Sara by Stevie Nicks

Oh Sara, you're the poet in my heart
Never change, and don't you ever stop...

All I ever wanted
Was to know that you were dreaming
There is a heartbeat, no it never really died
You never really died (oh, Sara)...

All I ever wanted
Was to know that you were dreaming.

Thanksgiving 2018

The thanksgiving I observe reflects this sentiment:

'President Lincoln declared a thanksgiving day in 1863 on the last Thursday of November, which continued annually from then till now. This was done in the midst of the Civil War and was designed for thanksgiving for blessings, penitence for the nation’s sins, and prayers for the wounded soldiers and the widows and orphans of the fallen. Lincoln prayed that God would “heal the wounds of the nation and restore it.” '

I aspire to empathy and I am sensitive to those who would find offensive the construction paper pilgrim hats and war feathers of my youth. If that was all we knew and celebrated of Thanksgiving, it would indeed be a travesty.

Being grateful for one's life blessings is a universal value and celebrated in virtually all cultures and faith traditions. I refuse to feel guilty for being grateful.

In the spirit of Lincoln's proclamation, I have for the last 15-20 years or so - in my dotage - aspired to meditate and use this time for introspection and self-awareness.

Today, I spent with my Mom. We worked a jigsaw; we giggled; we planned; we evaluated our respective charitable contributions for the year; and we sympathized with others who we thought of during our time together.

I thank my God on every remembrance of each one of you who I call FB friend. (paraphrased from Philippians 1:3)

Here is the source for the quote I shared: (https://publicholidays.us/thanksgiving-day/).

Father's Day 2018

Everything I need to know to succeed in life, I learned from a man I called Daddy (and who hundreds of "shop" students called Mr. Ashby). That doesn't mean I learned them at the time he taught them. Many things have only become real to me later in life.

The most important thing I learned is to "use the right tool for the job". I only realized in my 40's that this applied to mental tools and maxims, too. That was when I had my "Aha" moment that all those Daddy-isms that seemed to contradict each other were never intended to be applied across the board. That moment was when I learned another lesson best expressed in this quote from Picasso: "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."

Here are some of those seemingly contradicting Daddy-isms that I learned that make so much sense to me now. Now that I understand - it's not enough to have a tool box full of tools. One graduates from journeyman to master when one knows which tool to use.

From the best teacher I ever knew...

• Great minds think alike.

• A wise man changes his mind; a fool never does.

• If you want it done right, do it yourself.

• Anything less than your best is failure.

• Good enough for government work.

• Good enough for the girl I go with.

• Measure twice, cut once.

• Study long, study wrong.

• I was looking for a job when I found this one.

• If it is to be, it is up to me. (10 2-letter words to change the world.)

• You can get a lot more done if you don't stress about who gets the credit.

• My right to swing my fist ends at your nose.

• I may not like what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

• Well…a deep thought for a shallow mind.

• Your ignorance is showing.

• Never try to kiss a girl leaning away from you. Never try to climb a ladder leaning toward you. Don't spit in the wind. Always watch channel 5 News and Weather.

• Good fences make good neighbors.

Stream of consciousness

I'm sitting in a bar. 15 minutes to tennis courts. 65 minutes to get there. Some techno music on the sound system. Sports news on the abundant TVs.+

I'm sitting in my USA Quidditch t-shirt for reasons outside this particular consciousness steam. Talked to my sister about how to solve a particular little relationship puzzle involving her son, the registration papers on a car given him by his distant father and the need to preserve a fragile detente in support of having everyone who said son loves at his upcoming graduation and to have them civil and likable to one another. I think we nailed it.

Wondering why there's a Cowboys bandana hanging above the bar when it's April and 2 other Dallas teams are currently in the playoffs. (Hockey and Basketball)

Also wondering why the interim between work and tennis compels me to want to write and yet leaves me feeling rushed and unable to organize my thoughts.

Waiting for tennis, thinking about connecting the dots

I was reading back over my post yesterday. It was hurried and it fails to make the point I was trying to make. But it made a couple of other good points, so I'm not going to mess with it.

Going back to the subject of context, I'll repeat that I don't expect to find a profound meaning by connecting the dots between the random things that happen to me. (I'm not ruling that out either, though!) Instead, my point is that by seeing patterns and themes in the random things that happen to us, we can learn things. We can learn things about ourselves. We can learn things about our world. We can learn things about each other.

That's what I meant when I said, "finding meaning where there is none."

And in the words of Forest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."

Finding context where none exists

I was driving to tennis tonight and had a hankering for donuts. I recalled a Krispy Kreme just a few blocks out of my way. So I detoured, ordered 2 traditional glazed and wondered.

I wondered because, like you probably do, I travel through life on most days in a very disconnected, disjointed pattern that makes sense only to myself.

But most days themes pop up. And I've decided to start trying to find those themes every day.

It's not so much that I'm looking for meaning. Honestly. I don't believe the world is trying to speak to me or any such nonsense. (Although I do believe in God and that He is speaking to me) Instead, the plan is to insert meaning where there is none.

For example, donuts made me think about context. (BTW context means "the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning"). So, maybe the next time I crave a donut, I can stop to think of the context. What happened before? What happened after?

Another thought about context. I saw a meme today about the # 24. (Kobe Bryant, Jeff Gordon, some other sports figures I didn't know). This put my dear ShyAnn in context. She was a young light taken from this world too soon. She wore #24 in her too brief basketball career. It's not as though those other figures' fame gives context to her life. It's that her life gives me a rich context to appreciate those other people.

Context. Themes. The texture and flavor that we can enjoy living in a fast-paced, multi-media world when we take the time to connect the dots!

Tiny Home Living (small home living) - Part 2

In this post, I'll talk about the floor plan.

We bought a shell from Graceland. (See their website here: http://www.gracelandportablebuildings.com/)

We liked Graceland because of the quality of the traditional 2x4 construction. The shell we bought was already on their lot. It had been ordered and the purchaser's deal fell through. So, we got a good price. However, this meant we had to accept the external walls as is. That meant that I had to work with the position of the 3 front windows, the one on the end wall to the left of the front door and the front door itself. We added the window in the bedroom and the back door ourselves. The back window shown in the floor plan never materialized. That is our West wall and - in Texas - not a wall to be messed with.

The internal walls were our design (and our handiwork).

There are some furniture pieces missing from the drawing. My cute farm-style breakfast table is located just to the left of the front door. My adjustable stand-up computer desk is located straight back from the front door in the corner created by the bathroom wall. My granny's antique buffet is in the corner to the right of the back door (instead of the aforementioned window that never materialized). My mother's antique steamer trunk is beside the entertainment center in the living room. My husband's grandfather's cedar chest is behind the couch instead of the buffet (as shown).

The bathroom is spacious and one of the things I'd do differently is try to save space by making it smaller - somehow.

The vision for the bedroom is a bunch of built-ins and his-and-hers closets opposite one another as shown. To date, the cabinets and one closet (hers) are finished - with drawers and the second closet still to come. Currently, we just use the cabinets like shelves without drawers.

The kitchen isn't finished as shown. It is currently missing the cabinets on the interior wall. We also didn't do the corner on the interior wall. We simply stopped the counter at that wall. So, we have more of an L-shaped kitchen rather than a U-shape. But it is HUGE, so there is still plenty of room and time to add the cabinets to make it a U-shape.