Life's Loving Memories

  ADHD? "Explore your possibilities. Your mission is to live your life to the fullest, nurture others and be be nurtured, be minddful of the planet and all living creature, and share yourself and your talent with others."  Sandra Lindsey Smith, Life's Garden of weekly Wisdom. I’ve always wondered if I have had ADHD that was never diagnosed.   Do I have that condition, or do I just think globally?   I always have many projects going at the same time and find it hard to sit still when I am watching television. Sometimes I start an affirmative prayer treatment in my mind, and a little bit later I realize that I haven’t finished it.   I find that writing a prayer out is a better alternative for me, because I keep thinking while I am writing.   Maybe that is one reason that I like to write so much. I read a cute article in a magazine that talked about a woman who woke up in the morning and went down stairs, to go out the front door, and bring in the trash c...

    SIMON AND GARFUNKLE "LIttle kindnesses offered from the heart add to the positive vibrations and enrgy in the universe." LIfe's Garden of Weekly Wisdom,             --Sandra lindsey Smith One summer, my best friend and I got to take the science teacher’s class rats home to keep, just for our own delight.   I took home Simon, and my friend got Garfunkle. I kept my white rat in a bird cage, and he delighted in all the wonderful things I gave him to eat.   One a week I would give him a bath in the sink and then dried him with the hair dryer hose. He was the first pet I ever had, and it taught me   so much about responsibility. Since then I have had dogs, fish, and birds. There is something so loving in having pet children, truly unconditional love. I remember telling my high school students that my kids were real dogs, and that they took it as a compliment. "Spread love everywhere you go; first of all in your own house. Gi...

  MY WRITING "It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." --Kahil Gibran My earliest memory of elementary school was wanting to be a writer and illustrator of children’s books. My school had a bank day, where we could bring in our nickles and dimes to deposit in our own starter accounts; a library day, where we went to choose books to read; and a day where we went to the school store, where I could buy all sorts of things, including my weekly composition book. Stories galore graced each of the pages. In high school I enjoyed competing on the speech team and participating in drama, but writing for writing’s sake was only fed by one creative writing class, and participating in our school’s   literary journal, “Trial Flights.” Then, I went on to college, receiving a degree in Theatre Arts, and a teaching degree, leaving my writer's passion on hold. My writer’s appetite was whetted once again in a teacher’s workshop where we did something called, a “Read aroun...

  ALONE OR IN A CROWD "Your soul wants to teach you about your strength. It wants you to believe in your abilities and gifts, It wants you to lift up your head with pride and claim your brithright; the life that is yours to experience." Naomi Levy, Einstein and the Rabbi My days of teaching high school were very enjoyable. I had teachers in my own life who gave me assignments where I could express my own ideas, and I did the same thing for mine. One essay I assigned in an English class, was to write about the following statement.   “Alone in a crowd is lonely; alone by yourself is powerful.”   I got so many varied responses, ranging from the fear of being alone, to the joy of solitude.   When I apply the quote to myself, I have always enjoyed small gatherings of people, rather than crowded galas with light-hearted small talk. I have also enjoyed the solitude of reading a book, sitting down to write, and walking by myself at the beach as the sun comes up. To me, the...

  COVED-19 AND THE 1918 FLU "Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do."   --Orison Swert Marden A little more than one hundred years between the 1918 Flu epidemic and the Novel Coved-19 virus. My   grandfather on my mother’s side, died at age thirty-six of the 1918 flu. He was a Methodist missionary, home from his assignment in India, having survived Yellow Fever, only to die of the Flu. The Corona-19 took me by surprise. In March of 2020, I was tutoring at a local high school, when we were told we were shutting down for three months. At first it was great, time to relax, clean the house up, get rid of a few items taking space in the house; then it grew to six months, a year, and now, as I am writing this, a few years have gone by. I have written a few children’s books, and  my third book of essays, and I am trying not to watch too much television. I have read   dozens of great books, built quite a few puzzles, and communicate...

  CRUISING         "If you don't move your body, your brain thinks your dead. Movement of the body will not only clean out the 'Sludge' but will also give you more 'energy'."                                                                                                --Sylvia Brown There is something very spiritual about standing on the back of a cruise ship at midnight, and staring out into the wake of the boat. The vastness of the ocean makes you realize how infinitesimal you are compared to the ocean. My husband Gary and I love to cruise, although the Corona Virus gave us a setback and we missed our 2020 cruise through the Panama Canal. What I like most about cruising are the people we meet, and the countries we vi...

  RETIRING OR REWIRING? "We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken."       --Ralph Waldo Emerson In my life I have retired two times, once after teaching high school for Twenty-six years, and once from ministry after eighteen years.   Now I am rewiring to write more books. Currently I am writing a series of children’s books that follow Sam, a young girl who, after a recent, move is learning how to fit into the school she attends. The second time I retired, the Pandemic showed its face. Boy, did that bring changes--but it did support my writing.  I learned all the many things I could do while staying close to home. I think it was also a great way to remember that I am truly blessed by family and friends. Life has an amazing way of opening paths to different vocations and experiences in life. "Happiness can only be found in the present moment, not at some imaginary place in the future."              ...