You're old enough to know better...so cry, baby cry.
I had a bit of a crying session a couple hours ago.
Which brought me to a decision I've thought about making for a couple days. If you want to skip to the end you'll see what I'm talking about.
OMGoodness...
Poor me.
The wind blows so hard here in Barranquilla that it blew one of my pictures off a shelf and took out a few knick-knacks with it.
Shattered.
This is a picture of the shelf taken a few months ago - which I've since cleaned and moved things around on...
but you get the picture.
The little ducky picture way up there came crashing down on stuff below and broke...
Three of my precious items!!!
OH NO!!!
My sweet, happy muchacha comes once a week to help clean
and when I heard the crash...
I'm ashamed to say...
I thought she'd broken something (else).
She tends to break stuff every now and then but I try to shake it off.
Although...
I do have thoughts like...
I hope she doesn't knock that down...
Or I wonder what will get broken today.
WELL...
talk about attracting stuff.
(I believe in the Law of Attraction).
I broke a vintage skunk earlier while cleaning it (we clean along with Alva while she's here)...
and then the WIND broke those items pictured above.
And I STARTED CRYING.
Like a baby.
The bicentennial plate was given to me by my sister who has since gone to heaven...so maybe I had a reason to be sad over that breaking.
But those other items...
yard sale.
And I don't really remember but I'll bet I didn't pay more than $1 for them...if that.
And I live where there is SUCH poverty...
But wait...they have that beautiful ocean behind them.
And these people must be pretty happy living in such colorful houses...
And this group has a whole neighborhood of friends and family to help them along...
And these folks have Flowers and blooming Trees right in their front yard!
AND - oh my God!
Look what I have!!!
Not to mention her parents, my son and his wife and my grandson!!!
And a great extended family and friends.
So many people I love.
And materially...
I have SO MUCH STUFF...I've put some of it outside.
then there's my playroom...(and you're just seeing half of it here)
I got really upset with myself for crying over something so trivial.
And cried harder.
And harder.
I thought about all those people in Japan who are left with NOTHING.
NOTHING.
Less than NOTHING.
And it made me really start crying.
Sobbing.
Alva must have been amazed - Gringo loco - because she doesn't understand much English and I don't speak much Spanish.
BTW - when I started to throw away the pieces (except for the plate my sister gave me), she asked me for them and took them home with her.
I don't know about you, but I've been grieving along with the Japanese people to the point that I just have to do something about it.
When I watched this video the other day...
I was so moved that I knew it was up to me.
We don't have expendable money - yet...
But I do make art.
And I have a piece that hung in Florida Craftsmen for the two months before I moved out of the States (you have to be a resident to sell there) that Elizabeth (the director) suggested I put a $750 price tag on.
It's my favorite, best work to date and I want to auction it off with the winning bid going entirely to help someone in Japan.
I've been asked to donate and have - to auctions in the past and my work brought good money!
So...I'm working - as of right now - on getting the word out that THE KISS is up for auction.
More details coming soon...If I'll put a reserve on it...How to bid, where to pay, who exactly the money will go to. Etc.
You may not want to bid on The Kiss but as the song says...
There's a choice we're making.
We're saving our own lives.
And we will make a better day for you and me.
This post is great. So honest. It is hard to purge our Stuff, even when we have the opportunity to see how much Stuff we have.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Great honesty.
Glad that you are doing the sketchbook challenge. . . I'm finding it really helpful, also.
Nothing like a good cry. Sometimes it’s what we need to get off our duff and take action. You go girl!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Our boiler packed up the other day and we are without hot water and heating until the engineers come back in the week to fix it. In the meantime we have to trek down to our sons house for showers...and I have felt very hard done by. But not now, having read your post, I feel very lucky....thank you for reminding us all how lucky and fortunate we are. ann.
ReplyDeleteSusan...it embarrasses me a bit to lay my heart out - but not enough to delete the post. I'm thankful for what I have and that includes people like you whom I feel such support and empathy from. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robin! I'm now working on a memory box for a friend of Pedro, my son-in-law. His four year old daughter died last week after a 3 week illness and so the crying just won't STOP. My heart is breaking for them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ann! I'm so glad that you read the post if it helped even a smidgeon. We are blessed and we have SO much to be thankful for...that there isn't the time in a day to list it all. Love to you and your family as you work through your very real crisis.
ReplyDeleteannie!
Hello Annie...from your article 22nd March you have some lovely photos, and the one with the coloured houses has caught my eye. Would you be happy for me to do a sketch of it and put it on Sketchbook Challenge cross referencing your blog article?
ReplyDeletemany regards ann.
I would LOVE to see you do a sketch of the colored houses! Please email when you get it done...I'll be looking for it.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Annie. I will email you when it is done. regards, ann.
ReplyDeleteHi Annie, I have now done the sketch of the coloured houses. Great fun, they are such lovely colours. I have put it on Sketchbook Challenge as colours spilling over. Many thanks to you for your support. Ann.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, wonderful post, Dear Annie!! I am sorry about the bicentennial plate your sis gave you - but as you say, it is only stuff, and you have your memories of her love. A good cry is so cleansing and helps to wash away some of the internal 'stuff' we really don't need.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I took a friend to her doctor and the waiting room was pretty full of older people complaining about this and that - the chilly air conditioning, the humidity outside (why do they think the AC is running??? - DUH!!), the short wait, the hard chairs, etc. I listened politely for awhile, but finally chimed in and commented that compared to the folks in northern Japan, we really had it pretty good.
I'm definitely not a Pollyanna, and I don't figure you are either, but when most of us consider some of the alternatives we could be experiencing, life isn't too bad ;-0 In fact, with the right attitude it's actually great!!!