Friends and Foes of Dirty Dina

Photo on 10-30-12 at 2.46 PM #3What ever you do ~ don’t say the paper mill stinks! Don’t say the water is polluted! Hold it in – Hold your nose! Continue reading Friends and Foes of Dirty Dina

Three Funerals and a Wedding

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Continue reading Three Funerals and a Wedding

HEAVY Conversation

129896330971286075Do I look fat to you?

I don’t look fat to me. But, at the time that picture was taken, I thought I was huge. I thought no one wanted to know me or talk to me.

How did I get that way?

Could it possibly have been from a brother that told me I was a fatty, fatty, two by four? It was one of his repetitive tortures, that gave him a sense of power.  Or, was it from a brother-in-law, that called me lard ass, like that was my name? Continue reading HEAVY Conversation

Step It Up

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Taking it all in stride, Rooster is working to keep up with our granddaughter’s husband. He’s a tall one. Roo is having the time of his life, telling this walking man, everything he’s ever known about the world of welding. If he wants to be heard he has to shuffle much faster, to keep up with those long legs.

The future looks bright.

My husband came home to be by his father’s side, in his time of need.

Now he finds himself, keeping up with the young, that have their whole life in front of them.

They have a baby on the way.

A new baby is like the beginning of all things – wonder, hope a dream of possibilities. ~ LeShan

This Is Life

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERARemember friend, as you pass by ~ As you are now, so once was I ~ As I am now, you soon shall be ~ So prepare for Death and follow me.

This is an epitaph from a relative’s tombstone. Words that I grew up with. My grandmother, mother and aunt, use to take us to the cemetery, after Mass. It seemed appropriate to visit the dead, on Sunday.

To walk with head bowed, looking at the dirt and envisioning the emptiness. The nothingness of the after-life. It looked like a weird neighborhood. The tombstones had addresses that were years; one – to the other. The personalities living on in quirky sayings, that haunted me in the week.

I took those words to heart. How was I to prepare for death? Continue reading This Is Life

Reflection

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA27 short years ago, today, my life was changed. For thirty-one years, I had tried to get my feet on the ground; tried to make things work. But I failed. I failed miserably.

I couldn’t keep a job. I had constant anxiety, but didn’t know what anxiety was.

For some reason, I was pegged. I lived under a cloud of other people’s words, and other people’s opinions. They were a weight around my neck and I was drowning.

I prayed for help and I got it!

Today, on this anniversary, I am letting go of the stormy petrels that haunt me. Or maybe, they’ve let go of me. Either way, I’ve paid my dues.

Dumb Questions

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Don’t tell anyone, but ten years ago today, I was on a trip in Mexico. I was doing my usual thing, wandering off from everyone and everything. I was inhaling hot sun and exhaling residual U.S. toxins. One of my favorite pastimes. I was admiring the cactus. I was a little nervous; on edge. I felt alone.

I mean really alone. I felt as existential as a roadside chicken.

Then I saw it. There at my feet was a piece of cloth; worn burlap. It appeared to be something buried. I squatted and began to dig. My mind said, walk away, this is trash. What are you doing? But I couldn’t stop. My curiosity had me.

And I’m so glad I didn’t, because what I found was gold. An actual buried gold brick. What! Continue reading Dumb Questions