Then again, maybe I will.

     I am in my upstairs bedroom. I had moved a bunch of my office equipment up here so that I might work on a project concerning a good friend.  The window air conditioner is humming such a lovely, low hum. And I have a small fan blowing against my laptop computer. The computer's inner fan gets hot quickly and shuts everything down. So the small fan keeps things cool.
     I am in pondering mode. I have come to appreciate the power of accomplishing a mission. And I think I came to understand it two summers ago. I am just now realizing my understanding.

     My younger sister asked me to paint a sign with a lodge theme. She wanted a bear in the sign. So I checked the internet for a few images and made the sign. I have to tell you that I amazed myself.
     When I finished her sign, I just stood back and stared in amazement. All the time that I was working on the sign, I seemed to be lost in a daze of color and shape. And then I just stared at that solitary bear making his way along the mountain top.
     Time moved on and different projects came my way. One of those projects was to make a hiking trail through a mass of shrubs and trees that run the border of our property. I started the project because I wanted my son and I to have a project that we could work on and perhaps grow closer. He was unable to help because of his work so I took on the project myself.
     After 3 months, I had made my way through almost 200 feet of wilderness. And it was wonderful. For the first time,since I've moved to Indiana, I felt like I was back in the wilds of the North Carolina mountains...my childhood home.
I walk that trail and hear birds and view plants that vie for the space. A 3 foot tall Oak tree was in the path and I could not stand the thought of cutting it. So it is left to grow. I had planned to make the trail wide enough for a golf cart. So that in my old age, I would still be able to get out in the wild. Well, I am not old and so the tree grows in the path. We can step around.
     After these accomplishment and a few I won't mention. I've decided that I can do things. I can set my mind to something and work in that direction and I can accomplish that thing.
    Now,I am back to blogging. I think that my blog is the beginning of the trail. I see brush and briar before me but my goal will be reached.
    You may ask, what is my goal. And I will not tell you that because I keep the energy for myself. In time, all will be revealed.

Northern Exposure - the Update

     Starting in December 2010, I began watching taped cassettes of the Northern Exposure series. These tapes were a gift to me from Linda, my sister in law. Northern Exposure was a TV series that ran in the 90's and centered around a group of people living in small town, Cicely, Alaska.  This week I came to the end of the 110 episodes. I stood in my office in Anderson, Indiana with tears in my eyes as they closed out with a song from Iris Dement - Our Town - as the characters went  off the air. It was a beautiful closing. 

      Well, I felt like a fool, getting all teary eyed over a TV show. Yet, as I stood there all verclempt, I was reminded of  my childhood years. We had a certain substitute teacher - Mrs Gragg - who always brought the stories. I have no way of knowing if she was left instructions about daily lessons but as soon as we saw her, the begging began..."Tell us a story, tell us a story..." And she would. Sometimes, she'd read a story - with emphasis! And sometimes, she'd tell one from the heart. She had such a gift.  My grandmother was a bit like that too. She'd tell us stories from her childhood. My siblings and cousins and I would sit and listen with total attention as she spoke of dynamite boxes, the mica mines of Mitchell county, her many sisters (5, I think) and the various endeavors she undertook in her childhood.

     The television show ended. The characters still live out there in Cicely, Alaska. The actors have moved on and the story tellers have moved on too. So I took the tape out of the vcr and looked at the label. There are five episodes on the cassette - the last three and the first two. I smiled to myself as the first episode is cued up for my next visit. Thanks, Linda.

***********************************************

Here it is - your moment of Zen!

Sleep, Perchance to Dream

     It's raining outside and I have been awake since 4:30 AM. Sometimes my mind runs in whirlwind mode, so sleep gets pushed aside. That's what was happening this morning. I hate this of course because without adequate sleep, my brain can sometimes get "brain lock."
     I'm sure you've had it happen. You've started your day on little or no sleep and as you go about your daily activities, you find yourself staring at the task at hand. You may have been staring for a few seconds or you may have been staring for many minutes...brain lock.
     I've heard that this is actually a type of sleep state... the brain takes what it needs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here it is, your moment of Zen

A Note On Lounging.

Hello to all my remaining blog fans. I could start right here and give you a list of reasons why I have not written lately. I could but I hesitate to do that. Let's face it, we are all on this wild run away train called life.  You think a few days of time have passed and when you check it out...it's been a month. Maybe it was a few years ago and discover it was decades. That is when it gets scary. So I will move on.

I was reading about blogs the other day and found that the consensus thought is that successful blogs are blogged twice a week and contain just a few paragraphs of writing. Interesting huh?

 Well I wanted to just write this morning and give a little insight on "lounging." I think that use to be a thing. There use to be lounge wear, lounge singers and the insult "lounge about." I was talking to my oldest son about this last night. I told him that I just lounged about all day on Sunday and didn't even get out of my pajamas until around 2PM. And I loved it!  I watered a few house plants, looked through some old papers, watched a little TV and snacked all day.  And as I think of it, a good lounging day involves drinks. Not alcoholic ones - that gets into more of a drinking thing than a lounging thing. Coffee and tea are facilitators to lounging - alcohol takes over the show. Of course, I think that if you are leaving the house during your lounging endeavors, you need to put on regular clothes and shoes. Wearing pajamas and house slippers to the shopping mall is just plain sad.

_________________________________

Here it is, your moment of zen.

The face of change

Autumn has come to the flat lands. And just when you start to think it's all about the colors, look around for the textures. This past weekend I was hiking with a friend through a prairie field. In the distance were beautiful trees dressed in their wonderful colors of orange, red and yellow. As we stepped to the edge of the trail to look at the wild grass, these seed pods caught my eye. Their dead, gray orbs stood in stark contrast against the warm grasses. Autumn felt more dimensional with this discovery. It's not just the leaves that are changing with the seasons. Everything is changing.

--------------------

Here it is, your moment of zen.

Testing - testing - testing

I am attempting to load a small video clip to this blog entry. It is an entry that means nothing - it's only a test.

__________________

Here it is, your moment of zen.

MY MOM - AGENT OF CHANGE

     I suppose most folks think of October and autumn as the end of things. The growing season is finished in the garden. Summer is over.... real over! And the kids have gone back to school... the party's over! They don't call it "fall" for nothing. It's easy to get a little depressed this time of year. Even with the autumn
sunlight being so vibrant, depression can sneak up on a person like some ghoul out of a horror house.  
     Yet, for some reason, I've been thinking about change lately. My husband and I were watching "This Week" on ABC this past Sunday morning. They were hosting a special with a title of "Does America Fear Muslims?"  (or something like that). It was a very interesting question and answer session with about 100 people taking part - either as experts  on Islam - either pro or con or as audience members.
     Somehow, I got to thinking about my mother. I grew up in a religious section of the country... namely the south.  And what I am about to say may sound old fashioned or slanted or something but sometimes I think that what some parts of the Muslim world are experiencing can be related in someway to what my mom and the women of the 50's were experiencing before things started to change.
     When I was a little girl, my mom stayed at home with us kids. Then she decided that she wanted to have a job. She wanted her own money as my dad did not see the importance of having the things that she did, (like an indoor toilet).  And I can remember the two of them "discussing" her having a job. His argument was that he was the breadwinner, she didn't need a job. Her argument was that the baby was just a couple of years from going to school and opportunity was knocking. They went round and round....  and mama got a job.
Well, dad settled in on the idea of his wife working.  He wasn't totally ridiculed by his peers, as he'd feared, about his uppity, working wife. Truth be known, his peer's wives were getting jobs too.
     Then came pant suits in the 60's! That fashion trend rolled into town and my mom was thoroughly ready to hop aboard! She loved pant suits! And she wanted to wear pant suits. This caused a BIG argument between my mom and dad. My dad was the only one wearing the pants in that relationship! At least that was his stand on the subject!  I am not sure how my mom won that argument but she did wear pant suits from then on. And not only did she look marvelous, but nobody would have mistaken her for a man.
     So how does this relate to the Muslim world? Well, I remember hearing or reading that the  leader of the September 11 tragedy left instructions that no women were ever to step foot or come near his memorial or attend any memorial services for him. He left all kind of anti women instructions. So how much of the anti-west thinking is a result of the friction that is resulting from the Muslim women craving change?
I don't think that the majority of Muslims are anti women but the hard core ones are running scared. Is this their pant suit moment?

________________________

Here it is, your moment of zen.