Month: November 2015

As most women know… Men lose weight faster than women do. So women, when we diet with men, We must embrace the truth that we are doing the best we can and men just go faster! Chuck and I have both lost 10 pounds but his is in about one month and mine is in about two months! Last week he walked every day with me for over an hour at a time and he takes bigger steps and walks faster… I find myself falling behind and panting and sweating, but the good part is, he wants this weight loss to happen just as much as I do, and he carries the groceries as we walk home with the grocery store as our last stop. He will not carry mulch though so I have to drive to the Home Depot! We are enjoying our Miami sojourne and the pontoon boat is in the water. Neighbor dogs wait at the gate for us at about 4pm because that’s when we go out. So dears, let’s get going walking and pontooning for health. Happy Turkey shopping! God bless you.

Good grief Chuck! I usually get what I ask for and today I got a double dose. Chuck has lost 7 pounds which is grand great and absolutely necessary. He says he isn’t hungry. That is amazing and I am glad! Now I have to concentrate on greatest nutrition. Another thing I wanted was exercise! I got that in spades today. I’ve been walking for one hour a day for a few weeks and as a result I’ve lost about 10 pounds. We are renewing passports and we need passport photos. So Chuck said we could walk to the AAA office and get photos taken. That was a 1 1/2 hour walk. I did not have walking socks so the bottom of my right foot is a little red and sore… I am resting in easy chair! He even jogged the last block home. Today is another beautiful day and all is well here in Miami. God bless you.

"Expect more. We just have to live that way". This is the message from French leadership and repeated here in America. We Americans are asking: Do we take in refugees? Whom do we trust? How should we pray? What do we say in our prayers? Let us pray for peace in our hearts. The peace only our belief that God made us, created us in his own image can give us. God certainly wouldn’t do that work in vain. He certainly wouldn’t do that work without love. So, with faith, we remember the freedom we have to pray, to love, to believe as we feel we must. Have peace in your heart and pray that you are fulfilling your mission that God made you for. God bless you.

When I was 18 to 23 years old, I wanted to get married in a park in a tiny white cotton dress. Back then, we wore sleeveless short mini dresses! We were young and slim. I made the dress myself, and I was going to marry my rebel boyfriend out side in a garden. But Mom intervened. "Must get married in church, must have a real reception" Just like Mom used to say "must have a college education and get a good job." My friend Karen told me yesterday that we can’t tell young people anything. Maybe I’m old… Yesterday France, "a secular nation" was attacked, from within by home grown angry young men. What makes us "go away"? What makes us so angry? And what calms our wild rebellion and brings us around? I married in the church and had a beautiful reception in an amazing dress. Mother and her friends and Chuck’s family pulled me, recalcitrant young rebel, back in. We need to speak to the young about values. About God, protecting angels, faith, care for others, humility. I went to a lovely wedding yesterday where the couple stood under a beautiful, breezy cloud laden sky and pledged to ask God to be the third member in their marriage. We prayed "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." In the light of the rebellion and anger and outright hatred that caused angry young men to shoot up civilian parties in Paris, a young couple pledged to honor each other under the protection of a loving God. Let us say thank you to God every day for the blessings he pours out on those who will to see. God bless you.

I’ve volunteered a few days to help put out donated stuff for the church flea market this weekend. I have handled a lot of stuff in a giant room. A lot of stuff. If we had to "run" like many Syrians and other refugees have to run, what would we grab? I have 3 5 drawer file cabinets full! A few of the drawers are empty ( well 2 or 3 drawers are empty). Closet and several dressers full, shelving in the closet full of clothes… I need not go on and on. I’ve just "handled" all my stuff. Took everything out, put it on the dining room table, handled each top, pant, short, shoe, night gown, panty. Do I love you? Do you fit? Any hesitation? OUT! It’s exhausting. And I still have too much. I’m working on a healthy life that includes lessening the stress of over crowding (as in not being able to close drawers or closet doors, or not being able to get into the closet!) Project also includes very clean eating and walking for an hour a day or 2 hours of yard work a day. This is working itself out in weight loss! How many times do I have to begin again? That is how many times do I have to reorganize and eat healthy because my weight and numbers crept up… How many times must I begin again? Every day! God bless you.

Today we thank and pray for veterans. Of course I have my favorite veteran submarine sailor, Chuck, but there are also my uncles who served in WW II, my friends and family who served in Korea, Vietnam, and all the wars and conflicts that as citizens of this great United States, we can’t seem to avoid. Last night on the Republican debate, candidates tossed around the huge and ponderous issue of do we belong, boots on the ground in the Middle East; what are we going to do about the "thug" Putin, the Chinese incursion in the South Chinese Sea, the North Koreans who have nuclear weapons. I wish today of all days, the world powers could take a look at what happened to young men of D-Day on Normandy’s beaches, and on the battlefields of France, Italy, Kuwait, Pakistan… The list goes on and on. We must pray for men to stop watering the ground with young men’s blood and to find peaceful solutions. If left without arrogant power hungry leaders, would we live in peace, or would we find mean spirited powerful people to "protect" us? I’m afraid mankind has a long history of "wanting Kings"… God bless you.

I am watching with great sadness and interest the news about the downed airplane in the Sinai. I arranged a 5 month trip that took us from Tampa, Florida to Saint Petersburg, Russia, all over England and back to Miami all without getting on an airplane. Last week I flew from Miami to Boston and home again without incident. We were carefully checked in both airports. I know folks in England have to travel a far piece south for sunshine, and many go to lovely resorts in northern Africa, hence the British warnings about flying. I carefully assess my spiritual state and thoughtfully consider "other means of travel" when I have to leave Miami. We could get wiped out on a highway by an 18 wheeler. Stop by a church and breathe in the beauty that is God our Creator, and be sure of where we want to land should an unplanned "stop" on our life journey occur. God bless us all.

Based on some experiences I’ve had, and many of you have had with cleaning out the homes and spaces where dearly departed (hereinafter known as dd) lived, let us consider today what WE will do to be pain free dds, that is pain free to those who are settling our estates. Karen and Peter’s Aunt had no children and only heirs are nephews. "No one is interested in our old stuff" is a litany Karen and I shared, and I have shared with many of you when we cleared out spaces. I remember the ickiest piece that I carried to the car to go to Salvation Army for the dear departed aunt (a stuffed squirrel in a box.) I could barely carry the box, and I’m wondering this month when the Catholic Church celebrates Saints and Commemorates Faithful Souls, don’t our heirs deserve for us to cast that "beloved stuff" out right now? And oh my gosh can we top a favorite stuffed squirrel? oh please. I’m cleaning off my desk, cleaning out files, and then hitting drawers. I’m getting rid of 10 copies of my resume that I might have needed in 2005, letters from Southern Bell commending me for service, contracts for the schools I taught at, lesson plans. You know what? Who cares. I am what I am. NOW. Get rid of it.

Save the photos. Put names on the back. We don’t want those poor darlings who are cleaning up our stuff to say, "Who IS that old lady?" also I have things my Mom wrote, and some things I wrote to her. Those are treasures…. God bless you!