2-25-14 RMB Angry to Grateful

2-25-14 RMB Angry to Grateful

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

This week I lost my temper over a broken window, broken from carelessness. There were extenuating circumstances and added stresses, but in the end my temper did me more damage than the shattered glass. And in the end, my friends were there when I needed them. I ran the gamut from angry to grateful in one night, an emotional roller coaster ride.

Looking back on that night, I see clearly it wasn’t about the window. It was about respect, responsibility and accountability; what is expected of me and what I have to offer to meet that expectation. I fell short on all accounts and was only able to rise above the situation with the counsel of friends. 

I tell them often enough that everything will always be all right that they expected me to make is so, one more time. Only this time, I couldn’t. I had run out of my fixing everything steam, spent and at a loss, emotions exploded. Friends came to my aid, even those that I was unable to help. Did they see that my frustration was as much with myself for my shortcomings as it was with them for their expectations?

What I learned about this temper of mine is that it is not about the thing that you hold in your hands, it is about what you hold in your heart. Even I need to be reminded everything will be all right now and then.

Still learning,

Loraine

2-22-14 RMB Murder in Monticello

2-22-14 RMB Murder in Monticello

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

The best part about doing laundry on this Saturday was almost finishing Murder in Monticello while waiting for wash and dry cycles to run their course.

I found a few sections so compelling that I was forced to dog ear corners of my book. The first one speaks of history as one of the characters states: “It is alive. These walls breathe. Everything that everyone did or did not do throughout the course of human life on earth impacts us. Everything!”

Hear, hear! Yes! Spot on! Absolutely!

The following excerpt was just great writing: He shot out of his chair and in an instant towered over her, his bulk an assault against her frailty without his even lifting a hand.

…his bulk an assault against her frailty…quite eloquently put.

Oh, oh, one more: Being young when he joined Jim Craig’s practice, Larry had looked up to his partner, but now, as an old man, he could measure him in the fullness of his own experience.

…he could measure him in the fullness of his own experience. It is phrases like that which beg me to ask for more Rita Mae Brown poetry. I think it lives, either within you or on some tablet tucked away. Or perhaps, it is here, in your novels that it speaks in a clever twist of a phrase, a word not often used or used in an unusual way, fitted as a key to a lock, opening up the mind to a new avenue, as poetry does.

Soon I will put this book to rest, looking forward to the next in line, Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War. I may even begin to enjoy laundry day, and if so, it will be to your credit for the many good reads you have provided.

Thanks Rita Mae Brown,

Loraine

2-21-14 RMB Past Live And Future Possibilities

2-21-14 RMB Past Live And Future Possibilities

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

Today is an important day in my small universe. It is the first day that my new friend Teddy is free from her most recent employment. I am incredibly fortunate that she honored me with the heads up, almost two months in advance, about the impending lay off. In this short time we have gone from work associates to best of friends.

It was almost instantaneous. After working with each other for years, talking business on a weekly basis, we seemed to say, in unison, “I know you.” Once, when voicing how surprised I was by our strong connection in such a short amount of time she responded, “Oh, it’s been lifetimes.”

Shortly thereafter, those words jogged a memory. I am not an expert on geography or dialects nor history, yet when I pieced together what I heard and saw in the memory, the location on the map that I was sure we occupied and the time frame, it all made sense. I don’t wish to bore you with details and this blog isn’t about proving anything beyond the shadow of a doubt, because wherever one wishes to doubt, they will find cause to.

This blog is about voicing possibilities and sharing what I know. It is about how I use that knowing to piece together the puzzle of our existence. Almost everyone will agree, that there is more to some relationships than others. There is a mystical connection.

Jumping into the future, I see there is a significant time approaching for this friend and myself ten years from now. We will be close and one may depend on the other for support of some sort. I’ve learned that fortune telling the future is tricky business. Our free will enables us to change course, making what appears an absolute target today, a far cry from the reality of tomorrow. And, of course, those who doubt we have the ability to see beyond today, will doubt no matter how accurate the prophecy.

Now it is time for me to wish you well on this day and always. I wish Teddy well in the new adventure she is embarking on. I look forward to reading more writing from both of you.

Ever glad your paths have crossed mine…this time,

Loraine