thefouramigosblog

Throughout my life, I have had many people that I admired. Often for very different reasons.

I have a husband who I admire for his intelligence and his ability to weed through the BS. I often look to him to get feedback on my actions.

I had a father I admired for his wisdom and his ability to calm situations down. I admired my mother for her ability to always see the best in people. I try to emulate her kindness but oftentimes fall short.

I had a sister who I admired for her listening skills. She helped me develop my own.

I try to surround my self with positive people, who are kind and compassionate. These are the people I would trust with their advise.

While I’ve been told all my adult life that to be able to vote is a privilege, I have not always taken advantage of this privilege.

My feeling has always been if everyone stopped showing up at the polls, that would be the most powerful message of all. My thoughts on politicians are that if one gets to that level of power, they have been corrupted. And why vote for someone who is corrupt.

Response of voting for the better of two evils are not good enough for me. I want someone to represent me who is good, kind, and uncorrupted. Maybe that’s impossible but that’d what I would like.

So many years ago I did vote in a small town election for a man who was concerned about the lake where I lived. The town was growing rapidly causing run-off into the lake and the powers that be all just loved the profits. My guy lost and the town continued down the same path. Eventually, the lake had algae blooms, both green and red which made it unsafe to swim. The lake is no longer a beautiful place. Luckily I moved away many years ago.

Moving forward I have voted for candidates solely on one issue.

I do follow politics, have strong opinions on certain issues but most of all hope that someday we will have candidates who merit my attention. For now, not so much!

When you see that you are probably thinking religion but for me spirituality is much, much different. The religion part is the pomp, the tradition, the structure.

So when I say spirituality gives me direction I may be talking God, Allah, the Earth, Buddah or my spirituality which is the essence of all.

It is what teaches me kindness, love, support, nurture, dignity, respect. It is always good.

I’ve heard the saying religion is for people who are afraid of going to Hell. Spirituality is for people who have been there. It is easy to get confused between the two but spirituality is not about a particular religion. It’s the essence of spirit.

For most of my younger years, I went it alone with no spiritual direction, only my gut instincts. And not to say that listening to my gut is bad, it sure has helped me over the years, but having spiritual direction is better.

So where does this spiritual direction come from?

It comes from a power beyond my imagination. It is what creates the beauty in the universe. From sunrise to sunset the amazing landscapes of life.

This power resides in all of us. It is power of good. It is power of love. It is power of light.

What ever trimmings mainstream religions put on their beliefs, my spirituality encompasses all.

My spirituality has no bias. It all fits together as long as the direction is positive.

Mans’s inhumanity to man has nothing to do with spirituality nor does it have anything to do with religion. That course is taken by man’s mind alone.

I can feel spiritual vibes when I gently hold a baby in my arms.

It watching dolphins play in the water.

When I tap into this spiritual direction, I know my life is on the right path. And I’ve learned to trust this spirituality with my gut.

Or at least I try! Life is a Journey, not a Destination. This fits in well with Stop to Smell the Roses.

Sometimes we live life so hard and fast, we miss the now. And life is in the now. As I grow older this is so much more true since life goes faster and faster as my years add up. Today I try to stay in the moment cherishing each bit of life and all that surrounds me.

Think before I speak. I have worked on this my entire life. When I was young whatever thought came in my head came out my mouth. Inevitably I would offend someone or hurt someone’s feelings. I’ve learned that I don’t have to say whatever I’m thinking. I can be kind and not offend.

Sometimes I do need to say something but I have learned to take time and be gentle with my words. I do have to say that sometimes no matter how gentle, it hurts. But at least I weighed my words carefully.

A quote I think of my own is I don’t want to die before I am dead. I live in sunny Florida but it can also be God’s waiting room. People give up on life before they die. Becoming sedentary and losing muscle mass because of lack of movement.

I hope that I continue to live life yo the fullest. Experiencing new adventures. Learning new things. Meeting interesting people. Staying flexible in my beliefs and tolerant of others. Not dead!

This too shall pass. Life is filled with ups and downs. When the downs come I remind myself that it will pass. When all is good, I remind myself that this will pass. We learn from our difficulties and hardships more often than from the good times. We learn how to persevere. We learn how to say roll with the punches. We also learn how to change.

Change is good. But most people don’t like this. Most people like consistency. Most people like safety. But change makes us stronger. And life is a constant evolution of change. We adapt. We grow stronger. We thrive.

I will start with Valentine’s Day! It’s the day I became engaged to my husband so it will always be special because of that. This year we went to a dance and my husband and I danced away the night.

St. Paddy’s Day. Although in not Irish, I grew up in New York and had many Irish friends. One year, we marched in the parade and then had a wild party at my loft. We kept a keg of beer on the fire escape to keep it cold. So fond memories.

Memorial Day was a day to get off from school and yes, more parades. Any holiday where I had time off from school was great.

July 4th. More parades but for many years I lived on a lake and we would have July 4th parties at our house. And fireworks around the lake to top off the holiday!

Labor Day not so much because it meant going back to school.

Halloween was always fun. When I was a kid we’d map out our route for trick or treating. It’s been a few years since I costumed up for this holiday.

Now I come to my favorite. At least it’s my favorite at this time of my life. Thanksgiving. My husband and I do the cooking and our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter visit so she can have her mama’s home cooking.

I usually make about a 20 lb turkey. I make sausage and apple stuffing which I stuff in the bird. Creamed onions and creamed cauliflower along with green beans almondine are on the menu. I used to make the green bean casserole but it was too rich with all the other veggies and everyone preferred the green beans almondine.

And what’s Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes and gravy? And of course sweet potatoes. Another one I scaled back from a sweet potato casserole to baked sweet potatoes. I also serve freshly made cranberry sauce.

For dessert, I make a pumpkin and apple pie and sometimes a cheesecake. Before dinner we usually have cheese and crackers and sometimes shrimp.

I get up early to stuff the bird and get it started. We watch the Macy’s Day Parade and then the dog show while the turkey cooks.

I usually have a few guests including my sister and her husband. My sister always helped me cook. She died in October so this past Thanksgiving was the first one without her. She was greatly missed. I usually have a few more guests so we are a party of 10 or 12.

I love the leftovers and make pot pies and hot turkey sandwiches. Everyone usually gets s doggie bag as well.

And last but not least is Christmas. My husband and I used to chop a tree down and have a village under the tree. We would set up a train, skating rink, churches, shops and houses. We even had a ski lift. But as we aged, this task became too time consuming and so we bought an artificial tree, gave the village to one of our children and now have a simple Christmas.

We do go to church on Christmas Eve and that is always lovely with the singing and pageantry. And often we are invited to someone’s house for dinner.

I know I left many holidays out but these are the ones that I like most!

Back in 1976, I traveled around the US for two months camping in many National Parks. From Shenandoah to Mount Ranier, my two-man backpack tent was all I needed.

So skip to 50 years later, I have this great idea to go camping again. We bought a two-man tent and a blow-up air mattress because I realized at my age I just can’t sleep on the ground.

We decided to test it out in Myrtle Beach where our friends had a camper by the ocean. We set up our little tent right next to their beautiful camper.

As you get older, your bladder is no longer as kind as when you are young. The first night I woke at least three times and so did my husband. As we walked across the campground towards the restroom, I could see with a yearning heart a Marriott in the distance. But, oh well, I was going to give this a shot.

The second night was way more challenging. Before we settled into our little temporary abode, the news was reporting bad winds and rain. We helped our friends secure their outside furniture and take in their awning.

I was sound asleep when suddenly I was feeling drops of water hitting my face. At first, I squinted and pulled the covers over my head. But a booming thunder and a flash of lightning made me sit up.

My husband woke and we watched as our tent was going in and out, as though someone was breathing life into it. We decided we better get out of the tent and go to our car. As we looked outside the tent, a river of water ran around us. And, yes it was a raging river.

I saw my friend’s light on in the camper and she was motioning us to come inside. We gathered the most important things and headed to the camper.

I made it in fine. But my husband weighed down with all our valuables, fell backwards into the river of water.

He finally made it in to camper soaking wet. My friend put on the coffee and we stayed there through the storm.

We sold the tent at a yard sale a week later!