All It Takes Is A Little Love

What would you do today to make yourself happy? I know what I chose and what surprised me and made me even happier than I expected to be.

It was the weekend and I woke up quite early. In spite of efforts to sleep a bit late my body said that it was wide awake so I rolled out of the bed and headed to my great room. First I made my morning tea. While it was steeping I opened all of the blinds even though it was still dark outside. Not a soul seemed to be joining me in the early hours of the day but I was content to simply enjoy the silence and wait to see the first hints of sunlight.

I settled into my recliner and did some reading followed by morning puzzle time. I was moving through my routines so fast that it was still not yet daylight so I sipped on my tea and took my daily pills while scanning through messages on Facebook. Suddenly as I scrolled through posts I saw a short video of Barack Obama and Zohran Mamdani reading a book and singing songs with children at a daycare center in New York City. They were having so much fun and so were the kids that the smile on my face grew wider and wider until I chuckled out loud with delight watching the two good men spreading joy to utterly delightful children. It was a sight that set a positive tone for the rest of my day. 

I had planned to clean bathrooms and my kitchen, which is hardly a fun thing to do, but I was in such a positive mood that I was literally whistling while I worked. Somehow the vision of those youngsters so innocently singing The Wheels On the Bus stayed with me throughout the day. Somehow everything seemed easier and of no concern because I had felt the joy in that room and saw that the two men had felt it as well. 

Isn’t it amazing how one wonderful image can affect ones mood for an entire day? I found myself zipping through my chores and feeling gratitude for my home that was becoming squeaky clean. I felt like one of those seven dwarfs coming home form work at the mines but still smiling with all of my might. 

Before the day dawned one of my daughters had sent the same video to me and we both agreed that it was such a lovely thing to see given that there is so much anger and turmoil in the world. Sometimes it is the children who teach us how to be happy. Their joy is infectious and it is almost impossible not to join in their celebratory spirit. 

I had dreaded having to clean countertops and toilets and floors in a routine that comes around over and over again. Instead my spirits were so bright that I would have tackled any task with a silly smile planted on my face. It is the children who remind us how to love and celebrate our innocence. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “the youth of today are the sole investment for tomorrow.” The time and love that we provide them will pay beautiful dividends in the future. We don’t have to spend lots of money to let them know that they are important to us. Sometimes just singing and laughing with them is the only message that they need to know that everything is going to be alright. 

I love adults who are able to have fun with children without focusing attention on themselves. Children don’t want or need to hear adult problems. There will be time enough when they are older to become more serious. Kindness and joy is what they need. They know who is truly interested in their well being and who is just going through the motions of appearing to care what happens to them.

I recently began teaching math to a delightfully clever little boy. He is a joy filled little soul with a tiny spark of impishness. I know that our lessons can never be all business. He has to have time to tell me about the books that he is reading or that he is planning a podcast for his friends. I take his earnestness seriously and encourage him to keep finding ways to widen his world with reading and creating. The math comes far more easily when he knows that I like him and that it will be okay if he makes a mistake here and there. 

Children are the most important people on our planet. Our goal should always be to make certain that they are safe from harm. We can’t stop every tragedy but we should be circumspect in doing things that might make them collateral damage from our mistakes. We should strive to shield them from war and famine and hate. We are their protectors and that is one of the most important jobs that we may do. When I see two good men sending the children a message that they are safe I am enchanted. There is nothing more worthwhile. 

I had a happy day that went all the way until I read that children were killed in a family dispute. I have harsh words for those who would dare to harm little ones for any reason. I cry at the thought of their lives being so damaged because some adult became angry and decided to aim that anger at little ones who should instead have been sheltered and loved. 

I hope I see happier times on the horizon, not so much for me but for the children. They don’t need to endure our pettiness or our anger. We should always be laughing and singing and celebrating life in their presence. We owe to them to find joy in being with them. Who knows, maybe we might even carry such happiness over to all of our days.

My mother was unique to say the least. She often criticized the idea of having a monarch in the modern world while also expressing her unmitigated admiration for Queen Elizabeth. She felt a kind of kinship with the Queen even as their lives could not have been more different. About the only thing that they had in common was age and appearance. Mama used to boast that with a good makeup artist, hair dresser and wardrobe she might be seen as a clone of Her Majesty. In truth the two ladies did resemble each other in an interesting way. 

My mother appreciated Queen Elizabeth’s manners and the regal way in which she presented herself. Mama was also a stickler for proper etiquette and often used the queen as an example to follow. She commented on the comportment of the queen and instructed me to learn from the gracious lady. She would muse about how lovely it would be to meet Elizabeth as an equal as though the only difference between herself and the queen was a title. She would laugh and remark that the one reservation she might have in such a circumstance would be the idea of bowing to the royal personage. She did not think that she would want to ever do such a thing because of her adamant belief that everybody is equally worthy of the same levle of respect. 

Mama often noted that Queen Elizabeth’s first born child, Charles, would one day be king. She delighted in the fact that both she and the queen welcomed their eldest children at around the same time. Somehow this made her affection for Elizabeth become ever more deep. She raised me with rules and manners that she hoped would make me as refined as any royal personage while always asserting that being a citizen of the United States gave me the great gift of knowing that we are all created equal. 

I found myself thinking of my mom’s adulation of Queen Elizabeth when her son King Charles came to visit the United States.  I am quite certain that my mother would have enjoyed his good manners and diplomacy especially when he praised the nation that the United States had become since the revolution of two hundred fifty years ago when our Founding Fathers broke from the bondage of a king. She would have been delighted to hear him urging Congress to keep the ideals outlined in the Magna Carta and later in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. 

As a child of immigrants from Eastern Europe my mother always appreciated the freedoms that the United States offered to the tired, the poor and the huddled masses. Her family benefited greatly from the hope and refuge that our nation afforded them. She often spoke of her father’s insistence that being in America was a great treasure that she and her siblings must always appreciate. She noted that even when she and her family were insulted and spurned as ‘foreigners” her father would tell her to hold her head high as he insisted, “Here you are as worthy as kings and queens.”   

I had my doubts about King Charles coming to visit in such tumultuous times but he rose to the occasion masterfully. I enjoyed watching him warm to the children in Harlem who showed him the gardens they had grown and the animals they had raised. I witnessed his sincerity at the site of 9/11 and Arlington Cemetery. I chuckled at his humor and felt that I saw a man who sincerely understands and appreciates the long friendship that Great Britain and the United States of America have shared. I found myself thinking about George Washington and the brave souls who fought for independence. I am certain they would have approved of the courtesy and friendship and continuing challenges that King Charles noted in his speech to Congress. 

We presently have much to do to realign ourselves to the ideals that that have marked the forward march of our nation. King Charles reminded us of what will be most important as we move into the future. It will be up to us to be a welcoming nation and one that aligns itself with long time allies in a mutual preservation of the freedoms that our ancestors envisioned. The wealth of our nation lies in its population of many backgrounds and cultures. Ours is a land of beautiful wonders that we must protect as surely as we protect all of its people. Our greatness lies not in power over others or immense wealth but in the hopes and dreams of a citizenry that represents virtually every country on this earth. 

I am thankful to King Charles for reminding us all of what has made us great and challenging us to do the right thing as we walk into the future. I like to think that Queen Elizabeth and my mother are both smiling in heaven and maybe even enjoying a cup of tea together as they celebrate as two equal and wonderful women. Here on earth may we remember to be the kind of people who cherish freedom and equality for all just as Mama and Queen Elizabeth urged me and the king to be.  

It is never too late to be what you might have been. —- John F. Kennedy

We all have dreams in our youth. Some are fanciful like my one time goal to be an airline stewardess who lived in New York City. Some are aspirational like my thoughts of becoming a published writer. Some fit our personalities like my joy of learning that led me to becoming a teacher. 

I would not mind having enough money to always feel comfortable and able to fulfill all of my dreams but I have learned after seven decades that the best things in life are free and that having just enough is good enough. I became a teacher because it suited who I was. I began learning from my father who introduced me to reading when I was a small child. He read poetry to me and constantly took me to bookstores and libraries. I watched him build a replica of our home out of little strips of balsa wood that he carefully cut and put together just like someone building a real house. He showed me how to create a sidewalk that would last for decades and spoke with me of history and wondrous places. He insisted that I never underestimate myself nor allow anyone else to do so. 

Under his brief tutelage I suppose that it was almost enviable that I would be drawn to the idea of sharing my knowledge with others, but like him I often found myself longing to do more. I began writing once I had retired because I believed that it is never too late to accomplish a dream. Now I mostly write for my own satisfaction. The act of writing is second nature to me. It is a calming experience for which I devote time virtually every single day. 

Some people cook or sew or work in their gardens for fun. I like to write down my thoughts. I suppose if they interest or inspire someone that is like gravy on top of my joy. I sometimes dream that just the right person will notice some of my work and suddenly contact me to help me to publish my thoughts on a wider scale. I suppose that such thoughts are mostly the grist from my lively imagination. I don’t expect a call from Stephen King insisting that I am the next great author but the dream of such a thing is as fun as reality. I write for the same reason I read and learn. It is because my father taught me how much fun it is to do those things. He showed me how to keep my mind eternally active. 

I’m not sure that my father had enough time on this earth to be what he might have been. I always imagine NASA coming to town and piquing his interest as a mechanical engineer. I feel certain that he would have been over the moon at the thought of helping humans to actually go to the moon. After all, he already had many books predicting that very thing in the future. He only had to live a few more years and I think he might have finally found the dream job that he was seeking. 

I enjoyed my life as a teacher so much that it has never really ended. Almost as soon as I had retired I made it known that I was looking for opportunities to tutor students. I knew that I no longer wanted to work all day long five days a week but the idea of teaching for an hour here or there was tantalizing. Here I am fifteen years after my official retirement still homeschooling and tutoring young people. Each time I think of officially retiring someone comes along to convince me to keep going. I have to admit that some of the happiest moment of my days are spent with young men and women working to determine who they want to be. 

I suppose that one of my latest wishes is to grow old gracefully and to dedicate myself to making the world an inviting place for the next generation. Perhaps my greatest talent is to be the grand encourager like my father was for me. It only took eight years for him to imprint on my soul the joy to be found in constantly exploring new places and new ideas. He showed me how glorious an open mind can be. I like to think that I am not stuck in rigid ideologies but rather open to new ideas and the incredible creativity, diversity and inventiveness of humans. 

I suppose that in a sense even as I inch toward being an octogenarian I am still learning and seeking truth, not stodgy beliefs. I like to think that my reading and learning and teaching has shown me how to evolve more and more into the person that I might be. These days it is from the young people that I seem to grow the most in my understanding of our gloriously diverse humanity. I like to think that my father would be proud of the person that I continue to become. 

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”  Henry David Thoreau

From second grade through my senior year of high school I walked to school. Rain or shine, warm weather or cold I sauntered through the neighborhood early each morning throughout the school year. On especially cold days I often timed my jaunts to coincide with one of my friends riding to our mutual destination with her mother. More often than not, they would stop to offer me a lift for the greater part of the journey and I would quite happily join them in the warmth of the automobile. With the exception of those frigid times I was quite content to begin my day quietly consumed with my own thoughts because for the most part I am a soul who prefers to be alone in the first hours of the day. 

I used to tell people that I am not a morning person but that would be an inaccurate statement because on most days I arise from my slumbers before the first rays of sunlight begin to awaken the world around me. I enjoy the quiet solitude that allows my brain to slowly adjust to the hubbub of people setting off for work and buses arriving to carry children to school. I want only to listen, not to engage either my ears or my voice in conversation. It is as though I must carefully prepare my introverted personality for the assault of the sounds and commotions of a typical day. 

When I was working I usually had a rather long ride to work in the solitude of my car. I preferred getting up early enough to beat the traffic and to make my way to my classroom without encountering too many people. I saved my chattiness and energy for my students and used the extra time before my duties began to prepare my classroom for the lessons that I had planned. Somehow with luck I always ended up in a classroom far away from the office and the gathering places of the other teachers and the students. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of my outback locations. 

It was in those mornings that I found my kindred spirits but we all knew not to bother each other. There was an unspoken rule that demanded that we do nothing more than nod until the first bells called us out of the comfort of our dimly lit classrooms into the hallways to greet our students. Some of my colleagues had refrigerators, microwaves and coffee makers in their classrooms that allowed them to prepare breakfast that they slowly consumed with the lights turned down as low as possible. We were like little mice hiding in our nests until we had to scurry when the crowds formed outside our hideaways. 

Whether in the time that I was a student walking to school or when I had become a teacher with a routine that allowed my head to clear, once it was time to perform my duties I transformed into a chatterbox of extraversion. My early morning routines allowed me to have my cake of silence and eat it too.

Now that I am retired I enjoy a life without hectic but quiet dashes into the outside world each morning. Instead I sit in my recliner sipping on my tea while solving puzzles from The New York Times and wishing my Facebook friends greetings on the days of their births. I read articles and make sure that my blog is posted on multiple sites. By the time my husband comes in from his slumbers I don’t mind that he switches on all the lights that I have avoided for hours. I am ready for whatever challenges may come either scheduled or unexpected. 

I love walking in my neighborhood but for quite some time I have been limited in how far I have been able to go by two knees filled with arthritis and devoid of the cushioning that made walking so wonderful in my youth. Now that I am three months beyond my total knee replacement in one knee I look forward to longer and longer journeys on foot.

Times have changed since my youth. Nobody lives with their windows open anymore so I do not hear the sounds of life greeting me from each home that I pass. Few children play outside like I did so I rarely seen another person. When I do they often simply nod and pass as they listen to music or podcasts with their AirPods. The world is all mine to encounter as I see fit. I hear the birds and smile as the occasional dog barks as I go past. Sometimes I glance up into the sky when a plane flies over on its way to the airport or crane my neck when a firetruck or ambulance whizzes past me. Mostly there is a calm silence embracing me just like when I was young and strong and able to walk for hours without even resting. 

The morning person in my psyche loves the slowness of my retirement and days when I have nothing planned. Sometimes I simply revel in walking slowly with no real destination and no need to hurry my steps. Just being outside in our beautiful world is all that I really need to nurture the quiet moments that I have always seemed to cherish. What a blessing! 

A yearly report from the Kinder Institute at Rice University indicates that the citizens of Houston, Texas are more anxious than ever about the economy. While in the past mostly low income respondents indicated anxiety about their financial situations, this year such concerns have moved to include middle class citizens as well. Most of the worries center around inflation and the high cost of food, clothing, gasoline and medical care. In addition layoffs at companies are at an all time high. Not since the nineteen eighties when there was an oil bust in Houston have the comments indicated so much worry about the future and the worriers appear to be coming from a wide range of individuals from differing socio-economic backgrounds. 

I recall the economic slowdown of the early nineteen eighties quite well. I had finally earned a bachelor’s degree in education and was excited about landing my first full time teaching assignment. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and had been inducted into the prestigious international honor society for education, Kappa Delta Pi. My professors recommended me to many principals who interviewed me as a courtesy. Unfortunately so many people were leaving Houston in the hopes of finding work elsewhere that there were actually too many teachers. On graduation day only one person in my graduating class had secured a job and hers came from her father who was the superintendent of a local school district. 

Such is the horrific situation of many college graduates who will be donning their caps and gowns this month only to realize that there are no jobs for them. Some are enrolling in masters programs in the hope of a brighter economic outlook ahead. Sadly for some their financial situation will be less than it might have been if they were able to find work right now. 

I have heard of young people with STEM degrees in majors like engineering and computer science who have sent resumes to over eighty companies in the hope of landing an interview and a job. Only one year ago their futures looked so bright. They had excellent grades and boasted internships that would normally have sent recruiters vying for them. Now they are in a panic or have decided to settle for work unrelated to their majors that will pay them far less that might have otherwise been the case. 

In my own experience back in the eighties I found myself looking for any teaching position that I might find and stumbled upon a job to teach math to sixth, seventh and eighth graders in a private school. While I felt fortunate to find anything my salary was less than half of what I would have made in a public school. In addition the timing of my inability to find a position int public education resulted in less of a pension down the road as well as locking me out of qualifying for spousal Social Security until Congress passed a bill in Biden’s last year as president. The financial hit that comes from such unlucky timing can follow an individual through an entire career. Such is what many college graduates of 2026 are facing. 

Sadly the economic problems include people who have been working for decades as well. Companies are sending pink slips to folks in spite of glowing compliments for their work. According to the Kinder report lots of Houstonians are wondering how they are going to make it even if they have managed to keep their jobs. Gasoline, childcare, food, utilities and so many expenses are keeping them awake at night. 

Why does this matter? Because our nation is paying for a war that has resulted in oil companies boasting double the profits over what they had last year. Small businesses affected by the original tariffs saw their bottom lines shrink and now they wonder how long it will take to get relief from the increase in tariffs for the materials they had to purchase to keep things going. In other words the economic situation is a mess at the same time that our president and members of his party seem to think that our nation needs a four hundred million dollar ballroom that most Americans will never see on the inside. While the people are budgeting and cutting back. our federal government is spending money like someone drunk on their own self worth.

In 2024, the United States had the strongest economy in the world in spite of the difficulties of the pandemic. Only a year and a half later all of that progress has been frittered away while programs that actually help citizens continue to be slashed. People worry that there will be a recession and that only the very richest among us seem to be riding the wave while everyone else feels as though we are drowning. 

It is time for Congress and our president to seriously stop the bleeding. We have to assess what is needed and what is frivolous. It’s important that we keep our best trained and educated citizens in the workforce. It would not take much at this point to tip the economy into a free fall and for some that has already come. As James Carville once said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” It’s time for our leaders to all focus on our very real cost of living concerns.