Beautiful old broads give thanks

Dear Ones,

Tis the time of year for giving thanks.

I give thanks for all of you readers who check out my post every week or so.    I know you have a ton of demands on your time and many choices when it comes to reading, therefore I'm honored that you choose to spend some of your precious minutes looking at my blog.

And I treasure your comments and hope you will send more feedback to me.  You can always email me at   paross@ktc.com   too.  

We are having delightful weather in the hill country and wherever you are, I  send you thanks and pray you're having a  Happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Abundant blessings to each of you.

Patti 

Beautiful old broads and loss

Hello Dear Ones,

First I said it out loud.  Then I wrote it down in rounded firm letters.  Accept Loss.  Two words but oh so powerful.  They convey so much.  I rolled them about in my mind contemplating the idea.  We humans like our stuff, like our routines, like our life ordered the way we expect.  Then something or someone comes along and poof…we are forced to accept change, accept loss.

As I think on accepting loss, it’s obvious we are constantly losing things.  Painful yet part of the journey through life.  Small things are easy to accept.  Losing a key or a package.  Not life changing.  But when you lose a mother or father, when you lose a sibling or the person you love, that’s the loss that’s wrenching.  That is a forever loss.

Growing old, the losses pile up like leaves blowing though our lives.  We notice our sight is not so keen and perhaps we’ve slowed our gait.  And I’m always saying “pardon me”, for my hearing is declining.  Not to mention our teeth and our knees and our backs.  No use in railing about it or going on over it.  Life chugs along doing what it has done for billions of years. Moving on.

The thing is…what has come into our lives like love and joy and kindness can’t be taken away from us.  Nope.  Time may get my knees and my teeth but love and friendship can’t be erased.

So we inch along the path and try to stay upbeat and positive and all those things but I still can’t abide that cheery person who tells me that everything happens for a purpose and look on the bright side.  Okay so we beautiful old broads have to accept loss but we’re entitled to a pity party now and then aren’t we?

“We are capable of fear and courage, generosity and selfishness, vulnerability and strength.  These things do not cancel each other out but offer us a full range of power and response to life.”                         Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

Beautiful old broads write letters

Dear Ones,

I said I would post every Friday EXCEPT when life interfered.  Well, life has poked and prodded and definitely interfered these last couple of weeks.  One doesn’t know how beautiful normal is until things aren’t normal.

Reading is always my default button when life is chaotic and I’ve been reading an older book, a Pulitzer Prize winner called “Gilead”

An epistolary novel, it follows a Reverend as he writes at length about his life and his family relationships.  These letters are his legacy that he plans to leave for his son. 

Made me think about what I would write if I decided to leave a letter for loved ones.  Of course there are many books out there that do exactly that but I never really thought about doing it myself.  Have you?  What would you say?  What exactly would you want to leave behind for the next generation?

Would you give advice?  Hah!  No one wants my advice.  How about recollections, memories, stories from the past?  Well, that’s more a memoir.  No, I’m talking about what you would want them to know about life that you discovered along the path.  I am sure I would say look up…look up…into the skies.  I wish I had started doing that when I was younger.  And pay attention.  So many magical things happen along the way and we’re too busy looking at our email or fussing about what to wear.  Take butterflies or sunsets or pansies blooming on a cold day.  Life happens while we are out to lunch sometimes. Don’t know precisely what else I’d say. 

For beautiful old broads like us, this is probably a challenging but rewarding project to consider.  Whatcha think?  When I have some time--not in the next few weeks but later, I’m going to attempt it.  Will it be sappy or humorous or deep?  One thing I do know for sure…keep it brief.  The attention span of the younger generation is about as short as those mini skirts they wear.

I asked my husband what he would write and after a short pause he said he knew exactly what he’d say.  He pulled out a worn tiny piece of paper from his wallet on which was written a quote from Abraham Lincoln. 

            “Do not let discouragement prey upon you and in the end you will succeed”

                                                                                    A. Lincoln