The Gifts of Mothers

 Welcome Spring!

Despite some white stuff falling on our neighborhood on Thursday, the calendar and the sun tell us that Winter has finally loosened its grip on the Northeast.  It is time for warmer, greener times.

Feeling a little bit of the spring fever today, with Mother Nature heating us up with a balmy 45F outside, I grabbed the rake to unveil some of the living things hiding beneath the autumn's pile of leaves.


In the corner by the porch sits my mahonia, a gift from my mother-in-law.  Unlike the rest of the yard, it never truly loses all its color.  Just turns dark purple in the cold of the winter.  The sun isn't strong enough yet to bring out its glossy bright green leaves.

In front of it, in my flower bed that will vanish beneath a wave of weeds by late summer, sits a wealth of other living and green perennials--many of which came as gifts from both my Moms. Jonquils, pachysandra, daylilies and even the clematis were all eager to see the sun as I raked off the winter.

The baby maple trees haven't quite got their juices flowing yet.  I ruthlessly yanked a forest of them out before they could.

And then finally in another bed I spied a flash of yellow:

 The very first croci!  Planted amidst the gray, dry peppermint stalks, sprouting tulips and aromatic thyme.  I didn't mind raking up that plot one little bit.

I work and decide I am grateful for the Sun, the warmth, the hint of new life and the generosity of close relatives.

But perhaps most of all, I am thankful that when I was a little little girl, Mom handed me some hollyhock and carrot seeds and showed me the simple joy in touching the Earth.

What beautiful things we can all do when we work with the magic that is all around us.

After All, Today is Another Day

Some days you get up in the morning and just know it's one those "start over" days.  That was yesterday.

Today I woke up and promised myself it would be a better day.  And that appeared to be debatable when I arrived at work.  Got out of the car, pulled out the rolling briefcase, juggled car keys vs. work keys and started to walked toward the building.  I passed over a storm grate just as I gave a nice energetic flip to the massive key chain and guess what?

Uh huh.  They flew through the air, I missed them on the downward flight and they landed on the grate...for a second.  Before they slipped between the holes and down...

Well, crap.  Maybe today wasn't meant to be any better. But--there's always a bright side, right?

The drain is only 3 feet deep.  The keys landed on a pile of leaves.  I could see them!  I just needed to get them back out.  Which my cleaner, Moacir, did quickly with an old coat hanger.  Don't ask what kind of deities left a single wire coat hanger in the booth--because we don't actually get them with uniform orders any more.  But let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

The moment of panic passed.  My keys are back in my possession (you would not believe the kind of headache my keys getting lost would create) and the day is getting on.

Another good thing, the "TED" display is adorable--for all the wrong reasons.  I wouldn't take any child to see the movie when it releases next week, but I won't be missing it, either.  Check out the trailers at http://tedisreal.com

Hope you have a great day!

Daily Victories: It Takes Neighbors

This week, we got the bad guy. 

A patron reported to one of our managers there was a suspicious person looking in car windows in our lot.  It's a big lot--close to 3,000 spaces.  So, you can imagine that a lot of people might wander around a bit after they've misplaced their car.  Still, we checked it out.  Sure enough, this young man was weaving through aisles, peaking in windows, ducking down for a minute or two and walking quickly in the other direction when he saw us watching him. 

He moved his car one aisle over, driving about two miles an hour...slow enough that it catches your attention even in a parking lot.  He probably figured that I couldn't see him...magic cloak of invisibility once he got in his car.

We called the police department, which I'd like to say that our PD is awesome.  They're always polite, professional and respond to problems in a reasonable amount of time, considering the size of the city. 

Mr. I'm Not Acting Weird bolted a few seconds before the cruiser arrived.  But they did notice his little red car careening out of the lot and wandered off to stop him after getting a few details from me and my manager.

The next day, the officers stopped by to tell me the perp ran away.  But they got the car.  And they got a purse that he had stolen from a car he broke into.  The patron got her purse back.  The perp lost his car.  And we've got all the info to nail him with when he reappears on the radar...and he probably will.

It all started with a concerned citizen, a manager who acted on the information and a police department that took the time to investigate a suspicious person.  We can make a difference and we can help each other to keep our world a little safer.

Until next time! Have a great day.

Daily Victories: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

You know, when you leave your swim suit hanging out to dry, I can imagine if it went missing you might not want to say anything. A little embarrassing, don't you think?  But what if you know who snagged it off the line?  Then what? It seems it's time to face off with the burglar...

And so the residents of a California neighborhood have.  Except they're not ticked off.  Not really.  Because it's funny more than tragic.  When Dusty the kleptomaniac kitty goes on his nightly prowl, he just can't resist bringing home any little, medium or even surprisingly hefty object that his neighbors leave in their yards.

You'll love the night vision shots at the end of the video as he brings in his nightly haul.  Smile!  And I hope all of life's little challenges are as benign as Dusty's neighbors.

Daily Victories: Listen Well

Sail Boston 2009...by R.J. Grady

I love listening to people talk. Having grown up with parents who hail from two different parts of the US, living in more regions besides those and listening to Monty Python from an early age, my own accent is something of a mutt.  Little bits from different places hang around in there.  It does cause raised eyebrows from time to time.  As such, I relate to anybody who is struggling to work their mouth around a new sound.

But sometimes, those sounds do make you smile.  You can't help it.

Today I visited a store where the clerk, a middle-aged gentleman who hailed from Barcelona, I think, was struggling with his printer.  Very polite.  Made every effort to ensure I understood exactly the terms of the contract.  Waved his hands a bit.  And then when the contract refused to print he began mumbling, "Paper yam.  It has a paper yam." 

There was picking up the tray, turning it upside down, crumpling paper, pushing of buttons, turning around, asking the customer that entered the store, "Un momento, please. S'okay? I am having a paper yam," and other bits of dancing behind the counter.  There was putting the phone on speaker while he waited for another patron to come back on the line...canned music filled the air.

Had it been another day, I might have eyed the circus with dread, knowing the receipt would never print.  But you know, Javier made it worth the wait.  Eventually he won the battle with the recalcitrant printer, we shook hands and I continued on with my day.

I would never trade the world we live in with another.  It's too full of intriguing people, with and without accents.

Daily Victories: The Sun Does Shine

Two days and more than a foot of snow MORE later...the sun came out.  It does that, you know.  Blue skies.  White piles all around.  Really pretty.  And to top it off, I spotted two bald eagles this morning fishing over the Merrimack River. Fantastic!

While I grew up in the Merrimack Valley, wildlife really wasn't part of the daily life.  The river was off limits back then to just about everything.  Filled with trash and pollution, it boggled the mind how it could even be a water source for communities along its banks.

But things have changed.  Those eagles are proof.  They aren't plants.  Nobody put them here.  They came back.  We have a few nesting pairs, but the Merrimack is also host to a wintering colony that fly south from Canada.  Apparently snow drifts and frozen rivers are balmy for these guys.

But you know, after you've been shoveling and shoveling and laugh while your neighbors curse the skies at the now freezing rain that's falling, it is a glorious thing to drive around and see that massive bird with its white head and tail hovering over some open water. 

Things do change.  Our water ways are cleaner.  The fish stocks are larger.  And the eagles are returning.  It makes one believe Spring might arrive one of these days.

Better times are ahead.  Have a good day.

Daily Victories: Lost and Found

If you dropped your wallet at a major entertainment venue, would you expect to get it back?

I ask, because like many people in this world, I have to admit that I wouldn't necessarily expect to find that wallet again.  But, you know what?  More people turn in those wallets to the lost & found departments and the police than you'd think.

Yesterday, in a single eight hour shift, I returned to worried individuals two cell phones, a wallet, set of car keys, an iPod and various hats and scarves.  And I'm only the person rummaging through the lost & found bucket...not the one finding and turning in the items.  I still have a lost wedding ring note on the bulletin board--perhaps that, too, will appear.

But besides lost items, there are also lost people.  My high school principal stopped for a friendly hello last night, as well as a police officer who used to work details for me over ten years ago.

Yes, we all have too many things to keep track of in our daily lives.  But we'd all be a bit happier if we truly believed that the people in our neighborhoods are willing to help us keep it all organized. 

The next time you misplace an item, ask around.  I bet somebody will be happy to bring a smile to your face and return it to you.

Daily Victories

Yes! I found the focus for this blog.  I am always impressed by the series of TV ads placed by the Foundation for a Better Life.  If you read their website, they don't accept donations.  All this independently run concept charity asks is for every person on the planet to take those values we all cherish and utilize them in our daily lives. 

And as I've considered one topic after another for this blog, I am usually faced with one truth, I don't want to turn this blog into a place to whine...it's not becoming and there's far too much of that on this planet.  So, I will use this space to talk about what makes me happy, what I saw today that made me smile...or made somebody else smile. 

We forget, but there are many kindnesses that are extended from one human to another each and every day.  Strangers are kinder than we'd believe, due to the nightly news with stories of murder, war, theft.  There're far too many places for you and me to learn about that.  So, here will be a good place.

For today's daily victory I'll share something I saw between two of my employees: One a teenaged girl, the other a young asian immigrant.  They were leaving for the night and chattering away.  When they passed me, she kept repeating the word 'vocabulary'.  He was attempting to say it.  She spelled it out.  He spelled it out.  They sounded out the word together...it has a couple sounds difficult to say.  He said it very slowly by himself.

"There you go!" She smiled.  "You got it!"

He thanked her and left for the night.

They're not particular friends.  Just co-workers.  People with good hearts.  One wanted to help, the other was willing to accept the olive branch.

And that is today's daily victory. 

The picture?  I'll be using pics from my vacations...they made me smile at one point.  I hope they'll make you smile, too.

Share your daily victories!  I'll post them :) 

Have a great day.