confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha

Good Morning, everyone! It's that time of year again, can you believe it?! I. Can. Not. Noah is up getting the lights for the house, now. I'm getting ready to  take all the Fall/Thanksgiving decor down and put up all the Winter/Christmas-time decor. We may even go get our tree this evening! We'll see how tired out I have the hubby...
Well, here is week 32 of SWB. I touch on a sort of unconventional "reason to the Season". Don't be offended if it's not what you think. I may have different thoughts and beliefs than you, but I think we all basically want the same thing. Why not read it first before shooting it down...it may surprise you. It won't take long, and it certainly won't ruin your relationship with your beliefs. For those of you who haven't read yet, you'll be surprised to see it's not exactly what you expect.

So, in advance, thanks for reading, as always, and have a Blessed day!
N

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha: Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their own suffering. Some suffer too much, some too little.         ...

confessions of a thinkaholic: On Another Note...

Hey, there. Here's a very personal post that I have been sitting on and debating on whether or not to share. So, I guess I'm sharing. It is important to me to share what I think is important, if it means it may help someone else. Thanks so much for reading my blog(s). You will never know how much it means to me, but I will always try to tell you.

Have a great week ahead, and be good to each other, and to yourselves.

Nanette


confessions of a thinkaholic: On Another Note...: I haven't written any other post besides the Sundays With Buddha in a really long time, so I thought now would be a good time to sort of...

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sunday's With Buddha

I've been away for a short while attending to my brother's arrangements. He passed last Friday, July 26th. My sister and I have been in Wisconsin all week to tend to everything and to bring our brother home. I had been trying to get back into the swing of things here with getting this blog back under way. I've been to some interesting places, and seen some interesting things, but have just not had the time to share them with you. I started a couple of furniture re-do's, but, of course, that was put on hold, just for a bit. I will get back to blogging about our 'lighter side of life' just as soon as it lightens up a bit!
Thank you to all of you who keep checking back. Thanks for sticking with me. I'll be up and running before too long. That's precisely what my post on "Confessions" is about this week, if you are so inclined. It's a dedication to my brother, and also a reminder to live your best life, fully and with abandon.

Thanks for stopping by, you will never know how much I truly appreciate it.

Until next time,

Nanette
confessions of a thinkaholic: Sunday's With Buddha:   Week 15 You too shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?                                                        ...

confessions of a thinkaholic: The Power of Change

I wanted to write a little about the changes I've gone through this past year and the fears that I have had about it. Have you had a major life event that has changed you and you fear losing friends or family because of it? In this blog post for my sister blog Confessions, I lay my fears to rest.

confessions of a thinkaholic: The Power of Change: I've had something on my mind for awhile, now. I've been worrying that some of my friends, family and acquaintances might feel that ...

I want to hear from you! Please don't be shy...I learn from you, too! Your opinion matters to me, but, please, no judgement or hateful words here.Thanks!

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha

Good Morning and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

The next installment of "Sunday's With Buddha" is up at the other blog. Hope you can stop by and check it out with the link below. While you're there, let me know what you think...

Have a great weekend!

Nanette

P.S. I'll be uploading some projects here, soon...I promise!

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha:       Week Two “By your own folly you will be brought as low as your worst enemy wishes.” ...

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha

Hello, Everyone!

Happy Sunday. I have really been working on a lot of projects, lately. I had promised a long time ago several posts ago to share the link to my SmugMug account so you could check out more of my photos. I am by far NOT a professional photographer and I use a very modest camera, for now *hint hint*, but I try to capture those moments that make me remember the beauty of the world around us; one of our greatest gifts. I've been participating in Instagram recently and I am amazed at the talent and appreciation for beauty that is shared by so many. If you are on Instagram and would like to see what I've been up to, follow along with me at @nsteindesign.

I still have so many photos of the Smokies to edit and upload, but there are plenty in there, now, as well as many other galleries of photos. I'd love it if you could check out my SmugMug, and you can just by clicking this link!: http://nsteindesign.smugmug.com/

Well, I really do have a lot of projects that I want to start on and share with you. I'm hoping this rainy chilly weather here in (northern) Southern Illinois warms up and dries up so I can get started!

I hope you have a great 'rest of the weekend'. Thank you, in advance for stopping by my sister blog, "Confessions", I hope you enjoy the new series!

confessions of a thinkaholic: Sundays With Buddha: Week One "As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with ...


Nanette

A little explination on where I've been...confessions of a thinkaholic: Coming back from a little time for myself...

confessions of a thinkaholic: Coming back from a little time for myself...: Hello, everyone, I have to apologize for being so absent this last month or so. I've been on a bit of a solitude mission. I haven'...

I want to hear from you! Please don't be shy...I learn from you, too! Your opinion matters to me, but, please, no judgement or hateful words here.Thanks!

confessions of a thinkaholic: Give a little Thanks, Share a bit of Gratitude...

I have a new post up on my sister blog 'Confessions of a Thinkaholic'. I hope you'll read it and even tell me what you think. I'll be putting up a regular post here later today, so I hope you'll check back, as well. Thanks for reading and sharing with me! N
 confessions of a thinkaholic: Give a little Thanks, Share a bit of Gratitude...:   Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope this Holiday finds you all safe and sound. In honor of the Thankful season, this post is ab...

confessions of a thinkaholic: A great email I received....

I know...I'm suppossed to be editing pictures of our vacation. But without movements like this, we won't have a Great Smoky Mountains National Park to enjoy so much, so freely. It's a quick read, and worth every little second. Thnaks for reading!
Nanette

P.S. I didn't forget the pictures of the mountains. I'm working on it ;)

confessions of a thinkaholic: A great email I received....: Here's a great email I received from the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and a link to an article giving more information. It's wo...

confessions of a thinkaholic: Please donate to help the Sandy relief

In my last post on "confessions", I wrote about the hurricane and what I was thinking, but I forgot to place a link for the relief fund/donations. You can find it below. I encourage you to give whatever you can, even if it is a moment of silent prayers. Thank you so much. Nanette
#healthisworld

confessions of a thinkaholic: Please donate to help the Sandy relief: As a member of MoveOn.org, I receive regular emails about issues that are important to me, as well as like-minded people around the globe. I...

confessions of a thinkaholic: A new post on Tiny Buddha...

confessions of a thinkaholic: A new post on Tiny Buddha...: I am so grateful to Lori at Tiny Buddha (.com) for the opportunities I've had to post my thought on her website. My biggest wish is to help ...

confessions of a thinkaholic: The coolest birthday gift...

confessions of a thinkaholic: The coolest birthday gift...: I have a quick little story I wanted to share with you. I don't know why I waited so long to tell it, it was just a quirky little thing that...

A further introduction...

My mother and I didn't always get along. I'm ashamed of that. We had a rocky relationship from about the time I was 14 or 15. I was sassy, thought I knew everything I needed to know. I saw my mother as weak, and as allowing herself to be a doormat much too often, though I probably didn't know that that was what it was at the time. As I grew older, and I'm really talking just in the last couple of years, I saw myself in my mother a lot. Not the things I thought were "bad" qualities (because I later found out she was none of those things), but I saw the frustrations of adult hood, parenthood, and marriage. I was starting to understand everything she did, or didn't do. I just wish I had realized all of this sooner. I was truly starting to work on a better relationship with her. It was slowly but surely happening. I just couldn't erase 36 years of lifelong relationship issues in just a few months. My mom was often difficult to get along with, could really bring out the worst in you , if you let it.  As I started my journey through this new spiritual awareness I was going through, all of my judgements and grudge-holding dissolved. I would speak to her about how I felt about certain spiritual subjects, but I was sure to do it respectfully and slowly. She was newly re-baptized back into her Catholic faith, and my mom loved Jesus. I have slightly different views, but she really was accepting and respectful of them, and of course, I hers. We were just getting to the meat of our bonding when she was taken away from me.
This is usually a post I would reserve for my other blog confessions of a thinkaholic, but I am wanting to introduce you to us a little bit here, and you may not be interested in fully immersing yourself over there, though I would be honored of you did.
Anyway, on March 30 (but more likely the 29th), my mother passed away. Alone. In her bedroom after being sick and vomiting all evening. I had no idea. I had just spoken to her the day before and she told me she was on a new medicine. A morphine patch. I had no idea that that would be the last time I spoke with her. That was the evening of the 28th. The morning of the 30th, my dad, a disabled veteran in a wheelchair for most of his time, hadn't heard from her all morning and thought she had slept in. He stays downstairs in their split level, and her bedroom was upstairs. He made it up those stairs and found my mom.
Finally after almost four months, we received her death certificate from the coroners office. It was ruled a cardiac arrest due to fentanyl overdose. Needless. Mom was just having back pain. Her dose was apparently too high.
I'm not trying to share gruesome details with you for sensationalism or sympathy. But what has transpired in my family over the next several months is almost unbelievable.
After we finally were starting to put the pieces together after moving dad the hour to be in our town, straighten out his finances, (that was a lot of work, as he took care of none of that), and getting everything settled, in June my husbands mother was a victim of a violent crime and was taken from us as well. We got on a plane to bypass the 18 hour drive it would have taken us otherwise, and started all over again. We were able to be with my husbands father and sisters and we took his 79 year old grandmother with us, and his aunt flew in from Europe so we could all be together. It was like going through it all over again. Funeral arrangements, insurance arrangements, meal planning. I am so grateful I was able to be there with them to handle things for them to make their transition a little softer, as I had just done it all myself not two and a half months earlier. In between both of these tragedies my teenage son had totalled my SUV. He's fine now but what more needs to come our way? After June when we started to settle back into almost normal daily life after my mother-in-laws death, my nephew became very sick and was admitted into a children's hospital for a week ($15,500 bill that my sister HOPES insurance is going to help pay), and my moms sister was admitted into the hospital for emergency cardiac catheterization due to severe clotting in her arteries and both legs and had been about 5 minutes from death herself.
So, what do you do with all of that? I asked myself the same question after mom died. Then again after Noah's mom died. We struggled a bit to find the answers. The why.
What my point here is, we could have reverted to anger, outrage, sickness, depression, hatred. But we chose not to. We chose. We have not always been the best most optimistic people. I've written a lot about that. My message to you is: you can change anything in your life. No matter what. You are the creator of your 'world'. You get to chose what happens in it.
No, I didn't choose for all of these horrible tragedies to happen, and neither did our families. But we get to choose our reactions to it. We get to look for the deeper meaning in them. We get to look on the bright side of any situation. Am I happy about what has happened?
Definitely not. I wish I could take it all back. I miss my mom so much and I feel cheated everyday that I didn't get to finish our journey together. The same goes for Noah and his mom. And all of our family. These women weren't done living. They were vivacious, and had goals and dreams like anyone else. My mother had just turned 69 on March first and Noah's mom was only 61. They didn't choose for this to happen to them. I don't know all the answers, I'm not an expert. I just know that everyday when we wake up we have the chance to make choices. Noah and I chose love. Loving memories, loving feelings, and forgiveness. We know our moms are together out there, and that they are at peace. I believe that my mom finally knows how I feel and has all of her answers. It's us back here on the earthly plane that mourn the loss. Choosing to love one another and not harbor negative thoughts and feelings is in honor of our mothers, our Creator, and ourselves.
My wish for all of you is that you love one another, say what is in your heart, forgive while you still can and live each day of your life with gratitude and as if it is the ultimate gift...because it is.

I wish you all wonderfulness...

Nanette

*I recently wrote an article for a wonderful website called Tiny Buddha.com, you can read it here. It's about the deaths of our moms, and handling life after tragedy and finding peace.

**I wrote this post on Saturday night, but held off posting it because I wanted to put the link to the above article in it. I was willing to wait the other month it would potentially take to be posted. Tonight I had a feeling I needed to check my email, just in case. Lori at Tiny Buddha had sent me the email I was waiting for with the link to my post two days before...I immediately posted this with the link, then went back and read the comments when I got to work. I answered them, but while re-reading this, it says just about everything each one of them said. Synchronicity.

New beginnings

As my first post on this blog I would like to give you a little info on us. I've been blogging for a year about all my thoughts and feelings on various subjects at my other blog confessions of a thinkaholic. While I understand all my beliefs and feelings aren't for everyone, I also believe in kindness and understanding and giving everyone at least a chance; you might just learn something new or inspirational.
Anyhow, we recently had a major change in our lives. Both of our mothers passed away, tragically and unexpectedly. We learned that life doesn't wait around for you. You can't waste your precious moments as a spectator being fearful of the game.
While I'm not sure how this will go, I just hope to have fun with it, share a bit of our life, home ownership, adventures together, and the things we find joy in and are grateful for.
Thanks for coming along with us...

Nanette and Noah