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House Wanderlust?

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged Character House, Real Estate, Wanderlust, Want, Wonder on June 17, 2011| 7 Comments »

Let me first declare, here and now, that I live in a delightful house! It is like a fortress on a hill, with more space than we need, privacy to die for, and a pool that (when working) on a hot summers day, is better than butter on warm homemade bread.

So, that said … I am always experiencing ‘house wanderlust’ (I was going to write, ‘itchy foundations’ or ‘dreaming of the big house’, but I so love the romantic sound of the word ‘wanderlust’. I just had to work it in somehow … but, I digress).

Every spring the signs go up on the lawns of houses I have (I admit it) envied the owners of, for years. And then I envy some more … and then I head to my favorite real estate web site, and I look, and dream. And … I WANT to move!

I blame part of it on my personal tastes … traditional, character homes … not something that the area we live in has much of. And, to exaggerate things more the house we do live in is … west coast contemporary … so very far from traditional, character homes! Now, I repeat, it is a great house … it’s just so very far from my ‘dream house’ (and if you should know anything about me, from reading my posts, you should know that I am an unapologetic dreamer).

So, back in early April, as I was heading home after a walk with my beast, on my favorite trail, in my favorite place, I had a eureka moment! I decided, while driving home, past one property after another of character homes, that a certain one, when it went for sale (or when Oprah discovered my amazing talents and offered me a book deal, or TV program … I not picky), hubby and I would buy it!

I drove slowly past it, staring longingly, and dreaming of the day when I would have my hand squeezed lemonade, sitting in my antique rocking chair, on the front porch with hubby, and the beast … ahhhh!

And, I was able to drive by, and head home … contentedly, because I knew that one day, off into the future, it would be my home 🙂

And then, just a week later, the unimaginable happened …

I drove by and …

you got it …

… right out in front of my future dream house …

… a for sale sign!

Seriously … what was this about? I had just fought with my demons with this place, and had mastered contentment (hum, maybe contentment is not something to be attained on earth), about waiting … and now it was for sale?!

Not only that, but the real estate market is warming up here, and, two months later … IT IS STILL FOR SALE! And I drive by it about three times a week … oh, the torture!

And, still no call from Oprah!

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Graduation

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged Graduation, High School, Life, Memories on June 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Graduation happens tonight for two of my three students (boy, do I know how to work myself out of a job). And, as with many ‘formalities’ in our lives, it takes me back … way back!

It has been twenty-four years since I graduated from high school, and twenty-two since I graduated from college with a certificate/diploma in drafting (that I have only used for ten months professionally, and for twenty-two years, designing my dream house).

I vividly remember the excitement of shopping for a dress for prom, our grad song (“Lean on Me”), planning what to do after our graduation ceremony, and looking forward to gifts of money …

In my small town of 1600’ish (at that time), high school graduation was HUGE! People from the community would come to watch the grads enter the school for prom (it was there because, in such a small town, the school had the largest facilities), to ohh and awe at the gowns, the spiffed up guys, and now they come to see what they will arrive in (apparently combine harvesters are not unusual now in that rural village). People from the community would come to the ceremony, like it was a community event … because it was!

University was not the goal of most of my fellow grads, although many did go … for a year (or, in my case, a few months) and a number even graduated. Many did go to college. But getting a job was the main goal for most … in a day and time when ‘you need to have a university degree to succeed’ was preached regularly preached at us. I am still, twenty-four years later, amazed that educated people can think that any one path works for all … obviously they forget that the people who fix their broken cars, unplug their septic systems, and wire that new outlet all do so without an undergrad! But, I digress …

Last nights graduation also took me back a year, to my oldest daughter’s graduation from high school. I still get ‘mamma guilted’ for not shedding a tear at that event (so she thinks 😉 ). To be honest, there weren’t many tears shed around her graduation. Not because I was not proud, but because graduation from high school is so … common today.

And that is a good thing.

But also, for my first born (who works her butt off), school (the academics of it) is not a huge struggle. Now she does well, because she works so hard, but she is an academic. So, for her, graduation was more of a celebration because it marked the beginnings of more study, just in an area she is more interested in … psychology (and it marked the beginnings of her study of us … her family).

For many, though, having society-imposed academic hoops to jump through is the greatest struggle of their life! And for those students, high school graduation (whatever ‘title’ their diploma has … dogwood or evergreen) is their finest moment … so far …

Thankfully, graduation from high school is just a step on the ladder of life … IT IS NOT LIFE itself! High school is just a very small microcosm of of life itself. It is not a predictor of future success (Winston Churchill failed grade 6), it is not the finest moment of life (there are so many that do not come until after high school graduation … like, following your passion, whatever it might be), it is not necessarily the place where people know you best (and I mean classmates, as well as teachers … give it about two to four years, and the light of who really knows you best will be ignited).

For the students I was paid to assist, as well as all others, congratulations … but don’t stop climbing … the peak of the mountain is just barely in view … and it’s all up from here.

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Hockey Doesn’t Matter

Posted in canada, GOD, life, WONDER, tagged Hockey, Missing Girl, NHL Pl, Pray on June 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I awoke this morning, like most mornings … brain cells shocked awake by either my alarm clock, or the coffee grinder (I have come to adore the heart-stopping action of the roar of my coffee grinder, because it leads me to my morning jo 🙂 ).

So, after the brain cells were alerted to … morning … my thoughts went to what this Monday was to hold … (including, primarily, the NHL playoff game).

Go to school for job #2 (and there was a head full of ‘stuff’ moving swirling around about this)

– come home

– make dinner

– watch the hockey game … game six! Will it be Boston or Vancouver?

– help son and friend with school video assignment

– take son’s friend to meeting place to deliver to his mom

– tidy house

– prepare for job #1, for tomorrow

– go to bed … after setting alarm and coffee maker …

After all the morning preparations were done (kids up, posts written, readied for the day), I left home, with the kids, to head to school/work.

Then I walked into the school, and the priorities of the day, and the priority of the NHL playoffs, disappeared …

A sixteen year old girl, from our school community is missing. Her parents saw her late Saturday night, and all was well. When she did not emerge from her room Sunday morning, they checked on her, to discover she was not there.

her parents do not know where she is …

her parents do not know why she’s gone …

her parents do not know how she left …

her parents …

Anyone who is a parent, and has heard the story of this girl’s disappearance (even if, like me, you do not know the girl or her family), is aching inside. We immediately hear this story, and every parental fiber of our being feels the fear those parents are feeling. We immediately put ourselves in their shoes, and want to help find a beautiful Hallmark ending for this story.

The hockey game …

… doesn’t matter anymore.

Finding Amanda …

that is everything!

Please pray for her, and her family.

http://bc.rcmp.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=116&languageId=1&contentId=19931#.TfZ9U4gwn7g;email

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Just the way You Are

Posted in life, The Kids, WONDER, tagged Bruno Mars, Concert, Daughters, Just the Way You Are, Life on June 6, 2011| 2 Comments »

Tonight my daughters and I had a ‘girl date’ with Bruno Mars. This is the concert that has altered the schedule of the NHL playoffs 😀 Kind of increased our giggly enjoyment!

The tickets were purchased as birthday gifts to my now fourteen year old, and my ‘to be’ nineteen year old. The three of us have never gone to a concert … just us, so it was fun and exciting.

So to the concert we went.

The sun was shining (and, considering our wet and cold spring … that was a near miracle), and the traffic insane (but that is ALWAYS the case in the Lower Mainland of BC). We made a stop at Ikea for a cheap dinner 😀 (it always tastes better when it is cheap!), and for a bit of window shopping (something only a girl can understand … hubby writes a list, goes where he will find what he wants, pick it out, pays for it, and goes home … b o r i n g !).

We parked, walked along the shining waters of False Creek, laughing and giggling … mostly about ourselves and about boys … any boys … their brothers, their dad, boys at school, boys doing bike and skateboard ‘tricks’ in front of us as we walked.

We arrived as the first musician was performing … he was great! He sang mostly 80’s music … I loved it … the girls rolled their eyes.

The second opening act was Janelle Monae … you might have heard her song Tightrope on the Chevrolet Cruze advertisements. During her entire performance I felt as though I was at a Mardi Gras party in New Orleans! She is an amazing performer!

Then, Mr. BM (my daughters just DID NOT find my calling him a BM … bowel movement … funny at all) hit the stage! WOW! He was great! He wooed the crowd of many … not sold out, but many loud, fun-loving people. The age range of attendees was, from my vantage point, from about three years old to over seventy.

Bruno had a great stage performance, with fantastic and energetic musicians along with him.

The girls and I danced and sang along with Bruno … we clapped, we swayed they swooned (because he was, of course, singing only to them). We had a super evening of girl-time.

Mr. Mars (and, of course, we are Ms. Venus) had a great concert (which started at 7:30, and didn’t end until 11pm). That doesn’t mean I give him a thumbs up when it comes to all that he produces … but I also don’t choose to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Although his ‘Grenade’ song seems self sacrificial, it also seems he needs to get a grip on the reality that ‘his’ girl just isn’t his! And, although it might be quite tame (and nothing like some songs lyrics of terrible violations of others), ‘Our First Time’, is not the message I want my girls to fall for, in real life.

What these questionable messages do provide is ample opportunity to discuss how we each hear those lyrics, what we each believe about the messages, and the good, bad and the ugly of what many in our society believe to be ‘normal’, ‘common’ and ‘real.’ Those conversations can be worth the cost of admission!

So, today as I don’t feel like doing anything (I just want to lay in my bed) … I am just thankful that my two daughters, even at fourteen and eighteen, are willing to go have an evening with their out-of-date momma. It was more like a gift TO me.
“When I see your face, there’s not a thing that I would change
Cause you’re amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl(s) you’re amazing
Just the way you are”

Mr. BM

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There Was a Little Girl …

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged Bad Girl, Consequences, Good Girl, Life, Longfellow on June 3, 2011| 5 Comments »

“There was a little girl, who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good, he was very good indeed,

But when she was bad, she was horrid.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

How did this man, this poet and story teller, who died one hundred and ten years before my daughter was born, know her so well, that he could write this piece of her?

Of course now she is nearly nineteen, and all that is left of the little girl, who I would quote this verse to, is … the little curl, right in the middle of her forehead (when it is humid).

How time has flown since then …

Although the verse, quoted above, is the entirety of what Longfellow wrote, Esther and Eloise Wilkin added an entire story (complete with delightful illustrations) to his little masterpiece. And this story was one of my favorite stories, as a child. Now her book “Good Little, Bad Little Girl” is out of print. But their story is one that, as a parent, should be a part of childhood learning.

What Longfellow knew, and wrote of, was:

– you cannot read a book by it’s cover

– outward beauty is not a reflection of inner beauty

– that bad actions and attitude can come, even from one so young

– that the good and bad actions and attitudes can switch, at a moments notice

– that all have the ability to be very, very good, and … very, very horrid

What the Wilkin sisters added to Longfellow’s verse, did not diminish what he wrote, but instead enhanced his verse into a story to learn from. Their story compared and contrasted these two little girls, the good one, and the bad one, who lived in the same house. Now, in reality, the two little girls were actually the same one little girl. The story told simply of how she could be delightfully good (and the positive consequences of that), as well as horribly bad (and the negative consequences of that). In the end, their story provided the reality that doing what is good, or doing what is bad is all about choices, and that we can choose our consequences by our choices.

My, now almost nineteen, daughter is famous in our house for teaching her younger brother ‘a positive attitude is the key to success’ … I think, at least theoretically, that she learned her lesson well. Because she not only caught on to the essence of what she’d had read, but she also realizes that there could be good consequences in teaching this to her brother.

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Money, Money, Money

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged $5, Life, Money, Savings on May 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

“All the things I could do, If I had a little money. It’s a rich man’s world.”

Now we will all be mentally singing along with ABBA for the rest of the day. So, while you are singing in the shower, in your car, and (heaven forbid … well, if you sing like me, heaven forbid) while at work or grocery shopping, I have a great money saving idea for you!

Saving money is quite a difficult thing. There are so many demands on all of our resources (and not just money), and saving seems to be near impossible when ’emergencies’ from auto repairs, to school field trips, to illness, to ‘needing’ a new pair of shoes are always popping up!

Back around mid-January, another mom, wife, and hard-working lady told me of a saving plan that she had heard of on a radio program. She had tried it out, and found it to be quite successful!

Okay now, don’t go planning your retirement on this idea, I am about to share! My name is not Donald Trump! And our ‘estate’ is something that even our kids have asked to not be ‘left’ in our will (they are aware, even at their ages, that there is more debt than wealth there). This plan is more like saving for vacation, or Christmas shopping, or new perfume (I do love expensive perfume), or a weekend getaway, or a new TV, or, or, or … (I can so easily spend it, before I save it).

So, here is THE PLAN … every time you get a five dollar bill … DO NOT SPEND IT! Put it away! Away, as in out of sight, out of mind, away.

It has amazed me how I do not miss those five dollar bills. As a matter of fact, after four months of putting them out of my sight (and wallet), I have amassed $245! If this trend continues throughout a year, I could save over $700! And did I mention this was effortless?! Oh baby, imagine what I could do with $700?! Maybe purchase a new cast iron (faux style) gate or two, for my backyard? Maybe tickets to an Elton John concert (I WILL get to one of his concerts before I die!), or maybe I could buy ONE ticket to an NHL game in Canada (hubby and the kids went to a game in Colorado, back in March, for only $24 each! … kind of makes a hockey-lovin’ Canadian wanna cry … but I digress).

This is easy peasy, people. Give it a try, for just a month … and you will be hooked …

Just make sure you remember where you put all those five dollar bills … you don’t want them to be found decades from now, in your mattress, down at your local thrift store!

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This is Home

Posted in canada, FAMILY, GOD, life, Love, The Kids, WONDER, tagged Future, Home, Life, Wonder on April 25, 2011| 2 Comments »

I write this on April 22, as I am looking out past the lanai, at the sun rising over the houses, reflecting in the pond behind out condo. It is 7:30am, and everyone else is asleep. Ahhhhh!

I have been here, with my oldest daughter, in North Port, Florida (the sunny, turquoise water, Gulf Coast), visiting my hubby, son and youngest daughter, for five sleeps now. They left home, on hubby’s sabbatical, to drive here (from British Columbia … can you see me making the ‘L’ for loser sign on my forehead?). We had all been apart for almost four weeks, when my oldest and I arrived.

In just one and a half sleeps (it’s one and a HALF because the flight leaves at 7am, meaning I’ll need to be at the airport at 5am, meaning the alarm clock will need to be set for … I so don’t want to entertain that!), my daughters and I will board a plane in Orlando, Florida and head back to the Northwest, land in Seattle, and then head to the great north, to the place we call home.

But what is home? Where is home? How can I be sure?

Recently there was a study released of the Best Place in Canada to live 2011. And the four places I have lived were on that list (I always check, because I have them prioritized in my head, but it is fun to see if someone else agrees with me).

Currently I live in Langley, BC … and it is so beautiful! And it was rated #44 … out of 180! I’d say that was pretty good for a place that has everything a person could need or want, in the Vancouver area, and is littered with farms and greenhouses … nice contrast. Our son, Ben, was born here. From the hospital, high on a hill, we could look down on the valley and watch the fog lift in the morning. This is all Ben knows of home.

Prior to Langley, I lived in North Vancouver, it was rated #98. I think it’s good marks must have come from it’s proximity to Vancouver, because it was certainly not it’s affordability! Nonetheless, in the summer, it is the most beautiful place to live (in the winter, you need anti-depressants just to get out of bed). Our youngest daughter, Cris, was born here, early in April, with Magnolia trees, full of blossoms, surrounding the hospital.

Then there was Orleans … and it was rated, for the second year in a row (as part of Ottawa-Gatineau) as #1! This is the home where hubby came to the conclusion that hell is not hot, but cold (-50 windchill will do that for you. Imagine, living in a winter wonderland where tobogganing could result in frost bite … before even taking one run down the hill). Our oldest daughter, Brytt, was born here, just across the street was the autumn colored, trees, lining the Rideau Canal. This was the home, that felt most like home, as so few in Ottawa-Gatineau are from there, so everyone is from ‘somewhere else’, and everyone strives to make it home, for each other.

And then, the only home I knew until I was 21 (and that was half a lifetime ago!), #11 … out of 180, Moncton, New Brunswick! Okay, so I didn’t actually live in Moncton, but a village (my kids think it is hilarious that I grew up in a ‘village’ … their only knowledge of ‘village’ comes from the Shrek movies … quite a comparison!), just minutes down the highway. Only about 1600 people lived in the village … and, believe me, everyone there knew everything about anyone there! It was a great place to grow up, with four distinct, equal seasons (maybe not so equal this year, though). And there are so many wooded areas, you never see bears while out for a walk! (or snakes, for that matter)

But, what is home? Where is home? How can I be sure?

Hubby and I have often talked about moving to sunny San Diego, California, once our youngest graduates high school. You see, we chose Langley as our home, way back when our oldest was in kindergarten. We liked what the community could offer to a young family. We thought it would be good to ensure our kids would grow up knowing, as we did, a sense of hometown. So, we chose Langley as their hometown, and have trusted that God would provide meaningful employment for us. And He has.

The rain, the dark, endless winters (aka. monsoon season) of the Lower Mainland drive me crazy! And I pray for release from this wet, dark bondage.

But, I am starting to see a flaw in our long range dream of moving to San Diego, once the kids are done school. We have worked so hard to develop ‘hometown’ for them, in Langley, BC, that if we move, they will probably stay. All of a sudden, we are faced with ‘home’ without our kids. Now that is not so unusual, nor is it bad, but …

what is home?

where is home?

At one point in our lives it was more narrow, more black and white. It was owning a house. Living in a nice community, that was safe, and family-friendly. It meant finding one school that all of our kids would graduate from.

Here, on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida, with Palm Trees swaying in the breeze, I am coming to the realization that ‘home’ is where-ever we are, as a family. For this week, home is in a condo, in Florida. Next week, home will be in Langley, BC, for three of us. And from Florida, to Dallas, to San Diego (hello Legoland), to Oregon and everything in between will be home, for a time, for the guys in our family.

We have such fond memories of all of the places we have called home, and, in the words of Maya Angelou, “You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s alright.”

April 24, 2011

As a postscript, today, my daughters and I were driving North from SeaTac Airport. As our vehicle crossed the US Canada border this above song starts playing, and doesn’t go unmissed by any of us …

“And now, after all my searching,

After all my questions,

I’m gonna call it home.

I got a brand new mindset,

I can finally see the sunset,

I’m gonna call it home.

Maybe this is home … “

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Re-Boiled Tea

Posted in canada, FAMILY, GOD, life, Recipe, women, WONDER, tagged Aging, Fondness, Future, Life, Mom, Recipe, Scottish, Tale, Tea, Women, Wonder on April 14, 2011| 1 Comment »

Once you read this tale, you will be shocked to know that my grandmother is from Scotland … the land of tea (and shortbread … mmmmm, who could ever forget the shortbread … I wonder how long I would need to walk, to work off a good shortbread cookie?).

So my mother is my grandmother’s daughter, therefore, mom has about half of her life-giving blood donated by the nation of Scotland. Truly, good tea-making should be in her genetic code. But, it’s not!

Here is my mom’s (or is it mum’s) method of making tea …

First: One must use Red Rose Tea Bags

Next: Boil water, while, pouring out ‘yesterdays’ tea, rinsing the pot (must be Pyrex)

Next: Set pot on the wire ring, on the burner

Then: Place two Red Rose Tea bags into pot.

Then: When the water is boiled, pour into the pot.

Next: Turn burner to ‘low’ and allow to steep … for many, many minutes!

Finally: Enjoy

But, for my mom (of fine tea-making Scottish heritage), that is not the end of the story. No, MY mom doesn’t start the process all over again at lunch (or, as is said on the East Coast, ‘dinner’), and then at dinner (on the East Coast, known as ‘supper’). MY mom makes a full pot (just for herself, as dad is a strict milk-drinker) in the morning, and then re-heats, by re-boiling, the morning tea for lunch (dinner) and dinner (supper).

YUCK!

What self-respecting Canadian, of Scottish heritage, would make such a brew? (and what daughter, of said Canadian-Scottish heritage TELL of it?). Why it is just wrong, and in some countries, might even be viewed as criminal behavior.

All that said, some mornings (and only in the mornings, because I know of the dishpan quality of the tea as the day grows older), I so wish I could sit at her kitchen table (no one, in their right mind, on the East Coast would sit anywhere else for tea and a visit), and watch her go through her morning tea-making routine, and listen to her talk of all the people we know (what else do you talk about on the East Coast, besides other people … talk of the weather could cause people to sink in a hole as deep as those of us on the West Coast are wallowing in), and sit, in the same seats we have sat in since I can remember, and have our tea … together.

And when I am old (er … my body is already headed on the irreversible pathway), and my mom is gone, you know what I will remember, with fondness, every time I see a wire burner ring, or Red Rose Tea, or a Pyrex tea pot? I will remember my mom’s re-boiled tea, and the great memories I have of sitting in ‘our’ seats at the table in her kitchen, ~~gossiping~~ talking fondly ( 😉 ) about all those we know. Maybe re-boiled tea is not so bad.

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Unfinished

Posted in canada, FAMILY, GOD, life, Love, The Kids, women, WONDER, tagged Aging, Distance, FAMILY, father / mother, Fears, Future, Hope, Illness, Life, Love, Unfinished., Unknown, Wonder on April 12, 2011| 3 Comments »

This one is gonna be a long one, because it is the culmination of a handful of blog entries that are still only drafts, they are … unfinished. So grab your coffee, or tea (from the unfinished blog entry ‘Re-Boiled Tea’, oh, and that’s for you mom … everyone who blogs knows that if no other person on the face of the earth reads your blogs, mom does … and dad, so get your glass of milk), and, of course, chocolate, and snuggle into your seat, it’s going to be a long one (if I get it ‘finished’)!

Now, where do I start? I know how to finish (I can finish the cake, finish reading the book, finish the chocolate, finish the yard work, finish the candy, but I digress). But starting can be more difficult.

I am not a news-lover! As a matter of fact, with hubby gone now for two weeks, the TV REMOTE is gathering dust! Oh, I spent countless hours enjoying reno. and do-it-yourself shows, but, my (undiagnosed) ADD (this is from the unfinished blog entry ‘My Daughter says I have ADD’) can stand TV for only so long!

I do love good news, though. And, recently I heard really good news.

My dad has been sick much of this past winter. He easily gets respiratory infections, pneumonia anything to do with lungs and breathing, he’s had it! He’s been admitted to hospital, drugged through the winter season with an assortment of medications that have been equally successful and failure in improving his condition, and had a butt-load of medical tests and procedures to uncover the root of his problems.

When there is ‘stuff’ going on in the lives of my family, I am so keenly aware of how far the east is from the west (from the unfinished blog entry of the same name). They live on the east coast, and I, on the west. They can watch the sun rise out of the Atlantic, and I can watch it set in the Pacific. They ‘get to have’ (they do not necessarily appreciate this privilege, as they got snow on April 1st this year … April Fools!) snow in the winter, and I suffer (and everyone around me suffers in my vocal suffering) with a season called Monsoon Season. On the East Coast you can buy coastal properties for under $100,000, on the west coast coastal properties are too expensive to hotel at! On the east coast the humor is dry and sarcastic (from the unfinished blog ‘We Have Sarcasm Themed Dinners’ … Seriously!), on the west coast, humor is … shipped in from the east 😉 And, I digress, again!

Truly, living so far away is a sucky bummer (from the unfinished blog entry of the same name … you’re gonna love that one). There is no popping over for a ‘mom talk’, there is no being there for birthdays, and Father’s Day, and bumping into brothers at the mall, and having a house full of my kid’s cousins. There is also no spending occasions with cheek squeezing auntie (where I come from aunts is not pronounced ‘ants’. Ants crawl on the floor, but my aunts … hum, maybe this reasoning doesn’t work so well!), or that creepy uncle (lets face it, every family has at least one relative that is the personification of ‘creepy’) … hum, there are some benefits of living on the opposite coast 😉 .

So this week I heard good news, after all of the tests my dad has been going through, the results are in, and he is okay. No cancer (a relief, as his dad suffered with lung cancer before he died), no pneumonia, no nothing really, except for a virus that he had picked up while in the hospital, at some point. Apparently this virus will be residing in him, as long as he’s residing on planet Earth, and is not problematic unless it flares, but there is good, reliable medication for it that.

Ahhhhh! Good News is so Good!

And so, we all continue living our unfinished lives, in our temporary homes (from the unfinished blog of the same name). It makes me wonder, as I always do when confronted with news (good or bad) … what is the lesson, what is there to learn from this? I figure if something is going to get my heart rate up, or cause me to sweat, or make me laugh hysterically, or cry from the depths of my soul, or make me shake with anger … there must be something to learn from it (whatever ‘it’ is), that I can benefit from. Sometimes it is so much easier to see the ‘benefit’ than others, when it seems to only be a lesson, and a hard one at that.

It’s sort of like when a child touches something hot, after being told not to … that is a hard lesson, and, for the child, who is crying because her hand hurts, the idea of ‘benefit’ from the lesson goes unseen. But, as an adult, we can see that the lesson, although painful, has benefit, as the child will not enter into that danger again. Hum, I guess our experience provides a bigger perspective.

Kind of like our lives. But we are the child. We have ‘stuff’ in life that burns our hands, that burns our hearts, and hurts like crazy. We think there is no tomorrow (or wish there was no tomorrow, so that the pain, the agony the hard ‘stuff’ of life would be over). But, what we ‘children’ think we see as complete and whole … God, the bigger-picture seeing parent, sees as unfinished, and He sees a bigger picture.

I wish I had His lens!

But, for now I am thankful that my dad is okay, that his days are unfinished … I guess there is a lesson, something to learn from this … for me, for him, for all of our family. I guess we need to seek out the answer to that, until it is … you know, finished.

^“We don’t yet see things clearly.

We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.

But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!

We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness,

we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:

Trust steadily in God,

hope unswervingly,

love extravagantly.

And the best of the three is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

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A Tale as Old as Time

Posted in GOD, life, Love, The Kids, women, WONDER, tagged Beast, Beauty, Love, Plot, Tale, Wonder on April 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“Tale as old as time

True as it can be”

And so begins a song from a story that brings out “ohs and ahs’ in little girls, and makes the boys stick their finger down their throats in a choking gesture.

It really is a tale as old as time (minus the wretched ‘curse’). The person given ‘credit’ for writing this tale is Mme. Leprince de Beaumont, and the date of it’s publish was 1757! But the plot, the story, even predate that! In earlier versions the ‘beast’ is a pig, or a man with black skin who wants it white again (and we think racism is new?), or, get this, one version is called ‘The Girl Who Married A Snake’ … I can’t see that title being a big hit for Disney (and I definitely would not pick that book up)!

But, as old as the story is, the premise has not changed. A lovely lady and an undeserving, beastly man, meet. They spend time together, her loveliness rubs off, then she sees him in a new light, they fall in love … and live ‘happily ever after’ (imagine a sunset, pretty little birds fluttering, stars in each of their eyes … ahhhhhh).

Why does this story so appeal to us that it’s plot lasts hundreds of years? Do we females believe, as Diana in Anne of Green Gables, who said, “it would be nobler to marry some wild, dashing, wicked young man and reform him”?

All this makes me wonder, why has this plot, this premise, not been duplicated with role reversal? In other words, would this story fly, would it ‘sell’ if the physical ‘beast’ was the woman, and the ‘beauty’ was the man? Would the man be able to see her beauty from within? Or would he never even give her a second glance? I know from my estrogen-filled body, soul, heart and mind that I would go to a ‘chick’ flick with that story line! This could sell … to females!

But could it happen? Because for such a story to touch us, to grip our very being, there has to be some element of truth in it, some element of ‘this could happen’. So, could it? Could a man choose to see beauty in a visually unappealing lady?

I wonder …