It all Matters, Even TV

Grandma Gillespie was a semi-invalid curmudgeon, and in my senior year of high school, she moved in with us. Mom and my stepdad had started a restaurant business which kept them busy until late into the night.  So grandma's care, from the time I got home from school until she went to bed, was left to me, the obstinate teenager. My twelve year-old brother Johnny was trapped in the crossfire.

Grandma hated having to be cared for and she hated moving away from her lifetime home in North Carolina.  Her daily gloom infected Johnny and me, so our days were a series of scowling contests. The TV show The Jeffersons saved our lives.  

We all liked to watch the show and I liked to make Johnny laugh, so I bopped around the den singing that upbeat Jefferson’s theme song into my hairbrush microphone.  Mid-dance, I caught my grandmother,  doubled over laughing.   Eyes squeezed shut, tears rolling, laughing.  In that moment, everything slowed down and I could hear my own heart beating.  I saw that she was no crabby old woman who hated life—she was just a girl who was sad who wanted to laugh, too.  

I realized attitude meant everything and when I changed mine, she changed hers. The three of us laughed regularly after that.  I've never regretted that change of heart and Grandma's last year with us at home in Charleston was one of our best.

--LoLaSuzanne

SoulCollage Card by LoLaSuzanne (photographs originally from Nat'l Geographic Magazine)

Clutter

Before he left, the man I loved told me all my faults.  "I'm only trying to help you," he explained.  I put the things he said in an imaginary box and jammed it onto a high shelf.  At first it fell off a lot. 

Each time, I had to examine everything that spilled out before I could shut the lid and put it back. Months passed.  It almost never falls anymore.  When it does, a lot less stuff comes out.  Soon, I'm going to get rid of that box.  I could really use the shelf space.

---Kathleen Stoner

originally published in the Washington Post 

Grace in Small Things

I just posted my first entry over at Grace in Small Things:

GiST Numero Uno (things I'm grateful for)

1. Judge and Punk, two little heartbeats running around my house making me smile, stamp my feet, crack up, and press on.

2. My brother, whose kindnesses match infinity.

3. Mom, who everyday, strives for a great attitude, and a fresh outlook, and works to buck up and who is always open to love.

4. Daddy, who everyday, finds a practical way to feed, make comfortable and love my stepmother who is classily fading into Alzheimers.

5. The yard dudes who swarm over the lawn like locusts, cutting and sawing, and trimming and leaf blowing. And then swarm out.

I know the above are all big things, especially the yard dudes, but how can you leave out your immediate family, at least on the first day? I'll write about that little guy at the drugstore who helped me clean up the mess I made when I dropped the Lysol bottle on aisle 3 eventually.

I love the idea of writing five things I'm grateful for every day (or, let's face it, most days) in a place reserved for honoring those things. If you'd like to get in the habit of writing down your five things-- here is a great place to do that.

--LoLaSuzanne

Photos: Boston Terrier Judge by LoLaSuzanne

Schipperke-ish Punk by LoLaSuzanne

Be Where You Are

Where ever you go, dig your hole deep.

--Portuguese saying

Photo Costa Rica Ruta by LoLaSuzanne

How To Say It

Speak at the proper time

Speak in line with the truth

Speak gently

Speak beneficially

Speak with a friendly heart

Speech having these five characteristics are words well-spoken, are not words badly-spoken, are blameless words that the wise do not criticize.

                -The Bhikkhus Code of Discipline

Photo: Audience by LoLaSuzanne

All You Need

A turning point in my life was when I became conscious of love.

I spent most of my early life in a "no love" zone. I felt like I was a burden to my parents.  I felt like I wasn't worthy of people's love. My defense was  that most of my life I kept love for others at arms length. And I used a 10 foot pole when it came to self love.  One day I was sitting in a food court at a mall waiting for my wife.  The mall was crowded so she came walking in looking around, but didn't see me.  I just sat there watching her search and I felt the warm, wonderful rush of love.  For the first time in my life I was conscious of the feelings of love.

After that I started thinking.  What if I felt love for everyone in the food court? How great would that be? And it was great.

Since that day I've fed those seeds of love and they have grown in me.  I love people so easy now. I'm a lot happier.

The freakin’ Beatles were right. 

 
                                                                                                        --Bob Hayes

Green Peace

I found this on

http://www.molechocolate.com/?m=200610

World Directive

My ex-husband was a pilot. We often flew in our small plane over the flat farmlands of Michigan. One day, in the middle of nowhere, we went over a stand of huge evergreen trees that had been planted, long ago, to read (from the air) BE KIND.  

I was stunned. Who had planted them? and when? And mostly, why? It was in the 70's and I wondered why they (he? she?) hadn't "written" the word Love or Peace. At that time, I thought the trees were rather quaint. But over the years, they have haunted me.
I have thought about them so much that recently I began to wonder if I had imagined them. So I called Alan and asked him if he remembered the trees. He did. I wonder if they are still there.

Now, after 30 years, I know that kindness encompasses all aspects of love and peace and if I ruled the world and had to make one World Directive it would be just that: Be Kind. 

--Hope Swann

Peace

There is wisdom in accepting what you are...

It is difficult to be what you are not.

Being what you are doesn't require any effort.

When you become wise, you accept yourself the way you are, and the complete acceptance of yourself becomes the complete acceptance of everyone else. 

-'The Mastery of Love' Don Miguel Ruiz  

Photo: Walking Colorado--LoLaSuzanne

Namaste

I bow to you.

The light in me honors the light in you.

All that is best in me greets all that is best in you.

I bow to the light in you.

Photo: Tree in Italian Switzerland by LoLaSuzanne

Anti-Gloom

Winter got you down? Press here.