: About Me

You might find that I mostly like to write about you as I am writing about me..you see that connectedness
feel about me usually extends to you.

Whether it's quantum physics or string theory or spiritualism, etc., I think we are all connected, otherwise why would there be loneliness and despair when we break those ties that bind?

At one point in my life I lived in Hawaii. I opened retail stores, scavenged for employees and trained sixty eight people. I was fifty at the time (yes, I said fifty, the bloom of life) and had never done this before on such a grand scale. Everybody says the employees are the hardest part of a business. 'Everybody' were right. It is the hardest part, but to me, a people person, it is the best part. I got to listen, really listen.

People come to their job everyday leaving (or so called leaving) their spouse, their kids, their money woes, their ailments,whatever, behind them. Oh whoa...did I say behind them? Well yeah, how else to concentrate at the tasks at hand? Well the real truth is they try to hide their "stuff", bottle it, drag it or beat it into submission to get thru another day. Evidently, therein lies my self appointed avocation.

For some reason it seems to be written on my forehead that i should take the time out of my busy schedule to sit down and listen. I have looked into the mirror and failed to see it written, but they know..they know!

With some form of unscrupulous ESP they ferret me out.
Am I a bleeding heart? Hardly. If I should tell you about my childhood I might dissolve you into tears, but that's not my thing. I try to take care of what hurt me yesterday with the thought that every day is a new day.

So it's out there..I find myself in you..and do not mistake it, I am not the only one out there..there are millions of us "aliens"..people with heart, people who care; that once getting them aside from all the chaos of their own "busy" (oh how i dislike that word) life they will want to empathize or listen to you.

Now i'm not speaking of the fix it mentalities..as in Venus and Mars, the people that want to fix it and tie it in a bow for you. Well how do they know what fixes it for you? ..In a ten or twenty minute conversation where you talk and hopefully the other listens, they can never get close enough to the core of you to be able to really understand what it is you are really trying to get over to them..

With the 'wisdom' of my later years I have found the only way to 'fix it' is by letting a person talk and for me to listen. I never fully realized my abilities until I started to listen. People say all kinds of wonderful things about me. Listening is a hot commodity. If you've got it baby, you rule the world. Everyone wants a piece of you.

Has it ever bothered me to be a pair of ears and not be able to come up with some wise words,etc.? Sure, I'm only human and I have my share of ego I have to be aware of, but in the end, when I see an insight come across a face, something a person knows about themselves they hadn't even dreamed of before talking to me, I do feel
great that I might have been an intermediary.

Here's one of the things I can tell you about me. I am safe with secrets and I never feel the need to spill my (guts.) That is unless something funny comes along then I might be tempted to share it. I love being there to touch, you know, spirit to spirit, just about anyone that comes in my path.

I'm glad there's still a ton of people like so many bright stars that are. as Dr. Phil puts it, a soft shoulder.
When I am not embarrassed to say it (in this in your face world) in my better moments as a human being I am a soft shoulder.
That connectedness is essential to my being and on second glance I probably am not as innocent as I portray, I know I must send out some transparent signal to "come, I'll listen and not judge your words or feelings." When I am my best person it is when I am listening to you, asking the right questions for you to get in touch with you... and sometimes a higher being if you wish.
So that's who I am..a high school drop out who had to leave school in the tenth grade because my Father passed away.My Mother and I needed the money so I had to work. I returned to school and college when the time was right, a Child Advocate for the court system for a year before I moved out of state, a Healing Minister, a spiritual director.. which means a listener grounded in an ecumenical faith. Twenty-three years in retail businesses of my own with hundreds of teenagers and managers over the years have made me an adult who forgot to grow up. In fact,in the past I used so many teen aged colloquialisms I had to guard my speech around "real" grown ups. I have since cleaned up my act.
Helen Keller wrote something I have tried to always go by. She said "life is either an adventure or it is nothing". This is the reason I have never spent my life in one profession or one state. I have lived and visited all over the east and west coasts And Hawaii. I've visited numerous countries in Europe. When I lived in Detroit I was over in Sonjia,(sp.?) Canada often. Now that I live on the west coast I go to Mexico for any reason I can think of. It's a short life made for joy and exploring. In fact when my Mother passed away I put "she took time to smell the roses" on her stone. If she owned something you liked, you could have it. I hope I have inherited some of that.
I never had a real wedding, my Dad left when I was five, my Mother never stayed at home, she always worked, I never had a graduation, I made my church commitments on my own ten years after most kids. I never lived with sisters except for a brief period in my life. My older sister married by the time I was five and my other sister
went to live with my Dad in another city. I never visited when she lived with, so I can't really say I grew up with other children in the house.
My oldest sister had seven children, though and they became my siblings more or less.
I never had any material things. I finally got a bike at eleven.
I had great friends and a lot of freedom that other protective Mothers didn't give their kids and I think I benefited from that.I loved school, I only went to the tenth grade and then to work, but if I had gone another six months they would have graduated me with honors. That's sad, I know, but life is good. I have told you more than I have thought about in many years.In short, Everything that happens to you makes you stronger.

In closing,I don't know a heck of a lot about the Web, etc. and when I learn how to put a picture up, you will be the first to see it.
Briefly me? That's a misnomer. I've never been able to say in ten words anything I can say in a hundred. Thanks for listening.

My passion is ...

people

I know too much about ...

people

My parents always told me ...

If I had one frriend I would want it to be you

My childhood ambition ...

I wanted to join the Army because I was Patriotic

My favorite memory ...

My Dad rocking and singing to me

Why I write ...

I love to share and tell stories, usually true ones

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

CSI, Raymond, anything funny

My first job ...

Short order cook at a bowling alley

My best moment ...

When someone pours their heart out and comes up with their own answer to their problem

My inspiration ...

kindness and goodness in the most unusual circumstances

Home & Garden > Lawn & Landscaping Outdoor living: How to expand your living space

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Outdoors and the livin' is easy. Expanding your home into the outdoors can be a fun and creative way to spend a few weekends. Your reward , besides getting your creative juices flowing, is to get some extra square footage from your home. When starting out with your first home or if you are trying to squeeze some more joy out of your present one, there is nothing like outdoor living, and the beauty of it all is that it is so inexpensive to get the "feel' that you want from it by not spending all your vacation stash. One way to get a great look is by using pillars made of six by sixes. On ea...

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