Changing beliefs

After listening to a friend's podcast this morning I came away with some new thoughts. The main one is that what I believed yesterday, last week, last year is not necessarily what I believe at this moment. Every experience changes us from our first breath to our last. Another important fact to remember is that no two people have the exact same view of what life throws at them.

We have to develop strong back bones. We have to remember that we were all created for a purpose and we are all worthy. There is really nothing to prove, but everything to learn toward our individual spiritual evolvement. 

What a shame it would be to leave this life exactly the same as when we began! 

It is sometimes difficult to stand up for ourselves and be who we came here to be. My best advice is to always believe in yourself, no matter what anyone else believes. You are worthy or you wouldn't be here!

 

By any other name

Wow! Checking into the names of my family leads to an interesting path. It makes finding them on Ancestry.com a complex journey. Follow along.

Laura Marie became Peggy as an adult. I'm still working on that one!

Florence Marie became Mary

Christopher Sean became Sean

Frank David became David

Charles Eugene became Eugene AKA Zig

No wonder I am having trouble finding people! Then their are the women who didn't change their maiden name when they married, complicating things even further. Of course, there are the children left over from previous marriages still carrying the last name of their fathers. Maybe we should just use numbers!

I remember when I choose the name for my only daughter, Christina (for a young Swedish princess who became a queen) and Marie (for both her paternal grandmother and maternal great grandmother), my grandfather said it sounded like the name for a cow! Really?

In my case I have always had a problem with my middle name, Loure`. It is French and most people can't pronounce it because of the accent mark over the e. It is correctly pronounced Lou ray. It is the actual spelling of my maternal grandmother's first name that was spelled wrong in the family bible.

That's the message for today from a member of a very mixed up family to the rest of the world. Have a great day! 

Oops I forgot my mother, Gertrude Ione became Ione. She apparently also had a problem with names as she used the last name of her step-father on her marriage certificate and my birth certificate. He never adopted her!

Just shake it off

 Do you ever wake up thinking you are in a weird movie of some kind? I am wondering what happened to my normal world. A world where I could touch others without the fear of coming down with something that could end my life as I know it. The thought that this craziness could last the length of my current life is disgusting and unacceptable!

The big wigs think that the vaccines are going to solve everything. I have trouble believing that. As new variants creep up they don't even know if what has been produced, thus far, will be effective. People are getting sick from taking them. I have come to believe that the current virus will eventually fade away. I don't usually believe what Trump said, but in this case?!

I don't believe the vaccines are going to do it. I believe it is up to the people to follow the guidelines of masks and social distancing. If they don't, the virus will go on and on.  

Those are my thoughts today, believe them or not. Have a great day!

One more day

This has been the longest four years in history. One more day before a new president takes the oath of office. I sincerely hope the ceremony takes place without any major problems. I listened to Joe Biden's emotional speech this morning.What a change to have someone who is not afraid to share his feelings. I have no idea what will happen during the next four years, nobody does. I am really upset with friends who won't even give our new leader a chance.I am not going to delete them, but there is an option on Facebook that will allow me to shut them up for at least thirty days. I am taking that option!

My opinion

 I have been reading a lot of kindle books lately, some I enjoyed some I didn't and some I didn't even finish. My last was, "The Secrets We Keep" by Nolan King. The book was actually interesting with new plot twists I hadn't read before. It did bring up one of my pet peeves though. That is books that go on and on and never seen to finish. This one left me with, "Will you please finish the freaking book?" It even had an epilogue for crying out loud! 

Perhaps brevity is something I learned from my experience as a columnist, but it is something I always try for. Details are nice, but how many times does an author have to use them?

That's my rant for today. Other than that everything is great! My car is back and it was,  as I suspected, simply a loose wire.

Speak up

 Great things happen when you learn to speak up for yourself. This has been an interesting week partly because I have been practicing speaking up for myself.

On Monday I had a phone visit with my PA. I haven't been in for a person to person visit for months. I was prepared with sharing what my blood pressure has been doing and with some questions. Daniel was very happy with the BP information. I asked him if he was ok with going back to a combo prescription instead of taking two pills every day. He was. I also asked him to switch my prescription from Walmart to Walgreens. I stated I was really tired of having to stand in line in the cold just to go to the pharmacy. Later that day I stopped by the Walgreen drive up to get my new prescription. I was informed that if I went inside the store I could get a card that was $20 a year to cut my prescriptions basically in half.

Tuesday I finally got my appointment with the MVD to renew my drivers license. A previous appointment had been canceled for some reason. I complained that a friend who is the same age does not have to have a yearly eye exam and asked why I do. The visit went well and I was told that as long as I could pass the vision test I no longer had to have a yearly eye exam. Well, thank you for small favors, since we no longer have an eye doctor in Grants and I don't drive to Albuquerque or Gallup. Because of my age I do have to renew my license yearly though. Can't have everything I guess!

Today I stopped by Walgreens to get the discount card I had been told about. I also mentioned that my PA had prescribed my BP medication monthly. The pharmacist replied, "I can fix that and preceded to make it for 90 days. Yes! He told me I could pick up the first 90 day prescription today if I wanted to, which would give me 4 months worth of pills. I said, "I might as well since I am here!" So now I don't have to go back for a refill until May 2021.  

Having finished all my errands I called my mechanic and said I need to have someone look at my car because it is still not running right. He said bring it in tomorrow morning. So that is where I will be heading. This year isn't so bad after all, I just needed to learn to speak up for myself!     

Your own voice

A friend of mine just shared a blog post written by a friend of hers that I really loved. The post was called, "We all must stand in our own shoes." She went on to state that we must listen to our own voice. I believe that voice is the voice of our soul and is also called intuition. It is meant to lead us to a better life, if we learn to listen.

In my past life I have mostly put other people's opinions and needs above my own. I have not only listened to the world, but to my family and friends when making decisions. Wrong wrong wrong!!

Lately I have been disregarding what others think and following my intuition. I find it leaves me much happier and with a feeling of accomplishment.

Enough shit!

Just listening to President elect Joseph Biden. He is finally speaking up about the shit that the current president has gotten by with for the last four years. He said when you say something over and over and over people will believe you. I have friends, even a member of my own family who spout off word for word what Trump keeps saying. I am so tired of this shit. What in the hell is wrong with people? They can't think for themselves anymore? I loved it when Biden said Trump refuses to attend the inauguration on January 20th and he couldn't be happier. I agree!!!

Raining cousins

For years I have thought my family was deceased. I was wrong! It is odd that when you take one step or push one button you can make magic happen. Renewing my Ancestry.com subscription for the reduced price of $49 for 6 months was the best decision I have made in recent years! My life is now raining cousins!

None of these souls live in New Mexico, but I am grateful for Facebook and Email. It is bringing my world closer day by day. 

This old picture includes myself, my little brother and my first cousins. I may be the only one still living a human life, but apparently life is meant to go on! In case you are wondering, I am in the middle of the front row.

Rethinking

 After rethinking, this year is not starting off so bed after all. On the 2nd, we did have a couple over for dinner. I hadn't seen them for months. My son grilled, I made twice potatoes and salad and my friend brought dessert. We also got to catch up on news.

The next day I finally did get my hair cut. My appointment was with a hairdresser that I have been going to for years. In addition to cutting hair she also works at a local school. My grandson and her nephew are friends so we had plenty to talk about. 

Next, because I updated my Ancestry.com account I have been able to communicate with cousins I didn't even know I had. One is 17 and her knowledge of family is amazing. I believe I mentioned that I recently found a niece that I didn't know I have. We have been sharing family information. 

I think all these events have added up to the start of a really good year. If this trend keeps up I will be very happy to stick around and see what happens.

Seriously?

It is only Jan. 2 and so far this year sucks!

First we had to postpone dinner planned yesterday because the city water was turned off, then I had an appointment this morning to get my hair cut except my hairdresser wrote down the wrong date and she is out of town. My car's check engine light is on again and my car is running like shit- AGAIN!

I wonder what other wonderful things this year will bring!!

And we begin again

The first day of the new year began rather oddly with a phone call, informing me that the water would be shut off in our side of town, for 8-10 hours.Wonderful I thought, as I found it to be true when I turned on the faucet in the kitchen. The oddness doesn't stop there. We had invited a couple of friends for dinner tonight because my son wanted to do some grilling. When I woke up this morning I had a strong feeling that this was not the right day for the invite.

After the phone call from the city I asked my son if he thought I should call my friend and postpone the dinner invitation to tomorrow. He said yes, so I made the call to update my friend, who was fine with the change. For some strange reason I was happy too.

I had been waiting weeks to have a much needed haircut and have an appointment in the morning. About an hour after I called my friend our water was restored. Not knowing if it might go off again, we decided to leave the dinner invitation for tomorrow. Cool, now I will have a brand new haircut and feel much more presentable! I am wondering if this is why I knew this was not the right day for guests?

Intuition is sometimes a very weird thing! It appears mine just got stronger in 2021.