Journey

Just a few things I have read recently and wanted to save..............

Not everyone

will understand

your journey

That's fine

It's not their journey

to make sense of.

It's yours

-Zero Dean

Start where you are

Use what you have

Do what you can

*     *     *

Do the next thing!

*   *   *

Many people QUIT digging right before they are about to hit GOLD.

Don't be one of those people. When times get tough, when you start to question yourself, your life, your dreams, just KEEP GOING. This feeling of uncertainty is vital for you to experience, it is part of your necessary growth. It is a character test sent to see if you are serious about your chosen path, not an excuse to become a quitter.  Dreams don't work unless YOU do.   -Freelee

If we are not willing to confront the truth about ourselves that a loss unearths, we squander a rare and precious opportunity for transformation. Our grief, while deeply felt, runs the risk of becoming a sentimental escape from the most meaningful part of our journey.  If we do the hard work when we lose someone we love, then we find ourselves BLESSED with more love than we ever knew existed.

                                 from "Broken Open" by Elizabeth Lesser

we must be 

willing to let go

of the life we

have planned

so as to have

the life that is

waiting for us

-Joseph Campbell

Stormy Weather

Moody weather

We had strong winds and rain on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.  I got drenched walking to the office on Wednesday morning (even though I had an umbrella and wore a windbreaker). The rainy weather has given us lower temperatures (woo-hoo) and mosquito's (boo). 

The rain is welcome because of ongoing drought conditions, there were puddles all over the campground, but most of the puddles are gone this morning. The weather.com shows that we will get more rain all week and weekend. The rain finally stopped by 5:00 pm when I walked back to the RV after work. I went for a walk in the evening, even though more rain was predicted. I knew I would be able to wait out rain under the pavilion at the beach or at the boat docks.

The "energy" of the water and air is different after a heavy rain.  It felt soo....good to walk barefoot along the edge of the water. I wanted to stay out there all night.  It would be great to park the RV near the shore overnight, but that is not allowed in the County Park where I was walking.

All of these pics in this post were taken between 7:00pm and 8:30pm during my walk. Turn around facing any of the four directions and see a different sky each time. So far, we have not had any additional rain. If you look at the radar at "weather.com" it is raining???  

The southern end of Padre Island is about 40 miles long, north to south, the city of South Padre is only about 5 miles long. A lot of Padre Island is off limits to vehicle traffic and the island stretches north to Corpus Christi (Padre Island National Seashore). The KOA is on the south end and my daughter lives about 3 miles north of the campground - and we have different weather on some days. She will text that it is pouring rain at her house and there will be no rain at the KOA.

A "Virtual" Baby Shower

The countdown begins...........................
only 22 more days until her due date.


On Saturday, I hosted a "virtual" baby shower for my daughter.

We are currently living on South Padre Island and the rest of our families and friends are spread out around Texas, Colorado and Illinois. Karl's family from San Antonio drove down for the shower and everyone else joined us via Skype.

Of course, we would have preferred a traditional shower, but it was not possible to get everyone together. We are hoping that many of our friends and family will visit after the baby is born.

I discovered the concept of this type of shower while searching for shower ideas online and decided this would be the best option. We used Skype, I signed up for a premium account so that I could host a group call. We also posted some pictures on Facebook for those that could not participate on the Skype call.

I am making a quilt for the baby

and hope to have it finished before she is born.

I think the shower turned out very well.  We had a few minor technical problems, but we were able to get everyone on the call. The only call that did not work was when my brother hooked up his computer to a big screen TV. Computers worked fine, but one phone using the Skype app had a few problems.

I charged my camera battery on Friday night. After the shower, I realized that I did not take any photos during the shower because I was monitoring the Skype call, making sure everyone was connected, etc. We were all sitting around the laptop so did not get any photos. We have photos of the setup beforehand and photos of the presents that we posted on Facebook.

I'm wondering if there was some way to record the Skype call to save it.

Thank You to everyone that participated to make this day a success. Thank You for the beautiful gifts for the baby.