Category: Mourning A Loss

9/2/2023 0 Comments

118) Singing TO the Angels - MY REACTION to Jimmy Buffett's Passing

These Are My Dreams - and JIMMY is a part of them.

Dear Jimmy,

Can I call you that? I feel like we’re on a first name basis…

You see, I’ve been to Margaritaville a time or two. And Jimmy, you were there with me every time… even if you didn’t know it.

Gosh, Jimmy, this one hits hard. Real hard. Because - Just like millions of folks, I woke up to the news… that you're gone. You’ve left us. I Truly Was Shocked. I didn't even know you were ill, and then I got the news via a text this morning from my Mom.

Usually, when I hear news of a celebrity death, the news hits me just like any other piece of news… A little distant… and a bit far from home. Maybe a prayer, and a well wish to the family, deep in my heart, and no one, but me, knows what I wished. Or what I prayed, as that individual goes to Heaven. But Jimmy - your news hit me differently… Much different.

Because, you see, I found my lost shaker of salt a very long time ago.

And how come you never told us you were sick? I know, I know, you kept it private for a reason. You really didn’t want your Parrotheads to worry about you. Because - worry - really is not part of the Margarataville state of mind, is it?

So, Immediately upon hearing the news, flashes of Margaritaville went through my head, and flew right into my heart…

And I was right in the middle of all of my dreams…
And I could taste that infamous cheeseburger…
And I could visibly see that bottle of Heinz 57.
And I went further away, deep into my dreams, and I thought of how much you have meant to me.

Because -
All through the years…
As I grew up…
And as life got hard…
And living got even harder…
And I grew older…
And hopefully a little bit wiser…
And never even just a little bit wealthier…

You were always there for me. During all the hard times. In the back of my mind. And always in my heart. It’s actually MIND BLOWING to me how many of your hotels we have been to, including my dogs! And how many of your restaurants we’ve been to. And how much of your good food we have enjoyed. And HOW many memories that me and my family HAVE that YOU have been a part of. You don’t know any of that. And SO, I thank you today. And I will miss you always. And it’s up to us now. Your devoted fans and Parrottheads. To keep living life even just a little bit differently than the rest of the world. To live a little bit loose. And maybe just a little bit more carefree. Maybe just because if we couldn’t laugh, we’d all go just a little bit insane.

So even if people laugh AT me.
And Even if I’m the joke.
It’s all ok.
Because I’ve already changed my Latitude.
Which did help change my Attitude.

Because Mother Ocean called to me many years ago now.
And Because I’ve been on that 7 Mile Bridge.
And I’ve sat at the end of the world.
And I’ve felt that salty air on my skin.
And I’ve breathed in those Heavenly Mallory Square sunsets.
And in my dreams I HAVE sailed away.

And I truly do know exactly where Margaritaville is located.
And I’m more than happy to post the address directly in the comments section down below.

Because I don’t want to take life too seriously.
And because I hope others do the same.

Because as life gets more conventional every day…
And modern living gets more serious every waking morning…

Here’s to hoping you’re not one of the last of your kind…

You were that constant reminder in the back of my heart, to continue being somewhat unconventional, because that’s me and who I really am.

So with that news of your passing, my heart aches today. And I do wish you well. And your family is in my prayers. And you are in all my thoughts. But maybe I don’t need to pray for YOU right now..

Because as when most people go to Heaven, I know they are up there where they Angels are singing…

Your trip to Heaven means something a little bit different… It’s what I’d call a Sail Away Party that’s a bit more unconventional…

Because as you arrived in Heaven -

Which is right where you should be -

The angels are not singing TO you -

I know YOU are singing to the angels tonight. You’re putting on a free show. The best concert the Heavens have ever seen. And they are lucky to have you there. And your song is on repeat. And the drinks are ever-flowing. And the rims are salty. And someday, the rest of us will be there, with you, wasting away in that Heavenly sunshine. And no longer searching… ~

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5/2/2021 0 Comments

106) So Proudly We Hail

Author:

Christine Pieper is an Artist, Lifestyle Blogger and Vlogger - living, writing, painting, and filming in Jacksonville, Florida, with her hubby and nine year old puppy. She made a major life change in 2017 by uprooting and moving from Illinois to the Sunshine State, and has been living her best life in Florida since - detailing all her many and varied adventures living and traveling the Deep South to share with you here. Her mission is to help you live YOUR best life - by getting out there, going for it, and making that big change you always dreamed of. Christine will inspire you to get over yourself, show up for yourself, and get out of your own way. The only one stopping you - is YOU.

*To catch all of Christine’s Floridian Dreams, just bookmark this site, and check out her YouTube Channel while you’re at it - why don’t ya?

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5/22/2020 0 Comments

#77) The Lost Art of the Phone Call

Go ahead and admit it - with great pride and your head held high… you’ve been spending more time on the phone lately, haven’t you?

It may be one of the single greatest positive acts that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic. People have definitely been talking to one another on the phone, more than they had been in any of the recent past.

And all this talking, it got me thinking... about Lucy Ricardo...

Because Lucy always spent massive amounts of time on the phone.

I’m a huge ‘I Love Lucy’ fan. I have been, my whole life. My grandparents turned me onto it, and when I think of Lucy, I think of them. I have memories of being with my Papa and Grandma - in person - in their house, with Lucy playing in the background.

While we visited, and talked, and laughed, and cooked, and baked, and played games, and read, and celebrated holidays, as well as a whole heck of a lot of regular days, Lucy tended to be there right alongside us.

And whether you’re a fan or not, my point about Lucy is this:

She spent a lot of time at home. Inside her house.

She wasn’t quarantined. There was no active plague. But she was at home, a lot.

But home, or not, she always seemed to get herself into some sort of trouble. Big or small. There was always a crisis, many times of her own making, that needed solving.

And with problem solving comes communication. And so she was always on the phone. Trying to solve one problem - while creating many others in her wake.

Lucy talked so much on the phone that it might have well been her speciality... Her art. Her unique talent in life.

But I also tend to think she used the phone simply to help pass some of her time - in between and amongst those many problems, of course.

And Ricky was always making fun of her for that time spent. He’d be reading the paper, and she’d be on the phone - for hours at a time. Ricky couldn’t understand it! He couldn’t fathom how a person could spend so much of their time talking into that odd-shaped device? And most of the time it was all just chit-chat. Lucy gossiping with her friends. Rumors spreading, and lots of laughing. And always getting herself into scrapes - of varying degrees of that trouble I mentioned.

And a lot of those phone calls were between her and Ethel Mertz. Her best friend, landlord, and close neighbor. They lived one floor apart in the same apartment building - directly above and below one another - for years.

And even though they lived so very, very close, they spent hours on that telephone, with each other.

After hours - of gabbing away - as Ricky might say, one of them would come to the realization that they needed to borrow a cup of sugar from the other. They’d then hang up the phone, and go up or down the single flight of stairs, to get the cup of sugar from the other, in person.

And Ricky would then be even further confused… thinking - why couldn’t they have talked in person that whole time?

So today, while people are keeping some seriously major distance from one another - they have been seeking new ways of communication. And it’s almost like people have re-discovered the phone, and what it’s original intended use was for.

Cause it certainly wasn’t originally intended to get your news, your emails, your social media notifications, or to play video games. It was to talk, using voice.

Maybe a lost art?

Because people just don’t really do it anymore.

Instead, people rely almost solely on the following:

Tweets. Texts. Telegrams - oh wait, we don’t have that one anymore, do we?

Snaps. Tagging. Email. Private Message. Facebook. Insta. Video. Zoom. Stories. Etc, etc. etc.

Digital communication - and a lot of written digital communication - rules.

But on the worst days of the plague, when I was still out and about and working, I noticed something I hadn’t seen in a very long time… And I heard something I hadn’t heard in a very long time either.

And that was the act of people talking to another over the phone. And this is what I heard them saying into those devices...

“I love you.”

“How are you?”

“Is everything ok?”

“How are you feeling?”

“Where are you right now?”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“I’m scared.”

“What can I bring you?”

“Hang in there.”

“I love you.” - I mentioned that one already.

But you know what?

I heard that one so many times, it was most definitely significant.

And if I wasn’t out of the house during the plague, I might not have believed what I heard myself.

As now many articles have been written regarding how phone calls have made a real and significant comeback during the pandemic… Stats, numbers, and charts giving authoritative proof to that numerical statistical change - I only needed to see it first-hand, in my own little corner of the world, to know how true it really was.

With people’s necks constantly bent down, eyeballs looking at their phone screens, for years upon years now, then quickly adapted into actually seeing their heads up, and talking from their mouths, and listening from their ears, the change was real.

Maybe talking on the phone has become so rare that the act of doing so has become an actual gift - to another. A gift of time… Especially today, in this ever-innovative, fast-paced, and digital age.

Tweeting… and texting... it’s all so very fast, so instant, and so non-commital of a person’s time, that a quick bubble of letters and numbers and symbols and emojis has seemingly replaced real, verbal communication, enmasse.

But a phone call means commitment too.

In a way the digitally written word does not.

A phone call means really taking that time and sitting down - to chat - with another - one-on-one. Devoting one’s personal time and voice and ear to another human, for a specified chunk of one’s time.

While the written word, and the internet, is, as they say - permanent, or cannot be taken back after it’s out there in a sense, the phone call remains something permanent as well.

Because it means you gave that time away to another person in a way that cannot ever be taken back. You cannot recall it. You cannot hit the Delete button. You cannot erase it. You cannot unpin it. You cannot wipe it. So the phone call has, in a pandemicy kind of way, become a valuable, and non-regiftable, present.

And not to say that there are numerous societal benefits to texting and instant messaging, but the phone call is now special in its own way.

With entire generations currently growing up on social media and digital communication being the norm, the phone call is seemingly less and less important to society as a whole.

But, just like war, plagues have a way of changing things... Of amending the trajectory of society. And, thus, the way people communicate. For better and for worse. And while most all of the plague lies in the worse category, for obvious reasons, there are most definitely some good aspects of global change that have developed out of this crisis...

And that is the clear and present fact that people the world over have started talking to another once again.

And I got in on the act myself, too.

Talking on the phone is actually one of the things I had been praticing myself these past few years of living far away from friends and family.

I knew that, with moving away from everything and everyone I knew, I would need to rely on the phone more so than I had in the past, to stay in touch with those I love.

So over these past few years, after my move to The Sunshine State from Illinois, I had already been trying to be in better, one-on-one communication, with many, many people.

But the coronavirus ended up only strengthening that resolve further.

During the course of this virus, it sometimes feels as if I spoke with more friends and family from afar on the phone than I had in the whole time since I moved away. And I think maybe that feeling is actually true.

I have reached out to loved ones, and they have also reached out to me. All, over the phone. No, it wasn’t email. It wasn’t Facebook. It wasn’t Instagram. And it certainly wasn’t TikTok or SnapChat.

Crisis does bring people closer together. And sometimes a text just doesn’t count. Sometimes hearing another’s voice is all the more important, and valuable, in a time of fear, loneliness, crisis, confusion, and loss.

And whether we lost someone we know personally, or not, during these past months of crisis, we all lost a whole heck of a lot…. of a whole heck of a lot.

Life is changed.

Forever.

And it’s up to us to Adapt to those changes. Modify. And Proceed.

And it is now my call to action - to you, fellow humans out there in InternetLand - to pick up that cellular phone. Today. And call someone you haven’t talked to in a while.

Flip through your digital Rolodex. Choose some digits. And talk.

Use this long, holiday weekend… And maybe spend a long while on the phone with that person.

And maybe even if that person lives just around the corner from you.

Maybe even if they are your Ethel, and you are their Lucy.

Even if they live so close to you that you can reach out your arm, maybe by standing on your own balcony, stretching less than six feet apart, and swap with them a cup of sugar - in exchange for a stick of butter, or a cup of flour. Even if you are that close. Pick up the phone. And give them a call.

Let that cup of sugar be your excuse if need be.

Because while the entire world keeps on changing, and keeps on spinning, some things just never change… Plague or no plague…

There’s still more problems that need solving…

And Lucy and Ethel still need to gossip… And there’s still another celebration on the way - another cake to bake - and yet still another cup of sugar to borrow. ~

‘Welcome To Florida’

Author:

Christine Pieper is an Artist and Lifestyle Blogger, living, writing, and painting in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, with her hubby and eight year old puppy. She made a major life change in 2017 by uprooting and moving from Illinois to the Sunshine State, and has been living her best life in Florida since - detailing all her many and varied adventures living and traveling the Deep South to share with you. Her mission is to help you live YOUR best life - by getting out there, going for it, and making that big change you always dreamed of. Christine will inspire you to get over yourself, show up for yourself, and get out of your own way. The only one stopping you - is YOU.

To catch all of Christine’s Floridian Dreams, sign up your email below now.

*Have you picked up the phone more so lately, during the coronavirus? Who have you called recently that you haven’t talked to in a very long time? I’d love to know. Drop me a comment down below:

Also - if you’re enjoying my ramblings, my writings, and my Floridian adventures, there’s some more for ya, right here:
75] The First Supper @ Palm Valley Outdoors Bar & Grill
73] What I’m Missing Right Now
71] My 69 Week Break From Social Media ~ Why I Left & Why I Came Back
68] A Sunday Stroll
63] Mercy & Comfort
62] PERSPECTIVE @ Seaside Sculpture Park
61] Bean’s Idea List ~ 15 Daily Activities For Well Beyond 15 Days
59] REACTION ~ To World War 19
55] The Shamrock
51] Life Is Full Of Pasta-Bilities ~ Bean’s Red Sauce Recipe
*Part of - Bean’s Kitchen - series
49] A Picture Worth A Thousand Words ~ Happy Valentine’s Day, World
48] Love & Donuts In The Air @ Beaches For Australia
*Part of - Bean’s Coffee Shop Challenge - series
42] Where Does The Chicken Cross The Road?
41] Minnie The Daschund Mouse & Her Birthday Wish
24] In Real Life ~ My First Visit To A Southern Living Idea House
21] Cinotti’s ~ And Why Life Is Too Short To Not Eat Donuts
18] Sea & Sky Jax Weekend ~ Fun In The Florida Sun, Sea, Sky & Sand

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1/17/2020 1 Comment

#41) Minnie The Dachshund Mouse & Her Birthday Wish ~

‘Minnie’s Birthday Wish’

There was once a little doggy named Minnie
And she was named after a Mouse

She lived very high and mighty
Yes she was The Queen of her house

Minnie The Mouse went on lots of adventures
Traveling very near and quite far

And while her life at home was filled with great leisure
She also spent lots of fun time in the car

She traveled to all of the farthest reaches
Yes that car took her to very beautiful beaches

That car took her to many little parks
Where she went on lots of lovely special walks

The window rolled down and she felt a lovely breeze
She visited lots of places and got to eat very special treats

Her shiny fur was the pure color of the best pumpkin pie
And she was the special apple of a certain little one’s eye

And Minnie was shaped just like a perfect little burrito
Because she really loved her tasty puppachinos

Plus cookies and cupcakes, pies, pizza, or even crumbs
No food was not too tempering for her to succumb

Because she would eat anything inside of the house
Yes this was the luxurious life of Queen Minnie The Mouse

She even traveled far up Up UP to the North Pole
Just to make sure she wasn’t given a piece of coal

She met the very man himself Mr. Santa Claus
And sat upon his lap with her four delicate little paws

She told him she was being such a very good little Doggy
And could he please bring her a squeaky little Dolly

Yes, Minnie’s travels let her to feel the wind in her fur
All the while her Magical Life with us went by in a blur

And her favorite ride of all was inside the stroller
Sitting side by side with her favorite little toddler

That little boy and her were quite inseparable
Yes it all was most undeniable

Minnie’s days were also spent with her little matching Bullseye
And we cannot forget both tiny Pua and tiny Hei Hei

And last but not least we must remember her little Fish
Then one day they All helped her make her Birthday Wish

She wished for happiness till the end of days
And mostly never ending time to play

To sleep and eat and dream and run
And simply for that LIFE of pure fun

Minnie got her special Birthday Wish come true
And she now lives on in our hearts, while eating lots of good food too. ~

Image credit/used with permission by: @stayathomesteph

~ This poem is dedicated to:

The life and many adventures of Minnie The Dachshund Mouse;
All those who will miss her precious presence in this world;
And to all those who miss their own furry creatures every single day. ~~

Check out @beansfldreams on Instagram for all my Floridian Dreams and latest artwork.

If you like my stories, here are some more for ya:

36) The End Of A Decade & My New Year’s Wish To You
34) Merry Christmas ~ And How To Buy For That Person On Your List Who Saved Your LIfe ~
28) The Scent Of Christmas In The Air
26) Deck The Chairs ~ BE THAT CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THIS OUR VERY OWN AND SHAREABLE WORLD
23) Faith ~ And Life Lessons Learned Living With Wild & Untamable Hair
21) Cinottis ~ And Why Life Is Too Short To Not Eat Donuts

If you liked this story, please let me know. Do you have a special little furry creature in your life? I’d love to know. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below:

Author:

Christine Pieper is an Artist and Lifestyle Blogger, living, writing, and painting in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, with her hubby and eight year old puppy. She made a major life change in 2017 by uprooting and moving from Illinois to the Sunshine State, and has been living her best life in Florida since - detailing all her many and varied adventures living and traveling the Deep South to share with you. Her mission is to help you live YOUR best life - by getting out there, going for it, and making that big change you always dreamed of. Christine will inspire you to get over yourself, show up for yourself, and get out of your own way. The only one stopping you - is YOU.

To catch all of Christine’s Floridian Dreams, sign up your email below now.

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118) Singing TO the Angels - MY REACTION to Jimmy Buffett's Passing

106) So Proudly We Hail

#77) The Lost Art of the Phone Call

#41) Minnie The Dachshund Mouse & Her Birthday Wish ~

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