Dear Reader:

Sometimes the seemingly simplistic things in life are the most elusive. Discovering who we really are under the skin is one of these…our likes, dislikes, interests, passions….all the things that make us unique…make us who we really are…yet these truths don’t come easy.

In fact it takes a life-time of self-discovery to really know our actual selves doesn’t it? None of us are born with a script to learn and follow…instead we have to learn through trial and error. Such is life.

Alice Koeller once wrote: “Perhaps loving something is the only starting place there is for making your life your own.” (I think she nailed it.)

How many of us have allowed ourselves to be influenced by well-intentioned family members, friends, co-horts…even strangers like sales clerks. I can open my closet right now and out of my entire wardrobe tell you what clothes I have worn once and never again.

Then there are other clothes that I have worn thin…wearing over and over…because I keep looking in the closet, shaking my head trying to remember why I thought something would look good on me that I don’t even like…these items just hang there until I finally admit defeat… bag them up and take them to a charity. (This makes me feel a little better for my poor choices or ‘lack of backbone’… succumbing to a sales clerk or even friend who thought some blouse or jacket was “just me.” It wasn’t “just me.”  (It was probably “just them.“)

Take colors for example…by now most of you have picked up from pictures of different rooms in my house that I love bright primary colors…deep down inside they are me…especially yellow’s and orange’s. I find myself drawn to these same colors every time I go shopping…whether it is for clothes, accessories, wall paints, furniture, etc.

Simply put…they just make me happy. But I also know that when it comes time to concentrate and create…I need pastels or cool colors…thus the title picture I took of my “blog”  room where I create the posts each day.

I need “cool” colors that remind me of the seas and skies… vast open areas of creativity that never stop moving in and out… like clouds and waves… each day… a new creation in formation.

Don’t we also learn about relationships and the types of people we want to be surrounded with as we “grow up”….people who love people.

These days I an drawn to others who still let us see a peek into the child they once were….funny, uninhibited by protocol and ready to take on the next adventure.

At this stage in life…I find myself asking….“What do I truly love?“…“What would make me really happy and then what is the best way to share it with others?”  For me right now…that is fulfillment.

So until tomorrow….(Art by Phyllis Harris)

“Today is my favorite day”   Winnie the Pooh

If you have ever wondered where “Spiderman” lives…it is with Walsh and Mollie, Rutledge and Eloise. Lachlan is quite the little gymnast at five years of age…very strong for his age…he climbed this 30 foot rope three times during his gym class session.

He’s the little boy at the very tip-top with the black pants and white shirt! So proud of you, Lachlan, but I probably would have had a heart attack watching you do it “live.“:)

*Speaking of “elusive” I added a Happy Birthday to Gin-g….when I got in last night from Mt. Pleasant…and just realized this morning it wasn’t added to today’s post. Something weird is going on….you just never know when those computer gremlins gobble up things…since it had a picture of a birthday cake…maybe that did it. 🙂

But a big shout-out to Gin-g on her birthday!!! Fred outdid himself taking Gin-g to the historic Poinsett Hotel in downtown Greenville…we had several social studies conferences there and I loved it.

Jo Dufford and Gin-g’s birthdays are maybe a day apart…I mentioned to her that God must have put all the most generous kind-hearted people in one area of the monthly calendar…because both of them are like two peas in a pod when it comes to giving.