Yuck - rhymes with *uck!

Shivers, headache, general malaise.

I'm blaming it on the cold or allergies
I've been struggling with all weekend.

Not that it stopped me from doing anything - 

never that!

I was raised to keep going when you're sick...

it will take something more significant 

than a runny nose and stuffed up head to get me down!

In fact, since I decided to stay in and 'putter' around the house,

the result was a burst of creativity.

There's an artist I especially enjoy - 

Bunny with a tool-belt - 

do you know her?

I have several pieces of hers - and would love to have more,

but, on a retirees salary 

and with a missioners heart for NOT accumulating more 'things' ,

it didn't look like that would happen.

Well, she's a finalist in a Martha Stewart contest for American artists

and she's been having a limerick contest.

The winner of the contest will get $250.00 worth of her art -

and I'm determined that winner will be ME!
The limericks had to focus on getting Martha Stewart to select her as a winner.

So far, I've sent her 6 limericks -

keep your fingers crossed that ONE of them gets her attention!

I think the winner will be announced later this week.

Here they are -
1.

There once was a girl and with wood
created what few of us could.
She ‘Martha’ed’ with paint,
she ‘Martha-ed’ with glue,
the only thing left is to be ‘Martha’ed’ by you!

2.

There once was a Martha - its true -
she’s the one people wanted to woo
So Bunny made art 
and then swore 
she’d do it some more
until Martha picked her style too.

3.

A dog and a rainbow - what bliss!
Martha, it doesn’t get cuter than this
So pick Bunny today,
do it with out delay
so we all can get our wish!

4.

There once was a dog with some cake
Martha, I swear it looks just like you’d make
But Bunny, she did -
and she’s only a kid,
so please choose her now for Pete sake!

5.

A zebra with cake? well, who knew?
It’s a thing you don’t see at the zoo.
If Martha picked it we’d see
that our minds could be free
to imagine all things could be true.

6.

There's few things that I love more
than Martha’s Living when it gets to my store;
unless its a tree
that Bunny made me
and to see them together -
well, SCORE!

Whadda think?

Personal favorites are 5&6.
Here's hoping!

ps:
I also got the painting done on my plaster of paris chocolate mold trees - 

all I need to do it wait for a sunny day,
then spray with finish and apply glitter - 
everything's better with glitter, right?
Yup; finally got my pink tree!

Birthday gift

Today is my birthday.

I'm 65.

There will be celebrating with family and friends.

There WILL be cake!

And the celebrating will continue later this week -

with Art Boy in KC!

This post
(found here)
seems like a gift given directly to me
to keep before me 
the things that matter.

When I have a head full of things that seem to be troubles

 I draw two circles in my mind and sort my things into categories. 

One category is: Things That Will Matter at my Memorial Service. 

The other circle is: Things That Won’t Matter at my Memorial Service. 

If, for instance, I am troubled 

about the way my pants feel around my thighs, 

I try to imagine someone saying, 

“She was a nice girl, but those corduroys 

did not do anything for her.

 Such a shame for her family.” 

Odds are, that won't happen. 

That goes into the Won't Matter circle.

It is unlikely that people will decide not to come 

to my service because the light fixture in my dining room 

is not centered directly over my table. 

I can’t imagine anyone walking up to my sons at the service and saying,

 “It must be terrible to know that there were days

 when your mother hit snooze 17 times 

before getting up and having too much creamer in her coffee. 

I will be praying for you.” 

I can’t imagine that anyone will care that I spend all my money 

in eleven days even though I only get paid every fourteen days.

Or that I don't always put in a non-stop
kick-ass eight hour day at work.  
(Or in my case, go to the gym every day!)

There are things, of course, that fill my heart and head

 that get put into the Things that Will Matter circle

 as I am sorting my troubles. 

But I first have to be free of The Won’t Matter things 

so that I can tend to those things that do.

 I want to live in such a way that my friends and family

 will walk around after I am gone saying to each other, 

“She really loved you.”

 “She really loved you, too.”   

Because that is what matters the most. 

Indeed it is.

And so dear 
quirky, 
odd, 
fascinating, 
normal, 
odd, 
compassionate, 
spirit-filled, 
funny,
strange,
outlier 
friends, 
please know how much
I love you all!

You are ALL the best gifts I've received!

Fall color

I had nothing to do with -

beyond photographing it!

And, on such a dreary day as today,
it's wonderful to see.

Be still my heart...

See this man?

 

He's the reason I survived the Bush years!

Watching West Wing, 

pretending that my President was an attractive, liberal, 

ethical guy 

(well, quasi-ethical - what can I say, power corrupts)

instead of the smarmy frat boy 

who actually resided at 1600!

I'll be honest,

my fantasies were always evenly split

between Josiah and Leo,
with a mini crush on Josh -
although I was happy to let another 'Donna' have him;

but never Sam. 

Even in my fantasies,

 I was realist enough to know
I never had a chance with such an Ivy League rich hottie -  

clearly out of my league.

Then Martin Sheen made a movie about the Camino -

and I was hooked even more deeply!

It didn't matter that I'd heard of the Camino years before;

he walked it,

he suffered,

he found himself again -

and did it all while looking fantastically 'older'!

He's in St Louis tonight at the Speakers series - 

and I have tickets!

Screw Cardinals baseball...

I'm headed to Powell for an early birthday celebration!

Gorgeous fall color

even if I had to create it myself!

I'm a sucker for bottle brush trees.

I've created whole forests using them at Christmas, 

but this year, 

I figured why confine my love to one season?

I started off with your average stock of green trees,

put them in bleach to lose the color

then re-dyed

and dried!

God, what fun!

Yup, 

kinda love them!

A LOT!

Melancholy

I don't know what the 'official' definition is - 

and I'm too lazy to 'Google' it;

all I know is that I suffer from it every fall.

For me, 

its a combination of nostalgia and depression;

recognition that much of the beauty around me 

is caused by things that are in the process of dying.

Add that to the reality 

that my ex-husband, father, grandparents

and several dear friends have all died in fall 

and you have the perfect storm.

For me,

the fact that all of us have short shelf lives 

makes them all the more precious...

and makes the choices

about how we live them

more important.

In conversation recently, 

someone asked if I came from a 'religious' family'.

My response was "not really".

Sure,

family legend has several 'faith stories' -

about my mom and younger brother 

being 'saved' by prayers to St Christopher 

(the only Saint my mom could remember) 

after a difficult and protracted delivery 

and both of them being given last rites;

about my father being 'given' a gorgeous tenor voice 

and position as a paid soloist in our church 

as a way of "Gods getting his ass to church"

 so he could be 'saved' from his struggle with alcoholism;

and I remember church every Sunday, 

singing in the choir, 

staring at the stained glass window - 

at an angel with a mauve headband that I coveted -

during particularly long and boring sermons.

But there wasn't much talk about God on a daily basis,

nor was there any religious statuary 

in some sort of homemade shrine or altar.

I would have said my mother was the driving force 

behind our family's attendance at church 

and any beliefs about God I absorbed during childhood.

So I was more than a little surprised to find a copy of a letter 

my father wrote while he was dying of cancer 

which spoke directly to his faith.

The letter had been in my mothers safe deposit box.

When I closed the box out and brought everything home, 

I put it all in another, far less secure box in the basement - 

and forgot about it.

Keep in mind this was written during the time 

before Advanced Directives were commonplace; 

a time when people (like the husband of Terri Schivo) 

had to fight for the right to terminate extraordinary measures
for a family member; 

a time in which the very definition of what constituted 'extraordinary measures' 

was far more contentious than it is today.

What a wonderful gift it was to find the letter this week- 

to be given a look into the workings of my fathers heart 

in a way I'd never seen before.

The letter reads, in part,

Miracles do occur and new methods of treatment are being discovered that may, in time, aid in recovery, 
but I have to concern myself within the realities of my disease as they are now. 
Within the framework of what I have to deal with, I accept, without question, God’s will for me. 

To wish for a few more months or even days of life beyond that which God allots me, 
especially at the expense of my family, is a selfishness I cannot permit myself. 

To hope for a miracle or cure in these final months and days is an exercise in futility I have no desire to undertake; 
to wish for any additional time would be meaningless and much less than honorable under the circumstances; 
to die with dignity merely means that I surrender my will to that of a compassionate God as I understand Him. 

Times change, morals change and people are altered by them. 
I can’t say that I have added or given much to the world in general by passing through it. 

I have lived, like so many millions of others, mainly an uneventful existence. 
If, in living this life I have wrought no great change, 
I pray that I have caused no great hurts or evil either. 
I have lived quietly and, for the most part, privately. 
I hope that I am allowed to die in the same fashion - 
quietly, privately and naturally - without any artificial extension or heroic efforts - 
comfortably in the hands of God.

To Him I commend my soul; 
knowing that His will for me is best. 

To ask for more would be an act without faith 
and truly, at the end of the road, 
all I have is faith in Him.

I'm so glad my father wrote this letter. 

I'm glad my mom saved it.

I'm glad I've had time to savor it 

in quietness,

when creation is ablaze with the beauty of things 

at the end of their life cycle too.

Thanks, Daddy.

SOOO true!

Did you see this list?

Don't know whether to laugh or cry with the truth it contains!

NOT that I consider myself 'middle aged'. 

I get it; I'm old.

I've told y'all before I have neither the money 

nor the intention 

to live to be 110!

But I know many of my peers will recognize the truths found in this list - 

here are some of my favorites!

(With my editorial comments and observations added when necessary)

"Sixty is the new 40."

It's a common aphorism we've heard for some time now, 

doubtless meant to calm us baby boomers who are growing so long in the tooth 

that we now need two hands to hold our toothbrushes.  

(IF our teeth are even still in our mouths and not in a glass!)

And reassuring it indeed is.

There's just one problem: it's a crock. 

Sixty is not the new 40. 

Here are some reasons why:

1. Somebody who is 60 remembers Betty White when she was middle-aged.

To somebody who is 40, Betty White has always been 90.

2. Somebody who is 40 was born in 1972.
You don't even remember 1972, not only because you were smoking dope most of the time but also because you don't remember 2013. (So many people who are 40 are now smoking dope on a regular basis - legally - that they won't remember 2013 either!)

3. Somebody who is 40 did not grow up longing to be the fourth Cartwright brother on Bonanza.

4. Somebody who is 40 would never use the phrase "he looks like Walter Brennan" to describe someone perceived to be old-looking.

5. Somebody who is 60 thinks Coldplay refers to the last time he tried to put the moves on a woman. (Someone who is 40 never 'put the moves on a woman' !)

6. Somebody who is 60 thinks of John F. Kennedy as part of "the modern era."

To somebody who is 40, John F. Kennedy is as much a part of "the modern era" as somebody who is 60.

7. Somebody who is 60 remembers the 1950s.
To somebody who is 40, the '50s refers only to the next decade of their lives, which they are dreading.

8. Somebody who is 40 does not watch the Hallmark Channel. Ever.

9. At 60, you take comfort in the fact that you are not old because you never liked Lawrence Welk. Somebody who is 40 thinks you are old because you liked Led Zeppelin.

10. Unlike somebody who is 40, somebody who is 60 does not think Winky Dink is just another cutesy name for you know what! (Someone who is 40 would never feel the need to use the euphemism 'you know what'; we'd hear all about their body parts in graphic detail!)

11. Somebody who is 60 has black and white memories. (Of segregated life, as well as TV)

12. Somebody who is 40 thinks of Peggy Lipton as an obscure old-time TV actress who is the mother of actress Rashida Jones, not as the hot unobtainable chick sandwiched in between the two no-talented lummoxes on 'The Mod Squad'. (People who are 40 don't even know what lummoxes are!)

13. Somebody who is 40 may well think Buffalo Bob is a talking buffalo. (You mean he wasn't?)

14. Somebody who is 40 does not think it is hilarious when you shout out "I want my Maypo!"
(Neither do most of us who are 60 - but at least we know what it means!)

15. When somebody who is 40 runs into an old friend, he never hears the word "Grandkids?"
(Only someone who is a sheltered 60 thinks this is not true - many of my former clients were grandparents by their mid 30's!)

16. Somebody who is 60 remembers a time when Rob and Laura Petrie were not allowed to sleep in the same bed on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Somebody who is 40 does not bat an eyelash at a naked Steve Buscemi having sex on Boardwalk Empire. (And no one, of any age, wants to see THAT!)

17. You find yourself beginning to use the expression "a young fella."
At least one of the times you have used the expression "a young fella," you were referring to somebody who is 40.

18. Somebody who is 40 does not remember President Nixon. 

19. Somebody who is 40 thinks Cher has always been a solo act.

20. Somebody who is 60 remembers when Bob Hope was considered 'hip'.

21. Somebody who is 40 does not remember Topo Gigio.

22. If somebody who is 60 were to hear the words "remember how we used to get out the chains come winter time?" he or she would not think a tale of seasonal kinky sex was about to follow.

23. Somebody who is 40 is a lot less likely to be upset than somebody who is 60 that Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfus, and Henry Winkler are all playing Jewish grandfathers. (S0meone who is 40 would not think they're still hot!)

24. Somebody who is 40 does not know or care what Serutan spelled backwards is.

25. Somebody who is 40 does not spend inordinate amounts of time worrying about whether he is more like Beau Bridges than Jeff Bridges.

26. Check out the response you get when you sing Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh by Allan Sherman to somebody who is 40.

27. Billy Crystal was somebody who was 40 when he made When Harry Met Sally. If Harry were to meet Sally today, the closest he'd get to an orgasm with her would be hearing her fake one in a deli.

28. Do you think somebody who is 40 would ever believe there was once a comedian whose entire act was pretending to be drunk? (RU kidding - most of the comedians today are totally stoned - and its not an act!)

29. "There's a hold-up in the Bronx, Brooklyn's broken out in fights, there's a traffic jam in Harlem that's backed up to Jackson Heights, there's a scout troop short a child, Khrushchev's due at Idlewild, Car 54, where are you?" I highly doubt somebody who is 40 could place that one for you.

30. Somebody who is 60 remembers when the expression "sucks" sounded downright dirty, and probably was.

31. Somebody who is 40 would have no way of knowing that Kukla, Fran, and Ollie is not a law firm.

32. Somebody who is 40 would have no way of knowing that if Kukla, Fran, and Ollie were a law firm, which two of the partners were the puppets?

33. Unlike somebody who is 60, somebody who is 40 is not still trying to figure out how the lyric You've got a friend in Jesus ever popped up in a song by a guy named Norman Greenbaum.

34. Being that Carol Channing is a woman and Tatum O'Neal is a woman, somebody who is 60 in all likelihood thinks Channing Tatum is a woman.

35. Somebody who is 60 remembers a time when Charlton Heston was considered a distinguished actor.

36. You've never taken a selfie, and you still don't know what twerking is.

37. Somebody who is 40 thinks 40 is really old, just as you did once.
Now you realize how wrong you were and how wrong they are.
They don't.