The Words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Have Lasting Meaning

Passionate man of wisdom

     For most people, the mention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brings to mind his "I have a dream..." speech.  While not wishing to diminish this powerful speech, I think it is important to be reminded of some of the other things he said.  As I enjoy this 3 day weekend, I want to remember to think a little about what made Martin Luther King, Jr. such a  timeless and pivotal leader.
Here are 10 quotes you may not be familiar with, but are worthy of a little attention:


1. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.


2. We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.


3. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.


4.  If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and Earth will pause to say, 'here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well'.


5.  Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.  Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.  Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.


6.  The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.


7.  Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.


8.  That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind.  The time is always right to do the right thing.


9.  I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners, will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.


10.  Life most urgent question is:  What are you doing for others?


     On that note, I will endeavor to instill these worthy sentiments into the hearts of my children, discussing the importance of working hard, finding ways to help our fellow humans whenever we can (and even when we think we can't), and being brave enough to stand up for what is right no matter what the consequence.  I will try to incorporate these ideals into my own daily life as well.   Thought for today: Less relaxing...more doing!

Our 4 Days of Winter Wonderland

On the road to Big Bear

Michelle and Mustachio

    I can't believe we actually pulled it off! After my daughter, Michelle, made a birthday request to snowboard, we somehow got lucky enough to find a darling 1930's cabin that was available for the time we were asking for and at a reasonable price.   The kids got out of school for winter break on Friday, December 16, and Saturday we were planning on meeting up with our Smith relatives in the City of Carson for my nephew, Kacy's, high school State Championship game.  ( We won!! Yeah for Kacy and State Champs, Helix High School!) 

What a thrill to play under the big lights.

Can you say, "the Beast of the East"?

Gabrielle trying on borrowed ski clothes

So we borrowed ski pants, got our boots, gloves and snow hats together and packed for a three day trip to Big Bear.
    

    By the time the 4 o'clock game was over and we finished our post-game celebration at Starbucks, it was 9 PM.  Big Bear is about 2 1/2 hours from Carson, so we weren't too worried about our drive up until we heard Big Bear was in white-out conditions.  We decided to head to the bottom of the hill, on the side with the less treacherous route (hwy 38), to stop at Walmart for chains and to check out the conditions.  Worst case scenario we could stay the night in a hotel and head up in the morning.  Well, we got the chains (cables, actually), and decided to try to make it since the sky was clear, at least at the bottom of the hill.  My daughter Michelle's boyfriend and our honorary son, Anthony, was brilliant with the navigation, thanks to his can-do attitude and his prowess on his I-phone. After about 15 minutes of traveling up the hill, we were stopped at a "mandatory chains" checkpoint.  Anthony and I (mostly Anthony), got the cables on the tires pretty quickly, with only minor adjustments, and we were off again. (My husband Dave is not mechanical at all, for those who were wondering why he wasn't involved in the cable placement! But he is awesome at calculating distances, figuring out exactly what time we'll reach our destinations, to the minute, and at driving our brood whilst everyone else sleeps! Amongst other things.)  What would have taken 30 minutes, in good conditions, took just over an hour because we kept it under 30 mph because the road was so icy. 

 What an enchanted wonderland route 38 is at midnight.  We were practically the only ones on the road and the area had gotten a beautiful covering of snow, just that day, so everything was freshly covered in sparkling snow.  It really looked like the Christmas village I put up for Christmas, but better, with all the pine trees heavy with snow, and all the rooftops, hills and valleys blanketed in a crystallized white frosting.  It actually sparkled.    As we were going up, the mercury was going down and quickly!  We went from the low 50's down to the high teens.  Burrrr!  Thanks to Dave, Anthony and his I-phone, we found our cabin, Little Bear Lodge, pretty easily.  

     Outside the cabin, it was really dark and everything was covered in snow, so it was nearly impossible to make out paths to the door and parking spaces, but we somehow found our way in.  We were a little worried, because from the outside,  the cabin looked cute, but tiny.  You know how it is when you make reservations online, based on the pictures they provide.  What looks really spacious in a photo often looks minute in person.  We walked into a good-sized living room, covered in old, knotty pine with a fabulous original stone fireplace! I loved it! I was so happy to have found a place where the owners knew how to decorate with real antique country pieces, without going "country duck", if you know what I mean.  For me, it was very aesthetically pleasing.  I later found out from the owners, that the cabin had been built in 1937 and had been in their family a long time.  These people had a clue in how to keep the vintage feel of the cabin, while also having somewhat modern amenities.   There were 3 nice bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a big loft.  One thing I really loved was that the big flat-screened tv was in the loft, so downstairs in the living room, we were able to enjoy the lovely fire in the fireplace and Christmas music playing on our portable Bose, without the constant distraction of the tv, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

     After we got our stuff out of the car and into the cabin, we started to realize how bitterly cold the cabin was.  We quickly found the thermostat but were unable to get it to turn on.  We thought, no problem, we'll just make a fire.  Wrong.  There was no firewood and at 2 AM, I don't think any stores would be open to buy some.  To make matters worse, the smoke alarm/ carbon monoxide detector was going off and a voice was talking sporadically, but we couldn't figure out what it was saying or where it was coming from.
tv remote) and we decided to take our chances and go to sleep.  Luckily, we had brought our own down comforters, so we all had warm beds.  Well almost all of us.   Dave, Lizzie and I didn't have a down blanket, but we had each other and body heat. 

    Fortunately, we are somewhat used to a cold house at night.  We almost never turn on our heater at home, preferring cold nights with lots of blankets.  My parents never ran the heater when I was a kid, either, and I remember many a cold morning breathing frost in my bedroom.  No joke.  And now, many of my friends complain about how cold our house is.  I just tell them to remember their sweaters, next time.  We have lots of fires and good circulation.  It also gives us Southern Californians the chance to wear our wintry sweaters and scarves!!

       As you probably guessed, none of us perished in the night and we woke up to giant, wet, snowflakes, silently falling all around.  Breathtakingly, beautiful and incredibly cozy (once we got a fire started).  As soon as the stores opened, Dave got us a bunch of firewood and got a fire going.  Then, we got ahold of the rental agency who promptly came out and replaced the thermostat, so we had heat, glorious heat!  Warmth never felt so good.  I made a giant breakfast of bacon, sausage, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs, and we pretended to be stranded in our cabin. 

    Nobody skied on our first day.  It was a pretty big storm and we just wanted to enjoy the cabin and get deep into the Christmas spirit.  When the snow let up, Dave and Lizzie made a perfect snowman and the kids sledded around the cabin.   Gammy, Gampy and my niece, Emma, made it to the cabin in the afternoon and we were all so excited to actually be in the snow before Christmas and to have the time together.

Emma and Goobs 

Michelle and Anthony hit the slopes

     We stayed for a total of 4 nights, the last night on the house for our night with no heater.  Dave and the kids snowboarded, skied, and sledded a few times and my mom, Natalie and I went tiquing (antiquing) in Fawn Skin, (about 10 miles away), where I found a light-up Santa in a sleigh to add to my collection.  (It also gave the cabin a little extra Christmas ambiance!)  I'm proud to report I cooked every meal, we never ate out once and I loved every minute of it.  We played games, watched a few movies, drank lots of hot cocoa and coffee, got our Christmas cards ready to be mailed, enjoyed Gampy's funny sense of humor, Gabrielle's inspired dancing and each others company.  We left the morning of our oldest daughter, Natalie's 20th birthday, and headed home so we could be there in time to make 7 o'clock dinner reservations at my good friends new restaurant, Cielito, to celebrate.  It's a rough life.

Natty G

Some b-day bling

Natalie's 20th Birthday @ our new favorite restaurant, Cielito.

     I know some people around here, poo-poo Big Bear, preferring Mammoth, but I love Big Bear and it's close proximity.  What a charming town and lovely countryside.  We are already planning for our next trip there, as soon as we get a free three day weekend.  We'll definitely stay in Little Bear Lodge again and we won't forget to bring some firewood and our wool sweaters for our first night there.
     

     

Starting Fresh

     Isn't it strange how good it feels to put all the holiday decorations away? When I'm decorating for Christmas I always feel like I'll never want to take the stuff down.  At first, the live garlands are so fresh, green and fragrant, the Christmas village looks so crisp, and all the ornaments are perfectly hung on the tree, but after a few weeks it all starts to lose some of it's sparkle. By Jan. 1, the garlands are stiff, dry and sharp, you've had to re-set a couple of trees and figures in the village so many times you want to scream, and the tree still looks beautiful but the needles have begun to fall regularly on the ground making an endless mess! What began as pure magic starts to feel a little like clutter.  So, we take it all down, packing all of our treasures away with love and care so that next year we can do it all again!


    January is truly the season for starting fresh.  The house feels stark with all the decorations put away and the cold weather only adds to the starkness.  After all the craziness of the past few months, simplicity feels really good.  What better time than now to start a new year's resolution? It feels like there is time to start something new.  Don't you just want to make a clean and healthy soup for dinner, take a nice brisk walk in the neighborhood, light a fire in the fireplace and read a good book or watch a good movie? Ahhh....I also feel the desire to paint the walls...everything looks a little shabby with all the decorations put away.  I want my house to sparkle with cleanliness, to be fresh, bright and comfortable.

This is one of my favorite salads.  It is
simply, romaine lettuce, crumbled
feta cheese, sliced baby beets (vacuum packed
from Trader Joe's), avocado, balsamic dressing and
fresh cracked pepper.  

It's really no sacrifice! Yum! Burp!
(Sorry, I just had to.)

    Here's to stripping away the layers of clutter and fat! To keeping it simple and enjoying the beginning of a bright New Year! Cheers!


    My mom brought this inspiring list of New Years Resolutions to my attention.  Pauline Phillips, aka Dear Abby, adapted this list from the original Al-Anon credo.  These strike me as powerful words to live by.

Just For Today

Just for today: I will live through this day only.  I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow.  I will not set far reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once.  I know I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

Just for today:  I will be happy.  I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me.  If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.

Just for today:  I will accept what is.  I will face reality.  I will correct those things I can correct, and accept those I cannot.

Just for today:  I will make a conscious effort to be agreeable.  I will be kind and courteous to those that cross my path and not speak ill of others.  I will improve my appearance, speak softly, and not interrupt when someone is talking.  Just for today I will refrain from improving anybody but myself.

Just for today:  I will do something positive to improve my health. If I am a smoker, I'll quit.  If I'm overweight, I will eat healthfully- if only for today.  And not only that. I will get off the couch and take a brisk walk, even if it's only around the block.

Just for today:  I will gather the courage to do what is right and take responsibility for my own actions.

~  and one more thing...smile  ~

(the last one is from me ( : )