Make it a Happy New Year

At a time when most people are dropping the ball on their New Year's Resolutions I have to admit I am just getting started. Being a Last Minute Lucy I procrastinated on my list. The list has but one item on it and that is to be Happy!

There are no big happenings planned to achieve this goal. No changes in job, marital status, or dwelling. I welcome changes in body image or just body but am not putting all my happiness eggs in the basket of whether I can shed the extra twenty pounds that have stuck to my body like some extra adhesive super glue.

Instead the hope is that being happy lies within me and the small decisions that are made every day, in forgiving myself when I fall off the happiness wagon, and in finding an easier way to get back on track without letting others keep me off too long.

It could be all about awareness and being still long enough to not react in an unhappy way. The world is full of instants. Everything has to happen in an instant and immediately or something may be missed. What is missing is the time to process thoughts or develop long term plans. Sometimes magic moments are missed because too little time is spent thinking something through. It's hard to keep one's eyes wide open to see what's ahead of us if we don't have time to take it all in. And then there are other people who want to mess with your happiness. Don't give your power of being happy over to someone else. Most of how people behave or what they say is more about them then about you anyway. Don't let another persons behavior mess with your happiness.

Reverend James Martin, S.J. wrote in America Magazine that "There are five things you can do to be happier."
1. Be Kind.
2. Relax a little bit more.
3. Be a little bit more Grateful.
4. Enjoy Nature More.
5. Pray just a tiny bit more

What ever it takes to be happy choose it over the alternative. There are things that make us sad and it's hard to be happy when we are grieving or when other people are hell bent on making us miserable. It's important to find out what helps us during these times and return to ourselves. This is my resolution for a Happy New Year, this year and every year to come.

So here it is the one item on my Resolution List: Be Happy. If none of this works I can always watch Caddyshack or an episode of Modern Family. Nothing makes me happier than a good laugh!

Magda

Happy Birthday Mom

Today, on what would have been her 92nd birthday, I celebrate my mother. Yes I mourn her. I grieve her loss. Every day I thank God she was my mom.

My mother is my inspiration. She was a realist. She saw many things in her life. She saw pure joy and pure hatred. She was a true patriot and lived an authentic life. She wanted to be remembered for her choice to live life as a person who was loyal and supportive. She fought for justice, always took care of people, and our home was always open to our friends and to anyone who could not be with their own families - especially around the holidays.

She was brilliant. A gene, that sadly, I did not inherit. She loved to laugh. Something I did not see much when I was a teenager and I am confident my own teenage children know how that feels. She taught me to look at the big picture, a gift I try to work on every day.

In her early years she wanted to be a journalist and figured out a way to achieve her goal. At the end of World War II, right before the Communists took over Poland, she boarded a train by herself and left her beloved family and country to save her life and hope for a better tomorrow. Eventually she landed in the United States of America and gave us all the gift of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It was decades before she was able to return to Poland - to the family and land she loved. She gave everything she had to her four daughters. How lucky we were.

At the end of my mom's life she had dementia. All of her gifts, among them writing, painting, broadcasting, sadly taken away from her. My hope was always that the awful memories of life in Nazi occupied Poland as well as the pain of not seeing her parents, sisters, and brother were also taken away.

In the simplicity of dementia my mother remained a warm, gracious, and loving woman who up and until the end of her life she taught me what it meant to be really, really brave.

As I do every day, but especially today, I celebrate the remarkable woman named Roza Fredericka Nowotarska Kobylinska and all the wonderful gifts she taught me.

Love you mom and Happy Birthday (Sto' Lat).
Magda

Protection

If you look at my Profile you will find out that I am a teacher.

Being a teacher my heart is broken.
Being a teacher I can only imagine what the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School felt when their students, who they were hired to protect, were under attack.
Being a teacher means that for the time you are at school you protect the lives of everyone in your classroom - in your school. It's a community within a community within a community.

You may not always get along with your child's teacher.
You may not always get along with the teacher across the hall from you or in the other building.
You may not always see the face of God in the children who are in your classroom or the adults down the hall - but it's there.

If you look at my profile you will find out that I am a parent.

Being a parent my heart is broken.
Being a parent I can only imagine what the parents in Newtown Connecticut felt when they heard the news that their children's school was under attack.
Being a parent means for the time your children are at school you hope they are being educated and protected by people who dedicate their lives to your children.

As a parent and a teacher I am in awe of the brave acts performed by the teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as how brave the children must have been.

If you are a parent or a teacher next time you sit across from one another start your conversations knowing that you both have the best interest of the child in your heart and that if ever under attack both of you would do anything to offer them protection.

Magda

Twas the Week Before Christmas

It's the week before Christmas. Oh crap! Are you Kidding!

The decorations, the presents, the menu - Get Up! Stop Sitting!

We need to get to the attic, to the woods, to the store!

Yes it needs to be done - plus the wreath for the door!

The children keep asking, "What's the matter?, they say.

"Have you forgotten in a week it will be Christmas Day?"

What will we tell them if we don't manage to get it all done?

"So sorry kids this year Christmas will stink, there's to be no more fun?"

The neighbor's lawn, have you seen it? There are so many lights

When did that happen? When did they? How many nights?

On their windows are bows. On ours? Heaven knows!

We are so behind! So behind! From our heads to our toes.

Where do we start? Should we make a list and a plan?

Or maybe we just book a trip to Japan.

No, that won't do we really need to get ready,

If we don't Christmas dinner will be a pot of spaghetti!

We could start with the presents. Do we know what they want?

And for whom should we buy for, your brother, my aunt?

And the kids, yes the kids, we could get them some games.

For the XBox and Wii - but I don't know the names.

To the stores I will travel. To the stores I will go.

How many to visit I really don't know.

To Target, To Nordstrom, To Macy's, and Old Navy Too!

To the Gap, and to Starbucks, and to the Little House Blue!

To the mall I will go and drive around and around.

Where there will not be a parking spot in the lot to be found!

To the computer I'll try that - now we're really in trouble!

To get it by Christmas we'll have to pay double!

Now go get the tree. Yes, the tree. You can do it!

Please remember the size. Yes, the size. We need one that will fit!

When it comes home let's remember putting it up can be fun.

No screaming, no shouting, or the kids they will run!

Christmas Card picture? Is that what you said?

There's no chance that we have one without eyes that are red!

Get everyone together. We can try one more time.

Matching shirts? Are you joking? It can't be a crime!

Time to go to the attic and get all the stuff.

Unwrap all the bulbs. Give the fake wreath a good fluff.

Wait, what's that in that box? The one over there?

Is that the Santa pillow that goes in the rocking chair?

This week will be crazy! Yes, we've done it again!

Last year we swore we would remember the pain!

We promised to be organized. Not to wait till the last minute!

The chance of that really happening is like the lottery - and we win it!

We'll make it. We'll pull it together. We will!

We'll even be happy until we see the credit card bill!

We'll worry about that later. It may take all year to get over our blight.

For now Happy Christmas to all , and to all a Good Night!

Ho, Ho, HO!
Magda