On Facebook the Illinois sister posted a picture of a bouquet of Lilies of the Valley from her yard.  Then it started with a comment, from the sister in California — “I miss them SOOO much!”

Live Lilies

The comment then turned into an idea, one that the sister in Illinois had to do right away, before Lilies were out of season.

First she called florists in the state of California to see if they could deliver a bouquet to the sister whose comment reflected how she missed Midwest spring flowers, since her departure 25 years ago. The florist said, sure they could make it happen at $10 a stalk.  Her mouth dropped open as she looked at the yard that was completely covered with the blooming Lilies.  The florist suggested she overnight her home-grown bounty – perfect idea!

She quickly picked all the Lilies in the yard and made a bouquet including the ones that were on her kitchen counter. She stopped at a florist to ask ‘how’ to ship flowers, bought a water reservoir and then boxed them up.

They ran to the post office before 5:00pm Friday night and paid $40.00+ to overnight them and guarantee delivery by Saturday at 3:00pm.

She suggested the Cali sister stay at home to wait for the surprise delivery, which, sadly, never arrived. Sunday came and went and finally the box was delivered Monday at 12:15pm.

Well you guessed it, they were spoiled and the fragrance she was hoping to waft out of the box as it was opened, was transformed to that of “decaying flowers”.

Dead Lilies

Although the Illinois sister sat in sadness and anger at the disappointing events, she missed that the most important gift – WAS – given. It was the thought, the effort, the detail to attention and the desire to make something very special and unique happen for the California sister.

Gifts spoil, get eaten or broken, and may get hidden away but…

“Intentions of giving a gift are never forgotten!”

Thank you for the intention of sending me a bouquet of Lilies of the Valley! Next year I may just have to hop on a plane and enjoy them in person!

Grateful for you and Spring flowers,

Sheree

Am I the only human that is so angry with the relentless jokes about the President, his family and the latest one regarding the President and his daughter, which came out of the mouth of Bill Maher???

No one liked the tone the President took towards women when videos came out pre-election, yet we sit here and witness the same or worse from the detractors of the President and laugh along with them. If we didn’t like how the President spoke about or treated women, how is it now acceptable to hear it from a talk show host?

I grew up in a time where you respected the position of President – whether you liked him personally or not; whether you voted for him or not. Attacks were kept to policy not family.  We as conservatives or liberals or independents have become so accepting of the hurtful things that are said in the name of ‘freedom of speech’.  In what world is it ok to infer there is an incestuous relationship between the President and his daughter or for that matter any father and his daughter?  Is this freedom of speech or just defamation because it’s reported all over the news and internet as a comedic skit?  I believe it’s just rude and hurtful.

Where is the “class” we once knew,

where everyone was held to a certain level of appropriateness?

I, with many, didn’t like it when the Bush’s daughters, or Clinton’s daughter or Obama’s daughters were berated.  Where is the outrage now? People have lost their jobs in the past for doing it, why aren’t they now?  Have we all become numb to tasteless jokes at the expense of another human beings feelings and their families and their small children just because it’s not the person ‘we’ wanted in the Whitehouse?

Why aren’t more women speaking up in defense of this intelligent and successful woman? Whether you are a liberal or conservative why aren’t you speaking out against the inappropriateness of these comments?  Is it because she is the daughter of man you don’t support or are you afraid you’ll be ostracized because you’re a conservative so you temper your outrage?  Either way where is the outcry to stop the current level of crudeness we accept as every day talk?

I don’t really care what political party you associate yourself with, I’m actually disenchanted with both, but the non-stop dialogue about a man and his family instead of the policies is just plain disrespectful and wrong.

We’re all from different eras, where certain things were acceptable – that didn’t make them RIGHT.  Do you continually need to use a person and his family as the butt of your jokes to keep your career alive?  Can you actually be funny without having to dehumanize or ridicule a person to make you look amusing or important or popular?

Isn’t that the definition of a bully?

I’m not quite sure why Maher’s comments set me off and made me so angry, perhaps I’ve reached my tipping point and my integrity meter just blew up!  We are all up in arms at the bullying in schools, but as adults we watch it and are entertained by it daily.  I’m so confused…

Is having a bit of class and being less rude a bad thing?  I know, I know I’m sounding like my mom now…

Struggling to be grateful at this moment,

Sheree

There are keys to your heart, keys to the city and keys on a piano, but the types of keys I’m talking about are the ones on your key ring.

What’s this for?

I have keys to our condo, the car, fire box, and safety deposit box. I also have keys to the pedestrian gate, the pool and mailbox.  I have a key to my son’s house and a good friend’s condo.  So in total and without misplacing them again, I have nine keys plus those random ones in the drawer, like the one I had for my suitcase in 1975.

I never understood what a little piece of metal with teeth and a name engraved on it could mean, until a recent conversation with a dear friend. She was working with the homeless when one of them shared with her the thing they really missed was “having a key”.  Seems a strange thing to miss, but in reality it made complete sense.  Without possessions a key is needless yet means everything.  It’s a symbol of accomplishment and without one, there’s a void.  Even if you own just one, you can be proud because you ‘have’ something; an apartment, a means of transportation, or just a box that holds your mail.

To the person who has nothing, that small metal object means everything.

What a shift in perspective a piece of metal can create. I started to think of the beautiful homes I’ve visited, the pricey cars I’ve driven in and the beautiful hotels I’ve stayed at – all needed just one thing to access them – a key.  Entry to your place of work, your locker at the gym or a tool box needs just one thing – a key.  In your lifetime, think of all the keys that have touched your hands – it’s astounding and yet I know I took them all for granted after the novelty wore off.

How wonderful that this homeless person, unknowingly, handed down such a gift of gratitude for all of us; all of us who have more keys than we know what to do with. No matter what race, religion, gender, or political party you’ve been hanging out with, I think we can all agree that if you’ve ever had just one key – you’ve been blessed!

Grateful for you and that random skeleton key in my jewelry box,

Sheree

I’ve been observing how everyone’s ego seems to be WAY out of control; a day without an immigrant, a day without a woman, and a day without a (fill in the blank).  It’s as if people think they can’t be replaced by someone else – someone who really wants to be us.

News stations telling us what we should believe through their bias, instead of reporting the actual news. Company’s so large that treating you as a valued human has been replaced with profits, profits, profits.  We’re angry, defensive, and fast to blame others.  We judge, criticize and use social media to attack and bully.  “Our” religion is the “only” religion and God is only on “my” side not yours.  We publish our opinions on public forums as if no other opinion matters, no other point of view is correct, no one is as smart as us or has researched and proven their point as well as we have.  There is only one side… not two.

That makes for such a FLAT view of life.

But as I was researching the issue of ego, I found that ego is ruled by the reality principle. So it’s not really the ego at all that is out of check, it’s the id – that silly thing that is ruled by the pleasure principle.  That immediate gratification thing, which means it doesn’t care about consequences or who it hurts.  It’s all about the id – Individual Domination (my description) – that always has to have its way, no matter what.

We’ve all been ruled by it at one time or another, it takes over our consciousness and we can’t see right from wrong, we don’t comprehend penalties and we don’t care about anyone but ourselves. We want what we want when we want it and there’s only one way of thinking – ours.

It’s been the id all along and I have been blaming the disrespect for each other on the poor EGO. The id who picks and chooses which laws it wants to follow, since consequences hold no meaning.  It’s the id who can’t compromise and is the force behind road rage and Facebook/Twitter wars. And don’t even get me started on the id’s control of Hollywood and Washington DC. The id has obviously grown up without any parental supervision and has tied up and muffled the superego, the part of us that censors the id with its morals and values.  That crazy ole id has totally high-jacked the ego, which is the mediator between the id and superego, and which makes our choices “just right.”

~~ It’s not the ego at all – it’s all about the id. ~~

How can we level out those Three Stooges so the id doesn’t out-shine the ego and superego? Perhaps a quick slap across their collective faces to shake them back to reality, to use common sense, to start thinking before acting and not jump to conclusions and judge or discuss every action of every person in the entire universe!

Ego, Id and Superego

That might just do it…  Click for my version of correcting the problem!

Grateful for your ego, your id and your superego when working cohesively,

Sheree

p.s. For more on the three stooges in your head, follow the link – Thank you Dr. Freud for you pearls of wisdom…