Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm going to see an art exhibit with an 88 year old friend.  She used to teach my youngest in kindergarten and first grade.  She convinced me to teach art in her class, and then the principal offered me a job teaching all 13 classes and I had two years of creativity, fun and hard work.  Being enthusiastic about art has never been a problem for me.  And three of my four kids were art or art history majors as undergrads, and all are artists, though only one has a job in the art field.  I'm itching to enthuse my grandkids now.  The three year old likes art museums, the ten year old is very creative and likes to see art, and the two year old, well, he does do water color painting for 3 or 4 minutes at a time.  Art has been my spiritual advisor, soul balm and engaged me with history and cultures.  My art book collection attests to my passion.  So I will enjoy myself today.  And with a mentor by my side.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm home in my studio with all the quilt batting and yarn and needles I just bought.  I was supposed to see my therapist, but she got trapped on the bridge, with both ways closed, and is hoping to get released to head back home in the near future.  My husband looked it up online, and evidently chunks, big chunks of concrete are falling from the upper level to the lower.  Terrifying!  No earthquake, no event, but the bridge is coming apart.  Is this ever going to be a commute catastrophe!  I am upset, and since a big rainstorm is supposed to hit us tomorrow, I truly wonder what the world is coming to!  Nothing good.  So I'll keep sewing baby quilts in my nest here, and pray for everyone.  Chicken Little, the sky IS falling!

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm very shy about asking for anything, so yesterday I had to gird my loins to look for a vintage shop that would donate an in-kind gift for an auction item for the organization's gala I'm volunteering with, and luckily, the woman, a young Eastern European immigrant, was kind and very interested.  I then realized I had no brochures or info with me to give her, so I will have to gather it and get back to her.  But I was happy I presented the organization in a manner that appealed to her.  Then I got a call back from a woman I hadn't had contact with in 25 years, but she was friendly and promised to check with the head of the business to see if they could sponsor the organization.  So that was painless.  But a neighbor who was in my religions of the world group for ten years has not responded, and her answering machine mailbox is full, so I wrote another email.  I'm surprised, except that she's very busy and travels a lot.  That person may be a strikeout.
I really don't like soliciting, even for a great cause, and I have to drink a lot of tea after and read to calm down.  But stretching myself once in a while is a good thing.  Like taffy, you need to pull it to make it do it's thing.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We received a call from our son, and our grandson wanted to switch to Facetime.  My husband and I reminded him that he runs away to another room and we never see his face when we do.  So he promised to sit still so we could see his face, and despite some squirming he keep his word.  My husband regaled him with one of his turtle stories, and the three year old was riveted.  It involved a snapping turtle and my husband at seven with his three year old sister.  I've heard this story multiple times, but every time I hear it I admire my husband's parents' more for their tolerance.  Short hand, it goes like this:  the parents and two kids were out in a rowboat on Eagle Lake and my husband and sister-in-law were searching for turtles.  They found a couple, then my husband saw a bigger one on a rock and grabbed it and swung it into the boat, as he parents screamed "NO".  It landed in the boat, and his mother yelled "Snapping" and all four of them jumped out of the boat.  The snapping turtle was pulled regally toward shore, and my husband got it by the tail and managed somehow to convince his parents to take it home with the other turtles.  The kids had a foot deep plastic pool in their back yard where they put the turtles, but the next morning the snapper had eaten half of my husband's sister's turtle.  So out Mr. Snappy went, into the river down the embankment in the back yard.  His sister was bereft.  My husband was remorseless.  But no more snapping turtles were collected.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I walked in the rain this morning with a friend.  I was as thrilled with my rainboots as my grandsons are.  My friend up north is sending pictures of the snow there.  It feels cold enough here to snow as well.  This is the time of year I dream about Hawaii.  Oh, well.  I'm going to sew this week and check out vintage stores for sponsors for a non-profit gala.  I can't wear vintage any more, except for the fact I'm often complimented on a jacket or sweater and I realize it's thirty or forty years old.  I have a Native American jacket bought in the Denver airport thirty years ago that still appeals to people.  All my coats are ancient.  But I can't revisit the 70's or 60's anymore.  I look like a derelict.  So goodbye purple swede fringed jacket and maxidresses, victorian high necked blouses and pioneer skirts and cowboy boots.  I can't pull it off, and sometimes I mean literally.  Miniskirts - I don't THINK SO.  But I still love to browse through memory lane.  Even as I wince at the stuff I wore.  When you're barely five feet tall, best not to ruffle or swirl, but stay tailored and plain.  I let my earrings and shoes go a bit wild, and scarves, but there's not as much fun to be had anymore.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

The 50th birthday celebration went wonderfully, and the toddler grandsons only needed a couple of walks around the block to make it through.  I ate everything, and each dish was remarkable.  Now I'm up one and a half pounds just from last night!  Worth it, definitely worth it.  Even the rain was not as bad as predicted, and no thunderstorms.  Today began sunny but the rain took over and it's cold and gray now.  I finished a riveting mystery, hung two carvings in the kitchen, found a bunch of photos of my son for his wife's baby shower and will tackle repairing a curtain on a stairway window.  Then I'm beginning my quilt projects for my coming grandson.  I should have the time for it next week.  It will help if I can get my studio warm enough.  It has a cement floor and all windows on one wall, and it would make a better refrigerator in the winter than an actual room for humans. 
A friend's plans have just been thrown out the window as her husband had a freak accident and needs surgery on his wrist.  They were to fly to her mother's 90th birthday, and she has a book deadline and thesis to assess, and to top it all off, her computer is on the blink.  Those rugs just keep being pulled out from under us, and who is doing it, anyway?! 

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Today is my son's fiftieth birthday and we're all going up for a five course meal at a nice place at a ridiculously early time due to the two and three year olds:  five fifteen.  I'm kind of stunned I have a kid this old!  How did we all get here?  And thank goodness we did.  This man looks a lot like my Dad and also his father's Dad, and he has a son who looks like all of them.  He's given me great joy and pride, and his little family is very dear.  He's a good man.  This, in spite of early disruption and a father who left the country and then died.  He's come to terms with that heritage, and has many connections with people in that family.  They love him.  I'm glad.  He has a wonderful wife and this late in life son he adores, as do we all.  He has my heart and my blessings.
Yesterday my next oldest called to say she had a spot on her brain, and was having one time only radiation.  She called after the radiation again, and said she'll have an MRI in six weeks and hopefully this took care of it.  It's very small, so the doctors are keeping an alert, watchful eye, and the chemo is taking care of her body, but chemo can't cross the blood/brain barrier, so there are separate issues for the brain.  I wanted to hold her and be there for her, but she is brave and well supported, and I send my prayers every day and night.  Her daughter, she said, was waiting to hear how the radiation went.  She is ten.  It's hard, not being able to DO ANYTHING.  I'll probably make a weekend trip this month, and see them in person.  They're fine, I know, but it's all so unfair.  I know, such is life, but I don't have to accept it.  I won't.  She has my heart and my blessings.