Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Celebrating

Saturday, November 16th, 2013

Ten days ago was my birthday & it was fun & filled with many remembrances! I haven’t been in from Austin, Texas a week yet (was there last Wed. – Sun.) as our daughter asked me to come spend my birthday with her. Austin is ok for a bit but Austin just really, really makes me so grateful for where we live up in the mountains in a little town all over again as there are too many people, with too much traffic and too much noise, polluted air, and so on but it was good to be with our daughter!

Elizabeth & I talked & talked & played mini golf, walked the 4 mile trail twice talking, bicycled, cooked, watched movies, ate out, got coffee, saw her school, went to a sculpture garden & a book store which was a treat for me! Yeah, really the best celebration is having fully independent grown kids who make us proud & want to spend time with us & treat us ~

Happy New Year!

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

“Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.” I wish you Happy New Year and diary full of best stories ever written in your life ~ love, Julie

Art

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

How colorless the world would be without art…today I wrote two poems to go with two of my photographs ~ they have been made into cards I will send to loved ones ~ they will go into a book of anthology ~ how satisfying…some days I work and yet have little to nothing to show for it that will last.

 
A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.  ~Salman Rushdie

Real love stories

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

 

Prince William and his bride Kate have captured most of the free world with their love story.  To me, much more than a commoner marrying a prince gives their story the charm of a fairytale. Though their wedding ceremony and celebration looked like a magical fairytale, with all the pomp and pageantry of a story book, real life magic is made of our own doing. Because this couple had been almost consistently happily together as a pair for a decade before their marriage, they are indeed a real life love story. These two people seem to be going into their marriage with their eyes as wide open as is possible.

Though, living together before marriage is not the same as being married any more than being the prince’s girlfriend is just like being his wife. Expectations are quite different before and after being wedded and Kate couldn’t really know if she was going to marry Will until they announced their engagement to the world.

I speak from experience when I say that a happy marriage does indeed have some magic and that day to day life, with others letting us know that we are not meeting their expectations, has its heartache. However most assuredly two are better than one and being long time good friends who take pleasure in each other’s company, is a good recipe for a joyful marriage.

What I find sadly ridiculous are the reality shows where people seem to think they are actually going to find true-love, their glamorous real life prince or princess is there to be found on the set of a television show. A television program with the artificial setting of exotic locations and hair, make-up and wardrobe people is most assuredly not the place to find real long-lasting love, any more than a bar is because real love stories are made up of good friends who gradually become lovers over a long period of time. Real love stories never have endings.

Rain! Glorious Rain!

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

 

Oh this is so lovely! Not since February’s snow had we had any precipitation until three Sundays ago. This is our third Sunday of rain – today, Easter and the Sunday before last it rained! It is a chilly 48 – delightful for all of us (except of course – poor Spring, our gorgeous but needy sheltie who is terrified of thunder.)

April is normally one of our wettest months but the drought changed that this year. Today is May 1st.

Instead of being in the country in Texas I feel like I’m at the beach or up in the mountains on a rainy early spring morning…I’ve flip-flops on with a man’s heavy sweater, sipping coffee and watching the rain in awe like the wonder that it is.

Lots of glorious runoff!!! Up goes our pond! Filling up….happy fish, ducks, egret, turtles…people!

Health Care Reform

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

‘Affordable, comprehensive and quality health care is essential for the well-being of the people in Vermont. Health care costs are continuously rising; access to affordable insurance is extremely limited; and our health care system is not designed to promote wellness, manage chronic conditions, or provide consumers with information to make informed choices.’

It is so very encouraging to see people in the United States being pro-active with this mess of health care! Maybe I will see health care reform in my life time! Maybe people really are fed up and aren’t going to take it anymore! Maybe good heathcare isn’t just for the weathy!

God bless the state of Vermont. May their health care reform succede and be a great example to the rest of our country. People should not have to go bankrupt or do without health care. Good health care is a basic right for everyone. How can one have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without good, affordable health care?

First Grandchild

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

 

I just met and held the son of my son; the first born of my first born – my first grandchild, in my first contact with the future I see a piece of myself and it is good.

Hope

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Hope is like the dawning of a new day – darkness begins to lift, shadows become clear, black & grey surrender to soft colors that gently become brighter.

After another rejection, suddenly, astoundingly, a connection was made with a several times published author who told her agent about me, gave me her agent’s contact information & invited me to join her writer’s group…

It is fascinating how some people are so full of good grace, generous to share & be of assistance while other people are so stingy, as if helping will devalue & diminish themselves.

My husband was surprised that I wasn’t more joyful & excited…I want to wait & see if God is not just messing with me again…of course I know that it is people’s free will not just God hyping me up & pulling the plug because he is cruel or bored…

Still…in gentle hope I wait to hear…

live all days of your life

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

I remember when as a little girl I first realized that I was going to die. It was scary to me. I talked about how I was feeling with my favorite babysitter. I didn’t talk about it with my mom. I never talked about anything with my dad.

At 54 my body tells me everyday that I am getting old but rather than get depressed about aging or mortality, about something I can’t do anything about, I TRY harder to live up to my favorite axiom:  “May you live all the days of your life” J. Swift 

When life goes from hard to harder I TRY to work on what is most important to me. I think that with all that’s going on with Japan and Libya and other people’s injustices and suffering I can be thankful for my own problems (be them unwarranted)

Life goes on weather we are living it or not.

Today:

I prayed

I walked the dogs with my husband in the cool of the morning

I then road my bicycle 6 ½ miles

I read

I sent an e-mail query to an agent

I printed up a book proposal to an agent to mail tomorrow

I asked for a book review for a celebrity

I ate lunch with my husband in the sunroom & read out loud from inspirational books & later wash the dishes by hand

I e-mailed with my son

I put a photo of my son holding his infant son in a magnetic frame on the refrigerator

I ate lemon yogurt for a snack

I just checked with my husband about our plans to spend the late afternoon together

3 things

My husband

My health

My first grandchild

Lady Day

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

 

I learned something new yesterday (I love when that happens!)

According to Wikepidia, in the Christian calendar, yesterday was Lady Day. Lady Day is the traditional name of the Feast of the Annunciation (when Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her of God’s will for her to give birth to the Savior) (celebrated 25 March) and the first of the four traditional Irish and English quarter days. The “Lady” was the Virgin Mary. The term derives from Middle English, when some nouns lost their genitive inflections. “Lady” would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means “Lady’s day.”