Life Should Not be Measured....

My favorite quote is...

'Life should not be measured by the Breaths that we take but rather by the moments that take our breath away!'

I am not sure who wrote it but it was my email tag line for years, it's on the wall of two of my bathrooms and in my kitchen window sill. I still look at it and remember how blessed I am.

I have had so many moments that took y breath away such as meeting the love of my life, Richard, the birth of my 3 kids, the weddings of all 3 kids, the births of my 8 grandchildren and on and on.

There have been so many times that I've also had sadness that took my breath away. The sudden death of my mother at 53 years old, the loss of my dad and 3 good friends in the same year, the loss of my mother-in-law last year. 

So the things that take our breath away is not always happy times, they can be sorrowful times as well. But, what I realize is that this is life. You take the good and the bad and measure the moments. It's not how long we live, it's how we live in the moments. 

Love unconditionally, forgive easily, forget the careless things that people do when they hurt you, love those who forgive you when you hurt them, spend time, time, and more time with family and friends as if it were the last moments you have with them because it might be.

Sadly, my very good friend, Melanie is  probably losing her twin sister very soon. She's on life support and although I know God works miracles EVERY DAY, the truth is, she's dying. She may last a few hours, a few days or she could rally and be with us for many more years, BUT we need to prepare for the loss of our loved one. It's a moment that will take our breath away once again.

For those of you reading this...I love you! I make no excuses or apologies for caring about you so much that it takes my breath away. I want you all to know that you are special and have been  given so much talent and wealth compared to so many, use it wisely and generously because you cannot take it to the grave.

Another quote I read awhile back was something to the effect of...The journey to the grave should not be that you want to look your best in your coffin but to look like you've worn yourself out by enjoying life. It's not how good we look when we die, but that we've used up every ounce of our being to enjoy this life! We'll get enough R&R in heaven.

God Bless you all, and may his warm loving arms give you peace and security for ever.

Your breathless friend Darlene!

Every Day is a Blessing

Good Morning, good Day and Good Afternoon!

When I began this Blogg I thought I would post every day, but so far I've not and that's probably a good thing! I don't want you to get tired of reading how I am, what I'm doing and how the world is treating me.

Today is good, the last few days, Not so good. I'm having challenges with motivation, inspiration and follow through on every day goals. Too much time on my hands or just age related Blahs....is that a technical term?

As I'm aging, I feel a need to do something with my life. Something important like cure cancer, save a life or something that people will remember me by when I'm gone. Write that awesome book, give a child a home that has none, or create something people will use forever. Does that make sense? I don't want to just exist. I don't want to shop just for the sake of shopping, go out to eat because I'm too bored to cook and I want to feel better about how I spend my time. I want to make a difference and I don't know how YET, but I will continue to pray for direction until I find something.

I want to say Thank You! Thank you friends and family for always touching my heart at the right times. For always laughing with me. For being who you are and making me a better person.

I'd like to share my Daily word with you (I promise not to be too spiritual too often).

From Joyce Meyer's "Starting Your Day Right"

Be Slow to Speak - Have you ever regretted something you said as soon as the words were out of your mouth? You can't take back the words you speak to others - and words can damage relationships. The Bible says that if you can control your mouth, you can control your whole body (see James 3:2)

Before you respond to people quickly, stop and listen to what the Holy Bible has to say about your situation. James taught, "Let every man be quick to hear (a ready listener), slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry" (James 1:19). Commit your mouth to God's service and use words that speak healing to others.

As we all know, i speak too quickly and often regret not taking more time to think about what I say. I've never deliberately said something unkind or hurtful, but I know that I've regretted the words spoke in jest but wounded someone deeply. My Tag line on my personal email is...

Harsh words may not break bones, but they do break hearts!

I pray that I never break your heart, lose your trust and break any promises I make to you!

Have a wonderful day and may you find peace and joy in everything you do!

Is it the Hair?

Written this morning but posted this evening at 5:30pm

So it's about 3:30 am and I woke up and can't get back to sleep so I thought I would Blog. Doesn't it sound like a cool movie? Sleep has been a real issue as I'm aging, BUT that's another Blog for another time.

Hair, remember when hair growing out of different parts of our bodies was a BAD thing? Now I have to remember 'when ' was the last time I shaved my legs, underarms and bikini areas. It's almost like having Alzheimer's or an old movie like The Lost Weekend.

Any ways. I remember when I was in Jr. High and after begging my mother for months to let me shave my legs and underarms, like all the other girls, she finally relented. Back then as most of you remember, we had to use dad's double sided razor. I think they've been outlawed now.  These razors were deadly to a woman's body. No underarms, bikini are or legs went un scarred, but thank goodness we were still too young to worry about the Bikini area at this age as our experience with these razors would have probably made us barren. I still have nightmares about running with these razors and falling in a pit of them…Ugh!

Now I was a pretty hairy girl in my younger days (including last year). Not a large gorilla, but small chimp would be about right. When mom said okay, I was giddy with excitement and even though my mother warned me that "Once you start shaving, you never stop", I wanted this.

I shaved my arm pits first then sat on the side of the sink and shaved my legs next. I don't think I cut myself then, but I can remember the legs looking like I had been in the war or attacked by the chainsaw crazy killer who preyed on young couples in parked cars.

I was so excited to go to school the next day to show off my clean shaven legs, (I didn't show anyone my armpits, just didn't seem right). My girlfriends were excited for me. Much like boys when they have a 'right' of passage to becoming a man, this is a woman's right of passage second only to the period (sad isn't it!). So here I am in school telling my girlfriends the good news and showing them my legs when one of the girls, I've forgotten her (Charlotte – hated her) asks me why I didn't shave the backs of my legs. Dumb founded I had to think quickly. Back of the legs…Damn, I only shaved the front and there are TWO sides…crap! I said the only thing I could come up with…"Hummm my MOM wouldn't let me!" She didn't want me to shave so she said I could only shave the fronts for now and if I did okay I could shave the back later" Stupid girls, they bought it! They even felt sorry for me that my mother was so strict. I still feel kind of bad about blaming my mother for that and many other things which again are for later issues that I will need to discuss on my Blog. Maybe I do need a therapist. Don't they usually tell you it's your parents fault?

So I ran home and shaved the backs of my legs and began my 49+ years of SHAVING!

Back to the present day.  Last January I was helping my friend Patty (Hi Patty) on some stuff at her house and she gave me a random present. You know how fun it is to get Random presents? Sometimes there really cool random gifts that you go "Oh wow!" and other times there just like" Oh, thanks", that's nice and move on? Well Patty always gives cool random presents and this time she gave me a 10X hand mirror for my purse. Now I have a magnifying mirror in my bathroom that I check every morning for stray hairs and it works good. BUT this 10X sucker is amazing! One look and I realized that I had been walking around with a forest on my upper lip and chin for years! Wow, so how long has my face been a forest? What about that job interview I had 5 years ago, was it there then, did the interviewer see it? Does my dentist have to throw up after I leave his office? It really made me start to look back over the years and who were close enough to visit the forest. Talk about needing therapy now!

Now I've had the 'stray' 1 inch long hair on my face before and said "How the heck did that get there?" Believe me I checked my chin every day and no way that hair was there this morning. It must be those vitamins and hormones I now take or something. Kind of like the 10ft woman who grew overnight, some hairs are just like that.

The mirror is great and it goes everywhere with me (I had to draw the line at having it out in church…just wasn't appropriate) but Patty, you should have included a pair of tweezers with it. If you're going to give a gift like that it should be complete with tweezers so people can get to work on the forest right then and there! I was in agony running to the bathroom every few minutes to borrow tweezers to see if I was able to complete the deforesting or if the hairs had suddenly grown back. BUT I will say it was a cool gift.

I've always had angst about hair on my face (and other areas) because as my mom aged, she quit shaving and tweezing. I often felt embarrassed for her and ashamed when I was out in public with her.

I didn't know how to talk to her about it. She also got to where she wouldn't go out in public much and let herself go. I loved my mom and I miss her terribly, I don't want to become my mother, but I can see where she just got tired of clearing the forest herself.

So, as my friends and my daughters, I want us to promise one another that if we see a forest growing on our legs (only counts if we're wearing shorts or skirts), faces and armpits (I'm too old for the full bikini but …yes event the bikini IF I am in a swimsuit) as we're aging, we will be united in reminding each other to get a 10x mirror, a good razor and therapy if needed!

Have a wonderfully free Hairless day and may no wild hair appear unless it's an urge to go play Bingo!

God Bless