Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

November 18th – Politics

November 18, 2021November 18, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

My challenge for November is to find ‘words of wisdom’ that I find particularly insightful on a variety of subjects. Some subjects are obviously more challenging than others. That being said, these are the words from the wise and the erudite that I have chosen to share on the subject of politics.

*** Erudite – “having or showing great knowledge or learning” (new word for the day)

“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
– Nikita Khrusshchev

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”
– Groucho Marx

“Instead of giving politicians the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.”
– Doug Larson

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
– Plato

“I don’t think we should go to the moon. I think maybe we should send some politicians up there.”
– Ron Paul

“We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.”
– Hubert H. Humphrey

“Voting is like choosing your favourite mosquito out of a swarm.”
– Unknown (but it was probably a Canadian)

“The problem with political jokes is that they get elected.
– Henry Cate VII

That’s it for today folks! There is plenty to say about politics these days so there was no shortage of material to choose from – unfortunately a lot of it just isn’t fit to print in a family friendly blog. 🤷‍♀️

Family news update – Logan and Mom have scored a couple of more days in hospital due to a couple of minor complications, so Dom will be coming for some Grandma and Grandpa D. time tonight. Fortunately our new stove arrived yesterday so Dom and I will be making pizza for supper. 🍕

Take care and have a great day! 💞

November 17th – Puppy Love

November 17, 2021November 17, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

There are few things that make a house a home like having a pet to share it with. Dan and I have had a dog from day one together. Nowadays, it is Dan and I and our Cavalier ‘Kat’.

Today in honour of Kat – and Casey and Scraps, I offer a few ‘words of wisdom’ on the mighty, marvelous dogs that we have shared our home with.

“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
– Will Rogers

“Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished.”
– Dean Koontz

“The dog lives for the day, the hour, even the moment.”
– Robert Falcon Scott

“Be the person your dog thinks you are.”
– CJ Frick

“A dog will teach you unconditional love. If you can have that in your life, things won’t be too bad.”
– Robert Wagner

“Grandma, if you want a dog to come to you, you can’t yell at her. You have to sound like you want to give her a hug.”
– 2 year old Maddy B.

**Maddy & Kat – hugs and puppy kisses💞**

“Happiness is a warm puppy”.
Charles M. Schultz

“Dogs do speak but only to those who know how to listen.”
– Orhan Panuk

***Kat – “Yes I have your blanket.”*** 😏

That is it for today! Take care and have a great day. 💞

November 16th – Healthy Living

November 16, 2021November 16, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

I started my day with a trip to our local pharmacy to get my third Covid shot and my annual flu shot. I had my pneumonia shot a few weeks ago and just finished a bottle of antibiotics. Bottom line, I should dodge any nasty bugs that are out and about this winter. 🧖

Everyone has their own level of health and fitness and we all have our own challenges in preserving or improving it. Hopefully, these ‘words of wisdom’ can inspire us all to make some healthy life choices today.

“The groundwork for all happiness is good health.”
– Leigh Hunt

“Love yourself enough to live a healthy lifestyle.”
– Unknown

“The best investment you ever make is your own health.”
– Unknown

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”
– Ann Wigmore

“He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.”
– Unknown

” Health is much more dependent on our habits and nutrition than on medicine.”
– John Lubbock

“Exercise not only changes your body, it changes your mind, your attitude, and your mood.”
– Unknown

“Take care of your body. Its the only place you have to live.”
– Jim Rohn

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞

November 15th – Heartbreak

November 15, 2021November 15, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

Regardless of how much we appreciate our lives here on Earth, we all experience times when our hearts are broken and our souls are shattered. I have experienced such times in my life. The death of a loved one is always hard but the most difficult for me has been the times when loved ones have deliberately destroyed that what is most important to me. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life. 🤷 Unfortunately, the only way to get through it, is to accept it and hope that everything truly does happen for a reason. It does help to know that there are others who understand and who share their ‘words of wisdom’ on grief with us.

“No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world does not stop for your grief.”
Faraz Kazi

“The shattering of a heart being broken is the loudest quiet ever.
Carroll Bryant

“I’d rather love a million times and have my heart broken every time, than hold a permanently empty heart forever.”
– H.C. Payene

“I know my heart will never be the same, but I’m telling myself I’ll be okay.”
– Sara Evans

“It is strange how often a heart must be broken, before the years can make it wise.”
– Sara Teasdale

“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
– Marilyn Munroe

That is it for today, except to share our family news. Our two little ones have made their arrival. Alaska-Rose Charlize was born early Saturday morning weighing in at a whole 4lbs. 14oz. Logan Micheal was born early this morning weighing 7lbs. 8oz. Both are beautiful, perfect, and doing well. While it is a blessing that both have arrived safe and sound, it is sad and unfortunate that, since our family remains estranged, it is unlikely that they will be meeting each other anytime soon.

Take care and have a great day. 💞

November 14th – Anyway

November 14, 2021November 14, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

My wisdom for today comes from a verse that has become a favourite of mine. My only regret in life, at this point, is that I did not come to realize such wisdom decades ago.

The Paradoxical Commandments

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred.
   Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of ulterior motives.
   Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
   Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
   Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
   Be honest and frank anyway.  
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
   Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but only follow top dogs.
   Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
   Build anyway.   
9. People really need your help but may attack you if you do help them.
   Help people anyway.
10.Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
   Give the world the best you have anyway. 

           - Kent M. Keith

Take care and have a great day! 💞

November 13th – Home

November 13, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

A home is so much more than a building. A home should be where we feel secure, accepted and cherished. A home should be where we strive to make those we love feel secure, accepted, and cherished. Sadly, like so many important things in life right now, our homes do not get always get the respect and appreciation that they need and deserve. Just as a house will inevitably fall from years of neglect, so will homes become nothing more than jaded, faded memories, if we allow them to.

I hope that the ‘words of wisdom’ that I have to share today, will help to revive some home spirit – for the homes we are blessed with today and those that live in our memories.

“Home sweet home. This is the place to find happiness. If one doesn’t find it here, one doesn’t find it anywhere.”
– MK Soni

“Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.”
– Sarah Bon Breathmach

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
– George A. Moore

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”
– Dr. William A. Ward

“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
– Confucius

“Home is shelter from storms – all sorts of storms.”
– William J. Bennett

” No matter what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be your home. No matter how well you lived there – well or poorly”
– Joseph Brodsky

Life takes you to unexpected places. Love brings you home.
– Melissa McClone

That is it for today. I hope these words of wisdom triggered some warm and fuzzy feelings of home and family for you.

Take care and have a great day!💞

November 12th – Inspired Life

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

Life is so short and precious, that we should always strive to be inspired. Unfortunately, that is not the reality for most of us – or at least it is not my reality. I have days when I am tired or stuck or bored or impatient for something to come along to inspire me. At times such as those, rather than just waiting helplessly, I turn to words of wisdom to re-inspire me.

Today, being one such day, I searched, I found, and I decided to make this my wisdom share of the day.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”
– Maya Angelou

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
– Albert Camus

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
– Leonardo da Vinci

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it”
– Edith Wharton

“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.”
– Eckhart Tolle

“Within all of us is a divine capacity to manifest and attract all that we need and desire.”
– Wayne Dyer

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”
– Henry David Thoreau

That is it for today! Take care and have a wonderfully inspired day. 💞

November 11th – It’s Here!

November 11, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

The time has come. We awoke this morning to find our city covered in snow.

“***My favourite (winter) outdoor activity is going back inside.” – Anonymous***

***“Some people spend their entire lives seeing the snow without ever seeing the magic in the existence of one snowflake.” – Emily Littlejohn***

“One kind word can warm three winter months.” – Japanese Proverb

Take care and have a great day!

November 10th – Wise words About Learning

November 10, 2021November 10, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in Wisdom - November 2021

Learning is one of my greatest joys in life! Definitely the thing I loved most about working, especially in my last position in construction sales and project management/administration, was the opportunity and excitement of ongoing learning. I learned something new every day. Having the opportunity to share such knowledge with others, who were just as eager to learn, was part of the fun.

Anyway, today I have ‘words of wisdom’ about learning, from some terrific masters of the mind.

“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”
– Zig Ziglar (Motivational speaker of the twentieth century)

(Probably the one thing I found most frustrating about parenting was trying to explain something of importance to one of my offspring only to have them blow it off with an “I KNOW”. I don’t know how many times I heard that but I do know – they did not know.)

“What we learn with pleasure, we never forget.”
– Alfred Mercier (University Lecturer)

(My sons have never forgotten my driving lessons – obviously they were pleasurable!)

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow”
– Anthony J D’Angelo (American Author)

( And you will never grow bored!)

What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.
– Aristotle (Greek Philosopher)

(Absolutely! Try, try, and try again!)

It is what we know already, that often prevents us from learning
– Claude Bernard (French Physilogist)

(I know. But is so hard to unlearn something one knows! 🙄)

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh the thinks you think up if only you try.
– Dr. Seuss (Author of Children’s Books)

All of our grandchildren are brilliant, but when it comes to original thinkers Madison has always been the master of thinking left, right, low, and high to find her own unique answers.

That is it for today. Take care. I hope you have a great day – and a great time learning something new and fascinating!