Please Vote

I just want to remind all of my women friends to get out and vote for this fall's elections. Early voting starts soon. I was reminded the other day that 90 years ago, women in our country could not vote. It took a lot of hard work--including being harassed as well as beaten and tortured, getting thrown in jail, carrying signs, going on hunger strikes, and being relentless before women in the U.S. were given the right to vote.

And think about all the women in many other countries on this planet who still have no rights at all, much less the right to vote.

Those facts alone should motivate each of us to take the time from our busy schedules in the next few weeks to get out and vote for the candidates we support. If you don't know who you support, contact your local League of Women Voters chapter to find out who is running for which office and what they stand for (www.lmv.org).

Being Kind to Animals

Yesterday when I was driving into the entrance to my sister and brother-in-law's property, I saw a snake ahead on the drive. This is a crushed rock driveway out in the country. It was a beautiful, small snake, and I was glad I had noticed it before I smashed over him accidentally.

Red-stripped ribbon snake

You can see from this photo I got off the web that it is a small snake and non-poisonous. I stopped and allowed him to move on across the driveway and into the woods.

I know there are many people out there who at the sight of a snake--any snake--would have just gone on and ran over it to kill it. But why? Why would someone purposely take the life of a critter who is not a threat to  and has its place in the eco system?

Also named Western ribbon snake

Living out in the country, I see dead animals along the roadsides all the time--baby fawns and older deer, rabbits, squirrels, all kinds of birds including beautiful cardinals and the lovely singing mockingbirds who are really bad about getting in the road, foxes including babies, racoons, possums, you name it--if it lives in the woods and makes the mistake of getting in the road, they get run down.

There are times when you absolutely cannot help but hit an animal if it runs out in front of you. You don't want to have a wreck or cause someone to rear end you, swerve to the other side of the road, or whatever and hurt yourself, but if it can be avoided, people should try to stop and not harm an animal.

It broke my heart this past spring to see more than one dead baby fox on the roadside. I know there are people who like to hit animals in the road on purpose for the sport of it. But what kind of sport is that?

Practicing kindness to the other species on this planet--as long as they are not threatening you directly -- shows a human compassion that would serve us all well. All life on this planet is interconnected and we share the planet--and its resources.

My Mom--Lucy

Lucy

Today my mother, née Freddie Lucille King, would have turned 95. She was born at a time before the roles of women started to change, although they were evolving. Lucy met my Dad while attending secretarial college in San Antonio. Even in the 1930s she was preparing for a career, but the only types of work available to women at that time were mostly teaching, nursing, and secretarial jobs.

Having been brought up in a traditional family, getting married and raising a family were her main focus. She and Dad fell in love, married, and started a family. Nurturing her children was tantamount to Lucy. For many years she was a member of a Christian organization named The Child Nurture Club. She was a very nurturing mother, and I realized after I was grown how important that is to a child's self-confidence and self-image.

Lucy and baby Ann

Lucy worked outside the home, but that was mostly after her children were in school. I'm not saying women can't have a career and be nurturing. It's more about the quality of the relationships a mother can have with her children.

I learned many valuable things from my Mom--organizational skills, the ability to keep a home clean and neat, cooking, love and appreciation of the natural world, kindness, assertiveness, recognition of a spiritual presence in our lives. She had a big influence on how I viewed nature and learned to love being out in nature. There was nothing she loved more than taking me and maybe another mother and her child from church out to City Park, which is on Lake Austin. We would go really early and she would build a campfire and cook bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee over the campfire. Nothing in the world tasted better. The child and I would run around in the park, and swim in the lake if it was summer, while the two mothers would spend time talking about things that young mothers share with each other.

Material things were not that important to Lucy. She appreciated having a nice, clean and tidy home. She appreciated having food on the table and clothing to wear. But she did not seek money for its own sake or for buying items associated with status. In fact, I think she would have been embarrassed if anyone would have thought differently. She was a devoted Christian and had a very strong faith.

Lucy was pretty and liked to make sure her appearance was pleasing, but she was not obsessed with trying to make herself beautiful. Her aim was more toward inner beauty. She was intelligent, a good conversationalist, and could ask questions of a person that would rival that of a lawyer. Once my cousin Carolyn visited with her boyfriend, and later said she learned more about him from all the questions my Mom asked him than she had ever known.

I could tell many stories about Lucy, but suffice it to say she had a great life, was an exemplary mother, and was a good role model to her children--both her daughters and her son. She encouraged us, disciplined us, gave us structure, and loved us unconditionally. You really can't get better than that. I miss her a lot. I appreciate all that she did for me and the person I became through being her daughter.