Flu Shots



Yes...tomorrow is the big day for my work place and I am in charge of it all - the annual Flu Shot Clinic.

Due to the 0515 wake-up call and the late evening end-of-shift anticipated, I doubt there will be any blogging going on. My apologies to anyone who looks forward to Sunday & Wednesday (blog days). Especially, my apology to Kaycee, my daughter-in-law who will, no doubt, text me to remind me I'm a slacker this week. Maybe with enough encouragement, she'll blog for me....we'll see.

So, let me put in my medical 2-cents here. YES! Definitely get your flu shot this season, stay healthy, happy and busy enjoying time with family, friends and a good book!

XO
Marti

Walk the Talk

I'm a day late blogging and I apologize to anyone anticipating a typical Wednesday night post. So much is going on around here right now I can't even begin to get clever or inspirational...I'm holding on with my fingernails myself!


Interesting how after only a few months of posting my thoughts about life and "riding the wave", God sees fit to give me another little TEST! My wave just fizzled out and I'm almost too exhausted (and scared) to turn around and face the next one...even though I've been promised it's going to be a FABULOUS ride!
Not easy getting back into life! So not easy saying "goodbye" to family as they move off of their own wave and turn around to face the next, particularly when I'm not included on the ride.

So, to myself and my loved ones...have a great ride and I'll see you one the next one hopefully.
Namaste ~

Marti

9:30 am rolled around this morning and my emotions shifted. I was sitting comfortably in the floral sofa with the big soft pillows that I love to nestle into to write. Kathryn was dodging and weaving the slice of cutlasses, when all of the sudden everything stopped.

Where was I only nine years ago at this very moment?

I asked myself that question almost subconsciously, that's what 0930 on each September 11 has caused me to do for the past nine years.

Ahhh yes, sitting on the edge of my bed watching in horror as the second aircraft plunged into the still intact tower.

My stomach lurched in response as it does each time I replay the visual of that horrific moment.
Today as I drove home from Target, I noticed a red jeep decked out in five US flags, his reverence for this day unmistakeable. As I turned into my neighborhood, the guy across the street had decorated his yard in US flags of various sizes, showering his lawn in red-white-and-blue. It is important to me to show this same kind of rememberance on this day and so I pulled out the flag and stuck in in the planter, straightened the military star flag (there are two on mine) hanging in my window and sat down to write this message.

Remember, please remember those whose lives were lost on this fateful day nine years ago. Remember the valiant sacrifices made by the police, firefighters, civilians, neighbors and strangers...US citizens, my country, my family.
Thank you to those who serve our grand country now, those home and abroad. Thank you for sacrificing your time, comfort and memories with your own loved ones as you serve.

Today will be another Saturday, somber with significance. But as I go back outside to trim the summer's overgrown bushes, my grandson riding his big wheel oblivious to the significance of this day except he is aware of one thing...his daddy isn't here. He's serving in some foreign land because of what happened nine years ago.

No Bloggin' Tonight

I wanted to blog tonight but have somehow "tweaked" my neck and am feeling rather sorry for myself.  The whole affair has forced me to be somewhat guarded with my movements, slow down, be still.  Right now, I am lying on my bed with a pillow propped up to support my head, barely moving anything but my fingers on the keyboard...in a receiving mode, as-it-were.  The sounds of evening are singing to my quieted ears, thoughts have dissipated to just what is for this moment. The pain is bringing me to center and I am becoming renewed by it. 

Sounds so "Zen"...but it's true, I swear on a stack of Buddhist quotes!

I'm thinking life is a little like this.  The pain we experience in our hearts and souls brings us back to "what's most important".  Perhaps the experience of pain itself is cleansing.  I supposed I should be grateful for the acute pain in my neck, grateful that there have been painful experiences and trials throughout my life which give me clarity and character.

So, to my painful neck...."bring it on!"

Marti

Adieu to my baby girl ~

Brooke left yesterday for college and I find myself in a maelstrom of emotions. Tears welled up as we said our "goodbye and good luck" wishes, held each other and then let go. Let go...


I am learning to live the advice I have given my kids for so many years. Let go and let it be (yes, I grew up with the Beatles!). It's such a true, pure, "zen" way to live but the only way, I believe, we can find peace in the outcomes of life's adventures and allow what's meant to be...to be. So, I am hesitantly turning from the "wave" just ridden, a magnificent ride, and turning to face the next one. What lies ahead? Another book (the sequel), travel, new available time to spend with Brett (he's in the photo behind Brooke) and my grandma Verna. So much to look forward to!
So Brooke...adieu! Have a wonderful life adventure away in another state, at college, with friends.
Mom

Dreams

9/4/2010 7:14:41 AM
Is there meaning behind our dreams and if so, what do our dreams really mean?
Last night I dreamt I was in Greece. I could see the clear turquoise water and smell fish and spices in the air. The people in my dream were very generous to me, feeding me unfamiliar flavors washed through tender meat and oil-laden vegetables. I ate and more food would be place before me, overwhelming really. Their culture was vibrant as I watched the woman tend to her man as we sat visiting while she scurried to and from the house with something always in her hand, always throwing out an after-thought as she left us. I moved to the edge of a patio and sat, dangling my feet in the clear sea water. The man stayed with me, still talking. Suddenly, a large shadow rushed to where I was in the water. Apparently I had stood up at some point because I was alone then, watching a great white shark as it rammed into the very spot I had been sitting. Then I awoke.

I have never been to Greece in this lifetime but interestingly, have always had a strong desire to go. The faces of those people elude me this morning. But the experience was real and I remember the smells, tastes and feeling of that place even now several hours after awakening.

The meaning of the dream may be relevant and something I will consider, meditate on at a later date. Right now, my focus is on the purpose of the experience of my dream. I have read from "experts" that occasionally, dreams of detail that include location, people and events creating an experience (not just an image we are viewing) as we dream are really the taste of past lives creeping into our consciousness. I am curious about the dreams of others and what their experience is as they dream. As I contemplate my own dream experience, clarity will come I am sure, clarity I will share here at some point.

I wonder, have I really been to Greece sometime before?

Eternity Really?

Whenever I think of time, I think in terms of a timeline - a long line written across an invisible wall with a beginning date (usually my birthday) and an end date (my death, although the exact date isn't yet written down for obvious reasons). Somewhere in the middle is a little arrow that says "you are here". That's my time, my lifetime written down.

But that's not really how I feel it. I think the concept of a long line is a good one, definitive for those of us who have to be visual. In my mind, the line isn't one long skinny line but rather a wide, fat (goes on farther-than-the-eye-can-see-kind-of-wide) line that looks much like the horizon of an ocean. The width of my timeline is eternity. It has no beginning (that I can see) and no end. The starting point of my own personal linear line, which is my birthdate, is irrelevant because the width goes on forever, extending behind my birthdate and beyond my death date, whenever that will be.

This is eternity.

I believe that the souls of others who may have yet to reach their birthdates or who have passed beyond their death dates, dwell within this expanse. They are travelling my timeline with me as I did theirs. Our lives cross back and forth across the insignificance of our own visual timelines and continue to do so well after our own deaths. This is eternal relationship defined.

Could our Deja vu moments with people result from our associations through the eternities? Was I once a spirit sailing on a great ship in the Caribbean and now in this life recall the details of the saltwater logged wood on a vessel in the 18th century? Are the longings of a person's heart for someone they can't quite identify the longing for someone known in the expanse of eternity?

It gives me hope...