink our glasses, sip a bottle or two of that little water stuff, and laugh till we'd pee in our pants!

Fill-In-The-Blanks

Let's have some fun with these fill-in-the-blanks.  Readers, please share how you would fill them in.  Let's see how zany and different we all are........

1. Mondays are ____________________________.
2. So far today I've ____________ a _________________ and I've _______________.
3. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going __________________.
4. I've never ____________________.
5. If it wasn't for ______________, I would ________________.
6. There's nothing more annoying than ____________________.
7. If your ____________ is ________________, I think it's time you see a ____________.
8. Life is _______________________.

Okay, here's what first popped into my mind..........

1. Mondays are no different than any other day of the week, now that I'm retired.
2. So far today I've written a blog and I've downed a half a pot of coffee.
3. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to see a male moose Up North in the wild.
4. I've never liked wearing shoes.
5. If it wasn't for titanium, I would not be able to walk pain-free.
6. There's nothing more annoying than spitting.
7. If your vision is blurry, I think it's time you see an optometrist.
8. Life is a four-letter word...like food.

Now it's your turn..........

Sunday's Lesson

The Legend of the Dogwood Tree

Legend has it that many years ago,

 when Jesus lived on the earth,

 the dogwood tree was tall and sturdy like the oak.

 Because of its strength,

 it was selected as the one

 from which the cross that was to bear Jesus would be made.

  The dogwood was very distressed

 when it heard this and grieved deeply.

  Jesus was sensitive to the sorrows of all persons and things,

 and He understood the dogwood's grief.

  So, He told it that because of its pity of Him,

 nevermore would it be put to such use again.

  Thereafter, it would no longer be rugged and stand straight.

  It would be instead crooked and slender.

  It would bear delicate blossoms

 with two long and two short petals

 resembling the shape of a cross.

  On the outer edge of each petal would be nail prints, 

brown with rust and stained blood-red. 

 The center of the flower would be marked with a crown of thorns.

 Thus, the dogwood tree will forever be

a reminder of Christ dying on the Cross~~

for you and for me.

It's Hot....It's Healthy.....It's Horseradish

Should you find yourself near Collinsville, Illinois, (20 minutes east of downtown St. Louis, Missouri) there's a photo op waiting......the world's largest ketchup bottle.  Officials calculate it could hold enough ketchup to cover 25 million hamburgers.  The ketchup bottle is actually a water tower that stands 170 feet high.

Collinsville is also the self-proclaimed Horseradish Capital of the World. This Mississippi River basin area known as the American Bottoms, carved out by the glaciers during the ice age, left the soil rich in potash, a nutrient on which horseradish thrives.

Since 1988, Collinsville celebrates the International Horseradish Festival.  In 2012, the dates are June 1-3.  Naturally it's not Disney World, but admission is free, parking is free, live entertainment is free, and shuttle service is free.  With $4+ gasoline, maybe we should think of alternatives to the expensive family vacation.  Not only that, but these down-home celebrations can introduce kids to the real America.....like Southern Illinois where 80% to 85% of the world's horseradish is grown.    

Why such a name for this condiment?  The German immigrants brought it to America and called it meerrettich, which means sea radish, because it was grown in the lowland parts of Germany near the sea.  The English understood the German meer (which sounds like mare) to mean horse and translated the word to horseradish.  "Radish" comes from the Latin "radix," meaning root.

Our family has to have horseradish on the table with ham, and homemade cocktail sauce is simple to make by mixing together ketchup and horseradish.  For those of us who like a good kick to our Bloody Mary, well, horseradish will magically do that trick.

Trivia:  Some biblical scholars believe horseradish was the bitter herb into which Jesus dipped his bread at the Last Supper.  The bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.

It's time for lunch.  Wish I had a ham sandwich.

Disappointment and Silence

Guess I'm feeling disappointed this morning, and that's not a fun feeling.  The reason isn't necessary to reveal, but disappointment seems like a good topic to write about.

As a little girl, I remember being disappointed by the weather.  If our family of four had a fishing day planned and we woke up to a thunderstorm, I was so disappointed.  When I'd come home from school and daddy had sold our lambs, I'd be more than disappointed.  If I didn't get to eat the gizzard out of a fried chicken, I'd be disappointed.  Childhood was one long string of disappointments.

My mom taught me not to make plans and bank on them.....if you don't plan, you won't be disappointed was her philosophy.  There's a ton of truth in this, and maybe that's why I try to leave room for the unexpected to happen.  Still, a person is sometimes let down no matter what.

Overcoming disappointment is not easy.  The way I tend to deal with my hurts is to crawl inside my turtle shell and stay there until I feel better.  Don't talk to me, and don't expect me to talk.  Silence is my therapist.  Oh, I know this sounds like an adult pout, but it works for me.  I'm not likely to mend my heart by going out for a 2-mile sprint or calling a girlfriend for lunch.  I prefer flying solo when I feel this way.

If we share our troubles with someone else, that person won't ever forget what we tell them.  We will.  They won't.  It's best to wait out the adverse emotion and let it dissolve into nothingness.