A Special Find

I enjoy used book sales, and our library has one every year in the bowels of the building that seems to be overflowing with tables that only really attempt to contain the mountains of books they have to sell.  This year I went from room to room, and table to table enjoying the feel, the smell, and of course the many titles that were there for perusing and buying.  To me, a book is alive with the thoughts and friends that people the flat worlds on its pages and I enjoy the discoveries I make at events like this one.

There were three books I picked up while getting to know some of the toms that leaned together on those tables to make a part of my very small collection (I haven't much room, so I have to truly love a book to make it part of my family.).  One of the books was a small gem that I know I'll be quoting from for a long time.

Leo Buscaglia was a college professor who was loved by his students, and also by the many viewers who got to share in his lectures that were taped and shown on PBS stations around the country during their pledge drives over the years.  Known as Dr. Hug, he spread a message of love...love by stepping out of yourself and really getting involved with people you come in contact with, as well as with life itself.

He touched my own life through those lectures.  I use to watch them in the middle of the night during pledge drives from my local PBS station.  Often repeated over the years, those lectures were absorbed and loved by many who saw his message as totally opposite of what we're hearing from leaders now so many years later.  Today, we are told that this group is evil, or that group is out to get us.  Maybe so...but how does that kind of fear help us, or change anything?  Reaching out from your heart is the ONLY way to change lives and often times that can cost you everything, but it also can change everything.

Leo caught me unaware in the depths of a nasty part of my life and changed the way I look at the world, and live in it.  I can honestly say that it changed the way I look at the people around me every single day.  When I began to read this tiny book called Papa, My Father, I was once again drawn in by how the man lived his life, what he said, and how he used examples from his own family to tell a story about what is really important in life.  I laughed and giggled in parts, and did more than just feel like crying in others.  He often would cut his own life open so you could see everything.  It was the way he shared what gifts he had to give to the world.

I finished the book yesterday and the last few lines in one of the last chapters have become my own life's mantra.  Words on a page are nothing until you somehow chew on them a while, and digest and find that warm glow of life from them for your own life.

A Code For Life
by Dr. Leo Buscaglia
Dance, sing and laugh a lot.
All things are related.
Don't waste time trying to reason with pain, suffering, life, and death.
An animated person animates the world.
Find a quiet place for yourself.
Don't ever betray yourself.
Birth and death are part of a cycle.  Neither begins or ends with you.
Stay close to your God.
It's crucial to love.
Idealism is strength, not a weakness.
People are good if you give them a chance to be.
Discrimination, for any reason, is wrong.
Self-respect is essential for life.
Except in the eyes of God, people are not created equal, so we are 
       all responsible for those who can't help themselves.
Cruelty is a sign of weakness.
Commitment and caring are the basic ingredients of love.
Love is indestructible and therefore the most powerful human force.
Change is inevitable.
People who think they know it all can be dangerous.

I know my motto is a bit long, but I think it really says it all.

Thanks for the reminder, Leo.

Celebrate!

The season of giving thanks has begun, and I have had the first chance to be the one who gets to say thank you for something very special - being remembered. Yes, simply for being remembered.

For me, the best gifts have always been just being surrounded by my family and celebrating all we have and that includes our personal and of course those national Holidays as well.

Today I received the gift of good wishes with love, and I am celebrating! There are two days until our Thanksgiving Day here in the States and I am beginning the Holidays out right - giving many thanks along with a few wishes for the same blessings to all who frequent my little part of the world here!

I wish everyone a blessed and meaningful day to give thanks for what we have, and for the friends and family we know both near and far.

A Really Special Surprise

In case you haven't seen it yet in my writings, I LOVE Celtic music! There are quite a few Celtic music festivals throughout the summer and fall here and I've always said that I was going to go to them...but just could not justify the cost of the tickets. The best of these local fests in my opinion (because of the great groups that frequent it's stages) is in Muskegon and I have longed for years to join those who go get to enjoy the music in mid-September.

Well, today I began the day by walking with a friend, and then took off and did some errands. When I came home I stopped to get the mail, and went out back and loved our dogs in their run a bit before I went to the back door and opened it. Out flew a brochure for this great festival. I was a bit surprised since we live a full 30 miles South of Muskegon and I did not think we were really in the immediate area to get these flyer's. As I bent down and to pick-up the flyer I realized there was something inside and flopped open the first page of the brochure and there lay four tickets for the whole three days and nights of this above mentioned festival!

I quickly stood up and looked around - who might have done this? I found no name or hint of who might have done this but I have to say I am totally excited! I'm going to grab a few grandkids and my youngest son and we are going to share the days and I am sure have a great time listening to the best music in the world next weekend!!!

A Gentle Walk

I walked with a girlfriend today. Actually we walked from our respective homes and met in the middle then walked back to my house (This time it was mine.). For various reasons I am having to walk slower than normal and so I did what many little kids do when walking - I looked down at the road and then all around and observed all that was around where I normally walk.

I found out that the yards in my neighborhood look like those in the 1960s: there has been very little lawn fertilizing being done and there are varying shades of green being mown like grass these days. I have to say there is nothing wrong with that either! (35 mile-an-hour lawns are great!) Unless someone is trying to impress the boss, spreading fetilizer can end up costing lots of money during these tight money times that could be saved toward family or household emergencies.

I also was strolling on a day just after a rain filled day and the puddles held an assortment of stones and wild things. In many of these sub division these urban water holes contain a multitude of things - like seeds sprouting. Watching the various dog walkers (and runners!) taking their fuzzy friends walking and stopping to chat made it easy to meet those neighbors I haven't seen all winter long.

My observations? I need to slow the walk (or run!) once in a while! It might give you a view of the world that I miss. It sure did for me!

Life on the Walk

If I could run...I would! So instead, I am walking with my very old fuzzy friend who always starts out fairly fast and then slows to a crawl on our return trip. Tonight it was cool enough out to wear my polar-tech. We are having a wonderfully cool spring and I am really enjoying this outside working weather! I guess I'm not a hot and humidity lovin' gal.

I want so badly to start digging in my garden since I have one corner left that needs work and it is totally covered with grass...but the doctor says not yet, and so I walk.

I saw at least 10 different kinds of birds in the trees and the singing in my opinion was the most beautiful orchestra nature could ever create. There is something about the springtime and those bird songs that say everything is really new again.

There are quite a few houses on our block that are empty which is so hard for me to see. It makes me think of all the families that are displaced and facing an uncertain future. Michigan has been hit so hard, and though my own family is right there in many ways, I really feel blessed because there are so many more who have truly lost everything.

This stroll down our street has brought me back to how thankful I am that it is spring - that time for new beginnings. I hope there really will be change and better times ahead for all of us here who are, according to our governor are at rock bottom.

Here's to hope. A hope that springs up as our world here in the Midwest hopefully will come back to new beginnings with the blossoms of spring.