Spring!

I opened the window in my room this morning and the breeze is fresh and new. The birds are singing and chatting with each other about the best place to build a nest this year. Our Basset Hound holds her head up to the wind and sniffs every story carried her way. My children are bouncing off of the walls this morning and I can't even make time for the coffee pot.

The sun is shining and we have plans for a garden...one for vegetables and everyone gets a plot for flowers, too. This is our first home...bought in the fall when things from the old were being purged and stored. Now, the world is awakening and our home is awakening too...renovations...reconstruction...need a fence.

I can "see" the iris reaching to the sky; daffodils welcome honey bees into their yellow hallways; elegant calla lilies curl upwards, like a believer reaching toward Heaven with gratitude and awe. I imagine the rock garden on the hillside where fresh herbs will cascade like green waterfalls. I "see" these things...I better get busy!!!

Leukemia and children

When I was a child, my very dearest and best friend had leukemia. We did everything together~until she couldn't do anything any more. I remember once we were riding our bikes down the block from our homes. She was behind me and I heard her begin to scream. I turned around and looked behind me and her front wheel was wobbling and she couldn't control her bike. She laid it down sideways and there was blood all over her. I know that there wasn't as much blood as I recall, but it was terrifying to a six or seven year old.
A teenaged neighbor boy picked her up and cradled her in his arms and carried her home. I ran ahead of them calling her mother. Her mom was at my house visiting. She came out of my front door and scooped up her daughter and off they went to the hospital again. I think Theresa's mom could drive from their house to the hospital with her eyes closed...they had made the trek so often.
She had to have stitches...many stitches...My mind is telling me that she needed hundreds of them, but that may be my age at the time or the years that have past...I think of Theresa now and then. I remember her face kind of. But most of all, I remember the day that she died. So young and so little and she died. She lived a life that was full of pain. Her parents, did too.
Tonight my husband emailed a flyer home. One of his co-worker's children was just diagnosed with leukemia last week. It is advanced, I think because they are keeping her in the hospital and have already begun chemotherapy. Almost 40 years has passed since Theresa died. Forty long years. Why isn't there a cure? Why do children die? Why?
Tonight, the Lord and I are not on speaking terms...

What were they thinking

Robert Blake-guilty; OJ-guilty. No doubt in my mind. Where do they find jurors?

Gangsta Rap-License to kill; not freedom of speech.

You can use a victim's life choices to prove that they "deserve" whatever happened to them, but you cannot use a criminal's past crimes to prove that they "DESERVE" what happens to them in a court of law. (ie: A woman is raped. The rapist is caught, charged and brought to trial. The rapist's attorney's can use every person that the victim has slept with to show that she is "loose." The victim's lawyer~who is the District Attorney~cannot use the rapist's former crimes against women to show that he is a serial rapist or repeat rapist.)

Congress is going to increase day light savings time by two months. It will run from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in November~It isn't that big of a deal really, but why not just make it a year-round thing so we don't get used to the extra hour and then have to get used to one less hour every year!

Beginning

I'll admit it: I am launching this blog because Rosie O'Donnell inspired me. I am not gay, but I admire her courage. I only recently began reading her blog and she sounds sad. Profoundly sad.

She denies this, but reading her thoughts seems to betray her. When Rosie came out, she only wanted to help children and there is no greater calling than doing so. She is a champion of disadvantaged and orphaned children, so why are there so many who lash out at her thoughtlessly. Hate is a poor excuse.

Why are people so threatened by differences and change? Rosie is the same person. Being 'gay' doesn't change who you are or who you strive to be. Rosie is a true hero in a world where criminal sports figures are emulated, which is the real crime.

That is not to say that I agree with every view that Rosie has; it is only to say that I respect her. She has strived to make the world better by helping people understand other people. That is an admirable quality.

I hope that she returns to the lime-light soon. I miss her face. I miss visiting with her each day. I miss her acting. She is a great actor.

Thank you, Rosie. Thank you for blogging. Thank you for trying to change adoption laws. Thank you for your courage and strength. Thank you for your humor. Thank you for being here.