MY MISSIONARIES.......

Today is  the 183rd Church Conference in Salt Lake and there is a lot of talk about missionaries and the many young people who have signed up to go on a mission......and yes it is raining......we couldn't have conference if it didn't rain or snow!  My two missionaries are much on my mind, are they well, are they safe, are they happy?  I can only wonder what is on a missionaries mothers mind the two years their kids are gone......and so far away.  My one sister had three boys and they all went on missions, one to Japan, one to China and one to Canada.  I am afraid I wasn't much comfort to her not realizing now what I feel. Alex and Richard were such wonderful boys before they left.....how could a mission improve them? I guess only they left boys and will come home men who care.  Alex told his mother when he left his last assignment he didn't get to tell one young man that was interested in the church good-by, so he wrote him a note and left him one of his white shirts and a tie so he could feel comfortable going to church....the people in Brazil do no have a lot of nice clothes some times.  I am so proud of Alex. Richard is in a small village in Mexico, water is hauled in to bath and do laundry.  He has ants crawling on the wall. Four nights the members had feed them fish or fish soup.......he didn't eat fish when he left home....Oh happy day? I am very proud of them and what they are doing is good.

NEW BUCKET LIST.......

I have done my share of traveling, over 100 countries, six of the seven continents and 48 of the 50 states, but I have discovered there are many places I have yet to see! "PLACES OF IMAGINATION"......so I have a new Bucket List.  Some of our most beloved places started as figments of someone else's imagination, yet feel so real we daydream about visiting them. The people who are responsible for these great places are doers, believers, thinkers and dreamers that have given us many hour of pleasure.  I would love to visit Atlantis, Camelot, The Emerald City, Gilligan's Island, Narnia, Neverland, The Secret Garden, Shangri-La or Sleepy Hollow.  There are many more the list is long.......I would love to visit Bedrock and have lunch with Barney. Gilligan's Island always looked so much fun and had some interesting people that lived there......back then.  And the chocolate Factory.....I did visit Hershey, Pa, and they had Hershey candy everywhere, but no real Chocolate Factory! Not too crazy about visiting Jurassic Park, not into dinosaurs. But as you can see there are many places in our world.....real or imaginary that I still have to visit.

Calls from Disney Land confirm everyone is having a good time. Now Disney Land is a destination of some one's imagination that I and many have been able to visit.......  Sherrie made me a disk of Alex's first year on his mission.....I cried all the way through it, I didn't realize how much I miss him!!!! Stay well and safe my sweet missionary.

"SUCCULENT"

Here I am livin' it up at the Red Onion Saloon in Alaska!  If you would ask my grandmother what an 80 year lady should be doing......it wouldn't be having a Bloody Mary in a saloon.  Notice I am wearing my garter on my arm...not leg! Succulent is an interesting word. ....choosing deliberate acts of personal revolution. It means waking up embracing your true stuff, studying your patterns and letting out your most alive self!

When you think of succulent you think "young, wild succulent women".  Well, I have news for you there are also

"old, alone and succulent women!" If you fling back your head or hair, wear something that all your friends raise their eyebrows at or dance alone in your kitchen to your favorite "oldie"......you are  an "old, alone and succulent person".
If we give in to our fears, being old and being alone....we come up with a terrifying phrase "old and alone, yet, why is it so terrifying?  Every day, everyone gets older.  One day you wake up an old woman.  We can be a fabulous old women or a crabby, unwilling old women.  It's your choice.  If age brings health challenges we can meet the challenges with love and resistance, allow or reject.  Not always easy.  There are great parts of being alone......welcome any alone-ness and magnify the goodness in it.
Yes, I will always be a succulent wild woman, no matter my age.  Beautiful day with the next four days forecast to be raining and cold.  Took Annie and two friends to the airport, they were going to LA for cheer competition.  Karrie, Rich and Scottie drove all night to get there......the Christensons flew their plane down yesterday to meet them. Oh, those good ole days at Disney Land are over for me, but I have many memories from way back when we took Pam a couple of times a year when it first opened.

GIVING THANKS.....

HELLO......does this tree have something to be thankful for or not???  Somehow it decided to grow where it was planted, seems the two big rocks are there to protect and sustain it.  I think I have felt like I was barely hanging on before never realizing I had big rocks taking care of me.  I am sure it is very thankful as we should all be with what we have.  They say people who document what they are thankful for reap a host of health and emotional benefits.  For instance....1. Commit to Happiness. Journaling is more effective if you first make the conscious decision to become more fulfilled and more grateful.  I have also found blogging helps me think seriously about things. 2. Go for depth over breadth.  Elaborate in detail about a particular thing for which you are grateful....today the pharmacist took time to be sure I was aware of the side affects of my new medicine, he could have just said.."read the directions." 3.  Make it personal.  Focus on people you are grateful for not things.  Reflect on what your life would be like without certain blessings.  4.  Savor Surprises.......Record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to elicit stronger levels of gratitude.  A surprising note thanking you for something can  boost your gratitude.  5.  Turn your gratitude list into a regular routine, not just occasionally.  6.  Teach your children to be grateful, they seem less grateful because they have never been without or had less.....so they have nothing to compare then and now with as most of us older folks do.  "REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY, GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL."

THINK ABOUT IT......

Silence and solitude are so necessary to balance your life, thank goodness I have both in my life.  You start with one thought and soon you have traveled far in thoughts from where you began.  I was just thinking this morning of the many people  that I have met through my almost 81 years and my travels around the world.

"Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become.  You never know who these people may be...a roommate, neighbor, co-worker, long lost friend, a lover or even a stranger.....but when you lock eye with them, you know at that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way."

Sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful and unfair at first.....my divorce......but in reflection you find that without over coming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower or heart.

Every thing happens for a reason.....just believe....Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck.  Illness, injury, love, lost moments of greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of your soul.  Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. Yes, it would be safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless.  My life has not been dull, a new challenge every day....today my new challenge is to arrange and finish cleaning my patio with my NEW PATIO FURNITURE that I gave myself with my income tax rebate for my birthday in a couple of weeks......and the sun is shinning!

 

APRIL FOOL'S DAY.......

April Fool's Day fell the day after Easter this year and today was very busy.....This was my roommate on the cruise to Alaska last year, we had a lot of fun!  That was not an April Fools Joke.....Off to mail my bills early, pick up my income tax and buy some patio furniture!!!! It's all Pannier's fault they were looking at new furniture for their cabin's patio.  I decided I had had the big round table and 8 chairs long enough and they took up too much room and I never used them anymore, now the grandkid's are grown and not around much.  I bought some wicker and have lots more room on the patio.....I love it already..... Had a doctors appointment, then called my sweet grandson and asked if he would help his dad pick up and deliver my new furniture, he was right on it!  Now I can hardly wait for the weather to stay nice and I can start using it a lot. Oh yes, my sister told me she was moving from Winslow to Mesa and I am thrilled, a month in the sun every winter would be fun......Well Happy April Fool's Day to everyone, it was a special day, I got emails from both my missionaries!

HAPPY EASTER.....

Do we get caught up in all the colored eggs, stuffed bunnies and Easter candy or do we stop and  and say thank you to Jesus for why we are celebrating?  I have always loved Easter, but when I look back what I remember most was mother always made us a new Easter dress....I say us because she always made one for Jo and one for me just alike!!! We went to Grandma's or Aunt Frankie's for dinner and compare Easter baskets with our cousins.  We did always go to church that day, but not much the rest of the year.  This Easter I got to go to Idaho with the Panniers and we had a fun dinner before coming back to Salt Lake.  One of my favorite songs goes:  WHEN HE COMES AGAIN.......I wonder, when he comes again, Will herald angels sing?  Will earth be white with drifted snow, Or will the world know spring?  I wonder if one star will shine Far brighter than the rest: Will daylight stay the whole night through?  Will songbirds leave their nests? I'm sure he'll call his little ones Together 'round his knee, Because he said in days gone by, "Suffer them to come to me."