Desert Diva

It’s that time of year when the holidays are over and spring is several weeks away. It seems that I get into a rut, and things that I would ordinarily ignore are “little annoyances.”

For example…

If you go to Starbuck’s and aren’t quite sure what you want, don’t go through the drive-through. Sitting in your car and mulling over the drink menu as it’s a lost transcript from a fallen culture, will not endear you to the sea of humanity waiting behind you for their daily cup of Joe.

When you go to the bathroom, you really need to wash your hands. I know that your mother taught you basic hygiene. I’m somewhat horrified when I go to the restroom at work and “hear a flush,” but do not hear running water from the faucet afterwards - especially when I hear the door close. Now that bottle of hand sanitizer on my desk has become even more precious since I apparently work in a building with people who need to take Personal Hygiene 101!

Driving at the mall, the speed limit isn’t 50 m.p.h. - especially when you’re not driving up a row, but across it. However, if you do this expect the “laws of Karma” to catch up with you and you will be forced to wait at the stoplight. So was it really worth all that kamikaze behavior just to wait in front of someone at the stoplight?

Tomorrow is another day - hopefully one with people who can make a decision, clean hands, and polite drivers!

Manic Monday is hosted by Fleur-de-Lisa

If you could have a servant come to your house every day for one hour, what would you have them do?

• The servant could take take turns cleaning each room. I hate cleaning the house!

Has your life ever been changed by an apparently random occurrence?

• Uh, yeah - hate to be cryptic but it was in the embryo stage.

You’re having dinner with several friends and acquaintances. They all criticize a close friend of yours (not knowing he/she is a friend). The criticism is unjustified. What would you do?

• When the criticism started I would “nip it in the bud” by saying that “so and so” was a close friend. I don’t think I would have to defend her/him at that point, and the conversation should “change.”

Today, I received the following comment from someone regarding a comment I had made on “Manic Monday” regarding “unconditional love.”

I’ve followed your blog off and on for a while now. I really like the pictures you take. I also agree with a lot (not all, maybe a little more then half) of what you say. I’ve never had the notion of making a comment before, but you hit one of my buttons with the “unconditional” love comment. I think the phrase is without true meaning. I for one want to have conditions put on the love I receive and give. Some, not all, of those conditions would be respect, trust, honesty. If someone breaks those conditions, then I’ll try to find love somewhere else.

P.S. Before I go, I thought of another possible condition. It sure would be nice if she could make good biscuits and gravy.
Take care.

It’s pretty amazing that people read my weblog at all, let alone comment on something I wrote regarding love.

Let it be known that I’m certainly no “expert” at love - I’ve been disappointed more than once and go from periods of great despair to elation. However, the one thing remains constant is that I believe we all have a desire to “connect” with each other on a higher level. Woody Allen summed up this “need” nicely in a quote from “Annie Hall:”

A guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, “Doc, my brother’s crazy; he thinks he’s a chicken. And the doctor says, “Well, why don’t you turn him in?” The guy says, I would, but I need the eggs.

Loving some “unconditionally” regardless of their actions or beliefs, doesn’t mean that we allow another person to control, degrade, or violate us. It just means that we love them as they are and don’t attempt to “make them into something they’re not.” To say to someone, I’ll love you if your nose was straighter, or if you were twenty pounds thinner isn’t love - it’s a form of attempting to control another. I’m speaking more to the mother who loves her Down’s Syndrome child - even though she realizes he/she will never be a concert pianist or university professor.

To me, unconditional love is the ability to look beyond the superficial and embrace the beauty that we all have. I’ve had personal experience with people that I can’t trust, weren’t honest, and not respectful. However, those traits are problems within that person, and not within myself. When I encounter this type of person, I just have to do my best to love the “good parts” of them and set boundaries not to allow their pain to influence me. It’s not easy, and something that I have to work on daily.

As for biscuits and gravy, my Aunt Cassie from Fisty, Kentucky has the “knack” for making light flaky biscuits, and delicious sausage gravy. It’s something that my mother also made well. However, nowadays it’s not a very healthy dish and I’ve somewhat lost my taste for sausage products.

All I can say is that I’m learning more each day, and “set my goal” on loving unconditionally.

Manic Monday is hosted by Fleur-de-Lisa

Which sex do you think has it easier in our culture? Have you ever wished you were the opposite sex?

• Men - without a doubt.  Society appears to respect men more, they excel in the workplace, and are thought of as the “stronger sex.”  As for being one, no thank you…

What books from your childhood would you like to share with your children?

• No children here.  However, having a former career as an elementary teacher there are too many to decide upon one.

What is one talent or skill you don’t possess but always wanted?

• Playing the piano.  I had to take “Elementary Piano Class Instruction” when I went to college (a long time ago) and made it through by memorizing how to play a small selection of songs.  Teachers nowadays no longer need to know how to play the piano to teach - computer savvy is much preferred…

When I was in Puerto Vallarta recently, I had a “quiet day.” I spent the first part of the day photographing downtown along the Malecón (a seaside boardwalk). There were amazing bronze sculptures as well as people crafting “magic” out of sand on the beach.

By mid afternoon I found my way to the Hotel Krystal where I had a seventy-five minute “relaxing” massage that apparently included something called Reiki. I was explaining the process to my therapist (yes, I see one still) and she told me that what I was explaining to her were Reiki techniques. My massage therapist Cuca was a magician.

Afterwards, I walked back to the ship (only a ten minutes or so journey) and watched the sunset from my verandah (while photographing of course). Happy and relaxed, I joined my new found Canadian friends for a delicious dinner. I know I will hold the memory of that day in my heart forever.