When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad....
I am not Julie Andrews, and my life is not a musical for sure. I live as a wife, mother and homemaker in Redding California. My husband and children moved up here in 2001,to purchase our first house, and rear our 3 children. After living and working in the beautiful Sonoma and Marin county, we really believed we could manage the climate and the economics of Shasta County. We bought our house for an amazing price, with a nice piece of land able to plant essential fruit trees and flowers, near a good school, and we found jobs right away. The cost of living was so different compared to the wealthy area of Petaluma and Santa Rosa where we were.
I was allowed to teach art, with my art docent experience, and eventually worked in an aferschool program leading teens in art and helping with writing and homework.The teachers were nice, class rooms were small, and it was so special to be in the feel of a small town, I really loved letting my children walk to school the most Each day had struggle and progress, and it seems as if my most beloved dreams came true.
It was an adult - second half of life feeling. Working, raising kids, making rules and watching the years mold us. We made new friends easily, we loved our Church, everyone knew everyone! We found our days off in -hot weather--sweetly quenched in the cool lakes near by. It was an easy for us to drive the 15 minutes to historic Whiskey town, even though it was a tourist spot, it was relaxing, it offered camping, hiking, sailing, swimming, fishing and taking postcard like photographs, the season pass to park is only 20$. We saw our first mountain lion in the park, and it was not uncommon to see Eagles, deer, and friendly lizards and squirrels. We escaped lakeside on our bad days and good days, to the soft sand, worries went out with the waves.
Steve caught trophy winning trout, and delicious local salmon that we feasted upon. My Father would visit twice a year, and it was great to see the kids camp out with him so close to home. It all felt so perfect. Sometimes we really don't know how perfect life is, until it is not so perfect. I wish sometimes we could see that the moments in life, that are in the past are still there, we still have them, and life is still that good. We think about the little details that bother us, and we sacrifice the bigger picture for it. Time flew by, and looking back now is sometimes very melancholy for me.
In the 8 years past, kids grow up and go to college, tiny toddlers become towering teenagers, and the troubles that were not foreseen are clear as ever in the economic recession that has halted and reversed a once flourishing fishing community. We know that seasons bring change, and that even in the best of circumstances, things will change and we are responsible for our own growth, but environment is more influential that we realize. In 2001, a month after we moved here, the dreadful 9th month 11 day experience changed the way everything traveled, and the world saw terrorists, and my first grader has gone to school everyday, since we have been to war. Everyday, of his school life, it has been in the news, it has been a subject to worry about, and in the back of every ones mind we wonder when will it end. The environment for teachers turned hostile with " no child left behind" and the cuts to programs, the political climate has gone from bad to worse with severe backlash against anyone who disagrees with the President, or the policy of war.
Where do we go now? There are no hiding places, we finally plugged the television back in, and even though we can't afford all the amenities teens want( l.o.l. who can?), we do allow as much freedom of choices that any progressive parent can. I still compare my childhood environment, with my kids, and my kids are so sure that I had it best. Can kids today really plug into what we as kids of baby boomers had to deal with?
Let's take stock kids, no computer social networking....period, no cell phones, parents for the most part trusted us because they were from the 50's, we went out to movies, we bought our clothes at stores, and school was different too. The rules our kids are taught about everything, from the "no touch" rule, to -- the no colored hair rule...kids have it a lot different today. The good part is, college really is for everyone now, and if you spend even a few days in classrooms, you will see that smart kids are cool, and drugs are out! Alleluia! Kids today have it good! Okay,so we had the threat of war, and we had fear of other countries, and lack of information, and we thought it was so-American to have Movie Star presidents, now we just have famous Presidents...
Actually kids have it great, and just don't know it! This is a universal truth, we all don't know how good we have it, when we are in throws of growing and changing. It takes eyes in the back of our heads, to be in the know! I have had the recent experience to sit with a 95 year old, married couple. Believe it or not, life has not changed all that much, since they were kids, in fact it does sound like our "Recession" can not be as bad as their "depression" was! Our health care is about the same, because people are still dying from cancer, old age, and poverty. But the words that they said to me, rang true, like a bell that tolls. I listened to her say, in her quaint elderly repetitive way, "We had a good life, we always had fun as a family, my kids were all really good, we loved each other" I looked back and smiled, and said yes you had a good life. Then she'd ask me, "How many kids do you have, are they doing well?" I told her their ages, and said yes;in my heart I knew I had feelings that could detail all the pitfalls and letdowns...only I knew. She said, "Kids are just like their parents, you can always tell good kids, by the good parents". It rang a bell for me, when I get to 95, I will remember only what people tell me. At the end of your life, you can only hope for a little less pain, you can hope that people are willing to sit and listen to you. While we are young, we manage to avoid people, listen very little, and sometimes cause extreme pain as teens.
I guess that why, at any age we find time to remind ourselves of our favorite things,music helps, movies can too. And we can ask those older than us why we made the choices that we did, so when it all starts to become too difficult, or it starts to slip away we can say it was all worth the it, it was a journey. Having hinds feet for this life, is when we allow God to be the front feet, and we are the back feet. I like that we don't just ride on the back of life, looking back, we are -connected and one with all that life is. We don't have to preach to teach, we can just walk on, keep on keeping on, and this is joy. Because we make the path, for others to walk on, it has been there for us. Taking time to talk to the elders in our life, can bring a great perspective on how good life is for us all right now.
For in life we need three things for happiness
something to do
someone to love
and something to hope for
something to hope for being the most important, never loose site of that.
I am not Julie Andrews, and my life is not a musical for sure. I live as a wife, mother and homemaker in Redding California. My husband and children moved up here in 2001,to purchase our first house, and rear our 3 children. After living and working in the beautiful Sonoma and Marin county, we really believed we could manage the climate and the economics of Shasta County. We bought our house for an amazing price, with a nice piece of land able to plant essential fruit trees and flowers, near a good school, and we found jobs right away. The cost of living was so different compared to the wealthy area of Petaluma and Santa Rosa where we were.
I was allowed to teach art, with my art docent experience, and eventually worked in an aferschool program leading teens in art and helping with writing and homework.The teachers were nice, class rooms were small, and it was so special to be in the feel of a small town, I really loved letting my children walk to school the most Each day had struggle and progress, and it seems as if my most beloved dreams came true.
It was an adult - second half of life feeling. Working, raising kids, making rules and watching the years mold us. We made new friends easily, we loved our Church, everyone knew everyone! We found our days off in -hot weather--sweetly quenched in the cool lakes near by. It was an easy for us to drive the 15 minutes to historic Whiskey town, even though it was a tourist spot, it was relaxing, it offered camping, hiking, sailing, swimming, fishing and taking postcard like photographs, the season pass to park is only 20$. We saw our first mountain lion in the park, and it was not uncommon to see Eagles, deer, and friendly lizards and squirrels. We escaped lakeside on our bad days and good days, to the soft sand, worries went out with the waves.
Steve caught trophy winning trout, and delicious local salmon that we feasted upon. My Father would visit twice a year, and it was great to see the kids camp out with him so close to home. It all felt so perfect. Sometimes we really don't know how perfect life is, until it is not so perfect. I wish sometimes we could see that the moments in life, that are in the past are still there, we still have them, and life is still that good. We think about the little details that bother us, and we sacrifice the bigger picture for it. Time flew by, and looking back now is sometimes very melancholy for me.
In the 8 years past, kids grow up and go to college, tiny toddlers become towering teenagers, and the troubles that were not foreseen are clear as ever in the economic recession that has halted and reversed a once flourishing fishing community. We know that seasons bring change, and that even in the best of circumstances, things will change and we are responsible for our own growth, but environment is more influential that we realize. In 2001, a month after we moved here, the dreadful 9th month 11 day experience changed the way everything traveled, and the world saw terrorists, and my first grader has gone to school everyday, since we have been to war. Everyday, of his school life, it has been in the news, it has been a subject to worry about, and in the back of every ones mind we wonder when will it end. The environment for teachers turned hostile with " no child left behind" and the cuts to programs, the political climate has gone from bad to worse with severe backlash against anyone who disagrees with the President, or the policy of war.
Where do we go now? There are no hiding places, we finally plugged the television back in, and even though we can't afford all the amenities teens want( l.o.l. who can?), we do allow as much freedom of choices that any progressive parent can. I still compare my childhood environment, with my kids, and my kids are so sure that I had it best. Can kids today really plug into what we as kids of baby boomers had to deal with?
Let's take stock kids, no computer social networking....period, no cell phones, parents for the most part trusted us because they were from the 50's, we went out to movies, we bought our clothes at stores, and school was different too. The rules our kids are taught about everything, from the "no touch" rule, to -- the no colored hair rule...kids have it a lot different today. The good part is, college really is for everyone now, and if you spend even a few days in classrooms, you will see that smart kids are cool, and drugs are out! Alleluia! Kids today have it good! Okay,so we had the threat of war, and we had fear of other countries, and lack of information, and we thought it was so-American to have Movie Star presidents, now we just have famous Presidents...
Actually kids have it great, and just don't know it! This is a universal truth, we all don't know how good we have it, when we are in throws of growing and changing. It takes eyes in the back of our heads, to be in the know! I have had the recent experience to sit with a 95 year old, married couple. Believe it or not, life has not changed all that much, since they were kids, in fact it does sound like our "Recession" can not be as bad as their "depression" was! Our health care is about the same, because people are still dying from cancer, old age, and poverty. But the words that they said to me, rang true, like a bell that tolls. I listened to her say, in her quaint elderly repetitive way, "We had a good life, we always had fun as a family, my kids were all really good, we loved each other" I looked back and smiled, and said yes you had a good life. Then she'd ask me, "How many kids do you have, are they doing well?" I told her their ages, and said yes;in my heart I knew I had feelings that could detail all the pitfalls and letdowns...only I knew. She said, "Kids are just like their parents, you can always tell good kids, by the good parents". It rang a bell for me, when I get to 95, I will remember only what people tell me. At the end of your life, you can only hope for a little less pain, you can hope that people are willing to sit and listen to you. While we are young, we manage to avoid people, listen very little, and sometimes cause extreme pain as teens.
I guess that why, at any age we find time to remind ourselves of our favorite things,music helps, movies can too. And we can ask those older than us why we made the choices that we did, so when it all starts to become too difficult, or it starts to slip away we can say it was all worth the it, it was a journey. Having hinds feet for this life, is when we allow God to be the front feet, and we are the back feet. I like that we don't just ride on the back of life, looking back, we are -connected and one with all that life is. We don't have to preach to teach, we can just walk on, keep on keeping on, and this is joy. Because we make the path, for others to walk on, it has been there for us. Taking time to talk to the elders in our life, can bring a great perspective on how good life is for us all right now.
For in life we need three things for happiness
something to do
someone to love
and something to hope for
something to hope for being the most important, never loose site of that.
