My Cure

When sadness
Tries to claim 
With devious finesse
Calling my name

Reaching out for n unfinished needlework piece
Starting the rhythmic flow
Music starts in my soul ~ 
Here we go!
Knitting my heart from broken to whole

Only wishing for comfort from pain
Only wishing to smile not cry
OH LOOK!  ~ A butterfly!

 

Also, an angel. Hmmm.

 

Got GoFundMe?

Well Well Well.....welcome to 2017!

Sorta.

It's nearly September, so, maybe I'm just a minute late. Maybe.

Just like the California gold rush, the Oklahoma Land Grab, etc, the web sites to claim a piece of the American Pie are cropping up all over.
People are reaching out to other people for generous donations to fund businesses, cancer treatment, dream homes, even breast enlargement ~ hallelujah!

I thought, time to give it a shot. I'm always curious, always up for something new & different. New innovations. New & current attitudes, technology. 
Keeping it current.
SHOCKING!
This is the link to my GoFundMe account. You may need to copy & paste. Be gentle, it's my first time. Give, if you wish.

https://www.gofundme.com/usaf-veteran-wish-of-home-ownership

Thank you!

I see smart people

There's a certain element present when a person is obviously intelligent. 
The SPARK!
aka
A real "spark plug." (without the plug! ;P ) 

When talking with someone who has above average intelligence, there is a certain "spark"about them, most 
often in their windows.
Windows to their being.
e.g. ~ When I told someone this ~
"I did too much L.D.S. in the 80s & 90s"
There was a look of recognition which said "I got it!"
So, it goes.

For me?

It's much more pleasant to have a conversation or just an interaction with someone who is more intelligent. 
Age is irrelevant. 
Level of education is irrelevant. 
The intelligence a person possesses is there in defiance of many factors that ignorant people sometimes believe to paramount to being smart or intelligent.

For me, personally, speaking with a person who is intelligent is a turn on. Especially if the person is polite. 
Points if said person can express himself while using a minimal number of "colorful metaphors". Language such as swearing, cussing, using lowlife language that is easy to use, a no brainer to use.
I say "himself" because I only swing one way. Strictly dickly.
Yup. Ha ha!
Some one who can rockout with his....well, you know! 

The bottom line is, intelligence is sexy!

L8ers!

Being Real

Are you out there?
Are you reading  these words of my heart? These words of my life? Words poured out as a record of my vulnerability?

I'm real
I laugh
I cry
So real that
Someday
I will die

I'm a shy
Little girl
In my heart
Have to be tough
So this world
Can't rip 
Me apart

I'm alone
I'm solo
With me
Only me
I'm real
I am
Just what 
You see

Are you real?

Philosophy

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away.....

JP!

Seriously, there is a modern day philosopher, as in, one who is still living & breathing to the best of my knowledge.

This philosopher has some very interesting, truth filled takes on life in today's modern world. 
A world where people use other people while loving inanimate objects. 
A world where married people believe it's okay to date, leaving those they dallied with, to try to recover from the emotional carnage they caused yet refuse to take responsibility for.
A world where.......

Yeah. Am sure you have the scope of it all.

It's also a world where there are good, decent people who have to work twice as hard in present day, just to prove they are truly who plus what they claim to be.

Everyone has secrets. Privacy is a respect of your own boundaries as well as the the boundaries of others.
Secrecy is information falsified or with held, which can hurt another person.
Such as:
Married or in a relationship while claiming to be free & available.
Stating that the person is married yet, still out there playing with the feelings of others.
Stating financial status which is a bold faced lie.
Stating false intentions toward another person.

Onward, forward, onward.

All of this leaves deep emotional pain, scars on the heart of another while the perpetrator simply saunters away.

It SUX!

The philosopher afore mentioned, gives a useful guide to navigating these emotional minefields.

This is what is said.

There are 3 types of people.

Those who wish to help you. : As in seeing your pain, then taking steps to ease your suffering, whatever that entails.

Those who wish to hurt you. : These are people whom, because of their own pain or their selfishness, willfully act in a way that hurts others whether financial, emotional, physical or spiritual.

Those who leave you alone. : Being aware of your suffering, yet, shirk any compassion toward you with any number of excuses. i.e. Not my circus, not my monkey.
      Am too busy to deal with them.
      I really don't like them
      He or she caused me pain at one point, I don't care for them
      Someone else will help, not me

People in the first category (Those who help you) are the only ones which will enrich your life as well as you, enriching theirs.

In going about day to day life, often, I ask myself. Which category does this person fall into?

This philosopher gave good advice.

I live by it. 

What a difference a day makes.

Saturday started like any other Saturday. Going to skip the mundane details, yet, it was an interesting day.

I stayed up on Friday night, until 0330 Saturday, baking 25 loaves of bread and almost as many "minis". Had a bake sale at a local shop, selling the bread I hand make that people swear is the best bread they have ever eaten. It's my own personal recipe. One I developed on my own.

FYI ~ It's a rare occasion to personally consume it. Mostly, it's a pleasure to have the wonderful aroma in the house while giving the finished bread to others.

The sale went better than expected yet not as well as I had hoped.

The silver lining?

A girl who comes into the shop regularly, came in, announcing how tired she is from getting ready for her wedding. I asked her when she was getting married. Her reply?

TODAY!

Something about me that some people might find peculiar (or not) is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE weddings!
As long as I'm not the bride. 😇

Weddings are usually a place where everyone is so happy, a little dressed up. Then, there's cake!  🍥

She told me it was going to be very simple, she was wearing a white sundress & western boots. This IS Texas, afterall!
She told me I could be there if I wanted.
O YES! I wanted to be there!

Wrapped up the bread sale, went home, changed from jeans & T shirt to a dress & heels. YAY! Ah loves mah 5" heels! Both the silky midi dress & heels are a beautiful medium blue.

The wedding was at the bride's grandfathers home who also officiated. The backyard gazebo was draped in white tulle with pink roses entwined around the tulle.
All 20 or so guests lined the path for the bride and groom to walk from the back porch to the gazebo while a guest strummed a ukulele as they promenaded to the gazebo.

She was in a strapless knee length sundress & western boots. he was wearing a white dress shirt, unbuttoned at the neck and black dress trousers & boots, of course! 
They both wore BIG Texas smiles!
The I Do's were short, simple, sweet.
It was just perfect & beautiful!
There was cake & punch. My buddy, James, had even shaved his beard & mustache to be the one ladling the punch out to the guests. I almost didn't recognize him!

I took some cake & a loaf of bread to my good friend, Anita, before heading home to clean the kitchen & drop into bed, early.

I was happy, tired, content, remembering the surprising turns of events during the day.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥








 

Alone?

The world, society, even close friends & family put the pressure on others to "couple up". 
Get hitched, shack up, move in, find somebody to love!

If the "urge to merge" isn't striking, people often ask questions, rude, annoying questions. Maybe they are simply curious or even worse ~ sympathetic. UGH!

The world revolves around twosomes (sometimes 3somes, yet, let's keep this G Rated!). The world is so happy about a wedding or an engagement or when their single friend FINALLY "finds someone" or someone "finds" their single friend.

Even holidays throw it in the face of someone flying solo.

~ Valentines Day or as I like to call it "alentines ay" for those who don't get the "V" or the "D" and are less than pleased at having an entire holiday shining a spotlight on it.

~ Christmas! The perfect occasion to point out ~ Oh, you got nothing for CHRISTMAS? or Gee, I have a huge happy family, don't you? (I hate that)

~ Mothers Day ~ Yes, dammit, I DO have children that I sacrificed and devoted my life to, NO, I DIDN'T get any flowers! Are ya happy, now? One of them told me I had never earned her respect. Yeah, because nearly dying in labor with her was nothing to be grateful for. Happy FKN Mothers Day.

    So, yes, being single can be a challenge. :)

    I'm not single.

    I'm independently owned & operated. :)
                                              or
    Being single by choice, is my choice.

Remaining single is my choice. After seeing the choices out there, it's enough to convince me further.

It did take some adjusting, once I found myself single, without even a dog or a cat or a room mate for the first time in my life.

Actually, it was terrifying!

I was in panic mode so severe, I had hallucinations. Then there was the crying jags, the vomit, the nightmares, the fear when there was any little noise in my unusually quiet home.

In time, even grass turns into milk.

I learned to keep myself busy outside of the new place I was living in. Newly single, I went on dates. Lots and lots and lots of dates.
Keep in mind, I kept my morals & values. By "dates" I mean the act of meeting a gentleman for lunch or dinner, sometimes a movie or going to the zoo for the day or a museum or the aquarium. Afterward, he went to his home solo as I went back to my home solo.
Sleeping around has never been my thing.

Having extreme physical contact with a man to whom I'm not married is dangerous to the health & happiness of my soul.
Hell, it's dangerous even when married.

Learning to create noise in the place where I live was also instrumental to adjusting to being alone. I turned a good ol AM/FM radio on when leaving for work, the gym or a social occasion. Coming home to noise is somehow a comfort!

As I went along on my fitness journey, I found, yet another benefit to being single & living alone.
Rifling through my pantry, cupboards, fridge & freezer ~ I took out everything that was too calorically indulgent without health benefit. I gave it away, threw it away or donated it to the local homeless shelter.
There was almost nothing left!
The food that was left was very healthy, unprocessed and would make the cut for Mimi Kirk's kitchen!

As a single person, living alone, when I set my keys, sunglasses and purse down when returning from wherever ~ NO ONE touches it!

When I get the urge at 0200 hrs to cruise the magazine rack at Wally World ~ no one accuses me of anything. YAY!

There are many benefits to being single, sleeping solo in a Queen bed, all to my lil self.
I'm the Queen. Ha ha!

The bottom line is, a person has to go through the misery, the hell on earth feeling (at first) of being single & living alone to learn to appreciate their own company.

There are many wonderful girls & guys out there who are single, living alone and would be a great "find" or a great "catch" for one who finds them. 
I know I am one, you are one, also!

Until you are "caught" or "found" ~ it's important to enjoy life, find fulfillment, learn about the world around you.
Explore the great indoors.

Being single is a gift, live in the present!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The Feeling of Family

This has been imprinting on my heart for awhile, now. Having felt it, ruminated, turned it over and over to form a soft warm cocoon of silken love, it's time to blog about it.

If you have been cut off from family like I have, for as many years, you might be able to relate.
If you can't relate, that's a good thing.

Having been cut off from family for as long as I have, it would be cruel punishment to wish such a thing  on others.

On Saturday (August 12) I drove the 60 miles north to spend the day with a beloved family member. He's very dear to my heart. Sensitive, funny, intelligent, caring, inquisitive, capable, responsible....I could go on & on.
He knows just about everything about me yet he still loves me.
Without conditions, without reservation.
He loves me.

It's a rare occurrence for me. It's something I have had to adjust to, to live without it for so long. The feeling of being with someone with whom a shared history, a shared familiarity, even life blood, genetics, there's rarely anything that can come closer to my heart than this.

We talked, laughed, drove around Sheppard AFB, shared food, grocery shopped.

Then......he did something that only someone who truly cares would do.

He fixed my car!

He has extreme knowledge of engines, how they work, what can go wrong, plus ~ how to fix it when it goes sideways!

I miss that, deep in my heart, I miss that!

It's second nature, for me, to be desirous to help others. Taking care of whatever it is that they need which they would have great difficulty taking care of for themselves.

It's a rare thing when someone offers to take care of me.

Truly take care of me, doing that for me which I'm incapable of or lack the knowledge to do.
FYI ~ I'm quite capable, quite self sufficient on my own. So, yeah, it's a rare incident when there is something that I can't do for myself.
Then ~ this is the tough part ~ trusting another person to help me without feeling they are setting me up to manipulate me into doing something for them!
Having dealt with some shady characters who use manipulation vs having a simple conversation, is something that many predatory people have tried to use on me.
Tried, I say, tried, most often failed.

So, I'm still feeling the sweetness of having spent a day in the company of someone who knows me well & still......still loves me!

Family is everything.

Living without it is something of an emptiness that one may not realize without the first hand experience.

Being happy in my life is an every day focus. Living without family, I simply press on until the time when I can have that soul sweetening experience, again.

With Feeling

I feel a heart breaking 
out  there
It calls out to me from
I don't know where
All I know is the darts 
I feel
While hoping that soon
It will heal
I feel the sorrow, regret
the pain
Who only wishes to 
love again
Whoever you are
begin again
Come to me for healing come in
from the rain

A Love Affair

My love affair began a long time ago. When, exactly?
idk
The first time I heard the fairytale of a wooden puppet who became a real boy, I remember thinking:

Pino = Pine or wood
Chio = Child

Wooden child or, since Pinochio was a boy, wooden son. Thus began my love of languages. 

In the small town where I lived as a child it was pretty much small town America. Nearly 100 % WASP . There were a few people of other than American descent, yet, still, white bread, no butter!

As a child, I yearned for a bit of spice in my life. In a small town where everyone knew everyone, my parents never allowed me to do very much. Most associations were with family, occasionally a neighbor or two. Closest neighbor, like, right next door or across the street.
As a child with a bend toward mischief, my parents were extra vigilant with me. I was a very quiet, introverted girl with a wild imagination!

In 8th grade, I elected to take French Language class. The teacher was an "in your face" type of woman who didn't like me. Maybe it was because I was so quiet. She may have wondered if her lessons were sinking in or wasted on me.

She ended up kicking me out of French Class.

No worries, I learned to speak perfect French, later in early adulthood.

To fulfill the educational requirement, I had to take a language class. I transferred to Spanish Language where the female teacher was much more kind, more patient.

My talent for languages revealed itself to me later, after I had overcome my shyness, gained self confidence, found my voice! 
The beast was released!

As my repertoire of languages built, I began to think in languages other than English or Amerikanische as I learned it's called while living in Deutscheland.

Living in Hawai'i, I was fascinated by the way the people spoke, the way the Hawai'ian language was intertwined with English. It was lyrical, so beautiful!

When the local guys spoke Pidgin, it was positively sexy to me! I went out around the islands, just listening to the local guys. I was mesmerized at the primal rhythm of their voices.

Upon moving to Germany, I began to understand the conversational German that was rarely taught or used in classrooms. Soon, I was engaging in conversations in the village of Rodenbach, Kaiserslautern, Germany.   

Going across the border into France, I   conversed  with the French people easily.

It was so natural for me to "click" between languages in my personal thoughts, in every day life. I was speaking English to people I was with. When a German person asked me a question, I turned to answer their query in German. 
Same for answering a French speaking person in French.
Same for turning to an Italian person, answering in Italian.

Upon moving to Central America, I spoke Spanish to the people there, while retaining my other 4 language skills.

It came naturally to me.

Still, in present day, I think in 5 languages in my own personal thoughts.
My Italian language skills are lagging while the others stay sharp. Even so, if I were to find myself in a situation whee I had to use my Italian language skills, I know I would be able to pick it up, again.

Aufweidersehn!
Au revoir!
Aloha!
Adios!
Arriverderci!

Aloha oe, Aloha oe, Until we meet again.
  

Susie Home-Maker, Stitching Goddesse!

In the femi-nazi climate that is 2017, I doubt that the beating down of those of the male gender is what Susan B. Anthony intended.

Protecting women in the work force from sexual predators is one thing, social castration is quite another.

As a traditional type of very feminine girl, I understand the need for protection from predatory people (both male and female). As one who loves the artful outlet for creativity, which is, quite often deemed to be more feminine, I will admit that I enjoy housekeeping.
For personal pleasure, doing it for pay is drudgery as so many people who pay others to clean their homes are way too picky about it and don't pay enough.

As a practice, I clean my car every Friday, clean my home (deep cleaning, that is) every Saturday. Doing "touch up" cleaning as needed throughout the week is sometimes needed.

It HAS to be done regularly to be effective. 

There were times in the past where I would fail to do the cleaning or simply lacked motivation. 
The remedy?
Find someone to invite over!
There's the motivation factor, ha ha!

With all of this verbal meandering done, it seems to me that so many people have gotten away from the personal pride of housekeeping. 
When I lived in Colorado, the girlz all came to my home for get together s because my home was nearly always cleaner than anyone's.

In addition to fully & upfront admitting that I enjoy being feminine, I also enjoy doing very detailed, very intricate needlework. It has been a journey since I first learned the art of Hardanger at the tender age of 22!

People who know me, now, can see that if I'm happy, I am stitching on a regular basis. For 8 years, following a divorce & mostly alienated from my children, I had difficulty concentrating.
The adjustment has been a journey. First, it was terrifying. Then, it was depressing. 
As I slowly began to turn back into who I really am instead of the person an abusive ex huzz forced me to be, I felt as if I had hit a reset button on life.
The weight I had gained from being miserable began to drop away as I became more involved in physical fitness practices.

Beginning to feel lighter, happier, feeling as I did at 18 when leaving my parents home.

Beginning to be able to concentrate, focus......and stitch! With the pain, difficulty, worry, depression melting away, I started to stitch the first in a series of 18 hardanger Christmas ornaments. I have my favorite ones which I stitched and gifted only to those people who I dearly love who dearly love me, in return.

I have my favorite people as well as my favorite hardanger patterns. This is the ornament for the year 2000. It was actually my first in the series! When I learned there were others I knew I had to investigate. Yupp. Ha ha! I may modify the designs somewhat to suit my personal taste such as making them more symmetrical or adding sparkle!
This is the year 2000 ornament in the series.

So, I found the patterns and started with the ornament for 1992.

There is one for every year up to 2007 (I think?) This is the third in the series designed by Emie Bishop of 
Cross n Patch Designs.

It measures 4" long by 3" wide and, yes, totally by hand. Even the edges.
I have designed intricate needlework, stitched it, taught it as well as gifted it. These ornaments are just for me with the exception of giving to my dear friend Janice. She's special. :)

Hello, my name is Stitching Goddess, how are you?

Alone?

There are hundreds of people who are either single by choice, living alone or alone in the world through life events out of their design, not in their control.

My personal experience of this phenomenon is a little smidge of both. Starting life in a dysfunctional family could be somewhat of a setup for this. I left my parents home ASAP! The abuse suffered in the military was a different sort of dysfunctionality, just as damaging. The abuse of ex huzz certainly set up circumstances to further my isolation.

These circumstances contributing to the erosion of my trust in people, particularly in males. With every assault at the hands of male co-workers in the military, my trust level in anyone dropped. With the constant verbal abuse of ex huzz, my trust level was further eroded.

Although I lived in a semi-safe financial bubble as a married woman, the verbal, emotional, sexual abuse took its toll on my ability to  trust anyone.

While these circumstances eroded ability to trust, it also made me one with a stronger will, finely tuned survival skills, more keen situational awareness. Survival skills needed to stay safe as I adjusted to being single, alone, completely alone for the first time in my life.

Since 2007 it has been a constant effort to learn to be alone. All day, every day. Learning to appreciate my own company. To quash the urge to merge, to go against the societal pressure to couple up, to go against the natural urge of a woman to crave a man to share her life.

It has been a process to learn to be happy being alone.

Friends and family have told me that they admire my strength, my bravery. Psst! I'm less strong, less brave than they think!

The truth is, the choices are rather unattractive. Having had chances to marry again, to fulfill the pressure to marry a second time.

I just say, "NO."

So, this is why I'm alone in the world. Cut off from family, living in a small town where I'm mostly shunned. My one bestie after living here for 5 years is a great blessing. Am not from the town, not married to anyone from here. No family.

I'm an outsider.

Dating prospects are non-existent. No sense in settling as I did when I married. Better to be alone than with Mr. Wrong or even worse ~ Mr RIGHT NOW. Mr RIGHT NOW is everywhere. Married, single, older, younger, all races, all religions, all shapes, all sizes. 
ONS, OWS or even OMS is a no-go for me.

In place of a man in my life, I work out a lot, take road trips, plane trips, volunteer, blog and enjoy long stretches of blissful sleep in a bed that I have all to myself! It's heavenly! 

There are many people who, for various reasons, choose to fly solo. Am sure they all have a different story as to why.

Remaining single for the rest of my life offers a certainty, a finite safety in peace of mind.
It would take a guy of such a high caliber of integrity to make me give up my peaceful existence, am unsure he even exists.
Yet, he might.

What the future holds, none of us knows.

For now?

Happy in my fitness practice with my peaceful life.

Namaste'

I wanna be loved by you......

I wanna be loved by you
Just you
Nobody else but you
I wanna be loved by you 
Alone

So it goes, the song sung by Norma Jean. Made famous by her. No one has had much success with it since her rendition. 
Tough act to follow!
Who was Norma Jean?
She was a baby born out of wedlock to a woman who was emotionally fragile. Norma Jean was shuffled between foster homes, orphanages as well as occasionally her mother, when her mother was emotionally & financially stable enough to take care of her. This went on for the first 15 years of her life.

She was painfully shy, quiet, even stuttered for a few years during a very traumatic time in her life. She was also very hard working, obedient, kind hearted, emotionally fragile at times.

When her only choice was to go back to an orphanage or get married at 16, she chose to marry a 21 year old neighbor.
This decision changed the course of her life.
For the first time in her 16 years she belonged to someone who belonged to her.
Then, when her husband joined the Merchant Marines, she was alone again when he shipped out. She began working in a factory where photographers went in search of beautiful home-town girls to pose for photos for the soldiers fighting for their country around the world.

This put Norma Jean on the path to becoming one of the most desired women in history.

Though she was later, desired, lusted after, what she really wanted was what many girls still want, yet, have great difficulty finding in a guy.
She wanted to be truly loved, truly respected by one guy.

It's just as difficult to find in today's world.

When I hear the lament of girls in today's perilous singles climate of wanting so much to have just one guy to love & respect them, I think of Norma Jean.

When I hear the pain in my single sisters voices, I remind them that even the most beautiful women in the world have difficulty finding someone to love them as they are. All girls are pretty enough, are at the right body weight and size, are smart enough. In fact, all that a girl is, is enough for the right guy. The wrong guy will pick apart who she is, expecting her to change, to be different than she is. 
In fact, again, who she is, is enough for the right guy.

Norma Jean struggled with this. 

 
 
She was a natural, curly haired brunette. She had a slightly discolored front tooth. So, her hair was styled into a platinum shorter, more straight style. Her front tooth was veneered, she had an implant put into her chin, she had her nose re-shaped into one with a smooth tip.

Marilyn Monroe was the result.

The song, "I Wanna' Be Loved By You", seems so fitting for such an intelligent, yass! Such an intelligent, tender hearted, beautiful one as she, Norma Jean or Marilyn Monroe, sought constantly, rarely finding throughout her 36 years.

Shocker?

She was born in the same year as Queen Elizabeth of England.

Same age.

Had she lived, Marilyn would be 85 years of age, now.

Tomorrow, August 5, 2017, will mark 55 years since that wonderful one's flame was extinguished.
She passed from this earth, yet, made her mark.

She has passed on, yet, is forever remembered. Marilyn didn't like the finality of saying goodbye. She was often hear to say~
"Hold a good thought for me."

Wherever you are, Norma, millions are holding a good thought for you.

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

What appeals to men? What........

Over the course of my illustrious, albeit brief time as a pro blogger, I have received some praise as well as a little criticism about the topics I chose to write about. 

Comments such as:

You only write about chik stuff  ( well durr, I'm a chik )
Some of your blogs are critical of guys (aww, hurt your feels)


So, I decided to check it out, to see what the topics would be that appeal to guys.

Here's the list:

Guns
I don't own one, nor am I one who knows much about guns.

Gear
Have not been camping in forever

Cars
Love my car! That's the extent of what I know about cars.

Fishing
Love to go fishing! Any volunteers to take me?

Sports
My extensive interest in sports is working out & lifting. There.

So, there ya go, I think I covered men's interests in a G-Rated way.

For you guys out there, wondering what women want, here ya go! 
Porn for women.

Here's a bonus!

My personal favorite:

Since this is supposed to be for all you good guys, wonderful men, devoted fathers, hard working, super husbands, loyal lovers, sexy gym rats. Saving the best for last (my favorite) ~ 
military men (mmm).

Being Deliriously Happy

 How can you be so happy?

People ask that of me quite often.

The answer is simple, it's also complex at the same time. 

If you want to be happy, decide to be happy, then, be!

Personally, my life is fraught with tragedy, things that can bring me down, it's piss in the cheerios. :)

*A divorce after a long marriage took me 10 years to recover.
*The death of my younger brother on July 16, 2017.
*Living in financial worry is less than desirable.
*Dealing with PTSD every day while the VA ignores me.
*The joy of a slow metabolism & working hard to stay fit

Amid all of this I decided to be happy, so, I am happy. Life, for me, is imperfect, I have struggles and stress. The method of staying happy is to realize that the alternative is to wallow in misery, self pity, emotional pain, depression.

I decided a minute ago to be happy and the minute before that and the minute before that...................
Therefore, I'm happy!

Happiness is made up of thousands of little things, like grains of sand which make up a beautiful sugar sand beach. 

Finding, what I refer to as the silver lining in every situation which occurs. Life is imperfect. People who enjoy dwelling in negativity will see a happy person, then proceed to be the  
fun-sucker. 
In their belief, it's their job to bring a happy person down. After all, little Johnny Sunshine or little Susie Sunshine is so happy, the fun-sucker or joy-killer can handle it. It makes unhappy people feel superior to be able to throw a hair in someones quiche to wreck their day, just a little.
Um, NOPE!
Just, NO!
Having learned to steer clear of such negative people, it's a veritable mine field out there, tricky to navigate.

What makes me happy?

It doesn't take much.

The identifying mark of a happy person is that they are easy to please. They are already happy, so, any sweet lil thaang is just 
extra!

Things that add to my happiness ~

*Going to the animal shelter to cuddle the kitty's
*Going to an elderly care home to  just sit with an elder person
*The sweat & satisfaction of a good hard workout
*Ice cold water going down my throat
*Stopping to smell the cut flowers for sale in a grocers
*A smile from someone I don't know
*Watching children play


There is so much more! 

One sad event in your day is just 1 event. Let it go & let yourself be happy, watch the changes!

It's a choice to let yourself be happy or to hold onto the burning coal of sadness, anger, hurt, non-forgiveness, until it burns holes in your hands, puts scars on your heart.

Only YOU can make YOU happy. GO!