This Summer
Posted by: thebuzz16 on: 08/28/2010
"What this country needs is more unemployed politicians." -Angela Davis
I’ve tap danced through another summer. I’ve sung loudly and had a wonderful time. Add to this, a full Fall schedule and you have some idea how full and productive a 73 year old life can be. Frankly, it is all dependent upon good health, good humor and a decision to give one’s self away.
Shay and Frank are home from their annual summer sojourn to Minnesota. They are back in school. Kids are amazing - they don’t miss a beat. Frank has begun football practice. Shay has birthday parties to attend this weekend and we are all planning this year’s Halloween party extravaganza. The party this year will be really special as Uncle Rick (my only son) will be visiting. Our Halloween party each year is a conglomeration of all our friends; young, old and in between. We share good food, laughter, assinine costumes and, of course, camaraderie!
I’ve been really busy with plans for Fall. I haven’t been to Montana yet this year and I MUST get there. I can’t go until or, I should say, in between Fridays beginning on the first Friday of September as I’ve started a new meeting for my support group. This is a women’s meeting and we named it, "The Women’s NO DRAMA Dinner Meeting." Most women’s meeting of my support group entertain way too much drama and the drama is counter productive to recovery. I’m off to Vancouver at the end of September with a SLC friend to celebrate the birthday of a mutual friend there. I get back on the 30th then leave the next day for New Orleans to celebrate the 55th anniversary of our graduation from the Academy of the Holy Angels. I’ll stay in New Orleans until the 10th visiting family and friends, then back to SLC in time to unpack and repack for a speaking engagement in McCall, Idaho. I’ll have a week home before Rick comes from Atlanta to visit for a week. The Halloween party will be barely finished when Rick goes back to ATL and I’m off to Nevada to vote and to exhibit my watercolors at the Pomegranate Art Festival in Logandale, NV. Again this year my friend Deb will come from SLC to exhibit her photographs at the Festival. Then it will be Thanksgiving and before I can breathe it will be time to prep for Christmas. I’m not complaining – I love every minute of it!
My annual retreat at the Franciscan Retreat House in Malibu was the first week in August. I’ve been spending a full week in Malibu with 70 to 80 friends from around the country for 12 years now. This is a fun retreat - laid back and relaxing. I go to "centering" prayer each morning and Mass at 5:00 p.m., listen to great speakers and enjoy all that Malibu has to offer. This year my friends Elaine and Becky and I visited an orchid farm and had a wonderful lunch at "Godmother’s." We go for frozen yogurt every afternoon and found a a great yard sale at Our Lady of Malibu Parish just down the hill from Sera. We have a talent show and I participate in skits and, of course, sing parodies with the Estrogenettes. I can’t sufficiently describe what this summer respite does for me! I always leave Malibu "full" with great plans with friends for next year’s skits.
I haven’t had time to blog much this summer, but I hardly ever feel guilty about that. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the women I "sponsor" in my support group. I’ve given a great deal of thought to why some of them are not yet free of the bondage of self. The ones who have freed themselves of self-absorption are pretty happy, joyous and free, but there are a few who can’t get themselves out of their minds. The one’s who don’t make progress are the one’s who always seem to be saying, "…but what about me?" "…I have rights!" "…after all, I helped them!" and statements to the effect that if I do something for anyone, I should be treated fairly by the world – or that somehow just being here entitles me to something. I really want to say, "Oh, lighten up! Get over yourself!" I don’t say this because each must come to self-realization for it to be meaningful. It has been my experience that the world owes me nothing and my job here is not to ask "why." My job here is to say "yes" to life. My job is to say "yes" whenever the world asks something of me. After all, I’ve been given time and energy and success from this life. My prayer each morning is, "God, I’m willing and I’m ready. Put what you want me to do and what you want me to have in front of me and I’ll say ‘yes.’ You, however, God, must give me what I need to do what you want me to do!" This has worked for me for the past 27 years since I learned to do it. Try it!
I have a picnic to attend tomorrow and plans for another picnic in September to celebrate the 26th anniversary of a lunch meeting I’ve attended since 1988. Life is good!
2 Responses to "This Summer"
10/26/2010 at 9:57 pm
wow Betty, you are such a busy bee!
So many things going on and planed much ahead! And all the traveling! You can’t be bored at all! You’re really living your life fully!
Enjoy your Halloween party!
08/29/2010 at 12:07 pm
Hello! thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment at the "howling" blog – sounds as if you are busy enjoying life! wonderful!