Thanksgiving - now and then

This Thanksgiving will mark the first in many years that all my siblings will be together with my parents and with all our children! I'm very excited about a new nephew in the family and I'm on the verge of starting a new phase of my life. Last year the children spent the day with their father and it was the first Thanksgiving since becoming a mom that I was not with my children. In some ways it was painful and yet, it was also a joyous occasion and I thank my father for letting me bring my new boyfriend along and not throwing him out LOL.

As it turns out, last year was also the last Thanksgiving for my grandmother who died a month ago yesterday. She will be greatly missed as we gather around the table and it will be hard too; especially for my mother, for whom the pain of her loss is still fresh. Still I'm so glad that I did go home - I'm grateful I spent some time with my grandmother before she passed on. She was a strong willed woman, full of passion and opinion, she led a full life - filled with both hardships, heartaches, and lots of love. I miss her and I know that there will be many times in the future that I will be sad she is not here to share my children's milestones such as graduations and weddings. I love you Grandma - may you rest in peace.

So this year, I'm thankful for the past I had with my loved ones who, like my grandmother, are no longer here with us. I'm also thankful for a new life, one with happiness and affection and love - a new life without the subjugation of my last relationship.

PEACE

TALKING TABOO: this week's topic ADDICTION

there are a lot of folks out there that when they hear the word "ADDICTION", a picture of some deadbeat, missing-teeth, living on the streets, strung out dope junkie comes to mind. the truth is that many people are addicted to many things and no one would EVER know just by LOOKING at them.
webster defines addiction as

1. the quality or state of being addicted <addiction to reading>

2. compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal

broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

so what's the difference between a compulsion, an addiction and just a habit? i guess the word
addiction automatically means BAD; in other words, no one complains about milk addiction or a meat compulsion or a chocolate habit. ADDICTION also means something that the user doesn't WANT to do but CAN'T STOP.

so what are your addictions? mine is easy - alcohol. i like to drink; i DON'T like when i cannot drink; when i do drink, i tend to drink too much unless i make a very concerted effort not to over-indulge. i have to give myself a limit and then work at keeping that limit. i'm not alone and i'm not ashamed. I WILL BE IN CONTROL. PERIOD.

CMA Award disappointments and "yayes"

sorry but i just don't get it - all the fuss about taylor swift. i mean ok she sells lots of records and her shows are sold out, stadiums full of tween girls and their moms, aunts, older sisters, etc. maybe i'm wrong but IMHO, all the other nominees deserved the Entertainer of the Year more than miss swift. of course, were i 30 or 35 years younger, i would totally be jumping for joy when her name was announced as the winner. i find her voice irritating and her lyrics corny. now
i was happy to see the band perry whom i love! the lead vocalist with her slightly raspy voice and their kick-ass lyrics make for wonderful music for my ears. i didn't catch all of the show but i would have like to have seen pistol annies sing "hell on heels". miranda lambert sure does it in my book! another strong women who strums a mean guitar; jason aldean is another one i like although the rapping in the middle of "country road" kind of ruined the song for me - it would be one of my favs if not for the rapping. i mean there' s reason i listen to country and not rap..... HELLO???

some of my all time favorite quotes

"Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things... that takes religion."

~Stephen Weinberg

Bobby ‘Tom-Tom’ Bly doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He says you need to go out in the woods for three days to ‘find your wild man’. In Texas we get the same result in three hours. It’s called ‘beer’.

Joe Bob Briggs, the real founder of the Men’s Movement &

John Bloom’s alter ego

“We judge ourselves by our intentions, but others judge us by our behaviors.”
-Eric Harvey

"Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

- G.B. Shaw

"Don't be afraid that your life will end,

be afraid that it will never begin!”

~anonymous~

“You train bears and dogs, you educate human beings.”

~Stanley Marcus~

“Writing is like prostitution- first you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money”.

~Moliere, French playwright~

“I have not yet become all that I am”.

~Disney’s The Lion King~

“What others say and do is far less important that what you have to offer”.

~anonymous~

Favorite book plate-

Steal not this book, for it you do

The worth of it will follow you.

And when you die, the Lord will say,

“Where is that book you stole away?”

And if you say “I cannot tell”,

The Lord will cast you into Hell!”

~anonymous~

"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices".
Albus Dumbledore,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.

Max Lucado

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." --Bertrand Russell

No. Try not. Do…or do not. There is no try.

Yoda, Jedi Master

The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

=> There are teachers, and then there are educators. ;-)

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

~Hermann Goring

Be who you are and say what you feel, those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

Dr. Seuss

"No matter where you go, there you are" -- (Buckaroo Banzai,The

Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) Earl Mac Rauch

“How I hate the man who talks about the “brute creation”, with an ugly emphasis on brute….As for me, I am proud of my close kinship with other animals. I take a jealous pride in my Simian ancestry. I like to think that I was once a magnificent hairy fellow living in the trees, and that my frame has come down through geological time via sea jelly and worms and Amphioxus, Fish, Dinosaurs, and Apes. Who would exchange these for the pallid couple in the Garden of Eden?”

W. N. P. Barbellion

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

Unknown

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted: But to weigh and consider.

Francis Bacon.

Annelle: Miss Truvy, I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair.

From “Steel Magnolias”

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Proverb

"When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to re-think your position."
~Mark Twain