Making A Wish!

Today is my birthday and I am happier than I have ever been in my life.

It's not because things are perfect, they are not. If I had control, I would change a few things to better suit me. I would certainly interfere in my kids lifes and make some changes, "fix" their problems. I've all but given that up, except when I slip. I don't have any control, magic power or godlike vision, so I have stopped trying. Increasing happiness is the result.

Another reason? I stopped listening to my own damn thoughts as if they were truths. My thoughts....they didn't like me much. In fact, at times, they were down right abusive. They are still there, whispering my lack of worthiness, reminding me where I've failed, but I just don't listen to them much anymore. It's great! If you aren't doing it, give it a try.

Finally....the big one....gratitude. I can look at all the bad or I can look at all the good. It's a choice. While not perfectly, I generally choose gratefulness.

Today, I am grateful for the thoughts that no longer plague me, for giving up the illusion of control and for the love I get to experience every single day.

Off to lunch with friends. Namaste.

Make Mine Grape Flavored Please, I Love Grape

You know, lots of people lie. It's a habit for some. But usually those lies catch up with the person and cause pain or discomfort, eventually encouraging one to stop the behavior.

How is it that T_____ keeps getting caught in lies and people just swallow it up like a swig of refreshing water? 

Here are this weekends examples:

1. Covid-no big deal. " Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away."

2. Tells Woodward that "he knew" that Covid was a deadly form of "flu" passed on through the air. (He simply can't help himself to brag, can he?)

3. Book comes out and T_____ admits that he knew the truth but was "saving" America from a fear panic (that coming from a man whose platform is outlandish fear based rhetoric). 

4. Yesterday, he has an INDOOR political rally, violating Nevada state mandates banning gatherings of 50 or more, and does not require masks, during a DEADLY PANDEMIC! Even though there is scientific proof that the droplets go even further with yelling or singing. 

5. His excuse?.....If protesters (protesting yet another black person dying at the hands of the police) get to gather en masse, then our president chooses to allow his followers to exercise their 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS to listen to Jim Jones....I mean T_____ hand out the Kool Aid. 

6. During the rally he mocks those state restrictions, even though he has admitted to knowing that the virus is a deadly form of flu and even though our country has lost 198,572 (as of right now) human beings, souls, people who loved and were loved! And even though Nevada has had 73,537 cases of COVID thus far.

7. People just keep drinking it up!

This man was told on January 30th that:

"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,...This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro]

Has everyone lost their freaking minds

Dishing the Dirt

Gossip is a bad habit, yet many do it on a daily basis.

I've been know to seek out the false intimacy of a juicy bit to share. I never like myself afterwards but would keep it going with the best of them.

Learning to build real intimacy with people I trust has helped quell that need. I feel proud when it's going on and don't take part.

Lunch with a dear friend the other day reminded me how much I have changed. A mutual friend came up in discussion, then a suggestive comment was thrown out, then an outright worm loaded hook waiting for me to take the bait. I smiled, redirected, then had to redirect two more times. I'm getting pretty competent at zigging and zagging through the landmines. Team Linda 10 points. I may eventually prove to be a boring lunchmate for some. That's ok, I can handle that.

It is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks!

Picking A Winner

This is Ross Sr. (my father-in-law) better known by Boogie, the nickname his mama gave him as an infant.

In going through my storage unit the other day, I found the piece of shrapnel that wounded him while serving as a gunner in Okinawa, the folded flag that we received at his funeral a few years back and the 4D belt buckle he wore for the last 30 years of his life.

He was neither a loser nor a sucker, just in case you were wondering. 

A big ole Fuck You, you Tangerine Tyrant. You are the biggest loser of all.

PS....inspired or challenged by Colette at The Aging Female Baby Boomer to share loved ones who served.

A Good Reason To Smile

Yup!

Do You Have Kin

Did you ever read The Education of Little Tree?  Originally written by Asa Earl Carter in 1976, it’s been around for a long time. I’ve talked about the book before so I won’t go into it much but to say that I loved it and was, sadly, disappointed to find it was written by a man who had some Cherokee background but was also a KKK member and leader  

All that being said, it was a lovely little book. The reason I am writing about it again is a simple little sentence keeps calling me. 

Little Tree recalled that when, late at night, he heard his grandpa tell his grandma, “I kin ye, Bonnie Bee,” he knew that he was saying, “I love ye” – because of the feeling in the words.

“And when they would be talking,” Little Tree recollected, “and Grandma would say ‘Do ye kin me, Wales?’ and he would answer, ‘I kin ye,’ it meant, ‘I understand ye.’

To them, love and understanding was the same thing. Granma said you couldn’t love something you didn’t understand….Granpa and Granma had an understanding, and so they had a love….And they called it ‘kin.’”

Little Tree’s grandpa told him that “before his time ‘kinfolks’ meant any folks that you understood and had an understanding with, so it meant ‘loved folks.’ But people got selfish, and brought it down to mean just blood relatives; but that actually it was never meant to mean that.”

“Kin” is a small but powerful word that brings together two beautiful actions that are inseparable: love and understanding. When we feel understood, we feel loved. And when we feel loved, we trust that we will be understood.   ~John Paul Carter (no relationship to the author)

The idea of being both loved and understood.  What more could a person ask?

I kin ya💜