"West Maui News" reports alien creature......

Dateline:  Friday, March 16, 2012

Observers:  Whales, fishies, an eel and several sea turtles

Creature: Unknown, strange, possibly rare female snorkeler

Eye witness whales, colorful fish, one fabulous eel and several monster sea turtles, reported a creature previously unknown to them in these waters.*  It was clad in what appeared to be a black and red outer skin wetsuit with pale lower legs, hands and head exposed to the warm (?) Maui coastline waters.  Said creature was wearing a neon colored apparatus on its head with what looked like a breathing tube above the water.  Oh, and yes LARGE black fins were attached to its lower extremities - the supposed feet.  To make the sighting even more impossibly rare, said creature was reported to be wearing a Clinique lipstick - color - "Red-y to Wear" with an SPF of 15!  The sighting in general was sudden and frightening, although upon close inspection the creature seemed perfectly harmless with a silly grin plastered on its face!  It was swimming among other pale bodied specimens - all of them having a wonderful time and squealing from time to time, what sounded like "turtle, turtle!

Alien Creature Spotted off of Maui Coastline

*Molokini Underwater Preservation Site and Turtle Arches off the west end of Maui

First Half or Second Half - Go for it!

Frankly there are days, more than less, that I feel as young and vibrant as I did as a girl.

• I love the sunshine on dewy morning grass between my toes
• I don't fret endlessly about a little rain
• I enjoy a first snowfall
• I'm intrigued by lightning and thunder
• ....well that covers the weather.  
• I still think I can jump (I was a cheerleader for many years) at least I know the moves are in my head - the nerve to try it does lead to thoughts of the paramedics saying....."she was doing what?!" 
• I still love, love, love dogs - I would have 3 or 4 if the practical side of that situation didn't pop up in my mind's eye and so pour all of my doggie love out on my one doggie pal, Riley.  
• I still love ice cream
• Riding a bike
• Driving a car
• Singing praise Jesus songs with my arms in the air - (whoops, Episcopalians don't do that, do they?)  
• I still love to munch on chicken bones like my Grandma taught me to do
• Indulge in just a great big bite of steak fat, like my uncles always did
• I remember long car trips (where car sickness was sometimes a problem) and knowing now to always face forward I find car trips more fun than ever
• I remember Red River summers and fishing for trout in a stream
• Horseback riding with no skill at all - only nerve - 
• Square dancing with boys met at the dance
• Slow dancing to Elvis Presley songs on a record player 

I'd say I still do or would still love those things if I had the occasion to frequent such activities.

I was always an optimistic, let's-be-friends sort of kid, and was sideswiped more than once in my life by a "friend" who was NOT!  I never got used to that and can remember the tears vividly, letdowns from overly and misfed/misread expectations, but I learned.  The same lessons came with a spoiled first marriage - I was in it to trust - that's a huge 'nother story.  In business, a boss I wasn't crazy about occasionally, but still and all, I've remained as much an optimist now as I was as a first halfer.......remembering, looking back that first half can be beautiful in its naivete and also extraordinarily brutal in its let downs.....and hopefully one always has another chance in the first half.

And the second half, here it is, maybe more than the second half.  I believe that in this part of my life that you and I are here now to recognize the lessons we've learned, to realize that we ARE to be the grown ups, the wise ones, the leaders, we ARE the persons others want to look up to, we ARE the ones who know more than we think we do, who ARE called to teach, to lead and to mentor others who have not yet found themselves.  We ARE the people that we can work to make ourselves with God's help.  We are the THEY that are the leaders and adults now........we just need to recognize that of ourselves and get about living it. We need to Celebrate - Live it!

Too much expectation for the second half?  You don't want to lead, or teach or mentor, or exercise, or eat right, or read more, or study more, or work for a political candidate or cause, or go to church anymore, or take up a new hobby, or fly somewhere you've always dreamed of, or tried a yoga class because what would people think?.......The whole deal is, in my ever so humble opinion, is that other people don't think about you and I, (after all, we're old now) they think and worry about themselves so holding ourselves back because someone else might not agree with us can be a huge mistake for our bodies and our souls.   So first half or second half - first half fly, fall down, get up, learn.  And second half - fly, fall down, get up, and learn.  Time's running out and think of the fun you could miss if you don't go for or it today! 

Celebrate - Live it! II

16" x 20" Mixed Media Collage - Tattoo Tilework

Win this WOOLLEY COLLAGE* 

I wrote of my 2012 words of the year and shared the concept of celebrating this big year in my life with a friend who asked me the other day "how's the celebration coming along?"  So today, I thought about that - HOW am I "living it?" Switch off now if boring is too much for you:)  

-Yoga practice and running are better than ever
- I actually got in a couple of 10K runs in the last week - btw - I always take a BIG rest after those long runs.  The runs aren't exactly "easy" - I'm afraid I grimace inside a little when someone projects on me that everything is easy for me because I'm a runner?
-We celebrated New Year's Day with friends for brunch after church.
-We've had three last minute serendipity dinners here in our remodeled kitchen/family room and that's a resolution that I've made and broken more than once in the past.  Friends are so important and should be celebrated often!
-In nurturing friendships, I've special lunch dates coming up on three occasions - one to celebrate a friend's dear mother's 90th birthday.
-This weekend we've had the pleasure of attending Walla Walla's first winter Chamber Music Festival It's been a doozy with guest performances of "Project Trio" from Brooklyn, NY.
-We celebrated with a young couple at a reception for their 30th wedding anniversary, side by side with their children who were just past toddler age when we first met them here in WW - now a freshman and senior in college.
-We've met and made new friends that we look forward to knowing better.
-We fly this week to Minneapolis for a family wedding of a nephew and his beautiful bride........I know, who gets married in January?! in MN........well, it's part of life's grand celebration and we'll be there with family, missing and counting those who aren't able to attend but so happy to live into another celebration.
-I'm painting alot and enjoying the exhilaration of completing works that I really love!

So yes, I'm happy and thrilled to be celebrating and living this life of mine - 2012 - and hoping that you're doing the same.  It'll look different for all of us but recognizing our moments of joy and sorrow as celebration rather than routine may make all the difference in lives of thanksgiving and honor to our Creator.

*visit my website in January 2012, join the mail list, and you become eligible for a random drawing. winner announced 2/2/12

Reunion - A Blur of Love

I've just returned from an amazing event - in fact several events that I'll be reflecting upon over the next few days here at the MINDSIEVE. The setting for the photo above was the ALL Classes Reunion/Celebration of my home town's 100 Year anniversary of its public schools' founding.  That evening, my 1960 graduating class represented the largest individual group's gathering in the room, as well as I believe, setting a school record for classes returning to reunion celebrations!  Yes, 50 years and out of our 73 classmates, we had a 70% turnout (adjusting the number for the 16 of us already lost to death).  Seventy percent!

You may be wondering about the photo - of all the photos taken on my camera - and there were many....some were clear and some were blurry.  Yet, in my attempt to savor each photo, I found it difficult to delete even those photos with closed eyes and blurry features. Upon reflection I found that perhaps the blur of the photos may've been symbolic of the blur of emotions in the gatherings of a few days and most especially in the heady experience of our last evening together -  memories running the gamut of emotion - happy, sad, silly, ridiculous, precious, mind-changing, life-changing memories and heartbeats filled the room of nearly 600 people coming together to celebrate the joy and mystery of our years apart and the phenomenon of our returning to once more embrace each other in love,  hope and optimism for the future. 

The photo featured here happens to be a photo of me greeting one of my deceased mother's friends, Mattie Lee C.,  from the Class of '39.  My mother has been gone from this life for 6 years and to embrace this dear friend/classmate of hers, and a mother that all of our class would have known and recognized, and to have her arms come around me was to have a part of my mother there in that room.  How could I delete that photo - blurry or not?

At events such as class or family reunions, how conveniently we may be able to blur our memories, making them sometimes better and sometimes worse than they really were.  Unlike our tony digital cameras, IPhones, and recorders of today, it may not be so easy to delete those memories that would better be forgotten.  Far beyond the tech of our gadgets though is our God given ability to come together with old friends and meld the sadness or maybe even regret or bitterness into an amalgam of love, tenderness, and forgiveness - a celebration of joy - a celebration of the gift of our lives together.

It was a grand celebration - one I wouldn't have missed for anything!