Best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend to my family, friends, clients and associates. May we all live with gratitude every day of the year.
Best Wishes for a Wonderful Thanksgiving filled with Gratitude
Category Archives: Holidays
#Mother’s Day 2016 ~ A Tribute to My Mother
My mother taught me my love of roses. For most any special day like a wedding anniversary or birthday, Daddy would go and buy Mother a couple of new rose bushes and plant them outside in her garden.
Unfortunately, they didn’t exactly thrive in the hot humid tropical weather they had in Florida, but she so loved her garden. The first thing I did when I moved to Pacific Grove 17 years ago was to plan and plant my own rose garden in my back yard. I finally had a home of my own that I could create my special garden.
On Mother’s Day I particularly miss her. She passed away six years ago at the age of 97 right after Mother’s Day. When I asked her that last Mother’s Day what she wanted for Mother’s Day, she didn’t hesitate, “Roses bushes,” she said. “What color?” I asked? She smiled and said, “Red!”. Mother moved here from Florida after she turned 90 and lived downstairs from me in a one bedroom garden apartment that worked perfectly for her.
Her bedroom looked out onto the garden where she enjoyed the flowers and the bluebirds that came to splash around in the bird bath.
Well, I had my mission that last Mother’s Day. I went to Grigg’s Nursery in Carmel Valley and bought several red rose bushes, an Ingrid Bergman rose and a Mr. Lincoln which are still in full bloom.
For good measure I bought several others arranging them either in the garden or in large pots where she could see them from her bedroom window. I, also, filled her apartment with blooming flowers. I got a little carried away and it looked like a florist’s showroom by the time I finished. I knew the end was near and I wanted to surround her with beauty.
As anyone who loses a loved one knows, it’s really hard to go through their effects and dispose of what is left. My mother was a “saver” and I am still going through boxes of papers of saved clippings, magazine articles, photos, old address books, etc. It’s always emotional, but I have determined I need to get this done- after all, it has been 6 years – way too long to hang onto miscellaneous papers that aren’t needed. I was getting bogged down and teary eyed as I went through a box the other day and found this clipping. It was as if my Mother was speaking to me . . . for the newspaper clipping she had saved read as follows:
“Don’t grieve for me, for now I’m free, I’m following the path God laid for me. I took His Hand when I heard him call, I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day to laugh, to love, to work or play. Tasks left undone must stay that way. I found that place at the close of day.
If parting has left a void, then fill it with remembered joy. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss. Ah yes, these things, I too, will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow. I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow. My life’s been full, I savored much, good friends, good times, a loved one’s touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief, don’t lengthen it now with undue grief. Lift up your heart and share with me. God wanted me now, He set me free.” — Author unknown
Mother, thank you for leaving that note for me to find.
Love, Susan.
Happy Teacher’s Day ~ #Carmellifestyle#aprcarmel
Best wishes to all the teachers out there for your dedication, your caring, and your hard work.
“Teachers. I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society, because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.”
Before becoming a realtor, I spent many years teaching in the San Francisco Unified School district (4th and 5th grades mostly) and it was only once my first students began to get about 20+ years old and I started running into them around town that I realized what influence we, as teachers, had on our students.
For one thing, students never forget what you tell them. Oh, they forget most of the words of the Gettysburg Address even though you thought you had drilled it into their heads, but they do remember 20 years later that your favorite ice cream was French vanilla! I remember mothers of students telling me that an expression they heard over and over again was, “Miss Clark said . . . If only I had known at the time when they were coming out of my mouth how powerful my words were to the students I was teaching.
It was always fun running into past students after they had grown up. I remember standing on a street corner in SF one day waiting to cross the street when Jimmy, now 25 years old and a mortgage broker, jumped out of his car which was stopped at a red light and ran up to me saying, “Miss Clark, it’s so good to see you!” He then in the middle of the street while traffic was waiting behind his stopped car, apologized to me for being such a trying student in the 5th grade! He was a smart kid, but loved to play basketball more than any subject I could offer. Obviously, he came around to his brilliance as a student later on.
I could go on and on telling my stories, but what I want to do today is to say, “THANK YOU!” to all the teachers that are still out there teaching our young and the leaders of tomorrow. I don’t think we ever really stop being students so teachers . . . keep teaching!
We love you!
Happy Easter and Happy Spring! Morning has Broken!
Best wishes for a Happy Spring and best wishes for a Happy Easter on this lovely morning. Enjoy ” Morning has Broken” by Cat Stevens, my favorite Easter Sunday celebration. Enjoy!