November 4, 2024

I am Okay… but I could be better! I could be so much better than I have ever been. For example, my husband standing at the altar minutes before we had gotten married, probably had thought I was okay as I walked down the aisle toward him. As a matter of fact, I imagine he had thought I was more than okay maybe even perfect! That is what love does to a guy! I was far from perfect, but I loved him and thought he had been perfect too as I reached his side in front of God, the preacher, our families and invited guests. It had been really big deal back then with less than one hundred people in the sanctuary. It had been, at that time, the best day of my life so far. Even though minutes before I had had tears rolling down my cheeks. Wow! A big deal indeed! We were going to say the vows connecting us for better or worse for the rest of our lives. So, my groom waited, and his bride cried. It WAS a big deal, and happily ever after seemed years away. Almost half a century later we were living our truly happily ever after lives as my husband took his last breath, and in an instant, he was gone. During our marriage we had become better versions of ourselves, because we had loved, appreciated and had been grateful for each other on a daily basis over and over again. That is what love, and marriage does when you do it right.

Now, it has been three years and six months since he changed venues, and I became a widow. My husband had been my soulmate, and the love of my life. I never cried after he died because I was and am so grateful for all the years, we had to love each other and to share our love with our only child… A son, who has grown into being a wonderful 47-year-old man! I say thank you over and over again! He has expanded the family to include his wonderful wife, our daughter we never had, of 22 years and his two wonderful sons our grandsons. My gratitude keeps growing!

Now, I am again a better person than I have ever been, and every day is the best day of my life so far! I am far from okay, I am rather super dooper, great and terrific! I am happy 24/7 no matter what the circumstances, because my life is full of appreciation and gratitude! MY four words are: God, love, appreciation and gratitude! My life is a gift that keeps on giving. My wonderful memories, make it possible to be more than okay. Those memories allow me to make new wonderful memories every day, that will bring even more joy to me in my old age. Wait a minute. I am 76 years old… shall we define old age? I love being old, because I know I am living my future. I know my life is a gift that keeps on giving! I say thank you! I say wow!

It is November 4th. Please vote tomorrow if you haven’t voted yet, and please be grateful everyday… don’t wait for the 28th. Be grateful always.

I am Sending my love and appreciation to all of you! Smile because you ARE happy, and your world will smile back!

Granny-o

!

M

February 19, 2024

Today is the last day I will be 75. What a wonderful year it was. What a wonderful life I have had! I love being old, so 76 is another blessing to me. Every day is the best day of my life so far! Wow! God brings His love and His magic into my life with the beginning of every new day, and I say thank you God. God, thank you so much!

What gift could I possibly give to God? I cannot give God a necktie! My gift back to God for all He has done for me, is my happiness! Wow, God brings His love and His magic into the beginning of my every new day, and I say thank you. I say thank you very much! I am happy every hour of every day…day in and day out. That is because my happiness is in my heart not in the circumstances of my life. Circumstances, good and bad, come and go… but my happiness is continual and never ends. My spirit cannot be touched or affected by any circumstances. The physical and spiritual are two separate parts of me. Look inside of yourself and find your own happiness. Find what is truly God’s gift to you! Give him the greatest gift you can give to him…BE HAPPY!

Have a most wonderful day! I appreciate you, and that you have read my blog today. Thank you!

Love to you all!

Granny-o

December 21, 2023

  Why did I wait, you ask? Here is how it played out. I always send my Christmas cards at the very last minute. It is not a procrastination problem, it is because I want the people who I send them to, to be surprised. They will not be surprised I sent them cards, but after someone thinks they have received the last card for the year, I want to surprise that person with just one more.

   One more card before the post-Christmas bills start arriving. One more before IRS enters your mailbox. One more when someone thinks, no more cards and starts to get sad…then there IS one more. They will smile, and slowly open the last card. My family and friends would have forgotten they had not gotten one me after it gets to be past the middle of December. I will never take any of my most important people for granted, or anyone for granted as a matter. The cards I send originate in my heart before I put them in the mail. The other thing is I have to address the cards and write what I write on them, which is usually quite a bit, at the time of mailing. I do not mass produce the love I have for friends and family, so I have to wait until the right time and do it all.

  This year circumstances got in the way. On last Sunday, December 17th while at church, I had a medical emergency and ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance. That wasn’t my plan, of course I am bad at planning. I am really good at living, but planning usually falls short of the mark. So, at 3:15 AM on Tuesday December 19th as they are taking my blood pressure on one arm, I was holding a pen in my other hand, which was lying on a number of cards. I don’t send many cards because a lot of people who have been near and dear to me during my long life have died. I did not have my address book, and all of a sudden, my mind went blank. I could not remember the other names of people who are near and dear to me. So, I wrote my return address on the envelopes, and wrote Merry Merry Christmas on each of the cards below the printed greeting. Then I drew a Christmas tree next to where I would put my name.

  Yesterday on December 20th when my daughter-in-law came to the hospital to take me home, she had my address book. She addressed the envelopes while I read the names and addresses off to her. Some of the cards, I had already written out on the inside. Those completed, we mailed on the way home. Some I had to do when I got home. When I did get home at about 1:30 PM yesterday, I finished writing my greetings and Melissa mailed them as she and Tom headed off to the mall with my two grandsons. Whew, that was close! Today, Thursday I finished writing a few local cards and put them out in the mailbox for Eli, our mailman to take to the post office, it was on his way after all, and I wanted to give him a card and money in appreciation for him being so good at his job! Whew! It was close! Next year, God willing, I will get my cards mailed on time again! No matter what the circumstances are, but I will always try to be the last card.

  I want to wish you all, every one of you, a merry Christmas and all the other joy of the season! Have the best of new years, and if you ever want to write to me, my address is:

            Granny-o

           16 Sherman Circle

           Somerset, New Jersey 08873

No pressure, but I would like to get to know you better.

I love you. I love you all!

Granny-o

December 8, 2023 Friday

Birds sing. They cannot help themselves; it is part of their DNA. When you hear the smallest of birds singing in the morning hours, you hear it speaking of the glory of God. Follow the sound of its music with your eyes, and you will see the little warbler perched on the highest branch of a nearby tree singing his heart out! That little bird is not afraid, so vulnerable and yet not afraid. It sings as if there will not be a tomorrow. God, somewhere out there, and you at the bottom of the tree can both hear the little bird.

The crazy thing here, is why does a tiny bird wake up in the morning singing his praises to God, and people with the power or speech do not? If I got a megaphone out and went to a place in the middle of town speaking of my gratitude and my love of God and the love of the life I have, people would put their hands over their ears, shake their heads and move to the other side of the street. If I spoke out loud about rainbows and farms. If I spoke about clouds and the love that lives in my heart for people in my life, people would be getting as far away from me as possible.

Love takes away the fear. Love makes it safe and wonderful, why isn’t it spoken? What is the problem? What is the disconnect? Love is an emotionally charged word. Love is what it is all about, and yet we are silenced as we walk down the street. The little bird knows about love. and it sings. The newborn baby knows it, and he cries. The poorest, most vulnerable and the sickest among us know it, and they suffer for it. Love is everything! Love is the greatest appreciation, and the greatest gratitude you could ever have. Love is the WOW of everything! Love is my constant companion. I am so blessed to be living in God’s world, where miracles are the rule… not the exception. Is it possible that happiness and love are connected? I believe it with all my heart. What do you believe? What makes you happy? Wow! Think about that, what makes you happy?

Have a most marvelous day! Get outside if possible, and listen to the little bird as he sings his heart out.

Love from me to all of you!

Granny-o

December 7, 2023 Thursday

Stupendous. Maybe when I die, stupendous will become my new favorite word. Is stupendous greater than wow? I think so. Wow is like a spontaneous exhaling of incredible internal joy. It is quick like a sneeze. Wow is snappy and fast. Stupendous is more like a wow with thought. Really having time to take it all in, and then with incredible insight and appreciation (deep Breath) stupendous becomes your word of choice.

I think in Heaven wow would be too shallow. Wow works for me in the here and now. Every day everything is new all over again. Because every day I appreciate everything in my life more. Life is a gift wrapped up with a ribbon waiting for my cartoon eyes to open it. Wow! Is that for me kind of thing. (deep breath) Rainbows, waterfalls and sunsets are all new every time I see them. Even everything in my everyday world is a wow for me. Did you see that? Wow! Wow! Wow! When I think of Heaven, it is beyond wow. It is deeper than wow. It is… stupendous, or at least that is how I picture Heaven to be. Stupendous! Everything perfect, everyone loved and everyone happy. (deep breath) How else could Heaven possibly be described?

Stupendous is extreme gratitude and appreciation for something incredible. Love makes living wonderful… one wow moment at a time. Loving makes Heaven possible. Heaven is love. Stupendous… what else can I possibly say? Oh of course Thank you! I leave my love and my wow to you. It will be stupendous for me when I get to Heaven. On your death bed give away your wow too. I will be waiting for you. I know I left my love, and my wow to you, but as soon as I gave mine to you, I was showered with more love than you could ever imagine as I walked through the pearly gates. (deep breath) Stupendous! Joy! Perfect! Thank you!

It is 6:37 AM, and I am again so in the God Zone this morning! I am so excited as I sit here at my desk trying to remember to breathe. I am still among the living, and I must breathe. My world as I know it is a very big wow! Are you able to say wow as you wake up? Do your cartoon eyes sparkle as they look around at everything and with great appreciation and gratitude? Sometimes this world is so great, I think I have died and gone to Heaven, and yet, I still have wow as my favorite word… it is still working for me. I know Heaven can wait, because I still have so much to learn. When God is ready, I am ready to go, but for now, I will live my life with God, Love, Appreciation and Gratitude because living in God’s world of miracles is a Big Wow!

Have a wonderful wonderful day! Thank you for reading my blog.

Sending my love to you all!

Granny-o

December 3, 2023 Sunday

Wait control. Wait control is the most important factor in weight control. Tomorrow, you will not even remember what you had eaten today. You might want to say satisfaction from the ingestion of food, is temporary at best. Mostly if you have a wait problem you have a weight problem. Before you even put your eating utensil down on your plate or into your bowl, you are already craving another bite. How much do you even enjoy the food you put into your mouth before you gulp it down? Do you savor the taste, chew the texture, and move the food around in your mouth before you swallow it? How many times do you choose to really chew each bite?

This is the third of December, and food is going to be in your face more than ever during the holidays. It is part of the tradition humans have for celebrations; Eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow never comes. Wrong! God willing tomorrow will come. Then you will step on the scale and become sad when the digital numbers are trying to convince you, you ate too much yesterday. Maybe scales lie, but too tight clothes are pretty much truthful. You want to scream! It wasn’t your fault; everything tasted so good! Then again, it was not your fault, you opened the refrigerator door after you had slid your scale out of sight. You obviously did not have any wait control as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes this morning. What is really important to you, your size at the store or the food you eat? What matters to you, and why does it matter?

During my lifetime, I have been many different weights. I find it is no use beating yourself up because you do not have wait control. What weight is the perfect weight for you? Only you will know, and even you will not know until you reach the perfect weight, and then you will know what to eat to maintain your perfect weight. For instance, when I was in 6th grade, I weighed 120 pounds. When I got married, I weighed 139 pounds. In my ninth month of pregnancy, I weighed 180 pounds. When my husband died, I weighed 125 pounds. Two years later I now weigh 105 pounds. These are just examples, of my weight fluctuating up and down during the years of my life. I have decided my perfect weight is 105. I love being thin! I am 5feet 8 and 3/4 inches tall, I had the nurse measure my height a couple of years ago… I used to be 5 feet and 10 inches tall, I wear size 4 long Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and wanted to buy size 2 tall, but they don’t sell them. I guess I am too tall to wear size two! I am finally where I want to be. I want to eat to be healthy, but I want wait control so I can stay at 105… my perfect weight according to my way of thinking. I like being tall and thin! I also do not dye my hair, because I love having shiny short silver colored hair.

It is interesting, that I even remember my weights for certain times of my life. Until you figure out your perfect weight, by experiencing what it feels like, you will be like everyone else, with your weight. Up and down. Wait control or no control your choice. Be careful of elbow action during the next few weeks. You do not have to eat more, if you weigh your options before you go for the next spoonful of ice cream or your next forkful of mashed potatoes.

Here are some ideas to help you with wait control so you can get started if you want to lose weight or maintain your current weight during all of your celebrating:

#1 Cut out all snacking. You might not be able to or want to cut all your snacking out at one time. Take it one bite at a time. Cut out one of your least favorites first. Okay, keep the ice cream cancel the cheese doodles. The other thing to be aware of is when you were snacking, you always pick the thing you most want first. So, let’s say you get home from work, and you have a craving for a chocolate chip cookie. Or maybe you don’t work, and it is midmorning, and you are discontented or bored, so you reach for a chocolate chip cookie. You are not hungry, but they taste so good! After having one, and that does not satisfy you, you have another, and another, and another. What do they say about Lays Potato Chips… you can’t eat just one. That is usually the same with chocolate chip cookies or anything else you are craving. Okay, you are not a dumb person, so after knowing chocolate chip cookies are not doing the trick, why do you raid the refrigerator for your second choice. Maybe ice cream, yeah…ice cream is what will solve your need to eat. Wrong again. If your first choice did not work, why would your second-choice work? It won’t. But you are relentless, there is a third and a fourth choice. Guess what? You are determined to find happiness in your mouth. Alas, not today. So, what do you do? You go back and have another chocolate chip cookie, because that is what you really wanted in the first place. Okay, then finally you stop eating, but you are feeling guilty because you just stuffed your face with food. Overweight people eat very fast. Bite, chew, swallow, bite chew swallow. Fat people do not even take time to taste… just bite, chew, swallow. It is a vicious cycle. Food is supposed to be nourishment, not exercise for your elbow. So, number one is to quit the snacking by eliminating one of your least favorites and then the next and then the next. Don’t beat yourself up. It took a long time for you to get to the weight you are now. Give yourself time to get to the weight you want to be. Remember, you are not going to know your personal ideal weight until you experience your ideal perfect weight. Don’t give up on getting to it.

#2 Give up caffeine. Stop with the coffee and soda. Stop with anything that has caffeine in it. Again, this does not have to be cold turkey, but you have to want to change. Drink less caffeine, and pretty soon it will not be a craving, and you will not miss it. I went on a cruise once, and it was going to cost us an extra $200.00 for the week if we wanted to have unlimited soda. That was not going to happen. For one week we drank water and not soda. That was many many years ago and I have had almost no soda since. I drink water. I also gave up drinking coffee, because I spent a lot of money for new teeth and did not want to stain them. They are still beautiful, and I do not need or want to drink coffee anymore.

#3 Eat three meals a day. Normal meals, but do not pig out. The secret is to slow down. Stop eating so fast. Eat real food that you like… the kind your mother used to put on your plate when you were a child. Go back to the basics. By the way desserts are yummy, but you do not have to have dessert every night. Maybe once a week, in small portions. The day after you have a piece of cake you will not remember whether you had one small piece or one huge piece, so why not go for small. The day after it won’t matter. Remember to slow down! Enjoy your food. Taste each bite before you swallow it. Put your fork or spoon down after you have taken a bite. Eating is not supposed to be a race to see who can come in first. In the morning I have one small bowl of cereal. I do this most every day. I love the Cranberry Great Grains cereal. I put half a sliced banana and a handful of blueberries, strawberries or cranberries into my bowl. Then I pour in the cereal and finally the milk. Now get this, it takes me between an hour and a half and two hours to finish eating what is in the bowl. I am retired and have the time. Everybody is going to school or work, so I am usually writing or reading or watching U-tube shorts while I eat. Talk about eating slowly. Maybe I am taking it to a new level, but as long as you can put down your spoon or fork while you are chewing you will do all right.

#4 Stop getting fast food. None of it is good for you, and everything fast food is very high in calories, and also too expensive. When I was little, I could buy a McDonald’s burger for a quarter. The fast-food joints are now required to tell you caloric content of the items on their menus just in case you did not know. The only thing on the plus side for fast food, is it is fast. That is not so much of a plus because after you buy fast food from a drive-in window, you gobble it down like you have never eaten before and you will never eat again as you drive away. SLOW DOWN!

#5 The last suggestion I have, is cut down on portion size. It is okay to sometimes have a chocolate chip cookie, but it is never okay to have ten, or six or five. One is enough if you eat it slowly. If you eat it because you like the taste not because you are hungry, you can have a chocolate cookie. If you are hungry, go for the healthy stuff. Again… smaller portions.

A woman I know, who is in her early sixties has been trying to lose weight for a long time. She even had the operation to reduce the size of her stomach a number of years ago. Still, no long-term success. She might lose a few pounds, and then sure enough it comes right back on. She has tried everything. One day when she was losing all hope, she told me she had been fat her entire adult life. If she looks in a mirror she sees fat, and has always seen fat, it will be hard to see anyone other than a fat person looking back. Sometimes there is a reason for being fat, and you might need a nutritionist or a doctor to help you get beyond your own self-image. There is no silver bullet for changing your self- image. It takes time, desire and effort. No matter what, there is always hope. Never give up!

Have a wonderful afternoon! It is raining in my neighborhood. Rain is part of the equation for things in God’s world to stay alive. Let it be. stay warm and cozy in the place you call home. Take the time to reconnect with those you love, either in person or on the phone. Read a book, check out a crossword puzzle or even play Monopoly if you happen to live with a 15-year-old boy. It is your choice how you want your day to play out. Make yours a good one. Make it a very very good one!

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I appreciate you so much!

Love,

Granny-o

December 2, 2023 Saturday

The present. Oh boy! I so want to get everyone the perfect present! The pressure is on. What oh what will I get for the most important people in my life for their present? Three things are making it more difficult. Number one, I don’t drive anymore. Number two, what gift will be the gift of gifts that will tell my favorite people how much I love them and number three how much money will I spend? Deep breath. It will all come together, and after all there is the internet. I will just Google it.

I have been celebrating Christmas for three quarters of a century. You would think, this present thing would be getting easier. You would think that would be true, but it isn’t. How do you say I love you? Instead of feeling in the usual zone of happiness as I sit at my desk at 4:48 AM, I am feeling a bit stressed, which is putting my happiness on the back burner. What is wrong with this picture? Why is my happiness for life, and my gratitude for life, being put on the back burner?

What is the real meaning of Christmas anyway? Do we celebrate the love we have for each other by decorating, and cooking, is that what Christmas is all about? Someone buys and someone gets. Is that it? Is that all there is to this once-a-year day? I thought Christmas was the appreciation of God for Jesus’s birth. A day when God came to Earth as a human to teach everyone about love. To teach everyone about God! When did Christmas become a shopping spree?

I am glad I am not young anymore because it takes too much energy to keep running in circles. Now, sometimes it feels good to just sit and think about all the things I have to be grateful for. To think about the things that are really important to me. How do you wrap up love? How do you wrap up appreciation? How do you wrap up gratitude, and hardest of all, how do you wrap up God? I am sitting and thinking. I do not know how to put bows on those four things, but all of a sudden, I am starting to feel my lips smiling. That is, it! Christmas cannot make its way into anyone’s heart by buying, buying and more buying!

It is now 10:48 AM. I had to have time off to think this thing through. You can’t buy happiness, you can’t buy love, you cannot buy anything of great importance! Wait a minute, THAT IS IT! Don’t the people you love know that you love them every day? Don’t they know by your actions and your words that these wonderful people mean the world to you? Every time one of them walks into the room where you are, don’t they see you smiling? Don’t you tell them over and over again during the year how much you love them, and appreciate them? Do they need a gift under the tree on December 25th. Do they need to open a card and see money fall to the floor after Santa has eaten the cookie and has finished the milk? What is the story here?

Now that I am really old, the only present I would like to have is love! Love that comes from the heart. Something I can treasure forever, because it came from your heart. Other gifts I have received, with return it if you don’t like it receipts, have long been forgotten. When or where or from whom they came are sometimes a confusion to me. Now, when I look at the tree and the decorations they are pleasing to my eyes, but my real value of Christmas is the gift we were all given so long ago. The gift of Jesus. Jesus, the gift of a lifetime and for all of eternity. I say wow and I say thank you! I say Happy day of your birth Dear Lord! I am glad for all you were, all you are, and all you will come to be for ever and ever. Thank you. I am grateful for your love, your power and your grace! I am grateful for my life, all of your miracles and for all the people you have put in my life as I journey back to the light.

One more thing, the greatest present God ever gave to all of us is TODAY! Why do you think we call today THE PRESENT? It is a present that can be unwrapped day after day, and the gift that is always in style. God’s gift is LOVE!

Today is the second day on the Advent calendar. Countdown to Christmas has begun. Keep the faith, keep your peace, and be grateful for all the wonderful people and things in your life that come from the heart not from the store.

Love to every one of you… today and always! Granny-o

PS… It is now 11:23 AM. Have a wonderful wonderful day!

December 1, 2023

I’m moving. I’m moving, and I am so excited. It is only 7:13 AM and I am already excited about being awake, and wow… I am moving! What a wonderful day!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not changing addresses. No moving van will be necessary. I love my home and the changes of seasons. I love the people I live with very much, so, with extreme gratitude, I am staying put.

When I say, “I’m moving, I mean my body is moving. My fingers are moving, my eyelids are moving, my arms are moving, my head is moving and to get to this chair at my rolltop desk, my legs had to move, my feet and knees had to move. Even when I think I am perfectly stationary, my face is moving because I keep smiling. My cheeks go up as the corners of my mouth go up, and because of my cheeks going up my ears wriggle a bit. I might not be able to see my ears move, but I can feel them moving. Feeling my ears moving, makes me laugh.

I just love the fact that I am moving! It is like all my physical parts are awake and ready to move my spirit to wherever it wants to be. My body needs my spirit, and my spirit needs my body. Of course, when I change venues, my body will not be needed anymore, but for this moment in time it is very helpful to have a body. I say thank you! I say wow!

I find myself praying all day long. It is not the get down on your knees kind of praying it is GRATITUDE! It is HAPPINESS! It is the joy of my CARTOON EYES being popped open in amazement. Always alert, always rubbernecking to see what I have seen before, that I can see again for the first time. What a gift! What magic my life is! I say WOW! I say THANK YOU, as I give God the credit for a job well done… over and over again! Wow! I was one of God’s visions, and I love the me He created me to be. I am still sitting here at 7:32 AM. Still being wowed by the fact that I am moving! By the way, have I mentioned I am 75 years old, and I love being old!

Are you moving today? Are you excited? Are you filled with gratitude because you have been created to be a perfect you, with moving parts? Enjoy your day! Once again make it the best day of your life so far! Get excited, and for goodness sakes… KEEP MOVING!

Sending my love to you wherever you might be. Thanks for sharing some time with me this morning! I am forever grateful!

Granny-o

November 29, 2023 Wednesday

Inner peace. Where do you go to look for your inner peace? That is a trick question, right? Inner peace is inside of you that is why they call it inner peace. It always has been and always will be there. You don’t find it. You discover it! Look into your heart, your very soul and you will see your own magic and the answers you are looking for.

I have experienced inner peace for a very long time. Even though it has always been there inside of me, it was not something I could understand right away. In the first place, I had to believe it was there. To believe there was more to me than all my physical parts. I had a soul deep inside my heart, a soul that was invisible. No surgeons ever came in contact with a soul, no science teacher ever put a soul in a sealed jar to show to his students, no doctor of cadavers ever saw a soul as he dissected a body that used to house a soul. The soul had escaped long before any autopsy had ever happened. A soul has no physical proof, that can be detected by the five senses. My physical parts are very important, because with their combined effort I have mobility, thanks to God, good health and a long life. Because of physical mobility I have been able to experience the miracles of God on a daily basis as I move around, but there is more than blood and guts…so much more! Now I know, and I therefore have inner peace! I am so blessed with every day that has been afforded to me in this very long life of 75 years since I was born. Wow!

Inner peace is knowing you were created to be all you are, and to have more than you will ever need to be happy and successful in your life. You were born having all the tools you will ever need to reach your total potential. How great is that? However, you must know your God given talents are the gifts you already have. In the beginning, even before you could talk, you knew who you were and what your gifts were. Then you started to walk and all of a sudden, your knowledge was compromised, as you changed into being a mobile one year old. The word you heard most often was “NO” You couldn’t talk much yet, but your actions were controlled so you would be able to learn the ways of the world. You knew about God and Heaven, because you were Heaven sent. However, you were unable to share your knowledge, because you were unable to verbalize your thoughts yet. By the time you were two, you had forgotten so much. So then, you were on a journey of a lifetime to rediscover who you really were.

In youth, especially during your teenage years, there were a lot of conflicting thoughts. You didn’t know who you were, but you knew you were so much more. So far you were a combination of what other people wanted you to be, and a combination of how they wanted you to act, but you had no idea who you really were. There was no inner peace for you at that time of your life. You might have been angry or mad. You might have been sad, but for sure on some level you were confused. Your parents and relatives might have said they loved you, but you did not even know yet who you were, how could they love you when you were so far only a reflection of who they were. You were without your own identity. You were in deep water and did not yet know how to swim. You were drowning in your own immaturity.

In your twenties, you tried to figure out your identity, to find inner peace. No one had told you, that you could not find inner peace, you had to discover it. Inner peace was not something you could get out of the world around you, no matter how much money you had. But no one told you that, so you kept buying. No peace there. Where oh where could the inner peace be found, to make a long story short, there is no formula for inner peace, other than the only place you will discover it, is inside of yourself. You might never discover it, or maybe it will take you a long time. You are a totally unique individual, and you have to figure you out for yourself. But I will encourage you by telling you, once you discover your peace, the whole world will change for you! You will be beyond joy and happiness, and you will easily be able to enjoy the life you have been given. It is all a gift. It is so worth being on this personal journey of yours. If you are diligent and determined to discover who you are and who you were meant to be, all the pieces will eventually fall into place, and then day by day your life will become a wonderful experience for you. You will know what to do and will want to do what it takes to be happy and successful! Don’t be sad! Be glad.

Then when you are as old as I am, or older, you too will be able to say this is the best day of my life so far. It gets better and better as you get older and older! Someone who was even older than I am, told me, “Never give up”! I will say too always be ready to die, but at the same time always be ready to live! Never give up! Make every day the best day of your life so far!

Love to one and all!

Granny-o

November 28, 2023 Tuesday

All you need is… all you need is four words! With these four words you too can have the most marvelous life, the most marvelous year, the most marvelous month, the most marvelous week, the most marvelous day, the most marvelous hour and even the most marvelous moment right here and right now. Are you getting excited? You should be. Just in case you are not excited yet, the other thing to know is that all four things are absolutely free! Wow!

Okay, now that I have got your attention, here they are the four words you want to know… GOD, LOVE, APPRECIATION and GRATITUDE! These four words are the whole ball of wax. GOD, LOVE, APPRECIATION and GRATITUDE! If they are part of your vocabulary, and live in your heart, you will be able to find happiness around every corner. Your life will be incredible, and if you live to be old, like I am, you will find that every day is the best day of your life so far moving forward. Are you excited yet? You should be. It is not always easy, life, but the formula for having a great life is in these four words.

God. God is the architect of your life. He has created you and has made each of His creations a unique blueprint of His design. Yes, sex was involved, but being as I am a mother, I can tell you for a fact I knew nothing about making fingers or toes. I created a safe environment for this new creation to develop in, but otherwise I was not the reason for the miraculous things that were happening inside of me for nine months. The baby, the baby… a gift from God. I am not going to preach here, but many people do benefit from having God as part of their lives. People who do not know God can also be happy, but not as happy as when God is a reality for them. It is like a horse pulling a cart while having blinders on, he will eventually get to where he has to be, but without peripheral vision the horse is missing the magic of his journey. His only concern is the destination. The rest of life goes by unnoticed. Having God in your life is like taking the blinders off. Can you even imagine the amazement you would have, seeing all that you had never seen before. It would be like turning on the light in a very dark room, all of a sudden everything would become visible. You would be able to see the invisible! But like I said, I am not preaching.

Old age, I am 75, and it works for me. I love being old, because after living for so long everything from my past now makes sense. I am amazingly overwhelmed by pretty much everything. Why? Because everything is a gift! Wow is my favorite word, because I just cannot get over the world I live in. One miracle after another… everyday a new moment to experience life! WoW! I believe, I was created by God to give legs to one small piece of His vision. I believe, I was given certain abilities or talents when I was born so I could live a wonderful life, and at the same time be able to help God complete His masterpiece. Everyone, whether you believe in God or do not believe in God, was created by God. We are all here for a purpose. So, God is the number one thing.

LOVE. Once born into this world, love has to be your guide. Starting with your parents and family, and then growing more and more each day throughout your entire life. Love is the center of everything. Love is the engine of your heart. Just the way God is love, love lives in your heart, and with every beat love is circulated from one end of your body to the other. You are love. I am love. We are all love. In life, it is our responsibility to share God’s love with everyone we meet on our journey. God loves all his creations. We must try to extend God’s love wherever we might be.

Appreciation is knowing that everyone and everything in your life is a gift. A gift given to you out of love. If you are able to create a life for yourself, that brings you satisfaction, it is because of the gifts you were given by God when you were born. You honed your God given gifts, but how would you have accomplished anything without all that you have? The reason you can and the reason you are is God. It is all a gift!

Gratitude is the thankfulness for all the things and people in your life. Have you said thank you to your thumb today? Wouldn’t life be more difficult without a thumb? Just think, you have two! Wow how blessed you are. Gratitude means saying thank you as often as you can. Why? because everything is a gift! We might not be worthy of everything we have, but because of love we are blessed with everything we have. Say thank you. If you say it often enough, wow may become your favorite word too.

Remember the four words: GOD, LOVE, APPRECIATION and GRATITUDE and even if you sometime during this ever-changing world you find yourself in deep water, keep the faith. Your four words will keep you afloat. I have lived long enough to know, that everything will sooner or later work out. Maybe not in the way you planned, but you are not the planner. You are the recipient of more than you could possibly ever imagine or could have ever planned on yourself. Enjoy!

Have a most wonderful wonderful day!

Love to you all!

Granny-o