Today is Granny's Birthday June 3 ~ Bet there's a Party on the Other-Side

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY

"a-li-he-li-s-di  ~  u-de-ti-yi-s-gv-i" Cherokee for

Happy Birthday

"e-ni-si" Cherokee for

Grandmother

Today, I celebrate Granny's birthday...

June 3, 1906

my Granny was born, and a star fell from the heavens.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdjcha_you-ll-alway-be-the-wind-beneath-my_people

Good morning to me and you this morning! I'm sittin here waitin for the sun to jump up through the Spanish Moss and greet me... the four-leggeds have decided not to wait, and they are off~Gypsy has a toy longer than she is in her mouth, but still managing to bark "Happy Birthday refrains as she flys around the pool chasing Jeepers and Patches... Magic is still sleepin in this morning, seeing abosolutely no need in getting up before the sun"~

Me? I'm awake after dreaming of Granny last night; a night just filled with dreams and a visit from her too. Her message?
 One that was pretty funny; she was pointing her finger (Granny loved to point that finger when talking)... she was telling me to be careful when out on those waters in a boat! I just knew that Eagle was her on Sunday, and then she told me I was doing a good job watching over the family, but they were hard heads! Now that is why I woke up so early... Can you imagine waking yourself up actually laughing??? I DID!!! The sound of my own (and her) laughter brought me wide awake and wondering who in the world was in my bed laughing ~heehe~
Granny also had a message for her "adopted" granddaughter to get some rest now, and not be so worn out, and I can't tell you the rest of it, but it had to do with tobacco and her (Granny) about the people her granddaughter works with and being mad, it was for DLB and then for ADL" LOL  Granny does NOT like her girls going through rough times at the hands of others, just wouldn't stand for it!!!

What a great gift to receive the night before Granny's birthday is my thinking... And Granny did so love her birthdays...and Christmas, and Mother's Day, and Valentines Day, and any other holidays that involved colored papers and presents with her name on them!
And oh how she loved surprises...
My granny was the recipient of many a birthday surprise party... I would find a reason to throw her a surprise party on many an ocassion... In W.VA, in Northern Virginia, or when I would arrive at her home in Southwest Virginia...
We always found a way to surprise her with a party and she loved them. A get together of family and friends, shiny paper, fresh flowers, food, cards with that "green stuff" in them and it was all good ~ she would run around the house like a kid with a present trying to get into it before you could say "boo"!

One year we gathered in a restaurant in Berkely Springs W.Va. and the owner of the restaurant wanted Granny to take a drink of beer on her birthday... well Granny did NOT like beer; often likened it to "cow pee"...heehe
The owner said, "Granny if you don't like it, just spit it in the floor, but you are going to love it".
So Granny took a big ole' swig of that beer, made the most awful face you have ever seen and then looked at me... just stared at me with one of those "me and her looks"...
AND THEN looked at the owner, looked at the floor, AND SPIT IT RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF THE FLOOR in a hot second!
She then took her napkin and wiped her tongue and said,
"EEEgad, I told you honey, it tastes like cow pee"!!!
She was about 87 years old then and the whole room exploded with laughter... we were in this lovely bar of the restaurant...
So the owner goes and gets one of those Sharpie pens (black) cleans up the spill; draws a circle on the wood floor where it was and wrote, "Granny spit her beer right here on her birthday"!!!
                            Now how funny is that!
Right after that, the owner and band performed for Granny for 2 hours and Granny and I danced, sang, STOMPED and had one helluva time celebrating her birthday along with a room filled with family, friends and people all cutting in on the dance floor; all wanting to hug and be hugged by Granny and all laughing like crazy that a 87 year old woman was out and playing and living life to the fullest... and on top of it all she spit beer on the floor claiming it tasted like "cow pee" to the owner, and then watched as the "owner draw a circle where it happened on a hardwood floor".  Ah, sweet memories are flooding me today on Granny's birthday indeed...

Last year I got pretty sick, 4 near death experiences really sick in the hospital. Was there for 16 days in that hospital, but remember only 4 hours of the whole time. EXCEPT for the near death experiences which I remember like yesterday... Each time I was with Granny on the other side, and we had a wonderful time together... Those hands still as soft as in life, her touch oh my God magnificent... her voice, her eyes, her arms around me...
She sent me back to the family and to life, telling me it was not my time yet, no not my time for a long time according to Granny...
But she sent me back with clear cut directions:
1. Finish The Book-----done. Dedicated and inspired by Granny.
2. Get back on the speaking thing... don't think Granny knew the word "circuit"....... done. Speaking nationally on loss/grief/trauma/healing/hope/humor.
3. Take Care of YOUR HEART... 2 parts to that. physical doing great/second part, be careful of being used by others by giving so much of heart away, guard yourself better... done.
4. Use education BUT use healing ways... I'm on it Granny, not to worry... in all phases of professional life.
5. Go back now, we have had great time together but it is NOT your time now, not for long time, go now, I love you whole lot, many need you there. done! I'm here.
6. "CAN'T TELL YA 6.  done. I am blessed, I am grateful to be alive each and every moment of every day... although I have to tell ya, It was beautiful there... also have to tell ya... I have very little tolerance for BS since then ~ LOL

You know, this is a first on Granny's birthday that I share that with the world... Perhaps it is a gift from Granny to those that have any doubt that there is something after this... Perhaps it is validation to some, perhaps....

My Granny was wonderful, was a hard worker, a wife; a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend...
She was no stranger to grief, to trauma, to loss and heartaches... She is a WARRIOR, on this side and the next place; the other side, an inspiration and wow, what a sense of humor she had through it all.
She danced in life through all of the heartaches and the good times... I know she dances now, laughs that wonderful laugh now, probably has a ready supply of kleeenex tucked here and there just like she did in life here...
Krumpled kleeenex just like here... If you have read Healing Heartaches you know how creative she could be with them... You also know why I put so many "eeee"s" in the word as well!  Those kleeenex could be found in the floorboards of my car after her visits, tucked in the couch, chewed up by the dog if she were to drop one or twenty...

And Granny had her a sweet tooth too... so today I just might have to go to the drug store on her birthday and have myself a little party when I get back home! Yep, might have me a little bottle of coke and a Reese Cup (Granny fav) and a "kit kat" bar (Granny fav) or two...

MIght listen to Willie Nelson sing "Old Friends and On The Road Again, You Were Always On My Mind", then I'll definately listen to Bette sing "Wind Beneath My Wings" more than once, then listen to Emmy Lou sing, "Bluebird", then "One Day At A Time" and I'll have to fit Dolly in with "Coat of Many Colors" and so many more ... You just never know, might have to listen to music and memories all day ~ and end it with watching the sun go down on the gulf... seems most fitting to me.

Two bodies one heart that was me and Granny! Yep, that was us all right. When I was really little me and Mom lived right down the bank and after my "diaper" change MOm would open the door and off I would scramble up that hill to Grannys'. She or Pap would be waitin for me, and then she would just scoop me up and in the house and sit me on the kitchen table... breakfast would be ready, or if it was later, I would just take my pinto beans out of Pap's bowl one at a time to eat... So loved am I ... Mom would get there and by then I was full and in the arms of Granny... Happy?  Oh there must be a better word for that... And so it was... For that I still give thanks, And so it is even today ~

Mom used to love to look at us and say, "you two make me just sick, you're like two peas in a pod"!!! Now you know that would just make us worse and we would cuddle and snuggle and carry on even more~~~ heehe Granny would motion for her to get away from us and we would hug even tighter with Granny tellin' Mom I belonged to Granny anyway! She once told me that she would have sold her chickens if they would have had the "pill" in her day, but after all she did have 11 children just to finally have ME ~ LOL And she reminded them of that every chance she got... needless to say they "loved hearing that too"! Yep Granny was quite funny at times to be certain... But she loved all, and was loved by all.
sEEMS there was always a crowd at Granny's house... the uncles had their football buddies; Tuck, Billy, Egghead, Punk, Jimmy, Butch... then there were the cheerleaders... all seemed to gather at Granny's... guess they knew the pot of beans would be on and the music would be playing and Granny would be dancing around the table!
 When the uncles grew bored they would just pick me up and throw me around in the yard as a football, til' Granny came out and caught them that is, and usually she would "faint" on the spot causing all kinds of a ruckus... Smelling salts were a necessity back then!!!



At 2 my aunt who was a cheerleader made me a cheerleader outfit and I was the official mascot of the Dublin Dukes... gave the uncles a better reason to throw me around, after all I had a uniform; they even made me weights so I could be down in the dirt floor basement with them when they worked out... mine was buckets filled with cement and a pole stuck in the buckets to lift!!! Man I can still smell that basement... what a wonderful smell; used to sneak down there and hammer holes in pop bottles too so I could have me a bottle of pop thinkin I wouldn't get caught, faulty pop you know?

Probably why I am so fit now don't ya think, lifting those weights with Doyle??? LOL



So at some point Mom and Pap left for the big city near Washington DC to find work, leaving us behind with uncles and aunts still living at Granny's and in school. They would come home on the week-ends but leave again for the work week.  Ultimately we all moved to the big city... me and Granny didn't like it at first though. LOL.. But we got used to it... and went to Virginia Square around the corner every week when Granny got her hair done, visited all the shopkeepers and ended up that the Lamplighter a little restaurant where we became fast friends with owners Rene, Louie and Stella. We would have lunch and visit there, Granny would get her hug from Louie who would "make over her" and hold her hand and we would catch up on the news...
 I had a surprise Birthday party for Granny there when she was 80 (many many years later I might add)with friends she had known for many years and as she walked in Willie was playing in the background, "Old Friends" and she was tickled as Louie approached and they began to dance ~ Ah, nothing like old friends gathering for a celebration... all those years later!


So there ya go, it's Granny's birthday and I am so richly blessed by her life, by the foundation she laid for me and our family ~ Hearts still so very connected, the relationship continues strongly, the love even stronger...
She is but a heart beat; a breath away...
My beloved Granny, my heart ~

MY PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Oh Creator, whose voice I hear in the winds along with Granny's And whose breath gives life to everyone, I come to you as one of your many children; to speak Happy Birthday to my Wisdom Keeper my heart; my Granny, who lives in spirit land now I celebrate a great love and foundation built through her love and understanding of things that have helped me build my home here on this earth.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever

behold the red and purple sunsets, the good ness in all things of honor, the strength in family, friends laughter and love with out measure and the continued heart beat of my Granny's love.\

Make my nuwati, mind, heart and hands respect the things you have made, the power of HOPE in healing ways, and make my ears keen so I may hear your voice and the voice of my beloved Granny and others who have crossed to the other side and now reside with the You and the Ancestors there. Make me wise, so that I may understand what you have taught my people and The lessons you have hidden in each leaf and each rock and each birds song, each Eagles vision, each Bears step.

I ask for wisdom and strength Not to be superior to my sisters and brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy; myself, while assisting others in need and lifting spirits to soar like Brother Eagle and Sister Bear; whle providing HOPE to my family, my friends and our lives on this earth, In love for all things living and gone from our sight; knowing if we believe, if we trust; they are but a leaf's depth from our heart.

Allow me to be ever ready to come before you with clean hands, heart and a straight eye, pure in intention, honest in my life's work having used every bit of talent you have given, every bit of love handed down through the generations; from Granny, from Mother, down through time and friends and family... Handed down through the years of those I have been honored to learn from work with and have been loved by... Let me use it all for greater understanding, greater giving and greater good...

So as life fades away as a fading and brilliant sunset, My spirit may come to you without shame.

Let today be a celebration Great Spirit of Granny's Birthday, of her life here with those who loved; love her, celebrating her now in spiritland where the drummers drum, the flutes and rattles sound, the Ancestors and her family rejoice having her with them... and where they dance without pain or strife or grief.


Let us remember with amazing grace our beloved Granny with joy and laughter; her life and be thankful for her birth... She left us after having used all the talent and grace and courage you provided all of her life, she came to you with clean hands, heart, spirit, straight eyes, pride, honesty and integrity, and a life well lived here in this place, knowing she was loved beyond measure...
Now free she is dancing in the lights.


Enjoy. Wado, Walk In Beauty Granny
"WHOLE LOT"~ ~ ~
 
Amen. "ay-mey-nuh"

I invite you to join me in lighting a candle for Granny today... Say her name "Granny" and just join me in the energy of her day ~ Thank you...

And Now... I ask that you please sit back,  and CLICK: and enjoy... Happy Birthday Granny!


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdjcha_you-ll-alway-be-the-wind-beneath-my_people

 The fire is burning brightly its embers are hot with the smells of sage, sweetgrass, cedar.
YOU know who you are... your names are here and others know too. If you need the visual, please look at yesterdays thoughts for the names...
Thank you Randy, with hugs to you on the wind ~

Walk IN Beauty,
DRSES