Dear Reader:

I pass this wooden saying everyday (above the kitchen sink) but last weekend I paused and really read it again. Then I smiled…the life I am living is better than I imagined. (I am not sure I even imagined myself at the age I am now… years ago)

When we free ourselves from other people’s expectations about our life and instead, concentrate on what makes us feel like an essential and necessary piece of the universe, then we are living out our dreams and imagination.

Here are three more Erma Bombeck thoughts and quotes:

*I wanted to go to a place where you were important and people listened to what you had to say. Mothering hadn’t done that … and yet … wouldn’t it be ironic if my turf yielded the most important commodity being grown today? A family? A crop of children, seeded by two people, nourished by love, watered by tears, and in eighteen or twenty years harvested into worthwhile human beings to go through the process again.

*He who laughs … lasts.

*I question the value of name tags as an aid to future identification. I have approached too many people who have spent the entire evening talking to my left bosom. I always have the insane desire to name the other one.

So until tomorrow…The nice thing about spending a week with old friends is that you can still put on your old Shadowline nightgown and hear whoops and laughter the rest of the night. Or as Erma Bombeck reflected:

I never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Moon flowers and morning glories….meeting at last.