Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving Day~

A day set aside to give thanks and to remember those who are long gone that we are thankful for...As I am looking out the window at the snowy trees and the house is quiet, dogs sleeping, coffee in the pot is brewing, Facebook people are posting their "I am thankful for..." and happy wishes notes, a much deeper thought is forming in my heart...



Yes, I too, am thankful for all my family and friends and for the great day we are about to embark on and for the gathering of family to celebrate...as are most of us.



Today, I am pondering many things...for many years I have cooked for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and all the other "big" days...this year, I am not. My first year that I don't have to send out invitations, rush to the store for last minute menu items, or call the neighbor and beg a bit of ginger...



With Kevin working out of town this year (again), I have been flooded with invites to spend the holiday with them...I have decided to spend it with my brother Donny, his girlfriend Amy and the twins, Jolene and Jesse. The weather has broke and the sky looks crisp and cold in its stunning wintery blue...tomorrow will spend time with my good friend Louanne and bring home yummy left overs!



I am thank full for and to my Creator for the gift of my Spirit that guides me along in my path in this life. For all my good and wonderful friends who support me in my journey, as I support them. To my mother and father for offering to be my earthly parents and for teaching me to pray, to value those around me while showing me a love deeper than any I could imagine until I met my husband, and to my siblings for them being in my life.



This past summer was a celebration of family at our house...we hosted a gathering of nieces and nephews, some that had never met each other and many that I had never met, some that had not seen their fathers since early childhood...they made the trip to spend that weekend at our home, and the brought with them their daughters...WOW...I am a great auntie to a LOT of girls...all I have had in my life (to that point) was great nephews...I must say my heart grew even larger. Our phones have been busy...


Thank you for gifting me with your self in my life! Today, I will be remembering those long gone, less fortunate, working in the service, in the hospital, homeless, and feeling full of thanks for them in my life...

Remember when you are out and about...smile, because you can!

Reflecting

Sun creeping upward

Color jets across the sky

Resting in one~ness

This was a haiku that I wrote for my friend Jan, who is sitting on that rock in Rainy Lake. This was part of our writers retreat week on Mallard Island...hope you enjoyed it...

Love

This is something I wrote for our writers group, the topic was "love" and I wrote this in June of 1994. enJOY!

LOVE

LOVE: 1. A deep devotion or affection for another person or persons: love for ones children.

To ‘love’ someone, does not always mean the opposite sex. A person can ‘love’ a person of any sex. I find, I ‘love’ most everyone I meet. All people have goodness in them, some you just have to look a little deeper to find them. We all have faults. This does not mean we are bad people.

To ‘love’ someone, you must first, find ‘them’.

What does ‘them’ mean you ask? Themselves, their inner goodness, their soul (or spirit). Some people prefer to call it their ‘heart’. A heart is the muscle that pumps blood through the body.

I do not believe you can survive without ‘love’. The soul feeds on it. There are a few things a mind must do, before you can find ‘love’. One of the most important of these is, you must stop looking on the outside. Start looking on the inside. My father always said “Everyone is different, do not judge a person before you have lived their life!” Everyone reacts different to every situation in life. We are either strong in spirit or we are not so strong. The other thing we must learn to do, and it is not always easy. Is to put yourself in their shoes. To do that you must also, spend time with them.

When you can do this, you can start to see ‘them’, and it is beautiful! ‘Love’ has its own way of sneaking up on you. To have ‘love’ in your own family, you MUST learn to forgive, for through forgiveness, is the only way to find true, strong, and everlasting ‘love’. A very dear and loved friend once said to me, “If you only look for the bad in people, that is all you will ever see.” (Thank you RMMKS). My father always said, “Forgiving is the easy part, it’s forgetting that takes forever!” (Thank you Dad, and happy Fathers Day).

So take this within, ‘love’ and be ‘loved’.

I still believe this today...positivity breeds positivity...have a great day and smile, because you can!

Living on the edge...

To jump or not to jump
Is the hardest question

Living on the edge is
Always the best place to be

Jump in to the mystery and be amazed!

Smile, because you can!

I am fine and dandy...she came to say...

As many of you know this was my third summer that I spent a week on Mallard Island in Rainy Lake. I have gone with the St. Croix Writers Group as a writers retreat.
Three summers ago, when our group was on the Island, Dennis, a fellow writer, took me in a canoe and we went around several Islands and I took a ton of pictures! We found this mama Mallard and three babies. As we got a bit closer, one of the babies got stuck in between two rocks and couldn't get out as mama and siblings kept going toward safety. It didn't take long for the little one to free itself, and then was nowhere near the family...Dennis and I felt really bad...he paddled us around until we got behind the mama and two babes.

Slowly, we gently guided them to the single little lost baby. What an amazing feeling that we were able to help this little fuzzy baby...without mom, it was sure to die.

Often over the past two years I have wondered, did that little one survive? Was it a boy or a girl? Sometimes I would surmise that it was a she and that she has had babies and that she was a great mom...dreams, you know...

This year, we were able to be on the Island in July, instead of August! We had a big fire to mark the full moon, we all laughed, shared stories...then the sun sank and the moon was rising...we all grabbed our cameras and headed to the front of the Island so we could see the sunset and the moonrise!



As you can see, it was stunning!!! The moon came up and I only had my 18-55 lens which means, no moon pictures for me! I watched with everyone else and took some shots of the others watching the moon...then a noise in the water begged my attention...slapping her feet on the rock in front of me, close enough for my lens to reach...there stood a mama Mallard and her babies...OMG! I was struck with the feeling that this was the little one we saved two summers ago...she made sure I looked her in the eyes, then they all climbed up the rock and jumped off the other side.






What a true, humble blessing this was...can't wait to share the story with Dennis!!!

Smile, because you can!

Amazing Love

Family is a very special place…I got to meet several nieces and nephews that I had not had the pleasure to know. The bonding that took place over the weekend was price~less…no way to ever put a tag on that. Not sure how it when for the fathers and their children, just know that the children and their cousins and aunt and uncles, went amazing!

My great nieces…OMG! They are stunning in their outward appearances and amazingly beauty~full on the inside. They are all honest, kind, caring, loving, sharing, giving, respectful and the best of all…they LOVE to have fun, joke around, model for auntie. Even Uncle Kevin was amazed and it takes a LOT to impress him!

My cousin Jim, his wife Sue and I sat and looked at all those kids (yes, I am including my adult nieces and nephews) and could see the family resemblances in my moms family. We talked about their beauty, their ability to have great fun, which family members were like that. It was great to see all those girls chase their grandpa (or cousin for some) with water balloons and drench him…Malayna, Sarah’s daughter was so cute, she would get him good and as she was running from him she would yell “love you papa!” as she was giggling and laughing. That reminded me so much of my dad when I was growing up…lots of chasing us girls and water fights, sliding hills, target practice with our 22’s…very uplifting with emotional moments.

The best sound ever “Aunt Anna.”

The Storm is Over

Yesterday was a very, very stormy day...physically, emotionally, spiritually...all the way around…

Family gatherings can often be surrounded by little pictures of drama…and my family is no different than that.

Emotions have run very high with much anticipation and excitement for meeting siblings, cousins, auntie’s, uncles, niece and nephews that we may have never met or only talked to on the phone…will they like me? Will I like them? How will we get along, how will this change my relationship with my parents, siblings…is there enough love?

These kinds of thoughts can spark ‘larger than life’ kinds of fears and emotional ups and downs in our lives…it is my belief that we just take baby steps forward, then shine our ‘light’ in the face of fear and move forward, in love and light…enjoying the bonds of very different individual people who share so very much DNA, both metaphorically and real.

As my parents would tell me all the time…Anna, there is more than enough love to spread around…so I will close for now and update the blog later…I have love to spread…

Have a great day and smile, because you can!