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The BuzzFor Our Family and Friends November 18 I"m Here"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own and you know what you know. You are the guy who"ll decide where to go." -Dr. Seuss
Yes, I'm still here. I've become addicted to Facebook! It is fast and allows one to comment to many folks without having to find them and then get to "comments." It is so immediate! But I do enjoy this venue also and I'm always trying to get to it.
I've been traveling and will continue on that track for the remainder of the year. I must go back to Nevada to hang a show at the Valley of Fire at the end of this month. When that show is finished we hang another show at Lost City Museum. We are becoming regulars at Lost City Museum. Revenues are down in this economy, but folks are still traveling and still buying our paintings, only not in the volume they have in years past.
At the beginning of December I'm off to Louisiana with friends. We will meet in New Orleans then drive to Grand Coteau, just north of Lafayette, to attend one of Father Tom's retreats. After the four day retreat we will drive to Natchez because one of our friends is a Civil War buff (he favors the Union) because while he has visited many sites on the Union side, he has not visited any sites on the Confederate side. I'm not a Civil War afficianado - all the sites I've visited have made me very, very sad. We will go back to New Orleans for two days romping in the Vieux Carre. One of our group has never been to New Orleans (can you imagine?) I'm the "tour director" on this trip and I've left not a whit of time unscheduled.
Thanksgiving is fast approaching and so far we have gathered several friends to share the day with us. I calculate twelve for dinner and who knows how many for dessert. Shay and Frank love the big gatherings that we so often assemble for holidays. Christy and I do also! Of course, there will be a BIG Christmas Party again this year. We combine the Christmas Party with my sobriety anniversary (26 years) so we lose track of who we have invited and have come to treat it as an Open House.
I'm so happy to have all this activity in my life. I still miss Dean - perhaps moreso today than I did the first year he was gone. I've decided that I'll probably never adjust to his absence and that there will always be a hole in my life. What I concentrate on, though, is how joyous I am that I had him for so many years and that I have been loved and cherished and I treasure the memories.
August 27 My life Is Full of... Life!"Nothing is ours except time." -Seneca
I note that my last post here was in May. In June I went to Nevada to hang a two month show at the Lost City Museum. It is now time to take down that show and I know exactly where the two months went. I was having fun! Actually, I'm still having fun.
I spent a week in Malibu at my annual retreat. I attended all the summer festivals in Utah. I've spent three weeks in Montana. I'm in Montana now. Erin and the girls visited for a week as did my son and my granddaughter. I'm presently entertaining my stepson-in-law and his brother from Copenhagan. Carl and Michael are doing some serious trout fishing and tonight I'm taking them to dinner at the Montana Club in Helena.
I've spent the week between visiting relatives cleaning out Dean's office and his desk. I dreaded it and it has taken me almost three years to get to it, but it was not as bad as I expected. The job is done and I'll use Dean's office as my studio here and relegate the loft (which was my studio) to another guest room.
The housekeeping chores that Dean handled and I took for granted are now my responsibility and I don't like it, but I'm doing it. We had a monster winter in Montana and five feet of slightly thawed snow on the roof became ice and when it finally thawed it came down on an uncovered deck and collapsed it! Dean would have rebuilt it, but I'm having it dismantled and in it's place I'm having a patio poured. The dismantling is happening now and the patio pouring will occur in late Spring of 2010!
As a very well preserved 72 year old with more energy than most of my fifty and sixty something friends and relatives and blessed with a positive outlook, I thought you might take the following seriously!
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
Try everything twice! The first time to prove to yourself you can do it and the second for fun.
Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Keep learning. Never let the brain get idle.
Enjoy the simple things.
Laugh! Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
Let the tears flow. Endure, grieve and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ourselves.
Surround yourself with who and what you love. The decision to buy a house in SLC and have Christy, Shay and Frank share my life was absolutely the right move for me. I'm having more fun than I thought possible.
Cherish your health. Take care of yourself.
Don't take guilt trips.
Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity.
Forgive NOW those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance.
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
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