Sing a Song

A young mortician in town is a real go getter. (I think that's in their job description, to get to know their potential customers.) He's involved with every festival and fundraiser, is the Grand Knight of our Knights of Columbus, plays the piano and sings at church and is an active member of a barbershop quartet. He decided to start a male chorus from the Knight's members and sent out an e-mail to everyone that might be interested. He made it quite easy because they will only sing at church about once a month, the practices will be 45 minutes before the singing Mass and they would use the church hymnals with familiar songs. I am proud to say that my husband with a gifted voice who has burst into song throughout our forty years of marriage, has joined and today they sang at church for the second time and they sounded magnificent. I really hope now that their next time up will be when his 97 year old mom will be visiting next month. She'll be so proud of her sonny boy and will join me with tears of happiness!

Patience Please

Wow, it's been over a month and I haven't posted a thing. Any faithful readers are probably thinking that I've run out of words. But no, I'm just patiently trying to figure out all our new high falutin' technological wonders. Talk about adapting to change!!! Holy moley, a while back our camera ceased working except for pictures without a flash so I wasn't able to have pictures readily able to add to the blog. And I do really like pictures with a blog. It eliminates the need for a thousand words since a picture is worth that. Plus, we bought a new desktop computer and a laptop computer and our brain circuitry has not been so challenged in decades as we try to get all the little nuances of working these things learned. We'd be nowhere at all with them if son, Tony, had not spent most of a day connecting the various router, printer and basic software, security ware, etc. Bing has already established the ability to send photos from our new and advanced camera but I'm not there yet, so this posting will be naked, that is, without pictures.
We bought the laptop so that we'd be able to communicate and keep up with the world when we travel in our camper so we brought it along on our two short trips that we've taken. The hotels where we stayed had wifi so I thought we would be able to e-mail but now we know that our charter.net does not serve very far away so I think we have to get on hotmail. Another alien world to conquer! Wish us well, please, and I hope to get back to casual blogs with pictures before too long.

Warmth in the Winter

I spoke of change and in my almost seven decades of life, I've had a glimpse at the ebb and flow of generations. Now that I understand how the young become the old and the old become memories, I wish I would have paid more attention to the stories of all my elders. I wish I would have taken the time to know my parents better, to have heard how my sets of grandparents happened to meet, what the trip across the ocean at age 19 was like. I wish I would have cared and known how each of my 32 cousins grew and prospered or didn't. I was third youngest of the 32 and I wouldn't know most of them if I met them on the street.

But luckily, now we have a family. When Bing and I became parents - a profound change came over us - powerful protective love entered our lives - nevermore would just us matter. Always our children would be forefront in our minds and in our hearts. And then came their little sprouts - oh the joy of seeing and being with that next generation! We had the first five grandchildren here to celebrate the new year and it warmed the cold cold winter. Love and laughter reigned and family felt so good. God, grant all families the wisdom to know that their unique family is precious.

Aging and Change

Our society has a real aversion to aging. More and more products are geared to fight the effects of aging and to mask its telltale signs. Plastic surgeons and pharmacuetical companies are enriched by clients hungry for the latest procedure or elixir.

I've always kind of taken the road less traveled or not quite gone with the flow in life and so it is in my attitude toward aging. I like it a lot. I found this quote in the "O" magazine from a woman named Peggy Cooper Cafritz. She says," people will say, oh pull the plug, this aging is terrible. But one of the pleasures of aging is the ability to witness change. And change happens everywhere. It happens in the country, in community, in the family and it happens individually. So I'm not afraid of the future. I'm very excited."

The quote set me to thinking about how right she is. Wouldn't it be cool if, after we die, we find out that God is a real film freak and he has a DVD of each of our lives. Not only our actions, but somehow our thoughts and emotions are recorded and we can review them whenever we want. We would witness the amazing changes that have taken place while we grow and hopefully evolve.

Instead of rambling on and on like my manic little brain right now is doing, I think I'll continue this subject over the next several blog entries. I'll speak of the many changes already witnessed by this particular being now in physicality.

Padding the Path

I love the outdoors. Nature supplys such energy - radiating from the earth, the sun, the sky and all the living vegetation. With all our gardens and paths, the lake and the nearby field, there's always something to do outside and lately I've been raking pine needles. Don't let anybody tell you that evergreens are ever green. We have about forty huge red pines and white pines ringing one side of our yard and they annually shed half of their needles. That makes for quite a stash of pine straw. It's beautiful but the carpet of gold would smother the grass in the yard so each fall I rake them and transport them to other uses. This year, with the aid of our trusty oxcart, otherwise known as our ATV and wagon, I've taken them down the hill and strewn them on the swamp path to the lake. It's soft and pretty and I think the neighborhood deer will be bedding down when they discover it. We thought we were in for an extra long winter when the cold and blustery weather hit us in September and October but now we've had an unseasonally nice start to November so winter's going to be a breeze!

Just Some Happy Fall Pictures

Friends are Like Flowers

Somewhere in the musical part of my brain, there runs a song from long ago, It sings, "Friends are like flowers, beautiful flowers. Friends are like flowers in the garden of life." It's so true. Flowers are not a necessity but they add such color and beauty wherever they grow. Friends are not a necessity but they too add a punch of love and laughter to life. Our friends, Paul and John are here for the week. It's fun to talk and laugh and share chores and meals. They're both just a little younger than Bing and me so we do a lot of talk of yesteryear and families and the wisdom of the ages. Thanks God, for such good friends.