Pamela Jo Bowman

I think this is pretty creative. I can’t imagine being able to do this without cracking up. Towards the end I kept thinking… don’t blow it now!

Fast Tube by Casper

Happy birthday Viejo!
Watch a movie about Christopher H Bowman

Wistie recommended this song to me today. We listened to it together, sort of, over the phone. I agreed with her. It is a beautiful song. Reminded me of young love when the idea of forever and ever seemed natural, normal and possible. Now I believe that deep kind of love is unique, unusual and…. still possible cause that’s all we need. Enjoy.

Fast Tube by Casper

I have often wished, over the last few months, for a week-end of relaxation to the point of boredom. It is wonderful when what you asked for actually looks like what you imagine.

This week-end started off with the sound of laughter in my home. My friends came over to start the Christmas season. We ate Pizza, the boys/men watched football, we ate chips and dip and candy and quenched our thirst with Wassail. We played our favorite game and now I have a buddha in my bathroom. He is cute!

Saturday I participated in a boutique, outside, in the rain. I came home and thawed out on my couch with tomato soup, hot chocolate and afternoon movies. That evening we went out to dinner thanks to a gift card and tonight we listened to this amazing man sing.

Fast Tube by Casper
(You can click on the x on the ads and they will go away.)

Finally, a week-end that felt like a week-end should feel. Relax-full.

Since what I am wishing for seems to be coming to pass… I wish us all such moments.

A few years ago I had the opportunity of producing a life documentary of an amazing woman.

She had a remarkable life. She traveled and lived in foreign countries working, teaching and serving. Her and her husband were instrumental in building and operating a large teaching Academy in Mexico City. For three years they lived in Ecuador helping and teaching the people of that country. Many former students acknowledge her and her family for supporting them financially and emotionally. Many credit their success in achieving their goals to her unwavering faith in them. All of this is now documented for her family and friends. All she accomplished remains an invitation to her posterity to live happy productive lives.

In the process of documenting her life I interviewed her children, her siblings, her friends. One morning I traveled to her brother’s home. He had not been well, but he was willing to share their mutual upbringing with me. During the interview, I was equally amazed by this man’s life. He too traveled the world impacting the lives he touched. After the interview his wife asked me about doing a life documentary of him. I readily agreed, after all their early history was already done.

She sadly informed me that years earlier they had been robbed. All of their pictures and video’s were gone. With this information it seemed even more vital to get a visual and oral remembrance of his life. She felt it was important to document what he remembered but wanted to ask her daughters what they thought. I offered the material I had already accumulated and some suggestions.

A few weeks later I contacted this couple again. They had decided to let their daughters do it.

Last year the man died. His daughters had the best of intentions. They also had very busy lives that did not allow the time and energy required to research, interview, document and edit… As a result they have limited sources documenting his voice, his memories, his mannerisms or his essence.

The life of this man is not lost or forgotten. His children still have fond memories of their father, but their posterity could have known him through the stories he might have shared. They could of heard his voice and looked into his eyes to become better acquainted with their grand and great grandfather. They could have enjoyed his sense of humor and learned from his life experiences because he shared it with them and for them. And maybe, just maybe when times get hard, and they always do, his life would be the touchstone to get through them and become a better person because of the journey.

So, don’t wait to document your life. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. So many say, “my life wasn’t anything special.” I disagree. Every life is something special.

This is your life and it counts too.

So just do it.

I don’t know what other Mothers and Daughters discuss between themselves while eating lunch at Disneyland, but our conversation went something like.

“Which evil character do you think you most resemble?”

“Evil Character?”

“Yea. Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s wicked Stepmother, Snow White’s step mother the Queen, Cruelladevil, My personal favorite, Maleficent from sleeping beauty…”

“Are you serious? Yours is Maleficent?”

“Definitely.”

“Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever considered that question. I always recognized the similarities, either imagined or wished for toward the heroine, I never considered the similarities toward the antagonist.”

“So, which one?”

“Let me give it some thought.”

“O.K…. I need a Peter Pan hat.”

“Of course you do.”

And off we flew to Never Land to discover that the evil one had stolen, purchased or hid them all from every corner, every store, every booth, every location we could find in both parks.

But alas, we remembered the land of cyberspace where all things can be purchased and delivered to your tree house, castle, stump or wooded hideaway.

Christmas is coming.

I started a tradition and didn’t even know it. I started taking my daughters on “mommy trips”. Just the two of us. Last year I took Ciera to Oregon and Northern California. We rented a car and went wherever we felt like going. One day we sat in an amusement park arguing. But at the end we reached a new understanding and not necessarily about the other person.

This week Wistie and I are going to Newport Beach. Just the two of us. Sort of.
Again I rented a car and we will go wherever we want. I hope we don’t argue in the amusement park, but if we do I know it’ll end up alright.

This isn’t a time when I give sage advice, because frankly I don’t have any. I don’t think I talk too much about me or my life, unless they ask and really want to know. I try really hard not to “interview” them on these trips, but sometimes being me gets in the way of us.

I know I will always be “the mom”, but I am discovering that the relationship I developed with them as children has evolved into a wonderful relationship as adults. I still remind them that “I am the Mom!” and I tell them I am not their friend and they don’t have to like me, but the truth for me is they are my bestest friends.

They always love me, no matter what. And I them.

Traditions. I like em.

My son was hurt. Seriously.

After the ambulance ride, after the air-vac, after the surgery, after the discovery of his broken back, after his brace fitting, before he recouped In our home, before getting the first of many bills and just as reality of this life altering experience began to penetrate our daily moments, she called.

A friend who loves my son, who helped raise him, who values him. She called to ask about him. And she called to ask about me.

And I cried.

(He is recovering remarkably well)