July 31--Here, There and Everywhere

People see God every day, they just don't recognize him.  --Pearl Bailey

    This is truly a pearl from Pearl. I would offer the option of changing "him" to "it."

    I invite us today to amp up our God-recognition skills.

        Leta

Here's some God for you... note the bee!
(From my recent Botanica visit)

July 30--Essential Tears

Tears are a sign of the courage it takes to dive deep with an emotion and stay present with it. They are the legacy of our love and loss. They are what burns us clean. They are a miraculous, natural release that opens our hearts to healing grace. They are a necessity of transformation.  --Mary Davis

    Crying gets a bad rap in our society. Yet it is a necessary biological function or we would not have the ability to do it. 

    As I took my first step down the aisle at my decades-ago wedding, I started crying. There was no stopping it. They were tears of joy. My dad's comment later was "Her water always was close to her eyes." By the time we got to the altar and started the ceremony, I had wiped out the couple of tissues my maid of honor had. When it came time for my new husband to kiss me, I was red-faced and covered in snot. He kissed me anyway--that's true love! Fortunately we had taken the photos before the wedding.

    I am pleased to say that both of the sons I raised have no trouble crying. They recognize it as the healthy biological and emotional necessity that it is. 

    While there may be some red eyes, puffiness and snot, don't you feel better after a good cry!?!?

        Leta

Cubs announcers wearing the Ryne Sandberg #23
remembrance shirts. The whole team wore
them during batting practice... awesome!

July 29--Sad Baseball Fans

I love to play baseball. I'm a baseball player. I've always been a baseball player. I'm still a baseball player. That's who I am.  --Ryne Sandberg

    This die-hard Cubs fan, along with millions of others, is mourning the passing of Ryne Sandberg, one of the greatest Cubs AND baseball players of all time. Yes, he's "still a baseball player." He was inducted in 2005 into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Below is his plaque in Cooperstown--I took that photo on my northeast baseball tour. Sandberg was a huge factor in me being a Cubs fan--he was in his playing prime when I started watching the Cubs on WGN back when I began staying home with my young sons. Sandberg was adorable. (There is nothing finer than a fit male body in a baseball uniform, just sayin'!!!) He is the reason (NOT Michael Jordan) that 23 is my favorite number. 

    He was one of the most beloved people in the sport, consistently described as "humble" and "approachable." Baseball truly was his life. He was at Cubs spring training this past year supporting the team despite difficult health and treatment issues. Here are a few of the accolades he earned at second base with the Cubs:

• 1984 National League MVP
• 10-time All Star
• 9 Gold Gloves
• 7 Silver Sluggers
• 1990 Home Run Derby Champ

    In 2024 on the 40th anniversary of "The Sandberg Game" (I'll let you google that for yourself), the Cubs organization had the ceremony to unveil Sandberg's statue in Gallagher Way outside Wrigley Field. 

    Thank you, Ryno, for your huge contribution to my LOVE of baseball!

        Leta

July 28--A Silly Afternoon

The way the world is, I think a silly evening in the theatre is a good thing, to take our minds off terror.  --Tim Curry

    Yesterday afternoon I went to Wichita Community Theatre to see "Waiting in the Wings" by Noel Coward. A dear friend of mine was one of the leads. The story is set in a charity home for aging actresses. The theatre is comfortably small, so that the actors and actresses are only a few feet away from the crowd. I looked around at the audience and made note that 95% of us were of the age to be in the home! Such is a Sunday matinee crowd, not wanting to drive at night, though I'm guessing most of us gave up nap-time for the adventure 😉😉 

    I think the play touched wonderfully on so many human emotions and situations. One character has lost it mentally and ends up setting her room on fire ("It was so pretty!!!"). There is sadness, frustration, anger, fear and loads of laughter. Coward did such a great job offering each character's different viewpoint on being a resident at the place. 

    Continually grateful for the arts and the sanity they bring to life!

        Leta

July 27--Sweating and Dirty

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.  --Alfred Austin

    Attending church was a requirement in my upbringing. One of the few enduring take-aways from that is an ongoing love of the hymn "In the Garden." My mother was an avid gardener who raised most of our vegetables and fruit, organically, by the way. That love of gardening eventually passed to me after I recovered from MANY hours shelling peas and snapping green beans. 

    I was working in my garden yesterday cleaning up the weeds that flourished during my vacation. We have fences around almost all of our large yard, none of them put up by us. Our neighbors apparently think that a fence will stop their weeds at the border. Alas, this is not the case, and I spent much of yesterday's effort clearing weeds that crawled into my garden under their fences. This is an ongoing problem that I've learned to live with. I dumped two tubs of weeds in the trash and returned to the AC drenched with sweat.

    Tending the garden in our extreme heat is a challenge. I could be thankful that the weeds get me out there to enjoy it. I'll work on that...

        Leta

My awesome lilies that bloomed
while I was on vacation

July 26--Ode to Butter

Life isn't life without real butter.  --A. D. Posey

    I grew up in an extended family that worships butter, thus I, too, am a butter worshiper. REAL butter. It so distresses me these days, especially with restaurant food prices, that any decent place would serve a substitute. 

    My mother thought that Kleenex, dishwashers, margarine and butter in stick form were all Communist plots (this was back in the 60s & 70s). Therefore, we had none of those in our house. We bought butter in the one pound slabs, and there was always a slice from the slab on a saucer on our counter. My dad would make a snack of oyster crackers and butter, taking a cracker, dragging it through the butter, hooking it onto another cracker, and munching away. Thus I learned at an early age the concept of a "butter delivery system." 

    Right now in our area, it is primo corn-on-the-cob season. This is my favorite butter delivery system. Others are popcorn and toasted home-made bread. 

    Butter gets an undeserved bad rap--"ooooo, fat!" Julia Child proclaimed, "With enough butter, anything is good!" She's my hero!

        Leta

July 25--Left Me Wondering

Water on road when raining.  --Road sign in Missouri

    I kid you not. Driving home from my awesome vacation, on I70 West in Missouri, I saw a caution sign that says that. I called my niece to have her text the words to me so that I would not forget. 

    Is this a sign of our failed public education system? Are Missourians that dense? Or do they think any "foreigners" driving through Missouri are that dumb? 

    I'm trying here... the sign was in an area where there was construction. Maybe the rain water pools up in places and creates a hazard. "Caution: pooled water in heavy rain" might have been a better warning. I wonder about the person(s) who created that sign. Why didn't they add "DUH!" at the bottom? 

    At least it kept my brain occupied on the long drive home!

        Leta

Very large red ants, part of the 
Glass in Flight 2 exhibit at Botanica

July 24--I'm Back, More or Less

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.  --Neale Donald Walsh

    I have missed the blog. I get ideas for it, and have photos that would be just right for it, oh, but wait, I'm not doing that now. Photos taken yesterday at Botanica, Wichita's magnificent botanical gardens, pushed me "over the edge." I went to see the "Glass in Flight 2" exhibit--an assortment of beautiful metal and glass sculptures.

    I stopped writing because someone angrily misinterpreted something I wrote, and let me know about it. I guess if you read this blog just to find something to piss you off, well, there's no such thing as bad publicity?!?

    I had a delightful July trip to Ohio and Ocean City, Maryland, where I enjoyed time with my niece and we played many, many games of Rummikub. I am still regaining my strength and balance, and while I am mostly pain-free, I am still not back to 100%. I've learned that the last 10% is stamina, and that seems to be the most elusive. I am continuing twice-weekly PT, now focusing more on my right arm/shoulder. I am weary of it all, I want my life back NOW! I'm slowly getting back to pickleball. I am also beginning a new painting, a 24"x36" giant which is my biggest so far. Creative painting thoughts keep my mind headed in a positive direction. 

    More to come,

        Leta

One of the many metal & glass sculptures
at Botanica