Thursday, January 29, 2009

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is my favorite poet. I find inspiration, peace, provoking thoughts, comfort, love, & dignity in her writings.

Don't bring negative to my door.
Today I found this in quotes from Dr. Angelou. I thought about how true this is in my life. I grew up & for the years I was married lived with "negative" in my home, my life, my waking hours, my sleep. Not because that is the person I am, but because that was the nature of the men I married( Dud #2 in particular-he was certain everyone was out to get him & lived in constant attack mode). When I struck out on my own 15 years ago, I had already begun the Journey of living a life of positivity. I do have my negative moments, but I do not allow negative to be brought to my home. I have become very adept at changing the subject when my Mom approaches with negativity on any subject because I have found it does no good with her to point out the positive aspect.
The other day Sparky complained that the water spiget on my refridgerator is "slow". I responded that yes it is but the ice drops rapidly LOL. Two days later he calls & tells me to check the connection to be sure it is turned on all the way at the tap point. I told him I would check into it but that it really didn't bother me, I just wait for whatever I am filling to fill up. He responded that he did not have that much patience (the flow is not THAT slow BTW). I just laughed & advised that I had taken the high road on patience for at least the last 10 years.
Just not worth sweating the small stuff.
I just have found that it is so much easier to be positive, know that this too shall pass, & face Life with a smile. Even when you are being crapped on which is not all that easy sometimes. But, hey this is the Road I have chosen on my Journey. I think I get to choose how I will accomplish the walk.
So......Don't bring negative to my door
Blessed be...

Monday, January 26, 2009

57 years


At 5:45pm today I will have been on this Adventure for 57 years. WOW!!
If there is one thing I have learned in those years it is that nothing stays the same. Also, just when you think you have seen it all you stumble upon the next mind-boggler. I have had many Ah Ha ! moments, disappointments, tragedies, losses, successes, joys, sadness, & love. My heart has been broken ( & not always in the relationship way) & I have wondered if I would recover. But, I have survived. I have come out the other end of the tunnel stronger, more self-assured, more confident.


Looking back, I am certainly not where or who I thought I would be. Life is not what I envisioned oh so many years ago. But, I am exactly who I am supposed to be, exactly where I am supposed to be in this moment of Time, I am having the experiences I am destined to have, my Tribe consists of just the right individuals. All of this is a part of my Journey toward self-realization & greater enlightenment. I am learning the lessons I need to learn.
The road has been rocky in spots, there has been smooth sailing sometimes, but no matter I would not have missed the ride at all. Life is a Journey not a Destination. Travel the road well with honor, integrity, honesty, love, a good sense of humor, & a belief in That which is greater than yourself.



So, to the Universe & to Great Spirit I say "THANK YOU!!!"






Blessed be...

Friday, January 23, 2009

Irritations

Today, my Daily OM reading is called "The Upside of Irritation". At first I thought, upside of irritation that just cannot be right. Then I read, then I thought. There has been an upside to every irritation in my life when I think about it. As my readers know, my debt card was compromised & charged up. YIKES!! That was an irritation to say the least. It consumed my life for days, & I felt like crap. Got more than a little depressed. Wondered what was the use...work hard someone steals it, get clean & sober your thyroid quits working & you go from 125 lbs to...well we won't go there, go through intense therapy to figure out why you are who you are & you still get depressed. What a crock!! (I had a very bad two weeks). But the debit card fiasco got settled. The bank was cooperative. I got a new debit card. My money was returned. Sparky was very attentive when he figured out I was close to a major meltdown ( & while he is a wonderful man, hand holding & showing that he is understanding is not his strong suit-he does not express his feelings--me on the other hand can be a screaming meme LOL). He offered me money to tide me over which I did not accept, I just used his gasoline card to buy a tankful to get me to work. I did not go back to my old ways to handle the crap life can dish out-14 years was just too much to flush. Oh yeah, & my sewer backed up for the second time in two weeks. It is now fixed too. I have digressed, but back to my original thoughts. Irritations teach us about ourselves, who we are & what we are made of. I am a survivor, I "fix" things, I take care of my own problems. So, from these latest irritations I have learned things do work out ok, just because your toilet backs up your life is not crap, & you can deal with all of it without going off the deep end. Another growth experience for the hippie chick.






Blessed be...

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!!


I was nominated for an Okie Blog Award "Best Inspirational Blog". OMG!!! WOW!!! I am just overwhelmed. (can't you tell?? OMG!!!) Thanks for nominating me--whoever you are.
You can see all the nominees here & vote for your choices.
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When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
he find it attached to the rest of the world.
John Muir
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Blessed be...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

And now...

January 21, 2009

A Portrait of Change
In First Family, a Nation’s Many Faces
By JODI KANTOR


WASHINGTON — The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The president and first lady’s siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with a white wife.
When President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an extended clan that would have shocked past generations of Americans and instantly redrew the image of a first family for future ones.
As they convened to take their family’s final step in its journey from Africa and into the White House, the group seemed as if it had stepped out of the pages of Mr. Obama’s memoir — no longer the disparate kin of a young man wondering how he fit in, but the embodiment of a new president’s promise of change.
For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor.
“Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don’t think it’s new in terms of the country,” Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president’s younger half-sister, said last week. “I don’t think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country.”
Though the world is recognizing the inauguration of the first African-American president, the story is a more complex narrative, about immigration, social mobility and the desegregation of one of the last divided institutions in American life: the family. It is a tale of self-determination, full of refusals to follow the tracks laid by history or religion or parentage.
Mr. Obama follows the second President Bush, who had a presidential son’s self-assured grip on power. Aside from a top-quality education, the new president came to politics with none of his predecessor’s advantages: no famous last name, no deep-pocketed parents to finance early forays into politics and, in fact, not much of a father at all. So Mr. Obama built his political career from scratch, with best-selling books and long-shot runs for office, leaving his relatives astonished at where he has brought them.
“It is so mind-boggling that there is a black president,” Craig Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s brother, said in an interview. “Then you layer on top of it that I am related to him? And then you layer on top of that that it’s my brother-in-law? That is so overwhelming, I can’t hardly think about it.”
Though Mr. Obama is the son of a black Kenyan, he has some conventionally presidential roots on his white mother’s side: abolitionists who, according to family legend, were chased out of Missouri, a slave state; Midwesterners who weathered the Depression; even a handful of distant ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. (Ever since he became a United States senator, the Sons of the American Revolution has tried to recruit him. )
But far less has been known about Mrs. Obama’s roots — even by the first lady herself. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, “it was sort of passed-down folklore that so-and-so was related to so-and-so and their mother and father was a slave,” Mr. Robinson said.
Drawing on old census data, family records and interviews, it is clear that Mrs. Obama is indeed the descendant of slaves and a daughter of the Great Migration, the mass movement of African-Americans northward in the first half of the 20th century in search of opportunity. Mrs. Obama’s family found it, but not without outsize measures of adversity and disappointment along the way.
Tracing Family Roots
Only five generations ago, the first lady’s great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was born a slave on Friendfield Plantation in Georgetown, S.C., where he almost certainly drained swamps, harvested rice and was buried in an unmarked grave. As a child, Mrs. Obama used to visit her Georgetown relatives, but she only learned during the campaign that her forebears had been enslaved in the same town where she and her cousins had played.
According to Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist who has uncovered the roots of many political figures, Mrs. Obama has ancestors with similar backgrounds across the South. The public records they left behind give only the briefest glimpses of their lives: Fanny Laws Humphrey, one of Mrs. Obama’s great-great-grandmothers, was a cook in Birmingham, Ala., born before the end of the Civil War. Another set of great-great-grandparents, Mary and Nelson Moten, seem to have left Kentucky for Chicago in the early 1860s, a hint they might have been free before the end of the Civil War. And in 1910, some of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors are listed in a census as mulatto, adding some support to family whispers of a white ancestor.
The jobs that her relatives held in the early 20th century — domestic servant, coal sorter, dressmaker — suggest an escape from sharecropping, the system that trapped many former slaves and their children in penury for generations.
Still, the family’s progress has a two steps forward, one step back quality. Jim Robinson was born into slavery, but his son, Fraser, ran a lunch truck in Georgetown. In turn, his son, Fraser Jr., struck out for Chicago in search of something better. But he was unable to find work, and left his wife and children for 14 years, according to his son Nomenee Robinson. As a result, Mrs. Obama’s father was on welfare as a boy and started working on a milk truck at 11.
After serving in the Army in World War II and finally securing a job as a postal clerk, Fraser Robinson Jr. rejoined his family. He was so thrifty that he would bring home chemicals to do the family dry cleaning in the bathtub. But his son — Mrs. Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson III — became overwhelmed with debt and dropped out of college after a year. He worked in a city boiler room for the rest of his life, helping to send his four younger siblings to college, then his two children, Mrs. Obama and her brother, to Princeton.
Classroom Values
For all of the vast differences in the Obama and Robinson histories, a few common threads run through. Education is one of them. As a young man, Mr. Obama’s father herded goats, then won a scholarship to study in the Kenyan capital. When Mr. Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, his mother woke him up for at 4 a.m. for English lessons; meanwhile, in Chicago, Mrs. Obama’s mother was bringing home math and reading workbooks so her children would always be a few lessons ahead in school.
Only through education, generations of Robinsons taught their children, would they ever succeed in a racist society, relatives said. “My mother would say, ‘When you acquire knowledge, you acquire something no one could take away from you,’ ” Craig Robinson said.
The families also share a kind of adventurous self-determination. In the standard telling, the Obama side is the one that bent the rules of geography and ethnicity. Yet the first lady’s family, the supposed South Side traditionalists, includes several members who literally or figuratively ventured far from home. Nomenee Robinson was an early participant in the Peace Corps, serving in India for two years; later, he moved to Nigeria, where he met his wife; the couple now live in Chicago. Capers Funnye Jr., a cousin of Mrs. Obama’s and a rabbi, was brought up in the black church, he said, but as a young man, he felt a calling to Judaism he could not ignore.
In daring cross-cultural leaps, no figure quite matches Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, Mr. Obama’s mother. As a university student in Honolulu, she hung out at the East-West Center, a cultural exchange organization, meeting two successive husbands there: Barack Obama, an economics student from Kenya, and later, Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian. Decades later, her daughter Maya Soetoro was picking up fliers at the same East-West Center when she noticed Konrad Ng, a Chinese-Canadian student, now her husband.
Now the Obama-Robinson family’s move to the White House seems like a symbolic end point for the once-firm idea that people of different backgrounds should not date, marry or bear children. In Mr. Obama’s lifetime, racial intermarriage not only became legal everywhere in the United States, but has started to flourish. As many as a quarter of white Americans and nearly half of black Americans belong to a multiracial family, estimates Joshua R. Goldstein of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
Diversity inside families, said Michael J. Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Stanford University, is “the most interesting kind of diversity there is, because it brings people together cheek by jowl in a way that they never were before.”
“There’s nothing as powerful as family relationships,” Mr. Rosenfeld said, “and that’s why interracial marriage was illegal for so long in the U.S.”
Initially, some of the unions in the Obama family caused consternation. “What can you say when your son announces he’s going to marry a Mzungu?” said Sarah Obama in an interview, using the Swahili term for “white person.” But it was too late, she said, because the couple was deeply in love.
Now, the relatives say, their family feels natural and right to them, that they think of each other as individuals, not as members of groups. Ms. Soetoro-Ng said she was not “the Indonesian sister,” but just Maya.
A Special Reunion
On Monday, some of Mr. Obama’s Kenyan relatives milled around the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel here, their colorful headscarves earning them more curious glances than even the sports and pop music stars in the room. Zeituni Onyango, the president’s aunt, explained that their family had always been able to absorb newcomers.
Pointing out that her male relatives used to take on multiple wives, she said, “My daddy said anyone coming into my family is my family.” (Ms. Onyango, who lives in Boston, recently faced deportation charges, but those orders have been stayed and she is pursuing a green card.)
At holidays and celebrations, “you get a whole lot of people who are happy to be around family,” Craig Robinson said. “They happen to be from different cultures, but the common thing is that they are all family.”
“Like the inauguration, those celebrations draw on a happy mishmash of traditions and histories. Take the Obamas’ 1992 wedding, which included Kenyan family in traditional dress, a cloth-binding ceremony in which the bride and groom’s hands were symbolically tied, and blues, jazz and classical music at the reception (held at a cultural center that was once a country club where black and Jewish Chicagoans were denied admission).
White House events may now take on some of the same feel. Four years ago, when the family descended on Washington for Mr. Obama’s Senate swearing-in, Mr. Ng strolled over to the White House gates and took a picture of his then-infant daughter, Suhaila — “gentle” in Swahili — sleeping in her stroller.
Days before leaving Hawaii for the inauguration, Mr. Ng stared at the picture and wondered how much had changed since it was taken. After Tuesday’s ceremony, he said, “folks like me will have a chance to be on the other side.”

Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Kenya. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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The White House now reflects the Country. I, as some of you know, am multi-racial (and I list myself as such on demographic questions). While I look like my Irish ancestors ( most people would call me "white") with prominent features from my Native American ancestors, I am a "mutt" (Irish, English, German, Native American, & African American). I come from a rich Southern heritage-Carolina plantation owners-rich English ancestors, Irish immigrants-poor Shanty Irish, I am 3rd generation German in this Country, & then there is my Native heritage from both sides of my family-I get the Choctaw/Irish/African American from my Daddy; my Irish/English/German/Cherokee from my Mom. So this picture of the Obama/Robinson family is so beautiful. How far this Country has come in just my lifetime. I am a child of the 60's, a hippie. I remember where I was when JFK, RFK, & MLK were killed. I remember the marches & riots. I remember segregation & desegregation. Yep, baby we have come a long, long way.



Blessed be...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

God Bless our President


OBAMA: My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.
We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you.
God bless you.
And God bless the United States of America.
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Blessed be...

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dark Cloud

I am so very tired. Just worn out. Three days ago I discovered my debit card had been compromised. Beginning 1-8-09 someone stole my card info & has been running up a tab. Luckily, I discovered this about 3 days later & have been working with the bank to get the charges reversed or refunded. Any charges that we cannot get refunded or reversed will be disputed. So far I have been able to contact every company but one. They have all been very nice & understanding. The bank will credit back all the overdraft fees. But, it has just taken a toll on me dealing with this. The debit card has been cancelled, a new one ordered, & when all this gets settled I will, most likely, need to open a new checking account just in case. I just HATE this.


I used my debit card one time on the 8th, at a restaurant in town. I called the manager just to alert him in case any other customers had problems. He was quite defensive. I never accused him or his employees just simply wanted to give him a heads up. The food was good but I won't be eating there again unless I use cash.


It is possible that my computer was hacked. AT&T cannot help me out with protecting the computer so I will be getting a new protection program for the computer. Until then my home computer is turned off. After some research I think I will be installing Trend Micro Internet Pro. It seems to cover everything: viruses, hackers, encryption of keystrokes, spam, spyware, etc. I have used this before at a former job & was very happy with it. There's $69.95 I wasn't planning on spending. Guess I will call it a birthday gift to myself. It will be worth it not to have to go through this crap again. ARGHHHH!!


Now I spend some time each day checking with the bank. Tracking down charges, waiting for charges to drop off. Verifying "good" charges, identifying "bad" charges. Now I will have to redo all my autodrafts on my account, redo all my online bill paying, calls to make. What a freaking hassle!!

Anyway, I am tired. My spirit is drained, depression is trying to settle in, darkness wants to engulf me & it is all because someone wanted to get things without working for them. Car parts, flowers, porn sites, dating sites and on and on it goes. I am pissed off & if I could lay my hands on the person or persons it would not be a pretty sight. And, here is the really good part--NOT--the police will not prosecute even if I or the bank gets names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. So much for identity theft being a crime. I am pissed off...oh, I said that already. Well, I am. Pissed off that is.


I think I will just go home & cry for awhile tonight. Won't help, can't hurt. Then I will snuggle with the furbabies, watch a little TV, go to bed, & start the whole thing over again tomorrow.







Blessed be...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Plea for my Totem


Bush/Cheney Administration’s Final Assault on Wolves


Today, the Bush/Cheney Administration
- an eleventh-hour attempt to eliminate
federal protections for wolves --
a move that could result in the deaths of over 1,000 wolves.



Go to Defenders of Wildlife website http://www.defenders.org/ to help fight this awful development. Also, contact your Senators & Congress folks in DC as well as our President-Elect
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I am just sick about this.
Blessed be...










Monday, January 12, 2009

40 Ways to Make 2009 better for YOU!!!

Thanks to Julie for sharing this today. It speaks volumes.


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1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,
My purpose is to __________ today.
5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008
7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries,wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade awaylike algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil thepresent
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words:
'In five years, will this matter?'
26. Forgive everyone for everything
27. What other people think of you is none of your business
28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need
33. The best is yet to come
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!)
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride
40. May your troubles be less,
May your blessings be more,
May nothing but happiness come through your door!!
Have a blessed 2009!

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and, in the infamous words of my brother (this was his favorite saying), "Life may not give us what we expect, but we can still dance" or, as I say, "Win a few, lose a few, some of them get rained out but you still have to suit up".







Blessed be...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Journey

The boundaries which divide life from death
are at best shadowy and vague.
Who shall say where one ends,
and the other begins?
Edgar Alan Poe
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WOW!! I find this so profound, especially since I am always reflecting on the fact that this Life is just a way station. A stop between our beginnings on the Other Side & our return to the Other Side-that which is called Death in this Life. But it is not death just simply a return Home.
I am currently reading "Soul Signs" an elemental guide to your Spiritual destiny by Rosemary Altea. I usually read a chapter each morning before getting ready for work or starting my day. I have just covered the introductory chapters & cannot wait to get to the "meat" of the book. So far I am just enthralled. It speaks to me, what I believe (and have always believed) about my Spirit. I cannot wait to find out what sign I am.
I know that I chose all that has made up my life to date. In many of those experiences I can see the lessons learned. In some I am still studying the lesson & trying to figure it all out. I know that no one comes into my life, or me into theirs, accidentally. It is all a part of this experience I, & they, are having. We are each together in this moment for a particular reason. Some people have been on this Journey with me for years. Some have come & gone when we have impacted each other as need be. I don't always know why I leave a peron's life or they leave mine, but if I meditate enough on it I have sometimes been shown the lesson. Many times I was in their lives for a reason not the other way around. Sometimes we were in each others lives for different reasons. No matter. I know I have walked away a much better, more enlightened person. I hope the same is true for those whose life I have touched but that is their journey.
I go forward today with a light heart, a joyful Spirit knowing that I am blessed by Great Spirit, my Totem leads me when I falter, & my Tribe who loves me unconditionally. Each step on this Journey is an adventure toward my true authentic self so that I can live more enlightened & share my gifts with others, to hopefully leave this Life a better place because I inhabited a small part of it.
Blessed be....

Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR



Blessed New Year!!!!






I'm not sure about resolutions yet. I'll be eating black-eyed peas & ham for prosperity today (MIL is cooking for us--Yippee!!)--it is a Southern tradition.

Prosperity can mean so many things, & to most people it involves monetary holdings (money, property, investments, etc). But to me I think of Prosperity of Spirit. I believe that when you are rich in Spirit you have everything:

  • peace of mind
  • confidence
  • a belief in all the is unseen
  • faith
  • compassion
  • love (for yourself & others)
  • a relationship with Great Spirit
  • a giving heart
  • a servant's heart
  • lack of ego
  • you are in touch with the deepest part of yourself, & you embrace all the facets of you
  • you are constantly working to make yourself the best you can possibly be as a human
  • acceptance (of yourself & others)

I believe this New Year will be a continuation & exceleration of my Journey to self-realization, becoming more in touch with my Gifts, & delving deeper into the Great Mystery. I look forward to spending more time in meditation, reading & studying Spiritualism, & becoming even more my true, authentic self with more insight into the Other Side.

May 2009 bring us the "prosperity" we crave.

Blessed be...