lindambarrett

gentle reminders

Every now an again its nice to receive a gentle reminder from my dad - letting me know he is still around me - sending me love from the other side. Every so often I get little taps from him (in our own special ways we still communicate) but lately - perhaps because either I haven't asked or I haven't been paying attention - I've been missing them.

With mother's day coming up this weekend I'm really hoping I/we get a great sign. Not so much for me, but for my mom. It might sound funny, but my dad always made "mom's day" super special. And, with mother's day coming up I feel his loss pressing upon my heart, knowing that he was my mom's companion, her partner in all things, her champion of family and great moms! And well, his lack of physical presence is something I know my mom misses so very much. 

Dad used to tease my mom because every time they wuold be walking from the car - across any parking lot - after breakfast, to or from church, grocery shopping - my mom would be looking down spying for shiny coins on the ground. 

Well, not long after my dad passed away whenever we asked for a sign from him... we'd spot those shiny coins on the ground. I remember one day (not long after sharing this fact with a close friend) when I was having a particularly stressful time in my life, I recall asking my dad to support me,  and if he could send me a sign that he heard me that would be great.  Well, that next day I remember having to work on the weekend visiting a store in Evanston.  I had gotten out of my car and walked up to the meter only to realize that I didn't have change in my wallet. Bummed, I began to walk back to my car when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something shiny - I looked down and there on the street was a scattering of coins. Not my typical single penny (that by the way would have been enough for a sign) but there were nickles, dimes, quaters, pennies -  I totally laughed out loud and then said "thanks dad".  I got back into my car and immediately called my friend - knowing she'd "get it" and to celebrate the moment.

So this weekend, when we go out for our annual mother's day drive (something dad was big on) I'll be looking for a special sign from him - along the path to breakfast, across the parking lot going to church and wherever we go that day - watching out for the sign that he's had heard my little prayer for a "gentle reminder".

Cheers, and blessings to all those moms out there who could use gentle reminders that they are loved!

Linda ~ love your life & do good!

lily of the valley & lilacs - it doesn't get any better!

Every year at this time - bordering between spring showers, cold snaps and intermittent bursts of sunshine - I wait patiently for the tiny green petals to push their way up from the ground.  These little bundles of part elixir, part fairy magic artfully show their tiny bell shaped heads from under the cascade of accumulating petals that falls from my flowering tree in my front yard.

Ever since I can remember, the sight of lily-of-the- valleys little white bells have made me believe that dreams do come true. After all, it takes a wishful gardener with hope in their heart, to plant such a fragile looking specimen with a prayer that their roots take hold.  Low and behold – once they do they are forever growing and spreading with nothing to stop them!  Don’t you love that about those small but hardy plants!

But, just when you think it couldn’t get any better than the shy lily of the valley – there comes the abundant array of purple fragrance packed lilacs! Why their clusters of tiny waxy buds all bundled together creates an unsurpassed bouquet for the senses -  making everyone living west of the Rockies completely jealous of us chilled climate folks – if only for a few weeks!

These two plants are our spring jewels and while a part of me wishes they lasted longer – this fleeting window is what we all know makes them all the more special. Nature always has the best lessons.

Inhale, cut branches, pluck petals and remember to enjoy the moment while it lasts!

Cheers and happy May!

Linda ~love your life & do good.

hard lessons + prayers = grateful heart

okay - sometime no matter what timetable you have laid out to accomplish something - life gets sticky. Sticky like glue, thick like quicksand, with a pinch of mercury in retrogade thrown in to remind me "YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE."

so here's the story; recently i have been trying to refinance my house and needless to say there are plenty of obstacles that present themselves that are totally beyond my control. 

hard lesson no#1: for the most part things were going a expected...then came several months of setbacks, with waiting as my constant companion.i was finally given my closing date and was elated.  to celebrate, i bought the most yummy donuts (super indulgent) to share with friends at work. 

hard lesson no#2: the call came 2 days later..."ooops sorry there is an issue with some insurance thingy with your condo association - and by the way - we may have to postpose the closing indefinitely...and yes your rate will expire before it might get resolved!"  i was so dissappointed i can't even tell you. I thought maybe God is telling me to shop it around more, or get a better rate so yes, i made phone calls - but no luck with better rates. Next set of calls went to every possible person i could think of in the chain of characters from the bank which only then made me go from frustrated, to angry, to ultimately defeated.

hard lesson no#3: my last call went out with tears to my account mortgage person with a plea that there has to be something or someone in the chain of command that can push us past this silly 8 day miss on an insignificant bullett point  (that someone should have caught during the 3 months).

prayer: i hung up the phone crying.

then a said a prayer - and let it go.

grateful heart:  2 hours later my wonderwoman of a account mortgage person called me back with a "date for my closing" - "we were all set!"  

Wow!

sometimes it takes me awhile to remember i'm not in charge.

sometimes it takes me awhile to remember to be grateful for my lessons.

sometimes it takes me awhile to remember to say a prayer and let it go.

thank you, thank you, is all i can say with a grateful heart.

(the day i moved in - 7 years ago exactly - to the day of my closing this year.) 

linda ~love your life & do good!

 

 

murmuration...

what joy!

here is to hoping your Easter weekend is filled with the wonderment that is the reason for the season! That you might have fresh eyes for looking at the world around you.
Perhaps this video will help reinforce this experience...i have watched it now 3 times and each time I am more blown away then the first time.

http://vimeo.com/31158841

Enlarge the frame and then push your chair back a bit to really take in the frame...then just be ready to enjoy the wonderment of this site and the girls reactions. <3, <3, <3!!
cheers,
linda

the first contributor - my mom!

This book is a part of series of 5 books. Each is a collaborative venture between myself and 24 other people. Each book asks the question:

"What would you do if you met yourself in time?" 

Inspired by a letter from Robert Frost to his editor (which I have featured at the bottom of this post). Four books will ultimately be sent in a different direction heading North, South, East and West.  

I took the "South" book to Florida for the first contribution to be made by my mom. 

Here are some of the photos of the finished covers on the "South" book - each book will be slightly different on the covers, so stay tuned for the next one.

  

 the back /front covers with hand writing -scanned- over a collage of deconstructed clock - representing time...
 

 

plus a few shots of the interior page numbers 

and colophon page.

As each contributor finishes their page, I have asked that they log onto the blog to add their comments and to tell me where the book is presently. 

I can't wait to see where the book goes next. 

Inspiration

 

 

Here is the letter, which inspired the question presented for this book, from Robert Frost, of the

"The Road Not Taken", to his editor Susan Ward, written in 1911.

 Two lonely crossroads that themselves cross each other I have walked several times this winter without meeting or overtaking so much as a single person on foot or on runners. The practically unbroken conditions of both, for several days after a snow or a blow proves that neither is much traveled. Judge then how surprised I was the other evening as I came down one to see a man, who to my own unfamiliar eyes and in the dusk looked for all the world like myself, coming down the other, his approach to the point where our paths must intersect being so timed that unless one of us pulled up we must inevitably collide. I felt as if I was going to meet my own image in a slanting mirror. Or say I felt as we slowly converged on the same point with the same noiseless yet laborious strides as if we were two images about to float together with the uncrossing of someone's eyes. I verily expected to take up or absorb this other self and feel the stronger by the addition for the three-mile journey home. But I didn't go forward to the touch. I stood still in wonderment and let him pass by; and that, too, with the fatal omission of not trying to find out by a comparison of lives and immediate and remote interests what could have brought us by crossing paths to the same point in the wilderness at the same moment of nightfall. Some purpose I doubt not, if we could but have made it out. I like a coincidence almost as well as an incongruity.    ~ Robert Frost

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the question posed...

"What would you do if you met yourself in time?"

Cheers,

Linda 

grandpa stories - honoring tree planting

Excerpts from “Grandpa Stories”

Short stories written by Linda Marie Barrett,  for my Dad in 2000

(Submitted in memory of  my father and his father, my grandfather Michael R. Barrett, who arrived in the United States of America from Castleisland, Ireland – via Liverpool, England, UK, -- aboard the ship Cedric on  February 28, 1920.)

Sent out on the full moon honoring both the date my grandafther arrived into the US but celebrating the launch of

Treewhispers  site officially opening it's provibial doors!   Visit and post your own tree story!

Shovels & Wheelbarrows 

-Part 1

 

Certainty knows no bounds when it comes to understanding my grandfather’s time with the soil, his shovels and his wheelbarrow.

 

This was indeed a man who handled his shovels as if a prize on a shelf, a badge to shine on his shirt. His wheelbarrow was a piece of magic, the size of which seemed far too large for its travel in my grandpa’s car trunk. But those gleaming shovels, clean and free of dirt, and that larger than life wheelbarrow, seemed to go with him everywhere he and his Olds ’98 traveled. 

 

I imagine that coming from Ireland, from a land of rocks, and hills, and farming – with green misty views reaching to infinity – that he grew up with the land in him.  So it shouldn’t surprise me to wake in the morning (usually some Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m.) to find my grandpa in our backyard. He would be planting his second --or perhaps even third-- blue spruce (another thing I am certain was his favorites).

 

My brothers and I would hear his wide deep digging shovel grip the gravely dirt – then would come the drag of soil to the surface – the thud of the earth meeting the mound he had formed. We would lie in our beds half awake, half asleep, knowing our grandfather was doing the thing he was most alive doing…digging in the land. More importantly, our backyard!

 

My Dad and Saturday Mornings 

-Part 2

 

Now mind you, it’s a great thing to be so connected to the land, but it’s another not to tell someone you’re feeling connected to “their land,” “their yard.” Oh yes, of this I am also certain -- there were days that my dad would have loved a notice posted of:

“INTENT TO EXCAVATE YOUR YARD FOR TREE PLANTING.”

 

Collectively us kid’s, would know our time of half-awake and half-asleep had ended -- and when fully awake had arrived -- when we heard my parent’s bedroom door open. First would come the light step of my mom in the hallway heading towards the kitchen, minutes later we could smell the sweetness of cinnamon rolls and icing baking. I am convinced now that this was my mom’s way of signaling a kind of “chore-warning.”

 

Confirmation of this alert was given when my parent’s bedroom door opened for the second time. My dad had a way of opening their bedroom door – which pushed a gust of wind under each of ours – along with a way of stepping out into the hallway that declared a litany of chores that lie ahead on any given Saturday.  

 

Door Opening Sounds

-Part 3

 

There existed several proclamations within each of my dad’s door opening wind gusts:

 

1. The “let’s clean the garage” – door opening sound

(of which the stories are so great in length & quantity – they would best be left for another day and another book entirely of its own).

 

2. The arbitrary, “let’s all wake-up cause it feels too late to still be asleep” – door opening sound.

 

3. The “you stayed out to late last night, so get your butt outta bed” – door opening sound.

 

4. The “let’s have a party and invite lots of people – so get up and clean every dish & glass, mow the lawn, wash the floors, clean the garage, and oh by the way, let’s redecorate” – door opening sound.

 

and of course…

 

5. The gust of wind and sound combination of: “your grandpa’s here planting trees and I didn’t know anything about it…but you’re all gonna get up and help – before he digs up all the trees we’ve already planted and moves them” – door opening sound.

 

Us 

- Final part

 

Each of these particular door-opening signals would be followed up with the triple knock on each of our bedroom doors and the somewhat military-ish delivery of “rise – n – shine.”

 

Indeed as time has passed, the years have provided me with rich recollections. There were important messages there for me – this was a lesson in learning about my grandfather’s time, which created my father’s time, which in turn r-e-i-n-c-a-r-n-a-t-e-d into something totally different in each of my five brothers and my own time.  And in the end, regardless of our bodies calling for sleep, it was tree-planting time; for my grandfather, with my grandfather, about his love of shovels & wheelbarrows, of trees, the soil, and most importantly us. 

 

Yes, of this I am truly certain, it was about his time – with us. 

The End...for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

love your life & do good!

This past Sunday I attended a benefit to raise funds for rebuilding an orphanage in Haiti, on behalf of the group Impact for Jesus. Visit the site and please by all means continue to contribute to the rebuilding of the much needed safe havens for these children. Read a bit more about the event and the people who created this amazing gathering of love!

Okay this is about two of my favorite guys - I mean way on the top of my list for changing the planet and building bridges for bringing people together-- always n the name of sharing, giving, rejoicing and remembering what we are here to do: "Love your life & Do good! 

Yep, that would be our good friend Brian Reynolds and my brother Michael.  The two of them put this whole fundraiser together in less than 10 days. Here's a fun shot of Brian (right), his son and a one of the guys from Impact for Jesus. And one of Michael (middle) with friends.

 

And, while some people in surrounding marketing positions told them they couldn't do it...well, they persevered and did it anyway! And I mean DID IT BIG!

They raised over $10700.00. Let that just settle in a minute...in one night friends and family opened their hearts through a simple invitation of music, gathering and a call to action. Pretty powerful stuff.

Don't you love that!

The best part is that number was before the final contributions made by Durty Nellies brothers Jim and Mark, offering 10% from food purchases. On top of that they hosted the venue at their wonderful bar and eatery in Palatine.  Mark was working it the whole night and it wasn't lost on anyone that this could have been a Sunday off to recuperate from a long week. What good people!

There were 3 bands playing, plenty of great raffles: guitars, drum pad, every sporting event ticket, restaurants, art and more, all prizes were coordinated by Brian's amazing wife Mary Jo and supported by good friend Bonnie...and so many more I wish I could name here.

Here a few fun shots from the evening:

 

   

...including a shot of the handmade book "love your life & do good!" -- which I made for the raffle and I'm pleased to say I also got a photo of the winner who I hope was as happy winning it as it was to make!

 

Here's to remembering how lucky we are to have each other, generous friends and the drive to say "we can" when others say you can't...because together we just built an orphanage out of LOVE!

cheers, (remember it's tax deductible...so keep giving!)

Linda

new moon update

I got this email message from a wise friend. She's really good at reminding me that the universe is always ready to give us a push. She forwarded along this message about the New Moon update and it of course proved to make me ponder what it is I'm pushing towards or holding back?

Things are never what they appear until you have some room to look at them again but from a distance, or even from on the ground. Because as we all know in some way, 2009 had it's tough spots, knocking us down - asking us to rise to the challenges. 

New Moons, not unlike New Years, offer us a chance to look ahead. 

    Pick a fresh point of view and begin to see what is possible. 

    Ask...and then listen to what the spirit might be saying. 

    Listen to what others might need. 

Hopefully we will find ourselves up for the task, the offering and the generosity- when they come knocking this year. New Moon or not, the pull is upon us.

It a new day, a new year, and each filled with their own surprises.

enjoy,

Linda

Power Path Inc. & School of Shamanism  NEW MOON UPDATE 1-13-10 Dear Friends, New Moon is at 12:11 AM Mountain Standard Time on Friday January 15 (the night of the 14th) . It is accompanied by a partial solar eclipse. This new moon is a good time to regroup and observe and notice without judgment what is happening to you and around you. Be grateful and in wonder at the movement. Staying out of judgment is key in these times. Keep reminding yourself that spirit is directing this show. Beware of stubbornness as it tries to seduce you to back away from things rather than to go forward and meet them head on. Re-set intentions based on what has taken itself out of your life or what has moved itself forcefully in. Notice the things that are pushing their way in or out with the most energy and force. There is where your attention needs to be. Eclipse times are always potent and should be honored as the extra push and force they give to any time frame. Adopt the mantra "Everything is Right". That way you will be putting focus towards "right" instead of towards "wrong". Blessings, Lena

believe

sometimes it's about praying and believing with all your heart that those prayers are heard.
if you are reading this please send some prayers out to jessie,
she could use every sweet prayer,
every quiet prayer,
every big prayer,
even just a little one,
or a rambling one,
we'll even take a rushed prayer,
but best of all would be your thoughtful prayer...
please, any you can offer up.

and then just believe in the prayers power.
thank you.
linda

saying goodbye

it is hard for me to believe that it has been one month (just one day before celebrating her 43rd Anniversary to uncle Bob) since my Auntie passed away.

i can feel her spirit so present in the holidays. she loved a party.
loved being social, actually i think she may have even invented
her own version of
socialbility.

god i miss her.

she is on my mind and i thought perhaps i'd share my thoughts from the chapel that day we had to say goodbye.

In Honor of Aunt Joanie
March 5, 1934 - November 5, 2007

The other night at the funeral home when asked by the deacon if we had anything to say about Auntie, I couldn’t gather the nerve or the composure to add my comments about our Auntie. But today, here at the Chapel, I was hoping to share some thoughts about Aunt Joanie – she deserves that from us.

The gift of a story, of a laugh, of a quote or a word of encouragement was something she was never short on delivering to any of us. So indeed today, of all days, it would be nice to extol her gifts for just a few minutes…she’s earned that place in all our hearts.

While my comments, my accolades, may be spoken by me here, they are the voice of each of us. For haven’t we all seen or felt her gift of gab melt away a bad day. Her baked goods arriving as a needed “hello,” or “congratulations”, or an “I’m thinking of you gesture” she did them all…but certainly those baked goods were a sure way to make a stranger into a new friend for life. She had a way around the kitchen our Auntie.

Couldn’t each of us 24 cousins remember movie nights with Uncle Bob and Aunt Joanie, in our pj’s, big bowls of buttered popcorn, Herbie the Love Bug, old black & white home movies, Mary Poppins. Or trips to Marshall Fields, or a cruise zig-zagging from side to side across a deserted street in her Red Camero – that never failed to get a giggle from us in the back seat!

Pizza – P I Z Z A ! need I say more?

These are memories we have tucked away forever. They are there for each of us to call upon, as we need to – too help bring a smile to our face – or a lump to our throat. She will be with us whenever we need her – just as she was when she was here.

Because of her today there are families celebrating in homes she found them, there are couples celebrating married life and children, her work as a Yenta was never done. Perhaps now, as Katie, Maribeth and I have talked about…maybe we’ll have better luck now that Auntie is in cahoots with Grandpa & Grandma.

But in the end, what she never failed to deliver with every baked good, with every family gathering, with every birthday, every visit, or every photo she took…
Was a huge helping of LOVE.

She was never stingy with her Love.

We were truly blessed with the abundance of that...

I pray that feeling of Love; her love surrounds each of us, but especially Uncle Bob everyday. For She loved nothing more than taking care of us.

We will miss her more than words can say.

Written with love –
by her Godchild and niece
Linda Barrett