* Photo of one of Boo’s “Bliss Stations” in life!

Dear Reader:

A couple of weeks ago I had my regular oncology appointment with Dr. Silgals. He was asking me how things were going and how I was feeling….my energy level.  I was about to respond with my usual reply: “Great…everything is just great.”

But suddenly “great” wasn’t great enough. Was I feeling “content“…yes…but more than that…“happy” ….yes…but more than that…I pulled a blank moment…and all that came out..was “Giddy“…I just feel “giddy” to be alive.

Dr. Silgals nodded and smiled…the word fit the moment. To surface from chemo treatments, hormone treatments, radiation treatments, and intensive surgeries with my heart and soul still intact…”Giddy” with delight for life was certainly appropriate.

When I got home Friday afternoon from my stay at Mt. Pleasant ( babysitting two of my beautiful grandchildren) I checked my emails and Honey had sent me a link that she thought I would appreciate. It was on finding “bliss.”

“Bliss”…I thought to myself…now that was the word I was really searching for in my doctor’s office. Honey went on to say that she found her “bliss” in the mountains of North Carolina with her new passion….pottery. And I had found my initial bliss in the NC mountains also through St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope, then through blogging and gardening. We were two lucky “blissful” people!

Three places of complete bliss…my first bliss was St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope…followed a month later with the blog, followed three years later with the deck and garden.

The thing about finding our “bliss” is that there can be more than just one special place…I happen to have three but first we must dig deep and find it inside each of us.

I took some time to read the article (Honey sent) originally written back in the 1980’s…and it was just as appropriate now as then. Here are three excerpts from the article and a link if you would like to read the whole article.

Source: “How to Find Your Bliss” – Joseph John Campbell

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

[Sacred space] is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you.

This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

https://shar.es/12vegF

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So until tomorrow…if you’re reading this blog…then you are alive…and if, for no other reason, you should be filled with bliss.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Libby, the last Chicken Man painting receiver, finally got her original painting of her family at the beach for her birthday….So glad we all have our state memory of blissful times together through Chicken Man drawings. (Jackson, Libby, and sister Linda)

* Thursday night Tommy and Kaitlyn picked me up to join Kaitlyn’s parents (Butch and Susan) for dinner out…we went to the Mustard Seed in Mt. Pleasant (sure do miss the one in Summerville)….the food and company were extra special…lots of fun!

* John took my car Friday and had it cleaned from top to bottom as thanks for keeping those precious grandchildren…The car cleaning company even got off my famous two stripes of white paint( located on the front passenger side) I got getting too close (twice) to the freshly painted cement barriers at the Shell Station on Main Street.

* Farewell little Turners from Boo Boo…who loves you…the house sounds mighty quiet tonight without you two in it!

(Eva Cate made a hand puppet and colored it Friday during out art center time…and then she got a package from Joan (Grandmother Be-Be) who sent her a “Frozen” gown to take to Disney World. She was beyond excited!

Jakie is so snuggly…he just likes to lie on the floor with his “Linus Blanket” and stare back at you with his big blue eyes!

Fun just being together at the Turner Home…a “Blissful Place”

* I hate to end on a sad note today…but about 9:30 this morning my neighbor, Lucy’s owner, left to take her to the vet to have her put down. We both  cried our eyes out…but we could tell she was in pain and suffering.

She appeared on the porch this morning around 8:30…I put out her usual food and water which she slowly nibbled  and she took a few sips of water….but I could tell something was wrong with her backside. Her back paws kept slipping out from under her. When she tried to go down the steps…she tumbled all the way down…leaving her dazed and confused. Just heart-breaking.

Suzanne and I think she must have either gotten hit by a car or truck or was suffering from hind quarters paralysis ….Lucy was fourteen and gave the neighborhood many good years of her gracious, gentle presence…she was quite a lady.

(Last Friday evening she had even joined Linda, Ann, and I for a tea party (dessert) out on the deck…hopping into the extra chair and acting like she figured she was invited too.)

In Memoriam- Lucy

To Lucy…the little cat who adopted me and taught me many lessons about trust and perseverance…she overcame many personal “rusty nails” (life’s jolts) but always brought fruits of unconditional love to all she met. I will miss you my friend.