Granny-O Speaks

January 22, 20222

Do you…? Do you love yourself? Or are your opinions of yourself determined by those around you? Opinions have a strong influence on what we think about ourselves because we do not live in a vacuum. However, when you put your head on your pillow at night… do you love yourself? In the darkness of your room in the silence of the night, what are you thinking? The way you think about yourself will greatly determine how you view the people in your life. If you are not loved by yourself, it is very hard for you to love someone else. It is also very hard for you to accept the love of another person if you do not love yourself. Loving yourself does not mean you always love everything you do. Sometimes you do things right, and sometimes you do things wrong. Afterall, you are human as we are all human. Being human does not mean you are perfect. Sometimes you do things right, and sometimes you do things wrong. Your actions should not determine your own self value. Your actions are better when you do applaud your own existence. For example, do you judge what you can do with your hands by acknowledging what you can do with your feet? No. Feet and hands have their own identity, their own value and their own purpose. My actions may be faulty sometimes, but my actions should not determine my own self-worth. Actually, if you think about it, yourself- worth often majorly influence your actions. To be a better you, start appreciating who you are. When I was a child, it was called finding yourself. Who are you? in the beginning it was hard to know who you were. Children seemed to think what other people have, and what other people have is always better than what they have themselves. So, finding out who you were was difficult in the beginning. Maybe I wanted to be someone else. Maybe someone wanted to be me. I never thought about that. Now I find I am very happy being me and am even happier when other people like being who they are. No one was ever meant to be a clone. Everyone was meant to be who they were meant to be. Get to know yourself. You are a miracle. A creation of God. God is perfection and therefore you are perfectly made. Treat yourself with love and respect and you will treat those in your world with love and respect. If you make a mistake, and you will sometimes, fix it. Try to do better next time. But love yourself always. Loving yourself will make you a more loving person to the other people in your world. You will find happiness when you find yourself. Have a glorious, marvelous day. Every day is a gift.

Granny-o

January 20, 2022

Be on call. Be on call to be ready and enthusiastically on board to make this the best day possible. It is 4:26 AM and I am ready and enthusiastically on board. Are you? Appreciation is a twenty-four hour a day opportunity for a day to be great. Any hour be on call. Be ready for anything and everything. Be glad when you are well. It is hard to be revved up when you are sick. You are not sick today. Three cheers. You already have something to celebrate. Just knowing I am well already has my heart jumping out of my chest. It is all about appreciation. Usually, people do not even notice when they are well. People surely grumble when they are sick. Wow. I am well. Wow I am well. Wow I am well. How great is that? Thank you, God. I will be on call today. I will be ready to make the world a better place by my words and with my actions. Rah. Rah. Ray. Ray…I am ready for another day. It takes some people a long time to fully wake up. Not me. I am awake as soon as my eyes pop open. Of course, at the end of my day it is very easy for me to fall asleep. When it is again 4:26: AM or whatever time I wake up, I am ready to go. I am always on call. I believe I was put on this earth to bring more happiness and joy into the world. There is always room for more joy and happiness. My appreciation and gratitude make me a prime candidate for this job. My compensation is my happiness is greater when I see more happy people. Wow. Let us all be happy. What did my husband of 48 years say when he was dying last April? He said, “Afterall what can be better than Heaven?” Nothing, but, while we are here among the living our lives can be incredibly good, if we choose them to be. I have had occasions to be extremely sad, and I have many many many more occasions to be extremely happy. Happy is so much better. Life is short. The older I get the shorter it becomes. I met a young man who was working at physical therapy last week. He had been one of the people who had helped me before, but last week I asked him his name. His name is Johnny. What a breath of spring air Johnny is. He is young maybe in his late twenties, but he is so happy and so enthusiastic and so helpful he seems like he could be so much older because he is so selfless and so competent. Maybe Johnny is in love. I don’t know why he has so much happiness and enthusiasm. He is always on call whenever I see him. Maybe he has a great appreciation for his life and is grateful to have it. I will have to mention to him what a breath of fresh air he is to me if I see him next time. We should all be on call. Life is a gift. The giver of gifts likes to see His gifts being appreciated. Thank you G0d. I cannot thank you enough. I am on call again today. Use me in any way You choose to bring more joy and happiness into Your world.

Granny-o

January 18, 2022

So close. So close to what? So close to saying I love you. What stopped you from saying it? So close to complimenting your husband or wife for being so wonderful? What happened? Why didn’t you say it? What held you back? So close, doesn’t count in the long run unless you are playing horseshoes. But, I was so close. But what? There are always excuses when you do not reach your anticipated goal. Get over yourself. Stop making excuses for what you didn’t do. Do what you do, and do not make excuses for what you didn’t do. So close is not acceptable. If something is important to you or to someone you love, then make it happen. He almost made it to the hospital to see his son born, but there was traffic. He almost made it. He was so close. It doesn’t matter, he was not there. Always remember, so close does not matter unless you are playing horseshoes. Stop with the excuses. We all have choices to make in life. The choices we make will be better choices if we put a priority on them to be accomplished. She was going to get her mother a card for her birthday that was today, but she had to work late and by the time she got to the store it was closed. She missed getting into the store by five minutes. She was so close. So close doesn’t matter when a daughter does not have a card for her mother for her birthday. Mom doesn’t want to hear excuses, but she loves her daughter and lets it slide, as a tear dampens her cheek. So close does not stop her mom’s heart from being disappointed. Her daughter should have gotten her mother’s card before the last moment. She should have made it a priority. She didn’t, so she had to come up with an excuse as to why she was unable to get a card that would have meant so much to her mother. So close is not good enough. The mother’s daughter blew it. There could be no acceptable excuse. In life what we make happen will be a better memory than an I should have, could have, but I didn’t memory. Every time “but” shows up in a sentence you did not make something happen. But is a short word that always means there is an excuse for why something did happen, or why something did not happen. I would have handed in my homework, but my dog ate it. That wasn’t even an original excuse. Dogs have been eating homework since the invention of paper. You didn’t hand in your homework because you did not make it a priority, and you didn’t do it. Now you have to pay the consequences. You were so close to getting an A. It doesn’t matter how close you were, you did not get an A, because you messed up. In life it is best to say I tried to do the best I could. Then if you came in second it was all fine and good. If you did not give it your all and fell short of the mark, then close was not good enough. Happy people are people who have their priorities straight, people who have all their ducks in a row. Happy people know what they have to do and do it. Happy people know what they want to do and make it happen. Happy people do not have to make excuses. Happy does not mean being perfect. Happy means not having any regrets. Happy people are not procrastinators. Happy people are doers. Happy is a choice. Make happy happen. You are so close. Don’t drop the ball now. Have a super great day. Make it happen.

Granny-o

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January 17, 2022

What is wrong? What is wrong with this picture. Today is a national holiday. The country is celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is a legal holiday. Banks, post offices and federal buildings are closed in recognition of what this black man did to make the country better for other black men. He tried to make the point that it was not the color of your skin deciding your value… it was rather your character that makes the man. Martin Luther King Jr was a peaceful man, but he was also an activist trying to change the opportunities for the black men in this country. It is a good idea to remember the good that Martin Luther King Jr did. So, what is wrong? What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong is that a lot of black people have to work on this holiday celebrating their hero. Think about it, the country would not stop if the white-collar workers took a day off, but if the black men took a holiday many things would come to a halt. So, many of the black men work today and many of the white people have the day off. How does that make sense? The white people are going to the mall, or to a movie or to a restaurant for a night out on the town. The black man is going to work. A lot of black people do not have the opportunity to have the good education which is afforded to their white counterparts. Therefore, a lot of black people have minimum paying jobs, and to make ends meet they sometimes have to have two minimum paying full time jobs. What is wrong you ask? What is wrong is that even with the help of Martin Luther King Jr and his dream things have not changed a lot in this county. This country is still very white and very black. Everything is wrong with this picture. Let the white man fill in for the black man on this day of recognition and let the black man have a day off. Let the white man see our country from the black man’s perspective. It would be a great object lesson to see how the other half lives. I am white, and it drives me crazy to see how people are treated just because they are black. Wait a minute. It drives me crazy to see how Hispanics, and Asians are treated too. If you are not white you start out at a disadvantage in this country. I am all about fair. The way non-whites are treated in the United States is not fair. Let’s try to walk in the other guy’s shoes for a bit. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is the Golden Rule. Start living it. Feel it. Feel what it would be like to be always drawing the short stick. Happiness should be for everyone no matter what the color of your skin is. Shape up everyone. Every life is a life that should not and cannot be wasted. We are all created equal in this country…or are we really? What is wrong? Think about it. Then figure out a way to fix it. If the whites and non-whites could join forces, we could create change working together. Then we could all have something to celebrate. If we could eliminate the division, we could all come together and all become happier. Maybe after we solve the white and black issue, we could tackle the republican and democratic issue. What is wrong? Figure it out.

Granny-o

Granny-o

January 16, 2022

She wanted to be… She wanted to be one of those people who work on the tarmac of airports. As a child she wanted to direct planes into their airplane parking spaces with two red barreled flashlights, one in each hand. How cool is that, for her to know what she wanted to do with her life when she was still a little girl. She is now a senior in college, and she is going to get a job doing some kind of investigative research if she can find one. What happened to the airports and the red barreled flashlights? My daughter-in-law wanted to be a nurse from the time she was four years old. She is now forty-two and she is a nurse. She is really good at being a nurse. So compassionate and so knowledgeable. She loves being a nurse. Our son wanted to work in a job where a lot of smart people would get together and find solutions for problems. He is in a job where he is working with a lot of other smart people, and they are finding solutions for problems. When I was a child, I loved being with small children. I babysat for many years. When I grew up, I became a teacher. I loved teaching, and my days just flew by when I was in the classroom. I believe that if you look back to your youngest days, you will find what your passion really is. Usually, people take their passion for granted because they are usually so good at it, they don’t even know it is their passion. When we were children, we poo pooed what we were good at. It was fun, but it was not a desire for a lifetime of work. It was just fun. Marriage is a bit like that. Why do a lot of people who are friends not fall in love and get married? Marriages are best when the couples are friends. Friendship should be appreciated as a component of a happy marriage. Do you love your husband? Do you love your wife? As you say your vows you say it is true. Does the love last? Sometimes. The question is do you like your husband? Do you like your wife? Friends like each other. Liking your spouse is appreciating who they are. Trusting them enough to tell them your most precious secrets and not fearing they will make light of them. Liking someone who you are married to, shows you like sharing your life with that person. Marriage is a mutual admiration experience, or at least it should be. Friends like each other. Start putting value in the people you like. Start remembering your passions from when you were small. If you make you happen, you will make your life happen. You were created to be one incredibly passionate loving person. Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole, by becoming something that you were not meant to be. It doesn’t have to be that difficult. She wanted to be a person at the airport with the red barreled flashlights guiding planes into their airplane parking places. What happened? Will she be passionate about something else? Who knows, but she might be trying to put a square peg into a round hole by trying to create a new passion. Passion is not created. Passion is not learned. Passion is a gift given to you when you are born. Put your passion into action and you will be happy. Put friendship into your marriage and you will be happy. Go with the flow…that is all I know. Have a perfectly wonderful day.

Granny-o

January 15, 2022

In the zone. Try to be in the zone as often as possible. Today might be your 40th birthday. I am sure many people were born on January 15th forty years ago. So, I imagine there are a lot of those people who are celebrating their existence today. Happy birthday to you all. Birthday people are in the zone. There will be cards, cakes, presents and of course balloons. Oh, let’s not forget the candles and everyone singing happy birthday to you. Wow. On your birthday you feel loved and appreciated. You are in the zone when your birthday rolls around. You certainly feel special on your birthday. As it should be, but I am here to remind you that every day is worth celebrating. Every day you should be in the zone of appreciation and gratitude. Every day is a gift, and every day is unique unto itself. Celebrate with joy and happiness that you are among the living. Celebrate with joy and happiness that you are loved. Every day you are making new memories for your future. When you look back will you think ow, or will you think wow? It is up to you what you think. Your thoughts are your reality. What will you be sharing with your family and friends when you are seventy-three? Will they be happy memories? It is up to you how you remember your life. Forty years old today? Perhaps. Perhaps you are seventy-three of forty-six or ninety-two…whatever you are celebrate it. Every age has its own advantages and its own challenges. Every age is a good thing to be. Don’t wish for the days to pass quickly because something big will be happening in your life. Time passes without your help. Whatever you are waiting for will come and go on its own accord. Stay current. Enjoy the space you are in at any particular time. Be in the zone. Open your cartoon eyes to the magic that is all around you. Today is Saturday. A time to enjoy being at home. A time to do the things you need to do, and a time to do things with family and friends that you want to do. A time to relax. A time to see again your world and your life for the first time all over again. Let today be a special day. Be in the zone. Let your face smile, your lips sing and your feet dance down the street as you experience another wonderful day. Remember problems are temporary. Being in the zone can be a regular occurrence once you get used to being there. Wow. If it is your birthday enjoy. If it is not your birthday enjoy your day as well. After all, we do all have something to celebrate…don’t we? Cheers.

Granny-o

January 14, 2022

That’s life. That’s life and you have to take it as it comes. You can plan but be ever ready to adjust to the situation if your plans do not work out. For instance, we were supposed to have the closing on our new house today. Our son did everything he had to do. The mortgage company said for him to jump, and our son said, “How high?”. He mostly did everything he had to do enthusiastically as he would say, ” No problem” over and over again. Now it turns out the closing won’t be until next Tuesday or Wednesday because of some delay on the other side. Too bad so sad, go home and eat worms. That’s Life. Our son had to cancel the delivery and pick up of the Pods that had been storing a lot of our stuff. Then he has to reschedule. The selling of this house is set for a closing on a week from Monday. Things are getting pretty tight. So what. Perhaps we will have to move that closing back too. It doesn’t matter. Everything will work out. It always does. Even if there are roadblocks eventually the problems will be solved, and everything will be accomplished. Sooner or later, we will be in our new house. In order to keep things running smoothly you have to make plans but be forewarned that sometimes life has a different plan. It is okay. Don’t sweat it. It is like if you were riding on a train, and you fell asleep and missed your stop. A bit of a bother when you realize you have to get off at the next stop and wait for a train going the other way. Not the end of the world, just a bother. What do they say about a stitch in time saves nine? It is okay. Everything works out because that’s life. It might not work out as you thought it would, but it will work out the way God knew it would. It is best to do the best you can and then watch as everything comes together. Do not let circumstances determine your happiness. Let your happiness make it possible to overcome unforeseen problems or circumstances that might occur in your day. This too shall pass. Get over yourself. You are not the center of the universe. You are not the center of anything. You just keep spinning around and try not to fall when you get dizzy. That’s life. Be happy until our paths cross again. Don’t worry about anything. Everything will be just fine and dandy…just fine and dandy.

Granny-o

January 13, 222

I wonder. I wonder what God was thinking as He was creating everything. I am not smart enough to know what God was thinking, however as I am doing a Microsoft jigsaw puzzle on the computer, I can’t get over how beautiful the pictures on the completed puzzles are. It is 1:16 AM and as I am sitting here I all of a sudden feel this incredible happiness again. It is a feeling I never get tired of. The puzzle pictures become photographs when they are completed, and it is like my cartoon eyes are again having a celebration. Wow. So of course, one thing leads to another. In my gratitude I start thinking about God again. I never get tired of thinking about God. I was thinking how overwhelmed He must have been as He looked at His own handiwork. Was God amazed by His own creations? Does God ever get blaze about being God? I wonder. I can imagine God being very happy all the time. Afterall, God is love, God is perfect, and God never makes mistakes. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess God never sleeps. If I am overwhelmed at 1:16AM He must be overwhelmed twenty-four-seven. Wow. Wow. Wow. In the silence of the night, I find my heart thinking big thoughts. I know my spirit is smiling. My spirit knows about my appreciation, gratitude and happiness. Sometimes I have all my ducks in a row. Like now, I am in the zone and my face is smiling as I get more and more excited. I am 73 years old, and I can again say what a wonderful life I have. I am saying it at 1:16 AM, so you can imagine how much more revved up I will be when the sun rises in the sky again. No wonder I don’t sleep a lot. I am wired. I am wired with total appreciation and enthusiasm pretty much all the time. I might seem quiet, but I am never bored, and never without amazement. I feel this way because it is all a gift. Life is all a gift. I wonder what other people are thinking or doing at 1:16 AM. Could it be that anyone is grumbling and anxious because they can’t get back to sleep? Could that possibly be possible. Wake up everyone. Let the sun shine in your heart. Wake up to the magic. I wonder, and I say wow. I say thank you. I think I will go and read the book I am reading for a little while. I wonder what wonderful things will happen today. Whatever happens, I know I have so much to be thankful for. Enjoy the moment. If you enjoy moments over and over again, you will have an enjoyable life. You will know over and over again what happiness is. I wonder if you are hearing me. Hear me now…believe me later. It is all good. Everything is all good.

Granny-o

January 12, 2022

Adjust. Adjust. Adjust. Life is one adjustment after another, because nothing ever stays the same. As we are living and breathing, we are always changing and growing. Even if sometimes change is difficult, annoying or just plain bad it will cause growth. Growth is a good thing. We are here as humans to learn as much as we can. So, everything we learn adds to our experience of living. We get better at doing life because we have done life longer. Things don’t usually rattle our cage as much as they did when we were young and inexperienced. We have learned everything is temporary and we have learned to adjust. Of course, it would be super great if we could also have learned to appreciate what we have when we have it. Why would that be a good idea? Because everything changes and everything is temporary. Your life’s journey takes you down the road of wow. Wow this, and wow that. Even if wow isn’t your favorite word, it doesn’t matter. Everywhere you turn there is something in your path for you to enjoy and appreciate. Everyone wants to be loved and everyone wants to be happy. I think we can all agree it is true. Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants to be happy. Adjust to your life and you will be loved, and you will be happy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you just have to keep rolling along. Since my husband has died, I have been living with my son, my daughter- in-law and my two grandsons. Our son had said, “Mom, why don’t you sell your house, we will sell our house and we can buy a bigger house and all live together. We have been living together for almost three- and one-half months. There was a period of adjustment. Me living without the love of my life, and a family of four now being a family of five. But we all made adjustments and we made it to today. Well, the day after tomorrow we are having the closing on our new house. Wow, it all came together. My son and his family could not have gotten a bigger house without my financial support, and I could not have had a second chance at happiness without their love. We have all adjusted and it seems like it is a win win situation. Of course, someone is missing in this equation, but we cannot bring him back. Even so, he will live in our hearts for ever more. Adjust. Adjust. Adjust. Or remembering a childhood song: Row row row your boat gently down the stream…merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream. We used to sing it as a round. Different groups would be singing the same words at different times. We laughed and laughed back then as we would get the words mixed up. Do not fight the current. Go with the flow…gently down the stream. Grow with me, the best is yet to be. Loved is a given. Believe it, then you will see it. Happiness is a choice…make it your choice as I have made it mine. Have a wonderful wintery day. it is 5:54AM. It is 13 degrees outside. Pretty soon the sun will be dawning chasing away the darkness as it always does. Peace, to all of you. Thank you for caring about happiness. Thank you for being here with me. Good bye.

Granny-o

January 11, 2022

Seventeen degrees. Seventeen degrees outside. Wow. At 5:33 AM it is mighty cold out there. I just got back from living in central Florida for fourteen- and one-half years. In the winter it might be seventy-five degrees and the snowbirds would be wearing shorts. The frogs, people who were going to be living in Florida until they croaked, would be bundled up with sweaters, jackets and long pants. Burr. It makes me cold just thinking about it. I like being back up north experiencing more drastic seasonal changes, but I have been reeducated about what cold means. Burr. Definitions of truth are subjective and liable to change. Yesterday, the younger of my two grandsons, thirteen, told me he would be bored if he were always happy. I told him he was wrong. Being happy all the time is a great thing. Of course, I do understand being human gets in the way of happiness sometimes. I went to physical therapy yesterday and the woman who is my physical therapist asked me how I was. I had missed a few weeks because I had KOVID and had to be quarantined. I responded to the question by saying I am great. I asked her how she was, and she said, “I’m okay. Same old same old.” Deep breath. I like this woman, and she has been helping me. So, I told her I had a Blog. She said, “You have a Blog?” Everyone is always amazed when I tell them I have a Blog. Anyway, when I told her it was about how to be happy and suggested she might want to read some of it, she said she would. I told her if she read it, her life would never be same old same old again. Wow. My grandson would be bored if he were happy all the time, and my physical therapist thought her day was same old same old. Wow. Sometimes it is hard to change the way you have of perceiving your world. For instance. I went into a grocery store for the first time in more than three months yesterday. My son or daughter-in-law do the grocery shopping. Yesterday someone had to get milk, so I tagged along. I offered to stay in the car, but they said come on in with us, and you will be able to walk around for a bit. I got my walker and off we went. An hour later the container of milk ended up being a stuffed grocery cart. My son said, “Mom, it is never just a gallon of milk.” I didn’t know. What fun it was walking around. I said hi to various other shoppers, made friends with Joey who was stocking some of the lower shelves, and went up and down aisles looking and buying some stuff. Mostly they bought everything I would want so basically, I just looked. Then as they were paying for everything. I walked into customer service and told the guy to have a great day. I told him I liked his hair. It was black, long and very curly. He thanked me. Then I went and sat on the meditation wooden bench. I thought it was just a wooden bench, but as I looked around with my cartoon eyes, I saw a sign right in front of me hanging from the ceiling behind a shelf. The sign said, “Self check out.” How cool is that? So, I sat and checked myself out. I found myself to be in the zone and so happy. I was operating on all cylinders. Wow. I loved being in the grocery store. When you are retired it takes the rush out of rush hour. The whole point is what fun you can find in the most ordinary places. Actually, nothing is ordinary when you are full of love, appreciation and gratitude. Every day is special. Every day allows you to reinvent the ordinary into extra ordinary. What fun I had. Today… I wonder what today will bring. I know it will be a most wonderful day because my cartoon eyes are already popped open. Have an extraordinary day yourself and see how happy you can be.

Granny-o