Ready for Use

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Stuck

What if you felt stuck? Stuck in the mud. Stuck on a treadmill. Stuck on a never ending moving sidewalk passing all that was wanted by? Stuck in the far left lane of a vast freeway unable to reach the right hand lane and the exit?

What if you felt stuck in a relationship you no longer wanted to be part of? What if this relationship was someone life had knitted you to for all time? A father, a mother, a sister or a brother?

What if all you saw was desert, a never ending view of thirst and dust in your eyes? Making you want to break down and cry. Only the years have dried up your tears. Not a drop could be found save for the blood your heart bleeds with each moment of pain.

What if by some measure of fate you could taste the frosty goodness of life again? Vanilla or chocolate your choice.

Take a spoonful. Savor the flavor of life. Creamy, sweet sensation, palatable to the scenes and lightening your heart, no longer a tau particle. Your heart once a tazza now has the depth of a vase holding the most beautiful ornament of roses. Breath deep the aroma of the love they carry.

You are not as stuck as you once imagined.
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Secret Code

Between two people there is a secret code that develops. Once these people are in a relationship for even a small amount of time they begin to know each other and learn their quirky ways. After a year or so each person can begin to anticipate the others actions, manners and even their emotions in given situations. After 40 years we know this person so well that we can easily become irritated with the other, unreasonable when we want our way and even expect the other person to be able to perform feats that include miraculous healing powers.

When we have something we want or have something to tell the other, we use this knowledge to 'butter' the other person up. We use flattery and complementary words in the hope that this something we want to share will be smoother somehow and more tasty. When in fact the best way to tell someone news, any news is to just spread that butter on the bread and take a big ol' bite of the tasty goodness that is the truth. However, it seems, that if you have just meet this person or if you two have been married for 40 plus years somethings are just plain hard to say.

Remember you have the secret code ~ you know this person. You have the code to be able to talk to them and they have the code to understand what you are saying and what this truth truly means in both your lives. You each have the other in mind and in the end have always wanted the same goals. The roles might be reversed as one has always been the worker and provider and the other the follower of their dreams. It is time for the worker and provider to have a dream. To have a desire for a new path and change.

Dream for the future, provide for today and always include the other person in your plans. Life is best when it is shared.
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Introduction Etiquette

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Meeting a new friend or business associate? The most important point about introductions is to make them. Even if you make the introduction incorrectly. If given a choice, most people would prefer you to make the introduction incorrectly, even if you forgot their name, rather than stand there unacknowledged and disregarded.

Second in line of importance is the order of names for those being introduced. Social etiquette is based on chivalry and both formal and informal introductions are made according to age, then gender, and then social status. A man would be introduced to the woman unless the man is obviously a great deal older, in which case one would defer to age over gender.

Business etiquette is genderless as in the work environment, men and women are peers and is based on rank. The proper way to make a business introduction is to introduce a lower-ranking person to a higher-ranking person.

Always stand for introductions and greet the newcomer(s) at both business and social functions. Shake their hand; shaking hands with someone can leave a powerful impression. A firm handshake made with direct eye contact sets the stage for a positive meeting.
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Cool View

Photos taken September 14, 2009 at about 9:00 a.m.
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Wood Cutting Day

Split that wood boys!

Take a steam sauna in Ole Jake's Bath House.

My Pop's other name is Jake.
My Mom is the artist.

Fall on the banks of the Chena.

End the day with a warm bowl of halibut chowder.
My Mom is a master soup maker.
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Ready?

Life can change in a flash, a moments notice, blink of an eye, quick as a wink, smack ~ just like that. Are you ready? Are you enjoying every moment? Every breath? Eat, drink and be merry for we know not what the morrow will bring.

Bask in the sunny glow of falls glorious golden hue. As the sun sets and the moon rises, marvel in the Lords greatness. Our world is changing. The birds have all left for southern pastures. Clouds stray across the sky, thickening and becoming heavy laden with winter.

Hug those you love. Laugh and have a joyful heart.
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Love is Always Welcome

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Feelings move in, set up shop and pitch tents. Sometimes they are invited over, welcomed with open arms. You place them where you want them in your heart. Forever to be comfortable.

Other times they steal in slow and tedious. Lightly stepping on the floor to keep the boards from creaking and announcing their arrival. Then before you know it they are at your supper table fitting right in like they have always been there ~ invited and welcomed.

Yet other times you wake up one morning with an intense desire. This feeling took life in your dreams. Hot beating rays of the sun inflamed and forever etched your heart. Perhaps not quite in the right place and you are not sure what to do with these feelings. Sometimes the best love fits all three categories.

Friendship and love are always welcome in my life. The more I feel the more I have to share. No matter how you got into my life, into my heart, know that you are there to stay and you are treasured.
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Ultimate Let Down -vs- The Truth

Tell the truth ~ draw the line. The truth can be a fine line between what you want to say and what y0u should say.

Honesty in the end is a must. Telling the truth brings prospective. A view that you would never have given the lie you might tell. We all have those moments in life where the lie might seem like a light in the tunnel, yet it becomes a black hole, that never ending abyss. Darkness leading to a cave of achromatic light, possessing no hue, no true value. Lies are not becoming. Lies are not who you were meant to become. Even a lie told only to yourself is a lie.

We cannot kid ourselves into thinking that we are different, that we are the only ones to feel this way or to have to go down this path of let down. History repeats. Others have been here and felt this pain.

In order to get the truth out of someone else you have to be truthful with yourself.

Truth be told I was not the perfect daughter. I made choices that lead me into that cave. The weary evenings my parents have spent wondering where to turn, what to say must have aged them just as I now gray. My saving grace is that I was able to claw my way out of that abyss and back into the light. In the end we all find our way. Some sooner than later.

To my sons: remember always that the darkness can suck you under. Forever fight the darkness and yearn to live in the light of the truth.

Without the truth ~ without trust everything falls apart.
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