Watering Hole: December 31, 2013 – I Wish You Enough

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This will be my last regular, Tuesday, Open Thread post.  I will still be lurking and I may, on occasion, create a post independent of the Open Thread.  It’s been my pleasure to virtually meet you.

Here’s a little something for the new year.

I WISH YOU ENOUGH Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport as the daughter’s departure had been announced. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said:”I love you and I wish you enough.”The daughter replied, “Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom.” They kissed and the daughter left.The mother walked over to the window where I sat. Standing there, I could see she wanted and needed to cry.I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?” “Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever good-bye?””I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is the next trip back will be for my funeral,” she said.When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?” She began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. “When we said ‘I wish you enough’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them”. Then turning toward me, she shared the following, reciting it from memory,”I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.”She then began to cry and walked away.They say it takes a minute to find a special person. An hour to appreciate them. A day to love them. And an entire life to forget them.

This is our Open Thread.  I wish you enough. Now it’s your turn to Speak Up!

97 thoughts on “Watering Hole: December 31, 2013 – I Wish You Enough”

  2. I’ll miss you, Cats. And I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to meet you when you went through our area. As always, I wish nothing but the best for you and the people you love. Take good care, and come back anytime.

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  3. There have been a number of absences that I have taken notice of.
    Raven
    5th
    Cheese flap

    And now Cats is going to be scarce.
    What’s going on here?

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  7. Thank you for all your great contributions Cats! I’ll miss your thoughtful and thought provoking posts. This one was so sweet. Enough. We should all be asking ourselves, especially right after the gift giving frenzy, how much is enough. For us, for our kids and kin. Peace and joy to you, in the new year, to infinity and beyond!

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  8. The Year in Government: Lots of spying, little legislating…

    Perhaps the biggest cause for alarm is elected officials’ inability to tackle urgent challenges: an unemployment rate that stands at 7 percent, an anemic recovery that has been particularly slow to extend to minorities and other vulnerable populations, the steady decline of workers’ wages, growing income inequality, a broken immigration system, low trust in public institutions, not to mention the unmet challenges of man-made climate change.

    http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/23/the-year-in-governmentplaguedbyshortcomings.html

    life for us at the bottom (the new middle class) is grab what you can when you can. with corporate profits at a continual record pace, the Dow at continual record highs, the wealthy continue to keep what’s rightfully “their’s” and “their’s” continues to grow as millions of americans are suffering. poor and homeless literally dying from exposure in the wealthiest zip codes in this country. they want their foreign tax havens, but also want our “entitlements” those social security and medicare funds we’ve all paid our entire lives, cutting unemployment programs, veteran’s benefits, head start, WIC, etc., etc…..when is enough enough?

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  10. And, as we usher in an election year, let’s all remember to hang the loss of unemployment benefits (as of three days ago) to 1.3 million Americans looking for work around the scrawny neck of
    PAUL RYAN (R-Dickens)

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  13. On this last day of the year…

    – Thank you to those who loved me, you made my heart bigger.
    – Thank you to those who hated me, you made me a stronger person.
    – Thank you to those who were worried about me, you let me know that you cared.
    – Thank you to those who left me, you made me realize that nothing lasts forever.
    – Thank you to those who entered my life, you made me who I am today.

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  15. Cats, enjoy your break from doing a weekly post, and come back eventually to do it again. In the meantime, I hope you are getting ‘enough’ satisfaction and peace from your move west, and your home there is everything you want it to be. I’ll look forward to any contributions you may make when the mood strikes you. Don’t be a stranger! 😀

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  21. The year is over, far as outside stuff goes. My summary of 2013:
    Drove the old van: 1087 miles
    Rode the old bike(s): 2982 miles
    Walked the old roads: 619 miles

    Total traverse in 2013: 4688 miles

    My apologies to the earth for the 1087 miles in the old van. Can’t imagine how the hell we managed so many miles when our longest RTs (two) were about 17 miles each. Bottom line: engines are SO WASTEFUL!! I promise, I’ll try to do a lot better next year. 😀

    Meanwhile, to all Zoosters, friends, families, etc.: Feliz Año Nuevo! Stay safe, and in 2014, Carpe diem 365 times!

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  24. Religion is evil –

    On Tuesday, the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network said publicly for the first time that it has been helping Jahi’s family for weeks to find a place to transfer the 13-year-old Oakland girl declared brain-dead by doctors. The network has worked “in relative silence for the sake of the sensitivity of her case.”

    “Jahi McMath has been labeled a ‘deceased’ person. Yet she retains all the functional attributes of a living person, despite her brain injury,” the organization said. “This includes a beating heart, circulation and respiration, the ability to metabolize nutrition and more. Jahi is a living human being.”

    Shame, truly shame on the Schiavo Network for pumping the family full of false hope.
    It is artificial ‘life’ – Jahi is brain dead.

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    • That explains it. When I heard the McMaths have video of her responding to her mother’s touch, I immediately thought of the fake, manipulated video Teri Schiavo’s parents put out to try to keep her on life support. With this connection, I am strongly led to believe it, too, is a fake.

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      • They are involuntary movements. The child is not in a coma:
        The hospital physicians and an independent, of Children’s Hospital, have declared Jahi as brain dead. Obviously the MRIs and all tests are showing no brain or brain stem function.
        This is so sad – the family hangs on to its ‘faith’ that she’ll come out of it.
        That will never, ever happen.
        (the place, in NY, is an outpatient rehab. Their long-term is not yet up and running. I don’t think Children’s Hospital or a Judge will allow the transfer of the body)

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      • Long before it came out that the Schiavo Network was ‘guiding’ the McMath family, House had wondered why or where the ‘long distance’ doctors (Schiavo style) were…

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    • This story is so sad. This child is gone and now the family will fall prey to those who will maintain a semblance of life in the shell of what she was for their own sad purposes.

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  25. From C&L:

    A Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona said this week that he mistakenly misquoted former President Abraham Lincoln on class warfare to criticize President Barack Obama because the quotes “sounded good.”

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    • We’re in for three hours of fireworks… started at 9p our time and will, more than likely, continue until it’s midnight p.s.t.
      Our police department has a ‘shot locator’ – so can get to the gun totin’ idiots that shoot into the air.

      Happy, seven minutes, to 2014, House!

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      • It’s too cold outside for fireworks watching (30). I get a high of 56 later today then not another day above 50 for the next ten days, according to the weather.com.

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        • We’re still having nice spring weather – waiting for the rain.
          Thugs stole cars, took them up to Mt. Hamilton, stripped them clean then set them on fire…and the tinder dry foliage went up.
          Very, very unusual to have gone this long without rain.
          We’re hoping rain will start with the New Year and continue for at least three months!

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