Farewell, My Friend

I have felt very sad all day long today.  A friend of mine will be driving out of Texas tomorrow and into the sunrise. I hope that there are some really good things on the horizon for her.  It kind of reminds me somewhat of the morning that I left Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.  The bus I was on drove off into the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen, and I saw this as a sign that there were many good things in store for me, and there were!  If I had to do it all over again, I would have still joined the Air Force.

A group of us went to lunch today at Pappasitos to bid her and another person farewell. It was a very nice lunch. Before I left work today, I went over to her, told her goodbye and gave her a pocket Angel Stone to ensure that the angels would watch over and protect her in her new location.

Sarah's Angel Stone

She and I hugged and said "goodbye".  I hope that this was not the last time that I will ever see her!  When it comes right down to it, she probably doesn't give a rat's ass about me, but I really do care about her, for some reason.  Now I have to walk past her empty desk when I return to work after New Years. This makes me feel very sad and empty.

My dear friend, I will say it again, I really care about you!  I hope that you find happiness and fulfillment in your new life. Just don't forget about the past two years here in Dallas.

So here is a song that I am dedicating here on my blog, just for you . . .

I wish you were still here and I hope we can meet again someday.

Until tomorrow's sunrise . . .

A Shot in the Bum

I have been sick for the past week or so with severe sinus congestion, a sore throat and the general malaise that accompanies ailments of this sort. I finally broke down today and went to the doctor. Well, the proverbial "shot in the arm" to cure one's ills morphed into a "shot in the bum" for me. A steroid shot that is, along with a Z-PAC prescription. It ended up being a sinus infection. I want this to be gone before I get on the plane to Hawaii next week!

Today turned out to be a pretty decent one. I went to lunch at Pappadeaux's today with several people from work to celebrate the birthday of a very lovely girl at work who I enjoy talking with on a daily basis. Well, the infamous "TW" joined us at lunch today and it was a very pleasant experience! I have mentioned TW in my blog before. I really like TW, but they shut me out at times for some unknown reason, which really hurts my feelings.

TW was out of the office at another location for several weeks and just arrived back this past week. I have noticed that things seem to have eased since their return. The veil appears to have lifted somewhat. Perhaps it is because this is TW's last week here. I hope that things stay this way until their departure. I would love to sit down and have a long discussion with TW to tell them how much I care. I don't know if this will happen now or ever, but I hope it will somehow, somewhere, sometime.

So, here's to you, TW. I truly care about you, so don't you forget about me after you leave! I am dedicating one of my favorite songs to you tonight and for ever more . . .

More to come . . .

The Blue Lady

I just got an iPAD 2 this past week and I have really been enjoying playing with it! I don't know why I waited so long to get one, as they are so much easier to use than a regular laptop. So after dinner tonight I was playing some more with the iPAD and came across an app called "Photo Booth", where you can take different kinds of distorted pictures, some of them like those funky mirrors at amusement parks. I was oddly drawn to the "Thermal Camera" selection and took my first "self portrait" on my iPAD 2. I have titled it "The Blue Lady", because it actually depicts how I have been feeling this week. Here is "The Blue Lady":

The "Blue Lady"

This reminds me somewhat of those aura reading photos you can have taken in places like Sedona or Pleasanton, CA.  If I were to do an aura reading on this photo, I would say that the subject is a blue lady surrounded by fire with serenity above,  Oddly enough, that is exactly where I am at right now in my life. It is cold and dark outside and the holidays are approaching.  I am feeling pretty blue as a result.  I am surrounded by a very stressful environment at work, and the only peace that I have is from the Lord above.

I need to be take great care to keep this under control.  I am going to Hawaii at the end of next week, which will help immensely.  I also need to stick to a strict exercise regimen, eat healthy food, and surround myself with positive and caring people.  Sticking to these principles, I hope to become Ms. Sunshine again:

Ms. Sunshine

Until tomorrow . . .

Pearl Harbor Day

I dedicate my post today to those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii on this day 70 years ago.  How tragic that something like this could happen on what was a beautiful, sunny day in paradise!  What is so sad is that there were strong indications that this was going to happen, but they went unheeded. This tragedy underscored the importance of how intelligence should be used to protect the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic.

Although I have been in Oahu many times, the USS Arizona Memorial never fails to have an effect on me.  It lies in shallow waters beneath the beautiful stark white memorial built in its memory and honor. You can actually see the ship in the water under the memorial:

The USS Arizona Lies Still Beneath its Memorial in Pearl Harbor

  
Visitors are taken to the memorial via a barge and once there, asked to enter the memorial in silence and respect.  It is a very somber place, as the bodies of 1,177 servicemen who died aboard the ship remain entombed there today.  When you look out of the windows of the memorial, you can see one of the gun turrets right outside:

Gun Turret Right Outside the Windows of the Arizona Memorial

Here is a picture of a large plaque of the list of names of those servicemen who died there:

Plaque of Names of Those Who Died on the USS Arizona

I will pray for the souls of these brave servicemen who died at Pearl Harbor 70 years ago.  I pray that both they and their families are at peace.

Until tomorrow . . .

It's Freezing in Dallas!

It is freezing in Dallas, Texas!  It has been this way for the past few days and is supposed to be the same for the rest of the week.  I have woke up to cold dark mornings, donned my heavy winter coat, and then returned home in the cold dark evenings.  I don't want to do this anymore!  We are going to Hawaii in two weeks and I cannot wait!  Here is a picture that I took last year of the beautiful, private beach on Bellows Air Force Station in Oahu, HI:

Private Beach on Bellows Air Force Station in Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii, here I come!  Anyway, once the sun came up today,  I had a decent day at work.  I ended up getting a really good year end performance review from my manager, and that made me feel good.  I have worked hard and truly cared all year long and it paid off!

Until tomorrow . . .

The Yule Tree and its Lesson in Diversity

We put up our Christmas tree and decorated it last night.  We don't put it up every year as we are often away during Christmas, but we will be home for part of the holidays this year, so we decided to decorate.  We bought some new ornaments for it this year.  Here is a picture of the tree after we decorated it last night:

The Yule Tree

I fully embrace diversity and have several friends who are Wiccan.  My Wiccan friends call this a Yule Tree.  The Yule Tree is decorated and consecrated for the Winter Solstice, which is at the latter part of December and is the shortest, and often the coldest and darkest day of the year.  The Celtic Druids venerated evergreen trees as manifestations of deity and as symbols of the universe. To the Celts, these trees were sacred because they did not die from year to year like deciduous trees. Therefore they represented the eternal aspect of the Goddess who also never dies. Their greenery was symbolic of the hope for the sun's return.

The Yule tree is consecrated by sprinkling it with salted water, passing the smoke of incense (bayberry, pine, spruce, pine, spice, cedar, or cinnamon) through the branches, and walking around the tree with a lighted candle saying:

By fire and water, air and earth,
I consecrate this tree of rebirth.

I have never been at a Winter Solstice ceremony, but I am sure that it is quite lovely! 

I am indeed privileged  to have some Wiccan friends who are kind enough to help me understand more about their religion.  I had a very strict Catholic upbringing and for a long time was scared to death of the pentagram as I thought it to be a symbol of evil. This is not the case in Wiccan beliefs, in which the pentagram represents the five classical elements, which are invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating a magic circle. The five elements are Air, Fire, Water and Earth, plus Aether (or Spirit), which unites the other four.

The latter description of the pentagram is vastly different from I was brought up to believe. This just underscores the fact that there are many people in this world who are prejudiced against what they don't understand!

If we would all just take some time to talk with and understand people who are different than us, we would find that there is much more beauty in the world than what we can behold while wearing our blinders!  When we free our mind from prejudice, we become so much more enriched in life!

Update - 20 January 2012

Although I still fully embrace diversity and think that Wiccan beliefs are interesting, my Wiccan "friends" that I referenced in this post turned out to be intolerant biggots who hate Christianity and everything associated with it.  Needless to say, I am not friends with these people any more. This is sad, but my last word on the matter is "good riddance".

Ode to the "Ancient Mariner"

I am dedicating this post to my father John "Jackie" West, who died on this day 14 years ago.

"The Ancient Mariner"

John "Jackie" West grew up in Tobyhanna, PA during the Great Depression.  Although times were hard, this did not dampen his enthusiasm for mischief, which he is said to have participated in often. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 years old and went off to serve his country in World War II. His life was often in considerable danger as he served as a Navigator on Naval ships that sailed the hostile waters off of France and other parts of Europe. "Jackie" would not speak of many of the atrocities that he witnessed during the war, but it was obvious that they affected him deeply.

He survived WWII and was a Navigation Instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He served a total of 22 years in the Navy. When he retired in 1963, he and his family moved from Annapolis, MD to Tobyhanna, PA.  Although Jackie could navigate the ocean with precision, he often got lost on land while driving and would not stop to ask for directions, much to the chagrin of his wife, Nora!  As such, his children lovingly dubbed him as "The Ancient Mariner".  He lived in Tobyhanna with his family until his death on 1 December 1997.

"Jackie" will always be remembered as an imaginative storyteller. His rich tenor voice graced the masses at St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Tobyhanna, where he served as a lector and sang hymns. One of the songs that he loved to sing the most was "Danny Boy", which was sung by a vocalist at his funeral mass in December 1997. There wasn't a dry eye in the church during that song!  After mass, a military funeral detail arrived at St. Catherine's Cemetery in Moscow, PA to give him a most beautiful send-off with a 21 gun salute while a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace".  The funeral detail then played taps on a bugle and then presented a flag to his lovely widow Nora.

Rest in Peace, Jackie!