Tag: friendship

Drama In Illinois

One of my best friends in this old world lives near Champaign, Illinois. She and her husband are in the process of relocating to the east coast. This morning I received the following email from her and laughed so hard I snorted coffee out of my nose. With my friend’s permission, I’m sharing with you. Enjoy.

Do you need a laugh? If so, read on. . . Last Friday morning at 6 a.m., I went out in my bath robe (fairly short – with nothing underneath since I had just taken a shower and hadn’t bothered
to go to my drawer to pull out undies. After all, I’m on my own in the house!).

Anyway, I tried to open the front door after getting the paper only to discover that I was locked out! The Realtor had been in the house the day before and must have locked both locks. We usually only lock the dead bolt. No problem! We have a keyless pad to open the garage door. However, since I’ve been living alone, I’ve been locking the door between the garage and house at night. Why didn’t I ever hide a key in the garage?!?

Needless to say, I was locked out at 6 a.m. with no undies, no phone, no car keys, no clock. . . I waited what seemed to be an hour (but was really about 1.25 hr.) before knocking on the neighbor’s door (our State Farm Agent). I didn’t want to wake anyone up at 6:00 a.m.

I used the neighbor’s phone to call the number on the For Sale sign in my yard. However, that was the real estate office number and the message stated that the office would open at 8:00 a.m. I put in an emergency plea anyway for someone to help out a client in a bath robe.

Then the neighbor remember that the dad of their daughter’s friend in Mahomet was a real estate agent. They gave him a call and he came over at 7:30 to let me in. Luckily, the lock box with a key was still outside the house, so any realtor could access the key. Yes, I sat in my garage for 1.5 hours in a bathrobe! Good thing I didn’t have to pee! Seriously, that would only happen to me. However, any chance this sounds like something that would happen to you?  

She knows me well. It’s a miracle I haven’t had this happen to me.

Peace, people!

Lunching Alone

Eating alone
at a booth meant for four
I watch in envy the
gaggle of women gathering
noisily for lunch.

They are older than I am,
sixties and seventies,
but I would join them
in a heartbeat if they but
said the word.

Do they realize how lucky
they are to have
whatever it is that bonds
them?
I hope so.

  
Peace, people.

Favor

the favor of her friendship,
forged in youth,
had strings attached.
acknowledge her privilege
accept her status
unwrap her gifts
or succumb to the vacuum.

it pains me to admit that
I once felt adrift
without her approval
the old habit of relishing
her other-directed
sarcasm, snideness,
an affliction of belonging.

heaven knows I cried some
in anger and loss;
who could I be without her?
my soul answered in a flourish:
you are nourished now
deep within, all your own
healthier, wiser, independent.

  

Janie’s Gift

In the real world I have a lovely friend who has a gift. Janie Christie Heniford writes the most beautiful, inspirational, heart warming posts and shares them on Facebook during the month of November. 

I look forward to these posts. They make me laugh, cry, think, and nod my head in ardent agreement. Today I asked if she’d be okay with me sharing her post on Praying for Eyebrowz. Of course then I wondered if I was savvy enough to do that. 

To my delight, Janie consented. Now let’s see if I can get this done. I’ll be sure to share any comments with Janie. It’s a real pleasure to share Janie’s gift with my readers. Enjoy. And as always, peace, people.

 

Janie’s photo
 
Janie Christie Heniford at Sooner Lake

I am thankful today, for changes. Changes of all kinds, actually. Circumstances. location, mind, weather, leadership, looks, understanding, time, hairstyles, position, jobs, almost everything.  

One of the first times that i can remember thinking about how things change is when i was a young girl. To join the Christian church, one of the things asked of me by our pastor, is, “are you willing to give as much of yourself as you know and understand, to as much of God as you know and understand?”. I was smart enough to realize that i might not know every SINGLE thing in the world, but I thought that I knew God. I did. I knew all that my sweet and untried young self could really know. I grew to realize, of course, that one’s walk with God is dynamic, in as much as our experiences and understanding of life are dynamic.

When Rick and I decided to retire to Oklahoma, we chose it mostly to be near our family, but also because of the seasons here. We found that we missed the definite four seasons. Our circumstances will change some with retirement, a fixed income, a lower income, and hopefully (this is the plan anyway) lower expenses. 

Over the years our health will change, our abilities will change, absolutely our looks will change. It’s all a good thing. It is likely that I will never love the storms here, but as we have weathered the storms in our lives, we will stand fast in the storms here. We will be prepared. We will take precautions. I will learn to accept them as part of my life.  Today as I was out driving, I noticed that I was following right beside the back end of a front. The clouds further out were ominous, but the ones up close were breaking up, beginning to let light through, and a much different pattern than the clouds further out.  Closer they held the promise of sunshine, and beauty. Further out they threatened storms. 

Our lives surely don’t follow a line that is clearcut like a front line. The clouds of life are different day to day, and minute to minute, and the shapes that change are our own. I imagined today, as i watched the clouds, even took pictures of them as they spoke so deeply to me, that maybe that is part of what I have learned about God. There are storms, and there are fresh new beginnings. There must be changes wrought within as we battle the storms, to allow the fresh new starts to come through.  

Yep. Sometimes i figure things out when i travel alone. I’m a lucky, lucky girl to have that opportunity.

Sloppy Kisses

nothing can compare
with sloppy doggie kisses;
paws for approval.

  
scratch behind the ears
forms friendship for a lifetime;
canine loyalty.

  
sweetest companion
bundle of fur and pure joy
loved beyond measure.

A friend’s beloved dog was attacked yesterday by an aggressive dog who escaped from his owner. Please send healing thoughts to little Cayla and her humans.

peace, people.

Colony of Doubt

How can elation and pleasure
morph so quickly into doubt
and self-flagellation?

How does a bright day filled
with the promise of beauty
dissolve into ugliness?

I am fragile and built of
hopes and dreams.
Just like you.

Falling Apart by Monika Serkowska

All My Bags are Packed

Truly my bags are packed. I’m off to Texas tomorrow for a Doright family reunion. 

Positives (in no particular order):

  1. Seeing my children and grandchildren. Hugging will happen.
  2. Hanging out with Saint Helen. 🙂
  3. Visiting with the Doright clan, especially Studly’s sisters and his brother.
  4. Saint Helen’s cooking. Yummmmmm!
  5. The Doright Family Auction–always a hoot.
  6. Getting to see my Aunt Nedra and Uncle Richard.
  7. Touching base with old friends.
  8. Eating Tex-Mex food. 

Negatives:

  1. Getting up at 4 a.m. To make my flight. Ugh!
  2. That’s it. No more negatives. Going to bed now.

Peter, Paul, and Mary: Leaving on a Jet Plane. This song always makes me cry.

http://youtu.be/c8jEapecSqc
Peace, people!

Reunions

I attended two high schools back in the 70’s: Floydada high school and Dumas high school. Just three hours apart in travel time, but at that point in my life it might as well have been three hundred hours. 

I’d spent all of my school life in Floydada, Texas, population 4,000, until the end of my junior year in high school when my dad switched jobs necessitating a move to Dumas, Texas, population 10,000-ish. Eventually I adjusted to life in the “big city” of Dumas. It was tough, but I made friends and met my Studly there, and graduated from Dumas high school in 1975,  so all’s well that ends well, right?

Fast forward to 2015 and the epic forty year class reunion. I would love to attend the reunion in Dumas, and I’m even going to be in Texas the weekend it takes place. Unfortunately that’s the same weekend the the Doright Family Reunion is scheduled, and I’ll be unable to be in two places at once. 

Floydada’s class of ’75 is planning to meet in Gruene, TX, in October. I’ve already booked my hotel room for that event. After all, these are the grown-up versions of kids I went to school with from kindergarten through my junior year.

I was never “most beautiful” or “most popular,” but I always had a place among my class. And I was probably too busy dealing with my own insecurities to notice those who were more disenfranchised than I was. So I was caught by surprise when a member of the class became angry that she’d been invited to the reunion because she had felt disrespected and unnoticed during our school years.

I wish I’d noticed her more. I wish I’d been nicer, friendlier, more inclusive. I wish I’d known then what I know now–that it doesn’t diminish our own worth when we include others. Who knows how my life might’ve turned out if I’d known that years ago?

To all those who felt they weren’t included, you are loved and valued and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you this years ago.

Peace, people!

Just Bummed Out

when life seems unfair
and no deed goes unpunished
don’t despair, just breathe.

 
bummed out again, friend?
discard all of those worries
just throw them away.

  

tell me your troubles
then leave them far behind you.
don’t wallow; just live.

 

Give ‘Em L Tour Ending

All good things, 

They say

Must end. 

I want to know

Who are “they”

And why must I 

Listen to them?

 The three L’s leaving our mark on the beach at St. George Island, Florida, March 23, 2015.

These were a few of our favorite –ings:

Shopping

Wining

Dining

Exploring

Talking

Laughing

Reminiscing

 Lauren, Ponce de Leon, Leslie, and Lila, at The Fountain of Youth, March 25, 2015.

Leslie and Lila at The Spanish Sugar Mill in DeLeon Springs, FL, March 25, 2015.

 Lila and Lauren at The Blue Parrot, Saint George Island, March 23, 2015.

 Lauren, joined by two little folks at DeLeon Springs. One of my favorite pictures of the week.

Why is it that 

Spring break weeks

Take forever to arrive, 

Yet end almost as

Soon as they’ve begun?

That’s a question 

For the wise folks

Among us, and 

Certainly I am not one.

 

Peace, People!