As of today I've decided to finish the week and start the weekend with a beautiful display of a tropical flower from the island, and there's no better place to start than my own back yard, right?
About 2 years ago we got a little piece of branch from a tree that some people know as Frangipani and others as Plumeria. Ours was on a flower pot for a while and gave lots of leaves but didn't grow much, then we decided to move it.
when it was in the pot
Despite the fact that our piece of land is very rocky (and every time we decided to plant something, we have to make a big enough hole, fill it up with good dirt and hope for the plant/tree is going to have enough space to develop the roots and survive) we planted the Frangipani in the back yard.
Time went by... probably a good 8 to 10 months since we put it in the dirt, at first it seems like we were successful and it was doing pretty good, then it started loosing all of the leaves and at some point it looked like one stick with two branches and I thought we lost it....
But then something started to change, at the very tip of the branches we started to notice some growth...
this is how it looked at the begining
then it started growing super fast
yesterday a.m. it looked like this
Finally here's the first beautiful flower... taa-daa!!!
Back in the year of 1988 and during a St. Patrick's Day I was particularly very lucky and blessed although I don't think it had anything to do with the Irish celebration, shamrock, leprechauns or drinking beer.
Instead on that day back in '88 I received a wonderful gift from nature, my first Dog, Ozzie.
Ozzie was an American cocker spaniel, the sweetest most loving dog anybody could ask for. His mom Candy was our neighbors dog and after years of nagging my mom about getting us a dog she finally answered: "well one day when Candy has puppies you can ask the neighbors for one" (she wasn't expecting that to really happen at all), a few years later in 1988 our wish came true.
Growing up I couldn't ask for a better dog, he was a very happy dog, active, super loyal and protective but never tried to harm anybody. He would go to our beach house and take a few hours ride in the car like a champ...
Before Ozzie became part of our family my mom and dad were not very fond of dogs, but just a few months later after we got him, they felt madly in love with him and they even put an old couch in their room so he could sleep there with them.
During the 16 yrs that Ozzie was with us, he always slept in their room, and during the day or morning when he wanted to sleep late, he will literally knock on my bedroom door for me to open and then he will come in and sleep with me...
His last years with us he was already blind but never lost his happiness and love for any of us, he would spend his last days sleeping and moving from one side to the other and by this time he had his own bed, so it was easy for him to find it.
I remember during those times when he was blind, sometimes he would have trouble getting to his food, his bed or just trying to get around the house, I would clip the leash on him and immediately he knew I was his eyes, his attitude would change completely as if he knew he could trust on me 100% to get him where he needed to go, I made me feel so good to be able to lend him my eyes- I miss him!
Ozzie Patrick (that was the second name I gave him because of the day he was born) died very quietly and peacefully in his sleep one morning in 2004. At the time I already lived away from home, but I was visiting about 3 months before he passed away, that's when I had a chance to say goodbye to him, last time I saw him, when I said good bye I whispered in his ear and reminded him how much I love him and what a great dog he is and how he will always be part of my heart...
And that's why every year in St. Patrick's Day I can't help but think of him, the years of happiness he brought to all of us, all of the wonderful experiences I shared with him, he made my life wonderful just by being there and I was able to hopefully make his a wonderful one as well...
So to me is not the luck of the Irish, but the luck of us animal lovers, to have this amazing bond with them, to open not only the doors of our house but the doors to our heart and soul, they are just amazing, the can teach us so much, we are definitely lucky to be part of this planet with them....
There's mystery and magic in everybody's life and maybe if we fail to notice it in our daily life, our subconscious manages to find a way to show it to us in our dreams.
I have to say last night was pretty good on the sleeping part, until this a.m. when after dreaming of a car I was ready to buy (a car that in fact really does exists and I really want now- specially after today's dream). All of a sudden I woke up and I was wide awake. I did not see the time for a while as I didn't want to torture myself with the fact that I had to be up and running before 7am.
But then I did it, I looked at the time and to my surprise (or maybe not) it happened again, the same thing that is being happening to me later and for a while, the time was 3:33 am.
I don't know how to explain this phenomenon or the reason behind it, is it normal that most of the time during the day when I look at the time is either 10:10, 1:11, 5:55, 6:06, 12:12??? (you get the idea).
So last night after I saw the time it was, I just lay down in bed staring at the ceiling and with the constant idea of buying this car and finding a way to sell my very recent purchased one to get this other one....
After a while of doing nothing on the bed (counting some sheep, singing, praying, etc), I decided to turn to one side and to pursuit more sleep, but not without torturing myself and look at the time, guess what time it was then? 4:44... What's up with that?
Does this happens to anybody else out there or does anyone knows the meaning (if any) of this??? If you do I would appreciate you sharing some of that info with me, hopefully this means really really good news, LOL!
It's not fair when dreams play tricks on us, when they wait until the very last day of the week (and sometimes even jump to the very early hours of Monday), and by the time you wake up to face the week you are simply exhausted already!
Well, the first hurricane of my season was here last night, or was it very early this morning? not sure, but it felt very real.
unfortunately this was not on my dreams last night
I was getting sand bags for the doors, already seeing flooding in some areas, wind picking up pretty bad and of course there was also a window that somebody forgot to close the hurricane shutters (from the outside) and we realized it right at the time when it was very dangerous to go out, go figure!
Just writing and thinking about all that happened in this crazy dream makes me tired.
And the thing is, I am sure this comes from the very deep end of my brain, where the constant stress of this annual season (for one of "nature's finest" natural disasters) always lingers. I know we are more than 2 months away from the official start of the season, but still I can't help but think that we are getting closer and we are drifting farther from the very quiet, almost non existent 2009 season (insert -relief sight- here).
Oh well, at least it was all a dream and there's night again at the end of this day to make up for my crazy dream, hopefully tonight I will having some sweet dreams...
