Don't Blink

As I reflect on the last two weeks of celebrating my 50th birthday, which culminated in the completion of a six week fitness boot camp with amazing results along with the best birthday party ever, I find myself blue as the deep ocean.   At first there seemed to be no particular reason that I could  put my finger on other than that after a great week of awesome accomplishments, activities and visits from friends and family, Monday arrived as if on queue to rain on the parade.   I  considered the possibility that turning 50 really is bothering me;  after all it is the age of AARP, discounts and being over the hill; But finally, I realized it is something more like what happens when people are spared in a great tragedy but their neighbors are not.   There is guilt, not rational, but it is there just the same.   I know someone that  won't see their fiftieth birthday and I want to give them lives or extra moves the way I can when I play Candy Crush.   Because it just seems so wrong that they won't be able to line dance the Cupid Shuffle, bust a move to Stevie B or  throw jello shots to friends in the pool who came to the big 5-0 celebration.  

My awesome friend Janine called a couple days after my birthday to give me best wishes.  She  asked me if I had made a resolution on turning 50.   I was puzzled and told her I  really had not thought about it but now I have, because  tomorrow is not guaranteed.  One day the final bell will ring and school will be out forever.    But until it does,  I resolve to smile,  be kind, be positive, and find the silver lining in every cloud and look upon each day as a gift filled with possibilities.  I will cherish every moment and try to be an inspiration to others.  We only get so many trips around the sun.   This girl is going to put on some shades and enjoy the ride..... and I won't blink.  50 years goes faster than you think.....  :-) Peace -  Tracy

Mudpies and Mimosas

I went out for a quick run today and as I rounded the first quarter mile I was overcome by a familiar scent.  It had been well before Katrina the last time I remember it but for a moment it
took me even further back.  As I look up to see the heavily flower-laden mimosa bough hanging over the track,  I flashed back to my backyard the summer we moved into our house, no longer rented but owned by my parents.    I am ten years old again and the sound of my mom's voice fills my ears.    "Go outside and play", she always said.   Coincidentally, it was always  go outside, because she loathed a dirty house but that's another story for another day.   I am sitting under the Mimosa tree, taking in the mild, sweet smell of the pink flowers.  My hands are muddy and I have picked some perfect sized leaves from one of the bushes in our yard.   I have carefully shaped and kneaded the mud into the yummiest looking mud pies anyone has ever laid eyes on.     Next the pies go onto the big leaves and sit in the sun to cook.   While the pies are roasting in the mid-day sun, I am off to the ditch to build a damn with my friends from the neighborhood (Donna, Bert, Marvin, Cindy, Lee and others).  There are some pretty cool things in the ditch and that ditch which seemed like the grand canyon to me then is small now that I am grown, but oh the times we had playing in the ditch and then running through the field to one of our many "forts" and later to grab the football and play a game in the street or shoot baskets at Donna's house.   We didn't go home until dark and if school was out, well after dark.  But, (my sisters and brother will remember this well) when it was time to come in, it was through the garage, dropping all but our undies at the door and straight to the bath.   The scent of Mimosa today, reminds me how simple our lives were then and every now and then what we wouldn't give to go back to that simplicity when the only care in the world was whether the mud-pies overcooked.   My mom hated that tree and eventually it was cut down to make room for a gigantic satellite dish.  I will always remember that tree.   I am not a parent, but if I were, I would try to take time to share these simple things with my children, to teach them different ways to have fun and to use their imagination because in the imagination anything is possible.... and it's just dirt, it will wash off!!   :-) Peace  -T

United We are Strong

I thought, even promised myself that on the fifth anniversary of Katrina, would be the last time I would write about it.   But yesterday, nearly 8 years past Katrina, I really thought I had moved beyond the trauma, but as I watched the events in Moore, OK unfold  and saw the devastation I was reminded that those wounds may never heal. I recognized the shell shocked look in victims faces, the anguish of families awaiting word on missing loved ones and pets, and recalled the uncertainty of what was ahead. Yet while tears ...well up as I read the stories and look at the pictures, I am also reminded, that in these times of great tragedy is also when the human spirit prevails and we discover what the most important things are. As we stand in the absence of our material things, we are once again a community, united by a steadfast faith that we will rise above the event that has brought us to this place where we find our true friends and reset our priorities. It is not about nor has it been about the things we have but the people in our lives that make us whole. I vowed to never forget that lesson after Katrina. And in the wake of this tragedy in Moore, OK and the other towns impacted by devastation, I re-avow to never forget. Let those of us who survived, rebuilt, and prevailed after Katrina, send our thoughts and prayers to the community in OK and reach out to help them the way communities around this country reached out to us and show us why united we will always be stronger than any one of us standing alone.    Peace    TP - 5/21/13