Of Weddings and Elections and Goals, oh my…

Two weeks to go until my daughter’s wedding! What??!!!    Seems like yesterday we started thinking about it and man, TIME FLIES.  If you’ve done this before you already know… some of the planning is fun, some of it tedious and some of it downright nerve racking.  All of it is expensive.    I don’t know if this is unusual because I haven’t done this much, but in our case, the grooms family hasn’t really participated in the planning, by their choice.  I’ve certainly reached out and asked if they would like to share ideas or suggestions or input of any kind, but they are just a different and distant sort of folk, for lack of a better way to describe it and wanting to be respectful.  SO… as a result… this entire wedding is pretty much what my daughter and I put together with input from the groom of course. We certainly want him to feel this day is his as well as the brides.

When my daughter said yes to the dress, I  quietly had some reservations.  Elements of the dress were beautiful, and some elements didn’t compliment her. Not surprisingly, she felt the same when the actual dress in her size  arrived and we pondered what to do about it.   When we met with the tailor for the standard alterations, we made a great team, the three of us.  We made some big changes that really brought it together beautifully  thanks to the tailors talents, of course…. and I am so happy for my daughter, she loves it and I love that!   I’ll show you the before and afters, after the wedding.

Regarding the state of the world, of all the upheaval, the greed, the corruption, the absolute evil,  the continued erosion of our environment and culture and government and want for truths and justice and equal rights for all, affordable living for all,  freedom to live as we wish, women’s rights… the list goes on and on and on….. this crazy crazy election season (WTF is the best and easiest way to express it)  and the cult environment I would never have believed possible had I not been witnessing it myself….. it leaves me almost speechless when I try to make sense of it all, and that’s one heck of a statement because I don’t have trouble speaking my mind.   I wouldn’t have believed where we are now was at all possible… I always thought of us as a forwarded moving country, building a stronger, kinder, wiser nation.  Sadly, we’re going backwards in so many ways, and so many people are cheering it on and even hoping for civil war, willfully ignoring the dangers of all of it and also ignoring the lessons of past history.  How it’s lost on these people that they, too, could lose everything that means anything to them should something of this nature break out,  is beyond my comprehension.   We are capable of  better healthcare, an end to homelessness, fair tax laws, fair wage, freedom and equality for all, border control, better education, repaired and stronger  infrastructure, and on and on and on.  But our government can’t get out of it’s own way, our party system has become cult-like, it’s failing us all by not functioning together like two wings on the same bird.  Ultimately, human nature is apparently failing us all.  Except not all of us are guilty of it. But it takes the whole village to want it and to cooperate, and that we do not have.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that for the time being. You see how that train of thought’s tracks run all over the place.

Goals… I’ve still got the same ones… better health tweaks I sometimes do and sometimes don’t, lose some weight, keep going with the exercise,  find inspiration where I can, do good where I can, live my “dash” as fully as is possible.   Below is the latest painting on my easel, still work to do on it, but I haven’t decided how I want to round it out….. I’ll come back to it as inspiration rises…. This is swan hill overlooking the Connecticut river, a hike I’ve taken a few times, admiring the view.

Till soon,