No resolutions...just dream catching...

Trio: Rose, Paula and the Royals

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. It is a pleasure to pen a few words, at this, my favorite time of year. This time when magical dreams and schemes are created as we face the next 12 months with gladdened old hearts and open doors to 2013!

 

Allow me to offer some exposition to this first narrative of the year.  One colloquial day, while on the train northbound sitting with my travel buddy Jackie, we found ourselves visiting the topic  of living your best life through visuals, a topic of mutual interest. After our conversation, I decided to actively pursue my imagination and follow this colorful stroll as so did she.
We agreed that boxes were the visual tools of choice. 

Now, many of you will be wondering by what right I presume to present my visualization endeavor to all of you clearly more high and fine and talented in the world of living life.  I am an unlikely character to speak of this topic.  It seems slightly preposterous and silly even to me! I certainly can’t lay claim to any of the following banter as a  great achievement of my own - yet. I am a beginner and these vessels pictured above have been chosen precisely as a tool to set this year ablaze and to march on right-foot-forward. 

 

I will offer, I have taken great pains to affectionately personalize the trio pictured above.

Hence, please meet Rose, Paula and the Royals. These boxes are earmarked, by me, for my walk - a modified journey to visualizations;

 just another aspect of my alembicated pilgrimage. 

 

(Rose): the rose covered tin box was a gift I received from good friends in Portugal last summer.  Happily, this karmatic gift came with a key attached to a lucky owl key-ring. No doubt,this box will store well guarded thoughts/secrets and maybe some euros, if I am lucky.

(Paula): The shiny wooden box was a Christmas present from a long time friend and co-worker.  It is fire branded with Paula Deen's seal of approval at it's bottom. This box is a salt and pepper flapped container with a southern drawl.  She has been officially re-purposed for my cause- y'all. This unit will be the steamy dreaming big box. 

(The Royals): This august token tea tin with Prince William and Kate Middleton's  likeness is now empty and ready to serve 'barmy ole me' as a dream catcher. In addition, I will fill it up with personal successes, intellectual pursuits and doses of codswallup.

If I don't faff around, each container will be charged with a different set of stored visuals that will be a reminder of endless possibilities that will race past Homeland security and dock at my port one fine Florida day.

I remain optimistic. According to Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization is the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. 

Other visualists, and there are many quarterbacks to this school of thought, such as Dr. Lee Pulos noted for, "conscious creating desired outcomes in your life," and Dr. Norman Peale author of 'The Power of Positive Thinking', to name just two, believe that while mental imaging terminology differs
the concept is the same.

Typically, visualists create power posters or scrapbooks to further sensitize their dreams.
I, however, although unconventional, have enlisted visual muscle by employing Rose, Paula and the Royals to this cause. 

Sounds fairly simple. Experts indicate that this process is three fold.

- Begin with a relaxed state of mind
- Focus on a specific image
- Repetition, repetition, repetition

I believe this exercise might be a fun way to jump start the baby new year.
On this day, January 2, 2013, my boxes and I concur with these free thinkers and behavioral psychologists:

Visualization is the complimentary skill to vision.

Together with Rose, Paula and the Royals, I will meander my way to the clarity needed to fulfill my dreams...

What is in your box?

Buen Camino!

*Heads up! The good news is anyone can incorporate this practice into daily living and it just doesn't take a lot of training.

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Joyeux Reveillon 2013!

 

Reveillon 

Désoler pour cette longue, voir très longue absence (encore une fois...)

 

Ehe-emm, pour les fêtes j'ai travaillée en peu et plus des repas en famille ...

 

...donc je n'ai pas vraiment eu le temps de m'occuper du Blog. Je vous poste, comme promis mais avec un peu de retard  un article pour vous montrer les cadeaux que j'ai eu pour Noël - my new box!

 

Ah, yes, you guessed it - another year's resolution; this time to recover my long forgotten high school french.

Je ne m'en souviens plus! C'est triste!

An ambitious addition to an already misguided list  of bucket do's.

 

I will soon write about my Pandora's Box 'cadeaux box" of goodies in the New Year!

 

In the meantime: 

Bonne soirée & Bonne nuit à tous et à toutes !

 

 "Bon Chemin et 

 JOYEUSES FETES DE FIN D'ANNEE "



 

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A Happy Everything wish for you...

This year's hug..

You have come to the right place. 

Welcome to my place for the ordinary !

Ah, my fears are luckily unfounded...I now have your attention!

Disclaimer: I confess I did not want to risk any distort by a  brief and passing verbal delivery, so I threw in a few good end of the year wishes for you below...    

 

I WISH FOR YOU:

 Peace in times of unrest;

A peaceful and agitated Holiday Isle repose - on the way to Key West - our  favorite get away.

Smiles especially in those moments whereby a smile may feel like hard work;

Alexis my niece and I  -  sprained arm and foot and on her way to Machu Picchu, Peru  one day later...

Imagination so that you can allow yourself to drift away inside your very own rainbow - 

p.r.n. - as needed;

Photograph courtesy of Herminia Diaz - Immaculate Conception Church

 Laughter the kind that makes your belly hurt and your eyes tear up;

My longtime friend Patty P. who  is a friend to laughter  ... N'est pa?!

 Sunsets they just cannot be ignored. Sunsets are free and they are one of many miraculous (shut my mouth) gifts from God;

Weekend at Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beachn on the Intra-coastal with Patty P.

 Friendships the sort that remain a staple through life's journey - treasured companions that tinker on down the lane next to you, first on a dirt road paved for tricycles and later on a non-slippery tiled geriatric porch ready for rockers - hopefully seaside;

  

Faith so that nothing shakes you because you know with certainty all things are as they should be;

At Fatima, Portugal 2012

 Confidence so that you can be kind and forgiving to yourself;

At 'Sobe' with Ali and Tony - cruising expedition  one fine summer evening...

Gratitude because the list is...

'B.C' .foto ( before 'their' children) Photos by Jenise

Endless....and it is framed by  faith,  family and hope...

Circa 1960 - last portrait before our life changed radically and we became political refugees

And most of all Love...

because it is Just NOT over rated! 

Imagine a clam or a turtle without an inhabitant; an empty shell. Yes?

Without love, we are just a shell that only exists.

'Com certeza absoluta'! 

No doubt! 

Best to be a crustacean with a heart! I WISH YOU LOVE!

Still loving life  and each other  - the disparages of culture have made us better people over the years -
Photos by http://photosbyjenise.smugmug.com/

A tip from Oprah:

Live your Best Life!

From our family to yours:

Follow what is sweet, delicious and calling!

Buen Camino, Happy Everything y Muchas Cosas Buenas de todo corazon!

Don't be a stranger; I plan to remain TINKERING in this place for the ordinary; extra-ordinary!



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Los amigos son la familia que nosotros escogemos

This photograph was taken as a result of a series of events leading up to a Boomer Celebration that took place on November 10, 2012:

Click on this link for more tales: Our Story

 

Following our story, the big day arrived along with a Giant Yellow Submarine cake crafted by my artful cousin Nancily and docked into safe harbor. This baby got the party started! 

 Click on Link for : Yellow Submarine Extravangaza!

Epilogue by:

Escrito por Regina Brett, 90 años, de "The Plain Dealer", Cleveland, Ohio

 

Para celebrar la llegada a mi edad avanzada escribí unas lecciones que me ha enseñado la vida. ‐ La vida no es justa, pero aún así es buena ‐ La vida es demasiada corta para perder el tiempo odiando a alguien. ‐ Tu trabajo no te cuidará cuando estés enfermo. Tus amigos y familia sí. Mantente en contacto. ‐ No tienes que ganar cada discusión. Debes estar de acuerdo en no estar de acuerdo. ‐ Llora con alguien. Alivia más que llorar solo. ‐ Cuando se trata de chocolate, la resistencia es inútil. ‐ Haz las paces con tu pasado para que no arruine el presente. ‐ No compares tu vida con la de otros. No tienes ni idea de cómo es su travesía. ‐ Si una relación tiene que ser secreta, mejor no tenerla. ‐ Respira profundamente. Eso calma la mente. ‐ Elimina todo lo que no sea útil, hermoso o alegre. ‐ Lo que no te mata, en realidad te hace más fuerte. ‐ Nunca es demasiado tarde para tener una niñez feliz. Pero la segunda sólo depende de ti. ‐ Cuando se trata de perseguir aquello que amas en la vida, no aceptes un "no" por respuesta. ‐ Enciende las velas, utiliza las sábanas bonitas, ponte la lencería cara. No la guardes para una ocasión especial. Hoy es especial. ‐ Sé excéntrico ahora. No esperes a ser viejo para serlo. ‐ El órgano sexual más importante es el cerebro. ‐ Nadie es renponsable de tu felicidad, sólo tú. ‐ Enmarca todo supuesto "desastre" con estas palabras: "En cinco años, ¿esto importará?" ‐ Perdónales todo a todos. ‐ Lo que las otras personas piensen de ti, no te incumbe. ‐ El tiempo sana casi todo. Dale tiempo al tiempo. ‐ Por más buena o mala que sea una situación, algún día cambiará. ‐ No te tomes tan en serio. Nadie más lo hace. ‐ No cuestiones la vida. Sólo vívela y aprovéchala al máximo hoy. ‐ Llegar a viejo es mejor que la alternativa.....morir joven. ‐ Todo lo que verdaderamente importa al final es que hayas amado. ‐ Sal todos los días. Los milagros están esperando en todas partes. ‐ Si juntáramos nuestros problemas y viéramos los montones de los demás, querríamos los nuestros. ‐ La envidia es una pérdida de tiempo. Tú ya tienes todo lo que necesitas. ‐ Lo mejor está aún por llegar. ‐ No importa cómo te sientas... arréglate y preséntate. ‐ Cede. ‐ La vida no está envuelta con un lazo pero sigue siendo un regalo. Los Amigos son la Familia que nosotros mismos escogemos…Dios siempre esta con nosotros!

 ·         True,  I did not write this, but wish I had. I have another 38 years to come up with meaningful words that can only be written at the wise age of  ninety.  If I can still write.

 

Buen Camino, Boomers!

 

 

Dedicated to all my friends that are family!

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A mess redefined.

This harangue of a mess simply started when I was unable to find one dull government assigned document one week ago. I shuffled through every drawer and personally manipulated every piece of paper that I owned. I flipped over and under boxes, crates, odd and even vessels of our lives in print, musty cabinets, piano benches and utility room containers; I realized that I needed to seriously organize this hot pile of history and archive our life's receipts; alpha to omega.

 

I found the document that I was hunting for and found myself buried by a mountain that could only be compared to a "Close encounter" of the photographic kind. 

Impossible! Fifty years of snap shots - Mom's and mine; some in mini albums, maxi albums, vinyl books, novelty books big: tall and small; a Titanic type shipping trunk full!

Problem: to fit the end product onto one wide -load, white and expansive bookshelf of our photo history; the story of our lives in books that should  live on until I arrive to that jumping place at the end.  

 

Please note: after I get to that jumping place, the story should pass to the next jumper that will follow...digital or otherwise. 

Required: Uniformity. This is my personal goal. Aesthetics is a consideration, naturally. 

Situation: Due to my most southern-like ailment of creating all things to perfection such as mixing a lusty Friday night refreshing mint julep...something drastic had to be done. I must  properly house our lives of Kodak moments.

Final Destination: Twenty some archival albums - our lives in soup to nuts.  Either a really great concept or a conceptually depressing one.

What say you?

Good luck with that, Ana! Buen Camino, Baby !

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Maricusita-de-Belen: Kika

 

Assonance or not, couplet or dactyl, dimeter or stanza ... I was recently inspired ( as recent as last night) by one of my favorite twentieth century poets, Hanna Kahn, to throw some witty wordy nuggets together for my favorite Kika -for all time.

 

 

(f/k/a: Maria-cusita-de-belen)  

blond and wine
glasses and bible;
lava summer,
soulful and steady.

radiant and vintage

sharp and soft; 

chilled warmth,

tousled and straight.

 

bright and bubbly

cross and musical;

freely precise,

subtle and affected.

 

Before and after

Loved by all.

 

 

 

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Coming back...it's Fall.

After drinking a glass of milk and fumbling in the dark for a fleece jacket, I met this day with the same youthful enthusiasm that kept me exhilarated this time of year when I was Abuela Mercedes' little grand daughter. 

 

Churros and Menier chocolate weather has arrived!

 

Thirty years or more ago, on a morning much like this one, our busy kitchen laboratory would be constantly blazing with Abuela's   purposeful excitement to fill the house with those familiar smells broached to her from her beloved Island home of Cuba. 

 

I can still hear her call out to Abuelo, "Lopez, ayudame a rallar el chocolate," and he would appear instantly to churn up some home spun cocoa goodness.  

 

Suddenly, as if an almost visible north wind surged upwardly and out from her stove, the kitchen breeze would soon announce to the entire house that the chocolate, the milk and the sugar had come into a perfect union and would beckon for us to join them.  Thanks to her defined Nitza Villapol style Cuban recipes, Abuelo's  Iberian palate and plantation voidee, this became my favorite season of all - without exception. 

Clearly, I owe most of my eating disorders to this convention; but, in turn, my earliest memories of family had everything to do with my Grandmothers culinary acumen. She mastered and excelled in the art of bringing all of us together around her tables on these cool snappy days despite the distance or time constraints.

Today, needed little amplification. I sported a relaxed grin as I walked out our front door; the very same door that I used to embrace this season of magic memory making while Grandmother was alive and nurtured the seasonal familial feasts.

Today was the first tangible morning of Autumn in Hialeah.  The sky was  pure white with a blue sparkle that radiated through our  tropical setting. The crisp breeze snapped across my newly  painted rouged lips.  My face was cold and clear. The smell of the bristle of green grass infused the idea that the season was arriving with her habitual roar.  These days bring the chill that warms my Florida heart. Tonight my kitchen will sport the same aromas of girlhood. Gracias Abuela Mercedes y Abuelo Lopito!

Churros and Menier chocolate weather has arrived!

Happy Monday. There I said it!

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Back to South Beach and more...

Life is slowly returning to what 'was' prior to my European re-unification. I  am slowly and lethargically preparing to face the unexpected challenges that meet and greet me from sun up to sunset and some times even while I sleep.

Knowing full well that my reconnect with Florida has been bumpy- at best, my daughter and son-in-law invited me out on a date last Friday night.  I sometimes forget  that we natives are extremely fortunate  to be in spitting distance from infinite variations of  local paradise; fifteen minutes from anywhere we can indulge in an outrageously luxurious multi-cultural international city-scape.

And... as for today, my return to life and art is still at low tide, the following are visuals that illustrate the indescribable evening this Momma spent with her besties; an evening that kept us out and about past two a.m.-- very a-typical for me!

The first stop was the dinner stop at an amazing Sushi place just east of of  North Bay Village, Katana Sushi.  A small, low lit restaurant with a unique dining experience called Kaiten sushi. We waited to be seated for a bit, but it was worth it.  The  term Kaiten is used to describe sushi places that have plates with sushi on boats or conveyor belts circling... We hungry sushi lovers were not shy and proceeded to pluck sushi off boats that traveled on a steady stream of water next to our table.  In the middle,  an expert chef would prepare different entrees and then place them onto the current.  Needless to say, we did Titanic type damage to the dinner vessels. 

Katana Sushi

Loving me some eel sashimi!

The night was still young at this point!

Lincoln Road was buzzing with locals, tourists and families into
the wee hours of the morning!

Portofino handbags! All Italian leather- wuzza!

I swore to return...I am in love!

Salsa Mia! Salsa Classes over

YUCA: Young Urban Cuban Americans (That's us!)

Let there be ART at the LIK Gallery!

 I made a new friend, William.

  I don't know how much alcohol was in his Red Solo Cup,

but after a private tour and several

outbursts of just how beautiful he thought I was,

I too promised to return to to the Museum just to hear him say it all over again!

Laughing Out Loud (LOL)!

Nespresso Cafe! Best time at a coffee shop ever!

Nespresso Monster Coffee Maker!

Nespresso Cups and a storefront!

Ali's new clickers!

I think this portrait of a lady was created just for me!

 She pretty much expressed my mood on Friday.

I will call her Ana-is-a-smiling- Britto!

Riding around SoBe in the Mustang with the top down.

And a good night was had by all!

Buen Camino en Miami, FLA!

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161 To Go, Please!

So this is my field, this is my glass on my windowsill that overlooks my field and this is me sitting behind it all ...three days ago... Although I am physically back in town, I am admittedly waiting for the rest of me to catch up!


I confess, this is a tough one,  I am ONLY inching my way back to reality starting today. The 'Great Disconnect" is not quite over.  I am not feeling any great urges to come back to what was prior to Portugal 2012. 


Disclaimer: I ask my friends to be patient with me... and you know who you are....thanks.

'True that' while overseas (from day one) I faced several impossible issues relating to my laptop, IPad and mountain wireless-ness, so I decided to let all systems go and just enjoy a world once forgotten by me.  Prehistorics like myself had no choice in the early sixties but to gather around a table to talk...no choice. Conversations, laughs over cafe, hugs when needed and facial expressions that could only be enjoyed face à face were the staples of the day.  Thanks to Portuguese mountains and fresh air, the great disconnect was a perfect venue to truly relax! Amazing! 

With all this said, I hope to make my return gracefully to Miami et.al. on one condition; 161 days to Portugal! Fingers crossed.

Buen camino - back to Miami! 

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