While visiting my mom this Mother’s Day weekend, I am in awe at the loving care she provides my younger sister. Sis has MS and needs a lot of help these days. As I write this from my parents’ home, MSNBC blares loudly on the television, although there appears to be in this household, at least a fondness for the “judge” shows, news and information program reigns supreme. Growing up, there were spirited discussions about politics and world events. We taught to be open to other people’s feelings, kindness was premium. While I possess my late father’s temperment to some degree less these days , my mother’s way of thinking and doing balances it– and me — out. Both parents showed my siblings and I that caring and sharing mattered most. They also showed us that getting older requires even more the need to learn and engage in new things. My father pursued his college degree in his late 50s. My mother is champion bridge player and “business” consultant. With embracing the new, I don’t mean just embracing the new technology, social media or different cultural streams although those things can be part of one’s personal expansion. It’s about a desire to learn and to grow internally as well as externally. Last week I witnessed what it’s like to live for years in the world without the will or desire to grow. One can become a zombie in life and principle without loving care and a willing to be open to new and different things. Growing older physically but not mentally and emotionally is imprisonment. A lot of people will never be free.
Author Archives: Azeena
May’s in Bloom
There’s a lot going on at my job now and there are a lot of challenges. Still I’ve been able to have some fun and plan time with family and friends. That includes Roxie, the Japanese bobtail and Jean Claude, the black bombay. They reside now at CCL’s house which is nearby and I visit them frequently. They pretty much observe my presence approach me for affection and then go on their merry way.
Beauty Queens
Drama. Drama. Drama. With the event of the “Real Housewives,” “Jerseylicious,” “Basketball Wives” and other similarly themed shows the “so called” real lives of selectly cast Americans are on display for the rest of us to see. Diversions, table turning, eye rolling, hair pulling etc. all under the watchful and intriqued eyes of us. And yes, this passes for entertainment, I admit, I watch but just how real is it all. I’ve met some of the “real housewives,” and “basketball wives,” they have been smart, gracious and glamorous. Like the rest of us they seek validation beyond their exteriors. I remember the hit song “Everyone is Beautiful” in his or her own way. I am blessed to know a lot of beautiful people inside and out and of course Roxie, a true queen.
The Stick on the Door
There is a Twilight Zone episode “The Howling Man.” A seemingly innocent man is held prisoner. There is no lock on his cell, only an easily removable wooden stick across the lock. hold. The monks that guard the tower where the man is held tell a visitor to leave the man alone. The visitor having sympathy on the man lifts the bar off the door and the innocent man is revealed to be an evil being who once freed, injures the man, grows stronger and dissapears in a puff of smoke. Sometimes it’s best to leave the stick on the door and let the person who seems to need help stay where they are so they don’t damage or destroy you in the course of you helping them. As a friend said long ago “If a person can’t bring you up don’t let that person bring you down.”
Cat Drama
Roxie and Jean Claude are now at CCL’s house on a more permanent basis. I’ve received rather humorous reports of their recent behavior from my daughter CCL. Mornings before she leaves for works the cats are particularly frisky. Jean Claude, the male black Bombay, slips out any open door to freedom, prancing round the hood til he’s ready to come back home. Roxie, the female Japanese bobtail, has once again taken to her sky-diving routine, jumping not once but twice in the last week from the second floor deck of CCL’s house . She landed safely both times in the neighbor’s yard below. Here’s a youtube video where the “Jedi Cat” looks very much like Roxie…hmmn.

