Sounds of Hope

Riding in a pick-up truck with the love of your life listening to the oldies sure brings back memories. Sprinkled between stories on NPR and country tunes, we found the oldies.  I like to sing along – soon I was singing "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do."   I remembered the young girl with her transistor radio walking to the candy store with her transistor in hand singin’   "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.”  She prayed that someone would notice her and that they’d be together every single day.  She prayed that someday she’d live happily ever after. It didn’t happen in Brooklyn.  No one saw her walkin’ down the street.  It was a scant nine years since she’d been   "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do-ing"   down the streets of Brooklyn .  In that time, she’d been a child bride. Dropped out of high school.  Given birth to two sons.  She’d been divorced.  She’d remarried her childhood husband.  She was beaten and abused. ...

I have often told myself that I am silly for feeling the way I do.  Maybe I am.  Maybe I am not.  The older I get the less judgmental I get about myself and everyone else.  I have been learning to “be.”  To accept who I am.  I don’t think it is unique to want to feel special and loved.  Last night I felt special and loved. Yesterday was my 33 rd wedding anniversary.  It started pretty much the same as any other day.  I was sick, which actually isn’t that unusual on our anniversary since it comes at the peak of flu season.  I don’t have the flu but I am sick.  I’m coughing and coughing and feel miserable.  I had been up late waiting for my husband, hoping to see his reaction to the anniversary present I got for him.  I wrote about it here . He came home that night with an odd but beautiful assortment of flowers.  I’ve arranged them on my dining room table.  They are pretty.  At midnight, the beginning of o...

I came through the back door of my house last night with some groceries.   We’d been to Publix grocery store that I’ve written about before .   It’s nice to have a choice in grocery stores.   I even have a grocery store directly across the street from me but at the same time I can see deer, wild turkey, cardinals, robins, and eagles in my back yard.   I have daffodils and crocus in my front yard.   I’m home. It washed over me last night like a gentle breeze on a warm night.   I was home.   Not only was I home, but I had a home.   Not two places where I live, but a home.   The living room looks nice.   I could actually feel comfortable inviting you to come, sit, and have coffee with me.   The kitchen has a ways to go but looks good already.   The dining room has further to go but you’d overlook that because you know I just moved back.   Of course you’d have to navigate past the bags and boxes of trash waiting for the dump....