Month: December 2014

When you cruise, someone wonderful comes in twice a day and makes the bed and cleans the bathroom, makes little towel animals, and leaves clean linens. Someone else wonderful makes too much food…. and well, for those of us who imbibe… someone else wonderful provides too much wine. Coffee, lemonade, and soft ice cream are self serve. When you get home and get hungry about noon, you look around for that special someone who is going to make amazing salads, salmon with cream cheese, chilius maximus hamburgers, pizza… oh and he’s not there. Someone else is sitting on my chair, chaise, bar stool, in my bed. OH sigh. As "warm ups" go, this was wonderful. it of course is a warm up for May. Will we be able to survive this over indulgence for 29 days as we travel to England and Scandinavia without changing cabins? We decided to take some elastic waist pants… I carried a sketching book, colored pencils and a third graders paint tin of water colors and one paint brush that shed all the time. I sat and drew and colored and shared the tablet with a lovely little three year old named Olyvia. She can’t speak yet but she just got cochlear implants and her Mom expects her to catch up with speech by the time she is 5. She had the biggest smile and loved drawing!!! Aside from the fact that my water coloring skills are on a third grade level (matching my tin water color box and shedding paint brush) I created a fun little diary!
Dec 6 we started the cruise and I drew from the TV screen. They run music and pretty scenes 24 hours. Light delicate music makes up for the roucous music of the bands in the bars…. Now: every day started with coffee and rolls on the balcony! you can put out a little "wake me up sign" and magic happens with a quiet little knock and "room service"
Dec 7 was a sea day with beautiful flat seas and sunshine and white clouds (we ate eggs benedict with salmon)
Dec 8 – The Feast of the immaculate Conception. We celebrate Mary on a feast day because it was her "Yes" that enables us to make Paradise a reality because Jesus, a man, ended sacrifice for us! Mary’s grace was received before she was born as she was chosen to be the tabernacle of God. Our grace is received all our lives! Maximillian Kolbe called Mary "the Immaculate" and he stressed that Jesus recognizes himself, human, in us. Isn’t it amazing and wonderful that God sees his own eyes, heart, and spirit in us? We walked all around Cozemel and then we found a cute little bar on the water and drank local beer and painted 2 sailboats. Pray for a lovely lady named Carol I met who is taking care of her husband who is fighting ALS. His name is David and he is cruising and working hard to live.
Dec 9: Belize. Found a cute little bar named the Rum Shack and drew some ships that mysteriously either crashed into rocks or just were only 1/2 there. I’m not real good with drawing yet…. "Soup of the Day: Rum" The ship had great art so I spent some time guessing the price of a peter max and just looking at art. Also went to a Thomas Kincade seminar and an auction.
Dec 10: Roatan… a wonderful little beach where I sat and got a wet bottom from the wet deck chair, and drew and painted and drank beer in a little bar that might have been called "the mushroom garden"… I’m not sure if Chuck was teasing and meant my little grass huts I was drawing looked like a mushroom farm…
Dec 11: The 50th anniversary of the day Chuck and I met! Wow and wow – great day. Grand Cayman. Met Guy Harvey who was painting at his studio. I stalked him and watched over over an hour! He uses the same paints as I do and he paints with a tin pie plate as his pallette! uses water as his wetter. he answered all my questions and wished me luck with my painting. Chuck bought a painting on canvas and a shirt! Here’s some notes I wrote in my little book: 7 day cruises are too short. don’t have 3 regular beers and 2 helpings of lunch at 2pm and expect to be hungry for dinner. (take Tums). Formal night is still observed, and Chuck is still cute! Go to all the comedy shows; they are much better than stage productions.
Dec 12: a day at sea. Packing is the worst part… I went to an art auction and to Bingo where they drew for a free cruise. I didn’t win. boo hoo. Inspired by the art and a bottle of wine on the balcony I painted a hibiscus and the sunset. Thanks to God for our health and the good time! Love Susie

When you were little, did you put out your shoes and anticipate gifts in them in the morning? This was the way the Feast of Saint Nicholas was celebrated when I was little. Nicholas was a Greek Bishop in the 4th century so it is only legend that tells us that he saved a whole town from famine, he protected the wrongly accused, and he put coins into people’s shoes who trusted they would find his gifts. Today is a good day to start getting ready for Christmas when the biggest gift of all is given and that is Christ’s love. Do you remember when you were little, or have you seen a small child, shaking gifts under the Christmas tree, peaking under the scotch tape, anticipating what the gifts are, and after opening everything, the little one sits in the middle of all that tissue paper and weeps. "I didn’t get enough…" or "I didn’t get what I wanted." Have you felt the sadness of "not enough" or "not what I wanted," and you can’t say what it is that you want? When Christ walked on earth, it is written about him that he felt pity for the people who crowded in to see him. Why did he feel pity? Because they didn’t know what they were missing; they didn’t know what the "Kingdom" is. He told them to live in the present, giving, praying, loving, but they just couldn’t. Can we? Now those of you who know me intimately, know I keep a calendar that has very detailed plans out into October 2015 (and Chuck just reminded me that "after October 2015, you have to start planning Italy." YIKES!). I often have to remind myself to "live in the present." Enjoy today. Don’t be peering ahead to what I can’t see, and don’t be looking back at the disappointments and the sadness that dogs all our paths. Once I was dogged by a lady at church who didn’t like me. I was giving talks on Spirituality and Advent and Bible studies and she said, in front of people, "I won’t go to your talks, you don’t know anything because you are not a priest." She actively spurned me. I was hurt and puzzled by her mean spirit towards me. I was angry, but then after prayer, I tucked my pride in my back pocket, and I went to her and apologized. "I’m sorry for what I did to you that made you angry with me." That was very hard as I have to really pray hard to be humble! She quit being mean, and now greets me like an old friend. What did I do? Our prideful, "do right" selves might say, "I didn’t do anything; I’m too busy with my own things to try to fix that useless, broken relationship"…. but when we do go out and say "I’m sorry", we free ourselves to receive the gift of love. Harboring old angers is like harboring little boats of meanness, anxiety, hatred, anger, and distrust in our hearts. There is no room for love. So today, on Saint Nicholas day, give a gift of forgiveness even if you "didn’t do it", give a hug, give a kiss. Rebuild the bridge that is rotting between you and another soul. From my Advent meditation book: "It’s in giving that our demons are cast out. It’s in loving that we are healed." God bless you this week. Chuck and I are off on an adventure today, and I might check in to this blog, so look occasionally to see, "Where’s Susie?" Love and kisses. and God bless you.