Thanksgiving Day

I haven't written anything for a long time, as many months I felt as though my garden of life was in a drought. Every day things in my life just had seemed to be lacking life and quite honestly I was in the mid of a deep depression for many months. To top it off, I have not been happy in my work, although grateful for a job during this economy, it is not happy work and the people I work with are not very nice, making it miserable to be there. Then I would come home, and my marriage had hit a rough spot as well, leaving me with a trapped feeling and no where to go to be or feel that I had a safe peaceful haven. Then the icing on the cake, I started having severe heart palpitations and extreme vertigo, not to mention suffering from exhaustion.

So from June until November, life was pretty hard to take, but things have started to turn the corner a little. My job still sucks, but Vito and I are getting along better and that makes it nice to be home. I would still love to be living in Santa Fe or somewhere that I like better, but if I must be in Jersey, at least being home is more pleasant as it should be.

Today is Thanksgiving, and I have been thinking a lot about all the things I have to be thankful for, and there is great deal. Vito went last week with Giancarlo to feed the homeless, and we are going to start going every other Sunday. We are collecting coats and sweaters as there is an entire homeless tent city in Camden, all ages of people with no food, no home, very little to keep them warm. It is a sin that there are so many people in the world in this situation. I want to do something, and charity starts at home and in your own community. So today I feel very thankful to have a wonderful dinner, a warm house, decent clothing, family and friends, a wonderful little dog, and a job. No matter how much I'd rather have a different job, it is a job none the less and it puts money in the bank every week.

So, my life like a garden, needed tending, needed to be nurtured and that I started to do and I feel my life is flourishing with blessings today.

Michael Jackson

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and I certainly miss my father. But it doesn't take a special day for me to miss Daddy, I miss him every day. It's hard to believe that it has been 12 years since he passed away. It just goes to show how quickly time flies by and it is a reminder that we need to nurture the relationships that is important to us as they will not always be there.

I am constantly aware that time is slipping by quickly and there is still so much that I want to do. I keep wishing that Vito would quite this foolishness about being president of his Italian club. It takes so much time and I believe it is only feeding his ego and that is what it really is about. I don't have a problem with him belonging to a cultural club, but this involves me and so much time, energy and ultimately money is spent on nothing in reality. Does any of those people really care? NO! Would they be there for him in an emergency or sickness? NO! Yet he puts all this time in and for what? Only to wake up down the road and then we will be too old to do anything. I really despise this club as I feel it is robbing me of valuable time in my life.

I think about those things as I remember Daddy telling me how in a flash, you are old and too old and sick to do the things you want to do. Here I am, wasting my life so Vito can feed his ego. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Instead, we should be nurturing our life together and really thinking about our future and where we should go from here.

Our house looks about as good as it is ever going to look and we pay such high taxes here, we could probably sell this place and move somewhere where we could enjoy life, and not just be a slave to a house and a club.

To bad my husband would rather nurture a fantasy instead of reality. Too bad we don't take care of each other as well as we take care of our yard.

Blueberries

It has rained for the past few weeks and although I have been worried about my garden getting waterlogged, the blueberries have been loving it. Yesterday, I went out during a brief break in the weather and picked berries from the bushes a second time this year.

The berries are plump and sweet and I love them. Not only are they tasty but they are so good for us as well.

So as one could imagine, I have been eating these things until my teeth look dingy. Even my Hannah, my dog has been eating them and she loves them too. Vito didn't even want dinner last night, he wanted cereal with blueberries.

Today we bottled wine with big Mike. That was fun and of course we had a good bit of wine drink as well. Vito had a little much and he has been snoozing it off for a while.

So I decided that since there were so my blueberries, I needed to do something with them, so I made a pie this afternoon. My house still smells wonderful, with the scent of hot blueberry pie.

I started thinking about how wonderful my berries are and really everything we grow. There is no surprise as we tend to our fruit and vegetables, weeding the garden, giving it plenty of compost for nutrients, and of course making sure it gets plenty of water. Isn't it ashamed people don't often tend to their relationships as well? Think how they would flourish if people tended to other people with such love.

Well it's time to go eat a little blueberry pie.

Still Raining

I got home from work a little early today.

Vito has gone to NYC with Susan and Sharon for a trade show and I have the house to myself for two days. I would like to have gone with them in one way, but I really need my personal and private space every once in while, which I don't seem to get enough of.

So after coming, I took Hannah out for a little walk and then I thought I would repot the Japanese Maple seedlings that I have been pampering for the past several weeks. I managed to report about a dozen of them, and then it started to rain. Now I love the rain and my garden certainly needs it, but really, enough is enough. I am beginning to wonder if we are ever going to have summer. It has rained pretty much for the past couple of weeks and now it is starting to effect my mood. Not to mention that my garden is getting boggy and the plants need a little sunshine too.

Oh well, I am just going to have to do something enjoyable indoors.

Today is Pat's birthday. I wonder if she and I will ever live close together. We have talked about it for years, but it could just be fantasy and wishful thinking. I don't dislike my home here, it is just that I have never connected with anyone here in New Jersey that is on my wave-length. The people that I seem to be attracted to for friendship that thinks the way I do, all seem to live in either the Southwest or the Northwest. There must be some reason God has put me on the east coast. Just can't figure out why.

Oh well. Everyday can't be our best. We must have some that we feel a little low and today is it. I just feel restless, not happy with work and I am sure that is a big part of it.

I dreamed about Daddy night before last. I can't stop thinking about that either. I never dream of him even though I wish I would. It was actually early in the morning and my alarm clock went off and I had to get up for work. I really didn't want to as the dream seemed so real, like he was really here. I wish that would happen more often.

Rain

Today I had planned on spending a little time in the garden after work, but on my way home it started to rain and we are having early summer thunder storms. I am not upset about this as the plants in my garden seem greener than ever and it is as if they are reaching to the sky to quench their thirst.

The rain also smells so good and the air feels so fresh, it is no wonder that the vegetation loves it so much.

Last night I was looking out about 7:00 p.m. and the most interest fog was forming off of the ground right behind my back garden. It was so unusual but beautiful that I had to take a picture of it. There was a great deal of pink in the sky and it looked like something out of a mystery movie. Beautiful and strange.

Today I spent the day pulling weeds from my day lilly beds. The sun was out, yet a nice breeze was blowing. My husband was cleaning the garden shed and mowing the lawn, and although I am tired, my muscles ache, I feel a little sun burn on my neck, what a wonderful day.

Briefly I heard the news when I came in for a break and I heard that North Korea fired another missile. For what purpose, I do not know. Maybe they are trying to prove something, or maybe they intend to blow some country up, maybe us. One thing is for sure, they must be crazy. Why?

Why not just try to get along and make the world a peaceful place, like a garden?

People are often like weeds. You have to separate the weeds from the flowers in order for them to flourish. Also with people, better to stay away from those who only study on destruction. They need to be separated from the mainstream in order for others to flourish.

The world gone crazy

I am so sick of bad news!

Every time I turn to the news on my television, it is either North Korea firing test missiles and threats of them possibly starting a nuclear confrontation, or the Taliban trying to take over Pakistan, and of course they would have nuclear weapons. How can one sleep?

Then of course their is the republican party, and some of the idiots their opposing everything that the Obama administration is trying to do; not because it is what they believe in reality, it is that they are pissed off they are not in power so it is politics as usual.

On a local level, yesterday I lead a funeral out at the cemetery where I work, for an infant that was brutally beaten to death by it's father. The father is currently in jail, but the father's brother gets out and starts waving a gun around threatening to kill the mother and her family.

I think people are losing their minds and insanity is ruling the world!!

What the heck is going on? In this day and age of human existence, one would think that we would have become more logical and learn to get along for the sake of our planet and ALL of its' inhabitants. Unfortunately, man is trying their best to fulfill some doomsday scenario.

Come on people, it is time to stop this nonsense. Believe what you will, but stop trying to impose beliefs on each other. Embrace differences and try to get along. Like a garden, let's try tending to weeding out behaviors that disrupt beauty and peace. Earth's existence depends on use wising up and caring!!

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day and I can't help but to think about the many men and woman who have sacrificed their time and even their lives for our country. Where would we be without them?

I also can't help but to think about my father today, who was born in Greece and came to this country as a boy and then served in the Navy in the South Pacific during WWII and then after being released, he went into the US Air Force and served another 14 years. His service was always a source of pride for Dad, and also for me.

So today I pray for all of those serving in the various dangerous areas of the world, to come home safely and also to come home and make us proud to be American.

New Beginnings

Today I decided to write in my blog that I have been maintaining for several years, when although I could access the blog, I could not post anything. Once I tried, I realized that I actually had started a new blog.

Aggravated at first, I soon realized that it was meant to be and I needed to start a new blog, like a fresh new start.

My life is much this way. Things get stale after a while and as time goes by, we often fall into ruts, just going through the humdrum of life and not changing things. As a friend of mine once said, "Athena, you have to shake it up every now and then." It is true and my life needs to be shaken.

So today I start my new blog and I hope to cultivate it with care. I hope I shall do the same with my life. Life a garden, life has many colors, shapes, smells, and variety. Life is too short not to enjoy what is right before us.