End 2012

Still in England today, the last Friday of 2012. Not really prepared to celebrate and let go this past year, but I am looking forward to 2013. I am grateful for:

1. My accountant
2. New medications
3. No broken bones
4. Good holidays
5. Good friends
6. My family
7. My husband
8. My cat sitters
9. My cats
10. That I can read and write - literacy is highly underrated
11. A full belly
12. A warm dry roof over my head
13. My stuffed animals
14. Soft sofa chairs
15. Quiet times


That's all for me this year. I'm going to carve out more time to be organized and write more in 2013. Watch out world!

Better Late Than Never

I must remember: everything happens for a reason.

Yet, life is full of contradictions. Can I be so arrogant and self-important, to believe that the universe is actually looking at me? After the millennia it has to take care of? All that complicated physics? I am just a tiny speck of sand in the Sahara.

Nevertheless, in my 90-odd years of life on this planet, all I want to do is to make a difference. Even if it is minuscule a drop in a vast ocean. Everyone dies baby that's a fact: "it is our mortality that defines us".

I don't want to live forever, I just want my 1%.

Some days, I do feel like I've achieved that: when I've gotten through to a colleague to be more open-minded, when I've shared something with my partner that I've never shared to anyone else in the world, when I've overcome some big hurdle in my life and accepted the love and forgiveness that life provides. But obviously, I'm not done yet.

The dead are still here with us - I see them in pictures, in town, and in my daily chores. I feel them in my heart, in my soul. I see them in the faces of my family and friends. I read or hear them in my books, my pets, my music. We are just exchanging carbon atoms.

I am an irrational, illogical human being. I want to say on my death bed: "well, that was fun". I want to enjoy every moment and keep time as my faithful companion.

Geronimo! Allons-y! Kitty!

On the way to thinking about what to write...

This morning already has been so interesting.

Another tossing & turning night, with my world's troubles still running around like a hamster in my head. Sleep-deprived and unmedicated, I wanted to rush rush rush through my mornings errands, just so I could have a free hour to write write write.

Then, I fell down some concrete stairs while carrying glass recyclables in a plastic box. I hit my mouth on a hard glass and the corner of the box. But while I was falling, all I could think about were my knees.

Surgery 17 years ago and having suffered many dizzying falls as a child and young adult -- once scraping my knees to the bone -- both knees still give me tricks and challenges. Now, that knee replacement will probably be moved up: to when I'm 55 instead of 60.

Spontaneous tears burst, like a child, I laid motionless on the floor not able to move. A kind and generous young lady talked to me in a soothing adult manner, and helped me get up. Things hurt: another friend got me a chair to sit down in and yet another, some water and ice.

Nothing broken no lasting damage (I hope) other than a reflection of the perspective I was afforded. And the fact that it gave me something amazing to write and reflect about for the rest of the day.

I am so grateful to you, my friends, and, also to all my intimate strangers -- who really understand the meaning of community and helping each other out.

It was just meant to be. Bruised lip and a few more scrapes, but this body knows that. The mind now remembers the forgiveness that life provides.

Character and experience - it is what separates the human with integrity and those without. What a wonderful world.

All My Favo(u)rite Things

Close of business on a dreary and cold (finally!) Friday...and all I can think about is "My Favorite Things" from the musical, Sound of Music, by Rogers & Hammerstein. Here's the reprise version, the reunion with the children:

The run up to my big "round number" birthday is all about my favorite things. It's going to be a lovely next 7-8 days filled with Snoopy & the Great Pumpkin, The Sound of Music, Bruce Springsteen (of course!), our cats, James, yummy favorite foods....

Stressy weeks require extra de-stressing too! Someone recently wrote: "Always affirm the outcome you want!" Positive affirmations are definitely much more helpful than worrying about a nasty surprise. You can reap what you sow, and even if you don't, the ride is much more pleasant if you stay positive. Enjoy it, why put up with pain if you don't have to?

A friend of mine in Basel had a baby yesterday. I went to the hospital today and she let me hold him, oh my God! Just a day old! Amazing little thing he is! So strong already, the kicks in the womb must of been helping him strengthen those legs. The father is so wonderful and I am so happy for both of them. They are so blessed.

Really, all I want is to be able to testify. To be a testament to those who want to listen. To say something about my life, my universe, my everything. To give thanks to the universe for this beautiful life and the privilege to work with Love.

I miss my mother, I miss my father, and I miss my brother. I miss my bunny and niece and nephew. I miss my sister-in-law. I miss my "scuzzy roommates". I miss my Italian-American and French-American "mothers". I miss redwire and 53Esquire, skyjocky, PrettyRedRose, misadventure, nikita, and sixtyninechevy. I miss the Big Man. I miss N, J, T, G and PPP, A, E, J, and the Australian mötley crew.

So, I simply remember my favorite things....

Friday's post

Dear readers, I am not exactly sure what happened on Friday. I woke up thinking: "Oh today is Friday, I must post on my blog". Then the day unfolded, and it became...

Monday!

In between, our new dryer arrived and I had a whole host of other invaders and things to prepare for the weekend. A baby shower, baking cookies, a fabulous Sunday dinner and all the shopping that goes along with those things normally. I managed to get a lot of things done, so I am very pleased with myself for that and, my husband and I still managed some quality time with the Swiss landscape and train system ;) We love our trains!

So, today I will *cheat* a little and use a quote from another blog to which I subscribe to, Jeff Goins (www.goinswriter.com), in a lovingly titled "The Mr. Miyagi Guide to Practice" post:

There is no awesome and mundane. There is only the work that must be done.

This really speaks to me today. I know how I was as a teenager, I *hated* field hockey practice, I *hated* basketball practice, I strongly disliked running speed drills (meaning at least I understood why I needed them ;) ). I was such a kid. I wanted to just freakin' play the game already. I wanted the competition, I wanted to go play for real *all the time*. Practice was for wimps.

But, as Jeff points out, life IS practice. Since nowadays I don't compete with anyone but myself -- I practice writing, I practice dreaming, it's all practice. Just like doctors who have a practice, one cannot know everything: life, love, it is all an art, and you practice it.

Practice it for what, you say? To what end?

There doesn't have to be a what, does there? I say: "Let's let love give what it gives"

Practices and experiences and artwork, building a body of them. Feeling good within your skin, having a clear conscience about the things you've done or have not done... learning from each experience and taking the lessons learned to heart.

There are no awesome or mundane tasks. It's all good! I am so grateful for that concept. Other things I am thankful for today:

1. The cleaner finally came today, in the morning like she is supposed to
2. It's finally getting cold enough to snow down to 1,000 meters: and maybe even down to 700 meters by the end of the week!! Yeay!
3. "Redefine Possible": grateful to have witnessed live part of Felix Baumgartner's historic flight, as well as all the heroes and heroines out there who redefine what is possible everyday (e.g. Spencer West and Rachel Beckwith)
4. Believing in myself on this cold/grey October to be the "slow and steady" tortoise, I will win the race in the end. I can do it! I am the Little Red Engine Who Could.
5. Being asked to be a godmother. Gushing!

OK, back to reality: time to go make dinner. This is also a happy work for me. I love food and cooking ;) 

Have a wonderful time, and please, feel free to give me feedback!! Come back and read again on Friday!