Success or Vapid Failure

I  hope that I have taught my children, and others I helped raise, the essence of love. My love for my beloved Doug survives his death almost two decades ago. Just as in the bitter-sweet animated movie “Up”, I too sit in my chair late at night and talk with Doug about my day and my fears. I sit with him on the patio, aching to reach out, hold his hand, and share the quiet of the stars and the chimnea. I always think, at the end of a work day, of how I need to get home to cook, clean, set the table, and prepare a meal for my husband and my family. When I do remember dreams, they are always of him or the children or Jessica. My conversations with my Doug sometimes have centered on a world event, the motions of the stock market, or about the new law that is coming before Congress. (As those who know me well, I have a passion for politics and a strong sense of morality). At other times, I talk to him about  our four grandchildren or other family members. It is my way of digesting the things I have heard and serve the purpose of remaining close to my husband. When I walk the desert, even with Tom or Jessica… Doug also walked with me and the first time I saw the Grand Canyon… over 7 years after he left this earth… on of all days his Birthday… I saw it with him. We had always wanted to go there together. But you know what? We did. He goes every where with me.

  This “eccentric behavior”, is my mysterious window to the unknown, a way of reaching Doug on a daily basis. We know so little of life, why we are here and what we must do while we are here. The ways of life are mysterious, and I would like to remind each of you now reading this blog that we were ONLY soldiers of the Creator, awaiting our next assignment. Nothing for us is permanent and there is no guarantee of tomorrow. Therefore, I will encourage each of you to take some private time and meditate on why you feel you were born and how you can make your best contribution to the world, on a little or big scale. One is not necessarily better than the other.

Although I have never sought fame of any kind, I know I did strive to be the best person I could be and to give my all to my family and friends. Some may say I failed. I guess God will eventually let me know the truth of all of this. Did I really accomplish anything? I hope so. I know I, personally, tried to live my life generously and show my children that we could always give to others, even when we had very little of our own to give. When Doug and I heard of someone in the neighborhood who needed food, clothing, or a place to stay, or just someone to lean on, we would stretch our very slim budget to help them out as well. The house was almost never empty and the table always full.

I did try to give each of my children the most precious gift a mother has to give - unconditional love and her full attention. While they were growing up, despite what their teenage minds may sometimes have told them, they really were the center of my world. My friends and extended family would sometimes tell me that I invested too much of myself in them and, I don’t know, maybe they are right. For hard as I try to let them go today, with each of them now in their 30s… I ache so very much for each of them and just can’t seem to bond closely with others. I did try to make their childhood wonderful. I taught them crafts, and music, and dance. For the boys I ran cub scouts and 4-H and walked them to Karate, and baseball, and basketball. For my girl, I ran 4-H, sewed costumes, and walked her to ballet and karate… I tried to give elaborate birthday parties, until the money ran out, and even sold my belonging to give the best Christmas’s we could give them. We had an open door policy and their friends were always in and out almost any time of day.

We were not rich, but I always felt we were rich in other ways, with the positive, strong family I thought I had created. Again, I guess God will tell me the truth of my endeavors. Was I any kind of a success, or was I a vapid failure?

I think I will end my walk down memory lane with a message to my children, family, friends, and yes, you too dear reader: I love you as high as the sky, as wide as the world, and as deep as the ocean; and I always will. Forgive me, if I did not do the job I so intended and tried to do… but I did it all with love.

The True Danger to America

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast Confedereracy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.

~ Vaclav Klaus (former Premier of the Czech Republic ~ 

A Second Declaration of Independence.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to assume that their president, hostiles to the principles that formed the nation and determined to act with malice towards its inhabitants by suppressing their rights and enabling its enemies to proper in their attempts to destroy it must be confronted, a rational response for the nation is to encumber itself no more with such a president and reject his authority and the acolytes who carry out his wishes.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, but their gifts are varied, and it is through the voluntary efforts of the fortunate among them to care for the less fortunate, not the province of a government to intrude on the natural imbalances that arise from the human condition, that the sanctity of ethically earned property is not to be compromised by a government eager to impose its will to address such imbalances, that when a president or member of the government flagrantly ignores the restraints of the Constitution of the United States they be punished with expulsion from the government; when the despotism in the form of such behavior arises it is the duty of the people to throw off such government and elect representative who honor the foundational principles that underlie the nation’s existence.

The sufferance of these United States impels action to ensure the existence of the nation. The history of the present president is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his minions to be charged with crimes both high and low in order to present an image utterly hostile to the truth; he has endangered the nation both from enemies abroad and who have sworn its destruction by refusing to condemn their governments and in many cases, aiding and abetting them, and those enemies who enter the country defying its laws and intent on defying the laws once ensconced in the nation; he has invaded the sacred privacy of individuals by tolerating the use of government apparatus to spy on them without their knowledge; he has championed the rights of the living to deny the right to life to those about to join their ranks; he has created enmity among the populace, separating one group from another with the use of separatist  language rather than the language of unification, he has endangered those most at risk as they serve their country by destroying the defensive tools intended for the protection of the nation; he has supported the destruction of the free use of faith that is the pillar of Western civilization; he has appropriated the power granted to other branches of government in order to further ends that cannot be legislated because there is legitimate opposition to them; he has willfully ignored the future financial demise of the nation while indulging in spending doomed to ensure the demise is a certainty.

We have warned of our grievances, though a culpable media apparatus has denied us the right to be legitimately heard; we have tolerated the abuse of our citizens by those who reside in our nation but do not share its founding principles; we have trusted in the process through which the nation has traditionally resolved its difference; we have watched as those who do not share American values usurp the rights of legislators to make the law by invoking a willing judiciary to circumvent such legislators.

We, therefore, the people of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do swear, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these States, that we are independent of said president and his minions, that we resolve not to eschew the rule of law and remove such persons from power by force, but rather to uncompromisingly and unstintingly work without hesitation to replace them now and forevermore by voting them out of power, and continually voting them out of power until their values are seen for the enemy of our principles that they truly are. We have sworn our fealty to our Constitution, and its eternal continuance, and may the supreme Judge of the world strengthen us in the battle for the soul of the nation that lies ahead.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does: A Case FOR Profiling

LEST WE FORGET:

This is all factually (and historically) correct - and verifiable if one should decide to do some research toward that end.
 

In 732 AD the Muslim Army which was moving on Paris was defeated and turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.In 1571 AD the Muslim Army/ Navy was defeated by the Italians and Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean
 to attack southern Europe in the Battle of Lepanto.In 1683 AD the Turkish Muslim Army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally defeated in the Battle of Vienna by
 German and Polish Christian Armies.This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of our elected politicians don't even know it !!!  If these battles had not been won we might be speaking Arabic and Christianity could be non - existent;

 Judaism certainly would be... And let us not forget that Hitler was an admirer of Islam and that the Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler's guest in Berlin and raised Bosnian Muslim SS Divisions: the 13th and 21st Waffen SS Divisions who killed  Jews, Russians, Gypsies, and any other "sub humans".

 Reflecting:

 A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

 Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history. They really happened!!!

Do you remember?

1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim males.

3. In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where a fuse was lit on final approach, it was blown up shortly after landing by Muslim males.
4. In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome, with 33 people killed, when it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.

5. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.

6. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim males.

7. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.

8. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim males.

9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.

10. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.

11. In 1993 , the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim males.

12. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim males.

13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.

14. In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim males.

15. In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by---you guessed it was a--- Muslim male.

16. In 2013, Boston Marathon Bombing 4 Innocent people including a child killed, 264 injured by Muslim males.

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people.

Absolutely No Profiling!

They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old, Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males, alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Have the American people completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason???

Please share this with as many people as you can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices, the imposter POTUS Obama, John Kerry, Hilary Clinton and the rest of their ilk that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story 'Forrest Gump' so aptly put it, 'Stupid Is As Stupid Does'.

We would have been married 40 years today.

The Widows 40^th Anniversary

My skin,
starved for intimacy.
His hands:
so masculine,
and yet
so careful.
His chest:
burying my nose
in the hirsute warmth.
His lips:
a perfect, full, soft pink pout.

My soul,
hungry for a connection.
His eyes:
sweetly seductive hazel,
contained a knowledge of me
that I will never see again.
My brain:
an encyclopedic library
of our memories together.
His heart:
pumping our blood, life and love
throughout his body.  No more…

Now, decay:
The vessel returns
to dust.
Does the soul live on?
My legs, worn.
My feet, tired.
Looking and looking
for a sign
that part of him
is still out there
somewhere.

The heavens have been weeping
since the death of my beloved,
crying the tears I cannot cry.

A drop for every life he touched,
a drop for every sorrow I bore.

The wind’s rage measures his very time,
but nothing can halt what is gone,
what is done,
what was foretold.

The sun will come,
will warm my heart,
will make me smile.

Always I will look for the rain
to bring me back to this time,
beside him,
to weep for us.

Sleep is
my lover now

Sleep takes me to him.

As She Turns Sweet Sixteen on Sunday August 10, 2014

My Dearest Granddaughter

As you turn sixteen today, I know the Universe has special plans for you and I look forward to seeing how they will unfold. Remember to keep focused on the positive and good things in life and remember what is truly Important.

Sadly I have not been allowed to be around to dispense my grandmotherly advice for several years now, so I jotted down a few thoughts that might be worth remembering one day; even after I am gone. There is nothing new here. You have heard it all before. But maybe it will be helpful to have this collection of aphorisms all in one place. Happy sixteenth birthday my shining star!

Improve your vocabulary. Don't be afraid to learn new words, like "aphorism." Share your skittles. Bathe daily. Wash your hair at least 3 times a week. Brush your teeth after every meal. Floss. Respect your elders. Be kind to those less fortunate than you. Turn off lights. It's good practice for the time that is coming when you will pay your own bills. Use sunscreen(cancer runs high in our family). Write letters – real letters and not just emails or instant messages. Don't forget to send thank-you notes.

Be a good friend. If you have a good friend, consider yourself rich. Don't love money. Don't love things and use people to get them like so many I have known do. Love people and use things to show them. Study hard. Take vacations. Laugh. Marry someone who will help you do so.

Read something positive daily. Meditate on truth. Memorize it. Pray. Keep a journal. Say “I’m sorry” when you have done a wrong. Believe in forgiveness. Forgive. Think of something good EVERY Day. Remember heaven does exist.

Take risks, but only for the right reaons. Live dangerously while using common sense. Hope big; always be willing to take that leap of faith. Never compromise convictions. Never demand that others accept your mere opinions. Be sure what you believe. Be respectful toward authority. Evaluate what you are taught in the light of what is right and wrong. Remember to first do no harm.

Never underestimate the value of faith. Organize your life around its life. Help other people. Let other people help you. Listen more than you talk.

Don't underestimate the power of encouragement. It is easy to give and it goes a long way. Give away money. Not necessarily all of it but enough of it to remind yourself of how unimportant it is. Make eternal investments and by that I mean to invest in your own soul.

Never jump out of a tree unless you know where you are going to land but don’t be afraid to climb that tree. Do not doubt in the dark when those who love you taught you in the light. Sing. Dance; especially with your children.

Read good books, the kind that will make you a better person. Make them your friends. Especially read biographies. Teach your children to love reading.

Finally, impress on your children early in their lives the importance of visiting their grandparents regularly!  Grandparents need their grandchildren as much as their grandchildren need them, believe me… I know

This special time comes only once; turning Sweet Sixteen. Loving memories of yesterday; now a young lady now can be seen.
But in the eyes of your biggest fan (your Mom-mom), you are still a little girl
And time can't erase those wonder years; but the years have now made our little treasure into a precious pearl.

You are forever my treasure my Jessie bear.

So on this your special day, Mom-mom just wants to say Happy Birthday to you, my beautiful treasure, my  24^th wedding anniversary gift. And I wish you so with many more to come because you are wonderful.
I will love you till the stars fall from the sky.

Happy sweet 16 Jessica Marie  August 10, 2014