Author: Susie

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!

I volunteered to help friend Karen Skipp go through the estate of her husband Peter’s aunt. What we woman won’t do for our husbands. We flew to Boston and had 2 beautiful, sunny but chilly days and 2 rainy days. I’m traveling homeward on a beautiful day. All the dear departed’s (hereinafter known as dd) stuff had been moved to a lawyer’s storeroom. She died without a will and all her stuff was packed and stored in this concrete block room with one light. Ooooo dreary and chilly. Yesterday, while sitting waiting for our paralegal contact, I determined that the space used to be a big concrete block garage. The space is now used for cold storage. We have been working on culling through all the stuff to dermine value and packed the van for 4 trips to salvation army. Finding the salvation army was hysterical! We had addresses plugged into Karen’s GPS but landed in places definitely NOT Salvation Army. Drove all around Harvard, Vassar, MIT, Tufts and near downtown Boston. Finally found Salvation Army and made them rich. Karen found some treasures and I have 2 Blessed Mother statues that I couldn’t leave behind. They are old and unusual. We also visited the dd’s husband at cemetery, but she is not to be buried there and Karen is carrying her ashes home for burial near her sister (Peter’s mom) in Biscayne. Bay. I’m on a bus headed for Logan airport hoping for a smooth flight like we had from Miami. Chuck will pick me up in Miami and we will go home to decorate for Halloween and to ruin more children’s teeth with candy! God bless you.

What does it mean: "Home is where the heart is?" The heart is just a big muscle that contracts at will, and we are only aware of it when it loses rhythm …. We ignore the heart most of the time until it flops around, or slows, or quickens. The heart must be carefully and consistently worked in order to function efficiently for 90 or more years. If we work the heart, it remains supple, healthy, and rhythmic. If we let fat grow on an unworked heart, it becomes sluggish, inefficient, sick. Saint James wrote (in his letter chapter 5) to the rich and priveleged, "you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter." Yikes… Like pigs or bulls, fattened for the slaughter, hardly able to move. I don’t want that. So what does that have to do with "home?" When I visited many of you, I spoke of "home" and how I was ready to go home. I moved from the Keys which was not "home" and I wanted to return to Miami which is almost a foreign city! I went to the post office the other day and as I stood in line for about 15 minutes, I realized that for that 15 minutes, I did not understand a single word that was spoken by the 20 or so people in line. Same with the Winn Dixie and the Home Depot. I find myself saying, "Whaaaat?" when people speak to me? Even at my church, announcements after Mass are not all that legible. So why want to be in this place? I was brought up here, educated here, married here, my roots are here, the lake is so lovely, and I put my heart down on this lake. I want to serve here on a regular basis. I want to exercise my heart muscle here. When we stayed with Chuck’s cousins in Connecticut, they talked of their church and serving at the food kitchen, and other activities, and I thought, by committing to a place, and being available and able to attend meetings and events; to work in our "home" community, we exercise our serving heart. We exercise love which is refreshed and strengthened. Chuck hasn’t settled yet. He wants to travel, but I pray he will come around, to love this lake home, and to serve in some small way like he used to do with Florida Highway Patrol. I am still cleaning up "piles!" I balanced 2 out of 3 neglected check books, I organized all the credit card files (will be changing addresses and then filing them away), I have been organizing the art room, and today we are getting cable so we can watch the Miami Hurricanes play Thursday night. Chuck and I have been out working in the back yard. We put up a swing (with the help of our friend Dave), and I have been pulling weeds and making the garden borders pretty again. I will plant two new hibiscus bushes which I bought yesterday. Indeed one has bloomed in its pot this morning with a huge single dark orange/coral bloom. Perfect. I will keep that one close by the art room window. One pile at a time! All this place is of Chuck’s and my design. Home is indeed where the heart is. May you find the peace of a place where you can relax and enjoy the beauty of this world. May that place be where you find your happily beating heart. God bless you!

The Pope’s arrival was beautiful! I liked the pageantry of a shining white plane with American and Vatican flags poking out the windows! Beautiful! I have been watching the Pope’s arrival and I pray we exuberant Americans only exercise love this week. We can return to our "normal" contentious behavior next week, but maybe the graces poured out on America this week will lighten and make more gracious our dialogue and actions. Today is Yom Kippur, a day of reparation, sorrow for sin, and promise to do better. Perhaps those of us who have been making unfriendly and downiight mean statements about anything (be it political or personal) could reconsider and try to do better to make our country a more peaceful place. I for one, am trying to do better. Chuck and I have been unpacking, cleaning house, moving furniture around, filling Goodwill bins, and generally focusing on "making a home in Miami". Chuck traveled down to Big Pine Key while I worked on filling bags with stuff that I have stored in file cabinets in my art room for way too long. Chuck returned with 5 months worth of mail that was delivered to us in Big Pine Key so I will be inundated for a while and paying a few neglected bills. … God bless you!

Home at last, I have plugged in my PC and it works! thanks to my friend Mike who shares his service with me. Thanks Mike!!! Today was very busy. I woke up about 5:30am and waited until 6 to very quietly begin to unpack the car. Chuck drove all the entire trip, so I let him sleep whenever I could. After unpacking, I went to church (St Timothy has 8am Mass every day!), went to the Xfinity place to order cable and wifi (service guy asked if my husband’s name was Perry. "No…. OH he owned the house before us!" The last time this house had cable was 2003! So I am sure some recabling is in order. Leaving the Xfinity store, I shopped at the Winn Dixie in the same shopping center. WOW shopping for food. That was interesting. We have been gone, eating in restaurants, cruise ships and other people’s kitchens (thank you friends) for 5 months! I bought only fresh veggies and milk as I think I have a freezer full and our larder is full of canned goods. I wonder if ever we had a catastrophe and we needed to provide our own food how long we could eat out of our larder (pantry). A long time if one doesn’t mind a constant diet of garbanzo beans. I came home to empty a lot of suitcases and bags, eat and… then I collapsed. 4 hours later I wondered if this is depression? Am I hiding out in a cool dark bedroom? Covers pulled up? Better get up, shower, put clothes on, curl my too long hair and get back in the main stream. So then I thought what did I learn on the 5 month holiday? No more 5 month holidays! Oh well yes. But also I learned that I/we all need to take quiet time and stare at a fire we just built. Stare into the flame and wonder what it is doing, what it looks like, think about what Moses saw. That kind of thing. I told Mark and Karla I tried to paint a camp fire once. It is very difficult as it is constantly moving and changing, but that is what the artist does: The artist, like the bird, sits out on a branch, singing his heart out! The bird sings not because he has a message, but because he has a song. The artist paints not to depict, but because he has a song. So all of us. Gaze into the fire, the sun rise, the sunset. Look at the amazing wonder of creation and then turn and tell what you saw! (thank you Chuck for building the fire; thanks Mark for the bird image!) God bless you.

Driving homeward on interstate 75 at a safe high speed the tire indicator let out a loud beeping and a yellow light flashed on the dash. We were just short of Alligator Alley. Just shy of 5pm. 3 miles at 40 miles per hour in the right hand lane takes a century. We turned right at the exit. 50 50 chance. But I had seen a Mobile sign to the right. What do I see? A tire choice and total car care station. One tire coming apart in 3 places 2 other tires bad. They have tires to fit. Do it. Chuck asked me if I want to stop. No. I want to go home if he thinks he can do it. Home is 2 hours away. The guy just came in…. "Folks you are all set" magic words. Take out the credit card and we are on our way again. Thank God for indicator light that works. God bless you. Homeward bound.

Good morning! We woke up in Brunswick, Georgia to turn on the TV: lots of rain (finally) in Florida where all summer has been drought (problem is we are about to drive home…), snow in Oregon! and talk on the debate last night. Suddenly the 15 Republican candidates are all before us in a debate where Donald Trump did not talk all through it. He was quiet at times, but he did speak out in some ways that make us wonder if he is presidential… He and Bush really got into it… I saw Carly Fiorina shine and I want to look up the Hewlett Packard/Tom Perkins history on Carly and look harder at the Christie bridge controversy in New Jersey…. There were a lot of Ronald Reagan references… Lindsey was good in the pre-debate and Carley seemed to rise to the occasion. They raised some good issues about the Federal government staying out of state law making… This is a constitutional issue. Please look at the candidates speak and do some research. Who has character? Who might be able to lead us away from the brink of terrorism and war in mid east? We will be on the road today, picking up 3 bags at cousins Laura and Dennis and heading home. I’m making lists of things to focus on… All in it’s own time will be accomplished. God bless you.

Artists who get catalogs get a Cheap Joe’s catalog full of neat artsy stuff and deals and sales. Cheap Joe’s is the Mecca of some artists. Joe owned a chain of about 8 pharmacies here in Boone and because he was an artist who couldn’t get art supplies in the area, he kept a pretty large selection of art materials in the pharmacy.  He soon saw the light, sold the drug store chain, and turned his business into full time art supplies. He is up on a hill here in Boone. He fills the summer with summer art classes and he does a lot of philanthropic activities like taking art supplies to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.  Mark and I will be visiting Cheap Joe’s even though neither of us needs A Thing! but there is always something on sale at the store. He generally sells things he has little bits of that he removes from the catalog. One year I got two large canvasses at a ridiculously cheap price, and other years I have picked up paints and brushes on sale. Today with our homage to Cheap Joe we will also eat at "Bella’s," an Italian restaurant that the dog can go to! It’s chilly on the mountain here in Boone; I feel that autumn is a comin’ in! God bless you.

We are on the road headed south. Drove from Pittsburgh to Wytheville, Virginia. I think we have been here before. It is a crossroads between I77 north south and I83 east west. We are on I77 south and might get home as early as Thursday after picking up 3 bags we left at cousin’s house in North Port Fla. We are going to go to Log cabin restaurant which if I am correct, has shops and a big garden out back. For the moment we are sipping wine and watching an NCIS rerun. Watch a movie tonight and onto the road tomorrow morning. Most restaurants closed for Sunday. Did manage to get barbeque ribs and prime rib…. Yum. Going to stop in Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina for a run at Cheap Joe’s for art supplies. As if I needed them! God bless you.