Tag Archives: happiness

FAVORITE THINGS: Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!

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There is a new Trader Joe’s in my town!

And I couldn’t be happier about it. Especially in regards to COFFEE!

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Trader Joe’s has great coffee at the best prices I’ve ever seen.

I love my coffee strong and French pressed, and recently I discovered the perfect blend of dark roasts at my TJ’s.

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My younger sister actually introduced me to this coffee when I was in LA, and she always brought me a can as a gift when she visited. I am so happy that I can get it now!

If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, I highly recommend checking it out and picking up some Bay Blend for yourself. There is nothing better than a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

What’s your favorite type of coffee? Light and sweet? Or dark and strong?

Do share!

-Rose

SPIRITUAL FRIDAY: Change… & The Kitchen Stool

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I’ve been thinking about change, of course– most of us are– as this New Year begins.

Who can resist the fresh start, the clean slate? 

So appealing….

Yet, I’ve also been thinking about the changes  that I don’t welcome.  For me those changes come mostly with age. And yes, I can complain about the wrinkles and having to color my hair more often but those aren’t the changes that I’m really talking about.

I’m talking about the things that always were, that are now starting to fade away.

Like the kitchen stool in Trish’s kitchen.

I have spent countless hours on that stool, watching my best friend’s mom Trish cook, talking things over– sometimes alone, sometimes with the other women collected in that kitchen for the same comfort I sought.

And Trish delivered that comfort, my whole life.  She was always a source of wisdom and perspective. She’s 81 now and lives on her own.  She lost both her husband and daughter to cancer. And I visit her in her rambling house in Vermont whenever I can. I say it’s to help her. Really, though, it’s to help me. 

During my last visit, Trish wound up in the emergency room.  She found herself suddenly unable to walk.  Now she faces a slow recovery and uses a walker.  It is harder for her to stand in the kitchen.

So our kitchen stool days have changed.  I wonder, are they gone?

It has occurred to me that perhaps it’s my turn to set up a kitchen stool.

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I think it may be my time to be what Trish was to me, to others…. After all, I was taught by the best.

What rituals have comforted you?  What people taught you well?  Share Please.

Have a great weekend,

-Rose

Spiritual Friday: The Sidewalks of New York

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I am in New York City today — one of my favorite places in the world.  I lived here when I was in my twenties during the city’s “Desperately Seeking Susan” years.  My old neighborhood, the lower east side, was full of Ukranian food, Indian food, Italian food and some of the best dive bars I’ve ever had the pleasure of patronizing.  The years fall away for me.

As I walk these streets, visiting the familiar Christmas highlights – entire stores decorated in bows, the tree at Rockefeller Center, the enormous red Christmas ornaments floating in the fountain on 6th Avenue – I am still enchanted.

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And I feel the poignancy as I walk — heading north to THE park.

I can’t walk these streets without recalling the young woman I was…

Not quite as sure of things, not quite as peaceful.  I am overcome with memories of friends- some lost to cancer, others to the vagaries of time and the demands of adulthood.

The seas of humanity swirl as we navigate these streets- somehow together, somehow alone.  I see families holding hands to stay together as they steer through the crowds.  I see older people bent over but still carrying home their grocery bags.  I see the busy business people – determined, focused.

And I am humbled to be one among.  To be able to share in the energy and life and craziness that is this city.

What places stir the poignant memories for you?  What places bring you joy?

Share Please!

Have a joyful weekend,
Rose

Spiritual Friday: Me and My Folks

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I’m with my parents this Thanksgiving.  It’s just me this year.  Since there are five of us, you never know what combination of the clan will land.  But this year I am flying solo with them.

One of the great blessings of my adulthood has been that I still have them.  I’ve gotten to know them in a way that is so different than how I knew them in my twenties and thirties.  They are all too human to me now… I see them much the way I see dear friends I love and admire –people of a time and place who have survived the joys and sorrows that life brings us…and who have done so with grace and dignity and humor.

My mother insisted on cooking the dinner again.  She is 81 now. I didn’t argue too much– stood at the ready and tackled the clean-up with all I could give it.  She told me it felt good to know she ‘could still cook Thanksgiving dinner.’ The verdict:  turkey was good – moist, not dry; stuffing was a bit dry for her liking.  “Easily fixed with gravy,” my dad and I responded!

In the morning I took my Dad– who will be 87 tomorrow– to the beach.  He sat on the boardwalk bench and I headed down for a long walk along the Atlantic.  I returned to him, my soul soothed, and we sat for a while and talked.

He speaks more now of his childhood.  I love his stories–like the one about the fire on the Morrow Castle, which beached in Spring Lake, New Jersey on its return trip to New York Harbor from Havana.  His folks drove down from Bayonne with the rest of the crowds to see the famous grand passenger ship now ruined and burned.  The story of the Morrow Castle goes on and includes explosions and prison and murder… look it up.  It’s a great tale.

My favorite moment was when he said, “I remember I had a little camera that took postage stamp size pictures.  I could see the entire hull…it was enormous.”  His gaze never left the ocean as he recalled that day.

“How old were you Dad?”

“I was six.”

I always get choked up when we talk about his memories.

Happy Birthday, Pop.

 

Tell me about your parents.  What are their stories?

-Rose

Spiritual Friday: “Holding It Lightly”

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One of my dearest friends used to urge me to “hold it lightly.”  I would often hang up from our talks wondering exactly what she meant – what holding it lightly looked and felt like.  

I think I understand now.

It’s simple really.  Holding on tightly crushes, chokes the air out, stifles.  It is desperate.

And desperate is not good.

Holding lightly acknowledges our want, yet frees us from our want.  It allows for room, for air, for other choices.  It is peaceful

And peaceful is good.

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This week I have tried to hold it all lightly – the petty bothers; the silly disappointments; the promising news; the IRS notification – all of it.

When I am lighter, I am easier and life is easier.

Just a thought on this Friday. Have a relaxing weekend,

-Rose

Spiritual Friday: FALLING IN LOVE…

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A few Sunday mornings ago I was standing at my dresser, staring at my perfume, and I decided to fall in love with my life.  Yes. 

No melodrama, no drama – just fall, straight on in –accepting all that my life was, has been lately, and is now.

I made this decision because I was tired and it was time.  I was tired of my whining; of my waiting; of my happiness contingent….

And it was time for me to see how much I really loved my life. 

Even with its … shortcomings. 

Like my bathroom.  It is not the bathroom of the eye candy interior decorating magazines that I so love.  In fact, it’s kind of an insane bathroom, rigged with some kind of a bathtub shower contraption that rests on a too small platform, which renders entering and exiting the shower an athletic event.  It is not ADA compliant.

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And… it sits in the center of my little house on the noisy corner, with its old roof and sagging porch; and no dishwasher.

Yet it is here in this house that I came to live and heal after my divorce.  And it was here to this house that I returned after escaping for a while to figure out how to survive yet more loss.  

Here I learned to love the silence of single life; to adorn my bed with plush sheets and beautiful bedding; to paint the walls beautiful rich girl colors like mauve and peach.  There is not one piece of furniture in this house that I do not love and cherish; not one piece of art.  I even love my flatware, my french press, my coffee mugs.

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This house is so affordable that it has and will help me recover from two financial storms.  

And the people that surround the house… friends that look after me, and my sweet dog.  

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And the work I have been able to complete and create here, watching through the large windows of this old place as the little kids go to school across the street every morning and leave each day for home around three.

I didn’t get the glamorous luxurious life I somehow thought I was owed.  I got this life – this complete, busy life inside the blue and white house on the corner.

It’s not always easy to accept where you are. But making the conscious decision to fall in love with my life right now is something I’m so grateful for. What do you love about your life? Look around, and let me know what you can fall in love with about your home, your family, your current standings. Do you have a favorite comforter that you just pulled for these chilly autumn nights? Or a favorite spot in your house perfect for reading? Do share.

Have a lovely Friday,
-Rose