🎉🎈 2022
January FROM MY PERSPECTIVE 🎈🎉
Oh my!!! A brand new year has come! The year of 2021 was eventful, some painful
moments, but blessed. I’m sure most of
you can identify with all that. I’ve
found that moments of discomfort/tribulation provide me with more moments of
strength---some even producing wisdom and insight. It’s difficult to appreciate the tough
moments---some would think one was nutz when they do. I hope, for all of you, you have more moments
of smiles and warm feelings than you do the tribulations this year.
“Hi Aint Daisy!!!
It’s me with some freshly made bread and apple butter.” “Well, well, well, what a nice surprise. Come on in and set yourself down. I’ll be with you shortly,” she called
out. I sat down and looked at a needle
work picture hung in her living room across from the overstuffed, floral couch
we usually sat on. It said, "On this road called LIFE…You have to take
the good with the bad, smile when you’re sad, love what you’ve got, and
remember what you had. Always forgive,
but never forget, learn from your mistakes.
People change. Things go wrong. But, just remember, the ride goes on." I asked her where she got it. She told me
she'd made it when she was a young girl; her mother had often said the words to
all her children. So, she put them in a needle work piece to always have. More
wisdom from two ladies of the holler.
Brenduhh called me about 8:45 a.m. on a very nice
sunny morning. She was trying to turn on
her computer, but it would not turn on.
I asked her if the computer and monitor were plugged-in. She said they were. I asked her if all the connections in the
back of the tower were plugged-in. She
asked me to wait while she got a flashlight.
“Why do you need a flashlight to check the back?” I questioned. “Well, I NEED one because I got a message on
my cell phone from the electric company that the electricity would be off at my
house until 10:30 a.m. today. I’m glad I’d had 2 cups of strong coffee before
she called.
I come from an era where,
"Keep talking" meant you'd better hush. Well, that was o.k.
with me until Mother would tell me to "Keep talking," and mean
it. I got confused at times. Then, there was, "You have another
think coming." O.K. so I would think some more, express my thought,
and get reprimanded. When I told her, "You told me I had another
think coming, so I thought again and told you. Why are you mad at
me?"---more confusion. I think the best confusion was when she'd
say, "Oh, do what you want to," so I would and get in trouble because
I obeyed what she told me to do.
At Christmas I had a few
festive cards with pictures of the sender’s tree and all the decorations they’d
taken the time to place on it. I sat
there looking at the tree IKEA sent me (a box of pine needles) complete with
decorations printed on heavy paper to cut out, color, and glue together.
When my 28 year old son
was little, we would sometimes go over a very high bridge to get home. We were at the top of the bridge one day when
he said, “Mom!!! I think I can see
God.” I told him, “Well, talk to
Him.” A monologue started and ended
with, “Amen.” Thank you, God for
listening to that young man. He’s on his
way to being terrific, and this mom is so proud.
I went to a meeting one
day. I felt something was off with my
dressing. I looked down at my feet and
saw I’d not put on shoes; I was wearing my house slippers. I felt I should have been at Walmart.
A person who plans to do
you harm in your vehicle can not if you put a few big dogs who like to smile at
people in your back seat.
If you plan to serve a
veggie your children do not like, make sure you puree it and put it in a sauce
mixed in with macaroni and lots of cheese. Or, smother it into the bottom
of the garbage in the kitchen. If the dog won't eat it, neither will the
kids.
If you're inundated with
calls about your car warranty/computer/windows/phone service, tell the caller
you don't have what they're trying to sell you. So far, I don't have a
computer nor know how to operate one, live in a cave, ride a horse for
transportation, or send smoke signals for communication.
I have a friend who is so
obsessed with exercising that she will run or ride her bike in the cruelest of
weather---rain or snow, hot or freezing.
She also has exercising equipment at home. The other day she called me all proud of
herself telling me, “Trudy, I just did a 7 a.m. yoga television class, 8 a.m.
television zumba class, and worked out for a half hour on my Peloton. I feel so good!!!” I listened carefully as I stirred my coffee
with a peppermint candy cane, buttered and ate a 5 inch wide, home- made
cinnamon-pecan roll. I felt so good,
too.
I have a
girlfriend who has just about the same reasoning for things her husband does,
as I do. She told me he, all too
frequently, would empty a carton of eggs and not tell her or replace it; eat
the last piece of cheese and not replace it; use all the toothpaste and not
replace it; use all the toilet paper and not replace it, or eat the last amount
of peanut butter---you know, the “glue” that holds kids together?—and not
replace it or tell her. Her children
require pure, nothing added, peanut butter. When she opens a jar, she puts in
honey and kosher salt to make it palatable for all of them; this takes a bit of
time to blend to the right consistency.
It was a harried school morning and she had to fix some lunches. She reached for the container of peanut butter, but found it to be empty. She asked her hubby if he’d eaten it. He told her he’d had a peanut butter sandwich
the night before. She was rather angry
with him, so she made her plan to teach him a lesson. The next day she asked him if she may borrow
his car. She drove everywhere she could
think of until the tank was just a few gallons until empty (they have an
indicator that tells how many gallons are left and how many more miles to
go). She came home and didn’t say a
thing. That evening he was running late
to an important meeting quite a distance away; got in his car, and then came
into the house roaring, “Why didn’t you fill up the gas tank when you emptied
all the gasoline out of it?” She crossed
her arms and returned the question, “Why didn’t you replace the EMPTY tube of toothpaste, the EMPTY package of cheese, the EMPTY carton of eggs, the EMPTY roll of toilet paper, the EMPTY juice carton, the EMPTY jar of peanut butter, or all the
other things you EMPTY and don’t
replace with a full one? Now you know how I feel, so learn from it!” She tells me things are usually full which he
has used since that day of reckoning.
Hendecagon: an
eleven-sided polygon. Another name for
hendecagon is undecagon. A solid having eleven faces is called a hendecahedron
or an undecahedron. The Canadian dollar
coin, nicknamed “Loonie”, is a hendecagon.
If you’re able to put holes in it, blow through the holes and make music
that is known as a Loonie tune. Oh I
know!! I just couldn’t resist.
Some thoughts for a new year: "Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in
a new direction." "Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing,
it's about doing, being and becoming." "I like the dreams of the
future better than the history of the past." “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” “Every day is an invitation to something good
will happen to you. A smile is good.”
Peace, smiles, and kindness to you for all year. Always, Trudy
