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4/1/2009

Unless you want to comment specifically about a particular blog post, here's a place to leave your comments, questions, musings, stories, jokes, photos, whatever, for all the birds to see.

Here's how: Click on the word Comments, just above thus paragraph. Write whatever you like in the box provided. Leave a name, state/country, and an email address, if you like. A name--any name--is required.

This is a great place to sound off, say something nice, or introduce yourself. I'll start the party with a few posts you might have missed, since they are hidden deep in the archives. The rest is up to you.

Naturally, spam and other obnoxious stuff will be edited out.

Let the games begin!

Paula

15 Comments

Antoinette, VA/USA

4/1/2009 09:05:54 am

We live similar lives with similar dreams.

Just today I was able to read this sight. The past two weeks I was visiting my father in Manhattan Beach. He has some health issues but is lovingly cared for by my sister and her family. He turned 96 in February and while I was there, I asked what he needed. Hope springs eternal when he responded, Two pair of pants.

I also have an artistic bent. I want to figure out whether I will be the next Grandma Moses. But it's like the guy who keeps asking God why he has never won the lottery, until he hears a loud annoyed voice from above, saying, Buy A Ticket, Abraham! And so I too must buy a ticket. So perhaps it's today that I start the journey.

June, DE/USA

4/1/2009 09:07:03 am

Yes, Happy Birthday, Paula!! You certainly hit the nail on the head about reaching 65 - a mixed emotion, for sure. I remember when my friend lost her Mom a couple of months ago - she said it was very difficult for her -
not that it was unexpected, but maybe because now she felt like an orphan, or maybe the "matriach" of the family.

Jacqui, Manchester/UK

4/1/2009 09:08:42 am

Hi Paula
Thanks for reading my blog. I found yours very interesting! You are so right about the domestic violence issue and I am passing on your link to the family crisis group I work with if that's OK?
The situation for DV is probably about the same in the UK in terms of legal positioning - although there is a zero tolerance philosophy in reality there are complex issues around reporting a crime and it still being viewed by individual mysoginistic officers as 'just a domestic'.
I feel a pivotal point is the threat to kill, it's a life changing event to have your life threatened but so easily misunderstood as an empty insult by those who have never experienced it.
I have heard Rhianna is going to record a duet with Chris Brown and talk is that they will be an item again. I worry for the consequenses for her, and what this image of a returning victim will say to young women all over the world who, having experienced violence themselves, are waiting to see how to act next.
I'll keep checking your blog for more updates - my US sister!

Karen, CA/USA

4/1/2009 09:09:52 am

Here's a poem by Mary Oliver:

The Journey

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice--
though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

"Mend my life!" each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very
foundations,
though their melancholy was terrible.

It was already late enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.

But little by little, as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the
world,
determined to do the only thing you could do--
determined to save the only life you could save.

Karen, CA/USA

4/1/2009 09:11:26 am

Hi, Paula
Well, it's probably a bit mean of me to brag, but here in southern California we've been having "spring" ever since December when our rainy season started. I started a vegetable garden last March and it's been going ever since, with carrots, snap peas, beets, brussels sprouts, onions, broccoli, lettuce, chard, and herbs growing at the moment. Some of these are planted in former flower beds in my front yard, my "edible landscape!"

After reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and Michael Pollen's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" I made a decision to grow my own as much as possible, and I have to admit that the results are wonderful!! I encourage all your readers, wherever they are, to start a garden this year, even if only in a few containers. Classes and info are becoming easier to find as community colleges and garden centers respond to the growing interest.

Happy spring! It will soon arrive even in New England!

Barbara, VA/USA

4/1/2009 09:13:49 am

To introduce myself, I am a former journalist who jockeyed time between writing for newspapers and magazines with PR and social marketing. This is now my introduction to blogging. I hope I get this righ! I surprised myself when I decided to respond to Paula's call for "health" comments. But, today, a rare neurologicaly disorder dictates how I conduct my life. You see, I survived 60 years without any real health event. That ended. And boy did it end. An uneventful bout with chicken pox as a child erupted in a rare "disorder" that robbed me if my ability to write, read, walk and otherwise care for myself. A disorder similar to MS, Acute Demyelinating Encephalomyelis,or ADEM, stricks everyone differently 00 but always quickly. Sometimes, you are -- and remain -- totally disabled. That's the worst case scenario. I was fortunate. I can now read, write and walk -- albeit with some modifications. Thru this event, I learned that if anyone thinks physicians are god-like, are you wrong! Treatment is more like a Chinese menu --try one treatment from column A, if they doesn't work, try column B. Me? 13 brain lesions were discovered, but I was released from the hospital with no treatment other that advice to follow up for sleep apnea! That began my healty care odyssey -- 2 more hospitalization in 2 hospitals. Was it cancer? Was it MS? I don't know how many other things doctors considered. Even the "experts" couldn't agree on the diagnos. I took a chance. I bought into ADEM because if I had to be treated for something, ADEM seemed like the least scary choice. Fortunately, I was right. To make this 3-year odyssey short, I'm now an ADEM support group. It's not what I envisioned for my "retirement" years, but it certainly has its value!

Jacqui

5/23/2009 08:04:33 am

Hi, thanks for the lovely comments about my book being published, I am still on cloud nine, it's such a big deal for me!
I'm still working on the environemtnal psycholgy book and the families of missing people book, so I'm busy, plus I will be working in London for two weeks, but I'll keep reading your blog!

Charlotte

6/10/2009 11:52:03 am

Great blog entry, Paula!!!
You’re so right on about how far we’ve gone as women. When I think of the problems some of us have now, vs. the reasons many women of my mother’s generation didn’t divorce, I think we’re way ahead of the game. Women are much more resilient than in their generation although my mother went through the horrors of the Holocaust, and I’m not sure how today’s woman would do in the same circumstances. Women are better educated, more powerful and self-aware than ever and the younger generation takes a lot for granted that was paved by their older “sisters.” Esp. when it comes to employment opportunities, financial independence, education, etc. I remember when my college professor suggested I not major in biology (pre-med) because I’d just be getting married anyway and I’d take a seat away from a guy who would really become a doctor. (I ended up in psychology and English as a result.)

Barbara

6/12/2009 02:31:47 am

I regret that I don't -- yet -- have time to contribute to this wonderful blog, but I enjoy reading it immensely. I'm very sorry about the death of your last aunt, and know how hard it is to lose that last link, no matter that we, at our tender age, now understand that it's simply the way of the world (I still have lots of those piles in my spare room, too). But Farewell, Kansas was such a wonderfully perfect piece, so sensitively and sensibly put. Same for Women On & Beyond the Verge. Your writings are guaranteed to make a difference in the life of any woman who has the good fortune to happen upon them just when she needs the wisdom of a friend/sister/aunt/mother/daughter.
You go girl!!!

Rani

6/23/2009 06:58:24 am

Paula, thanks so much for including Shine On in there, and for keeping me in the loop. I finally had a chance to check out the blog -- great, uplifting, fun, and supportive!! I'm honored to be mentioned in there. Keep up the great work!!

Jacqui

8/21/2009 12:14:51 am

Hi Paula,

We have been getting a lot of press her in the UK about the NHS here being rubbish. In fact it is wonderful.

Sure, it has it's faults, like sometimes you have to wait and sometimes you can't get the 'cure' straight away. Overall, the most beneficial thing about it is it helps those on low income, primarily. There is no charge at all for treatment or prescriptions for those who earn below a threshold. Children get ALL free treatment and so do pensioners. Everyone gets a similar level of treatment.

At the more affluent end, extra heath care insurance can be taken out so that if you want a plush room with plasma screen TV you can have that. But basically, the 'national insurance' premium is deducted at source form salaries and treatment is provided for everyone. This inspires a basic confidence that you will definitely get treatment if you get ill. The cosmetic dental and cosmetic surgery system is completely separate - all actual illness is treated
in nationally approved surgeries, clinics and hospitals.

It's a wonderful thing. I hope you soon have something similar.

Darlene

9/3/2009 06:49:12 am

Thanks for the visual tour of your lovely State. I wish I were there right now driving down that charming road in view #7. Our temperature is hovering in the high 90's with lows in the 70's.

Kathleen

9/3/2009 06:51:13 am

Glad you're doing this healthcare series, Paula!

Karen

9/3/2009 07:02:52 am

Thanks for this story, Paula. One of the tributes I watched on PBS included an anecdote by a reporter who had asked him why, as a child of a family of privilege and power, he was so devoted to helping the poor and distressed. He answered, "Haven't you ever read the New Testament?"

He was referring to Matthew 25:35-40: "...For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me... I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

His commitment came from a deep, spiritual devotion and the strength to live up to the values he really believed in. His example shines for the rest of us to put our own values into action in service to the entire human community.

Thank you, Ted Kennedy, for your dedication and service.

Air Jordan link

3/6/2011 11:33:13 am

For the water of life's fountain springth from a gloomy bed. Do you think so?

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