It's to the Rooms We Hold Dear Thing

Dear America,

"How to be happy when you are miserable.  

Plant Japanese poppies 

with cornflowers and mignonette, 

and bed out the petunias 

among the sweet-peas

 so that they shall scent each other.  

See the sweet-peas coming up.  

Drink very good tea 

out of a thin Worcester cup 

of a colour between 

apricot and pink." 

Rumer Godden, writer
#301 "Nothing is worth more than this day." By Katharine and Ross Petras

this is my mom, if she were living in a verse.

and in this morning, as I think mom thoughts, and wishing I could just beam myself over to see her, to drink very good tea, in a dainty Worcester cup. in the living room that shelters and safeguards nearly sixty years of marriage and family and seasons, and thinking she would be most happy to know, that at the ripe old age of fifty-something-something, that her girl has finally come upon a worthy goal to take her places unknown:  writing four blogs in the next four days!  teehee

I know!  Crazy, right! it's a sizable mission, considering my pace has been a wee bit non-existent of late.  

but i just got to thinking, given this will be blog #997 if it ever gets to print, i will have only a few more to go to reach the number i have waited for, for so long; and likewise, given that this blog's divine birth -- it's very intention from the beginning -- has rested in the hearts and minds and arms of our country's founders, it just seems natural for this momentous occasion to coincide with Mother's Day.

Bearing in mind the labor of love that this process has become, the idea of actually coming to the intersection of ten years and one thousand blogs is a longitude and latitude that simply takes my breath away.  

I love this Rumer Godden quote, above; it fits quite nicely with another favorite of mine, "Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea."  --  anonymous.

Rumer seems like a woman i would have loved to have known.  In the bio, linked above, it mentions:

One of her favourite axioms came from an Indian proverb that says - "everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person". She quotes this in her autobiography A House with Four Rooms.

and as I breathe in these words, on this rather atypical day in May -- with a light rain misting over the landscape outside my four walls, housing my four rooms,  I'm realizing that quite possibly, she, in accordance to the ancient Indian proverb, may have missed one;   considering the conversation we've been having here on the old G thing, what about the space we place for the fifth room, of the political realm?

and indeed, it is... just one more room to air out from time to time.

[and proving to be a perfect candidate for Marie Kondo every single day.... but i digress]

on this day, i love that a cup of tea can take me back to memories spanning my fifty-something years, to sitting across the room and seeing my mama in her favorite chair, drinking anything from a cup of jasmine tea to a Manhattan.  

in a sense, i can feel as if I'm living in the comfort of all four/five of my rooms, whenever in the company of her.

it's the same feeling i have when sitting in my corner window, under the shadow of a giant eucalyptus, watching the neighborhood come to life in the morning, drinking coffee. 

our rooms are defined by what we value, and expressed through our relationships; our rooms converge, and even overlap, by seasonal whims of life and times; but for the most part, our rooms are private, sacred to our own heart, our own mind, our own destiny, designed and divined by God.

...and right on cue and just as the day should have it-- my girl and i just finished a sweet conversation.  She often calls during her lunch time, my mid-morning...
....hanging up, my thoughts have spun into realizing my baby girl has her own rooms, and then some.  What an honor it is to be her mama.

Did she choose me? 
Did I choose mine? 

I would like to think it was a collaboration with God, as God awoke one day and decided to play in His Garden and...... Plant Japanese poppies 

with cornflowers and mignonette, 

and bed out the petunias 

among the sweet-peas

 so that they shall scent each other.  

See the sweet-peas coming up.  

Drink very good tea 

out of a thin Worcester cup 

of a colour between 

apricot and pink.

...and plant a consciousness within us all to know God
in relationship with the floor plan of our lives, our own rooms.

no four/five rooms are designed the same.

the thing is, i never know what the day will bring on this day in the life of an American Girl.

it's my diary and i can do what i want, say what i want, feel what i want -- and have! --  nearly a thousand times over.

America -- a mansion in many ways --  is a family-centered culture because family gives us a sense of security and wealth in ways unimaginable; a strong, healthy, loving, happy family is priceless, in terms of its possible return upon society.

to which, this day, i give my honor.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Enough and Not Enough Meeting Up With Providence Thing

Dear America,

"At some point in life

 the world's beauty is enough. 

You don't need to

 photograph, paint, 

or even remember it.  

It is enough."  

Toni Morrison, writer

exactly, and thank you, Kathryn and Ross Petras, for another random opening of your little book -- "Nothing is worth more than this day." -- that elevates a sense of calm and awe, simultaneously; all we must do is close our eyes and breathe the words in, and let the osmosis begin.

To characterize this in a moment, it feels like Tiger Woods on the eighteenth hole and sinking his little putt in for the win...releasing twenty two years and a whole host of demons into the dust. Feel quite certain, everyone who witnessed the occasion came away with tears, and cheers, for all the world to hear.  

In great contrast, witnessing the horror of the Notre Dame Chapel with flames higher than its steeple brought us to our knees, realizing that this awesome thing of beauty, history, significance and grace, will never ever be the same.  If you had the luxury of seeing it live and in person, before yesterday, than that vision is captured within your heart for all of eternity; if, however, you are like me, and never have seen her, all that really remains true will be through other people's eyes, whether in photos, acrylics, or a story of a thousand words.

This girl is still wrestling with the heartache that only death of a good friend can bring.  And really, its not like we were incredibly close, it's more, perhaps, the reality of her beautiful life, gone in an instant, that intensifies the yearning for understanding, and searching for meaning, and wondering how in the world were Julie's fifty three years on this planet enough? 

But alas, I am not God.

The world's beauty must be enough just as it is, as it is right now, no matter what changes; for to think otherwise, would make ourselves culpable of a great sin, judging God Itself, and begging that an infinity of mea culpas might just be enough.

If we have breath, it is enough.

And better still, it may be everything.

Non sum qualis eram --  yes, this girl is alive, and "I am not the kind of person I once was."

I love Latin.  It feels like, in my heart, I should know Latin inside and out.  There's just something about the way the language captures a moment, the spirit of things, with so few words, that makes this girl twirl with excitement.

Take the phrase, mala fide -- in bad faith, said of an act done with the knowledge of its illegality, or with the intention to defraud or mislead someone.  This basically defines the last two years of the collusion/obstruction circus surrounding the investigation of the current Trump Administration; although, instead of defrauding simply a someone, try all of America, if not the entire world; this activity personifies a certain bureaucratic malfeasance unbecoming of a republic, that is for sure.

As the Latin turns, any word beginning with the three letters 'm a l' seems to automatically veer to the wrong side of things, generally speaking -- from mala fide, previously discussed, we can go to 'malum in se', something that is wrong in and of itself, a legal term of something inherently wrong; then, 'malum prohibitum', defining something wrong due to being something prohibited -- in other words, it is wrong because it breaks the law.   And all the while, the word malfeasance combines 'mal' meaning evil, with Old French, 'faisance', speaking of activity itself....

oooh so there you go: evil activity -- malfeasance.

Of course, we live in a world at the twilight of common sense and the common man; may as well be, post mortem of the greatest country in all the world, setting the stage with the sun for the most poignant and heartrending postscriptum of the history books!  

We are watching it in live feed. 

America is burning.

Have you read the fine print on the backside of the one dollar bill, by chance?  Above the unfinished pyramid....and just above 'Eye of Providence'  are the words, Annuit Coeptis: 

ANNUIT means to nod assent, to favor, to smile upon.
COEPTIS means undertakings, endeavors, beginnings. 

Annuit coeptis means "favors (lit., gives the nod to) undertakings." The subject must be supplied. Who favors? The Eye (Providence) does. 

The verb annuit can be either present tense or perfect tense, therefore an accurate translation of the motto is: "Providence favors our undertakings" or "Providence has favored our undertakings." (The word "our" is supplied.)  

It has also been translated as: "He favors our undertakings" or "He has prospered our endeavors." 

The meaning of this motto is better understood when seen in its original classical context.

Divine Providence lives in our founding documents, by design!  And all the while, our motto, "In God We Trust," is written upon the very money we use everyday in exchange for goods, services, assets large and small, giving God the Glory.

What do you think will happen when a people act with a certain malfeasance against its first law, God's Commandments, let alone virtually set ablaze its founding principles?  Between destroying the honor of a life built upon self-reliance and independence, to the current array of eye-popping appeals of nothing more than policy gimmicks, all in conjunction with the growing trend to dis God...just what do you think Providence will do? 

Whether you choose to define Providence as God Itself, or simply Mother Nature, the end result is the same; Providence, which is always Divine, is not happy with us.

Notre Dame poses as a perfect metaphor on multiple levels.  See also, @The Patriot Post.

All the world was made by God, including everything in and of this world, seen and unseen.

God made all the world; God made the putt; God made the steeple; God made Julie; God made me.

Can you hear me now?

Audio -- the Latin word to say, I hear.  We can only hear, when our mouths are closed, and our posture is open from our ears to our toes.  Om.  Picture the Eye of the Divine.  Meet up with the seventh Chakra of "a thousand petal lotus."

At some point, 

"At some point in life

 the world's beauty is enough. 

You don't need to

 photograph, paint, 

or even remember it.  

It is enough."

And from this point, from this perspective, the conversation should shift among us to a higher level of communing with each other within this world; basically, in a world according to G, the politics of everything can just burn in hell.   [But of course, what fun would that be, right?]

I believe things always happen for a reason; and the timing of things is not only makes all the difference in the world, but it may very well carry the potential to alter mind and body forever.  An entire trajectory can be dramatically changed, if not come to a full stop, in an instant.

Annuit Coeptis -- a couple of words that just might sit with me for a long time, in the back of my mind and maybe even right up front  -- if, in fact, God nods at things begun, what happens when the pioneering spirit, full of faith, reliant upon God's Good Grace, ceases to have its gentle pull on the reins?  What direction do we go, as a whole, as a people?  Do we really want to find out?

Whether it comes to us in bits and pieces, or in plumes of smoke and flames, I believe God wants all the world to wake up; what we have here, is a situation, where enough and not enough is competing for attention. 

but maybe it's just me.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's with Emphasis on the Lilies of the Valley Thing

Dear America,

"Years ago I had a Buddhist teacher in Thailand who would remind all his students that there was always something to be thankful for.  He'd say, "Let's rise and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little.  And if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick.  And if we did get sick, at least we didn't die.  So let us all be thankful."  Leo Buscaglia, professor and writer,...unearthed in my little book of quotes, "Nothing is worth more than this day," by Kathryn & Ross Petras

indeed

when feeling down, the best place to start is at counting our blessings.

It immediately catapults our thoughts upon the good things, and takes our mind off the not so good; and in that space, there is no longer any room for anything to come between feeling centered, whole, grateful, and blessed.  The ever so thin fault line of a fracture no longer exists; there is either the good thought, or the not so good, reigning victorious -- never the two exist at the exact same time. 

like, after unexpectedly spending two thousand dollars on car repairs over the last three weeks, I could do my fair share of wallowing in the dominance of a thick muck oozing through every deep dark nook and cranny of my mind.  It wanted to settle in like a hot mess, and this girl had to take it by the ears and say, "No....nothing is worth more than this day."  that would be a no.

of course, after the recent funeral of a decent man, a true American, naturally, the heaviness of life and death swirls through our consciousness at break neck speed -- leading us possibly to more questions, unearthing even more frustrations, and destabilizing what was, only moments before, considered settled science at the intersection of our lives and purpose, to the point of no return. 

But there we go again -- suddenly, asking ourselves, what's it all about, with a tremor strong enough to cause us to stop dead in our tracks.

And yet,

I awoke this morning!

I made myself a splendid cup of coffee!

I sat in my corner to the world, sipping, drinking new life and breath in... and resting my thoughts on something greater than little old me. and it was good. 

There are simply a zillion things to be thankful for.

Even that car, that needed repair -- the life force back behind getting little old me from A to Be to C to G all the live long day.  I HAVE A CAR TO REPAIR!  isn't that, alone, worth a hundred grand?  indeed it is.  indeed it is.

I am a mama, a caregiver, and in charge of a group totaling over a hundred ladies....and somehow, God gives me everything I need from one moment to the next; and as long as I keep hand in hand with THAT, all's well that ends well, even if it just ends.  

The world is falling apart; America is coming apart at the seams; we the people are a fractured, tortured lot...but bear in mind, it's all of our own undoing.   (oh, and that link there, is just good reading -- in a round about way, it amplifies our missteps of thought and deed.)  

A couple grand in car repairs has got nothing on the twenty-one trillion in debt, or the inability to recognize the fault(s) in our fifty glorious stars -- be it it's origins, it's undermining presence, or the bleak weak future it holds, if only in our own mind.   

The thing is, America is on the precipice of falling into the abyss as we speak; but as nature would have it, if we continue to look down, we will falter; our heads will start spinning, and the ability to fight back this woozy preoccupation of the self-sabotaging kind, will surely cause us to slip.  

Truth is, America gets to this place quite often, actually.

The country is split, nearly straight down the middle, ideologically; you would just never know it by how the media frames the story, day in and day out.  What a disservice to country this truly is. 

The way things have gone, it is just way to popular to hate conservatives, hate this presidency, hate the major change in direction of policy, hate the wall, and pretty much hate just about anything else related to any and all of the aforementioned.  There is not one good thing going on according to the hearts and minds of how the Left thinks about the rest of us. (oh, and by the way, that link there is another really good read...you should know by now that this girl will never steer you wrong...enjoy the rendezvous and come straight on back....)

Last time this country was so unhinged, so polar-opposite in how we the people see things, was, in my mind, during the Civil War.

 The Civil War consisted of nearly 10,500 battles, engagements, and other military actions including nearly 50 major battles and about 100 others that had major significance. The remainder were skirmishes, reconnaissances, naval engagements, sieges, bombardments, etc. The engagements were fought in 23 different states and resulted in a total of over 650,000 casualties

and who was on the right side of that battle? 

that would be Abraham Lincoln and his fellow republicans for Pete's sake!

Oh the number of lives lost fighting on behalf of the right thing to do.  You would think the lifespan of that force for good would last until the end of time, and carry on under its own power with a life of its own, equating to a certain loyalty to the republican party forever and a day.  

How times change and how things stay the same.  (See also --  Common denominator: the common man....sometimes, for better or worse, so easily swayed.)

But of course, this girl is in no mood to lose souls over our moral, cultural, political, spiritual, economical battles.  no mood at all.

So if it is true to say, the more we metaphorically or physically look down into the great crevasse, the greater our chance to stumble and fall into the dark, plunging into the cultural divide, never to rise again -- then the answer must be found looking in the opposite direction; to look up, to the heavens --   becoming more like-minded with the forces and ideas and the chain of thought that seeks only the good, for the common good. 

And we get there hand in hand with God.
[And just to be clear, no matter what you've been told, it actually characterizes how this great country began....Divine Providence was allowed to lead us, as a nation.]

It seems to be more and more factual --  as time goes by --  that cultures who have lost their way, away from being commonly grounded with a certain faith in something greater than themselves, ultimately failed.  And failed bigly.  As in, crashed and burned.

Our lives our becoming more and more computerized, motorized, robotic, and programmed to follow the popular thought -- and it comes from media, social network platforms, and even shopping down main street during the holiday season.

It would behoove us to pay attention to what we think about.  It would be advantageous to consider the things that make us better people, as a whole -- not better activists... divided by hate and elevating our differences over the things we have in common with one another.

It would work in our favor -- to count our blessings, even if life is giving us things unplanned and breaking the bank, if not our spirit, in the moment.  All these things are transient, and passing.

For, as Divined, the things that are truly important are not things at all.

Life is beautiful when we consider the lilies of the valley -- family, friends, the fire in our belly -- fueled by the Holy Spirit --  to keep going, a heart that is still open, a mind that still works, a morning that still comes with a strong cup of joe.

this is my December to remember, because it IS.  

I am not dead! if you are reading this, then you are not dead!  which means -- we are alive and have the power to create good things, from this moment to the next. hallelujah, praise the Lord, what a beautiful country we live...

NOTHING is worth more than THIS Day.

That is what we should be talking about.

and just like that, the end of the day is here.

Make it a Good Day, G