A Feather From.....

I found this feather on the ground on the way in to work this morning. I'm not sure what made me stop and pick it up. It was pretty big, 10 to 12 inches long, which is too big to come from most birds I see around. I think something in the back of my mind said finding a feather is supposed to mean something.


So, I picked it up and looked it up. I found several answers, but the one I like best said supposedly it is an angel's sign to you, they are communicating with you. It can also be a sign or communication from someone you loved who has died. It is usually associated with them saying "I'm ok" or "I'm here" if it's a loved one, and " I'm here to help you" if it's an angel.

I suppose it could have been from Michael Jackson or Ted Kennedy, but in my mind it could have only been from my mother. My mother and my father both died when I was 18, my mother a few weeks after my 18th birthday and my father a few months later. In all the years since then, when I find a penny on the ground I think of my mother. I don't know why that started, but it has always been a comfort to think of her in that "I'm here" way. I'm glad to find something else that brings that sense of connection to my mind.

Since I've never had a mother as an adult I have not had that relationship to look to in knowing how to be a good mother to my adult children, but I have still looked to my mother for guidance.
My children have been adults for a long time, but I still sometimes wonder how to be the best mother,and now also grandmother, that I can be. That has been on my mind lately, so I'm choosing to think of finding the feather as a sign from my mother that "it's okay" and "I'm here to help". And if I'm just being fanciful, I'm sure my children will give me a little more tangible guidance.

Not Ready For My Apology Post Yet

One day earlier this week my horoscope said this:

Don't fear failure or back away because you think someone can
outdo you. Believe in yourself and what you have to offer and so
will everyone everyone around you. Share information and ask for suggestions.

I'm sure most people would apply those words to the more lofty challenges of life. On that day I was feeling a bit hopeless about my blogging skills in a "she knows how to put such great things on her page", or simply "I wish I knew how to do that" sort of way. Most all of the blogs I follow and those I just read from time to time show skills beyond what I have (yet) learned. The first line of the horoscope took me back to the reason I started to blog in the first place....to help me have greater awareness in my own life-to live my life more consciously. If I have done that, and I think I have, than there is no failure, and I am certainly not trying to outdo anyone. I will continue to work on the believe in yourself and what you have to offer part.

Beyond my original goal to live my own life more consciously, blogging has given me the opportunity to read some great blogs behind which are some wonderful people. I am grateful to those (and you know who you are) who have let me feel at least a little bit like one of the "cool kids". I certainly owe thanks to my daughter, Joanna at http://harphouse.blogspot.com/ and to Betty at
http://glimpseintomidlife.blogspot.com/ for help when my computer skills have been lacking.

As for the title of this post....I have seen several posts in which someone fairly new to blogging has written an apology for breaches of blog etiquette or other errors they have made when they started. I haven't learned enough yet to know what I need to apologize for. While I am learning I will continue to share information and ask for suggestions and especially continue to enjoy all that others have to share.

Homework

I live with a home maintenance enthusiast (freak) who has decided that our house needs to be painted now. The thing about Doc's home maintenance enthusiasm is that he doesn't have many actual home maintenance skills. What he does have is a long list of people who do have home maintenance skills to choose from when he suddenly decides something must be done (there are so many workmen who know our garage door code that we might as well not even have locks on our doors). He has already called a painter and then he called on me to choose a color. I tried to hang up on his call, but the color samples landed on my desk anyway. I haven't gotten very far with the decision making process. After all, it will be a color I have to look at every time I come home for years. I have, at least, gotten as far as deciding what I don't want.


Too Pink

Too Blue
Too Green

So I'm left with this to decide from

And I could hardly decide what to wear this morning

Sundays In My City

Thanks to Betty at http://glimpseintomidlife.blogspot.com/ who coached me in my computer skills, I want to participate in Sundays in My City from http://unknownmami.blogspot.com/. I hope I've done it right. (Disclaimer: any computer skill errors are mine and mine alone).

My City, Louisville, Colorado, is actually a town of about 22,000, recently named as Money Magazine's #1 Best Place to Live (under 50,000 population). Louisville is between Boulder and Denver, Colorado at the base of the foothills to the Rocky Mountains. Louisville is an old mining town with an Italian heritage. I have lived here or near here for about 25 years

Downtown Louisville. There is a street fair here every Friday night in the summer.

Louisville has lots of great parks...this one has a playground, Bocce courts and a swimming pool.

Interesting houses

An old church near downtown.
Beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains.
A glimpse toward my back yard.

A great place to live is a fun place to share.

Dark Chocolate Reese's and a Failed Quest

While I was on the treadmill this evening, I saw a wondrous thing on the TV....an ad for the new DARK CHOCOLATE Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yes, I did jump off the treadmill in the middle of my program and I did go straight to the car in all my treadmill-wear glory to start my quest. Three stores later, all was lost. I found plenty of Reese's, but, alas, not DARK CHOCOLATE. It seems that DARK CHOCOLATE Reese's has not yet arrived in Colorado.
I guess I will have to make do with DARK CHOCOLATE M&M's for a while longer.

And I do love having something to look forward to.

Lack of Attention or a Seniorish moment

As I was driving home from work today on a road that I drive many times every week, I looked out and for a moment I didn't recognize where I was. It was only for a moment and I quickly realized that I was just a few blocks farther along than I thought I was. Even though I know it was just a matter of paying less attention than I should have been paying, it was a little chilling. I couldn't help but think how horrifying it must be to reach a point in life when those kinds of things begin happening on a regular basis to ones self or to a loved one.

Most all of us have known someone who has dealt with dementia in one form or another. Many of us do the things that "they" say will help prevent it (I'm sort of partial to crossword puzzles). Maybe they'll someday discover that blogging is the key to maintaining our mental function. I just know that a brief moment for me today brought an even heightened sense of feeling for those who face those moments every day.

How to Brighten a Workday

A beautiful sight on the way to work
and a picnic lunch with some of my grand kids

go a long way toward brightening a workday Tuesday.