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Happy Spring to Everyone!
Yay! Finally the weather feels like Spring with temps in the 60's and 70's. May is a celebratory month with Mother's Day and Memorial Day in the mix. This Earth Day was filled with positive activities. Passover reminded us of the worldwide difficulty in achieving coexistence among fellow earth citizens. Being tribal beings we struggle with and are unable to solve the immensely important goal of peace within our human family, yet.
My fitness classes continue while I am in Florida for half of April and 1st week of May. Two of my seasoned students are hosting my class via my voice recording. We have had family visiting in Key West for two weeks in April/May and we had friends visiting for a week in March. This is our first Spring with a Key West home (such a desirable spot to visit) so we invited folks down to share our good fortune. We will be back to NY soon to attend Jeannie's graduation from Hofstra University with a Masters in Public Relations. She continues to work for Ripley-Grier Studios. An opportunity has opened, an entertainment firm has asked for her resume, (Yay!).
May is a beautiful month with flowers and plants blooming. Veggies are being planted for future harvest. It is a very fitting month to have Mother's Day. My Mother started as a gov't factory working in Union, NJ during WWII. She married my Dad in Biloxi, Mississippi while he was in the Army Air Force training to be shipped over to the Pacific. She followed him from base to base from New Jersey across the country working in the base laundry. Just before he was to be shipped out of San Fransisco , the war ended and he was discharged. He and my Mom hitch-hiked across the US from California to New Jersey. She was three months pregnant with me. She went back to work at the same factory after my birth. When I was 9 years old we moved to the Jersey Shore. She worked in a tile making factory and then for Dixie Cup when they built a big facility near our home in Keyport. Later during my 2nd year in college, she moved to Florida with my Dad and became a waitress, (always working). She longed for the day she could retire, but she died early at 62 years old from alcoholism and never got to see those retirement days. She died on Mother's Day in Orlando, Florida and as an only child I made all the arrangements and flew her back to New Jersey with her ashes in my backpack. It was a lonely and sad time for me, so Mother's Day is a hard day, but I am so grateful for the wonderful Mother's in my life, currently and in the past.
Memorial Day is a bittersweet day as well in many lives and for our country. So many young men and women (mostly young, of course by design) have lost their lives in the many wars that we have engaged in (some justified, some not). My Dad was in the Army Air Force in WWII, my first partner was in the Navy in Vietnam and Butch was in the Marines in Vietnam.
Please honor all Mothers and our Military heroes, they both rose to callings that are essential and meaningful.
"Better and Better every day in every way."
With much regard, Patricia
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