Tuesday, October 7, 2008

It's That Time Of Year Again!

Oh yeah! Can you feel it? It is almost time. I love it! It is almost time for our family Christmas pictures. I love picture day. It is my Christmas. One day out of the entire year where everyone smiles and at the same time no less. Isn't it great? Then you have those pictures to look at through out the year and a reminder that one day. Perhaps it was the only day or one of the only days where everyone smiled at the same time. Everyone looks happy. No one looks mad or upset or disgruntled in any way. Everyone looks like the pictures of the families in the picture frames at the store.

I'm not sure when this day became my favorite day of the year. Perhaps when I realized that no matter how hard I tried my family was never going to be a sitcom on TV. We are not the Brady Bunch. I don't even have that many children. It feels like it sometimes, granted, but I don't. I love my family and I am proud of it. I have no works of great art or really many pictures of any kind in my house. I have family pictures. My kids pictures are plastered all over the house. They are my works of art. They are amazing creatures really and the thought that I had anything whatsoever to do with getting them here is almost unfathomable. God is good! No scratch that God is AMAZING! Think I'm wrong? Look around. Look at your children look at the trees and the bees and the butterflies. Think you had anything to do with any of it? Think again! God gave these amazing gifts to you and you didn't even have to ask for most of them. I realize that I am just a vessel a means to an end if you will. Sure I carried them for nine months and fed them and love them and care for them always. But God has a plan for them far beyond what I can possibly conceive of.

So you can have your Mona Lisa's and any other works of art. I prefer to have pictures of the gifts God has given to me all around me so when they are not home I can look at them and marvel any time I choose. God is good!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

As Carrie Bradshaw would say ... I can't help but wonder what our lives would be like if everyone would just get along? On a crisp fall day as the leaves are just falling from the trees and the sun shines brightly in the sky the birds chirp sweetly in the breeze. You can almost get a sense of what God had planned for us. Children laughing and playing, families going to pumpkin patches in anticipation of all that fall has to offer. You can almost taste the apple cider and pumpkin pie can't you? The scene in my mind is almost fathomable yet seems to be just out of reach.

I have started work in two separate jobs. I dream of getting enough hours at one job to only have to go to one. I also dream of becoming a hair stylist and not being able to give someone my own haircut. So I understand about some dreams just being somewhat ludicrous. As we have discussed in my previous post I am somewhat of a wannabe fashion diva. My childhood dream was to become either a fashion designer or a fashion buyer for Bloomingdale's preferably. I do not work in the fashion industry on any level. I do not even have a job where I am completely able to dress as the diva I dream of one day being. These are neither here nor there. My point is that I have not one but two jobs and no one can get along with everyone. I realize that my dream of going to work and everyone getting along with everyone else is fantasy...at least now I do. But I had high hopes none the less. I went to a somewhat small high school. I hated high school. I'm old now I have no desire to go back and relive what once was. Nor do I have any fantasies that I could somehow do things differently and be one of the "popular kids" this time. I don't consider myself a "popular" person now but I do have more friends and am more social that I once was. This is why I thought in my delusional mind that I would go to work and everything would be fabulous.
There is stress in the job I wanted so badly I could taste it. That it has left a bad taste in my mouth. I was so excited to be going to work in this place that I was jumping up and down when I got the call for it. Life is not always what you imagine it will be nor is work. My "crap job" is becoming almost a welcome relief at this point. I hope that things will get better. I know they will, patience is not my strongest suit. I am not good at waiting and seeing. I'm so bad at it that when I was a child I would unwrap Christmas gifts ahead of time and re wrap them and wait for my mom to get up. I no longer do that. But seriously, why can't we all just get along?

Imagine what the world would be if we all got along. Work places everywhere would run more smoothly because everyone got along and worked together. Households would run more smoothly because parents wouldn't have to break up fights all day. The world would just run more smoothly if everyone would JUST GET ALONG. I'm old, I'm too tired for the drama. You want drama? Watch House or Days of Our Lives. Save the drama for TV and just get along. You can say I'm old fashioned or just plain crazy. I don't care because I'm telling you life would be grand if you tried it. There is the challenge. Pick a day to start. Perhaps tomorrow or if you don't like to start new things mid-week try Monday. Just pick a day and decide it starts here. From this day forward I'm going to just get along. No fighting or drama, no talking behind people's backs. If you have something to say just say it to them but do it nicely so you can get along. Start with yourself be the example others will follow I know it. It will be like the old Breck commercials they told two friends then they told two friends pretty soon the entire town could be getting along. We could get national attention it could spread to the entire state, then the entire country. Then who knows the entire world could get along. It could be the entire world God hoped and dreamed it would be. Try it! I think you'd like it. Just Get Along!