Category Archives: Family

Bringing It All Together 9

Autism Spectrum, Bully Free, Family, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: ,

This year I am scaling back. I will continue to be on Twitter and I will continue to post my blogs to Facebook. However, I need more time to take care of my health, to spend with my family and to work on my second novel, and I need to focus more on forgiveness and gratitude.

I am not giving up on my dreams for acceptance of differences and bully free schools. I will address the tough issues on this blog by bringing you stories of those who are helping, rather than the sad stories that the news media uses to hype up your emotions for a day or two. I also hope to do some presentations and to exhibit at some local venues this year.

I will be adding a couple of new pages to my blog, one for featured stories and one for my progress on my next novel, a topic I started addressing on my second blog. Maintaining two blogs is not working, so I plan to move my posts from my second blog to this blog.

Mahalo for your continued support as I make these changes.

Memorial Day Gratitude 10

Family, Gratitude, Pearl Harbor • Tags: , ,

USS Arizona.4 - CopyLooking down on USS Arizona - Copy

The United States celebrates Memorial Day this weekend.  I am grateful to all of the men and women who serve and who have served our country throughout history and to their families.   Today I am sharing pictures from Pearl Harbor since aside from terrorist acts this was the last time war actually touched U.S. soil. 

Please click on the pictures to get a clearer view.  The second picture is looking down on what is left of the deck.  Oil still slowly leaks from the ship so the view is not clear.  Fish now make the ship their home. 

The Gallent Men of The USS. Arizona - Copy

Remains.of.Ship.Today.1 - Copy

The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States officially into WWII.  It directly affected my father as he was already in the army stationed in Panama at the time.  He then fought in the Philippines during the war.  Post-war he remained in the reserves, but he transferred to the air force and was a paratrooper during the Korean War. 

The bombing of Pearl Harbor also profoundly affected my husband’s family.  My father-in-law, a sixth grader at the time, thought the military was doing training maneuvers when he heard the planes so he and his sisters went to the roof of their store to watch.  The smoke coming from Pearl Harbor told the true story.  Even then he did not realize how much it would change his life. 

It would eventually lead to his being sent away to a military high school.  He would stay on the mainland for college and then join the army.  Eventually, he did return to Hawaii to help run the family store, but he missed growing up as a care-free island boy. 

Today I am especially grateful to those who made the supreme sacrifice to protect our freedom and to the families who have suffered the loss of their loved ones through their service to others.        

Kung Hey Fat Choy 2011 7

Chinese New Year, Family, Gratitude • Tags: , ,
Welcome the Year of the Rabbit!

LionHawaii’s population is approximately one third Chinese according to one of the writers for Examiner.com although that number includes those who are of mixed race like my children.  Therefore, like many homes in the islands we celebrate Chinese New Year.  Three years ago I even learned to make gau, a sticky brown sugar sweet treat made with rice flour to bring sweetness to the new year and help the family to stick together.  My mother-in-law makes the jai, a Chinese vegetarian dish for celebration of  the new lunar year.

I am grateful for my multicultural family and that we live in Hawaii where children grow up respecting multiple cultures.  The Lion belongs to my son.  My children used to pretend to perform a lion dance and ask for money from us when they were younger.  Traditionally feeding the lion money is supposed to bring one luck and wealth.  Now our lion is mostly for decoration although my two still like getting money.  Lai see is the custom of giving lucky money in special red envelops to unwed children as a symbol of good luck and wealth.

May you and yours have a year of harmony, joy, health, and prosperity!

How I Would Spend My Last Hour 16

Family, Gratitude • Tags: ,

Pictures from my camera 016 - Copy

The tombstone is my parents’ whom I love and miss for they really were wonderful and I always knew they loved me.  I am so grateful to have been their daughter. 

No, it isn’t really my last hour and I’m not ill or planning anything stupid!  I’m just responding to a “bonus” prompt for a topic from Word Press today.  The prompt:

“If you only had an hour to live, what would you do with those 60 minutes?”

This one is so easy for me to answer as I’ve always loved Diamond Rio’s song, “One More Day.”  Click below to play the song:

YouTube – One More Day by Diamond Rio – The Last Time.

So yes, first I would pray for the time to go by slowly, and I would unplug all of the electronics in my house and turn off all the phones just like in the song.  I would gather my family around to hug them and tell them how wonderful they are and how they have each enriched my life.  I would remind my husband of the letter I wrote for our best friends to use in the event something happened to us on how to help our children and suggest that he use that as I would not want to waste time on another letter and I do things for all of them that he won’t remember when I am gone.  I would remind my daughter that she will receive a letter from me her senior year as it is already in a time capsule.  I wrote it when she was in kindergarten.  Then I would apologize to my son for failing to write a similar letter to him.  (I think I will do this soon as it is a good idea and maybe I’ll even write a love letter to my darling husband.)  I would also hug my dogs and remind them to take care of my family. 

Last but not least by any means, I would tell each of them that I have no regrets about anything because I’ve had the best life anyone could ever have because I shared it with each of them.  I’d tell them they should never feel guilty for anything they have ever said to me for I’ve always known how much I am loved.  Maybe, I’ll tell them tonight just for fun. 

Love your family members everyday because you really never know when it will be the last chance you have.  When you slip-up and yell or say something hurtful apologize and hug them.  Are you grateful for the life you have been given?  What would you do with your last hour?