THE TREE IS STILL UP.
It is January 12 and no thoughts of taking it down. Everything else is put away but the tree lingers. Makes for a lovely night light! Other projects are calling my name. The damaged basement is almost done. Now I’m painting some end tables and trying to find cushions for 2 chairs. I am deep into my sabbatical and getting things organized and done…..
And I’m reading EVERY day. Just started my 5th book THIS YEAR, yesterday, a David Baldacci spy novel, again sitting on the edge of the chair in anticipation…..Got done yesterday with “The Best Times” by Russell Baker, correspondent. How awesome as a woman, to read a man’s thoughts being so opened up, so like I also was raised by a single mother, back east in a neighborhood like it used to be in the day….and a sweet “babcia” slipping me a candy bar to stop my tears when I got in trouble which is where I mostly stayed. …………..”if you would just work harder, you MIGHT amount to something.” (Mrs. Baker to her son relentlessly and unyielding…..)
The beauty of reading is the realization that others think like me and that must make me a normal “Joe”. My mother was Polish, my father, GI “JOE”. So the war time wedding was a matter of convenience to come to America, followed by divorce and then THERE WAS ME. Unfortunately I was a spitting image of my dad and inherited his attitude, thinking and joking. It infuriated my mother to look at me, so I was ALWAYS in trouble. Always angry at me, absolutely furious with me to the day she died at 86. This is probably why I have such a tight relationship with God because I have had to work my way dealing with NOT accepting the overdose of negativity in my life and “picking myself up, turning myself around, dusting myself off, and starting all over again” Oh the tears I have cried in my life….
Reading is healing. Everyone has bad stuff in their life, it’s not a cake walk, for Pete’s sake. I have often heard, you are the food you eat, the books you read, and the people you associate with. I’ve also heard in regards to your mind….garbage in, garbage out. We have to value what we put in our minds. My life is better today because I read Russell Baker’s book. It gave me a new perspective on my Mom-in-law’s recent passing..which I read a paragraph yesterday to my hub side kick and it even gave me some insight on why my mother was like she was with a concrete mindset as Mr. Baker’s mother.
I read a book to help me, next I have to read to entertain me…and when a person reads…..we have something interesting to talk about. We must always be learning or be stagnate. There was a person in our family who always drank coffee and smoked and drank coffee and put on another pot of coffee and smoked…That person never had anything new to say except the price of gas was up or down and what gas mileage did you get in your car? It was the same conversation every month of every year forever. Yet I loved that person with all my heart because he never said an unkind word to me and accepted me as I was. So life really doesn’t make sense. So if you read it’s good, if you don’t….it’s all about the heart. Where I was going with this sentence stopped me in my tracks because of Russell Baker’s thoughts reflecting on his mother. My father-in-law LOVED his coffee and cigarettes………………………………………………………………….and me!
I love a twist in the story.
