I’ll bet you were thinking this was going to be about a drink.  Ha!  This post is about my greatest and rarest indulgence … a hot stone massage.  Only now instead of river rocks I have discovered you can request Himalayan rock salt!  I have written before about both my love of the hot stone massage and also of the reputed calming properties of Himalayan rock salt.  So naturally I flipped when I found out this was an option.  After having a broken shoulder that then became frozen, my spring, summer, and fall quite frankly have been painful and difficult.  I was finally cleared to get a massage from my doctor and I found it was a beautiful sort of pain.  With every pressure and movement I felt something release; often times making a sickening pop or crunching sound.  Turns out it was scar tissue breaking up.  A massage therapist, in my opinion, is like clergy or a doctor — there’s no sense in lying to them because they’re going to realize it anyway.  It was the best massage I have ever had and I have used the same therapist in the past.  I truly believe the difference was in the stones.  The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said:

“We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.”

It is extremely difficult for me to let go and relax.  I have been working since I was ten years old.  I do believe that taking little pauses though — whether at the park, in the shower, or reading a book — can help us recenter ourselves.  A massage is a treat, and I’ll take mine salted please.

Every time we went to the Dallas zoo when I was a kid I can recall hearing grackles, and I have always loved to hear their “cry.”  An urban blackbird of eastern North America, they are actually considered a nuisance bird.  Of course, if people hadn’t eradicated our predator birds they would not be a problem.  We need a resurgence of our native owls and hawks.  Do people really think those plastic renditions residing like statues on rooftops fool them?  I snapped this pic when I was able to stop at a light.  And this was at the very end of a long line of birds huddling together where their numbers had dwindled against the beginning of colder winds.  The American ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson said:

“Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we’ll soon be in trouble.”

We should look to the sky for many reasons.  My father said to always listen to the animals.  Man should stop playing God and manipulating the environment … or else we will all be on the line.

There are certain things I vowed I would not do when I rose out of poverty.  Most important, I promised myself I would make sure never to complain about things that are really blessings.  When I worked at Lord & Taylor in college there was a woman who came in and spent almost $1,000 on clothes (and this was the early ’90’s) as she complained to me the whole time about how EXHAUSTING it was.  All the while I was rushing in and out of the fitting room getting her different sizes and I thought to myself A) she didn’t have to work, B) she had money to buy all those new clothes, and C) she was going to have lunch in the mall afterwards.  I was left to put away a veritable mountain of clothing the woman had thoughtlessly left behind in an enormous pile on the floor.  I told myself it was a good thing because getting them all back on hangers and in the right place helped pass the time.  I worked one hour a day just to eat at the La Madeline in the mall once a week and speak French with my friend the cashier Jacqueline.  Even then I could only afford a salad.  Today I was feeling overwhelmed about weeds cropping up in our yard and the fountains not working again.  I was hauling out our few tools when I stopped and thought at least we actually have a house with land to take care of!  It is a huge blessing and I am ashamed I had to remind myself; I vowed never to forget.  My little one came out to help (really play) while I worked and I told her how lucky we were to have our own home with beautiful trees and that it was a lovely day to be out tending to them.  The American politician Mark Warner once said:

“My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors.  But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed.”

Too often I feel success is defined in terms of the material.  My father taught me to have goals in life that had nothing to do with having money.  Success involves not only good luck but hard work as well.  However I believe perseverance and a good attitude are life’s greatest tools.

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” ~ American philosopher Henry David Thoreau  

One of my fondest early childhood memories was of eating out after church each Sunday with my parents.  We would go to the Wyatt’s cafeteria in Big Town mall.  My favorite time was always autumn.  They had a tall white brick wall where they would place all sorts of interesting gourds on top and I loved to look at them as we were waiting in the long line.  If we were lucky, we got to eat next to the double sided fireplace and it was just heaven.  I have had an affinity for gourds ever since.  Southeastern Native American Indian tribes made and still make a lot out of gourds.  So I may come by that interest in part naturally.  This picture was taken at my grandmother in law’s; both she and my mother in law love gourds as well.  It is my favorite season to decorate, and ever since I have been married we have gone to the Farmer’s Market downtown to carefully select pumpkins and gourds of every shape, size, and color.  This was the first year I did not have bales of hay and corn stalks, too.  The hubs says he prefers the gourds alone but I miss the smell of the hay and the sight of the corn.  It is the only holiday where I decorate with live things as I know they have a season.  I remember picking out pumpkins several years ago when I was almost ready to have the baby and a man there said, “You already have one!” and winked.  Proudly, I did!  And she was the best pumpkin in the patch.

For our best girl’s fifth birthday we got her the coolest little ten gallon aquarium I’ve ever seen.  It has a daylight setting and a black light setting.  So the little neon tetras really glow as they zip around in their school.  She also has fish that actually glow in the dark!  Then I added a string of bubbles lining the back wall that have different colored lights and the fish love to swim in and out of them.  I confess my favorite though is this little clear shrimp.  Here he looks blue.  Meet Jacques Crousteau.  He spends his days exploring the tank and cleaning everything with fastidiousness and thoroughness, including the tiny rubber shark my little one added “to protect” the tank.  If he gets a fish flake his clear body will take on whatever color he has eaten.  And whenever he swims over the colored bubbles and lights it is SO COOL to watch his whole body, from the tip of his tail to the ends of his whiskers, go from red to blue to purple to green to yellow!  The French conservationist Jacques Cousteau, our little crustacean’s namesake, studied the sea and all of its life forms.  The famous explorer said this:

“What is a scientist after all?  It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what’s going on.”

That is how I feel when we wake up each morning to study our little magical underwater world.  And everyday I feel I learn a little something new from our beloved crustacean explorer Jacques Crousteau.

The American syndicated columnist Harvey Mackay said:

“An optimist understands that life can be a bumpy road, but at least it is leading somewhere.  They learn from mistakes and failures, and are not afraid to fail again.”

One of the first pictures I shot of river rocks was at the Santa Fe Flea Market.  I kept it as my screensaver on my iMac for a long time.  I remember walking on the rocks was somewhat tiring but I kept shifting with the stones and it made for a satisfying afternoon.  I am reminded of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  We all know the smooth path is the easy one to take.  We all know it is probably more enjoyable.  But the bumpy road brings with it a sense of pride and/or accomplishment for having overcome it.  Does it show us we are are made of stronger stuff than we believed?  Perhaps, if we traverse it.  I cannot help but think of all the romance novels I have read where the heroine has rough hands from having worked.  Does that diminish her?  Or does it make her greater?  I think we discover what is within ourselves when we encounter a bumpy road.

When I was old enough, my father taught me to track.  He taught me simply and without prejudice how to distinguish between different animals and different races of people by how they walked.  Indians (Native Americans), for example, traditionally carry their weight on their toes; whites are prominent in their heels; Asians on the insides, and Africans on the outsides.  My father never once mentioned it, but I found out at his funeral he NEVER lost a man on night patrol while serving in Korea.  Eight years and he never once lost one man.  He was blood brothers with a Comanche in a ceremony he did not fully understand because he was only a half-blood.  But what I learned from him is that our footprint reveals a lot about us.  Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer said:

“My mother always told me that as you go through life, no matter what you do, or how you do it, you leave a little footprint, and that’s your legacy.”

I so believe that.  I want to leave a footprint behind that is strong and deep in the earth like my father’s.  I want my footprint to be beautiful and lasting like my mother’s.  I want my footprint to carry far into the generations, and I want my precious child Maris to know that more than anything she bears the footprint of her heritage, her honor, her loyalty, her bravery, and her love.  The life we have lived is what we leave behind; it is our footprint.

I’m not sure why but I do not see willows hardly anywhere anymore.  I used to find them gracing small ponds and lakes around the city.  Perhaps it is because now most of our land sadly has been paved.  Whatever the case, I was so shocked to discover this willow on the corner of a street I stopped in the middle of traffic to take this picture.  I had not seen one in over 20 years!  The American journalist Barbara Walters was mocked for decades after once having asked the question, “What kind of a tree?” as a follow up in response to her interview with Katharine Hepburn.  However it was the the famous actress who notoriously said she would like to be a tree.  Personally I find the question both interesting and revealing.  The legendary American martial artist Bruce Lee once said:

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

I have always loved that.  I aspire to be elegant, graceful, and resilient — just like the willow.

I love to read.  I have always loved to read.  But I rarely read anything set in modern times.  My one exception is Dan Brown.  I love, love, LOVE his work!  He is an excellent writer and every book of his has been a real page turner.  My husband almost never reads fiction but I have managed to get him to read all his books as well and he has really enjoyed them.  The combination of mystery, symbology, religion, history, and suspense is absolutely irresistible; my favorite remains, “The Da Vinci Code.”  Prior to reading that book I was only vaguely aware of the Fibonacci sequence.  I was a journalism major who was just grateful to pass math and get my college degree.  For those who may not know, the numbers begin with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, and so on to infinity.  Every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding ones.  Perhaps the most prevalent tangible example is the chambered nautilus; it is a logarithmic spiral.  I cannot help but recall it every time I see a little snail like the one pictured here.  This perfect sequence can be found in everything from pine cones to pineapples, from sunflowers to sea stars.  It is even present in our own bodies!  There is so much we have yet to discover: great mysteries to be solved with science, symbology, religion, and history.  The American cell and molecular biologist Kenneth R. Miller, currently a Professor of Biology at Brown University, said this:

“Like many other scientists who hold the Catholic faith, I see the Creator’s plan and purpose fulfilled in our universe.  I see a planet bursting with evolutionary possibilities, a continuing creation in which the Divine providence is manifest in every living thing.  I see a science that tells us there is indeed a design to life.”

Scientists have even discovered the very ocean waves and spiral of the galaxies all bear the Creator’s golden number — the fingerprint of God.

The famous American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to have once asked and answered, “What is a weed?  A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.”  I truly feel that way.  First:  I do not know as much as I would like about botany.  Second:  I am convinced God had SOME purpose in mind when He created each and every plant.  I realize experienced gardeners might say many are invasive but I also think a great deal of what is being deemed weeds could also be beneficial if given a chance.  I will never forget the year my folks and I let the winter cabbage literally spiral out of control.  They had these yellow blooms that grew several feet centrifugally skyward.  During a rare snow we had an entire flock of bright little yellow birds migrating and they all converged to feast upon the yellow tops that had gone to seed.  All three of us stared in rapt fascination; we had never seen anything like it.  I miss the amount of cicadas, fireflies and butterflies that were around when I was a child.  I think people used to allow some “weeds” and wildflowers to grow without dousing them and everything else within a twelve mile radius full of toxic, carcinogenic chemicals.  Fields simply left to be fields ARE being productive.  We do not need another gas station, bank, or big box retailer.  What we do need is serenity and a symbiotic relationship with nature, which we seem to be slipping away from more and more.  When I discovered whatever this was in our front yard I transferred it to the empty planter on our back fence.  I think it is pretty, it has been very hardy, and has required very little water.  I do not want golf course sterility; I yearn for the wildness of nature.  So, unless it’s poisonous or incredibly detrimental, I have decided I’m not weeding anything out.