Traveling Shoes

Today doesn't feel quite as sunny as yesterday. My fractured tailbone is, well, still feeling fractured. It's cramping my style. I have bruises on my legs and arms for no apparent reason. (I'm trying hard to envision them as beauty marks. Somehow, though, I'm not so imaginative at the moment.) And I'm making an attempt to entertain myself online instead of outdoors. Here's what I've discovered: calligraphy stamps at Primele ... gotta have one! That's all I found, though. End of discovery. It's time to go offline.

I just began reading a new book by Jamie Ford. The title is thought-provoking...Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The dedication ~ For Leesha, my happy ending ~ is, to me, a tearjerker. I've been chasing happy endings for years. The book's epigraph speaks truth:

My poor heart is sentimental

Not made of wood

I got it bad and that ain't good

~Duke Ellington, 1941

And some excerpts from the early chapters:

"But in the end, each of them occupied a solitary grave. Alone forever." (page 4) "...he wondered if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time...Lost, but never forgotten." (page 7)

And finally, in the Acknowledgements Mr. Ford says this, "As they say, writing is a lonely business." Victor Hugo said, "Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad." Whichever the truth, certainly...certainly...I will find my story. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." ~Maya Angelou

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. ~Chinese proverb Thankfully, as Ms. Angelou puts it, all God's children have traveling shoes. "Will the road you're traveling get you to my place?" ~ God

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My Happilist

i.am.sanders Gratitude is the heart's memory. ~French proverb

Nos. 251 ~ 298

• realizing your new smaller size is already too large
• Sephora eye shadow duos ~ wow!
• OPI polish
• lobster
• clam bisque
• hot chocolate with marshmallows
• homemade apple pie
• baptisms
• new purses
• monograms
• hot apple cider
• navy peacoats
• ladybug wishes
• sunshine on my shoulders
• Grandma's old Mel mac dinnerware
• playing in the rain
• forgiveness
• letters from my father
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• playing football in the yard
• well-loved, well-worn sweatshirts
• reading stories to, and with, children
• mom's needlework
• funnel cakes with powdered sugar
• cotton candy
• memories of church camp...good friends, good times
• surprise texts from close friends
• memories of dinner with dad at Troop F during the evening shift
• warm maple syrup over buttered waffles
• four leaf clovers
• sixteen-mile float trips
• dead mosquitoes
• Southern accents
• Northeastern accents
• FOX News
• ocean views
• sunset walks on the beach
• the right to vote
• competence
• old tobacco barns
• Key Lime pie
• a snooze button
• daughters
• chalk drawings in the driveway
• a tan...olive, no lighter
• bubble baths
• beaches with no hint of oil...ever