Now the Hunchback of Notre Dame is one heck of a story, isn’t it?  I loved the old movies depicting this tragic tale.

Cool-Man Quasimodo.  Just the name makes you want to watch.  Who knew a bell-ringing Hunchback could be so jammin’.

The movie I remember the most is the famous 1923 silent film version starring Lon Chaney.

But there were several remakes over the years.  I liked the first talkie a bunch too.  Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda.  Of course, all the films are based on Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel.

My favorite scene, ALWAYS, is when Quasimodo sweeps down… …as much as a humpback can do…   and then grabs Esmerelda.. and THEN rushes into the Cathedral yelling “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!”

If you have never seen this scene… see it. It is a classic.

Anyway… I was pretty young when I first watched this movie.

Not long after that…. I can remember playing outside all day… and being all covered from head to toe in dirt.  My knees were skinned raw from an accident…. earlier in the day.  I tried navigate a skateboard down a hill.  Unsuccessfully.

But back to the HB of ND.  I figured I might be in some trouble when I got home that day.  I was pretty scruffed up… more than usual.  So when the streetlights came on, I headed home.  The kitchen screen door slammed shut as I tried to slink in.

So…. With all the dramatic flair that I could muster … I walked through the kitchen, reenacting the Quasimodo One-Legged-Limp. … with my arm all scrunched up behind me.  Throughout the length of the performance…. . I was calling out … “Sanctuary.  Sanctuary.”

My antics weren’t met with much of a reception. In fact… I probably would NOT have gotten in any trouble had I left the joke at the door.  As it was… straight to the bathtub and then to bed.  No discussion.

These days… I still yell out “Sanctuary.  Sanctuary.”  You know… when I am having a rough day… or a bad time of things.   As with my childhood… just calling it out doesn’t have much effect.  But it makes me feel better sometimes.  Like….. when I am in the middle of Walmart…. surrounded by Walmart.

Seriously though, when I am smart enough to recognize those places in my day… which may seem hard or difficult…. I try to remember that they are truly blessings.

It is during those times which challenge us, that we have the possibility to grow.   I am supposed to be there, where ever “THERE” may be.  And I tend to believe… that during each moment in our lives…. we can choose to grow and learn from our experiences … or we choose to stay the same.

When we choose to begin again, and the ensuing growth, awareness, and compassion that follows, we have found the true form of sanctuary.  The haven of inner peace.

Quasimodo may argue this one with me.  I don’t blame him.

When I was a kid, I loved to watch the Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Oh my word.

First and foremost, we were off school.  Sure, we had to do a load of chores on Saturday… but there were NO nuns at our house.  And that was a good thing… I don’t care if I did have to scrub toilets.

Anyway… back to the Toons.  It was all about the atmosphere.  Another thing that was great…. above and beyond the NO NUN Policy at our house… .. was breakfast.  No fried eggs, fried bologna, and toast on Saturday Morning.  This was Pancake Day… or Waffle Day… or French Toast Day.  And I would ALWAYS be psyched.  Six days of perfectly wonderful breakfasts… with the chicken eggs.  But on Saturday… there was SUGAR.

I think the Waffles were my favorite.  Loaded with butter and powdered sugar.  Yowza… sugar ’em up and put ’em to work.  Mom and Dad were pretty smart.

ANYWAY…. back to the TOONS.  I had my favorites, that is for sure.   But the Woody Woodpecker Show was way down on my list.  That little dude annoyed the heck out of me… all the way from the theme song… to his annoying little laugh.

Which brings me to this.  It is funny how we can change.  Oh sure… sometimes we stay very much the same.  But there are other times in life when we have the capability to transform.  And we do.

Now while this may seem inconsequential… I used to loathe woodpeckers… because of this dang cartoon.  BUT… it wasn’t until I got to KNOW a REAL woodpecker…. that I really gained a complete appreciation for them.  I love a good woodpecker now.

And so it goes with life.  We may THINK we know something or someone.  And we may not like it.  But once we give it a chance… if we get past the cover of that book… we have the capacity to change.   We may end up actually liking the very thing we once did not.

Like a triple woodpecker visit… in one day.  Now THAT is a woodpecker song.

I love music.  For as long as I can remember… I love to listen to it… sing to it… dance…. to the music.

Right now, my tool of choice in Pandora Radio.  For those who don’t know Pandora… it lets you choose the “stations” you want.  For instance, I am a huge fan of “The Talking Heads”… so I created a Talking Heads Station.  I have a wide assortment of stations.  Everything from “Alt J,” to “Vampire Weekend,” “David Byrne” … .. to “Leonard Bernstein.”  I know I’ve mentioned all of this before.  But there is a story. Sort of.

This morning I was working out.  As I do most every morning.  I go downstairs, get out my little mat and weights.. and crank out the tunes on Pandora Radio.  (It is not like the Navy Seals workout or anything… but for a 51 year old scrawny woman… it is par for the course.)

Anyway… this morning… right after “Hozier” belted out The Work Song….. what comes on?  The cast of “Fiddler on the Roof” singing Tradition.  Oh… BET ME!

It was all it took.  I couldn’t hold back.  I had to start dancing around the floor like the dudes up balancing on the rooftops… you know… The Fiddlers.  With their little prayer shawls draped around their wastes and cute little hats atop their heads. …. … keeping their arms crossed and kicking their legs out this way and that.

I scared the dogs.  They come down every morning and watch me work out.  Clearly… this was a routine they had never witnessed before.  Ollie started chasing her tail… and Frances took cover behind the couch.  I think my Russian Dance Routine was simply too much for their little doggie-brains to handle.

The point is… music can have a powerful effect on us.  It does everything from making the Merry-Go-All-The-Way-Around…. to charming the snake…. to inciting 40,000 humans to flick a lighter and hold it in the air.

Today… it caused me to move like …. no one was watching except the dogs… … and then laugh out loud at myself.

Music Sweet Music.  What a blessing. What a gift.  At least… for some.  For the dogs… it was traumatic.

There are certain things in life, you never forget.  And the connections between the parts of this…. are uncanny.  I call it “The Barbra Streisand Connection.”  Follow me on this one, okay?

I’ll say it again.  There are certain things we never, ever forget.
Some people seem to remember their first kiss.  Mine must have been pretty unremarkable.  As I don’t remember.

I do however, recall the night my Grandma K went to the hospital.  It was on my third birthday, and we were having a party.  I can remember, very clearly, certain details about the end of the evening, and the “feeling” of gravity in the air, as they led Grandma out the front door.

Most of us don’t have memories from age three.   This is my only one.  I just read an article about this.  A recent study revealed that kids get what the scientists are calling… “Childhood Amnesia.”

The Lab Coats ran several tests.  Kids hold on to memories for a little while.  But then after a few years… away they go.  Like the stuff never happened.  Most of these “lost” memories occur before the age of 0 to 6.

Even after that, I have a sketchy bit here, and a sketchy bit there.  One I recall quite vividly was concerns our family cat, Fritz.  I know I have told it before, but some people may have missed it.

The short version is this: It was a Sunday morning.  When I was about six.  My sister and I read “Hi and Lois” in the Sunday comic section.  The cartoon family gave the dog a bath and a haircut.  The dog looked marvelous.  Julie and I decide Fritz needed a makeover.  So we headed to the basement, found Fritz, and gave her a close shave with Mom’s haircutting clippers.  It was the dead of winter.

Mom was infuriated.  She called us Big Dumbheads.  (Depending on our level of stupidity, Mom would often times just call us “Dumbhead”…. BUT…. when we were extremely cretinous, we were deemed…. “BIG Dumbheads.”  But I digress.)  It wasn’t so much Mom’s thundering reaction… as it was the look on my Dad’s face.  He just shook his head back and forth… and gave us THAT “look”.  I will never forget.

I suspect, that the things we remember the most, revolve around a very emotionally driven experience in our lives.  We have certain strong feelings that somehow, linger in our brain.

So there you have it.  The Barbara Streisand Connection.

People retaining the memories which are based on past, intense feelings.
And WHAT were three of Bab’s top grossing songs?
People.
Memories.
Feelings.

I smell Conspiracy theory.  Or a cat with razor burn.  I am not sure which.
.

“Mem’ries, may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.”

– Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were, aka Memories

No big news here.  I love animals.  I am not sure why, but it is true.  I have had a special place in my heart for them… for as long as I can remember.

Maybe it is because I used to be an animal in a former life, or something.  A lot of different religions believe in reincarnation, so maybe they have it right.  I am not for sure… but if it is true… I bet I was a dog.  And that is why I like dogs the very best of all.

Some animals aren’t very high on my scale.  Like a lot of the insect world.  I have never, ever met a maggot I liked.  Flies, mosquitos, worms… all sort of way at the bottom for me.  Yet there are a lot of cool insects… like honey bees, and ants.  Holy smokes… those little fella’s sure can do a day’s work.

But let’s move on to things with fur.  Squirrels I like. Monkeys, cows, goats.  Rabbits.  Beaver.  I think I am fond of the Beaver because that is my Native American Birth Sign (not that I have a drop of Native American blood in me.)  But nonetheless…. Beavers are little architects.  They do a whole bunch of very clever work too.

I can watch animals for hours on end.  Not the YouTube kind.  But the kind in real life.  Today I watched a squirrel try his little best to score some food from our bird feeders.  By the looks of his waist, I would say he has been doing pretty good all along.  But he was persistent this morning.    He was nuts for nuts.

I’m not sure why I am writing about all of this, other than the fact that I am amazed by so many wonderful things in this world…. and animals are one of them.  They just know, intuitively, how it is all supposed to work.

For instance, the squirrel didn’t mind that the birds were there, and the birds certainly didn’t mind the squirrel.  They all just went about their business of finding food on this cold snowy morning.  But when my dog went near the scene, the squirrel hit the high road.  And….. if a hawk  should show its beak, the birds all disappear.   They know what they know.

I wish I had a better grasp on my intuition.  Most of the times… it just goes all wonky.  I would be the bird that stayed behind on the feeder when the hawk showed up.  Maybe that reincarnation thing IS true.  Maybe I am here to learn about intuition, and emotion, and life, and trust, and love.  Maybe I am supposed to figure out how to know what I know… and nothing more.

Or perhaps…. it could be that I am here to gather a bunch of nuts.  Like those kind of nuts who read blogs on Facebook. 🙂

Suddenly, Beatrice remembered she had chosen the 2 of Diamonds.  Then it hit her… this all could just be some terrible trick.

And then without warning, her left sock fell down, and her nose got a funny itch.  She lost the feeling of magic…. tingling in her toes.

We have all known it.  That unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, or is likely to cause a threat.

Fear.  I used to get full of fear when the Abominable Snowman would come on the scene in Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer.  Or I would tremble when a snake would slither by.  Neither of those things bother me any longer.  But I have other things that give me cause for trepidation.

There is a lot of fear in the world.  On a whole lot of levels.

Just to look at a few……

Often times…. we fear that which we do not know or understand.
Or…. People in big powerful places sometimes use fear tactics to make their positions even more powerful.
Maybe….. We fear spiders, or roller coasters, or heights, or clowns.
Sometimes we fear other people.

The thing I am trying to remember… all the time… is this.
In the reality of things… each one of us has a place on this earth.  Every one of us…. EVERY ONE…. is a necessary part in the completion to the wholeness of the universe.  We each contribute “a something” that makes ALL of it… a whole.

And the truth of it is…. because we exist… we should be guaranteed equality.  I’ll say it again…… “every person has an equal part of this whole.”   We (logically)  have no reason to fear one another’s presence, or to fear new situations when we realize that all of us are here… and we are supposed to be here.

No one’s talents are of greater value or merit….than any one else’s.  We all have our abilities, our contributions, our facilities.  Our niches.

And by god, I love a good niche.

So when we find fear… or anxiety… maybe we should try to remember the truth of our existence.  We are all equal and necessary.

We are all a part.

So don’t fall apart.  Love your niche.  And it will love you back.

Oh, to spread your wings and fly.

IF….. one has wings, that is.  And if you don’t possess them on your own right… what is the next best thing?  Well… to make some of your very own.

Who could do it better than the Wright Brothers?  Apparently, no one.  They were the first to actually make it work.  But plenty of others tried before them.  Take for instance, Leonardo Da Vinci.  WAY before Orville and Wilbur.

Da Vinci is one of my favorite people in all of history.   This guy was some kind of a human wonder boy.  Honest to goodness…. I bet he wore a red cape to go with his little beret.

Leonardo da Vinci was Italian.  Concisely, he was born in Vinci, Florence, Italy.  His profession, is mainly referred to as “Painter.  Scientist.  Visionary.”
I love that last one.  “Hey.  Polly.   What do you do for a living?”  “Well…. I am a Visionary.”   If only.

Anyway, back to Leo.  He was many things in fact.  A painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer.

Many consider him to be the greatest painter of all time.  He was a “LOT” of great things… of all time.

This guy was teeming with ideas.  A gazillion of them.  He conceptualized flying machines, a tank, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, the double hull, and a theory of plate tectonics….. just to name a few.

And, on this date in 1496,  da Vinci unsuccessfully tested a flying machine.  Maybe.

He was somewhat obsessed with flying and conceptualized several different machines…. during his years.  His designs on paper, were brilliant.  Yet…. they never worked once they were constructed.

But here is the deal.  It has been theorized that da Vinci may have sabotaged his OWN flying machine’s design in the hopes that it would fail.

Among all his other magnificent talents, Leonardo was  a pacifist.  He often  spoke out against the possibility that his ideas and inventions might be used for military purposes.  The flying machine was at the top of this list.

So low and behold they never worked.  I have a sneaky feeling that theory is true about da Vinci canceling his own flights.  He could see the bigger picture.  He put aside his own gains, in order to help the greater good.

None of his flying machines in war. No way.  No how.

I think we all have these same life decisions to make.  Maybe we aren’t deciding things on such a grand scale, but we can make good decisions each day.  We can make assurances to be good to people. We can choose to be kind, and caring, and compassionate.  We can deliberately decide to make a difference to someone each day.

This day.

And that…. I THINK….  is spreading your wings and flying.

Genius is talent set on fire by courage.  —  Henry Van Dyke

The universe has no restrictions. You place restrictions on the universe with your expectations. —  Deepak Chopra

Tonight, my sister came over to visit and spend the night.  I love my sister.

We sat and talked for a few hours and had such a great evening together.  It is what some sisters do.  I feel very fortunate to have her in my life.

Some sisters don’t get along at all.  Some merely tolerate one another.  And others are SO dang close they are just like…. well…..  … sisters.

That is the thing with people.  We are so incredibly different.  Just because you are in a relationship-proximity with someone… doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will like one another.  As I mentioned before… some siblings don’t get along at all.  But others are good as gold.  Like being a waffle in a stack of pancakes.  Just because you are in the stack… doesn’t mean you are automatically a flapjack.

It goes the same with the whole span of relationships.  Neighbors.  Preachers.  Parents.  Doctors. Teachers. Coworkers. Children. And on and on. The propinquity of someone does not really matter one way or the other… when it comes down to it.  We either like someone…. or we don’t.

You see… it is easy to be with my sister.  We are pretty good pals when it comes right down to it.  We sure have changed since we were kids.  But we continue to be every bit as close to one another as we get older.  Always the little pranksters, jokers, trouble-will-find-us, kind of kids.  And, we are still pretty silly when we get together.

We kept things lively while we were growing up … for sure.

But don’t try to find us in this photo.  The image I have included was taken while Julie and I were off-camera.  In fact… we were still eggs in the ovaries… when my Mom took this picture of the family.

Oh the calm before the storm.

Nevertheless…. I know my life is blessed to have her in it.  I have a feeling we will always be good to one another.  Like some sisters do..
(AND…… Just for the record.  We are pretty sure we came from opposite ovaries.  Pretty sure.)

Whatever you are, be a good one.  —  Abraham Lincoln.

I’ve been thinking.  We all know just how dangerous this can be… potentially.  Thoughts can be good, bad, or in between.

But tonight, I assure you, it is perfectly safe. Read on.

I played a lot of sports when I was younger.  I started playing softball when I was 7 years old.  By today’s measures…. that is OLD.   Kids these days start when they are about 16 months old…. or around there.

Anyway… we were told… “Practice Makes Perfect.”  This is only partly true.  Practice Makes Permanent.  You see…. what we do repeatedly will most likely become habit.  What we do… and think…. consistently become permanent parts of us… SO… we must be very careful what we are practicing.

This goes way beyond sports, I’ll tell you.  This is every day life.  We would probably be well served if we tread carefully in our everyday lives.

For a little instance.  If we are always seeing the “Negative Nelly” side of things… before you know it… there is hardly anything positive left in life.  Oh… but low and behold.. there are lots of positives in life.  Everywhere.  All of our atoms are full of them.

So.  Along with THAT… is THIS.  Our  thoughts are one of the most powerful forces in our lives. What we think about on a consistent basis truly has  a significant bearing on our lives.  Our little brains… all 3 pounds of them…. produce a myriad of thoughts.

Our thoughts control it all…..how we act in every way.  Everything  from how we treat other people… to what we decide to pull out of the refrigerator.  But forget about the grape jelly right now….
It is my belief that we can benefit from positive thinking.

Thinking on “the good” will turn in to permanent behavior. Worry can become Calm.   Anger can become Happiness.  Intolerance can become Compassion.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions.  I just don’t.

But I can have daily intentions.   So, in the year to come… each day… I will practice.  I will practice more good thinking, positive thinking, kind thinking.  And…. I will also try to eat more grapes.  But not grape jelly.

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”
~Buddha – founder of Buddhism (circa – 483 BCE)

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
~The Bible – (Proverbs 237)