Posts Tagged with Connection

Peace, Love & Light to …

Connection, France, Personal growth, Personal growth, Bracelets,
Posted on 5 Comments on Peace, Love & Light to …

“Peace, love and light to every being, everywhere.”

Every being, everywhere. Those seventy plus sparrows, wrens and swallows (yes, I counted them) out there on the power lines are beings. They think, make decisions, remain vigilant in protecting their safety, find food, and raise their young. They are beings. I am a being. My dog is a being. Wow, does he make decisions! And he is thinking when he tips his head sideways and looks at me with those big brown eyes.

Wayne Dyer, a teacher, author, motivational speaker, who I heard this statement from continues with: if you want to have peace, love and light for yourself and people you care about, you have to send it to every being, everywhere. Even people you can’t stand, disagree with, or have harmed you. He said even to Hitler. Every being, everywhere.

A composite of other tidbits from my scads of hours in personal growth classes that I work with a lot is: Don’t blame, don’t name-call, don’t judge. My, oh my, sometimes that keeps me pretty busy. In watching others and myself as I try to learn. Many people judge other people just because the other people are different than they are. Hhhmm, different does not mean wrong or less than. I could go on about calling others names and blaming them, which generally side-steps the real issue. I’ll spare you at the moment!

Now, are these bracelets too cool!

The top one is an original souvenir bracelet from the World Exposition of 1889 in Paris when the Eiffel Tower was built and so many other wonders. Yes, my great-grandmother, Adele, was there and this is her bracelet! The medallions are of the French Revolution, including pivotal men: Robespierre, Danton, Kleber, and Marat.

The trinket bracelet is an original from the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962!

Would these make a great book cover!

(c) MDessein

Thanks for reading! One more Chapter to go on the wondrous book~
Peace, love and light to you.

Metroid, Pikmin… and 7 Gallons

Community, Connection, Donations
Posted on 22 Comments on Metroid, Pikmin… and 7 Gallons

I got acquainted with video games via Tetris and Mario and Donkey Kong. And learned a bit about compulsion when one evening after my kiddoes were in bed, I started playing Tetris. Next time I looked at the clock it was 6 a.m., nearly time for me to get up and make breakfast!

My kids and grandkids play these video games that to me are so complicated. Yet my six-year-old grandson whistles, jumps and zooms through them easily. He understands and learns so quickly the complexities. I am pleased when I can figure out new apps on my phone!

I am also pleased when I swim a mile twice a week, which I have recently returned to doing after two and a half years of no swimming. Life. Decisions. Motivation. Self-care. Recognizing and owning consequences. O la la.

And as some of my friends and I have realized more deeply with time passing, connection with other people and with friends is of primary importance. I have gone to a couple community luncheons and meetings recently in order to meet and engage with people. I am truly enjoying the open mic near here twice a month – being present there, meeting people, as well as performing.

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Oh yeah, the 7 gallons. I recently completed donating my 56th pint of blood for a total of 7 gallons. Yes, it was over about forty years all told, yet I did it. Not that I had a number of donations as a goal, sometimes I went years without donating, such as when I was doing a good bit of international travel and was ineligible to donate for periods of time. Woo hoo, the world is a better place.

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Yup, I’ve got deer poop in my driveway. I smile and step around it. My kids are speaking to me, my grandkids hug me and want me to chase them when I visit them, I am connected to friends and making new ones, my dog loves me, my property taxes only went up a few dollars, I can count laps when I swim, and my novel is nearing completion.

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Double yee-haw on the novel. More about that soon~
Thank you for reading~~

Leapin’ lizards!

France, Questions
Posted on 2 Comments on Leapin’ lizards!

“Leapin’ lizards! Did you see that!” “Leapin’ lizards! That can’t be for real!”

An expression of surprise, shock, amazement. Likely originated from the comic strip of ‘Little Orphan Annie’ over eighty years ago. Remember her? It was so popular, it went on to be a radio program, Broadway play, and a movie. My, oh my.

This little fella, all of three inches in length, was on my step when I was down in the high desert of Oregon visiting my family.

He scampered away just after he posed for his photo.

Isn’t it interesting how things you don’t expect scamper into your life?

A Canada goose lands on the hood of your car. Your next-door neighbor starts collecting and storing cars from the junkyard next to you. A check arrives from your sibling, who after several years, is finally re-paying you. The foxgloves that spring up and bloom all along your driveway. Your dog, who you didn’t know was pregnant, has puppies under your back porch.

Oregon lizard (c)MDessein

Then there is the “Okay, now what?”
Sometimes that question comes after a deeper thought: “What is my purpose here? In life? How do I manage this? Who am I? Do I marry this person?”

Or “Where am I supposed to live?”

I am definitely called to Langres, ancestral home of the maternal side of my family. And as you likely know, Langres is the setting for my current, about-to-be completed novel.

The view of the expansive countryside from many parts of the city as you walk along the ramparts is breathtaking.

Could I live there? Should I live there part-time? Lovely to be able to ponder this. Ah, what is my purpose? How do I keep good connections with my family?


As I have learned in the last few years, connection is so important. Old friends and new friends as well.

View from Langres ramparts (c)MDessein

I will get better at being aware, seeing options and opportunities

Leapin’ lizards! Sophia Loren is 91 years old!

Thank you for reading and sharing thoughts. All the best to you.

(c)MDessein

A Forest of Flowers

Connection, Hummingbirds, Nature
Posted on 18 Comments on A Forest of Flowers

These foxgloves are amazing. Over a hundred of them. Intermixed with thousands, yes you read that right, thousands of Shasta daisies. A lot of the foxgloves are over eight feet tall: deep lavender, white, soft lavender almost white. Some evenings I sit on my deck and just look at them in wonder, listening to the myriad of birds warbling, tweeting, chirping, whistling, trilling, cawing, squawking, cooing, and the zzzt zzzt of humming birds.

A few nights ago, sitting out on my deck, I watched a couple of bald eagles swoop and float through the air in huge loops and circles, their wings outstretched in elegant lengths, seemingly effortless. Were they just enjoying the freedom and seeming weightlessness of their swoops? Not long after, I saw some seagulls seem to do the same thing: swoop and loop with no clear destination. Simply enjoying the freedom and beauty in being so present in Nature and the moment.

By golly, when the ducks fly through, they are definitely headed out on a mission: flap, flap, flap those little wings. They are gone by in a minute!

Can I be free and present in the moment? The foxgloves are so beautiful, asking for nothing, and giving so much wonder. I tease myself that I have the attention span of a hummingbird. Yet the hummingbirds sure seem to know where they are going and what they want as they zip around the feeders on my deck.

Being present with myself. Progress on my novel. Connecting with friends. Author and teacher, Bill Kenower, talks about connection is of ultimate importance. I care about what I’m writing, it interests me, I edit and feel it when it expresses what I feel. Yet also the connection I feel to it, and that my readers connect in some way to it.

Woo Hoo! A forest of foxgloves and daisies. Birds singing and chirping. Me learning from them to be present and to connect.

The Bubbleator~

Bubbleator, connectdion, Connection, Parents
Posted on 6 Comments on The Bubbleator~

Easter falls on April 20 this year. My mother’s 101st birthday would be this year on April 20. She was born on Easter Sunday a century and a year ago! She passed nine years ago, it is fun to remember the connection.

(c) MDessein

I wonder what her mother, whom I am named

after, thought of having her first child on
Easter Sunday!

In writing my current novel, I am now in 1961 as Seattle prepares for the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the Seattle World’s Fair, which was to open on April 21, 1962.


There were a bazillion amazing things about the World’s Fair. I remember many of them. One of them was the super-duper glass elevator designed for the Fair to amaze those far and near: the Bubbleator.
Perhaps you do, too.

I remember my mom taking me and my sister in the Bubbleator a couple times. Rosie and I were in grade school. What a thrill. That we had to wait nearly an hour for a ride up was a new experience for us kids. Yes, there were stairs and a regular elevator.
Who wanted those when we could ride in the Bubbleator!

Ah, the Bubbleator, the Space Needle, the Food Circus, the International Fountain, the Science Pavilion.
The exhibits from France, Mexico, Thailand, Germany, Italy, China, Sweden, and the Netherlands, to name a few!

So where am I now? Somewhere between 1962 and 2025, yes? And you, as well. Fascinating to think of all that has transpired. And a ton I don’t even know about!

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(c) MDessein

Mom graduated from high school in 1942.
Her teachers suggested she go on to training or a college to be a social worker. She got a job at Western Union, where she rocked them. She could type on the telegraph machines faster and more accurately than anyone in the office! Then she met my dad, and before long it was plans for a wedding and a family, not more education.
Yes, a facet of that was 1944 thinking and what women were supposed to do.

The rides in the Bubbleator, my amazing supportive mom who she and my dad both told me I could do anything.

Many of you are on this page, too, our parents showed us the way to do more than they were able to do.

T.C. Howard created the Bubbleator. Look what you have created.
Woo Hoo, I am still on that path with my novel. May you be on your path too, as you look around your world.

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