Bountiful Blessings.....sexy hot mama style

"The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked.

 Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days."
— Sue Monk Kidd

It has been a few days since I've sat down to right---I'm sure most of you understand.  Holiday time starting, traveling, family get-to-gethers, dinners and shopping and .....whew...flurry of activity.

If I am truthful....I've just taken a vacation from writing for a week or so....no reason other than....just because.

I've missed it.  Letting some of the words that swirl around inside of my head be vomited on a blank screen---no filter---just letting it happen.  It grounds me to an extent.  Mellows me out...

puts me in a better place...

helps me realize my blessings...

writing...good, bad..ugly...

is a part of me.....

I feel a bit unsettled when I don't do it.

So whether anyone ever reads it...

I need to write for my own soul.

So it has been Thanksgiving week---and the off color family has celebrated.  Big Daddy Boo Boo outdid himself once again---no I did not cook---Big Daddy Boo Boo can't help himself.  He starts setting stuff out on the stove in little categories for all his assorted dishes he plans to cook on Monday.  By Tuesday afternoon, he can't hold himself back--he's cooking...cooking...cooking...and sometimes creating a deliciouso (as we call it in the off color house)

assortment of dishes.  By Wednesday night--almost every dish is prepared.  The house smells of butter and and cream soups and casseroles of all kinds....Food is everywhere....and Big Daddy...

well not only can Big Daddy not help do all the cooking a few days early...Big Daddy can't help but start sampling his dishes.  By the time I got home from work--Big Daddy was sitting on the couch with the "bloat" from his delicacies.  

Thursday brings about a relaxing day at the off color house, 

we sleep in, snack and then in the afternoon, Big daddy snapped into gear and heats up our

off color day Thanksgiving Golden Coral buffet extravaganza.

Mama Dee comes over and we sit around eating and laughing and watching TV.  This year, we ended up playing uno---and experienced the hand that would not end.  After two hours, finally off color daughter was the lucky winner of the UNO game from hell.

Friday, off color daughter and I went back to visit my parents and family.  We travel in my new green alien bug mobile---my cute little NEW Kia Soul---no more ghetto van for me---it's all off color daughter's---and she is "SO happy about it---not.  Big Daddy and off color son had to work the day after Thanksgiving so it was a girls road trip filled with songs and singing and stories and laughing and sleeping for off color daughter.

Once again we had a eating extravaganza--starch---starch and more starch.  

On Saturday morning,

I got up, had my coffee and decided it was time to get some exercise.  I dressed in my sexy hot spandex (my niece who saw me afterward asked me--"how'd you get those running pants up---you look like you were poured into them---now that was not nice--don't you agree?) .   I put on my ipod, dressed in my black and yellow neon bumble bee running outfit and I ran--that was not too tight just sexy hot tight. 

The cool air cleared my head and got rid of the sugar overloaded brain.  The air was brisk and I ran....

ran out the neighborhood my parents lived in,

over the railroad bridge,

and up toward somewhere...

as I ran...

graves...

graves of my ancestors were in my left....

and 

I remembered gatherings of the past...

I remembered my fatma's flat green beans, sweet hot sliced ham and jam cake that nobody else has ever been able to touch.

I remembered my littlepa and the way we used to fight over who

would pull the wishbone to see who was the luckiest...

as I ran..I glanced to the right watched as a train heading from someplace to somewhere rattled by....and I remembered 

swinging on the tire swing out in back of my littlepa's house...

I'd watch the trains there--wondering what was inside the boxcars and where it was going and where it was from....

and

I ran...past the lake where baptisms were held at midnight and where my friends in high school and I floated to catch some sun, I

ran through the town where I grew up

past my old kindergarten teachers house---only a remnant remained. I ran past old friends houses, past my old Sunday school teachers house...

ran through town (yes those rednecks in their big ass pick up trucks were rubbernecking to see this sexy hot mama running in her tight spandex running pants....--good thing it was a small town---so not to cause a traffic jam.)

I ran past the holy roller church where my parent used to take me--where I learned about "fear factor God"--and where I was also loved into the faith by women who cared for me in spite of my repetitive questions about God....about where God came from and how Adam's sons found wives...and sometimes just loved me in spite of my inquisitive mind...

I ran past the old store where my friends and I'd would stop for cokes after school and 

then ran over the bridge and straightway to home...

not a bad trip down memory lane for a quick 3.5 mile run....and I felt rejuvenated.

I realize as I think back

I am blessed,

have been blessed

and

continue to be blessed.

I can walk,

I can even run a bit looking sexy hot as I do,

I have a multiple people who love me,

food to eat,

a new alien green bug box to drive,

a warm home,

a big daddy smorgasbord,

a job

health

and

sexy hotness of course.....

sometimes

in the flurry of the holidays

I forget...

forget to stop

think

remember

....

a guess the awakening came when we paid a visit to my mother's brother who is in a nursing home.   I walked in the front door and the smell hit me in the face--the smell of uncared for folk, of people bound to their bed, unable to get up or walk or even shower by themselves.

I saw eyes stare at us as we headed to his room he shares with a man he doesn't like.  They have two TVs blaring and the floor is covered by bed linens---several days worth as it seems the staff didn't think folks might visit the day after the holiday. 

We talked a bit and then left---and as we left I looked...

looked at eyes--hungry for love,

hungry for affection,

hungry for interaction

and my heart broke in half....and I wandered what could be done to make their lives better...

wondered how 

each of them would count their own blessings...

wondered...

what it might be like to sit and stare,

sit at the door looking out,

stare out the patio window and be sitting there waiting to die...

broke my heart I say....wondered what it might be like 

to be waiting to die.

.........

hum..

blessed

with bountiful blessings....

thankful for 

big daddy boo boo smorgasbords,

for homemade German chocolate cake

for laughs with nieces and nephews,

for runs down memory lane

and

for 

family 

and 

touch

and 

home and warmth

and

for all my bountiful blessings....

well in my own sexy hot humble way......

I am most thankful for the bounty..my bounty...our bounty..

may each of you

take a moment to find some gratitude

see your blessings

count them

and

be a blessings of some sorts...

.......

Happy Holiday.......

Blessings...

The radical rambler

unfold your own myth....

"Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you. 

Unfold your own myth."

Rumi

It is true....or TRUE! as Honey Boo Boo would say.

  I stand and watch it all the time.  Some choreographer

imposes their dance upon someone else and then suddenly the whole room is dancing a new dance---sort of like that new Korean dance craze called Gangum or something like that--I'm rhythmically challenged so I don't even attempt it....even in church I don't attempt to do those claps with the songs...I'm always either ahead or behind---I've never been much of one to dance to another's song. I told a friend of mine last Sunday that if they were gonna do those special claps--they needed to have a clapping for beginners class to help some of us challenged with the task.

I often wonder what I was like as a child and how my mama and daddy dealt with me.  I was often too imaginative for my own good--of course some of that wasn't helped by the fear factor holy roller church they took me to. (no it was not a snake handling one---but they did fall out in the spirit, roll around speaking in tongues  run around the pews---now hear me---I am not saying that these experiences were wrong or fake---I'm just saying what I saw there and my experiences of it were----It scared the bejebbers our of me---for example---before I'd even sit down at church, I'd take a look around the old theater like chairs and always pick the one that gave me the most protection from the shouters and the fallers.  One day, I'll have to do a blog post about a typical service....but I must say--even a fear factor church imprints the wonder of faith and hope and grace.).  Anyway...that is for another post....

I was always inquisitive--had a real thirst for knowledge--and didn't ever think I was very smart.  I devoured books--any kind of book---I remember sitting on our hardwood floors in front of the coal burning stokermatic--with a little spiral notebook, you know the ones with the wire thingy at the top like a secretary....I can remember sitting there reading the encyclopedia's--yep it was before computers--and now I'm showing my almost 50 something year old age.  I suppose my love of science started there---I'd sit for hours copying stuff about bacteria and atoms and all the tiny building blocks that fascinated me.  I loved music---all kinds from Dolly Partin and Porter Wagner down to Kiss--who covered my wall during my teenage years---Donny Osmond was the love of my life---my idea of a great husband consisted of a cross between Gene Simmons of Kiss and Donny Osmond--oh my.

I spent lots of time in my imaginary world---playing in the trees and swinging on the tire swing that my "littlpa" hung for me in back his of house about ten feet away from where the railroad tracks that ran behind his house.  I'd be out there singing and swinging pretending to be famous or creating some story in my head about how the train was going to stop and someone would get off and ask me to sing on the "grand ole opery"---that's what my Littlepa always listened to....so that was the epitome of being famous for me.

My sister and I would play out behind mama and daddy's house---daddy had us an old wagon bed out back and he'd built a wall onto it.....we'd set up our kitchen stuff up on the wagon--climb up on it and suddenly we are playing house or cowboys or cooking out in the times of the pioneers--mixing mud and grass and pulling tree bark off the trees to write secret messages on.....

now we had barbies and bikes...

but I begged for a mini-bike---and I pretended to be evil Knievel--when mama and daddy caught me riding through the ditches--standing up on the seat at full speed---they decided to sell my mini-bike and they bought me a piano....it wasn't as much fun...but it did add another layer to my ability to escape reality....if they were honest...after about two weeks or so...I'm sure they wished they could trade it back for another mini-bike.

I've always been a bit different.....could never fit into the round peg that the world proclaimed as "normal"---not that I was a square--didn't fit there either--but my multifaceted strangeness---was that...

different.

Now that I'm almost 50---I'm kind of thankful for all that my strangeness has taught me.

I'm pretty comfortable in my own skin.

I do what I want....most of the time...

I say what I mean or I try to 

and

do what I say...as long as I don't forget.

Long story short....

Lesson in all this rambling on Friday morning...

It is okay to be different!

It is okay to be strange!

It is okay to think outside the box..

to love to learn...

to be a mini-bike riding bookworm world escape artist...

it serves one well....

So live your life..

don't let someone else write your story....

uncover your own myth

it's what we were created to do----

to live

grow 

breath

and 

be..

be who we were created to be...

no gangum dancing for me..

...

no just the sexy hot dance that is uniquely mine....

Have a great weekend...

and

go on...

Live!!!

The Radical Rambler

ps....Ms. SL from Florida...

thanks for the inspiration package 

filled with the malted milk balls....

I've lost your phone number---seems I can't always work my i-phone correctly---call me sometime so we can catch up...

I miss you...

but 

I also know...

you too have your own sexy hot dance--not as good as mine----but uniquely your own sexy hot one...so go on out there and dance!!!

write story...live a life...

“I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you,

 and that you will work them, 

water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom,

 till you yourself burst into bloom.”

unknown 

I love being part of a good story....

part of the story of life...

part of the ongoing saga of being.
Each of us starts 
with a clean blank page
and as soon as we enter the world
it begins....
Life
breath in
breath out
Life.

It takes a while for us to grow
for us to open up
for us to even partially begin to uncover
the wonder of what it is all about...
I'm almost 50 (ouch--but sexy hot remember)
and 
I finally am beginning to feel like
on some days
I'm finally learning to do IT--Live that is...
I am almost to the point 
where I no longer
care about what others think 
or try to impress
or worry about 
how unmeticulously my make-up is or isn't applied--I've never been good at all that stuff....

no...
the stuff that really matters now
are the ordinary
slices
the tiny glimmers
that pierce into the ordinariness of our days...
little things
like a hug from off color daughter
a touch from big daddy
a kiss on the top of the head from off color son---
those tiny moments
sitting in the living room
or laughing
or joking...
aah...that's the stuff that might not make 
the juiciest of stories...
but 
that's the stuff 
the makes the richest life...

or it might include
moments of silence where the Mystery
captures us,
sunsets
and 
pink skies
and
small random acts of kindness in which we participate or watch or receive...
it's all good

night falls,
sun arises,
we get up,
wake up if we are lucky
put our feet on the floor
and
begin another page in our ongoing story
we call Life....

love
laughter
tears
hopes
dreams
disappointments...

Life it comes at us
offers us gifts
births us up...

I'm thankful this morning
for 
the wonder of brisk cold air
that hits me in the face when I open the door
love how it makes me shiver and
how it makes me feel alive.
I love the sound of leaves that crunch under my feet 
the dampness of frost melting 
the smile of the moon 
as I look to the sky 
and
the color of morning as the sun passes by the moon to say 
Good Morning--Good Night.

Life
it moves forward
and
we
...
we write a tale
live a life

Capture it well
and
Bloom!

Have a great day-------
The Radical Rambler.....

need a blue sky holiday?

You had a bad day, the camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
Well you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on
You had a bad day, you're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
(From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/d/daniel-powter-lyrics/bad-day-lyrics.html)

Good Morning...........Weekend!

I am so happy for a sleep in Saturday morning...I can't even begin to tell you.  Yesterday which was Friday and usually one of my favorite work days of the week, started off wrong.  I was out of bed getting ready for work and I get a text saying I'd had a call-in.  I hear myself mutter under my breath, "well sh**t, cause I knew someone was already on vacation..."  I go to work which went from bad to worse....half the staff were missing from one area.  Yeah--what a great way to start a day...but then quickly decided to make the best of it.  It was a long day but enjoyable and went much better than expected.  At my usual get off work time, I hear the glorious tick of 330 pm and suddenly in my head, I hear the shout of TGIF....and the Hallelujah Chorus begins to play....

I head out the door skipping a bit ready to go get my ab workout over with my trainer and begin my weekend.  I get to my ghetto van which looks a bit lop sided--and suddenly I realize---dammit to hell--my tire is completely flat.  I call Big Daddy, the owner of our AAA card, who did not have is phone with him (which is the usual case, cause he really doesn't believe in cell phones or any phones for that matter).  I contact off color son in hopes that he will answer his.  He was out with Simba his new dog, picking up medication for kennel cough and said to call him if i needed.  I did try a Big Daddy trick of the trade---fix a flat---if a car can't be fixed with coolant or fix-o-flat--well then Big Daddy can't fix it.  I walked to the local convenient store and purchased a can of fix-o-flat and a large diet drink--I mean a girl does deserve a big Gulp with ice--on a day from hell, don't you agree?   I sent my trainer a text with some rather explicit language about my dilemma, canceling my workout and then set to use the Big Daddy magic trick---I used a whole can of fix-o-flat and nothing...no rise in the tire, no movement.  I call off-color son and I wait--enjoying the wonder of cold ice and a soft drink on a rare warm fall day. Life really isn't that bad, I thought.

Off-color son arrives with big yellow puppy in the shotgun position....I get in the back and am immediately covered with yellow dog slobber.  Off color son drove behind the ghetto van and said, "hum, see all those radical bumper stickers....I do believe I know why your tire is flat."   We had a great talk in the car  about the little things as he drove me home.  It is now dark and I immediately get in my pajama's, get some chili big daddy has cooked and sit down to watch the news or as it is called in off color house---government propaganda--on the TV.  I switch on the TV, sit down and poof!!!!

The TV in our living room darkens and goes out.  "Dammit to hell again!"  I get up, push some buttons and hit some remotes and nothing.  Seems it is dead.  I go downstairs to the :"love shack"....light a bunch of candles and sit down for the evening with me, myself and I.   It didn't take very long before I found myself lulled to sleep watching the world news--how sad is that?
This morning, I am sitting here in the tire store--having to purchase four new tires.  After we are finished here, I am off to purchase a new Television for our living room--what an expensive weekend!!!!
truth is...
I have a whole lot to be quite thankful for....
we have the money for once to purchase the tires for the ghetto van---so off color daughter--next month when you inherit the ghetto van you will have new wheels. ( I am looking for a new ride!!!)  We can look for a new TV but even if we don't find one--we have three others in the house and two small ones in the garage.
And if I sounded like I was complaining about work in the beginning of this post
I am not...
I am thankful to have a job,
thankful that most days my employees are healthy enough to be present
and
thankful for the good health insurance and for the wage the job provides.
Blue sky holiday...
absolutely..
even on days when 
we have the bad days...
if we look
if we try..
we can find glimmers of things to be thankful for...
that's what I'm trying to do anyway.

I hope you too are having a Blue sky holiday kind of weekend...
the weather is warm in Ky
and
the tire place has free wi-fi..so I'm happy.
Blue skies...
absolutely...
absolutely.

Have a wonderful weekend....
find the blue in your sky
and
Have a good day!!!!

Blessings..
The radical rambler....

more off-color madness.....

THIS IS THE START OF A REVOLUTION. THE REVOLUTION IS YOUR LIFE. THE GOAL IS IMMORTALITY. LET'S LIVE, BABY. LET'S FEEL ALIVE AT ALL TIMES. TAKE NO PRISONERS. HOLD NO SOUL UNACCOUNTABLE, ESPECIALLY NOT YOUR OWN. IF SOMETHING DOESN'T HAPPEN, IT'S YOUR FAULT.
Make this moment your reckoning. Your head has been held under water for too long and now it is time to rise up and take your first true breath.
Do everything with exact calculation, nothing without meaning. Do not make careful your words, but make no excuses for what you say. Fuck em' all. Set a goal for everyday and never be tired.”
― Brian Krans, A Constant Suicide

I think we've gone mad here in the off-color house....well some of us that is for sure....Big Daddy of course will say he is the sane one in the family....off-color son will stay away long enough to make folks think he doesn't belong with this crazy, fun-loving...off color bunch but the truth is...

I think we've lost our mind.

Let's start off saying 

it's been quite the adventure here for the past few days...

First two weeks ago,

I talked off-color daughter into training for a half-marathon with me---why---because it is on my bucket list and I needed an accountability partner to keep me on track.  We joined a running group that meets several times a week and we're training--can you believe it---Big Girl Running--oh my.

Now we've been working out now for about three years and off color daughter is really looking sexy hot----now I've always been sexy hot---but she's really blooming that is for sure.   So we start training with this running group--now know I did e-mail the coordinator before signing up and I asked, "are there real beginners there or is this a serious running group that says beginners are welcome...."  She stated there were real runners but alot of beginners and said we should join....I then asked, "well if a big girl comes and needs some oxygen, I assume you run with your cell phone so you can call 911."  She sent back a message  that said, "lol".....I mean really i was being serious.

So we go...and the first week, guess what, I wasn't the slowest.

The next day we go it is pouring rain and so off color daughter and I ran with the coordinator in the cold drizzle and we did okay.  Saturday last week rolled around and we showed up and the group had lots of new folks....

younger folks let me add...we started running together...running three minutes walking two ...I stayed with them for a good while but then I thought I was going to die and fortunately for me...off color daughter's asthma was being impacted by the cold air, so I pulled back and let the group whose pace was too fast for me---run on ahead.

I walked for a minute and then decided it was all a mind game.  I watched the group and ran when they did and stopped when they did and I finished about two minutes behind them.  They all stood there in a group waiting and when I ran to the finish--they clapped and I stopped...

old lady special needs runner I am---loved the attention.

off color daughter said, "you were running so funny on Saturday...breathing all funny and stuff and it looked like your legs were sticking straight out behind you...."  well no wonder...i thought I was gonna die...and I just wanted to finish.  So there you have it...we have gone crazy...

off color daughter and i are training for a half-marathon (which is 13.1 miles for those of you who are marathon savvy)

My goal--to finish and then check it off the list.

Additionally, "What the elf were we thinking?"

Sunday, I decided to go to Hobby Lobby...I'd never been there and so drove down the road to look at some art supplies.   Well, guess what....they were closed but the Pet Smart located next door was having a big tent puppy viewing....I've missed having a puppy in the house ever since our little dog...Cecil the devil dog from hell decided to commit suicide and run in front of a redneck pick up truck.

So I walked through and made the mistake of sending off color daughter a picture or two.  She called begging me to come get her and i did.  We looked and she held and begged and pleaded.  We called Big Daddy who said, "if you get one it will be your Christmas present."  Once I informed her that I would not be taking care of the puppy she placed little Georgia back in the puppy pen and we went home.

But....

there is always a but in the off color family home....

But

off color son comes in and she tells him

and 

suddenly he says,

I've decided that it is time for me to have my own dog---I'm seventeen and soon I'll be going to college and I can take him with me.  I'm ready for the responsibility and I want to go tomorrow.   (Now let me say...when we arrived home from Pet smart on Sunday..off color Big daddy was sitting in the window like a kid waiting for candy and looked a bit disappointed  when we got out without one).

So yesterday we did it....we went to the Humane society and looked....the whole off color family plus off-color family friends.....Rebbecca, Madison's friend and Hannah, Braham's friend.  The kids got there before us and off-color son was beaming when we arrived.....He took us to the puppy he'd selected......A LARGE....yellow dog that looks like the one from Marley and me........His feet were ginormous....and his lion like tail swatted back and forth looking at us with his light brown eyes.   I rolled my eyes and went to the puppy room and found a cute little two pound beagle--that could fit in your hand---a real puppy.  I tried to convince him to look at Sara or Cosmo or any number of smaller dogs....

We looked around...and then suddenly I realized off color son was missing...

and when I found him..

I knew it was over....

He was in a visitation room and the yellow dog with the big feet was sitting in his lap, licking him and then off color son would throw a ball and he'd run and fetch. 

Off color son beamed.....and i melted and knew

that the 

Yellow dog with the big ass feet was coming home...

(Hershey and Chocolate our other lab mixes don't like him but they are adjusting.)

He's been pretty good for the most part--except for when 

off color son left him in his room while Big daddy and I were at the movie---oh my the smell when we came home.

We used a half a can of febreeze.

Now...that is alot of information but

news alert...

Sexy Hot mama is looking at new vehicles!!!

I know I look sexy hot in my

1998 Ford Windstar van covered in liberal bumper stickers

but

with 183,000 miles the van is ready for hand off to the off color daughter---she's excited about the bumper stickers but not so much sexy hot mama's ghetto van---so 

News alert...

Sexy Hot Mama may be getting some newer wheels....

we're still looking around (well I'm looking and Big Daddy is agreeing to look.).

Whew...it has been one of those weeks...

oh yeah...

I forgot to tell you

...

the off color family has a new member of our family...

a ghost we have named Zoe.

go ahead 

laugh..

but I'm not so sure she isn't in the house

Last week I was running the vacuum and I heard off color daughter's door slam.  I just rolled my eyes because I assumed that she didn't want to hear the vacuum ...

I was in the spare bedroom and when I came out

right in the middle of the floor, 

our long runner was rolled up 

nice and neatly

like it was ready to be carried out.

I knocked on off color daughter's door...

she says...come in...

but the door is locked...

She opened the door and said, 

"did you lock the door when you closed it?"

I look big eyed and say..

"no---I didn't close the door---did you roll up the rug?"

then we got a bit freaked out...

and just laughed and said,

"we've got a ghost--I think she is nice--let's call her Zoe?"

Last Saturday we left to go run...and when we left the door opened just as we started to pull out.  We looked at each other and I said, "Zoe".  Off color daughter said, "stop it."

I laughed.

When we got home...

we were locked out of the house...now we didn't lock the door because off color son was in bed sleeping...

he was still there..

but we stood locked out...

and

I looked at off color daughter and I said,

Zoe...and she said, "stop it".

I don't know if we have a ghost...but it is kind of fun having someone to blame for things....

So..

it has been a weird couple of weeks at the off color house...

We have a new Dog named Simba (he looks like a lioness)

We have a new ghost named Zoe

I might get a new car--called the Sexy Hot Mobil"

and

This big sexy Hot mama and her off color daughter are training for a marathon even though I can't run two miles without needing an oxygen tank...

Yes...

I will say it again...

"What the elf?"

"What the elf?"

You never know what will happen next 

at the off color house hold---

never fear...

more adventures to follow....

guaranteed.

Have a great week.....

and come back to read more of our adventures....

the radical rambler

Just take a deep breath....

The sun goes down long and red. All the magic names of the valley unrolled - Manteca, Madera, all the rest. Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon field; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I stuck my head out the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments.” 

― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

whew...

we all survived yesterday

either our guy won or our guy lost

no more election ads....

but

in a few days

the TV ads will be beckoning us to buy the most recent favorite toy of the season, jingle bells will begin to play,

the turkey and cranberry sauce will be ready for purchase and

we will be caught up in the midst of 

the 

holiday feeding frenzy...

Life 

is short

stress is high most days

and

we 

move around and live in the chaos

hoping to grab hold of those little miracles called joy 

that come in glimmers and shimmers so quick once we experience one or two---we find ourselves longing for 

more of them.

So for today...

this crazy post election day...

open up the window,

feel the wonder of being awake and alive.

Take a drive out in the country or a walk around the city block

take a moment to enjoy 

the wonder of creation,

breathe in fresh air

pull it deep into the depths of your being

and just for moment

...

when you think nobody is watching...

go ahead...

pull in the breath and dance a happy dance...feel the joy of just being

election over and the world moves on!!!!

have a wonderful day...

go on pull in a fresh breath

and

live!!!

the radical rambler...

moving forward...

“Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! 

Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" 

So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Life 

it moves

all the time

we sometimes live with the illusion

that it stops

let's us sit still

bask

whine 

hide

but

in all reality 

it doesn't.

Each moment

we stand

for just a fragment of a smidgen of a second

between there and there

in 

the moment

we just don't always know it

or realize it 

or admit it.

Just as the water under this old covered bridge

moves under the relic of days past,

so our life

moves...

sometimes creeps when the dryness settles over our shell of hardness

sometimes

it is like being stuck in the middle of an inner tube

going as swiftly and quickly as

the ripples move forward.

sure...

there is a risk..

a risk that

we'll get dumped out,

fall off,

or in sometimes my case fall off and have to lay face down because my butt is too big to jump back on...

but

in all of it

Life

rumbles along,

moves,

oozes,

drizzles

seems to stall but then 

rushes ahead....

Always

every minute

we move forward

in some way or another...

and

if we are aware enough to know it

we capture breathless sights along the way

if we are brave enough to open our eyes

we catch glimpses of wonder and love 

and

if we so allow our hearts to swell with excitement

we 

experience the wave of being alive...

fully alive

with wind in our hair and water all around...

life moves forward...

all the time..

past behind 

future before

and

here...

right here...

we live.

May each of us 

relish our 

"here" moment

and 

breath deeply and feel the pitter patter of your heart,

love

laugh 

burst forth with the wonder of being alive for another brief moment.

Today 

life moves forward.

elections

come and go

people vote one way or the other

presidents leave and stay. 

The election will end..

in an outcome

and

we people

who 

get all caught up in it....

move on forward.

I'm a skeptic

I really don't believe my vote really counts

don't think it really matters..

but

I will vote..

because I can

and

so should you...many others around the world

are still silenced by

their gender, or social class and religion --

we still have the right--the right to 

flick the switch

and

even if 

it might be an illusion that we have a voice...

I'm still gonna do it.

so 

move on forward

go to the poll and flick a switch and

then

enjoy the ride for the rest of the day...

the past

stays behind

the future is forward....

enjoy here just for today..

Have a great Tuesday...

blessings...

the radical rambler

Stopping, seeing, being......

“The great teachings unanimously emphasize that all the peace, wisdom, and joy in the universe are already within us; we don't have to gain, develop, or attain them. We're like a child standing in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight. We don't need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds, and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realize what is already here, who we really are -- as soon as we quit pretending we're small or unholy.” unknown I was out driving this past week, lost if you really needed to know, when on the side of the road we saw a movement. Since it was a country road and  the only traffic we saw was a beat up pick-up truck who got really really annoyed at our slow sight-seeing kind of driving, I felt pretty safe to just stop there in the middle of the country lane. The driver passed us by at his first chance and I caught myself thinking to myself even though it wasn't nice, "damn redneck". When we saw the movement, we stopped, stopped and backed up and just sat.  I rolled down my window and all of us stared at each other almost in a stare down of  "who's gonna blink first". It seems they were as curious about us humanly kind of beings as we were about them.   The sun was just beginning to set behind the trees and the lighting was tranquil--almost breath-grabbing..and we sat and waited in the midst of something mysteriously peaceful. Finally, I grabbed my camera because I sensed this as a holy connectional kind of moment and I wanted to remember it. They didn't pose but stared directly at the camera, I think I can almost see them laughing at me from behind their somber looks.   I took their picture and then drove away leaving them to talk about us strange folk in the white car. The world is connected in all kinds of ways, through atoms and electrons and quantum stuff I don't even know the name of---but we are connected in ways we really can't even begin to process. We learn so much from each encounter don't we?--if we allow ourselves to take the time to process.  Life, it flies by and we occupy it with all kind of things.  These two gentle gals with glassy black eyes--they taught me an important lesson...it's okay to be curious...okay to stop on the side of the road and take a minute to breathe....taught me that in tiny little moments in the midst of country road and friendship and sunset.....something so ordinary can pop up, enter scene and create an extraordinarily holy moment. May something or someone surprise you this Sunday and allow you for just the smallest of moment realize that the ground on which you sit, drive, stand, walk upon....all of it...is Holy ground. may you experience IT in small and large doses... May it be so.... The radical rambler....