BOOK ONE PROLOGUE— BACK TO THE BEGINNING—WALTZING BLINDLY THROUGH LIFE BY DAY WHILE WRESTLING WITH UNNAMED INNER DEMONS IN THE DARK

PROLOGUE
Though I feel no resistance while expressing my take on
Sexual morals that prevailed during the 1950's
Resistance arises, as though creating a moat (filled with
Snapping gators) surrounding murky memories concerning
The unhealthy nature of highly personal sexual experiences of
My own during high school, suggesting that it may be best to
Ease my way toward revealing teen-age stories by
Reviewing childhood stories (already penned and posted), which
May free my power of intuition to release
Additional insights that will naturally light a path leading us
Toward gaining a deeper understanding of several
Baffling periods of time in my life, each of which proved so
Painful as to see my itch deepen to such
A tormenting degree as to have offered sound reason for
All of my classes, during my junior year, to be moved to
The afternoon, offering me the opportunity to sleep
My exhaustion away during the mornings after having
Wrestled with unnamed inner demons throughout
The night—night after night after night—
Had that been true of a sweet sixteen year old girl, today
She'd have been diagnosed in dire need of therapy ASAP!
Hhmm ...

PS
Immediately after penning this post (in which I've barely mentioned
Experiences, which had felt so horrendous as to have invaded
My summer of fun preceding my junior year in high school) I became
Aware of the fearsome element of shock that had stimulated
My defense system, during childhood, to create
A mental block, repressing those murky memories from
Conscious awareness—and I say murky memories because
Once the torturous nature of a good little girl's
Horrified reactions had been subconsciously buried and
'Forgot', the intensity of my nightly itch to get out of
My own skin felt sound reason to peak, based in this fact:
These secrets, which my defense system had 'thought' best to
Lock out of my conscious memory, during my preteens, had
Layered up atop the unrealistic vow made by a good little girl to
Be the best little girl in the world, because she'd felt so bad in
The aftermath of her baby sister's death as to have subconsciously
Shackled her self image to a guilty state of mind that proved
Deleterious to my mental health for decades without end—Wow!

Circa 1947

See arms bandaged to keep me from scratching

No wonder why ‘they' say writing is cathartic, because while penning
Post after post, strings of insight continue to pour freely out of
My brain's subconscious pockets, filtering into
My conscious state of awareness, brightening my sense of
Readiness to concede that a positively focused attitude is
Necessary to achieve heightened levels of success in all of
Life's most significant endeavors, and since
My present attitude of resistance to reveal details concerning
High School Stories From Hell (to myself) must be based in
A negatively focused mindset, we come to see why
My power of intuitive thought is guiding me to
Hold my horses rather than charging ahead until
Additional insights emerge while we're reviewing stories that
Preceded my teen years, and hopefully, with the emergence of
New strings of insight a detailed version of misperceptions, which
Had influenced the ways in which my self-demeaning self-image had
Affected my participation in the dating game will surface, clarifying
Why my brain's intuitive sense of hindsight will naturally offer us
A less murky, more positively focused, clearly detailed
Version of ‘The Bigger Picture’ concerning yesteryear's
Subconsciously distorted impression of myself at each stage of
My life, and with that thought in mind, let's
Zoom back in time so as to retrace my steps (beginning with
Infancy when my self image was a clean slate awaiting fate to
Offer up a series of experiences that would imprint positively or
Negatively upon the development of my character traits), and
In this way will we develop an ever deepening understanding as to
Why loving support in the aftermath of a series of hard knocks
Makes one person 'tick' this way while a whole separate set of
Lonely experiences makes another person ‘tock' that way
And since opposites attract (as proves true since Father Time
Hooked up with Mother Nature during puberty when
The world was young) you, too, may begin to collect
Insight-driven details concerning circumstantial situations that
Had fated you and your mate to draw toward each other followed by
Collecting insights spotlighting unresolved insecurities that may have
Sadly torn your love for each other apart)—
Double Hhmm ...

Here are two photos conveying

The treasured friendship that developed between
My dad and I, which remains

Untainted by unidentified (thus unresolved) trauma
Eighteen years after his sudden death at the age of 87
(And soon you'll see why his friendship
Meant the world to me)

Circa 1944

Circa 2001

 In case you wonder how my dad's hair became curly once

He'd moved from the Midwest to the Southwestern desert

That detail (resolving riddle #1) will appear in a story not yet penned ...

PSS

Speaking of fate—

You can believe me when I say that

While I've been sitting in front of my computer

Penning today's post concerning revealing secrets that
My defense system kept from my conscious awareness
The program that I clearly hear airing in the next room on
Our TV is a story concerning a young woman whose
Character traits are strapped into the hot seat, suggestive of
Her being accused in a court of law of 'asking for it' while
Being raped by a gang of guys, who, in this case, will not get off
Scott free, because TV scripts are—scripted so that
The good girls and guys win over the bad whereas
All too often, real life offers up the fickle finger of misjudgment, which

Vilifies an innocent victim by pointing blame at a person who, being
Fated to show up in the wrong place at the wrong time, had need to
Fight off assault on the part of the uncompassionate, animalistic side of
Human nature, and speaking self-assertively as one who has felt
Compelled to delve into the painful mental work (that
Proves necessary) if a person is to grow emotionally past
A long series of unjust judgments in hopes of banishing
Latent anxiety from haunting my peace of mind so as to
Rejuvenate my spirit's childlike sense of joy— sans denial—well—
Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that having
Strapped my psyche into the roller coaster that saw my spirit diving
Straight down from thriving to barely surviving after a series of
Inter-related traumas saw my self-image hit rock bottom until
My intelligent sense of clarity identified my subconscious need to
Work toward recovering from PTSD, and with that insight in mind
My psyche readied itself to leap off that coaster feeling fully
Determined to figure out how best to thrive through this
Last quadrant of my life, and since watching my intelligence
Working tenaciously to heal the injured portions of my brain (which
Had unknowingly carried a latent sense of emotional pain forward
Through every stage of my life) proved to be a personal feat that
I believe is worthy of widespread introspective consideration, thus
Did I decide to convert this blog into an autobiographical trilogy—and if
You ask why this sudden literary change in media does not
Surprise me, at all, I'll reply:  Previous to penning this blog
My days were engaged in writing an autobiographical trilogy of
My life; however, after years of writing for hours, day after day
I could not get a firm hold of where I was going, because there was
So much to say, and thus did the persistent suggestion of one of my
Cousins as well as a dear niece to write a blog begin to make sense for
This reason:  Whereas an autobiographical trilogy has
A beginning, an arc and an end, a blog remains every bit as
Vibrantly alive concerning change as is true of the life of
The author, so I, who had cautioned my classes to recognize and
Welcome opportunity—especially when it knocks twice—felt
My mind open so as to switch tracks from authoring
A memoir-with-no-end-in-sight to freely authoring an insight-driven
Blog, which freed my power of intuitive thought to direct
Each post toward readying my growing sense of
Wholeness to reveal secrets that I'd unknowingly kept from
Myself concerning the injured portions of my self esteem until
My sense of intrigue about the divisive compartmentalization of
The human brain paired my sense of heightened awareness with
Both sides of my brain (conscious and subconscious) thus forming
An adventurous partnership that saw me cautiously diving ever more
Deeply into a foreign, subterranean mine infested territory, which
Having existed within my head since the age of three, has been
In need of careful excavation over most of my life, and now
With clarity suggesting that my blog has recently been caught in
A bog, intuitive need for change for the better has beckoned to
My intelligence from the inside out—again, and thus does the time seem
Ripe to reconsider each post that I plan to republish (from here on) as
Being a page leading us to turn to the next page as
My power of intuitive thought pens a pager turner that will
One day, feel like a job so well organized as to have enticed you to
Ride sidekick along side of me, toward THE END—not of my life, but rather
The end of the true tale that the family communications instructor (who
Resides inside the positively focused side of my head to this very day) still
Feels compelled to send out into the baffling world, which we'd be wise to
Learn to share, fair and square, and as I can feel the last line penned
Pulling today's free-streaming train of thought into a rest station
My mind feels ready to switch tracks toward reflecting over
A mantra that I've written on the blackboard of every class I've ever
Taught, and since I plan to take my own advice, I'll end today's intro to
The autobiographical trilogy of my life, which has been on intuitive hold for
More than five years, by saying:
NEVER GIVE UP ON ACHIEVING YOUR HEARTFELT, LONG RANGE GOALS  

Your friend,
Annie

PSSS
If you're curious as to why Annie is my pen name—well
Just as with every riddle that's bound to pop out of my mind as
My power of intuitive thought re-writes this true story of my life
My primary reason for choosing to name myself Annie is
Sure to turn up in a story down the road and that's riddle #2 😊

SPILT MILK Part 2

Reflection suggests that if my own early (much too early)
Traumatic experiences with sex were not enough to
‘Turn me off’ to the pleasures of the flesh, the classic
Societal message conveyed within the movies (listed in
The last post penned) had served to petrify
The unhealthy nature of my subconscious mindset concerning
The fearsome dangers (and social ostracism) associated
With teen-aged girls being physically intimate with boys, so—
No matter how many heartfelt crushes had managed to penetrate
My heart, no teen aged male had developed the charm necessary
To unstiffen the defensive stance of my elbows, which
Stood guard in readiness to protect my body from
Engaging in anyway with a hot handed guy unless—
We were dancing, cheek to cheek, safely surrounded by
Couples in a crowded room followed by our lips
Grazing eachother’s momentarily while
Sharing a chaste good night kiss at my front door ...

In every one of those films (as well as in many of
The novels that I’d read), impassioned young women
Experienced emotional devastation or
Social exclusion or both at the hands of
A guy—(or a gang) who’d had their way and gotten off
Scott-free based in society’s double standard, which
For thousands of years, had deemed
Sexually active singles as studs and sluts—
Hhmm ...

SPILT MILK part 1

WHAT in the world does—
TOWN WITHOUT PITY
WHERE THE BOYS ARE
SUMMER PLACE
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS
SUZIE WONG
JUDD FRY
BILLY THE BARKER
THE ACCUSED
And even MRS MAISAL
Have to do with my awakening
This morning at 4:19 am, feeling
Compelled to pen this post, aptly titled
‘SPILT MILK’?
Well—if you and I can muster
The patience to embrace
My ‘wait and see’ attitude then
We’ll find out which moment in time
My memory’s time machine is considering
Transporting us back to so as to reveal
The experience that had inspired today’s
Insight-driven intuitive train of thought to feel that
The conscious portion of my mind (and yours) has
Been readied to ride the rails back in time, no
Training wheels in sight—
So hold onto your thinking caps as
I will mine, in case we’re bound for
Adventures that will see our processors
BOUNC’IN BACK’N FORTH IN THE WINDS OF CHANGE—
Hhmm ...

Part 2 'MAKE NO WAVES' SEES US SURFING ABOVE AN OCEAN OF MURKY FEARS WITHOUT AN OAR TO HEAD FOR SHORE—UNTIL ...

Rather than asking you to scroll back to consider
Insights added to part 1 (this morning), I’ve decided to
Copy portions of that post, which offer us both additional
Morsels of food for thought, which may aid our think tanks’
Digestion of the banquet of self-healing trains of thought that
My love of humanity feels compelled to serve up, day after day
So, let’s straighten our thinking caps, because here we go:
If you presume to see yourself as an adult who’d escaped
Childhood unscathed by emotional trauma, please think again
Because your defense system may still be repressing
The traumatic nature of a specific childhood experience, which
Had piled an avalanche of undeserved guilt upon
Your inexperienced, and therefore, innocent head much too
Harshly for the misdemeanor that you’d actually committed
Suggesting that your minor transgression against the word of authority
Did not have to be associated with anything as extreme as death or
Assault to have caused a good little boy or girl to harbor
A repressed fear of emotional abandonment based in
Seeing oneself as having been so bad (imperfect) as to
Feel unworthy of unconditional love as had
Proved true of me until hindsight began to reveal strings of
Inter-related insights, which had spotlighted
‘Forgotten’ details that, over time, had served to
Clear my conscience of deeply coiled layers of
Undeserved guilt, releasing my think tank of tension so as to
To offer my close-minded attitudes sound reason to relax at
Least enough to take baby steps until positively focused
Leaps of faith saw me land upon mental growth spurts, each one
Inspiring my intelligence to feel ever more wholly free to respect
The emotionally matured (And yet imperfect) adult whom
I continue to grow to be—
Hhmm ...

PS
Once the conscious portion of your processor has had time to
Naturally (thus peaceably) absorb deeper truths presented within
Today’s insight-driven intuitive train of thought, it’s highly
Possible that your intuitive powers may feel inspired to
Readily release a more detailed remembrance of
A childhood memory in which you’d felt chastised so
Severely for committing a misdemeanor as to have
Wounded the budding nature of your self esteem, and if that
Memory arises then you, too, may benefit from visualizing
The small child you had been so clearly as to wholly reconcile
An inner conflict (concerning YOUR worthiness of
Unconditional love), which has been subconsciously repressed ever
Since you were too young to fathom the emotional complexities that
Complicate our love relationships, and once your adult intelligence
Absorbs the subconscious existence of that classic inner conflict
(I’m too imperfect to feel loved vs I’m worthy of receiving
Love and respect, flaws and all) that’s when your growing sense of
Intuitive thought may guide the conscious portion of your mind toward
Carving an existential path so as to seek strings of
Inter-related insights, which may light your way toward liberating
Your natural sense of ‘love of self’ from remaining unwittingly
Locked within a self demeaning mental block that
Has been solidly frozen in the distant past with no key insight in
Plain sight with which to free the long imprisoned state of
Your wounded self respect until—NOW—
Huge Hhmm ...

PSS
Since your first hint concerning the primary experience, which had dropped a mountain of undeserved guilt upon your head, may emerge within a complicated dream (the details of which don’t seem to make sense, at first glance), you may choose to lie still and calm upon awakening in hopes of recalling your dreams, which may help you to puzzle your way through whatever bits and pieces your subconscious is attempting to communicate to the conscious portion of your mind concerning clueing your intelligence into a deeper truth that you’ve kept secreted from yourself about yourself, and now that my power of intuition has guided me to place that riddle in your hands, let’s see if your intuitive power feels inspired to ‘do its thing’—
Normal sized Hhmm ...

Part 1 MAKE NO WAVES SEES US SURFING ABOVE AN OCEAN OF MURKY FEARS WITHOUT AN OAR TO HEAD FOR SHORE—UNTIL ...

Once the healthy portion of a person's mind
Earnestly sets a course that conscientiously
Seeks out strings of insight, which spotlight the difference
Between thought patterns that are based in a self respecting
Self image from those that prove self demeaning in nature
(Thus self defeating), that person is on his/her way toward
Healing (liberating) the injured portion of his/her think tank from
The lingering nature of childhood trauma, which limits
The farsighted scope of an intelligent processor from
Clearly identifying subconscious need to muster the patience
Necessary to embrace an on-going series of
Courageous leaps of faith toward expanding an adult’s
Emotionally mature view of choices, which, during childhood
Had stimulated eruptions of high anxiety (based in
A repressed fear of failure to please the powers that be, which
Had sucker punched the child’s budding connection to
High self esteem, thus knocking out an intelligent but inexperienced
Processor's sense of positive focus at times when
The self assertive side of your existential voice (and mine) had
Need to feel wholly ready to stand its ground so as to
Inspire intuitive trains of thought to speak aloud of deeper truths that
Would have offered sound reason to challenge the validity of
Those in authority, whose hasty, over-reactive, surface judgments
Had been known to miss the bullseye, more often than not—so
If you presume to see yourself as an adult who’d escaped
Childhood unscathed by emotional trauma, please think, again
Because the trauma that had piled an avalanche of
Undeserved guilt upon your inexperienced, and thus
Innocent head much too harshly for the misdemeanor that
You had actually committed did not have to be
Anywhere as extreme as death or assault to have caused
A good little boy or girl to harbor a repressed fear of
Emotional abandonment based in seeing oneself as
Being so imperfect as to feel unworthy of unconditional love
As hindsight (revealing strings of inter-related insights that
Spotlighted ‘forgotten’ details, which had served to clear my mind of
Deeply coiled layers of undeserved guilt) proved true of me—
Hhmm ...

PS
Once the conscious portion of your processor has had time to naturally
And peaceably absorb deeper truths presented within today’s
Insight-driven intuitive train of thought, it’s highly possible that
Your intuitive powers may feel inspired to readily release
A childhood memory in which you’d felt chastised so severely for
Committing a misdemeanor as to have wounded the budding nature of
Your self esteem, and if that memory arises then you, too, may
Benefit from seeing yourself so clearly as to wholly reconcile
An inner conflict (concerning your worthiness of
Unconditional love), which has been subconsciously repressed, ever since
You were too young to fathom the emotional complexities that
Complicate our love relationships, and once your adult intelligence
Absorbs the subconscious existence of that classic inner conflict
(I’m too imperfect to feel loved vs I’m worthy of receiving
Love and respect, flaws and all) that’s when your growing sense of
Intuitive thought may guide the conscious portion of your mind toward
Carving an existential path upon which strings of inter-related insights
May light your way toward liberating your injured love of self from
Unwittingly remaining locked within a self demeaning mental block, which has been
Solidly frozen in the distant past with no key insight in plain sight with
Which to liberate the long imprisoned state of your self respect until—
Now—
Huge Hhmm ...

SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER

I write so often about the necessity of retrieving a detailed version of painful memories in order to consciously and objectively re-evaluate (and unload) an avalanche of guilt that over-reactive adults (who had loved me) had unwittingly heaped upon my head causing the truth (the whole truth and nothing but the truth) about my participation in two childhood traumas to be buried within the subconscious portion of my mind until a series of emotional growth spurts inspired my power of intuitive thought to ready my heightened level of emotional maturity to dig for insights, which, having swept my memory clear of ‘snowy static’ (as a kid, I remember holding the rabbit ears steady with one hand while knocking the side of our TV cabinet with the other to clear the picture screen of snowy static), had shone a spotlight upon a sad and lonely, deeply confounded, terrified, good little girl who, having chastised herself so harshly for being so bad as to feel unworthy of love, made a sacred vow to be the best little girl in the world—forever and a day.

Once I realized that one insight led to another so as to spotlight my inner need to recover details, which had remained frozen in time within a snowy mental block, I came to ‘see’ that the conscious portion of my mind had need to retrieve ‘forgotten’ details in order to conscientiously re-evaluate the true picture of a good little girl whose sunny side has been waiting, over my entire lifetime, to be pardoned (by me) of darkly clouded ‘crimes’ that ‘she’ had not committed during the innocence of my youth.  (Even after the painstaking nature of the editing process feels complete to me, clarifying streams of consciousness that leap back and forth in time without so much as a hint of warning can take a whale of patience if you hope to understand my drift.)

Though I’ve felt compelled to dig ever more deeply through one layer of my psyche after another in hopes of freeing my whole self of that subconscious avalanche of undeserved guilt, thank goodness, the dark side of my mind has not released the ghost-like presence of that tormented child to rain on my parade as often as you might think—and with fanciful thoughts leaping into the forefront of my mind, right now, let's flip the switch toward lighting up recent memories, each of which offers my eyes sound reason to sparkle with heartfelt 'good' cheer—hey—this next insight just dawned on me—I’m beginning to see why my power of intuitive thought refused to swing my conscious attention toward penning memories of my life beyond my preteen years until that avalanche of snowy static had been swept out of my subconscious so as to clear my conscience of a mountain of undeserved guilt, which, several years back (in the aftermath of my dad's sudden death) had experienced sound reason to begin to erupt through cracks in my brain’s wall of denial, creating a pressure cooker of my subconscious memory as layers of deeply repressed, tightly compressed coils of mental pressure began to fire up so volcanically as to make a mind field of my head until I came to see that feeling guilty of being bad and being guilty of being bad are not one and the same, because the first is a belief (and beliefs tend to change) while the second is a fact (and facts remain facts)!  And as my processor's absorption of that Aha! moment has clearly offered my spirit a significant lift—let’s buckle up and switch gears as my intuitive powers ready my time machine to zoom in a flash away from the inner tensions of my memory’s distant past toward fully absorbing the inner peace that I, having worked determinedly to free my memory of undeserved guilt, am CLEARLY enjoying now that my psyche is not experiencing uprisings of LATENT anxiety in the present tense ... Whew!😊

At seven and eight, my grandsons’ innocent belief in Santa (and the elf on the shelf) is heartwarmingly sweet.  Their personal elf is nicknamed Little Santa.  Beginning right after Thanksgiving, Tony and Ray look for his whereabouts upon awakening, every morning, because their little buddy never fails to leave a note, assuring both boys of his daily reminders to Santa to place their names at the high end of St. Nick’s list of good girls and boys.

Being a mischievous elf, it’s not unusual for L’il Santa to play tricks on everyone in the family—for example, on the Sunday morning that dawned before Xmas, Tony and Ray and Cuckoo and I all awoke to find that while we four had been fast asleep in our beds dreaming of sugar plums dancing in our heads, ‘someone’ had tee pee’d each one of us in the still of the night.

Then on Xmas day, we awoke to find the little jokester zip lining from the fridge to the tree, where his best buddy, a fun-loving reindeer, named Candycane, having climbed up the Xmas tree, held fast to the rope to ensure that his BBF would land safely on a gaily tinseled branch so as to hang one last note for Tony and Ray to find before Santa’s little helper flew away to vacation in Hawaii with his main squeeze, better known as The Tooth Fairy, and on Xmas morning (which dawned on the day before we’d packed up in readiness to drive back to our home in the desert), Tony and Ray pulled Papa and Gramma into the family room, where standing next to the fire place, we four witnessed what little was left of the milk and cookies (which we’d all enjoyed rolling and decorating followed by baking) that Santa had left behind (I mean, sampling cookies around the whole world, it's no wonder why he's become such a jolly, round soul).  Then bright and early on the morning of our leave-taking, while walking toward our car parked in the driveway, Papa and I glanced down at the front lawn where our eyes spied what had been left of the carrots, which had re-energized the reindeer so as to complete their night-long flight round the world just in time for children to awaken, here, there, everywhere, eager to open gaily wrapped presents placed festively round the base of their decorous, brightly lit trees on a joyous Xmas morning, 2018 ...

We drove to L.A. for lunch to wish Brant a Merry Xmas

  
And then returned to enjoy dinner at Marie's and Barry's

Xmas Eve saw us preparing for Santa

On Xmas morning, we all laughed to see

Lil Santa zip lining!

 

See Candycane holding Lil Santa's zip lining rope?

By the time we'd arrived at Marie's and Barry's

Eight days of Chanukah had been celebrated with
Steven, Celina and Ravi
(Colorful menorah created for us by Tony and Ray)

Tony's and Ray's menorah remained on display
Throughout the holiday season

Years ago, the boys were so sad to say goodbye to Lil Santa for a whole year that he agreed to fly back for each of their birthdays—and year after year, he's been as good as his word!😀

PS

Lil Santa met the tooth fairy two years ago (when Tony lost a tooth right before Xmas); then they saw each other again, last year, when Ray lost a tooth, and that's when they fell in love, and as everyone loves a good love story, I decided to share theirs with you😍

PSS

I must admit that when my sons grew to be men and fell  in love with women whose religion differed from our own that worried me; however, over the years, as I've come to accept that their decisions, which differ from mine, are based in personal experiences that have not been my own (just as many of my adult decisions had not matched those that my parents would have chosen for me, and as that reality has always been true from generation to generation), hindsight has offered me countless opportunities to gain the insight to consciously glean as much wisdom during family discussions with my adult sons as I hope they've gained from me—in short, our home has always been likened to The United Nations in terms of our friendships, and now the customs and heritage of our immediate family are in the process of blending with traditional customs shared within Celina's and Marie's heritage, as well—Ohhmm ...

PSSS

As to which religious beliefs Tony, Ray and Ravi will adopt as their own—time will tell—on the other hand, I can tell you this, right now—three young minds are in the process of absorbing differences in beliefs with a much greater sense of open-minded tolerance than had been true of my generation, and with that positively focused thought in mind, the 'Wait and See' attitude, which I've conscientiously chosen to adopt, works for me, and here's why that's true:  In the past, religious fervor, which was meant to control people and guide them toward taking good care of each other's feelings and needs, had actually served to separate people into war parties as remains openly true in THE MIDDLE EAST

 And was secretly true in THE USA until trump's prejudicial tweets unleashed and unmuzzled the portion of white sheeted Americans whose red hatted views have fully emerged, over these past two years—

Hhmm ... A clear view of reality spotlights the fact that we are facing lots of work left to do in terms of inspiring positively focused change for the better when confronted with the persistence of negatively focused attitudes that separate people into warring camps, because—
"In war there is no second prize for the runner up."
—General Omar Bradley

NEW YEAR’S DAY 2019

As we ready ourselves to enjoy a cousin’s annual New Year’s brunch where four year old Ravi will cavort joyously with a boisterous bunch of small fry who make up the youngest generation of our extended family (their parents and grandparents having followed our lead by moving from the Midwest to the southwestern desert that we all call home), I have little time to write anything more than this:  Yesterday’s train of thought poured out of the intuitive portion of my mind in such a complex state of being as to have been in need of simplifying, and as that editing process is now complete, you might want to try your hand at absorbing insights, which, rather than leaping out of my think tank like jumping beans tumbling around on a trampoline, have settled down like ducklings gliding gracefully across a peaceful pond, all in a row, transporting insight-laden trains of thought from my mind toward yours—
Happy New Year, one and all, wherever
On this planet; which we share
You feel most at home ...
Your forever friend, Annie
(Wherever did these past 75 years go?)

Circa 1944

Circa 1976

Circa 2014

Circa 2015

circa 2018

😍😍HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE FANCIFUL PORTION OF MY MIND😍😍