Forget your perfect offering.

"Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
~Leonard Cohen

Heidi posted this quote in the comment section the other day.  It sounded familiar and I liked it very much...so I googled it. :op

It is from a song called Anthem.

Now I wanted so much to listen to the song and love it but Leonard Cohen (RIP 2016)

had a very dark, deep, unusual style.

He was a poet first of all.

Quite prolific.

If you know country music you may recognize Bird on a Wire which has been recorded by everyone.

If you know popular culture, you know Hallelujah. (Also recorded by everyone)

This is, of course, the one I love.

 I'm pretty sure I posted this on my blog when I first heard this rendition last June...and learned about Choir, Choir, Choir.

I've liked Rufus Wainwright since Emma shared his music with me in high school.

So here is Rufus singing Hallelujah....

Meet our Rufus.

Janice is giving Rufus a proper hug.

hehe

oh cats.

"Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Back to this quote.

Encouragement for the imperfect among us,

xoxo

Donna Elsie

p.s.  I have just learned that learned is not good English.

It keeps showing up in my writing as a misspelled word.

What the heck.

Me. Being Imperfect. 

Again.

Einstein and Tolstoy

I just finished watching the National Geographic series called Genius.  It was so well done.  The math descriptions were the best!  Albert was able to explain his lofty ideas and theory's with the simplest examples and the cinematographers brought it to life brilliantly.
It jumps around thru time...and perhaps that was on purpose :o}

Albert loved Tolstoy.  He reads from a big think book in the final episode.

It was very touching and beautiful.  I jotted down the words and looked them up.

(What did we do before Google)

Love is life.

All, everything that I understand,

I understand only because I love.

Everything is, everything exists,

only because I love.

Everything is united by it alone.

Love is God, 

and to die means that I, a particle of love, 

shall return to the general and eternal source.

The final part was not in the show.  But it seems like Albert would really love those last lines.

At one point, Einstein's assistant tells him to reconcile with his son.

He is hesitant.  

Helen: "You have compassion for so many people. You fight for so many people. Why is it you cannot fight to reconcile with your own son?"

Einstein: "I think I liked you better when you kept your thoughts to yourself."

Helen: "You care so much about your legacy, about how you will be remembered by the world. But the world begins and ends in your own family."

The world begins and ends in your family.

You know, I love that.

Donna Elsie

p.s.  Thank you Heidi for fixing the above picture. The picture has a big tear in it and she figured a way to edit it in photoshop.  

That's Suzy and dad and me.

We lived in California for one year, 1960.

We are 3 1/2 and 2 1/2. 

Dad was 32 1/2. 

Matthew's age.

p.s. The Tolstoy quote is from War and Peace.

Three of a kind family

I snapped a few shots of the boys as I was getting ready to leave yesterday.

The garage light was too bright.  But I was getting used to my camera after being separated from it since March.  I was not on my A-game.

Group shots.  Hardest to shoot.

Always such a blessing to get.

Baby Ezekiel.

Bright. Spunky. Independent.

He talks in complete sentences..but you have to be in his inner circle to join in the conversation.

He likes to dress well.

Annoyed by tags.

You may remember Asher.

So Smart. Helpful. Mature.

Lover and defender of Michael Jordan. GOAT.

Smartest kindergartner that I know.

Malachi 

Clever. Playful. Funny

He's the life of the party and has the best smile in the world.

Many bruises on legs. :o)

Katie, Emma and I had so much fun watching the boys last week.  They (the boys. haha) behaved so well and got used to all of us quickly.  We stayed in a lot when the temps neared 100, venturing outside only for sprinkler and slip and slide fun.

Saturday was for baseball games.

Asher's age group resembles a baseball team.

Malachi's age group does not.  (No one remembers to run after the ball is hit.)

The weather was perfection and the boys made it easy on us by sticking close in the parking lot and listening well.  (These are the important things, you know.)

I used some techniques I learned at school 'on the boys'....

 Timers for sharing and lots of noticing when they were doing things right...pointing out their GREATNESS.  They looked at me a little strange at first but I think they liked it.

It made me giggle to emulate the teacher's from our school who work hard on the Nurtured Heart method.  

Plus, I go with the Esther Jean school of child rearing....

stay home.

Matthew teased me about a brown patch on the lawn and my recycling methods...but I said, 

I remembered their medicine every night.

AND THEY ARE ALIVE.

How well they behaved for us and followed the family rules is a testament to Matthew and Melinda and their hard work with the boys.

It's easy to forgot how tiring it is to be on the go from sun up to sun down.

Katie was a little stressed, worrying about the boys.  She being our baby has not had much opportunity to be around children in their natural habitat. 

Emma is the best with children and is much more fun than ole Yaya.

She is always ready to head outside, read a book or tumble on the floor with them.

Matthew and Melinda had a wonderful Anniversary trip to Waco Texas.

They went to see Chip and Johanna's Silos.  They were happy to see it but it was so overcrowded they could not even get a cupcake.  DisneyWorld-like lines to get in the bakery.  Lines one hundred people long.  UGH.  Happily this did not spoil the trip for them.  (It would have for me. Totally)   They found many other nice things to do and enjoyed the cozy Air BnB they stayed at.  

They came home happy.

Which made me happy.

The End.

More tomorrow.  

I heard the most beautiful quote this morning as I finished watching Genius.

But like I said, more about that tomorrow.  

Can't wait.

Love ya,

Donna 

p.s. GOAT means Greatest of all Time.

Keep me reasonably sweet.

I read this wonderful quote in Gateway to Joy by Elisabeth Elliot.

It is attributed to a seventeenth-century nun.

Lord, You know better than I know myself that I am getting older and will someday be old. Keep me from... the fatal habit of thinking I must say something in every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but You know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind from the recital of endless details-give me wings to come to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure the with patience. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I will be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint-some of them are so hard to live with-but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me the grace to tell them so.

Ain't that the truth!

Donna Elsie

School's out. Summer fun.

Summer is here and school is out.
I am recovering.

As you know I do not think I am old.  I look at people my age and think,
they are pretty old.  And then I realize I am their age.  It's the weirdest thing I have ever experienced.
This aging thing.
At school I was nearly the oldest one.
(At home where no one sees me...I am in denial)
I was working for a 32 year old supervisor.
Could be my child.
Our neat art teacher was 22.
Could be my child.
Younger than three of my children.
Our students.  K-1's.
Could be my grandchildren.

In my head, I think we are peers.
And then I think of my age and look in the mirror. (and leave the house)

It does not fit.



I am older than Aunt Bee.

So.
I'm recovering.

Trying to sleep past five.
Trying to stay up past nine.

I cried many tears on the last day as I said good-bye to a student.
(I grew very fond of the kids)
We said our good-byes and I'll miss yous....
And I had to walk back to class with big tears in my eyes.

I do not have a job next year.
Yet.
I will look for something over the summer and if nothing comes up...
I will substitute like I started out doing in the beginning.

Next week, Katie and I will go watch Asher, Malachi and Ezekiel in Omaha while Matthew and Melinda go on a vacation to celebrate 10 years of marriage.  (Emma's going to come for the weekend too!)  We are going to have so much fun!!!

So this summer we will make memories.

Visit family.

Make a few college visits.

(For KATIE...since she will be a SENIOR)

Senior.  

Lots of those around here.

As Carl Reiner says,

"If you're not in the Obit,

eat breakfast."

As I tell myself,

Smile,

Avoid mirrors,

laugh.

Encourage one another,

Donna Elsie

I'm so old....my middle name is coming back in style!