Quotable Woman

One book about womanly comes around to us in decade cycles.  This book is “Gift from the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh which centres on woman’s need for solitary time in order to be herself but also to be filled up with the emotional tools to fulfill her family obligations.  At one point she speaks to what we today call multi-tasking; “This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of.  It leads not to unification but to fragmentation.  It does not bring grace, it destroys the soul.”  Sitting in my home and enjoying the quiet life in retirement I do contemplate the words of “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” something which is also true of women today.

Despite the concerns about women working long hours, often as single parents, there is now a possible turning point in women taking a huge step in changing the world.  The madness that has been going on in the United States this past year has really magnified the troubles not only in America but around the global (to a greater or lesser degree).  The “strides” women took in the late 1960’s when entering the workforce in huge numbers, the Woman’s Movement, Women’s Liberation, Human Rights all these things seem to have waned with younger women not understanding what their mothers had to go through just to get a job much less a job with “equal pay for equal work”.  Change is fleeting in this man’s world and women always seem to end up with the short end of the stick.  And this is where we started, women are nurturers at heart and this causes them to stumble in righting the wrongs of the world.

But there is hope as more women take leads in governing.  Still baby steps but the movement is rising.  This is now about power.  Awaken ladies.  Feel it and own it.  Don’t wait for it to be given to you.

 

Another Day in 2018

How wonderful to say "another day".

 

However this is not about me today.  Let's talk about trends.  Fashion trends seem to go in shorter and shorter cycles but the repeats are almost non-existent but seem to stay.  Things like animal prints just seem to STAY.  Boring.  And  shiny glitz in bags and shoes have had their day, in my eyes, for way too long.  And those clog like shoes were never a good idea.

 

I like streamlined and I like classics.  Think Grace Kelly.  I like modesty.  For the past year the soap operas have been wearing sleeveless shoulders but with the sleeves intact (how to describe?), slanted  collars, backless dresses and other raunchy stuff.  Do ladies really want to wear stuff like that?  Does it even look good?  And who wears that sort of clothes to work?  Oh right, we are talking Hollywood jobs.  And yet it translates into stores anyway.

 

I remember when hot pants first came out (and that was even before pantyhose was available)!  Women have gone through tons of changes but one thing I am all for - that women are allowed to wear pants at work!  I remember getting sent home from school in Grade 6 because Mom sent my sister and I to school with pants (no skirt on top) and I went into a tug-of-war as she sent me right back to school and the teacher called me "George" for the rest of the day.  It was -25 outside and Mom said "no way are you going out in a dress/skirt"  This is too cold.  That would have been around 1964-65.

 

Pants, slacks, jeans - whatever the term - those are my go-to's!

 

 



2018 Off the Cuff

Two months and more of not blogging although I have had a lot of thoughts - on  cancer, chemo treatments, "the man who shall not be named", populism, xenophobia, harassment - all so much negative stuff.

 

But also positiveness.  Like amazing family and friends, encouragement, good days, hobbies like genealogy, card making, scrapbooking, reading and some brain work games!

 

How does one sum up a life, a day, a moment?  This morning there was a shared blog about a young woman from Australia who passed away June 2018 and had her family post her reflections after she died.  It' not because it was necessarily original observations yet it was all relevant in that she reminded one that we should not sweat the small stuff.  Sure we can get annoyed at missing a bus, losing things, having annoying or rude people around us but we should feel it and then move.

 

I feel blessed to live in a country with excellent health care (in Alberta anyway) and with a social conscience even though it is not up to my Scandinavian roots standard.  It is so far above that of the country south of us that I thank God that my parents chose Canada for their new home. 

 

This morning we heard a whole lot of blast regarding the President's latest rant on race that just makes me question where the world is heading.  It seems incredible that so many people around the world feel that they are somehow in trouble because of people of a different race.  Really?  That is who you WANT to blame?  Wouldn't it behoove you to look at your government, the people who are supposed to care about you (in this 21st century, for Heaven's Sake)?  Don't find scapegoats in your fellow man but in your Leaders (????). 

 

That's it for today - a little bit of everything.

 

And keep faith, keep a whole heart, keep love there and SMILE at the folks around you.  A smile goes a long way.

 

Blessings.