Just Thoughts and Nothing Else

Taking the time to notice the differences in everyone you meet.
Going through life with blinders on is a sad state of affairs.  It's missing out on the pure and simple love of how the people you meet throughout your life are not only people, but they may be exciting and fascinating too!


I don't know about you, but one of my most favorite things to do is People Watch.
You see young and old alike walk before you and maybe you wonder sometimes to yourself, what is it that makes them tick?  What is it that makes them smile, or I wonder why they just laughed?  What is their life like that makes them happy or sad?  What is it that they are thinking about right now?

They may be tall, or short, thin or not, happy or sad looking, a person who talks with their hands, or one who just seems to be listening.  Never the less, all are unique in their own way.  Some may walk with their heads held high and with a sense of arrogance or maybe it's just confidence, and some may seem to walk with their heads down as if to say they are not secure enough to hold it up high or just plain shy.  Whichever the case may be, it is who they are.




I've personally noticed things about people throughout my lifetime to date, and I am still amazed at the differences in just the way people respond to each other and the way some express themselves.






Sit in front of a coffee shop sometime and don't read anything or play with your computer, just sit and watch!
Watch how people walk and talk with each other.  Watch the young and the elderly and all the in between's.
I'm not saying stare at everyone that passes, but try to glance casually and offer a smile.

Otherwise, they might think you're some kind of a nut!







Try not to have a scowl on your face.
As you see, it can be pretty confusing
as to why we are looking that way!














You could be just walking behind someone and now 
they are stopped at a street corner and low and behold, if you take the time, you just might be thinking all kinds of things about the people in front of you, depending on who you are and how your mind works!!!








So whatever the case may be, however you choose to look at things, just take one wonderful day once in awhile and just sit and people watch!  I think you'll come home (if you've done the people watching with a wonderful open mind) with a peaceful calm,a totally relaxed and happy feeling inside you!

So, ENJOY !

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Dreaming is a word that we use to describe what our mind does when we fall asleep.  I'm sure there is a thousand technical terms for all that goes on while we sleep, but I'm not too technical about anything so therefore it really doesn't matter to me!  I do like being explained the technical aspects of things but only by someone who really knows and understands every aspect of the term!  I want no guessing, no surmising, no I think so's, I always want facts!  So when I don't have facts, I just talk about my feelings on something and no one has to believe that I am right, just that I interpret only what I believe to be the answers.
Sometimes we dream of beautiful, wonderful things and sometimes we dream of things that some people say we should try to interpret their meanings.  Are they an insight to what's happening in our lives?  Are they a warning of our futures and what is yet to come?  Sometimes I believe that they are a way to escape what ever turmoil is going on in our lives on a daily basis.
 Some people will tell you their dreams and they are pretty scary if you ask me, but as they explain them to you things start to emerge that you wonder how can they be so real in what they've seen.?  How is it that they are vibrant with color, detailed completely even with faces, places, and objects?  Then there are others that don't remember a single dream that they have.
Why do we need to understand them at all?  Maybe they've frightened our children, or they've frightened us?
Maybe we just want to know why, how and where?  Maybe we just hope that we can learn from them and make all good things in them, possible!  Maybe we think they are warnings to help us avoid bad things in our lives?  Are there really dream interpreters that really know what they mean, and if so, what makes them experts on what people are actually dreaming about?

Then there are the "Dreamers" as some people like to call them.  You know the ones, that sit and think about their futures, their plans, their hopes and aspirations of what is to come....The ones that believe that all of their dreams will come true and if they don't, it was because someone else crushed their dreams for one reason or another!  It couldn't possibly be because they were dreaming unrealistically about a person, place or thing in their lives that didn't have a biscuit of a chance of coming true in the first place!

Here is the scientific approach to dreaming; 

Interest in dreams is as old as mankind himself. Mankind’s oldest book the Bible is full of them, with the first recorded dream occurring around 1900 B.C.E. The Greeks, Romans and Babylonians all put great hope in dreams, especially on the eve of battle. They believed that through dreams their Gods would direct them to victory. Today the interest in dreams and their interpretation is no less profound. In the early 20th Century Sigmund Freud referred to dreams as ‘the royal road to the unconscious.’ He gave his own interpretations of dreams on the basis of our repressed desires, especially the sexual urge. Today it is generally held that Freud’s interpretation of dreams was overly simplified. But why do we dream in the first place?
Dreams are often a response to our daily thoughts, activities and sensations. They are often, then, a reflection of what has consumed our minds in the preceding day or two. Dreams are apparently a necessary part of our being. Experiments have been done in which adult subjects were given drugs that progressively eliminated their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It is during REM that dreams occur. The depriving of the ability to dream resulted in marked personality changes in such subjects. They became increasingly abrasive and anxious and found it difficult to concentrate. It was also shown that the younger a person is, the more important dreams are to their well being.
Scientific studies have resulted in some universally accepted conclusions about dreams. Firstly, it is apparent that everyone dreams, even those who would deny it. Dreaming is as natural as breathing. Babies dream much more than adults. Infants, in fact, spend about 70 percent of their sleep time dreaming. In comparison, adults spend just 24 percent of their sleep time in the dream state. It appears that animals also dream.
Researchers have long known that sleep can be divided into stages. Initially we are in a light sleep stage. From there we progressively enter into a deeper sleep until we reach what is known as the Stage IV sleep state. From here we enter into a lighter stage before moving into the REM stage. REM sleep is accompanied by darting movements of the eyes, even though they are closed. It is as if the eyes were watching a movie playing on the closed eyelids. During REM the brain is operating as if the body were awake. It is during REM that dreams occur.
It generally takes the sleeper about 90 minutes to pass through all of the stages of sleep. Once the REM stage is completed, the process starts again. During the first cycle, REM lasts for only about five minutes. This, however, gradually increases until during the final cycle, a person in the REM stage for up to fifty minutes. So, in a normal night’s sleep a person will spend between ninety and one hundred and twenty minutes in the REM dream state. Dreams are very easily forgotten. In fact, we generally only remember the last one we have each night. Realising that we all dream so often, however, can give us a little balance when it comes to looking at the meaning behind our dreams. A dream is not a special occurrence with a special meaning. It is something that everyone does many times every night. Of course there are many people who would interpret your dreams for you. The greatest argument against their effectiveness, however, is the fact that there is huge discrepancy among these ‘experts’ as to the interpretation of dreams. One expert tells you that your dream means this, while another gives an entirely different interpretation. Another problem with professional dream interpretation is that psychotherapists from different cultures ascribe different meanings to dream symbolisms based on what they are familiar with. This, again, has led to wildly different interpretations of the same dream.
A tendency among dream analysts of recent times has been to teach people to interpret their own dreams. It is felt that each person is aware of his own thoughts, feelings and experiences and is, therefore, in the very best position to know what his dreams actually mean. This, however, leaves the interpretation of the dream open to our own bias. In other words we can make the dream fit into any interpretation that we wish.
The general scientific consensus is that dreams are a necessary way for our subconscious mind to exercise itself. They warn about attaching undue significance to any interpretation of dreams. We are advised not to take our dreams too seriously, but rather to enjoy them for what they are – an essential part of our sleep process.

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Starting Over in life I think is a difficult process.  I think that you might just start over every single day and yet you don't even realize it.  I think that sometimes when someone passes on in your life that you start over trying to make sense of the whole thing but you really are starting over without that person now in your life as well.
You may start over every time you fall in love and realize that although it may have been love, it was a different kind of love and just not the right kind of love you were looking for or one that was the never ending kind either.  You may start over when you decide to take on a new job just because the last one just wasn't going where you wanted it to go.
You may start over again when you've incurred an injury and you aren't who you once were, but you know that the person you are now, is one that is still worth it so you start over learning to be that new person.
You may be starting over once you find out that you have an illness that you can't change the outcome of and you now have to start over as the new person who has to fight the illness and/or learn to live with the illness in a way that you aren't used to living like at all.

So as you go through your starting over processes, think of the times you've just "Started Over" in your life and realize that although it may be just another process of starting over, it might just be worth it!
It might just be new and different and not always what you had hoped for, but life hands you lessons learned in so many different forms, learn to accept and just run with it.
I can't promise that it will be better than it was the day before, but a path chosen for you is a path that must be taken!  We don't always choose our paths in life, but whatever power is choosing them for us, must be a power so much greater than our own and therefore must be followed.

Quotes by others.

You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'Never try'. - Homer Simpson

~ For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. - Steve Jobs [Commencement Address to Stanford students]

~ Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped. - African Proverb

~ Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. - Warren Buffett

~ "Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." - Lewis Carroll [Alice in Wonderland]

~ Once I started seeing through the eyes of my heart, instead of a socially conditioned lens, things started to transform dramatically. - Jonathan Mead

~ It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts
going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces. - Bridgette Jones' Diary

~ Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian. - Shari R. Barr

~ It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get. - Elbert Hubbard

***** QUOTES ABOUT THE PAST *****

~ Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

~ Live out of your imagination, not your history. - Stephen Covey

~ Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which at least others can learn from. - Al Franken

~ Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it. - Marianne Williamson

~ I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. - Lewis Carroll

~ No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today. - Brendan Francis

~ Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. - Betty Smith [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]

~ For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. - T.S. Eliot

~ Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. - Billie Holiday

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What the hell happened - 545 vs. 300 million By: 

Sometimes I think about all the lonely people in the world and how they must feel not having anyone in their daily lives.  I wonder this because although at times my life has been very lonely with or without someone around, I think of the people who haven't been as lucky as myself.
Holidays, birthdays, Sunday night dinners with the family. 

No matter what the size of your family, no matter what the occasion,
formal or informal, no matter where you might choose to gather, family makes you feel pretty special most times.






 So think about those people who had to have those dinners alone!  Maybe they don't have family and friends to have dinner with and maybe they are just fine with that too, but for me, I wouldn't want to be that person who didn't have someone, or didn't have family and friends around.

Maybe those people that are lonely aren't that way because they want to be, but because they've chosen other things in their lives over family, friends and loves of their lives?  Maybe they chose to be alone because something in their lives has taken presidence before all the ones who have loved them?  Maybe to those people I wish I could have just whispered to them somehow, "It's better to have stopped for a moment and think about your choice."  But if that's how they have chosen their lives to be, then how can you tell them and hope that they would hear you?  ..Maybe the lost souls have been given this choice to make to see if they can stand beside someone, who would have gladly stood beside them if only they knew themselves how to do the same?   Maybe what seemed quite important at the time really wasn't, and maybe it was in their eyes?

I don't think because people make choices that they deem important at the time, that we should think ill of them, because they are doing the best they know how.  They are doing what they think sometimes is important for their families well being.  Maybe they didn't always have time to go to a baseball game for their child, or maybe they missed an important event with their wives, maybe they missed their daughters recital?
Maybe they were just trying to save for their futures, and maybe this is just because they thought it was more important to be a responsible adult taking care of business, or maybe they thought it was just the most logical choice to make,  and now they are alone because of it.?

Whatever the reasons they choose to be "Lost" or have "Lost" in some part of thier life, it's the choice they've made!  Sometimes we say, "It's better to have loved and Lost, then never to be loved at all"  This holds true with many instances in your life and whomever you have lost along the way, So be it I guess.

You may come to the realization in your life one day and say, "Was it worth it?"

Maybe we can all think about how time gets away from us and one day we are the lost souls that wished we could have made some different choices along the way?, and maybe we won't think they were bad choices at all?   I guess that's what we may have to find out the hard way.

As for me, I will always try to make time to stop along the way, to love, to laugh, to enjoy the chances that I will get to have with my family, friends, and my acquaintances.   Maybe one day I will also get the chance to find love again too, but for now, I'll be happy with the choices I make, as long as I know my choices, are my choices!
Each and every moment I spend with my family and friends makes me thank God, that I have been blessed even though I've had sad, unfortunate times too, I am blessed with so much more!!!!

Here's just something to think about for the Dad's, Mom's, and Grandparents too.



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I think I love Easter as much as the children do!  Coloring eggs, I don't do this anymore but I know all of my twelve grandchildren still do.  I remember as a child coloring Easter Eggs and we all were allowed to color 1 dozen eggs each.  That was so special!  I remember being all excited about searching for our Easter baskets the next morning too.  I remember that giant Chocolate Bunny and all those chocolate Easter eggs and boy were we sick my nighttime.  But awfully good memories!

Now that I'm a Mimi (grandmother) to my childrens children, I started a tradition once the children were big enough to know what it meant to pick up the eggs out of the yard and fill their baskets with them until they were overflowing.

I started with about 500 eggs and as the family kept growing and growing, I had to keep adding to the eggs I had to fill.  At first I had my husband to help me on Easter morning to go through the entire 2 acres of property and slowly drop the eggs that were filled with wrapped candy throughout the yard.  I got up as high as 1,000 eggs and I made it very easy for my little ones to just spread from side to side and just keep going towards the back of the yard to fill their baskets.
Of course, having mostly boys it got quite chaotic because boys will be boys, and they sure are competitive sometimes, but we were able to keep them in line and by the time they got to the end of the yard, they were all tired out from the long walk to the back of the yard.
As the children keep growing, I keep having to find new ways to make it exciting for the older ones and this year will be the first year that I decided to do a scavenger hunt to make them work a little bit harder for the prize at the end and give them a bit of a challenge too.  So I've devised 10 little poems that they will have to use to find each item and then at the end there will be their baskets filled with goodies.
With my grandchildren we have to be very careful not to cross contaminate with lots of different food allergies involved, but it works and the children are none the wiser that they've missed out on anything.
One of us makes chocolate lollipops that our children can have and we buy candy that although limited, it works for all of them.  Then of course there is the money filled eggs and the grand prize of Frisbees, kites, bubbles, chalk and of course McDonald's gift cards too.
I even have my nieces 2 little girls come now too.
So although we still have quite a few little ones still searching (not too hard) for those eggs, this year will be the added pleasure of watching the big kids squirm a little while trying to figure out the clues to the hunt.

So in the morning I'll start going out very early to drag my wagon around until I fill the yard with eggs filled with treasures just so that when they all get here, I'll be ready for them!

I'll hide all the little pieces for the scavenger hunt and hide the baskets too.

I'll wait with such excitement in my heart just to see thier cute faces light up when I yell; 1, 2, 3 and GO

and they'll all start scattering in different directions and I hope they'll all be very happy.

I know I will be!  I'm not saying that the parents are going to have as great a time with all those children with all those sugar highs going on, but they all go home from my home some time tonight!  Although at times that can be sad, but when they are so filled with sugar, it's a good thing!
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