Category: February 2012

Successful

I have been reflecting on my life. As I have always done~too much, according to some. But who are they anyway.

In the earlier years of my life I would try to go to work. But I always hated it. Jobs were always boring, grueling, and inconvenient.

Things might have been different if I had been able to get a higher education, but I had a problem completing the lower education.

As it turns out, I have been able to achieve success. Success in my eyes. When I gave up any thought of being competitive, or doing what people expected of me and started doing what was in my heart, and BELIEVING that I could do these things, my life took off.

When I was thirty people began to call me a late bloomer. But they still thought I should get a REAL job.

When people ask me the inevitable question, “What do you do?” My thoughts go flat, like east coast waves in June. It’s just too hard to explain. But I must be good at it, because I make it look easy; this thing that I do.

All things are possible~just do it~

Laughter

If one could live off of laughter
Today I would be rich
Enjoy it
In August of 2009, I was embroiled in a mediation, with my sisters, involving my mother’s estate. It was hard. It did emotional damage, but I got through it. There were changes made. Changes that keep changing.
At some point during this family battle, I wanted to know the truth!
I e-mailed, “If you care more about me than you do money, write me back.”
I have to laugh.
I got no answer.

Southern Speed

IMG_2363

Slow down you move too fast….You got to make the morning last now……words by Simon and Garfunkel..

I’m stuck in the South. I call myself stuck, because I would not be here if I didn’t have to be. It would not be my choice.

If I had my way I would be in Costa Rica. Yeah, it’s further south, but North Florida is the south, that I call South.

I listen to NPR, and this morning. I heard a comment about the speed of technology. Everything in social media is accelerating at break neck speed and they have a class you can go to, to assist you in keeping up with the pace. NOT

I like slow. The South, like many other things are way too fast for me now.

I want to be true to MY speed~slower than southern slow.

Where do we think we’re all going anyway?

 

Tattle TALE

Deutsch: Rassel mit Schamanenkrone; Haida; Nor...

Word’s go rattle rattle rattle

People-go tattle tattle tattle

THERE’S A DEAD MAN HANGING IN THE TREE

HE’S LOOKING AT YOU AND HE’S LOOKING AT ME

I SAY I’M GOOD

YOU SAY I’M NOT

THE ROAD SPINS BOTH WAYS

THE BLOOD BEGINS TO CLOT

There’s a broom in the corner

so give your floor a sweep

look into the mirror

wake up from your sleep

THERE’S A DEAD MAN HANGING IN THE TREE

A NOOSE ON EVERY NECK

The words rattle 

The people tattle

Seperate and Whole

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a girl, in the company of strangers, in the quiet of a railway station running scared……..

That’s a favorite line, from a favorite song, by one of my favorite singers, Paul Simon~back when he was  Simon and Garfunkel.

I woke up in the midst of family. I looked at my Facebook page and saw an invite from my granddaughter, which says that she is married. hmmmm… I believe that’s possible, but who knows. We have had a death in the family..an overdose…..it’s sad, but it happens. I avoid my two oldest sisters who were the executors of my mother’s estate, but had to step down, because they stole money decided to become opportunists………like they didn’t have enough. And it’s hard to see my brother, who I love, just because he’s my brother in a family of sisters, because he’s too much. The last time I saw him I had to listen to his outrageous made up stories.

Family…..

I write about adventure in my blog. And I am an adventurist. But it all started out……running from my family.

Some people run to a psychiatrist, I ran to Tallahassee. I was fourteen. It was one of the best things I ever did in my life.

If I think about it all, it makes me laugh, if I think too hard, I laugh hysterically.

At one time, I hung on to the idea that my family was to be treated like fine china, but the dishes have all fell off the shelf. And I just don’t have the time to pick up the pieces.

I stay separate, but whole~ THAT’S BUCKET LIST FOR ME~pura vida

Deep In Debt

English: Writer and TV finance expert Suze Orm...
Image via Wikipedia

I’m not! I learned as a very young person, the hard way, to not borrow money. I owned my own home at nineteen. At my sister’s suggestion, I had called a few real estate agents and told them what I was looking for. They all laughed at me. What I wanted was something that I could afford, not what the market trends were. I bought a two bedroom, one bath house in a nice neighborhood, for eleven thousand dollars. I bought the owners loan with three thousand dollars, so I only owed eight thousand dollars and was well into the principal.

That was in 1975.

I enjoyed calling all the agents up and letting them know about my buy.

But I didn’t have patience. I didn’t understand taking it easy and letting things happen over time. I borrowed money for this and that and created stress, that I didn’t know how to deal with. I sold the house, broke even and found myself having to rent. I did not like that! I am a homeowner at heart.

It took me years to be able to buy a home again. I was thirty. And once again, I found an incredible deal. I bought a beach house on Amelia Island for fifty thousand dollars. That was in 1987. Unlike my contemporaries, I never took out an equity loan. OH NO! I had learned my lesson. I never drove a new car. I like style and dependability; it doesn’t have to be new. I feel the same way about everything in my life.

After many years, I sold that home and bought more houses with my profit. I felt like I was splitting my stock. It all just kind of happened.

I’ve done things in a slow and progressive fashion. I have never done anything to impress anyone. Why should I?

A dear friend of mine posted on her Facebook page these words…..Capture the essence of who you are without material trappings…….

That has been a goal, in my life.

It’s not always easy, because of my ego. But then I think of ego as Easing God Out and I let go.

This post was inspired by an interview with Suze Orman, on the Nate Show. She said that she had been on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and there were 150 people in the audience. They were all asked to write down on a piece of paper their debt. The papers were folded, collected and counted. The total was a shocking 20 million dollars. What does that say about people?

Today, I’m extremely grateful for that 1975 financial flop.

If you are in debt and stressed out and want to get free, just know that it can happen. You are not your money and you are not your debt.

Often the things that we think are the worst thing that could happen to us end up being the best.

pura vida…..

 

 

 

 

Whispering Dan

I want to apologize if you can’t follow my thought process. You wouldn’t be the first. My blog is my journal.

I have no intention of making money with this blog. As a matter of fact, I’ve made more money in my life trying to avoid the rat race. It would seem silly, to be in hot pursuit of money, at this point in my life.

When I ran from Amelia Island, in 2001, I was fleeing from all the sales and marketing BS, the real estate agents and people comparing your status by, which end of the Island you lived on. I thought that I was going to live the life of a hermit and seek God. I was going to separate myself from people and meditate. (and surf, of course)

That didn’t happen. Kind of, but not exactly.

Today, due to circumstances, I am staying on the Island. For the last ten years, I have drifted back and forth, letting life call the shots.

When I’m in the jungle, I’m in the jungle. When I’m on the island, I’m on the island.

And that brings me to telling you about Whispering Dan. Dan was a snow bird who settled here, after retiring from General Foods as a patent attorney. We were unlikely friends. But he enjoyed debates and discussions, about every topic, like myself. So, we started hanging out. He went with me to poetry readings and art shows. He tried to paddle out on a boogy board, one day, but couldn’t make it. He ended up with a bloody nose.

In a way, I was his audience. Yes, I kept up my end of the debates, but he never really listened to me.

When Dan retired he considered himself to be a big success. He had a beachfront condo, a stock portfolio, some money, and a pretty wife to be. He eventually got married, sold his condo at what, he came to believe, was the wrong time and he lost all of his money in the stock market.

That was the end of our friendship. He would not return my calls.

Dan was his money and without his money, he didn’t know what to say.

When Dan lost his money he lost his health and then his breath.

I learned a lot from Whispering Dan.

The most important thing being, I’m glad I’m me.