Keep the Welcome Mat Out

Through our lives many people come and go. We open our arms and hearts wide and welcome them. Some are relatives, some are friends and some are messengers destined for a brief stay.

Although they accept our invitation to bond we cannot tell them how to interact with us. We all have our own path to follow.

Every soul has his/her own way of living, programmed before their human creation. To interfere, even in the name of love, is paving a road to disaster.

So keep the welcome mat out, but allow your guests the freedom to be who they truly are.

Last DishTurkey

Waste not want not has always been my motto. As I have said before I blame it all on my Scottish maternal grandfather, William Ott Johnston. Thanks grandpa! Even though I never met you your genes march on! Today I decided to be creative with some of my leftover turkey before tossing it all into the freezer.

Last Dish Turkey
8 oz vegetable pasta cooked and drained
1 can mushroom soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sliced olives
1 pkg frozen spinach thawed
2 cups chopped turkey

Combine and season to taste, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
Cover and bake in 9"X12" shallow dish
350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot

I'll bet it's going to be yummy and healthy!!

What Happened to Love?

The Thanksgiving holiday and my house guest have moved on. The sheets and towels are washed and replaced. Leftovers have been divided and put in the freezer for meals to come. All the dishes are washed and put away for the last time. The only signs of life are my two cats, Ebony and Smokey, who are grateful that my son's dog is also gone.

Putting away the Thanksgiving adornments leaves empty spaces here and there in my house.I am at the moment trying to decide if I should put up Christmas decorations this year. If things keep going the way they are I anticipate a very sad and lonely holiday. At the moment I am wondering if I should just skip it altogether and leave the state. The only member of my immediate family living in New Mexico who would notice my absence is my grandson, who already knows I am giving him a new bike this year. He is counting off the days before he can ride it!

Even if I don't decorate my house it is hard to escape Christmas. Nowadays it starts in October and goes on and on. I guess I need to weigh the pros and cons of participating beyond buying gifts, which I have already done. That's not Christmas in my book. Whatever happened to love and the spirit of the upcoming season?

One Gift
If you could have one gift for Christmas
Tell me what would it be, someone asked.
Seriously pondering the question awhile
The gift I choose wouldn't be under the tree.

What I really want for Christmas
I told the person who had asked me
Is the most precious treasured gift of all,
LOVE, pure and simple and completely free.
B. Gunn 2000

P.S. (11/28/10)
After further contemplation I have decided to put up decorations and skip the tree as it no longer has meaning for me. What I want really isn't under the tree!

Soup's On!

This morning my house smells so good with the remains of the turkey carcass, plus fresh and frozen veggies and whatever seasoning I felt like throwing in the pot, simmering on the stove. One of my most favorite things to cook is soup.

Soon my oldest son, visiting from Colorado, my grandson and I will be exploring the bowling alley. It will be interesting to see how patient "uncle Jeff" is with his young nephew. Colin is a born athlete and may just show us both up! Since I haven't been bowling for over 30 years this adventure will be interesting for me too. Hopefully it's like riding a bike, one never forgets how to do it.

Apparently Colin, who popped in about an hour ago, is planning on spending the day with me and his uncle. He said he told his mom as he left his house, "See you tonight."

So that's my day after Thanksgiving. Life couldn't be better! Good company, and a pot of homemade soup to look forward to for lunch.

Family Baggage

This afternoon I watched a you-tube video titled Being Present in Relationships. It was based on Eckhart Tolle's idea of seeing our relatives as if they had no past with us. What a great idea, especially at this time of year when families and their "baggage" get together and often pretend to love each other; while deep down they are reliving past hurts that never healed.

"All Happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." ~Leo Tolstory

Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone could just snap a finger and wipe out whatever the transgression was? What if we could enter a room or sit down at the holiday dinner table as if we had amnesia, meeting everyone for the first time? Just to be present in the moment without the baggage of past mistakes would be a magnificent gift for all to give and receive.

Peace be with all of you during this holiday season and may you make every effort to be present in all of your relationships.

Mirror Mirror

The Universe is so clever! Due to recent events I have been forced to take a good look at who I am. Not who I was as a child, a wife or a young mother. The person I see in my mirror right now is someone I really love!

I not only love that person, I like the face looking back at me. That being is loving, generous, caring, grateful and an all weather good friend. It took years of determination to mold the current person I see in my mirror. I am very proud that I have taken every opportunity to do just that. It's been a long hard struggle, but worth every once of effort.

Have you ever loved someone, but you just don't like the things they do, say and think? Funny isn't it that they just fall away from you when you have moved past them. It is almost as if they are afraid that being in your positive company will somehow also change who they are. On the way up to where I am today I have experienced people who have displayed that kind of fear. Now I see the universal humor as I wave and say goodbye to them. Perhaps someday we will reconnect, but maybe not in this lifetime.

The air where I now reside is pure and fresh. The current souls in my life are positive, inquiring, eager to share what they too have learned and most importantly spiritually accepting. Their egos have been dropped by the wayside and they see every experience as an opportunity to expand.

Mirror mirror on the wall who is the most loving person of all?

You are of course, no matter what anyone else says!!

Living On Less

Today's blog subject was prompted by reading a post offered by a Facebook friend. It was about living cheap. My ears popped up because that certainly fits my current life experience. Some people my age, living on a small social security income, would spend their life seeing nothing but scarcity. I do not fit that group.

For clarity and thanks to a divorce settlement 11 years ago I do own my home and I was able to pay cash for an efficient car I bought new at the end of 2005. Of course owning those things also gives me the opportunity of paying property tax, license fees, insurance and repair bills. Oh well, that's life in the not so fast lane!

I owe no one anything, I eat well, I am warm and comfortable and there is nothing I need that I am not able to provide for myself. My secret is not living beyond my means and not wasting anything. Part of my current philosophy no doubt came from the manner in which I was raised. I never got used to throwing money away just to impress someone else. Money has never been the way I measure relationships.

One of my friends recently referred to me as "very poor" and it really made me angry for awhile. The woman, who is in so much debt she will never be debt free, had no idea how wrong she is. I wouldn't trade lives for any amount of money!

I think another ingredient that helps me live on less is that I actually get a kick out of seeing just how far I can stretch a dollar. Apparently I was created with an unusual sense of adventure that makes living fun no matter how much money is in my wallet. Being grateful for what I have is the first step to happiness!

Back Tracking

Time flies when you are having fun! I just noticed that I passed the one year mark of my blog created on November 7,2009. First came a newspaper column, then a book, then another then facebook and this my current passion.

Has anyone noticed that I love writing? My inspiration was and still is Richard Bach, who writes from his heart. He never cared whether anyone else "bought" what he wrote. He just expressed himself, following his subconscious mind. It is exactly what I do and it makes me extremely happy.

Over the last year I have written about many subjects that have touched my heart in some way. Although I make every effort to stay positive I also know that at least a couple of times a post has disturbed someone who read it. Sometimes a writer has to use all the power he/she can muster to reach a reader. It is called a wake up call.

My very first real post was titled "I Killed My Best Friend". Got your attention huh? You can still read it by going back in the archives to November 7, 2009. It is an article written for teenagers and previously published in the Yeah Times! It offered a different view of why I smoked for forty years and quit with the snap of a finger on February 24, 1999.

Writing my blog has made me realize that my gift of words is not and never has been about money. It is about sharing my slightly quirky views of life and the experiences it has given me. If in the process I am able to inspire others or even wake someone up from their slumber- wonderful! I remain eternally grateful to the Universe/Source for giving me the needed tools to do so.

(note:Hopefully I have fixed a problem I didn't know I could by, making it possible for anyone to comment on a post, google account or not)

The Tail of a Thought

Watch your thoughts, for they become words
Watch your words, for they become actions
Watch your actions, for they become habits
Watch your habits, for they become character
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

author unknown

A Perfect Match

Visiting the memories of those souls who have made the most positive impression on my life and served as role models and guides brought back my maternal grandparents. They were married for over 60 years and were a perfect match. If I had known then what I know now I would say they were twin flame soul-mates.

I do not remember ever hearing a cross word between them. They allowed each other to grow and experience separately, but together they displayed an enormous amount of love that was showered on all that knew them. One of the best gifts I was given as a young person was to be allowed to learn from them.

Howard and Peggy (Laura) Cole were truly a perfect match. Although I miss them I also know they are among those souls who are still acting as my guides, perhaps leading me to my perfect match.

Proud Grandma

Last night I took my grandson, Colin to a high school band concert to honor our veterans. As always the band, choir and band leader put on a wonderful performance. I made sure we sat so Colin could watch the drummer, his favorite instrument. When he was little I gave him a set of drums for Christmas and he loved them. Now he enjoys playing in his third grade music class. Who knows what I might have started!

The music was great and Colin was very attentive, but my proudest moment came toward the end of the program. A high school student with a strong bass voice read a one page excerpt from the Constitution. When I noticed it was also printed on the program I pointed it out to Colin and he followed every word with his finger.

The concert ended with a medley of Armed Forces songs. My little man stood up when the Army song was played to honor his Uncle Jeff, who is a Sergeant Major in the Army Reserve and the Navy song for his Uncle David, who had spent some time in that branch.

Do I have a cool grandson or what? I am very proud of him!!

Raking Up the Leaves of the Past

This time of year the falling leaves are so beautiful, until it comes time to rake them up and put them in their proper place. If we don’t attend to this little task there is the danger of eventually walking around on a lot of dead stuff and that is not healthy.

Thanksgiving is a great time to rake up the leaves of our past and get rid of those thoughts and memories that are not helping us live a positive life. Nobody is perfect. If you live life as a human you and everyone you know will make mistakes based on their own life experiences. To hang on to those mistakes, as the doer or receiver of them, only serves to create negative energy for both individuals.

How about finishing the remainder of this year with a clean slate? Let’s rake up the dead leaves of our past, properly dispose of them and move forward with a fresh attitude, preparing the ground for new growth in the spring.

“We all have big changes in our life that are more or less a second chance.” ~Harrison Ford

(The above photo was taken in my backyard a couple of years ago showing my grandson enjoying the fruits of our combined labor.)

Motivation

Today's post is partly for my friend Michele who lives in Hawaii. Some of you may remember she once told me I was the color "green". Considering the growth that color represents in the universe I took it as a compliment. Upon finding out that she reads every post I write I decided I had better give her and the rest of my readers something to digest.

In the last couple of weeks I have acquired an unusual number of new friends, mostly online. Today I am looking around and thinking what happened now? The only explanation I can find is that I have raised my vibrational level and attracted a bunch of new like minded friends, plus a couple who have returned after a brief absence. I welcome them all and I am truly enjoying the insights and lessons we share with one another.

As I was leaving Wal-Mart yesterday on the way to my car I paused for a moment to take in the variety of people in the parking lot. I took a deep breath and thought, what a wonderful creator our Creator is. How could billions of souls be alike and yet so different. It blows my mind to take in so much creativity from a single source.

I am so grateful to be living a human life in this new age of transformation. Although it is exciting it makes me a little sad for those who are still not awake. Apparently it is not their turn.

So Michele, this is my impromptu blog post for today. It may be short, but it is to the point. By now you should all have realized that I do not use more words than I absolutely need. Have a great day everyone!

Life

I took these photos in 2000 at the Riverwalk in Grants, NM. Today I finally discovered why. Lately my life has been about picking up the old and using it in ways that would not have been possible when it was new.

Are You Conscious Yet?

I am a magnet my
thoughts become things
therefore I need to
be conscious of
what I think

Feelings are feedback
If it feels good
keep doing it
If it feels bad
stop doing it

Consciously
make peace with
where you are
who you are
and be grateful

Lost Poem

Flipping through my files this morning produced a poem I wrote long before I had a blog to share my work on. I have also noticed that a lot of lost interviews, photographs, creative works attached to celebrities have re-surfaced lately. So why not my lost poem?

I often find that things I have previously written and put away pop up at the most appropriate time to give my life new meaning. I also seldom throw anything useful away. This may be the re-surfacing of my Scottish grandfather’s genes. Although I never knew him I have a strong feeling that he was also a writer. I know he worked for a printing company way back in the early 1900s. Perhaps he is my muse! Now wouldn’t that be a nice surprise?

Greed
When you ask for more than you really need
You are asking to be taught a lesson in greed
You might be given exactly what you ask
To teach you aren’t ready to handle the task.

If what you want is only for you
And it’s not about helping others too
God could consider your request to vain
And insist it be rephrased.

When power and wealth and material things
Become more important than human beings
Perhaps it is time to step back and rethink
What you really need to succeed.

Thoughts often change with growth and experience. Although today I do believe in expecting abundance I still do not believe it is necessary to be greedy. I look at those who have more than they could possibly use in their lifetime and I wonder if they are truly happy. I know I wouldn't be. Abundance is one thing, but wasting anything is quite another matter.

Plastic Ducks

This year I did something different for Halloween. I helped with the carnival at our family center. It was a lot of fun. My assignment was the duck pond for little ones. Plastic ducks swimming in a wading pool had a number on their bottoms, which indicated which prize they had won.

The costumes were adorable, especially on the littlest ones. My favorite because it showed imagination was a balloon girl. Her body was covered with a clear plastic bag full of blown up balloons. The affect was really quite clever.

The tiniest participants didn't get the idea of picking a duck and turning it over to see the number. I had to fight some of them because they wanted to take my duck home. The funniest thing was a little girl who, before I could stop her, stuck her head into the water and picked up a duck with her teeth. Her mother laughed historically as her child stood with dripping hair and a plastic duck in her mouth, wondering what happened.

Most of the kids were very well behaved and it was a fun way to spend Halloween night. Usually I sit alone in my living room waiting for someone to ring the doorbell. Hardly anyone ever does and I end up eating the candy myself. This year a bunch of little plastic ducks saved me from consuming calories I don't really need.