thoughts

Reflections on Life & Death

~ Alexa Myers ~ 1 Comment

Popo - age 18?

This past week my mom’s mother passed away. No one else is allowed to die!! Two loved ones in a 2 1/2 week time is too much death. 

The Saturday night before she passed, as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I began to remember how much time I spent with her and my grandfather in my early elementary ages. I went to her house after school almost every day, visited her several times for weeks at a time in other years, and lived with them for two months when I was 14. She also was my inspiration to be become an Esthetician. I remember being about 6 or 7, reaching up to gently touch her face, and asking her how she kept her skin so beautiful. She had the softest, most beautiful skin of anyone I’ve ever met – even on her deathbed! She told me that she had been taking care of her skin since she was a young girl, about 12 years old. She used Pond’s Cream religiously.  Continue reading →

Dad

~ Alexa Myers ~ 1 Comment

IMG_3930How do you put into words how much a person means to you; how much they have touched your heart and life? Words don’t seem adequate enough when this special someone leaves a hole in your heart that only they could fill. 

My dad, my father-in-law, took me into his heart and family when his son married me 24 years ago. I wish I knew then what I know now – this honorable, generous, loving, funny, sarcastic, stubborn, mostly right, practical joker would be my dad in more than name. He brightened our times together with his quiet, dry humor, which challenged my too-serious perspective. The joy and laughter that I so love in his son started with him, and continues today through his grandchildren, my children, which I get to enjoy every day. 

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Thankful 2016

~ Alexa Myers ~ Leave a comment

Fireworks

What a great year 2016 was for me and my family! 

It started off with a bang when we had over 75 people attend our daughter’s engagement party at the first of the year. I didn’t know our home could hold that many people! We felt very honored that so many of our friends came to celebrate with us. The celebrations continued over the next couple of months leading up to their wedding in April. 

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I, Them; We, Us. And the Meaning of Life.

~ Alexa Myers ~ Leave a comment

I’m forwarding this well written article by the blogger, gospelmouth. I greatly enjoy their insights into this journey called life.

 

We’re all on a Journey. And that Journey is called the human experience. In the sense that we’re all having a human experience; we’re all moving in the same direction on this Journey. Imagine this Journey as a diverse landscape. A landscape that includes hills and mountains, streams and rivers. A landscape that includes cold […]

via I, THEM; WE, US. And the meaning of Life. — gospelmouth

Cigars & Rum Punch ;)

~ Alexa Myers ~ 2 Comments

photo-on-9-21-16-at-9-05-pm

Yep, that’s me, smoking a cigar, and, yes, I sometimes drink out of a pirate mug that we bought on one of our holidays in Savanah, GA. 🙂

Tonight has been a wonderful night for sitting on our back porch, relaxing and enjoying cigars with rum punch. It’s about 74 degrees here with a slight breeze, and the screens ensure the mosquitos can’t suck our blood. Occasionally, the cricket’s songs are punctuated by the neighbor’s horse, well, neighing. I would have called it whickering, but since it lives about a quarter mile from us, it is a bit louder than that. Nevertheless, it’s a pleasant compliment to the evening sounds.

This is one of the reasons my husband has worked so hard to provide us with this fabulous retreat we call home. Every time I pull up the long, winding  driveway to my home I think, “Wow! I live here?!”  We’ve lived here in the peaceful country for a little over four years now and I’ve loved every minute of it. The spaciousness of my home, the privacy away from prying eyes, the attention to details that were/are important to us – and I get to share it all with the people I love!

I don’t think I can ever thank my husband enough for all his hard work making our dream come true. He is a wonderful provider!

Smoking cigars and drinking together has long been one of our favorite pastimes, and I feel immensely blessed that we can share it with each other.

What are some of your favorite pastimes? I’d love to hear from you!

Forgiveness

~ Alexa Myers ~ Leave a comment

forgiveness-quotes-estilotendances-1

I’ve been pondering the idea, or virtue, of forgiveness lately. 

Some people’s response to me about the situation between my parents and me is that I need to forgive them so I can let it go, move on. I’m slightly puzzled, because I did/have forgiven them (multiple  times, as needed, every time they re-do what they always do), but somehow by me sharing my experiences means that I haven’t forgiven them and moved on.  Continue reading →

Explanations

~ Alexa Myers ~ 2 Comments

Recently I became fed up with the lies, insinuations and manipulations of my parents, so I wrote a blog post about my love story to set the record straight. As you can imagine, it set off fireworks in my parents’ household and sparked outrage in some of my siblings. It wouldn’t, shouldn’t, have, except my parents have done a marvelous job indoctrinating their children from birth in their fundamental, patriarchal, narcissistic thinking and belief system. 

You see, they neglected to indoctrinate and isolate me from birth, but started rather late, around the age of eleven or so and then, shortly thereafter, joined a cult. Not that I didn’t enjoy the same Bible-thumping, hell and damnation, you’re-a-sinner-and-you’ll-always-be-a-sinner teaching that my siblings got. However, by age 12 I had already enjoyed too much freedom to observe how other people interacted, decide how I was going to behave in any given situation, and begin to decide if I agreed with my parents or not. To them I was a rebel; how dare I question them on anything, think what I wanted instead of what they expected, and try to be an individual apart from them.  Continue reading →

A Letter to My Parents – Why I’m the Way I Am

~ Alexa Myers ~ 6 Comments

Warning: this is a long, extremely personal letter, so get a drink and get comfortable. Also, the next post will give background on why I sent this letter to my parents now.

 

Mom and Papa,                                                                                          7-15-2016

I’m writing you so that there will be less chance of miscommunication between us.  And, let’s face it, if, or when, we meet in person there is the possibility of emotions getting in the way of actual talking.

You are saying that I’ve been unwilling to come and talk with you. It is true that over the past several years I have had no desire to talk about anything with you. Your standard reply, from about the time I was 11 or so, has been that you don’t know what I’m talking about, I have caused the trouble since I didn’t come to you first (even if you were the cause), I should “check my heart for sin”, and/or I’m confused, wrong, a liar. This is confusing behavior, since you taught me that when someone “has anything against you”, you must listen to them, sincerely apologize, think through what they said and make a change in behavior according to what was done wrongly. I have never observed this happen between us from either of you to me. I distinctly recall me apologizing repeatedly to you both after I brought my grievances to you, which isn’t right, since one doesn’t apologize for what others do or say to one.  Continue reading →