Hello to you on this crisp first day of November. Can you believe how fast the year is going?!
Thinking of my mom and dad when I see yellow rosesTrees turning goldWe have such beautiful trees in our neighborhood
Last night was uneventful. I watched one of my favorite live streamers on Tik Tok NYCTHRASHER stream the New York City Halloween parade. There was quite a turnout! They even had the Michael Jackson Thriller dance. Afterwards I watched an old classic Rosemarys Baby. The night before last I watched original The Crow . Both were free with ads on YouTube. I wanted to watch something spooky but not too spooky! Did you hand out candy? My Aunt said they had about 50 kids! When I first moved in I tried doing it but there were no kids so I stopped participating. Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays!
Psalm 8:3-4: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”.
The way I celebrate holidays has varied throughout my life. There used to be birthday cakes and blowing out candles and that still happens to this day even if I protest lol. Although traditional cake had been replaced with chocolate pudding dessert. The major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas involve family gatherings and lots of food. That hasn’t changed much. Presents at Christmas has really toned down and the Idaho family does a white elephant gift exchange. Now that we have little babies, great grand children, in the mix I can imagine Santa Claus will surface!
Exodus 20:8-11New International Version
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lordblessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
Hello to you – how is your day going? I’m doing ok. Todays prompt is a tricky one to talk about. My favorite holiday used to be Halloween but with all the controversy around it I decided Thanksgiving is my favorite instead. Really there isn’t a holiday we celebrate that doesn’t have some conflict about it. Most if not all holidays have pagan origins! I like Thanksgiving because it’s about food and family – being grateful for everything we have.
Halloween got ruined for my ex and I living in Texas. The churches would do trunk or treat which meant less trick or treaters in the neighborhood. A lot of the families that took their kids to the trunk or treat would then come to the neighborhoods anyways! It felt hypocritical to us that towns that forbid trick or treating came to our town. When the new houses went in, the kids mostly went there and we hardly had any kids come through our neighborhood. Halloween is kind of a holiday like Easter and Christmas. There are double meanings. Is Easter about bunnies and Easter egg hunts or about Jesus rising from the dead? Is Christmas about Santa Claus and presents or about celebrating Jesus being born? A lot of Christians do pagan things with their children – they do both as a right of passage. The holidays have been for so long about how much money can be made – so materialistic!
I have a lot of happy memories of Thanksgiving. It was a time of getting together with family and sharing food. My favorites have always been the desserts – pumpkin pie. Sadly as our country has become more aware, there are some not so happy things about the history of Thanksgiving from a First People perspective:
A columbine in my neighbors yardLots more tulips now!
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Hello to you. How are you today? Hope this finds you well. It’s Valentines Day. For some this is a very special day. The retail industry loves this holiday! My take on it is if you are in a relationship with someone that everyday is Valentine’s Day! Don’t ever take each other for granted. Don’t wait for a holiday to show your special somebody that you care. When I was married we didn’t celebrate Valentines. We felt the holiday was just too commercialized. To each their own!
Got good news yesterday. My Dad was in and out of surgery for his fractured hip! I was really surprised he got in so quickly! Thank you for your prayers. Now he just has to heal.
We had a nice day yesterday. My Aunt and Uncle joined me at church which was such a treat! They got there before me and had told the pastor and some others it was my birthday so when I showed up they wished me a happy birthday! They had a little bouquet of flowers for me. It just really meant a lot! The big point of the sermon really resonated with me: “we do what we can in order to enable us to do what we can’t .” So much of my day to day is pushing through – trying to focus on what I can do not what I can’t.
Bouquet and cards – so grateful!
Later Link and I went over to my Aunt and Uncles. My cousin, who was also celebrating his birthday and his wife my dear friend was there. My Aunt made tamales and also made my chocolate pudding dessert! My Uncle grilled some elk steak on the grill. Later my cousins older grandkids stopped by and we all watched some of the Super Bowl. It was just really nice to be together! I’m so grateful to have loving family to celebrate these kinds of occasions with.
When I got home I was really anxious so I took Link on a walk. Then I went on another walk by myself. What was happening is I was getting sleepy and felt anxious thinking about trying to go to sleep. So frustrating! I finally did relax and watched the last quarter of the Super Bowl. My Uncle and I had spoken earlier about the LA stadium apparently it cost like 5 billion dollars to build! The LA stadium is practically in his backyard and so we had decided to pull for the Rams! It was nice to see them actually win.
“I will take time to notice the most important friends I have, my family. Each family member will get my love and kind thoughts today. “ (A Woman’s Spirit)
The weather has been nice. I was feeling restless so I got out and chalked a bit
Hello! How are you? I’m doing pretty good. Last night I had my very first Zoom meeting on Meetup. The group was called Crystal Empowerment. There were four of us and we had a nice visit learning about how you can use crystals in healing. We were able to share some of our crystals and I got to make a plug for my Meetup Group. A couple of the people even had drums! Athena, the organizer for the meeting, has a shop in Boise here is her website: https://www.crystalempowerment.com/
So today is Halloween and I’m having lots of mixed emotions about celebrating it alone. There is a part of me eager to don my top hat and steampunk goggles. There is equally a part of me that wants to say screw it and hide inside! As we get closer to trick-or-treat time we shall see which side wins!
Last May was a very creative time for me
What is Gods plan for me as we move so quickly through the last months of the year? It always feels like the fast forward button gets pushed from Halloween on into New Years. I will need to be vigilant! I’m feeling like there is much good to come….healing and growing.
To be 