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Monday, February 14, 2011

Oh the pressures of Valentine's Day!

Up and down the path to Coast Guard Hill and the Heads, are benches like this one. This one reads Deborah Jennie Beck, a young neighbor across the lake here, who died of cancer. She and her husband had moved to Port Orford to enjoy this very hill, these wonderful beach views.



These benches can be purchased to memorialize a relationship, a life, an event.  They bring needed respite on those steep climbs especially on cold and wet and windy days so frequently esperienced here in Port Orford.

If you do just one thing for your loved one today, make and keep medical appointments and follow ups.
Many maladies are preventable if caugtht early.
As a partner in love, in life, in walks and in prayer, you're also the partner in sickness and in pain.

Valentine Day is about celebrating your partnership.
Go on, smile and make your own Hallmark Moment.

You bought roses and candy? It's a start!


30 comments:

L. D. said...

It is a good idea. We tend to take our health for granted until it is too late.

Enchanted Oak said...

True love is when you rejoice with your beloved over clean colonoscopies! My valentine has nursed me through a cruddy cold this week, bed-head, grouchiness, and all. I still got a mushy card with my coffee this morning. Happy Valentine's Day, Rosaria.

Hilary said...

Wise and loving advice, Rosaria

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

The bench is a really cool idea.

amalia said...

Ciao Rosaria buon S.Valentino

Suz said...

Ah the young never think of health
and we oldsters can't stop thnking about it
I love the benches
the thing is to love
and live every moment
in awareness of what a gift it is
free..all we have to do is open it

முத்துலெட்சுமி/muthuletchumi said...

really nice rosaria..
In olden days we had the system,in india. A rest, on the road side. But only for the goods they carry. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pencilwarrior/4932393999/ like this..

When a pregenant woman died without delivering her child .. people make these rests on the road side, on behalf of her.

Michele said...

buon San Valentino
ciao Michele pianetatempolibero

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Good advice, Rosaria.

Brian Miller said...

yes i agree...and i hope you have a great valentines rosaria

rjerdee said...

Oh, yes, you speak the truth...health checkups, eating healthy, planning for emergencies...

Unknown said...

Thank you for a lovely reminder. I too love the idea of honoring someone with a bench. Happy Valentines Day!

D said...

Lasting loving tribute to a loved one! that does good things for my heart.

I hope you have a wonderful day Rosaria.

yaya said...

Happy Valentines Day Rosaria!

Arkansas Patti said...

Wonderful idea. Go together and ease your minds or do something to correct what is found.
I would like one of those benches while I am still alive. Dates can be filled in when I am gone. That would be a nice Valentines gift.
Hope you have a wonderful day today.

NormalToEatPB said...

Thank you for thinking enough of us to remind us about our check-ups - I harrass my husband about seeing the doctor regularly :)

Unknown said...

Once again, your wisdom shines through!

Donna said...

You are right...it's good to do a bit of the unconventional in celebration of Valentine's. My hubby had reservations to take me out to an expensive restaurant for dinner....and if it were the weekend, I might have let him. I cancelled and am taking dinner to a sick neighbor instead, their request? We eat WITH them! Sweet and my hubby was good with it :-)

Eleonora Baldwin said...

Sweeter and wiser than any soppy card. That's LOVE!
Happy Valentine's Day, to both of you.

quilterliz said...

G'day. Happy Valentines Day Rosaria. The benches are a wonderful idea.Our health is so, so important. My hubby nagged me to have a mammagram last month and yes, there was a lump there, which I had removed last fortnight and the news is great, no cancer. We do take our health for granted. I should have known better because of the nature of my work. I won't be so slack next time. Take care.

Lisa said...

I would like to thank you Rosaria, on this special day for your love and kindness.

wvhiker said...

At a small gem of a golf course in my old hometown, there are benches such as this with mementos of those past. When I was younger I never paid too much attention to them. Now I hope I'm remembered in the same way.

xxx said...

Valentine's day is not something that I have ever particularly celebrated.
I like to think that everyday is a possible Valentine's day ;-)

This year I spent mine at a funeral... it was not all doom and gloom as there was celebrating to do as well.

Hope you had a good one xx Robyn

Pearl said...

That's a loving and thoughtless idea. :-)

Pearl

The Spiritual Hobo said...

I know what you mean man.

SEMINARY HILL
There was a hill top
where I used to see,
all of my life's possibilities in front of me.
Four decades later,
I returned to see
that none of it, would ever be.

The Delaware River meanders gracefully down to the sea by journeying through the magnificently forested hills of The Catskills Mountains first. A lonesome train track follows it's meanderings, also heading south to the sea. I was 14 years old when I first climbed Seminary Hill and saw this splendid sight.

There was a 30-foot statue of Jesus Christ on a cross high up on Seminary Hill. The image was ghostly against blackening skies, even more so during lightning storms. The Castle-like Seminary was spread out over the level acreage at the bottom of The Hill.

Below the Seminary, lies the Town Of Callicoon and The Delaware River. I went way out of my way on a sunny day, about 6 or 7 years ago, to return to Seminary Hill, but I never anticipated the subsequent flood of emotions that resulted from looking down that river valley... and all of those years... again.

Quite accidentally, not long after my return to Seminary Hill, a former seminarian from my class was put in touch with me, and even though we were once very close friends, I couldn't place him when we met again. He had none of the looks, characteristics, or mannerisms of the person that I once knew. He was kind enough to bring me up to date regarding fellow mates and such, but as he talked, I looked into his unfamiliar eyes and felt like I was back up on Seminary Hill, again... searching for the guy that I once knew.

erin said...

Nice. Isn't that horrible, but nice, to be remembered in one of the most important ways in life, in nature during a walk, a quiet respite, a moment. And yes, let's remember them in life, too.

xo
erin

#1Nana said...

...your advice might be the best Valentine's gift I receive!

Kathryn Magendie said...

You know how I feel about this from my own post! Although, even as I type this, I still need to go do the bloodwork I was supposed to do - dang me! But, I will be doing that this week.

By the way - your SWEETIE review copy is on its way to you. Hope you enjoy.

Unknown said...

As usual, you get right to the heart of the matter Rosaria; well done.

Rosaria Williams said...

p.s.
I'm writing this comment the day after V. to admit to you all that I suffer from GES, Great Epectations Syndrome. Some of us do, all of our lives.
For those of you who suffer the same, you knoe how it feels, before, during and after.
You want to get to it, anticipate it, build castles in the air, that maybe this time.....

Bu, I'm a very sane person. I wrote in the past on how many of these syndromes would be manifested in Middle School where I was the principal. So much heartache on Valentine!

Umph. The storms have passed; we survived yet another one. After this, just birthdays and anniversaries.

I used to know couples who cheated on each other and still expected and celebrated Valentine with each partner! Attentive partners are rare in youth; even rarer in old age.

Hope you appreciated whatever sunrays you had.