SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

for the first time, i do wish i (or the local coffee shop) had a big flat screen tv, hooked up to the internet, so i could watch ted.com, with family/friends on a great big screen. i can't get enough.

/picturing 21st century juke boxes with ted.com presentations on the menu...

this website has my attention like no other -i'm loggin' in at every leisure moment for more.

my favorite presentation so far is jill bolte, but i love them all:

christopher decharms, anna deavere smith, eve ensler, daniel dennet, amy tan, bob thurman, robert wright, vilayanur ramachandran, malcolm gladwell

it's a dream come true.

***

this is what my pen wrote during a recent automatic listening/writing session. -and i've two miracles to report so far

my neighbor.. alive w/neck brace, but here to tell the story of a recent car accident on 680.. someone cutting him off, sending his car rolling over and over.. he is participating in a type of therapy i can't recall the name of.. but it helps not only address the physical injuries, but helps release the emotional trauma also -many prayers- for everyone involved in and touched by this accident

i met with kathy cordova at coffee beans n' bistro around 10:15 in the morning.. after a wonderful visit (thank you kathy!) -went home, continued on with the responsibilities of the day..

3:30pm - 4 o'clockish.. went to grab my JOURNAL.. handwritten JOURNAL.. 67 out of 70 pages FILLED HANDWRITTEN JOURNAL and it was nowhere to be found

checked every drawer, closet, table top, pile of papers, laundry basket..

in the car, on the car, under the car..

and then realized that maybe i left it at the coffee shop. i bolted to the coffee shop, turning my panic into a casual stroll once inside.. trying real hard to act cool, casual.. like -hey- if i find it, great, if i don't -no big deal-

but i ask you -fellow writers and journalers- which would you rather forget at a coffee shop

your newborn or your 67 out of 70 pages filled handwritten journal? -and the thing is,

you have to stop and think about it for a minute

i mean, you can always make another baby, -write.

so -GLORY BE TO GOD- and THANKS BE to the kind man with the lap top, and anyone else who sat at the table between 11a and 4p who did not take my journal

so i could find it, exactly where i left it, and return to a normal life.

****

TWO TRUE STORIES: my favorite story -shared with me on the bleachers during my daughters softball game by a fellow mom.

her father, 86 years old, i believe (or close). stroke survivor.. at home, and recently surviving a series of smaller strokes -tia's- too. receiving home care by a nurse so many hours each day

her mom, his one and only wife of many years .. also in her 80's.. also battling age-related illnesses

but still finding a way to get to the store and shop

-for a baby monitor-

so she could secretly spy-in and listen to the conversations between her husband and the nurse during his daily bath.

I TRIED: my heart was in the write place. really it was. both my kids and i ... with cup and cardboard trying to capture the spider without killing it, and transport it outdoors to safety

but the damn thing was SO BIG! so CREEPY CRAWLY.. kept moving SO FAST.. those 37 GIANT LEGS

"NO GAPS! NO HOLES.. HE'LL ESCAPE! HOLD THE PAPER FLAT!!" taryn and i were yelling at jack loud and obnoxious -terrified- with one slip of his hand that spider would fly out and kill us all

so -got the attention of young boy on his way to the local middle school

"hey.. you afraid of bugs? can you help us out?"

and then we backed up. backed away. real silent.. watching as he -real casual like- slid the paper under the glass jar, lifted the spider chest high, walked out to the curb

and from that distance -his chest- he separated the glass jar from the paper, turned it upside down, shook.. and we watched as the spider fell some

87 floors worth in spiderland to the cement street.

and so i'm not so sure that went exactly as planned. -if you save a spiders life, but it's say,

paralyzed in the process. not sure how karma records that one.

i wonder these things...

like -what if it was a poinous spider?- and we save its life, not knowing, and then it goes and bites an innocent being..?..

... so many questions

and then later -dawned on jack-

"hey," he said, "you guys were yelling all loud, making me nervous, yelling and screaming when i was holding the glass jar, but when he came around, you got all quiet.. made it easy for him

that's not fair."

"you're write," i said.. "sorry about that.. "

-and i could see how his 8 year old mind was at work.. upset i'd called in another young boy to accomplish the rescue mission he was quite capable of doing if we'd only shut up for a minute and give the kid some space

let the record show -our fault- not his.

love n' thanks n' apologies -phobic mommy-