Thanksgiving - Give Thanks to God

     Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America. This year, I was able to celebrate with some of my family I created with my husband and some of my birth family including my elderly mother. I have in the past celebrated very differently including eating turkey spaghetti in a blizzard when unable to drive to dinner anywhere. I also have spent Thanksgiving miles and oceans away from any family while serving in the Army. No matter where I have been or whom I have been with, I have been able to really reflect and celebrate Thanksgiving Day joyously. 

     I give thanks, because I choose to, I give thanks to God for all my blessings known and unknown to me. It's easy to see my many blessings - family, a home, abundant food and drink, and enough of everything else including wealth and health. The unknown blessings are the things I will never know. I hope and pray and work to make a difference in others lives. I choose to be good and strive for holiness. I am on a lifetime journey of following Christ and imitating Him by love of God and neighbor. 

    Yes, this year I celebrated the day with a beautiful floral centerpiece, candles, up-cycled cloth napkins and table runner, and all-American food. My meal started with a pumpkin soup course and ended with pumpkin mousse on cheesecake - two new twists. I also ate turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, and an assortment of pie including OREO pie. 

     As my family gains new members, it also gains new flavors and dishes including a great-nephews needed mushroom pie one year. Everyone was making pie requests and the great-nephew made a pie request based upon his mother (a niece by marriage) favorite food of mushrooms. The great-nephew got mushroom pie for his mom. It was great to see love manifested in pie. Remember to add flavor and new foods when you add family. 

    Holidays are great with cooperation and collaboration. Every event needs an organizer. I love to have people volunteer for what they want to do and then fill in everything else. Keep a box of items for the holidays to celebrate. Pull it out and add new things. Sort the old and re-arrange things. Up-cycle, reuse, and recycle and do it all on a budget for time and money. Then sit back and enjoy the unexpected and think what a wonderful world.  

     

Not Funny Ever - Really Not Funny

SERIOUSLY IT'S NOT FUNNY 

     I used to admire Bill Cosby until I recently saw him accused of rape and heard his rape joke routine. All I can think is maybe he has an excuse of being young and naive and did something that some manager thought was funny at the time. But rape is really not funny ever. This blog post is just about things that are not funny - not Bill Cosby's guilt or innocence. There are thing that are just not funny ever and many people don't get it until something implodes.

Here's my list of things that are never funny - Not Ever

1. Abuse and violence - from child abuse to verbal abuse to sexual assault to rape
2. Menstruation, Menopause and other hormonal hell for women
3. Men's Penis Size
4. Attacking anyone's religious beliefs even when they may differ from any scientific knowledge
5. Physical and mental illness and disabilities
6. Ageism
7. Most sex jokes
8. Failed relationships - especially failed marriages

This is a short list - Please add to it

Every Person has a Story - What is Your Story and What is the Story you are Leaving

  One thing I have become aware as a age, is that every person has a story. Many of us never know the other person real whole story. We are prejudiced by our own limited backgrounds, experience and education. It's just how life is. It's also easier to label all people based on experience with one of any group. Every person is an unique individual just as you are. We need to look at people at the individual level. Media, history and government loves to group and then make sloppy statements about the group and not see the individual.
      The only possible change is at the individual level. Individuals can change their life. Furthermore, I believe change is only possible through pray and the grace of God. As we move to a bigger federal government and more intrusion into our life by government, we are very limited over the control we have in our life. We need to tune out the world and tune in God.
     Life is about the the power of one. You want to change the world - change yourself, change your family, change the small communities you live and work and participate in. Change begins with showing up. You matter just be showing up. Until you show up - you can't do anything else. Do you show up at elections, mass, family gatherings, community events?
     Back to the topic - I have a story - you have a story - we all have a story. We have all known joys, sorrows, triumphs and failures. There are days and times in our lives that have shaped and formed us. We are all trying hard to make it through.
    I am glad I have found God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help and aid and guide me on my journey. I also know we have many who have fallen out of the game - there are way too many people who are addicts, imprisoned, homeless, jobless and otherwise disenfranchised. Let's stop the drama and work to make things better starting with me and spreading outwards to my family and neighbors. Let me be the best person I can be. Let me be good, kind, loving and polite.
     I choose my husband and made a family. My story is GOD, FAMILY and then EVERYTHING ELSE including work. I have a great family I created. I come from a large, formidable birth family. I need to focus on making my little family and my birth  family better. I have done the right thing and placed the highest value on family. I am glad I have made every decision to support my family because I have real authentic love and joy and happiness and my love is going on to another generation. I have been blessed with a grandson. (Now two grandsons.) My younger brother who is a multimillionaire who does not have his own little family, once told me I have everything - I have a grandson.
     It's not just the plain, dull facts as in Sergeant Friday's "it's just the facts, ma'am", a whole lot of life is how you want to see it. If you want to be a victim, then you will be one and you will view life as a downtrodden. If you want to see yourself as a survivor, then you will live a lot more triumphantly. If you want to live victoriously, you will feel JOY.
    What is your story and how are you telling it? We all get to make this choice - make a conscience decision and live courageously and in love, wisdom, peace and joy. We all make choices. Are you making the better choices, are you making choices that matter, are you making choices that are consistent with your values and beliefs? What will your story tell and what legacy are you leaving.    You can change. You can change your family and community.

Sunday Dinner and Eating Together as a Family - Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

Who? What? Where? When? Why? HOW! 

Sunday Dinner 

Who - Family - this means the people that you are domiciled (live) with. Family is family so please don't get hung up on traditional or modern or combined or single-parent or whatever you want to classify and call your family. Family then includes all others of family based upon biological and marital relationships - grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws, step-siblings, etc. Finally, family includes friends and neighbors. 

What - Sunday Dinner - Sunday Dinner means a formal main meal either at midday or evening. It means the good dishes and linens and candles and making a toast. We all own good things that are collecting dust when they should be put into use to celebrate things big and small. A sad site at an estate sale or auction is when there are beautiful dishes and candle holders and linens that were never used but carefully stored and now being sold for pennies of the original cost. It means courses and for me that means at least a main course and a decadent dessert. It also means cooking what you like and can cook. Feel free to use some easier things - bread or rolls from the bakery, ice cream for dessert, grandma bringing salad, etc. Gather help and contributions - let the youngest decorate and set the table. Husbands can grill or bar tend. It's a great day to teach cooking lessons to the next generation and the newest family members. Share tradition and ancestral recipes. Promote the family working together and achieving something unique and more than the sum of individuals. 

Where - My house, your house, grandma's and grandpa's house, here and there and everywhere in my neighborhood and around the world. 

Why - Because family matters and eating is fundamental. We are to be fed and feed both physically and spiritually. We begin our life with family and if we are blessed we will end our earthly life with family. Sunday is a day to celebrate the Resurrection, For over 2000 years Christians have come together to worship and celebrate Jesus who we honor and serve. Our life in Christ begins with us and extends first to our families and then outward. As Catholic Christians we celebrate and commemorate the Last Supper at every mass which is central to our faith.

How - Just do it. And then savor - savor flavor and memories. Make a plan and laugh when most things go very wrong. I am great at making a canyon cake instead of the layer cake. Hey, it still tastes great and keeps me humble and learning and continuing on my path to be the best version of me that I can be. 

Everyday, Everywhere, Every Person

  Everyday everywhere with every person I meet, I make an impression. That impression is either good, bad, or neutral. I am to be a blessing to all I meet and all who meet me should have an openness to blessing me. When asked, "How are you?" I desire to say with a genuine response that I am blessed.

     Yes, blessed in ways that I am not even aware of. I am an ingrate. I forget to say thank you, be polite, and wait my turn. I find it totally human to be a bore, to be rude, to bring out the worst in my fellow human being and myself.

     The other choice is to be a better angel and to be kind, considerate, thoughtful and to listen intently and to speak softly. I can always pray because pray changes me and when I am changed I can better aid a fellow suffering human. We all struggle. Many time likes fails to make sense. This is when I find my belief and faith in a BIG GOD enables me to trust HIM and continue on. Little things matter. I can do many things starting with a smile. You can do something and doing nothing is a cop out.

     Everyday, everywhere with every person I meet, I make a choice and can give and receive all the emotional well being and good feeling that I can give and need or I can choose to be a lesser human.