A Visit with my Family History

I recently enrolled in Facebook and used all of my former names. I hadn't used my maiden name in nearly 50 years but then I got an inquiry about my maiden name Platrot, which is somewhat rare. The inquiry came from Israel. After a little bit of trepidation at what exposure I had opened my family to, I got excited and responded. Turns out that I have cousins - many, many cousins - and extended families.

This picture was sent from Amir. My mother is the young girl and with her are my grandmother and my grandfather. It knocked my socks off. Imagine someone that I don't know, thousands and thousands of miles away, and he is intimately connected to me!

Stay tuned as the world turns and historyis revealed.

Family fun with Photobooth

A picture is worth a thousand words. You can decide its value for yourself.

The warm glow of family closeness. . . . .

My granddaughter, Devon, and I at the Bead It Shop. Devon will be 16 on Monday December 29, and the Jewel she is most hoping for is, first, a drivers license, and then something on four wheels to gain her freedom and power to "be able to take herself from here to there."

We might even see her more at the beach house. Hooray! (Devon says that she might not be able to drive 17 easily, but she'll try as soon as she is allowed.)

It was a great family Christmas and we got to keep the grandkids a couple of fantastic extra days.

Maggie's Wisdom

Hurray!
"Houston - we have lift-off" and my Blog is launched. After days of trying to import these pictures, they just showed up when I opened my blog this morning. It's Jay's birthday and he said we would make it work, and he did, without anything more than Intention. Perhaps that is the magic ingredient to everythig.

I got up early this morning and took Maggie for a walk around the arroyo. This sweet Border Collie was raised up by my dearest friend, Diane, who died 5 1/2years ago of breast cancer, and from time to time Maggie comes to visit.

The swans didn’t flutter and Maggie didn’t pull at the leash. Ah, peaceful co-existence. I took some pictures and then spent most of the morning playing with them for the “Blog”. This was supposed to be fun but I got caught in old traps of seeking perfection. It needs to be good, I told myself, to hit “publish”, and so I wrote and rewrote until Maggie looked at me soulfully as if to say – the sun’s out, the seagulls are flying, and you’re sitting here thinking that you will get the perfect blog. Maggie, who channels Diane, is crouching down on her front legs, the white tip of her tail wagging playfully. She looks up at me as if to say, The bad news is that you're not perfect, and the good news is that you're not perfect. Let it Go! And so I did, and we went out to play.

Beginnings and Endings

You've all heard the wise words that all endings are beginnings, but they don't always feel that way.