The Truth About Aging

“Aging is not ‘lost youth,’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength. It’s a different stage of life, and if you are going to pretend it’s youth, you are going to miss it. You are going to miss the surprises, the possibilities, and the evolution that we are just beginning to know about because there are no role models, no guideposts, and no signs.”~ Betty Friedan

Susannah Conway posted that quote above and asked a group of women to write about getting older on her blog. As it is something that I struggle with and accept at the same time.  

The posts are beautiful, touching, thought provoking, connecting, honest, vulnerable, soul-baring, simple, accepting, sensual, courageous and a complex mixture of amazing stories.

Homeless in America

So the other day Michael and I watched - well he watched and I listened - to President Obama's town hall meeting in Florida. During it a woman who sounded like she was on the verge of tears and talked of living in her car with her son. And asked if the stimulus package would help them. Later I found her son was laid off from a computer programing job so couldn't keep their house payments up. I was instantly in tears of course watching her... and feeling for her.

Here is a link to the Huffington Post with the clip of Henrietta Hughes asking President Obama her question.

When trying to find the link to that clip, I made a mistake by clicking on a conservative right blog. It went on and on how it was staged. I have read the news articles with photos of people standing in line for tickets. And doesn't seem it was staged. The next thing they complained about is how a homeless woman could have stockings on, a decent looking dress and nice hair but be living in a car. That they had never seen homeless people that didn't have matted hair, dirty clothes and stunk. I was appalled that people would talk about people less fortunate like that.

As someone who has worked in homeless shelters and known people who were homeless at one point or another in their life. I can say that if they got a ticket to see President Obama - they would have been in a bathroom at a public park getting ready if need be. And I am sure that is what Henrietta Hughes did and that is sad that someone has to do live like that.

I found another post on Huffington Post about helping people like Henrietta Hughes. And trying to find solutions.

I suggest taking a look at Change.org that is a social networking site to learn about causes, connect with people good people working for change and take action.

I wish I wanted to....

In Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat Pray Love, she was telling one of her friends that she was going to go India in search for divinity, the friend said "Oh there is a part of me that so wishes I wanted to do that....but I really no desire whatsoever."

I have a friend who inspires me in more ways then she probably realizes and her blog and most of the links on her blog are for homesteading and going back to doing things more naturally, having food stores, reusing/recycling and cutting back on spending. I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading her blog and the other blogs similar to hers. I love all the challenges and beautiful meanings of life they come across in their journey. They are all so inspiring, creative and extraordinary. But....that line that Elizabeth Gilbert's friend said to her when she was going to India is the line I think of when I read some of the homesteading blogs -- how I wish I really wanted to do it.

I picked up a book a the library Loving and Leaving the Good Life by Helen Nearing. The book synopsis from goodreads.com: "Helen and Scott Nearing wrote Living the Good Life and many other best-selling books about working hard, living simply and self-sufficiently while saving time for fun and pursuits of the intellect. This is a book written by Helen after Scott died (at 100 years old!) and is a story of love and living....Inspiring and moving, this is a "how-to" book about facing life with delight and with eyes open." I am really enjoying it. I think anyone who does homesteading really would enjoy this book and get a lot from it. I believe the Nearing's other books on homesteading/living off the land came before this one but this is the one I found at my library. I enjoy reading of different experiences and life journeys and the Nearing's is very different from my own but very touching and thoughtful.

So that book along with my friends blog and other similar blogs creates my little fantasy of homesteading but then reality hits me. I am not a homesteading type person. I can't imagine milking a goat to have our own milk and make cheese - it just isn't something I could do. I had a flower garden and herb garden when I lived in Topeka and enjoyed both. I loved feeling the earth in my hands as I planted the bulbs and seeds. And seeing the life of the plants and flowers spring through and grow. But it was really hard for me to keep up with it because of my allergies. After I go out to spray weeds in our yard, it takes me a day to get back to breathing normally. So it isn't something I can have here in Grand Junction as it isn't fair to want it and ask Michael to do the up keep work for it. I don't can because I don't have a garden which I guess shouldn't stop me if I just go to the farmers market. There are so many things homesteaders write about that I am amazed how well they just seem to work through it -- where I would be panicked or give up.

But of course some of the ideas I read, I am trying to implement. Such as I am trying my hand at making my own bread verse buying it as it would be cheaper/healtheir. It is always easier to have flour, yeast and salt to make bread then actually stock up on store bought bread. Food storing is something I hope to do more of when we get a bigger home so I can have a freezer. But for now doing the things I can do -- such as making my own bread. (Though my first loaf isn't going well this morning -- not raising -- but not giving up).

I also try to reuse things -- round oatmeal containers become containers for ribbon in my studio. Many things I recycle for art -- the foil seals on cans of peanuts -- I have used in art many times, the mesh bags that veggies come in, the crates berries and cherry tomato come make great patterns on paper. We get a big big can of peanuts at Sam's. And I trying to think of ways to use those cans. They are bigger then coffee cans. I am hoping to utilize a few for storage in my studio - always can use storage in there. But looking to see if there are other ways I can use them in our house. I know I could even decorate the outsides of them if I didn't want them to just look like a tin can. There are many little things I do but I am sure there are other things I could do that aren't living off the land but that could help in creating a "good life" for Michael and I.

I think we get so used to running through drive through instead of making lunch or picking up a new item when an old item isn't quite working right. We see a hole in a shirt and throw it out instead of repairing it and getting a little more life out of it. We upgrade and upscale instead of using things until they don't work anymore. It is easy to think of going to Wal-Mart or Target before going to a thrift store to see if you could find something to reuse instead of buying new. There are so many things everyday we could do to help in not making a lasting imprint on the world. There are so many things we could do to cut spending and have more room in our budget to get to our goals. There are so many things we could do to appreciate all that we have available to us. So the blogs inspire me to think outside the box. I dream of homesteading -- all the way but I know the reality of me. There are some modern conveniences I don't want to give up. But all that said the blogs do remind me I do have options that I can apply to my life. I am thankful for being able to get a glimpse into their journey and that they inspire me in mine.

Here is a link to my friend Kathie's blog-- be sure to check out her links also. Her and those she links to are amazing people doing extraordinary work on making a good life.

(Old) Friends High School

I think most people always say they don't want to remember high school. And of course high school always has times I think most of don't want to remember -- embarrassed, awful growing experiences, zits, high school dating woos but I do have several people from high school I remember with a smile and good memories.

I have a profile on classmates.com but I don't have a "paid" account with them. I have had a few people leave me guestbook messages yet I can't read them because I don't have a paid account. There isn't enough of them or enough looks at my profile to really make classmates.com an investment. Yet I enjoy talking with people I knew from high school.

I had one friend figure out the code I left on my profile to find me - code because it doesn't let you leave links or email addresses in your profile. So I had to do "I have a website it is my first name plus the word art dot com." And I actually have had one person contact me. And she lives in Colorado -- which reminds me I want to email her again as I am wondering if she got my last email. I emailed her a while back but didn't hear back from her.

Facebook is nice to have because you can look for profiles from your schools too but so far I haven't really seen many from my high school join there.

(Photo -- one of my senior pictures. I graduated 1986. Yep just keeping it real by embarrassing myself with that photo.)

Live from Shreveport...

We have been having a very productive time here in Louisiana. Things have went smoothly when setting up and taking down all the equipment. I needed to update a clients website so staying in the room while the rest of the crew is out with Michael filming so decided to do an update too.

On Saturday we stopped in a town in Southeastern Colorado to see a friend of Michael's - Leo. He was so fun! I really liked chatting with him. And he just has so much respect and caring for Michael. His son looks just like a friends husband it was eerie how much they looked like each other. It was so great though meeting Leo!

On our way out town heading towards the Colorado Oklahoma border....we saw spiders. Now when I say we saw spiders we were driving 65 to 70 miles per house down the highway and we could see them ahead of us on the road. That is how big they were. They looked like tarantulas from the vehicle. We didn't stop to check them out as there weren't really places to pull over on this road. But these things had thick legs and big bodies and we saw at least 20 of them in less then a 50 mile stretch.

I am not scared of spiders normally but I think if we would have looked at these up close I might have developed a fear as they looked scary from the car.

Sunday we arrived in Louisiana and as I said it has been going well. We are getting work done. What I am amazed by here is the poverty. We really haven't seen a lot of homeless but the homes people live in here are so worn and then neighborhoods have apartment complexes that are really run down with boarded up windows and it looks like people live in them. Plus they are surrounded by fences with barbwire and signs that say "no firearms permitted" and "id required at all times." This is apartment complexes - where families live. Most businesses don't have windows and if they do they have burglary bars. And then many businesses are also fenced with barbwire too. The schools are surrounded by fences with barbwire too. It is just a part of their life and that is hard for me to imagine. Filming this type of living condition is part of the project - maybe we are just being exposed to it more then we would if we were here to just visit/vacation. But it saddens me...that people suffer so much and live in such conditions.

What else...

Really we are just working hard so tired and just veg when we get back to the hotel room. I have been reading Outlander and I am LOVING it.

The above was written this morning but the internet went down when I was going to post. This afternoon and evening was long. We did some filming then tried to get lunch but it wasn't an easy process. We went to one place and waited about 8 minutes to get seated and then waited another 10-12 minutes and walked out as we didn't get waited on. Next place we went in and again waiting to get seated no hostess/host in sight and ended up leaving as we were going to be in a time crunch if we waited much longer....so had to grab fast food.

This evening we had 3 film shoots - and it takes so long for the lights to cool between them that it was a rush between each place. Tonight just grabbed subs on the way back to the hotel and ready to crash. We don't need to get up early tomorrow so that is so NICE!

Going sign off and relax!