blessmyendeavors

This time of year is a flurry of activity. Shopping, cooking, baking, wrapping gifts, parties, visiting relatives … so much going on. But let’s step back from all that; let’s look at adding a new item to your holiday preparations; …. let’s get ready for the new year.
My great-grandmother used to say that whatever your condition is on New Year’s day is how you will spend your year. Now, I know many of us spend it exhausted; grateful the last celebration is over, and maybe already worrying what it’s cost us.

My plan is already unfolding; I spend this month and December cleaning my house from top to bottom; working to get my bills caught up; stashing money in a savings account, and some for our pockets, ( never mind the amount, a 20 dollar bill will do ); and , my biggest stumbling block…laundry caught up, folded, and put away..! Don’t laugh; I’m sure you have stumbling blocks, too !
My point is, on New Year’s Day, I start my year with a clean house, money saved and money in my pocket, hopefully with bills caught up, and my chores done. That is how I want my entire year to go. Is this just working on the power of positive thinking? Probably so, but it’s not a bad plan.

We have two other New Year traditions here as well, and I’ll describe them to you now.

Right before midnight, we sit down and recall happy occasions that fill us up with happiness and warmth; the happiest moment you can recall; maybe the one thing that makes you want to jump up and dance just from sheer joy, or hug someone close…. whatever your moment is, savor it… and write a check for whatever you honestly feel you could REALISTICALLY earn in the coming year. Make the check out to The Lady Bountiful, and in the memo write ” bless all my endeavors “. Then, fold the check up and hide it deep in your wallet. We have never failed to earn three times the amount of that check in the new year.

Ok, next tradition. During your holiday shopping sprees gather a few things, or craft them, or take parts as souvenirs from parties. Here’s the list…: a cinnamon broom, a small bouquet of flowers ( dried or artificial ), a good luck charm of your choice, a bundle of Indian corn, or sheaf of wheat from a local store, a small bag of coins ( I use pennies and nickels ), and bind it all to the broom with bright ribbons and glue, if needed. Once it’s arranged to your liking and all pieces are secure on the broom, hang it on your front door. The idea is this..: grain, so you never go hungry; coins, so you never go broke; flowers and ribbons for beauty in your life; the charm to bring you luck; all bound to a sweet-smelling broom that sweeps misfortune from your door.
And be sure it’s only on the front door, so bad luck can run out the back one !

Again, all this is the power of positive thinking, and doesn’t it feel good to feel so ready to face the coming year prepared for whatever it holds?

The song comes to mind..” I was country, when country wasn’t cool”. I married a man, 14 years ago, who was 14 years my junior. We met at a haunted house attraction; he was standing on a pile of sandbags , fists on his hips, surveying his kingdom. I took one look and smiled. My son, who is only 6 years younger than my husband, walked up to me laughing and asked if I was admiring the ” spiderman”…. I said ” yes, thats the man I’m going to marry.” My son laughed, but in June, he walked me down the aisle to hand me over to my new life. I didn’t look at age; I only looked at him .

We have had a life of ups and downs, as all marriages have; some problems might have been age related, but most, I think, are just the same kind of troubles most marriages have. We’ve fought over finances, girls chasing him…( he is an minor celebrity in our area, being a horror actor ) We’ve fought over the amount of time he’s spent playing games on computers.

But let me tell you what we don’t fight over….. a ferret escaping her cage and waking us up with a tiny cold nose stuck in an ear; being woke up at 4 am to take a hurt cat I found on the way to work to an emergency vet clinic; TV shows, current events, hiking, caving, fishing ….. Once, when times were really bad, I told a friend, ” if he did anything really bad, I’d be done…but he don’t drink, do drugs, skip work, beat me, insult me…he comes home and hands me his entire pay without complaint…. ” Times were bad, but not as bad as some have it. We stuck together and worked on our problems, didn’t avoid them , didn’t ignore them; we worked on our marriage together, and today we have a good one.

And now I hear I’m a cougar. I can’t help but laugh as I hear that term. What I really am is just a lucky wife. When cute college girls come to greet him and get their picture with him, I step aside and let him have his space; once the photo is taken, he gently sets the little cutie aside and reaches for my hand. He will continue to speak to them, but he makes it clear I am the only one that stands with him in life. After 14 years of marriage, we are not only husband and wife, we are best friends. We are still together because we LIKE each other. We like to be with each other.

When I had a stroke last year, he stayed at my side day and night, falling asleep at my bedside holding my hand. When he brought me home from the hospital he helped me lovingly with all the new issues I faced. As I stood at the head of the stairs waiting for him to join me , I realized I was truly trapped on my second floor without his aid. I needed him now in a way I hadn’t needed him before, and he didn’t let me down. Now I’m mostly recovered and we still have fun, but he watches me with a new look in his eyes. He knows how close he came to losing me. I know how much I still want to be with him.

I’m a cougar and he’s my boy toy…. * just dies laughing * …. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As I sit watching the morning shows  I see the govenor is in the limelight again, and the prostitute who served him.  I will say this , people:  I see nothing wrong with prostituion.  Its been around since the beginning of time, and will continue until human time ends.  Why fight it?

I think it should be legalized and run like a business; monitored by laws that are geared to protection of those using it.   People have so many hangups on sex in our world;  yet people keep selling it as long as others will keep buying it.  And beleive me, there are buyers;  I don’t care what any man says, if you buy a woman dinner and hope you are going to get laid, you paid for the HOPE of sex, if not sex itself.  why not make it a legal business?   I have little doubt it will affect the sex crimes; some will still occur, but it would help so many other things.   Men wouldn’t get driven to breaking a law just for sexual release.  Women wouldn’t be breaking laws to help them.   Its not going to stop, ever.

But look at what it could ease, if not stop all together.:..human trafficking in the US, based on prostition;  hookers risking their health and lives by working in an unsafe environment; disease control;  ”johns” getting mugged or beaten up by thugs while they seek some sexual satisfaction.

Look at the income from taxes , too.  Lord knows the US would loveeeeee those tax dollars.  Run like a proper business, taking it from the seedy dregs of our cities and putting it in a snug, sheltered place and making it socially acceptable could only benefit our country…  IF it was done right…. descretely operated, properly maintained workers.  Yes, it would still be hard to get past the social stigmas we’ve built in our country, but I still think the gains would be worth it. Face it , America…its not going away, ever.

I understand parents wanting their children to have a good life.  What I get tired of hearing is how they want their children to have everything “they”..( the parents) didn’t have.   I have to wonder why.  As adults, we don’t get everything we want; why would you raise your children to think they will get everything they want?    Then , too, I have to wonder…do your children really want those things, or is it a need/ desire you are creating in them as you still harbor resentments over things you couldn’t have as a child without ever asking “why?”.
There are many good reasons for not overindulging children , just as there are many good reasons for not overindulging ourselves.  I always thought if we satisfy our needs first, and have a little left over to satisfy a “want”, we are doing well.  Let’s face it, we live in an age of blatant commercialism, and consumerism…and we have an off-shoot of gluttony that has led to casual disposal of many things that are still quite usable.  Teaching our children to not want every shiney package, not to beleive every overly commercialized  claim, is a greater gift than all the possessions their rooms could hold.   I’m not advocating miserly denial, I’m just suggesting a nice major gift, a few small things to amuse, and plans to teach the children economics throughout the year.

Its really a gift, to teach your children to live within a budget; to decide on something to work for,  and learn to strive to  get it.  Plus, they tend to appreciate it more.  The thing I see as the greatest problem though, are parents who haven’t learned these things themselves.  Its a problem that feeds on itself, each generation stepping farther and farther from the frugal years and fears handed down by parents and grandparents who suffered through the Great Depression.  We tread dangerously close to the edge of another one, and it is striking many people hard as they cannot even keep their homes, let alone think of extravagant christmas spending.   Its time to learn the old ways we left behind, the days when we learned the word ” no”, may not have been the tragedy our juvenile minds remembered.  Maybe, if we look back as adults, we might find our parents were on the right track.

Like many, I sat in my living room and listened to all that was said in the run for presidant, and I can’t say I wasn’t ready for some changes. Sometimes, change is good; sometimes changes aren’t all we desired them to be; sometimes…change sucks. I’m getting older now; I’m prone to looking back at the way things were when I was young, and , in the way of the aging … I get wistful. Now , I realize not all things that annoyed me as a child were bad. I realize not all things that ticked me off as a young adult were bad.

Now, I look back and realize things have changed a lot, and not all the changes were needed, nor good; welcome as they might have been when they occured. I like that as a woman my world opened up. I like that as a single mother I didn’t have to run to get married, or make up lies to cover my indescretion, or raise my son under a cloud of shame, nor give him up to be raised by another just to preserve my family’s honor. Those were good changes in our way of life. I kept my child and raised him the best way I knew how, and I was rewarded a few times over the years with his wails and gripes.

” Mom, I’m not sure you did this right…you raised me to have manners and morals. Do you have any idea how difficult that makes life some days ?!? ”

That one made me laugh. Yes, son, I do know how hard that can make life. We aren’t perfect; none of us, all we can do is try to be as good as we can be.

I raised him to have respect for others; for their ways; their lives; their traditions; their ethnicity. Yes, it makes life harder in some ways, but in others it makes life much more rewarding. Mr Obama touts responsibility. I agree; I think all of us have a responsibility to so many people in our lives, and to ourselves. But along with responsibility , Mr. Obama, I’d like to see a return to respect as well. Respect along with responsiblity.

Some days I feel like there is so much wrong with our country that I couldn’t even find a place to begin if someone would ask me where shall we begin in an effort to fix things. I think it begins with the children; I think the children need to be concentrating on learning respect once again, along with responsibility. I would like to begin with the American Flag. How many of you readers know how the proper ways are in handling the symbol of our country? How many know how to display it? How many know how to take it down and fold it ?
I would say, lets begin there. Let’s begin with learning to show our flag the respect its due. Let’s go back to school and make hanging up the flag in the morning a ritual to be proud of, and removing it each night an honor for the students. I’d advocate not just the students who excel in school as earning the right; I think its important for each child to take a turn. I remember students in my small home town school taking turns getting the flag from a stand in the corner of the classroom and holding it before the class as we stood, hand over our hearts, and recited the Pledge of Alliegiance. Sometimes we would sing ” America the Beautiful,” just to stir our blood, wake us up. No one complained about it; we all did it because it was our way of showing respect to our country. I really wonder how many now even know the words. For those who don’t, here you go. For those who do…let’s sing !

http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/americathebeautiful.html

 Everyone has opinions, these are mine, and only reflect my view of the world.  Everyone has a right to their opinion, I’m told.  If you don’t like mine,  I don’t mind you debating your view; let’s debate like sensible adults and have some fun.