remembering

I MADE IT!!!!!

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hearts_sWords just don’t express all of the feelings that I have today, seeing all of the posts, comments, likes, presents, and joy that I am experiencing here on my 80th birthday.  Somehow I never was that sure that I would actually make this birthday a reality.  For 62 of those years I have been an adult, and just about everything that I ever really wanted to do, I have at least tried.  I have been married for 57 of those years, but it has taken three husbands to do it. Children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren have surrounded me most of my life.  I have lived in many different states, traveled whenever I had the opportunity, lived in mobile homes, apartments, houses, and even a camper during summer work in the Colorado mountains. My work usually took me to offices or banks or libraries, where I always enjoyed my work and the contacts with so many people.  For eight years I sold fruit at the Farmers Market with my husband, Bob, a lifelong farmer.  Now I am a writer, a poet,  a meditator, an avid reader, in love with my Ipad, and all of the wonderful things I can do with it, and the friends that I can meet. 

Having a major birthday is a great time to look around me, both to look back, and to look forward, and to see all of the blessings that surround me.  Thank you all my friends and family.  When I look at all of the names on the posts, I see all of the various stages of my life, and I wouldn’t get rid of any of them.  While there are always things that I could have done differently and much better, I am really happy to have arrived at this point, and know that all is well, no matter what. 

THE COMPROMISE

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2012 panasonic florida 163

THE COMPROMISE

 

I said, I’ll do this if you’ll do that.

Nothing else seems to work.

Does this seem fair to you?

And you thought it over, and first you said maybe,

And I held my breath and said, that’s not good enough.

Life is full of compromises

And commitment is what I need.

Either you will or you won’t,

Either you can or you can’t,

Either you choose to, or not.

We all make choices.

So do we choose to compromise?

Finally you said yes,

And so began a new way of looking at things.

THINKING ABOUT MY YESTERDAYS

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Hot summer days lying on the beach,

Running and diving into the waves of an ever cool Lake Michigan,

Getting pulled off of our feet by the strong undertow of the water,

Riding our bikes without an adult on the five mile trip to the beach,

Curled up in the crotch of our biggest oak tree, reading my favorite book,

Playing hop scotch on the sidewalk on our city streets,

Walking to school so that we could do tricks on the Jungle Gym,

Cleaning Venetian  blinds for my mother with a mitten on my hand,

Working in our vegetable garden, pulling tomato worms off of the vines,

Picnics at a roadside park when we went for a Sunday afternoon drive,

Remembering the heat in church and all of the ladies fanning themselves,

Roasting hot dogs and marsh mellows at a bonfire at the State Park.

Watching the double features at the movie theaters downtown,

Eating a hot fudge sundae at the old Occidental Hotel ice cream shop after the show,

Listening to my serial radio shows like “Superman” every weekday afternoon,

Cleaning my room under protest, every Saturday morning,

Watching the Muskegon Lassies play softball, as part of the “Knothole Gang”‘

As I sit here on another summer moPanasonic Misc 2012 698rning I remember anew

my parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, my  family and friends,

All of whom gave me a wonderful childhood to look back at and to be grateful for.

Those were the days, my friends, those were the days!