Goals, Life, Running, Spirituality, Work LIfe

Spinning & Turning & Alas, Pausing

March 12, 2022
Fitness, Food!, Life, Running

Donuts

Well, today I weighed in less than I have in over a year. Kudos to me! I’m happy with that success. Especially after a “donut weekend”. That is a weekend where, well, I ate a lot of donuts. Breakfast both days and snack both days. Yep. A sugar fix to say the least. Sometimes when I do that I am not able to get back….this time I was. Whew! I would not recommend it as truly often I have a very difficult time finding my way to healthy eating and putting down the sugar. It is not worth it.

I’m grateful that when I eat healthy my husband gets into it as he recognizes the changes, too! Don’t get me wrong, he won’t eat as healthy but he moderates and does so much better. Whoop whoop!

I have been running almost daily, too. Over 3 miles a day. I can’t believe it. I have also added in a 15 minute strength workout. I stretch while doing that and it’s absolutely yummy.

I am eating about 90% Vegan, so that is dairy free, too. I am not doing that for my diet but for the animals. I am pretty sure donuts are not Vegan. I had the misfortune of turning on one of those films where it shows how the animals are treated and “cared” for before slaughter and it was disgusting. I do not want to contribute to that. Not that I will make a huge difference but it matters to me. I was horrified and had to turn the documentary off. I will eat seafood on occasion and dairy on occasion and very little meat —it will be the exception.

Time to get my run on!!!!

Peace, Love, & Joy to you, my friend!!!!

July 8, 2020
866
Covid 19, Life, Random, Relationships, Spirituality, Work LIfe

It’s Not Fear, It’s Love.

I admit it. I have been furious. Furious with the lack of leadership in my state (Florida) and furious with the lack of leadership in this country. It is embarrassing. Specialness is the human condition. We always think, “it’s not going to happen to me” and this results in not following “suggested” guidelines, especially when they are not clear and are constantly changing. I get it.

I have been a manager for over twenty six years and one thing that my professional work has taught me is that the majority of people count on direction and clear communication…two things we are very much lacking in this country.

Anger doesn’t get anything done. It is a grand separator. It only hurts me…and it is a reaction based on my ego. So when I am furious I am in fear. I get that. However, I care about people and that is acceptable in this world which we live in. I am not going to defend my position against my spiritual readers. We are meant to “act normal” in this illusory world.

Love is compassion. Love is kindness. Love is thinking about others and how my behavior may hurt or hinder another person, even someone I do not know. So if my staying-at-home, wearing a mask, and practicing social distancing when I have to go out for groceries or such (work) saves even one life, it will be worth it. There is not much I have to do today that I cannot put off until a vaccine is approved, or this virus “disappears” as the POTUS claims it will.

I miss my grand-babies like crazy, and my kids, but I am not going to risk a life to see them…even a life of a person I do not know.

Today, I will practice Love. Today I will practice kindness.

How are you handling this crisis?

July 7, 2020
1531
Childhood, Life, Poetry, Relationships

AWOL

Motherless children sneaking into the night.

The baby wallowing in snot shrieks out in hunger.

Stolen bread. Mustard sandwiches and mashed Oreos finger fed.

Dirty faces – – tattered clothes and skinned knees.

Every day darkened as night smothered in the fear of abandonment.

Innocence stripped in the servitude of the drink.

Stolen away in the night and driven north to a new place.

A new beginning. AWOL was the the salvation of purity. Restoration impossible but a new beginning.

July 2, 2020
1521
Childhood, Random, Relationships

Porky Pig

I was five or six years old. My oldest tormentor, I mean sister, Karen, told me in all seriousness and very sternly that she had something very important that she had to tell me. It was time. She began by showing me picture of Porky Pig which she drew herself and put in a frame.

“Maura (my childhood nickname), this is your father”, she said. “You don’t have a tail because we clipped it when you were born, and we will have to clip it again when you are ten and every ten years thereafter”.

Well, needless to say, I was rather gullible and naive at that age….okay, and older, too. I believe I sobbed a bit before I realized this was another ploy of my sister’s very active imagination.

July 2, 2020
1532
Childhood, Random, Relationships

Hudson

Where was I?

Hudson, New York…I am not sure but I believe we lived there from when I was a 1-2 year old through until I was over 5 years old.

It was confirmed later in life that my dad married Fran not so much out of love but due to going from a dad out-at-sea, to a single dad alone with five children. It was apparent in the tension and fighting in the house. I don’t think that we were there very long. I know there was animosity between him and his older sister who took us in originally. I don’t know the details but it seemed to be over money. He claimed to be giving her everything he had…”living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches” and she wasn’t happy with what she was receiving from him. Who knows? I do know that her marriage suffered and ended in divorce and that while we were living with her she had to have a double mastectomy due to breast cancer, so it was certainly no picnic for her to go from her own five children to ten in all, me still being an infant. I don’t remember her so much from that time as I do my older siblings and cousins complaining about having to watch me.

Moving on…after the failed marriage to Fran, we were passed on to live with my dad’s youngest sister who had two children of her own closer to my age. At this time we went to live in Maine while my dad went out to California to get a job and find a home. We were all to join him later there. I believe I started second grade in California so I must have been around six or seven.

Maine memories: Cat tails, made-up adventures lead by my oldest sister Karen of our being tracked down by “dangerous” people—we crouched among the cat tails, slithered on our bellies…we were not to be caught!, trailer parks, smashed fingers, stern aunt, nap-time with my cousins, “And she lets her hair hang down…” (song: Behind Closed Doors! Ha!), playing school–again, led by Karen, and her teaching me how to spell California…the “Porky Pig” story….and that one is for my next blog post…

June 25, 2020
1
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