Fine Friday.

I’m reading a new book on my brand new Kindle. I have a lot of books on there, free offerings I’ve browsed over the years, and the book, “The Soldier’s Guide to PTSD: A No S*it Guide to Regaining Your Life,” came up as something I may like to read. I’ve read about 11% of it and it’s pretty straightforward and concise. So far, so good. I’m interested in it because of the “Intentional Peer Support” class I’m taking.

It’s no secret I love our Veterans. I want to make a difference in their lives. I want to offer a listening ear, a hug, and support as they transition back to life. Many have difficulty. Many don’t know how to handle life back home. There are a lot of reasons for that. Our families are scattered across the country. Friends often move on as well. Finding a group to relate to is often difficult, as they may having trouble getting in touch with themselves and what they need to do now that the military is in their rear view mirror. What next? Lots of pressure and little guidance is not a good combination.

Our training is about six weeks long, and we have three people including myself. The instructor is Joel Schneider, a tireless volunteer in the mental health arena specifically for Veterans. Check out the story of Intentional Peer Support.

It will be another great weekend with the Babe. The dogs go to the groomers, and we’ll do house stuff again. It really helps me catch up. I’m finally getting to the machine work started on my quilt for Kayla. It’s going to be adorable!

Have a good rest of the evening, and we’ll see each other tomorrow.

Shhh! She’s Fixing the World!

The little lady in this header photograph today may not have access to enough bandages to fix the entire world. Do enough even exist? Will this cause a supply chain issue? Gosh, maybe she should stop. I mean, it’s a gigantic job. And she’s pretty young. Too little to go far alone. Why crush her dream?

Current attention spans aside, she may become bored and stop on her own. No need to crush her dream. It’s so important to let little children dream big. Not that they’ll be the next Bruce Springsteen, Shel Silverstein, or Pete Rose. (Yes, he should be in the hall of fame!) Big dreams help kids investigate how to achieve those dreams. Whether he or she needs music lessons and knowledge, writing lessons and practice, or baseball coaching one on one. Or science instruction, study, experiments. Let them dream and achieve.

Whether they’re male or female, we need to let them find their own way. Then they can fix the world around them. They learn to take ideas and make reality from them. Through creative things, they can heal the world. And show others how to do so. Art and music touch our hearts and make them feel better, from the inside out. All healing goes that way. Inside out. Anyone who heals from trauma and brokenness, including broken heartedness, knows the strength you feel upon healing. That is how we fix the world. One person at a time.

I cannot pass Mother’s Day without wishing the Mom’s out there to have a good day. It can be a hard day. Parts of mine are hard, parts are not. I don’t think this is unusual. Although things didn’t quite go as I would have liked, I would never trade my kids for anything. Raising them were some of the happiest years of my life. Living with their father wasn’t.

I believe a large group of women who serve as bonus mothers who deserve kudos. They’re the women who love their partner’s children because they belong to him. And they love the children. And the children love them back. I’m a lucky step-mom myself. I gained steps when they were adults. The Babe’s two children fit exactly in between my three. Making five kids spanning 7 years. We laugh and say it would have been all over if we’d met when they were little. That’s a lot of kids all in the same age groups!

It would have worked, and our kid’s lives would have been more integrated than now. They don’t really know each other. It’s impossible to get them all together. It’s ok. We get to enjoy them all separately. And we love them, different as they all are. We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams. It hasn’t always been this way. It took years individually and together to get here. Take heart, things are possible you can’t imagine right now. And the hard work is worth it.

Tomorrow will be the day I pick back up to get my studio/office back in order. We had two lovely days off, where all we did was see our grandson play ball, and today, where we spent time together at home, ate, took a nap, and had coffee on the deck in the chill of morning. It’s our favorite place in the summer. From zero dark thirty until the sun rises above the treeline, we talk, sit, and rock in our rocking chairs. It’s a daily vacation. Then we live our lives for the rest of the day.

Have a beautiful evening. Be positive. Keep ahead of the bad feelings. Make sure you talk with someone if you can’t come back from feelings of negativity, worthlessness, and not caring. We are human and we have to care. We have to be cared about. It’s what we’re made for. I care. We can walk together to get you where you need to be.

Endless Possibilities

Random as this thought is, today’s header photo is of the new bedspread I just purchased for our bed. The pillow saying, “Life is Beauty Full” is perfect, isn’t it? It makes me happy. Not so much the Babe. He says all those pillows interfere with him getting into bed. He’s such a man sometimes! Well, huh? I guess all the time.

Today, this post is your BOGO. What? I discovered when logging into WordPress to blog, I discovered I never posted the Friday edition. Sometimes that happens. I could have skipped, but I have something to tell a story about, so here goes.

We quote Rossiter Worthington Raymond as saying:

Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon;

and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.”

Think about this. Any horizon, limited by where we stand as we look, is only temporary. Since the world is indeed round, horizons are endless. We need to keep moving to even think about seeing all the horizons. I compare it to going to school. As a little child, elementary school has a goal; thus it’s on your horizon until you reach it. Middle school is the next horizon and goal. Then high school. And so it goes.

After high school, you can now decide between trade school and college. Of course, there are countless other possibilities. But as you’ve moved past each horizon, your next horizon changes.

The same thing happens with your personal growth. As you near one personal horizon end, and another presents itself, go for it! Of course, only if it is worthy of your time, talent, and tenacity. You will achieve anything possible by not giving up. If you reach the goal on the next horizon and find it fails, you have learned a valuable lesson. You will adjust your planning and work for the next horizon and proceed with knowledge you did not possess before. No one can take that away from you. It’s a great feeling, believe me.

If someone has quashed your confidence, pioneer spirit, or dreams along your way, take heart; you are not alone. There are many people, especially women, who believe they lack what it takes. Most of the time, it exists. Maybe it needs re-direction. You could be resoundingly successful on a little different horizon. Look at you doing what they said you couldn’t!

Whatever creative outlet calls your name, you will express whatever is in your heart through that medium. It could be painting, quilting, writing prose, dancing, or even writing poetry. If you acknowledge this soul/creative outlet connection, you will feel spent when you finish each project. Being spent and feeling good is a benefit. You’re calmer, more settled, less anxious, lots of things. Man (and women) are not meant to live on bread alone. The arts are crucial to our beings.

Today, it is beautiful outside, a bit chilly, but nice enough to enjoy my rocking chair on the deck. I always say hi to our friend Rick Tiger when I do this. It’s where I had to sit when I wrote about his passing last year. Last time we heard him perform, I was asking him how songwriting differed from other writing. He told me next visit to town, we’d write a song. I showed him out two rocking chairs on our deck. He said this is where we would sit. Dang COVID. COVID, you will not kill dreams. I see another horizon for me, off in the near distance. And I’ll sit here while I do it.

Thanks for reading. Your BOGO is now complete. See you tomorrow!