Category Archives: Inspiration

Dec7

Accepting our Flaws

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My dear friend Barbara’s beautiful waterfall.

Peace and tranquility is our ultimate goal! We each want that, and it seems when people get older, that’s exactly what seems to elude them. Why is that?

For me, this means accepting what is, and letting go of what we’d like it to be. Letting go of being perfect. Why is it that we look in the mirror and see all the flaws? Those flaws really mean we have lived, loved, gotten smacked down, and gotten up again stronger, and better.

That little old lady looking back in the mirror tells me not to be so hard on myself, you are beautiful the way you are. Just like everything else, accepting our beauty with all its spots, wrinkles, and scars is a gift. A gift we can give ourselves!

We all know this isn’t an easy ask! All of us are most critical of ourselves, but much more accepting of the flaws of other’s. Actually, my own girlfriends have been the ones to pull me out of despair, and hopelessness after a major surgery. If it weren’t for them, I’d still be a woman unable to leave my own home thinking everyone would be looking at me!

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This is what a support group looks like. These ladies are some of the most important women in my life. I wish all of you are able to gather a few really good friends you can support, and be supported by for whatever the reason.

Thank you Susan, Beth, Trish, and Sally for all your creative energy, and support when I need it.

Wrinkles…. That’s an entire different disturbing occurrence. Do I love them? Hell no! Is there anything we can do about them? Well yes and no. Without surgery, we need to give in and learn to live with them. They are stubborn little lines and crevasses. I don’t have as many as some, but more than others.

That is the way I reason away my flaws. [They aren’s as bad as some]. I also work very hard at seeing the good parts to someone, and not the flaws.

Gray Hair ……. Oh boy, how do we learn to live with yet another sign of aging? Gray hair is definitely a sign. I have always said, “I’m going to learn to live with all the things that go with getting older,” I didn’t realize how many things that meant. Another words, I’m going to grow old gracefully.

To be honest, I never thought I’d get old. I thought it was a lifetime away, why worry about it now. Little did I know that a lifetime away meant right around the corner! How does that lifetime slip away so fast?

I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality, I’m really only 40, and someone is playing a terrible joke on me. I’ve learned to love my gray hair. It’s nice to not have to color it every month, or worry about the roots showing after two weeks, so yes I love my gray hair.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have times of yearning for a color that would help me feel more vital, or a style becoming a much younger woman with a wild side.

Scars… Scars are sometimes telling and sometimes they can be emotional. We won’t get into emotional scars today. Many of us have had surgeries, or accidents leaving us with scars all over our bodies. I myself have a couple of, as I call them, zippers here and there. I can’t say they are beautiful, or that I love them, but they aren’t going anywhere, nor do I care to show them off.

We can’t do anything about scars, but once again, learn to live with them. Anything that can be covered up, for me, isn’t a problem.

Let us not forget this message of the Power of Positivity!

It will serve us well to be positive, to embrace the life we have, or change it for the better. It is so much easier to make an effort to be happy, and to keep a smile on our faces.

The right people will be attracted to a woman with a happy personality, and a beautiful smile on her face. Most people will love what is on the inside, and not even notice the outside.

Thank you for stopping to read my blog, I very much appreciate all of you.

Leave some feedback, and let me know how you feel about aging. I’d love to hear from you.

Together we stand, Karen

Oct19

We’re Getting Better & Better

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We’re Getting Better & Better

How do you feel today? As the weather gets cooler, everything changes, but we still can look fabulous even if we are a little off inside. For me I’m more stiff, everything aches, and now I need to get use to the new winter challenges. We are all alike, our challenges are different, but the boat is large, and holds us all!

I mentioned a while back about the Advanced Style, so now I’d like to show a video featuring some of the ladies from that group of very interesting women.

I love watching, and listening to all of them talking of their creations, how they feel about aging, & much more. It’s not a long video, but an interesting one.

The first thing I realized was that they are pretty much all from New York. I’m sitting here on the West Coast!” I know a lot of you are not in California, but I’m guessing we have different ways of dressing depending on where we live. So even though the women in NY are fabulously dressed, we are much more casual here in the west. Maybe it’s just an age thing. We dress up, it’s just a more casual dress up.

I went to the Opera several years ago, and my husband and I were all dressed up because it was the Opera. Hardly anyone was dressed nicely, and more than half were dressed in what I would call cleaninng clothes. The T-shirts. and jeans were dirty, and yes they were younger, but I was younger at the time too. The whole experience was so disappointing to me. The opera was great, but the people around me not so much!

As I watch women get all dressed up for little outings, ie: Doctor appointments, grocery shopping, even going to fuel up the car, I now understand why they do this. Is there any other time, or any better time to dress up? Now I’m loving being home, safely tucked away, able to do what I want, listen to my own kind of music, and dress up in my PJ’s if I want.

Personally, I put makeup on to make me feel good. It’s only to help me feel better each day, and just for me. Sometimes it’s a effort, but I still do it.

Let me know what you think of these interesting women…..

Thank you for taking time to read my blog, have a beautiful day.

Karen

Sep26

A Little Halloween Fun

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A Little Halloween Fun

Since I don’t really participate in Halloween any more, I thought I’d post a little collection of Halloween treasures my girlfriends and I have made over the years.

The pumpkin is real with succulents hot glued to the top. As long as you spray the succulents with water every couple of days, they last quite a long time.

I’ll bet you can’t imagine how much fun I had creating skulls! Each different, with their own personality.

The little skulls are even fun to decorate…

This skull is my favorite. By the time I painted, and decorated it, it started to speak to me. Something only artists may understand .

I hope you enjoyed seeing all my skulls, now I just have to pull them out this year.

Happy Halloween

Together we stand, Karen

Oct6

The Older I Get…..

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The Older I Get…..
The photos of me at the end of 6th grade wouldn’t load, so art is what you get!

When I was at the end of sixth grade, I thought I was pretty darn grown up. Then I started what was then called “Junior High,” and things really changed. I no longer thought I was the cats pajamas because I now was a small fish in a big pond.

Fast forward to high school…..

Again I thought I was going to be the cool one in school because I was entering a new phase in my life, High School! I went to Van Nuys High in the San Fernando Valley. In those days VNH was the place all the kids from families that were in the film industry went to school, and I was going to school with them. Natalie Wood, Stacy Keach both went there, but I didn’t know either of them. High School wasn’t quite as glamorous as I thought it would be, but there I was trying to be a cool kid, and still keeping up with my grades. That wasn’t easy since I was basically majoring in “Boys!” To be honest, the boys situation was a bit discouraging as well. There wasn’t the selection I had anticipated, but what was available had to do!

Faster forward…..

Once out of high school, again I thought my knowledge was primmer and with nothing more to learn, I tried my hand at a local community college. The thought of studying literally made me sick to my stomach, so I decided to once again major in “boys!” There I had a much better selection, however still not quite up to my expectations.

My next door neighbor was just entering a university, and invited me to go to one of the groups of interest she signed up for. This one was a skiing club, and reluctantly I went to her first meeting with her. Wow, now this was what I was talking about!!!

BOYS…

They were everywhere, tall ones, short ones, skinny ones, stocky ones. There was a boy for every occasion. They looked at both of us like they had never seen girls before, and we were in seventh heaven! Conversations were easy, not like those lowly high school boys. They hadn’t learned how to talk to girls yet. Before we knew it, we were both invited by the boys to go skiing with them, and hang out. My friend wasn’t intimidated, but I was passing myself off as a college student, and I wasn’t. So after the meeting I quickly disappeared into the sunset, not to be heard of since. I lived out my days in high school quietly, and as quickly as I could.

After graduating I thought my life was my own. I’m free as a bird, with nothing to stop me! Sure that’s what I thought, then reality set in. My parents were very strict, and I still couldn’t go anywhere without their approval….I was humiliated! I was an all knowing, graduate, and adult now, how could they treat me that way? I know they were just trying to do the best they could, but at the time I couldn’t understand why their job wasn’t finished.

Me at “21”

The following year, I met the love of my life, we married soon after, and started our family. First a son, then three years later another son. By five years later, I had divorced, remarried, and had a daughter. I was a young, all knowing mother of three with one divorce under my belt. Boy was I cool!

Fast forward a few years!

Almost seventeen years later, my kids are getting big with two boys in high school, and a daughter in elementary school. My hands were full, and I was running a business., and holding down a full time job. As I look back, I wonder how I found the energy, or the time to do all of this. But I did, and it worked. I had a lot of energy, and of course I was all knowing. That helped! I knew exactly what I was doing, and where I was going. How cool was I?

Then the stuff hit the fan…..

One day my husband came home and told me he was dating a blond waitress, and because I was so cool, he knew I’d understand & be OK with it. I certainly was OK with it! I guess I figured it was time… and so I decided since I knew everything there was to know, it was time for my children and I to go. And we went…

It was a struggle, but somehow we did it. The kids and I had a Charlie Brown Christmas , and ate hotdogs & baked beans for some time, but we did it, and we were better for it. My dad use to say, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger!” “Thank you Dad, I hate to admit it, but you were right!” How true that was… We have all grown, and become stronger, and better people because of this little bump in the road. Looking back, that’s all it was, just a bump in the road.

Many years later in the middle of working my second job, I met a local man, we dated for a while, and decided to marry. They say the third time is the charm. Apparently they were right, because we are now going on thirty years of marriage. Everyone is doing well, and we are all happy.

The point of this entire story is this, I have learned by trial and error that the Older I get, the less I know! Yup I was cool then, and slightly cooler now.

As most of us do get older, and each day I learn something I didn’t know, and each day I reflect on how much is in our world to yet learn, I’m curious, I want to know things, and I learn every day. But every day I’m on this amazing earth, I realize how much there is to learn, how much it has to offer, and we only have so much time. It’s undetermined, Don’t waste it!

With much love, I thank you for stopping to read Stone Soup.

See you next time, Karen

Sep1

Find the Sweetness in Life

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Sunday after church (on line of course), we were all giving readings from spirit, and nothing resonated with me. I listened patiently as all the messages seamed to be general, and almost for everyone. So I sat there taking it all in, and realizing I had a spirit on my left waiting for me to read him. He was patient, courteous, but still wanted me to acknowledge him.

After everyone had finished their reading, I finally said I’d go next with a man who had been waiting patiently for an hour. He first showed me black and white poke dots. I thought, what the what?? After received that I had a very unexpected and strange thing happen to me. I found myself viewing his journey from behind his eyes. I was a little taken aback as this had never happened to me before. We walked all over the forest, watching little animals in the woods, traveling, seeing the ocean, the beach, and exploring everything around us! I thought to myself, this is what I love to do! That was an interesting experience in itself, when out of my mouth I exclaimed, “This reading is for me!” I was so stunned that I lost my connection with this man. I didn’t know that was coming, it just spewed out.

As soon as that happened, our Minister Malcom took over and finished the reading. Malcom was able to connect to the same man that I had been connected to, and this is what he told me…..The man was my grandfather, he was here to let me know to keep looking, and exploring, I’m on the right path!

That was from my grand father who I haven’t seen since I was a teenager, & it warms my heart to know his spirit is watching over me, guiding me, and keeping me safe. My grandfather passed many years ago and I feel so blessed to have him come to me, & let me know he is here supporting my efforts.

This may sound strange to some of you, and I can understand. But I assure you, as strange as it is, it’s true. We can speak with our loved ones that have passed, and we all have the ability. Some of us don’t want any part of it, but if you just open up and consider the possibility that there are things still unexplained, you will be amazed at what is possible!

Have you ever had a dream of a loved one, or dear friend that had passed? Maybe even one of your animals from the past is in that dream. Well, this is one way they contact you, another way is you might feel your pet jump up on your bed, but when you look—nothing is there. You could have sworn something was on your bed, maybe even up against your leg.

I know I’m stretching your world right now, entertain the possibility of finding peace from a place we have been programed to know nothing about. This isn’t a religious thing, Spirit is totally non-denominational.

Just give it some thought!

Thank you for reading my post today. Many blessings to you all. Karen

Aug11

LIVE IN THE MOMENT

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A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and our minds are so powerful, we don’t even realize how much we can do with our own mind.

We all have so much going on in our lives, some more than others. I for one am comfortable with my own problems. I know what they are, I’ve resolved myself to whatever it is, and I wouldn’t change with anyone else for the life of me. I’m betting others feel about the same. I know, I know we don’t really want the problems we have, but we have them, and until we fix them, they aren’t going away!

Many of us are anxious, and stressed about what the future brings. What can you do about the future. We plan, we invest, we spend much time thinking about something that is difficult to predict. Yet, we still stress over it, and our health and happiness suffers for it.

Live in the Moment!

Might I suggest that we all try to push the past, and the future aside, and make an effort to go somewhere peaceful, maybe even fun and spend the day with someone you care about. Take a day off from stress, and anxiety, just one day…see how it goes.

Others seem to be fixated on the past. I ask you if you are one of those people? Do you talk about your life ten years ago, five years ago, or in a different marriage? STOP! After the first two or three times, your friends and family don’t want to hear it, and it doesn’t serve you well to hash it over.

What good does that do? We can’t change the past, we can learn from it, survive it, but we never need to dwell on it. It’s in the past, it’s gone….let it go!

Again my suggestion is taking someone special on a picnic, or to an outdoor restaurant for lunch or dinner, or even on a drive. Have fun, and laugh a little, or a lot. Laughing relieves stress, lightenes the mood, and is very beneficial to you. Can we even walk on the beach these days? That’s also something men, women, and kids love to do.

Treat yourself kindly, and everyone else kindly. It feels really good to start changing the narrative in your mind. You are appreciated, and you are loved.

Thank you for stopping to read Karen’s Stone Soup, see you next week. Karen

What we do today is what matters most. The Buddha