One Deep Breath - Coffee and Tea

Ah, coffee, life's blood in the morning. I've been addicted to this revitalizing brew since I was three years old. Yep, it was my southern grandmother that hooked me on the stuff, and in those days I drank it white with heavy cream and sugar. Now that I'm all grown up, it goes down pure and black. I can literally feel my eyes opening wider and wider with each sip. Throw in the morning paper and I am armed for the day!

Elixir in a cup

opens my eyes to the world

my morning brew

For a refill on your haiku cup, go here

Sunday Scribbblings-Who Else Might I Still Be?

In March of this year, I celebrated my 50th birthday, although in the time leading up to that date, I didn't feel as if there were much to celebrate. Until I reached this milestone year, I used to see time strecthing before me like an endless road, so I didn't worry about postponing my plans to write, or travel, or make music, or see friends that lived far away. I figured I could always do that "later." But when I became 50, it seemed as if that endless road of time was being gobbled up, and I was traveling down it at warp speed. I started this blog on my birthday, and I described myself as an "American woman, newly embarking on the second half of her century here on earth." So, if that description is right, and I'm to have another 50 years here, who else might I still be?

I might still be an author, who writes books that speak to the deepest feelings and concerns of other women.

I might still be a musician that plays music people all over the world would love to hear.

I might still be a grandmother, who can provide love, and encouragement to another child in her life, and provide a little wisdom along the way.

I hope to be a better wife and partner, one who is more encouraging, more understanding, more creative about life and loving.

I hope to continue being a fun, loving, mother, and never become a burden or drain on my children's time, energy, or patience!

I hope to be a patient and supportive daughter to my parents as they struggle with old age, and I hope I can find the strength and fortitude necessary to do what needs to be done to ease their passage through this stage of life.

I hope I can remain young in mind and in spirit (well, body would be nice, too!), and not become so deeply grounded in my beliefs and habits that I don't allow myself the opportunity to experience new things in the world around me.

I hope I can be loving and forgiving of myself, when my careful plans for life go awry. I hope that gray hairs, stiff limbs, and a few extra pounds don't cost me my self-esteem or my hard won self-confidence.

Most of all, I hope I'm always willing to learn something new, step outside whatever box I'm in at the moment, and love with all my heart.

To read other's musing about their future selves, go here

Grateful Saturday

I've been inspired by M's lovely Grateful Friday posts, and decided to end Friday/begin Saturday with one of my own. I'm grateful for:

• Having my son and daughter in law here for a good long visit;
• Everybody in my family (doggies included!) being healthy right now;
• The past several days of cool, clear weather, truly Michigan summer on its best behavior;
• A stack of fresh new books from the library;
• Tomatoes in the garden;
• Grilled salmon dinner from Mitchell's Fish Market last night;
• The promise of my mom's honest-to-goodness Kentucky fried chicken for Sunday dinner - (does it seem like I'm hungry here???);
• My laptop, which allows me to work outside on the patio instead of being cooped up in the house all day;
• The work of UK Intelligence, which thwarted a horrible terroist plot - brilliant job!
• This community of brave writing women across the globe who continually inspire me to explore my thoughts, expand my horizons, and expound on life in general!

What Would George W(ashington) Do?

Unsettled. Uneasy. The continued violence in the middle east combined with the revelation of yet another horrific terrorist plot against innocent citizens sets my nerves on edge. Going about the everyday business of life seems almost profane in light of all the death and destruction being faced by people throughout the world. I find myself glued to the news stations with horrified fascination as they describe this latest plan to actually create and detonate explosive devices in midair. I stare in wonder at the pictures of these young people who've been arrested - plain, ordinary looking folks, yet so full of hate for other plain, ordinary folks like me and my fellow citizens. While I'm terrified by the bombs they mean to create, perhaps I'm even more terrifed by the long term effects their actions could have on my country. Will we, as a nation, spend the rest of our lifetime on the run from an enemy that can pop up anywhere, anytime, around any corner, behind any door? An enemy that has no concern for it's own self-protection, one that is in fact happy to die in service to the cause? These terrorists are like cancer cells - they grow in secret places, ready to strike wherever the body is vulnerable, with no regard for their own safety or protection.

And what has America done to inspire this hatred from this group of Muslims? I know we're a young country, and like most "teenagers" can be pretty hard to take with our arrogance and our desire to have it all right now. That arrogance has led us to intrude ourselves and our ideals into the middle eastern world in ways that have fueled the unrest in existence there since our nation was nothing more than wilderness.

Richard Brookhiser, author of What Would the Founders Do? writes about America at the time of the first George W - Washington, that is. He reminds us that our own American Revolution often "shaded into terrorism," and that the British relied on "guerilla warare" to assist them in thier fight to maintain dominion over these rogue United States. Indian massacres in New York and Pennsylvania, "laid forty villages to waste," guerrilla warfare in the south had inhabitants "persecuting each other with savage fury," and bands of "marauding "cowboys "terrorized" Westchester County north of New York City. Brookhiser writes that George Washington eschewed this guerilla type warfare, and always favored establishing a professional army that was responsible to the Congress. It was the conduct and bravery of this "professional army" that is now generally credited with our victory over the British. "The Americans didn't always do right," Brookhiser states, "but they did right more often than their enemies, and it did them a lot of good."

I wonder how Washington and the other founding fathers would handle the situation the country now faces, some 230 years after the drafting of the constitution and the original fight for freedom from tyranny. Brookhiser writes that "America is about liberty or it is about nothing." I think the terrorists we're facing know that, and are striking at the very heart of what we love the most about our country and our lives. Along with my uneasiness about the possibility of more terrorist attacks, I'm also angry. I'm angry that a group of "religious" people have the effontery to decide my nation is "corrupt" and that its ordinary citizens don't deserve to live. I don't believe George Washington would take that lying down, and I don't believe we should either.

Moving Right Along

Back to School ads are being broadcast on American television, and I've just sent sympathy cards to all my teacher friends. When school lets out in June, those three free months stretch out in front of us like an endless sea of days. We make all kinds of fabulous promises to ourselves - we vow to read all of Dostoyevsy's novels, paint the next American Gothic, cook gourmet meals each night, learn conversational Japanese, and lose 15 pounds in the bargain. Then, in the blink of an eye, it's August, and Target, Walmart and Office Depot are inviting us all in for spiral notebooks, crayons, calculators, and pens.

(At this point, I could easily turn this into a post about how much I love office supplies - and what writer doesn't? I can spend hours wandering the aisles in the office supply deparment, testing the smoothness of all the pens, feeling the weight of paper in the notebooks...ok, ok, enough! )

What I really started to write about was time - how it flees from us all, teachers, parents, gardeners, accountants, every mortal soul who finds time slipping away faster and faster with each passing day of their life.

If you think back to your childhood, I bet summer really seemed endless, didn't it? I grew up in one of those baby boomer neighborhoods, and nearly every house on our block had at least 5 kids (except for me, of course, the odd "only child" in the bunch!) From dawn to dusk we roamed the streets, riding bikes, playing various ball games, reading books, jumping into the pool...all the fun stuff that kids should do in the summer. It seemed like summer lasted a lifetime, and when September finally rolled around, I was usually ready to go back to the routine of school.

As a young parent, summer was also a respite for me. My son, bless his little heart, always hated school with a passion akin to the Bush family's for Saddam Hussein. So I looked forward to summer in those days, as a time when he was (finally!) happy and able to relax. Unlike most parents of school age children, I was never very happy to see September roll around, because I knew he would again have demons to face, and I was always facing those demons with him.

By the time he was grown, I was again enmeshed in the school year calendar because of my job in the high school. I consider myself really fortunate in my part time position, because I don't work every day. Nevertheless, when the school year starts, life gets a lot more hectic for me. It adds another two work days to my weekly schedule, as well as at least one work night per week. Not to mention trying to juggle the concerts and special events that always occur in the music deparment. Come September, my life definitely gets turned up at least two notches! So I look forward to June, July, and August as a time to slow down a little and catch up on "things."

Well, here it is, August 9, 2006. I can remember writing this post as if it were yesterday - no, as if it were earlier this morning! The older I get, the faster time goes. Rabbi Israel ben Eiezer, the founder of Hasidic Judaism wrote this:

Live in the present.

Do the things that need to be done.

Do all the good you can each day.

The future will unfold.

Who can argue with this as a mission statement for life, no matter how fast your personal time might be flying by? Because the future does unfold, and very rapidly too, like it or not. So, back to school, here we come. Let's hope we can do "all the good we can each day."