At the moment, I am alone.
Gratefully home alone in a clean cottage.
A home magically provided when needed.
So very grateful,
So very grateful,
I am.
And I give thanks for this time alone.
This time to simply BE.
For in simply being, I am shown all that life is.
The joy.
The sorrow.
The fear.
The love.
With love ever present.
The foundation.
The roof.
The contents.
Ever present even in the fear.
Or in the sadness
And joy.
LOVE is always there.
And on this day, I give thanks for YOU.
For the part we’ve played in each others’ lives.
For nothing is an accident.
Or coincidence.
But rather each bumping into
and seemingly chance smile,
is a nod from the Divine.
A reminder that we are
LOVED.
That we
ARE
love.
And with this
virtual
bump,
I send
all the love
that I am
to
YOU!!!
x
x
x
o
x
o
x
:
)
Happy
Happy
Thanksgiving!
What do YOU do when you’re a Grump? After it’s landed on your head and oozed down into your heart making a mess of the joy that was there just moments before?
Five-years ago, a case of the Grumps landed on my Dad. Sitting in a wheelchair unable to walk (just a few weeks after he’d won a 3-hour match in a national tennis tournament), my Dad was thinking, “What the?”
Slumped over in his chair, he brewed.
And stewed.
A Grump.
Feeling sorry for himself.
Seeing no way out.
And then, something c h a n g e d.
I saw it with my own four-eyes.
Somewhere within himself he found the strength to sit-up.
To cast out one kind word.
And then another.
And another.
Soon a fountain of encouragement sprang forth from his personal spring of goodness.
“You can do it!”
“Try again!”
“That’s it!”
Encouraging words flew across the rec hall landing first on a middle-aged woman who’d been paralyzed in a car accident.
Next, they found root in a young man who’d broken his neck in a fall.
One-by-one, I saw the change.
One-by-one, I saw the effects of my father’s words.
“Way to go!”
“That was a solid hit!”
“Good job!”
As this group of spinal cord injured people played volleyball, magic began to happen.
M A G I C.
Sj with her father, November 2008
And it started with my Dad.
The Grump.
Somehow he’d found something to grab onto.
A something that he could stand on.
A something that took him to the other side.
A bridge of sorts manifested itself when he looked within.
When he thought of others.
When he took his eyes off his own sorrow and reached out a helping hand,
in the form of encouraging words.
“You can do it!”
“Try again!”
“That’s it!”
From the depths of despair and self-pity, my Dad found a bridge to the other side.
How fitting that a man, who built bridges during World War II to replace those that the Germans blew up, would find a bridge WITHIN himself. A man who served his nation as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In his final days, my Dad built a bridge to the other side. A bridge that enabled him to help others even as he helped himself.
A different sort of mettle appeared right when he needed it most.
Patricia Neal visited her eponymous rehabilitation center Fall 2008
When I lay on my bed (and this could be anywhere in the world), one of my favorite things to do is give thanks.
I may pass in and out of “wakefulness,” dozing now and then, and still, what I return to is Thank You.
Thank you to my parents for allowing me to be born through them. Thank you to my sisters for being such good friends and watching over me. Thank you to my husband for the joy of sharing my life with him. Thank you to Fido, our firstborn, for allowing us to experience a playful, ball throwing life. A life which also included a death, his death. That experience I recognize now as a tap on the door of my heart. A waking up to all that matters. Life itself. And death which is such a part of life too. And his kid sister, Rocket Girl, who he led us to when he visited me once while in dream-state.
Thank you.
Life. The greatest gift of all.
Life. All that really matters.
And thank you to You, my friends on this planet. For I recognize in each one of you a Divinity, a Perfectness. For you are a child of creation. For you are Life itself.
And with that gift of life, which we each here are experiencing comes the responsibility (I think) of appreciation. Appreciation of simply being alive. Breathing. Being. Living.
And now, as I return to my day, I once again give thanks.
* * *
I just felt that there are those who may read this and think, “Who is this willy-nilly silly gal who gives thanks for everything? How corny she is!”
To them I say, “Yes, I love corn. Because from corn we get so many wonderful things!”
Cobs once served a purpose we thankfully no longer need. : )
And I’m not talking about the making of mattresses.
And corn just tastes sooo good!
Yes, I love corn.
Yes, I love silly.
Yes, I love life.
And I have this f e e l i n g, YOU do too. : )
Hugs to you all,
-Sj out
p.s. And thanks D’Anne and John for the i n c r e d i b l y fluffy and delish pastries!!!
Yes, I just “by chance” passed by a place with a pamphlet with the “happenings” for art in the area, picked it up thinking I’d give it a look-see. Found a *cool/hip hotel/restaurant/bar/whatever and decided to set a spell and drink in the day . . . when I opened this flyer and discovered the following ! :
It looks like I’ll be able to see several films on Friday the 22nd of July, the night before I leave Chiang Mai for BKK (and the final prep, i.e. laundering, getting ready for the Cambodia and teaching leg of this trip.).
How cool is that???? I’m so jazzed. Where is it? On B-1 on the map. That’s all I know. But this determined girl will figure out a way to convey that information to the tuk-tuk or taxi driver . . . or, gasp!, I may have a scooter then . . . but how to return it before I fly out the following day? Oh, those are details to work out a lifetime away from now. Something will come to me, inspiration will find me, or, I’ll just “figure it out.” lol I love how I’m learning to just be quiet for a moment, listen, and the answer comes; it always does : ). Oh, that relates to everything, doesn’t it?
Kay den, that’s it. Just wanted to share the “good news.” That’s how it is, isn’t it? When something good happens, we want to share it. Why? Because we’re excited, happy, just plain jazzed that Wow! something else good is happening!!!
And in that vein, I hope that you too have good news to share. Maybe it’s just the wonderfully simple satisfaction that comes from a tasty meal. Or a store clerk who looks at you and smiles. Or the simple joy of knowing that you’re alive, and that that’s the u l t i m a t e gift, to be alive. (Would love to hear your good news: )
I’ve written a few of you who took the time to write such nice and encouraging things in response to my last glob entry . . . the main gist is that I am so very, very thankful to be on this adventure. And by that I mean, the ultimate adventure, which is l i f e. This trip to SE Asia is but a metaphor for the BIG thing, the real thing, the (excuse me for my repetition), the ultimate thing. To be in a human body living on this earth, meeting each and every one of you precious souls . . . ah, it doesn’t get better than that, does it?
Please know that I sincerely am so very thankful to know you, whether it be for a blink-of-the-eye, a long afternoon, or for a lifetime. Each and every one of you is so very important to me, and I don’t say (okay, type : ) that lightly. I really, really mean it.
And oh, the cooking school deal was a blast. I’ve got **”Susan-Jane-made” Phad Thai and mango sticky rice waiting for me back at my pad. We had sooooo much to eat that nearly all of us got “to-go” (plastic bags with a rubber band, such a practical way to pack leftovers!) baggies for din-din.
And with that, I’m signing off . . . and oh, get this, the hotel has on channel 48 a French TV station !!!! Last night I stayed up late watching a funny French film with English sub-titles. How cool is that!!! Yes, gifts keeps falling to me from everywhere I look. And yes, I don’t take any of them for granted. I am very, very thankful.
