Connecting The Dots

 Happy Friday my blogging friends.

We had our Thanksgiving and it was sweet and lovely. Missed my older girl and her partner so much. He's a unique and kind individual that takes conversations to a whole new level. She is quieter, listens intently and provides a special form of unconditional love and non-judgement that inspires me to be better. Maybe next year.

Boy Scout outdid himself with this scaled down version of my favorite holiday. 

I've found a YouTube channel that I adore. It is called Green Renaissance and it describes itself like this:

We are on a journey to inspire change - creating beautiful, meaningful stories. Through our films, we explore what it means to be human. We share conversation with ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We’ve always said that if each film touches just one person, fills them with a bit more hope, or leaves them feeling more inspired, then it has achieved its goal.

It enhances my spiritual journey by encouraging  connection to this world and my fellow beings in a more meaningful way.

Find your Tribe. Love them hard.

It's Good To Hear Your Voice

The other day I was having lunch with my two boys and their partners. It was lovely to be with them. It's been about a year since seeing their faces and, even though we talk on occasion and text often, there was a slight level of discomfort....a little ill at ease, getting to know each other again.

One of the partners was talking about something, I cannot remember what it was. I was listening intently, which I have to do all the time if I want to be a part of the conversation, but the mask is a barrier that makes it harder even in the best of situations. I noticed my son move a little and realized that he, on the sly, reminded his partner to remove her mask and speak up a bit. She promptly did so but, admittedly, I felt a little embarrassed. I can't explain just why but it was what I felt. Later, there was talk about how my peeps have to learn to turn down the volume after speaking to me on the phone or in other situations where they find themselves bellowing. It's a bit of a family joke which I can laugh at with part of my brain but, honestly, feel like I might be the butt of jokes when I am not around. They are not mean hearted....quite the opposite in fact but.......... I dunno.....just what I am feeling this morning. 

Lately, the golf course seems a much lonelier place too. I often walk the course and the Boy Scout usually rides but I tee off from different tees than the guys and my ball doesn't go quite as far so I find myself fairly alone for the 4 1/2 hours. It gives me time to concentrate on my skills (or lack of them) but the guys are busy gabbing, jabbing and joking. Unless I am right next to them (and sometimes not even then) I can't really grasp the entire meaning of what is being said. Just snippets. 

Today I will focus on what I am grateful for and search for a way to be grateful for my inability to hear. Making the best of a not-so-great situation. I'd like to be that person so I will keep on trying. 

Wishing you a ton of gratefulness today!

Gratefulness

Presently, I have 4 adult children and 4 partners of children...each of which I am extemely grateful for. Of those 8 people, 5 of them are in the house right now. 

What started out as 880 sq ft house with 2 tiny bedrooms and an ugly bathroom with a sinking tub is now a whopping 980 sq ft house with 2 lovely working bathrooms PLUS a nearly completely converted garage / laundry room / 1/2 bath. Eventually that garage with be equipped with a kitchenette and an abundance of closet space (which the house lacks) and might possibly be a revenue stream in our retirement (if needed). 

We've talked about augmenting current income through AirBNB but it's just talk at this point. When completed, the garage (which we have named The Nest) has some great benefits. We will have a large, fully insulated room which will be far more comfortable, summer or winter, to sit, read, listen to music and for me to work. The biggest bonus will be the ability to welcome and comfortably house guests. Our house is 100 years old, equipped with a single ancient wall heater, and is without a speck of insulation...too hot and too cold. The climate here is not harsh but it can get pretty chilly. 

Some of my kids are home now and I am grateful beyond words today.

An Open Book

I've told you about our friend Nancy before. She's 95 and a kick ass lady. She is well read, opinionated and spunky and I adore her. In her lifetime, she bore 4 daughters, ran her own companies, designed and built a number of homes, did hundreds of scuba dives in exotic locations, loved to skydive and would still do it if her doctor would allow it, and at a young age, learned how to fly planes.

This is a little story she shared one night over dinner.....

While at university, which was completely full of women because the men were at war, a bunch of her friends were going to a lecture. They invited her along but she declined because of some required studying. Afterwards, all a twitter, the ladies came back and gushed over the lecturer Frank Lloyd Wright. Nancy was disappointed because she had just finished Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which she had greatly enjoyed, and the unconfirmed rumor had it that the protagonist was based FLW himself. 

Not to be disappointed, she called the hotel where FLW was staying and, somehow, was put through to his room. She asked him for an interview. He replied that he was quite busy but if she would meet him at the train station early the next morning, he would give her some of his time.

Off she went, where they chatted and where he confirmed that, indeed, Howard Roark was based on him. Apparently, Ayn had asked his permission to write the book and he had rejected the idea. She went ahead and wrote it anyways and sent him a copy before sending it to be published. He liked it enough to tell her to go ahead with it. And that was that.

I know this is not how history tells the tale but this is what was said to her 76 years ago.

I love Nancy's spirit. She is fearless in so many ways.

Boy Scout and Nancy 2019

THE PEOPLE

I’m feeling this one today.  Honestly, it brought tears to my eyes.  

It’s clear she is pleased with this!!!!

A Bit Of Something Else

The Boy Scout is reading  to me again. I spoke of it earlier but am loving it so much that I'm bringing it up again. The Brothers K by David James Duncan has been around a long time. It is a beautiful story of a family from each members standpoint. It is loving, poignant and hilariously funny.

As my man was reading yesterday he got to a part that was so touching that I asked him to read it again. The father, who had had a MLB pitching career at one time, but whose thumb has been mangled in a workplace accident, has set up an area in the yard that allows him to try to regain his pitching ability in privacy, or so he thinks. As he struggles to regain what had been, his sons are watching him, one with aching sadness, one with hope. Duncan writes:

     But to my mind, hunching in that hedge stands out as the best thing I did that year, and one of the best things I've ever done, period. The dank laurel, the darkness and the need for low-voiced secrecy created an atmosphere that made our talk more considered than the ebullient, hormone-garbled yammering we were prone to elsewhere. And with an eight-piece family crammed in a house the size of ours, it was a balm to discover a place, however squalid, where intimacy with one of my brothers was not a necessity but a choice. But it was that maimed little remnant of what had once been Papa's great art form that has actually stayed with me. There is a part of me that wants to state flat out that I learned more in the hedge about the defiance of dullness and career death, about the glory hidden in defeat, about the amazing inner capacities of a straightforward, no frills man-even a man stripped of hope-than I've learned anywhere since.

Glorious. We are nowhere near done so I cannot give you my final summary, for what it would be worth, but thus far....fantastic. And that comes from someone who has NEVER watched, nor ever intends to watch, a baseball game in her life.

Let's Call It A Wash

Today we will get our washer and dryer hooked up for the first time in about 6 weeks.

In a time of a pandemic, the laundromat has been particularly uncomfortable. In a muggy building, sometimes crowded and not always as clean as I would prefer, it seems counterintuitive for good health. For the most part, masks were requested and present but, still, there was discomfort.

The benefits are that we pump out 7 or 8 loads of laundry in about 2 hours. Boy Scout and I work together well, getting it done efficiently with minimal amount of clothing ruinage. 

If you care one iota for your clothing, the laundromat is tough. I notice that many people come in and put everything they own in two large washers and then shove it all into two dryers. I understand why. The cost is surprising doing it the way we do it, with like colors, cold delicate loads, 1 hot water bleach load, along with rugs and dog beds. $40 bucks a pop, every 5 days or so, really adds up. 

I'll be glad to start my washer up again tonight. Feeling grateful.