Life Begins......

  When my Beloved Uncle was sick and on the final days of his Journey he was asked about life.  He said for him he felt that life began at 50...because he found that he could do something else.

  Uncle Robert began a 20+ year career with a tax preparation service after the steel mill where he worked downsized and he took an early retirement. He helped a lot of people, including me.

  That stuck in my head when I approached a milestone birthday and I needed change in many ways, including extra income.

  My Mama got me a job the other day. I'm a college graduate, first female to ever be hired into the  management trainee program in the company I worked for and I later had my own business and my Mama got me a job.  She was talking to a guy I went to school high school with who had went on to become an Attorney.  He came home and opened a new office and was in need of someone to answer the phone and type and he knew my Mama and said that a daughter of hers would certainly be a fine employee.  I gladly took the job, happy to go to work at something that made money.

  He called me in on a Friday and I went to work...barefooted. I pulled a pair of dress pants out of my closet before leaving for my interview and put on one of my Mama's best blouses she made and wore back in the 70's and found a matching pair of dress shoes and I discovered I didn't have a pair of dress socks to go them them so I just stuck my 2 bare feet in those dress shoes and went to work feeling a little like Louis Grizzard, A Southern Man, and filed my first court case-barefooted.

  They let me come back the next day and then they let me come back the next day.

  Thanks Uncle Robert ...Thank you Mama.

American Honey

  I heard a song today as I scooted the hangers from right to left at the thrift store. It was "American Honey". My Neice, Gabrielle, was with me and had decided to skip prom so I decided she needed to skip school and go to the thrift store with my Mom and Me.  I have a friend that calls things like that "therapy". It was one of the first warm days of Spring. The pear trees were in bloom and the bees were appreciative. I was thinking about the people I have known in my past life before the coma went out of my income and I had to go back to having a real job for which I am grateful.

  I thought about that American Honey. When I left a corporate job to don the smoker and gloves and veil and the rake and hoe and shovel.

  I sat on the ground beneath the cottonwoods as the blossoms sailed to the ground around us. I sat at the feet of one of my beekeeping buddies, Ivory Darnell. Nobody was really sure how old he was, including himself, because when Ivory was born nobody gave out birth certificates. I sat at his feet and listened as he told me stories about his Mother, the Original Alabama Bee Charmer, with her white bonnet, smoking rag and bee "gums" near her clothes line. "Those mean German bees" as he refered to them. No one could go close to them but her. When they first put a man on the moon he told me what his Grandpa said... "Well, they'll not put one on the Sun".

  My Friend got blowed away by an F5 years ago. He didn't have any legs by then. We helped each other. I was his legs in the bee yard and he kept the smoker alive with mounds of cool white billows.
Moments like that made me glad... glad that I choose the life I did....or did it choose me

...of American Honey.

Lessons I've Learned From Bantie Bellbottoms

Miss Bantie Bellbottoms 

1) Be happy where ever you go.
2) Be grateful for the smallest of joys.
3) Bring joy to the lives of those you come in contact with.
4) Be good company.
5) Leave the world a better place.

You Want More?

                                         
                                                            "You want more????"

God Bless Us

                                             God Bless Us...........
                                                                              Everyone.
                                         

Life Is Short

                                          Life is short so open all the presents that you can.
                                                                       Jasmine, Age 9

Recycled Rosemary Wreath

  Rosemary is known as a symbol of remembrance, friendship and love. A story of rosemary tells that the flowers were originally white but changed to blue when the Virgin Mary hung her cloak on a bush while fleeing from Herod's soldiers with the Christ child.

  This is a simple recycled, artificial evergreen wreath that has been carefully hung and sprigs of fresh rosemary added to the frame. This adds a nice touch to an existing wreath and fragrance to the area where it hangs. In this case, it's my front door.