| Betty's profileThe BuzzPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
The BuzzFor Our Family and Friends May 23 On The Road Again"Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances."-Maya Angelou
I've been traveling since March. I took Shay to New Orleans to ride in the St. Patrick's Day parade. I only had time to post some photos before flying to New Orleans again in April to attend my annual family reunion. Three days after the reunion my sister and I started on our road trip to Utah and Nevada. We planned the trip after her husband died in September. Our children and grandchildren named our trip the "Thelma and Louise Tour." I've posted some of our photos.
The first few are the Grand Canyon which we visited on our way to Utah and the cliff dwellings are in Mesa Verde. The last three photos were taken in Natchitoches, the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase and the location of the movie, Steel Magnolias. My son attended college in Natchitoches and it is one of the most beautiful and gracious small towns in the entire sourthern U.S. The photos of Shay were taken at a scrapbooking overnighter in Sandy, Utah. My art partner, Jo and her sister, drove in from Nevada to attend and I took Shay and my sister. Jackie had never scrapbooked before, but she loved it and stocked up on supplies before we drove back to New Orleans. I like scrapbooking, but I only do it at those overnighters.
Jackie and I drove back to New Orleans with stops in Mesa Verde, Santa Fe and Natchitoches. We had a lovely time, but I'm ready to spend some time here in SLC and I have to do more painting for our two month show at the Lost City Museum in Nevada in July and August. I'll go to Montana sometime this summer and to Malibu for my annual retreat. I plan to be more faithful to this blog and to visit all of you more often.
January 24 Live, Love, Laugh and Learn"Why wait? Life is not a dress rehearsal. Quit practicing what you're going to do and just do it. In one bold stroke you can transform today." - Philip Markins
I'd ask where all the time has gone, but I know where it went. It went into living and doing and procrastination. Every day I say to myself, "Self, you want to get something on your blog today" and Self says, "I will do it today, but first I must..." and a hundred and one necessary chores and not so necessary social exercises follow and when I have the time, I'd rather paint!
Jo and I have a two month show in July and August at Lost City Museum and a month long show at Valley of Fire in December. Those are our only two show committments this year, but they require many, many paintings and while I have a backlog from last year, I have a hundred ideas for large and small paintings. I also have a couple of committments for paintings for auctions by my charitable events this year. The most serious impediment to my taking this time to blog is that I must paint while the muse is upon me. The creative process cannot be scheduled.
We had a wonderful Christmas Reveillion. I posted the photos a couple of weeks ago. The food was great - Tomatoes Rockefeller, Crabmeat Au Gratin Soup, Shrimp Creole, Stuffed Eggplant Casserole and, of course, New Orleans Bread Pudding with Praline Sauce. Our guests went through four gallons of Crabmeat Au Gratin Soup, which was the hit of the night. The star of our yearly holiday party is always the food. They come to eat! It is a great advantage to be a native New Orleanian in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Shay and Frank left for Minnesota the day after the party and my son, Rick, arrived from Atlanta to spend Christmas with Christy and me. It was a most enjoyable week with just a grateful mom with her only son and daughter.
The International Women's Conference is just two weeks away and I'm still filling slots on Panels and my committee is still staffing Workshops. We're all staying at the conference hotel for the four days of the conference - even Shay and Frank. I thought it would be fun for them to be downtown for the four day weekend and to frolic in the hotel's indoor, heated pool.
Shay and Frank and I are heading to New Orleans for the St Patrick's Day parade the second week in March. This will be the first time they ride on our family's float. My brother, who does not like to ride, will ride with us this year because I asked him to help me with Shay and Frank. I'll have photos!
I haven't been to your blogs for some time, but I'm off now to do just that!
December 09 Hope"Real generosity toward the future consists in giving all to what is present."
-Albert Camus
I'd like to share my 2009 year end letter.
Dear Family and Friends,
My maternal grandfather has always been my favorite relative. He died in 1958, but his influence touches me today. Having lived through the Great Depression of 1929, he was, for the rest of his life, changed by that experience. He could not waste anything. He always bought what he considered essential in multiples of six. Having lost all of his savings, he never again trusted banks. He saved cash and stored it in the bottom of his armoire. He was grateful for the opportunity to "work hard" and gave the men he hired in his broom and mop factory the same opportunity. He helped anyone who needed help.
"Gramps" was a cynical Frenchman. In a very Catholic family he was anti-clerical because he refused to give respect based solely on title or position. He attended Mass only when necessary and that was to witness some rite of passage by his beloved grandchildren, yet he possessed a palpable spiritual connection. In my grandfather's world respect had to be earned by honesty and integrity. He once told me that the only thing any of us have is our "word" and we must always protect that by doing what we say we will do. "Gramps" valued education. He valued books and good writing, especially poetry. He often quoted Emily Dickinson: "...hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all." Above all, he believed in the future. He survived the Great Depression and raised his four daughters well because his heart was filled with hope.
I think of "Gramps" often these days. Despite the "national nightmare" of the past eight years and our shrinking portfolios, I am filled with hope for the future. On a cold winter day, as I cook a pot of warming chili for my grandchildren and listen to the news of their day, I feel the hope that "Gramps" must have felt as he watched the family that he guided through the Great Depression. It is my fervent hope that the values instilled in me by "Gramps" and passed on to my children will live in the minds and hearts and souls of my grandchildren and that they will pass that on to their children.
In 2009 I wish for you and yours the thing with feathers. May it perch in your soul and sing the tune without the words and never stop at all.
Love,
Betty
November 24 All Things Considered"Everything is a miracle. We just have to recognize it." -Federico Fellini
I love National Public Radio and one of their weekday shows is named "All Things Considered." My friend, Kim Williams was a featured guest on "All Things Considered" during the seventies and eighties. Kim always began her essays, "This is Kim Williams in Missoula, Montana." Kim was wise and funny and she died too young of ovarian cancer. But, "All Things Considered" is still on every weekday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.
My car radio is always tuned to NPR and on my daily jaunts to and from errands I hear some of the most amazing things. Just last week I listened to a great musical show on New Orleans "funk" as played by The Meters. The Meters are a local treasure. While very few around the world have heard of The Meters, most citizens of New Orleans know and revere them. That is one of the things I like especially about NPR; they will take you to places you have never been before and expose you to the most interesting subjects and people. Also this weekend there was a reading of an Anne LaMott tale and a rendering of "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" by the woman who read Anne's story. I ask you; where else can one be so entertained in the comfort of one's automobile, stuck in traffic on a cool Fall day in Salt Lake City, Utah?
NPR is one of my elements of hope. That's right - for all we do wrong like accepting bad government, expecting bad service from our institutions, ignoring being overcharged for basic services; we turn around and support National Public Radio and expect the very best in a world that is running out of "good" and to our surprise NPR delivers. That is certainly reason for hope.
I'm pondering a topic for my annual Christmas letter and may have found one. Why not "hope?" Hope is certainly a miracle in this world of ours. I saw it in this presidential election. After eight years of ignorance, cruelty, dishonesty, greed, perfidy, exclusion and indifference, Americans voted for "hope."
Our Thanksgiving will be filled with family, friends and a couple of "orphans." I hope that your Thanksgiving is everything you hope it will be! November 13 Passion"Passion doesn't fade. It must be suppressed!" -Rumi
I've been thinking about "passion" lately, "passion for life" that is. I've been thinking about how well it serves humanity It would be easy to become jaded and cynical after the past eight years, but for passion which inspires hope. When I think about things like this, I am usually in awe of those who went before me.
My parents and grandparents lived through two world wars and a depression of monstrous proportions. I can remember, as a small child, the grim world of "rationing" during and after World War II. I can remember that we could buy nothing without rationing "stamps." Rationing affected all commodities and most necessities. I also remember how cooperative people were and how helpful they were to one another. Because leather was rationed, folks could not buy shoes when they needed them nor could they have the holes in their worn shoes half-soled without the requisite stamps. My grandfather was a broom and mop maker and his broom straw was delivered wrapped in heavy corrugated cardboard. Every night, after dinner, neighbors would line up at our house for my grandfather to cut "insoles" from the cardboard for their hole ridden shoes. A few days later some of the men would arrive at our door with small game - rabbits, squirrels - to thank my grandfather for their warm, dry feet. Inasmuch as meat was also rationed, the small game made wonderful meals for my family. Sometimes folks would bring small parcels of coffee and this always impressed me because New Orleans is a coffee-drinking place and coffee was like gold - no one in the city had enough coffee. This sharing always impressed me as "passion." Passion for living well in the face of deprivation made a lasting impression on me.
My family was passionate about each other. Everyone showed up for every event in the lives of the other. The lives of my sisters and brother and me were filled with grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts, great uncles, aunts, uncles, cousins (even those several times removed) and friends for births, christenings, confirmations, graduations, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, hospitalizations and funerals. Sometimes these events were far flung, so we traveled by car to Alabama, Florida and Texas. We were a busy bunch!
Which brings me to why I'm thinking about "passion." As we approach Thanksgiving, my "passion" gene kicks in and I begin to conjure ways to make these 2008 holidays memorable for my grandchildren, not to mention Christy and me. There has been a lot of "memorable" in the lives of Shay and Frank since they came to live with me and I can see their "passion" bubbling just beneath the surface. Having just taken down the Halloween wreath and decorations, Shay wants to know if it is time to hang the Thanksgiving wreath. "Yes, my darling, it is time." Who cares that we may be a little early - let's get "passionate" about Thanksgiving! And, yes, there will be a big Christmas party - this year it coincides with my 25th sobriety birthday. I'm working on the invitations and Christy, Shay, Frank and I are all working on the invitation list. Last year we had fifty folks and this year it looks like we might hit the hundred mark. And, yes, we feed them all copious amounts of New Orleans food. Indeed, we call our Christmas party "A Creole Christmas Revillion!"
Another of my family legacies is "gratitude." We were admonished to be grateful for every little blessing. We were counseled to be grateful even for adversity. Everything in our lives, we were taught, is a blessing all its own. Adversity makes us stronger, loss makes us appreciative...every disappoint carries the potential for learning a new way. So, my cyber friends, I wish you could all share our preparations for another round of holidays and the "passion" with which we attack them. Fear not, I will share them with you via post and photos.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Send a private message
Subscribe to RSS feed
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts|
|
