Random New Year Ramble

"Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend, inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

Groucho Marx said that. Yesterday I asked my Siri to search the web for a book, and "she" quoted that. It made me laugh. I am on a modified version of the Master Cleanse Fast (you can google if you're curious). Big Daddy and I try to do some sort of special fasting and prayer at the onset of the new year, as an act of reverence toward God. It's a time of sober reflection, thankfulness, and seeking His will and direction for the new year. I find today difficult, but yesterday was not. I was awash with inspiration and ideas yesterday. Today I feel sluggish and have a headache (caffeine withdrawal, I suspect) and I am distracted by the macaroni and cheese the kids had for lunch. But it's just today, and a little challenge, and it will pass and I am sure tomorrow will be better.

Welcome 2013, A Rebooted Greeting

It's been a long time. I can't promise a successful or consistent reboot, but for today, I am here. Happy New Year. I sit here with a heart that is happy with the promise a new year brings. A fresh start and clean slate is always a nice and welcoming thing, like a newly sharpened pencil and an empty drawing pad. So, I am resolute with myself to continue and build upon some good things and healthier and better choices. For today, I'm involved with a bit of praying and fasting, listening to some wonderful classical music and I feel like the windows of my soul are letting in a welcome breeze that is fresh with hope and contentment. I can't quite write that, though, without saying my heart goes out to those who are unable to muster such hope right now, and my prayers are with and for them. So, to anyone who is still lurking about, this is the place where I chronicle my spiritual and artistic journey as one, little and rather low-key person. I am not a spectacular writer or artist, or incredibly witty or erudite, but I am sincere, honest and opinionated. And I like to write and draw.

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Real Mom

Now that is a cute and funny photo, but it got me thinking of a subject that is very close and important to my heart: Adoption. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that November is National Adoption month, with National Adoption Day falling on November 19th, see here.

I always bristle a little at the term "real mom" and I will explain why. I am adopted, and when many people find that out, they ask me if I know my real mom. Once in a while they say "real parents" but 97% of the time it's the mom they're the most curious about. It's natural to be curious and I know that people mean no disrespect when they say "real" parent. Here is how my reply goes:

Well, I actually consider the parents that raised me to be my "real parents" because they are the ones that were there every day of my life for all the colds and fevers, scraped knees, school plays, graduations, etc. If you mean do I know my biological parents, the answer is no. Though I do have a HUGE amount of affection and respect for them and their unselfish decision to give me up for adoption, I have never met them.

My parents had a very organic approach to the disclosure of adoption, and I simply recall always knowing I was adopted, it was never revealed to me at a certain age or anything like that. One of the dearest people in my life, my first babysitter Nan* says that my parents had these adoption storybooks, and when she'd babysit me, she'd read them and cry because it was so touching. I vaguely remember those books. My parents tried for children for about 10 years thorough various biological and medical means, and then the lengthy adoption process, so they were elated when they finally were able to adopt me and then my little brother.

Lately my two younger children, Calvin* (age 8) and Flora* (age 12) have been asking questions about my real mom. After doing my real mom spiel two times, I had a little epiphany and used Our Boy* that darn dog that they love so much. (The above picture reminded me of all this.) I asked Calvin and Flora, "Who is OurBoy's real family? Is it your old friend Sarah who's pet dog had the litter OurBoy came from? Or is it us, who adopted him when he was a little puppy and have been with him, taking care of him ever since? This drove the point of adoption home for them and helped them understand the distinction between biological and adoptive and what is "real." I mean to say that both are "real" but I believe it is important to make that distinction and give each kind of parent, both biological and adoptive, the proper respect and position within the life of the adoptee. Being a parent takes a great amount of unselfish love, I am blessed to say that I have experienced that kind love in some very special ways, through the woman who decided to give me up, and through the parents who took me in. Both kinds of parents are real. Whomever fulfilled the role of parent, in the day to day, year to year, decade to decade reality of life, well, to me that is actual and real in a way that makes biology, with all due respect, a smaller part of the equation in my life. I wouldn't be here, or be the person I have become without the decisions my adoptive and my biological parents made and the roles they fulfilled in my life. One is not more important than the other. You can't take out of the equation the huge, intensely personal decision my biological mother/parents made at the beginning of my life, nor the lifetime of care and parenting my adoptive parents undertook. I understand that there are different adoption experiences, which make this more of a complicated subject for many, I can only speak for myself.

Autumn Playlist Revisited

I'm in a mood for the music that for one reason or another reminds me of the Autumn season. This is something began compiling several years back, and added some and deleted some. What songs remind you of the Fall season? Why? Feel free to share as many or as few details as you like but definitely share the song and artist names so we can check them out.

Funny Friday

This is silly. I didn't LOL but I smiled real big and almost snickered a few times.

Hodgepodge & Funny Friday

What I've been eating/craving:



10 Songs I've Been Listening To Recently




Stuff that has made me laugh:




Umm, yeah but lose the apron.

Columbus Day

I have to admit to having huge a personal bias toward Columbus Day. It's not due to patriotism, though I love my country. It really stems from the fact that quite often during my school career I would have my birthday off from school because it fell close to Columbus Day. Anyway the following video has been circulating:



My first inclination is to sympathize and agree with the sentiment and opinions put forth in that video. When one really tries to take a sober look at history and the times, I have to admit that I take a more moderate view, which I found nicely expressed in this article, though I do not agree with everything that author Rick Bayan said either. The birth of one civilization was often at the expense of another, cultures and peoples were overtaken and absorbed, it's messy business, rife with strife. We can no more blame Columbus for shifting the scales of progress than any of the ancients (Rome, Goths, Mongols, etc.). They all had their barbarism and their progressive points; all leaving their mark on civilization, in both good and bad ways. Surely Columbus was no saint, but to liken him to dictators and madmen of the modern age, such as Hitler and Pol Pot, as some are now doing is not entirely accurate. The "Reconsider Columbus Day" video does not go that far. No amount of apologizing can un-spill that old milk, and no amount of inaccurately presenting history will help either. The fact remains that Columbus was the first to gain widespread access to a world that was very new to Europeans. Vikings may have landed first but they didn't stay or last, and as much as I lament the fact that there is no acceptable day to wear my horned helmet and blond-braided wig, unless one is a Minnesota fan you're just out of luck. Anyway, we are not celebrating what kind of person Columbus was, or his purposes and intentions, but that he built the highway that brought most of us here, one way or another. I'm pretty much glad to be here, are you? What we can do is press on toward a better future as the framers of the U.S. Constitution had hoped, even in the light of the slavery and inequality many abhorred even then as they wrote those words that govern us still, toward a better future for all. I hope that we will soon establish a day where the native and ingenious cultures of America are celebrated, along with all our other special days: Flag, Independence, Thanksgiving, Dr. King, Labor, Presidents, Veterans, and so on, even old Columbus.

In the region where I live, it has been years since the school holiday has been celebrated as such. For close to 2 decades now, it is merely designated as a "No-Work/No-School/No-Paid Holiday/Hurricane Make-up Day".

On a side note, the Tostino's commercial that was linked in Bayan's article was rather funny.