Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1107 - Gratitude and Gull Lake - Hey Mom and T-shirts Reprint

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1107 - 
 - Gratitude and Gull Lake - Hey Mom and T-shirts Reprint

Hi Mom, So, in case either of my two readers did not get the message, I am still producing HEY MOM posts twice a week with the Throwback Thursday posts and the weekly reprints on Sunday.

I freely admit that it may be "weak sauce" to reprint posts a second time on the same blog, and at some point, I have to be diligent to not reprint for a third time.

Sure, I am aware that reprints are an easy post, but I have over 1100 such posts, and I am proud of many of them. I have a lot from which to choose.

This post combines two reprints as I drew from the T-shirts blog for the gratitude content, which has appeared on my blog numerous times.

The concept came from a movie called The Secret.

I have returned home to the west early from my trip, but I am grateful. I am grateful for my trip, I am grateful for my family and friends in Michigan, but I am also grateful for my new home, Mom. I wish you were here to see it.

BTW, I love this picture of us (both below and up top).

And so I tribute toe family, to gratitude, and to my former home (a post from the T-shirts blog that was also made in August), where I grew up, my heart and soul.

FROM - http://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2016/02/hey-mom-talking-to-my-mother-217.html

Easter 1966

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #217 - Gratitude

Hi Mom, Here's some content from my T-shirts blog. I am still trying to catch up since I have fallen behind on my daily regimen.

I am very grateful for you, Mom, and for our family (see next two photos).

I think about our times together very often, Mom. These memories fill me with warmth and love and an ache that is never going to subside.

At least, I know that I told you how grateful I am for you. I know that I did not leave anything unsaid or finish our time together on hurtful or hateful words.

I am grateful to have lived with you for so long, to be able to be raised by you, and then in turn, to be able to help take care of you. I am grateful that you saw me get married and got to know my wife and kids and pets (Vespers and Satchel).

I am grateful for all you have given me because it's so much and I find new layers of it all the time.

FROM T-SHIRT #78

So, I am very grateful for Suzanne Vega and all that she has given me in my life, all that I have shared with her through music, what seems like deeply personal music, without knowing her at all, though feeling like I do know her, know her music.

So, each morning, I run the list of things for which I am grateful. I am not always listing musical artists, like Suzanne Vega, because I focus mostly on my family and community. Though from time to time, musical artists will drift into my consciousness, and I will thank the universe for them, infuse the positive energy of my love into the fabric of the cosmos, because, after all, we are all connected.

LAST WORD ON THE GRATITUDE THING: I got the idea for the gratitude prayer (meditation, list, incantation, catalogue, rumination, reflection, or whatever you want to call it) from a movie called The Secret. I am not quite promoting the movie as a "true" exposure of an actual science. In fact, many of the stories in the film are a bit fatuous. However, I like watching it. I showed it to a class (my second viewing) about a month ago, and the idea of the daily gratitude thing struck me. In the movie, one of the interviewees (I forget which one and it's not important) explained how he had a rock in his pocket. At night, he would set it on his dresser with the other contents of his pockets. The next morning, he would retrieve it and remember to list the things for which he was grateful as a daily routine, like a prayer. He had a visitor from South Africa and told the man about his rock and gratitude practice. The man called it a "gratitude rock." After returning to South Africa, he wrote his American friend and asked for some gratitude rocks to be sent to him because one of his children was very sick, and he did not have the money to seek medical care for the child. The interviewee balked at sending "gratitude rocks" because, after all, "they are just rocks," he said. But he found three nice rocks and sent them to his South African friend. Months later, the South African wrote back. The rocks worked! His son was healed and recovered. They paid for his medical treatment by selling a hundred gratitude rocks. People believed in the power of the gratitude rocks.

I found this story inspirational. I do not use a rock, but every day, I make my gratitude list. I send energy into the universe. I focus on the positive and try to limit or dismiss the negative.

I think it's working.

Thank you, Mom.
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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 219 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1602.09 - 10:10
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FROM - http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/2013/08/t-shirt-157-gull-lake.html

T-shirt #157: Gull Lake

I needed a quick post today or I am never going to catch up let alone get ahead.

Home.

I grew up in Gull Lake, Michigan. I had the pleasure to return and live there with my wife for the first two years of our marriage in the house I helped build with my family on West Gull Lake Drive. I shared a bit about this house in T-shirt #94 and our BAT POLE.

For me, Gull Lake is home.








Living in the beautiful place on West Gull Lake Drive from 1979-1981 and then from 1985-2003, and then to return there in 2009 and live there until 2011 with my wife and kids makes me a very happy and a very lucky person.

The West Gull Lake Drive house is a beautiful architectural model. My kids called it the "Vampire Tree-House." I am not sure about the vampires, but it is very much a tree-house.

I count myself so lucky to be able to live there with two families: my parents and my sister, and then my wife and step-kids.

Just looking at the pictures make me nostalgic and wistful.

It is a magical place and a home filled with memories both good and a few that are tragic.

I am grateful.

Thank you to all my readers.

But, I am warning you now, I am going to cheat again and re-publish content here that I originally published as part of T-shirt #78: Suzanne Vega.

You do realize that I cross-reference my blog posts like this because, while I have your attention, I want to try to catch your interest in postings you may not have read. For a few of you, this is not an issue as you have told me that you have read the whole thing. This is a feat I find very impressive, and I am honored. Thanking you for making me part of your daily or weekly life (not sure how often some of you who read it all read it).

Anyway, this chunk of text seemed worthy of a repeat. So here we go.


LAST WORD ON THE GRATITUDE THING: I got the idea for the gratitude prayer (meditation, list, incantation, catalogue, rumination, reflection, or whatever you want to call it) from a movie called The Secret. I am not quite promoting the movie as a "true" exposure of an actual science. In fact, many of the stories in the film are a bit fatuous. However, I like watching it. I showed it to a class (my second viewing) about a month ago, and the idea of the daily gratitude thing struck me. In the movie, one of the interviewees (I forget which one and it's not important) explained how he had a rock in his pocket. At night, he would set it on his dresser with the other contents of his pockets. The next morning, he would retrieve it and remember to list the things for which he was grateful as a daily routine, like a prayer. He had a visitor from South Africa and told the man about his rock and gratitude practice. The man called it a "gratitude rock." After returning to South Africa, he wrote his American friend and asked for some gratitude rocks to be sent to him because one of his children was very sick, and he did not have the money to seek medical care for the child. The interviewee balked at sending "gratitude rocks" because, after all, "they are just rocks," he said. But he found three nice rocks and sent them to his South African friend. Months later, the South African wrote back. The rocks worked! His son was healed and recovered. They paid for his medical treatment by selling a hundred gratitude rocks. People believed in the power of the gratitude rocks.

I found this story inspirational. I do not use a rock, but every day, I make my gratitude list. I send energy into the universe. I focus on the positive and try to limit or dismiss the negative.

I think it's working.

"Home is where I want to be

Pick me up and turn me round

I feel numb - born with a weak heart

(So I) guess I must be having fun

The less we say about it the better

Make it up as we go along

Feet on the ground

Head in the sky

It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing....

Home - is where I want to be

But I guess I'm already there
I come home she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place "

Talking-Heads Naive-Melody live1984

Home.

- chris tower - 1308.25 - 18:09

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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 1135 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1808.12 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.