Really Weird Place Names: Missouri

Although not a native, as I’m one of ‘those’ Yankees… Worse yet that even after 25+ years ‘here’ I’m still considered,. even on the rare occasion, to this day  being publicly proclaimed (albeit done in fun and only by those close enough to get away with it 😉 ), a ‘damned Yankee’: Because I stayed… Lol

Now to get back on point here…

I just came across this funny, yet true, blog post regarding Missouri which has several references back to the Bootheel (the topic originating my net-search)

Even though I could SO expound and expand on several of these not so secret ‘secrets’ of my Missouri Bootheel I’ve asked more than once myself. I was relocated here from the State of Illinois (by the way there is no ‘noise’ in Illinois…we are a quiet yet stealthy people taught in the ways of  Chief Illini) where I’d lived the majority of my accumulated 20 life years at that point. To say I experienced culture shock would be an understatement. As, I say this with complete sincerity and adoration when I say that, there is no other place so unique as My Bootheel.. anywhere.

This is absolutely delightful questioning of the obvious that just can’t be read without a smile, and just maybe even a bit of a chuckle, by ANYONE who has ever been both honored and blessed to have ever set foot in God’s Country.

A Citizen of the Bootheel of Missouri:
Where there’s ONLY one Hill and and you give directions for anywhere headed North with words ‘just go over “The Hill” ‘

Cliff Blogger since September 2011

Willoweagle ♥

The Truth Is – Blood Clot Recovery Network

There is another side to DVT/PE recovery that remains extremely hidden. So much so that even Survivors themselves barely acknowledge it’s existence. It’s only in finding another Survivor that, with time, once total and complete trust has been mutually proven and gained, that one of them will, in tentatively quiet and wavering voice,  will broach the subject of that which cannot be named fearing that they’re the only one it’s happening to.

I brushed on this slightly last night when posting the latest findings regarding a statement from his wife that was released giving, to some degree, what precipitated events leading up to Robin Williams’ passing.
(See below)

Here, even while coping with what I refer to as the “yucks”, my friend, Sara (Blood Clot Recovery Network) wrote the following article in which she details just this specific topic. In her doing so, she’s explained the unexplainable in it’s simplest form that anyone can learn from and a starting point from where understanding begins..

Blood Clot Recovery Network ~ The Truth Is…..

Living ~ Not Just Surviving: Facebook

~Willoweagle ®

This is NOT ‘The End’

Sometimes, my mind gets caught up in my feelings and emotions, as it can with most, or so I believe. I can’t always express them directly as or maybe as clearly as I’d like. One of the ways I’ve been able to let out and let go of these things is through poetry. There are times when the words overtake my brain so quickly I can barely get them on paper before they disappear, and others where they flow soft and gentle like a light summer breeze…

I thought I’d start sharing some of them with you too.  This is the most recent one.

This Is NOT ‘The End’
A Willoweagle™ Original
©2014

I try conversation.

You barely talk.

Why do you run?

While I barely walk.

Is it that I’m broken?

Is it something I did?

These thoughts I ponder

While you remain hid.

We’ve traveled too far

Too long this path as friends.

I’ve seen our whole story,

This is NOT ‘The End

Willoweagle

 

 

 

©2014

 

Please leave me your comments below if you’d like to see more posts like this or anything else in general… Even just to chat it up if you’d like….

 

Thanks for following and/or dropping by…

 

Watch “I Am Here – Bruce Yates 2013” on YouTube

A Dad’s Tribute Song To His Son

A Father puts pen to paper and composes this song in retrospect and reflection after his eldest son suffered a life threatening stroke. Having drawn on his faith, received the strength to carry through, and witnessing the miracle of his son being returned not having lost the traits that make him…. HIM, this is a song of praise, gratefulness, and affirmation that He is always there.

This is the song he wrote for Andrew and gave to him at his graduation last Fall. Whereas I wrote blog posts from my perspective. Apparently we are both quite proud and grateful with the progress our son had made.  

Royal’s Empire State of Mind

Andrew ~ Empire State Of Mind

Yeah…so proud I’m leaking out of my eyes!! He’s made it safely to NYC and I am now just waiting for the text/call letting me know he’s at the apartment that just so happened to open up two weeks early. So no couch hopping for the next 15 days either!! I gotta get a kleenex…

THIRD GENERATION SURVIVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Royal’s Empire State of Mind (livingnotjustsurviving.wordpress.com)
• One Thing You Must Do In: New York City (multiplyandivide.com)
• New York, New York (humandynamics.wordpress.com)

The Color Run That Wasn’t…

tHe cOLoR rUN 2013

tHe cOLoR  rUN 2013 

The Color Run ~ Springfield, MO April 06, 2013

SPRINGFIELD, MO – Downtown Springfield is a little more colorful today. Known as the happiest 5k in the world, the travel Springfield, and the citizens responded by coming out in the thousands. With a message of healthy living, happiness, and giving back to the community, the Color Run is taking the nation, and whole world by storm. In the span of 15 months, the race has grown to be featured in over 60 cities and having over 600,000 participants. Un-timed and not caring about how fast you run, this 5k is a family-friendly outing to remember.

Well……at least I have proof that I was actually going to participate….It arrived this week from my sister….

AND I get to wear this really cool bracelet that reminds me WHY I didn’t get to run in the first place….as you ALWAYS have to learn to walk before you can run…..

The Color Run ~ Springfield, MO April 06, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Holy Heat & The Color Run *Giveaway*!! (livelearnloverun.wordpress.com)
• The Color Run (livingthegoodlife12.wordpress.com)
• Color Run brings race into hue (kansascity.com)
• The Happiest 5k on the Planet (bigbrightsparkly.com)
• So much fun at The Philly Color Run (solefulmamas.com)
• I’m registering for The Color Run, the Happiest 5K on the Planet, are you? (raisingthreesavvyladies.com)
• The Happiest 5k on the Planet! (girlrunningcrazy.com)
• Run For Fun: 5 Of The Funnest 5-K Runs (blackamericaweb.com)
• I color ran! (irreverentglam.com)
• The Color Run Singapore 2013 (Registration) (isaacloo.wordpress.com)

 

New Fangled Pen Pals

© 2013 Willoweagle (unpublished)

The inspiration for the above written poem came with the arrival of these beautiful flowers sent from two wonderfully inspirational, hysterically looney, super supporters,  who have been there for me the past year whom I’ve never met face-to-face, but we’d know each other anywhere.

Blown away, overwhelmed, amazed

Ohhhhh…if you only knew how right thezs two got it….
Ok…so I’m REALLY gonna go small town on ya…READY?!?!?!

HERE IT GOES!!!!
.
The flower shop you ordered those from, just HAPPENS to be owned by one of my best friends/ex-daughter-in-law’s (we’re 3 months 16 days apart…sigh….I’m older..and we graduated HS same year)…hold on

mother-in-law!!!
.
I had spoke with her about 6 weeks ago and we were to meet up for lunch…we hadn’t laid eyes on each other in nearly a year…I KNOW!!

ANYWAY…The plan was to change that..BUT she had some medical issues (she has Crohn’s) that needed be dealt with…then it was MY turn…

So imagine how delighted I was when I thought she’d stopped by quick during a delivery AND brought me flowers…THEN found out she was delivering them from YOU GUYS!!!

It was better than any Publishers Clearing House Ed McMahon Presentation could ever make up!!!!

Made my day!!!!

Pillow Talk….If Only

This week was my 6 month anniversary since my pulmonary embolism. Yet, I didn’t even realize it until Thursday night….and THEN the party began!!! I saw some old friends I hadn’t seen in quite some time. With being one who talks and socializes a lot, I have only a very few close friends and family that REALLY know me or that I even let in emotionally. That being said, it was still a bit bewildering to me that no one had commented about it. It hadn’t even been remembered, not even my me  until two days after. Surprisingly, it was my Mom that reminded me of it. With my legs propped up as high possible, it was the pillow they were on that was the trigger.  It had been hers. It was with her through nearly all the times she suffered through her blood clots. This pillow is nearly as old as I am and it was one of the first things I acquired after she passed. It was only fitting that I should give it a home with me where it would be used in the fashion it was accustomed to. Now, if only this pillow could talk……..

 

That’s when it happened….the first guest to show up to my party was Mr. Self Pity himself….strutted on in like he owned the place!! ‘Well HELLO BABE….Missed me?’ Every bit of strength I had at that point eroded. I wept…just like the girl I am, I wept!! Thoughts of the last six months flooded my brain. Then the memories of previous experiences when the recovery was so much quicker, easier, and kinder. The set back from the week before with legs swollen the size of tree trunks and them only being about half that size now hadn’t helped matters any either. Mentally, I can leap off tall buildings, fly to the moon and back, but physically, I can barely walk across the room some days, my legs don’t hurt although carrying around the extra weight does tire me out quickly, and I can’t do everything I usually do during the summer. I’m just HERE!! And WHY?!?!?

 

The Agony of “De-Feet”

 

Next to show up was Self Loathing….oh, he’s a sly one…Looking down at my legs, I hated them for failing me. I hate how they look. I hate that I can’t motor them some days and others they are stinging, flaming, itching attachments that I are EXASPERATING!! Just when I think I’ve made it back to ‘normal’, my body reacts and just laughs like I’ve lost my mind..and when it happens, I nearly do. 

 

Then came ANGER!!! I’m angry that I’m not back to the ME I was before all this happened. I’m angry that I have to rely on others at times to do simple things that I should be able to do for myself. I’m angry at having to learn how to deal and cope with yet another facet of this STUPID disease. I’m angry that it’s taken from me. I’M ANGRY!!!!! I’m allowed to be and I have a right to be, but I also know that it’s ok, but to brush myself off and I’ll get back up only to gimp down this path of recovery until I reach the finish line.

 

This weekend though has brought me another perspective on this experience. I have SUPPORT!! Although it may not come in the packages you thought it would, it DOES eventually show up and I’m grateful for it. In the last two months alone, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most amazing, wonderful, and MIRACULOUS women that it is MY honor to know. Some are bloggers, some are healthcare workers, some are students, but we are ALL survivors!!! If it hadn’t been for long texts, chats, comments, and photos that took place some very long nights, I don’t know that I would have been as open and sharing as I am now. Actually, that’s not true, I KNOW I wouldn’t be. It’s because of them that I took a thought of becoming more open with sharing and support that it grew from a thought, to a blog, and within the last three weeks, both Facebook and Twitter have been graced with my presence. 

 

 

This path I’m on isn’t as easy or rebounding as it’s been previously, but it has brought me friends that understand, commiserate, and get angry with me because they know. It’s brought caregivers a glimpse into our world of being caregivers to them by saying “I’m Fine”, ‘It’s Ok”, and more so that THEY don’t give up parts of themselves for us. Only to be the recipients of our gross temperaments once we do have that frustrated breakdown where everything and everyone is the enemy. It’s also brought me education in the form of our commonality and our differences when it comes to our clotting disorders. We are a very UNIQUE and SPECIFIC group of blood odd-balls all looking for the same thing….a cure….

 

To my friends and my followers…you amaze me every day and bring me such joy with your comments…It’s not MY strength that gets me through,  it’s the strength that YOU give to me.

 

Willoweagle 

 

Shadows of Life

 

 

 

 

Reflections – A Mother’s POV

Andrew was an active participant with his local The Color Run 5k in which I had trained to join him in what I had dubbed a celebration/survivor run, Unfortunately, I was slowed down considerably after experiencing a pulmonary embolism Christmas Day 2012.

In everyone’s life there are milestones, that 16th birthday, a first kiss, high school graduation, marriage, are the first that come to mind immediately. Yet, the most significant, memorable, and life changing for me was the birth of my son. I won’t go into detail as I wouldn’t want to deter or scare off any would-be or expecting mothers, so I’ll just say my pregnancy was atypical and my son was my miracle.

My 2012 Instagram Year In Review