I got curious today about a family club we used to frequent in Brazil.
It was called the Clube de Campo Do Castelo, or the Country Club of the Castle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er-a0JkRf0c
The club looks like it's still going strong, changing very little of the landscape, tennis courts, pool, gymnasium, restaurant and meeting areas. I see a new gym and the boats on the lake are up to date.
It was so much fun to go out there on Thursday afternoons. Our mothers shared carpooling, and would come out to get us after school in a big group to take us to the clube. Some of us would play tennis with our fathers, who had been out there most of the day already.
Some of the mothers played tennis as well. The other mothers in our mission group hung out under the canopy of trees. There was always conversation, some women crafted and others relaxed!
We kids could rent hammocks, ride paddle boats, play on the play sets, run around the large acreage playing all kinds of games, swim, play clay court tennis, or play on the tennis backboard to get some practice.
The clube was a place of respite, where we could catch our breath and look forward to the weekend.
I recall my Uncle Allen and Aunt Lucia joining us. They were always in the pool with us kids, and Allen taught me how to do the side crawl, on both sides! We loved throwing coins into the pool and racing to grab them! We would race as well, among so many other aquatic games; many of which were made up.
There was also a walkway over the pool, dividing the shallow end of the pool from the deep end. There was something magical about that bridge. It could be anything we wanted it to be, from a bridge over a mote, to water washing under a cave.
During American Holidays, we'd have cookouts on the grills and our mothers would spread a feast on the picnic tables! We'd sing the US National Anthem, America the Beautiful, and other folk songs. If it was World Cup season, we might throw in a song to celebrate our beloved Brazil!
I am imagining all the fun the country club is still having with a newer
generation of families! May you be around a long time dear clube!
"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, that we must be
contented to secure what we can get from time to time, and eternally
press forward for what is yet to get."
Like Yakov Smirnoff used to say, "America, what a country"! It is an amazing country, for in it's ideal state, opposing opinions should enrich one another. Left and Right can meet with a kiss of peace, educating and bringing the extreme views into a more balanced state.
Two thanksgivings come to mind on this day.
The first is that I am blessed with friends in so many sectors and philosophies of Americana, and am the richer for it. There is something beautiful in everyone. Celebrating the good is the only way to give birth to more good.
Secondly, I have been fortunate enough to celebrate the 4th of July in many places, including overseas.
Growing up in Brazil, my parents and other Americans living abroad remembered our roots together. We celebrated with our friends, who were our overseas family, with the traditional cookout of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, apple pie, and usually brigadeiros were thrown in. They're known as chocolate Brazilian truffles, and in my opinion, the national dessert!
We sang the traditional songs, the American National Anthem, America The Beautiful, My Country 'Tis of Thee, and then might throw some camp songs in, both in English and Portuguese.
I recall also celebrating in Japan while there during one summer in college. One of my college mates Melanie and I spent the fourth with an American family, the Rays. We had a cookout, of course. I looked out the window and spied a large car below, that though parallel parked, seemed to take up one lane of the road. At this point, I had been in Japan so long I was used to the diminutive size of everything. When we left, we walked by the car and realized it was a Trans Am! Straight from America to Japan!
And finally, in honor of the World Cup...24 years ago we married in the Boston area, and honeymooned in Florida. That was the year the World Cup was being held in America! Both of us being soccer fans - you could say soccer even brought us together - we so wanted to see one of the games. But the closest we got were the stadiums in Boston and Orlando, but no dice! TV was our salvation! We spent the 4th with some friends, Boston "ex-pats," and watched...wait for it...USA V. Brazil! Brazil won 1-0.
This country is a gift not only to its citizens, but to the world. When we are humble, thank God and put our minds and hearts to work, the world becomes a better place. I believe in American diplomacy, not only via diplomats, but the everyday citizen. My parents taught me diplomacy, and it has come in handy when entering new cultures and sub-cultures. Today I am learning to live in the 21st century culture, and its a new breed of nearly everything. But I am hopeful. I love the next generation, particularly since our daughter is a part of this culture of force for good.
I believe that the USA will not decline, as other great nations have, after 200-250 years. Based upon our roots, I see it flourishing as a great tree shading not only its citizens, but those of other countries through polite diplomacy, citizen cooperation and a constant curiosity for learning and passing along the important to the next generation. We may be in a slump, but not for long! We are resilient, loving, strong and kind. I see new generations being more grateful for their ancestors; we all stand on the shoulders of giants!
So America, Happy Birthday, and may these beautiful colors never flag, may they stand strong with the deepest love for country and all humanity, and may we all know how loved and blessed we are each day God gives us life!
1812 Overture FlashMob!
Written by a Russian, Tchaikovsky, and played at the Placa del Mercat, Algemeci, Valencia, Spain!
And claimed by Americans as one of our Patriotic pieces of music!
Enjoy!
This post is dedicated to all of those who have served in our armed forces, missionaries, public servants, entrepreneurs, employees, artists, entertainers, believers, non-believers, families, the childless, singles, the dreamers, successful, non-successful, the in-progress, the "don't-give'uppers," liberals, conservatives, hippies, baby boomers, gen-Xers, gen-futures, professors, students, the marginalized; all who call themselves Americans, and those who have given the ultimate gift of their lives. To those who have been wounded or are going through difficulty and are hurting, may your healing come quickly, for we honor your life as well.
If pictures & videos don't come up in your email, click here: Coffee At My Table
I still have a grown up Christmas list, and it's pretty close to Amy Grant's. But my personal bag of memories and wishes -- in no particular order -- looks like this...
"Food, family and fun," which is John's and my motto for family get togethers!
John and I sneaking out last minute to buy stocking stuffers for each other, and watching our long-gone dog Princess pine jealously over the stuffed socks on Christmas morning!
Hearing stories from the older generation and dreams from the younger ones.
Tearing into presents with the nieces and nephews over the years, sometimes orderly, sometimes not.
My father, mother, brother and sister and I sitting around a Christmas tree in the smallest home we lived in. We were in Brazil where Christmastime takes place during the summer! Santa wears shorts!
Richard and I getting matching red Caloi bicycles one year, knowing it was a luxury to have such gifts.
My paternal grandfather giving me a camera when I was six, which gave me my love of photography.
Every year my maternal grandparents gave us boxes of lifesavers with a five dollar bill tucked inside, something they saved up all year to give to their many grandchildren!
Teasing with my uncle Von, who is two years older than myself, and my playful cousins Kent and Kyle who can't resist finding the funny in everything!
Singing carols around the piano with my mother-in-law, and continuing into the new year as she likes to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas ending at epiphany.
Watching my sister Andreia read my parent's Christmas cards and catching up on where our friends are now.
Dad and Mom playing Christmas music softly in the background, and sometimes someone will join in singing along.
My sister-in-law Kim's green bean casserole.
Long walks and talks with John's sister ML that are more refreshing and upbuilding after being together.
Christmas in Boston when my family was a long way away, but I was welcomed by my northern family, Harry, Bev, Sarah and Andy. My memories of Brantwood Road grow more beautiful with each passing year! Thanks for including me on Harry's Hanukkah traditions where I could see them firsthand! What fun that was.
Everything is magnified at the holidays, including love, kindness and good humor. This is how I know I have a great family. There is more goodness among us when we come together. We do our best not to hide love from each other during the year; we express it as we can in little bits. It's magnified because we are saving it to give to each other in person.
So Home looks like Love. It is Love and Love leaves its stamp when everyone is gone.
May your Christmas season be filled with love, comfort and joy!
This post is dedicated to my family whom I love! You have given me great love always. We are looking forward to making more memories this year!
If pictures & videos for the blog don't come up in your email, click here: Coffee At My Table
It was summer, 1987. My sister Andreia and I hung around together a lot.
A couple of things stand out; U2's Joshua Tree album played almost incessantly and burned cookies.
One day Mom and Dad left to run an errand and I popped some cookies in the oven. When I returned to take them out, I noticed flames where the cookies were supposed to be.
Now, let me describe the set up.
Mom and Dad were living in a two-story condo, and next door lived a single mom, Sanna and her son, Joey, about my sister's age. They were good neighbors full of good humor.
I had just read that if you have an oven fire to leave the door closed and turn off the oven. Call the fire department immediately.
So I did.
It seemed like all of Edmond's fire departments showed up, about seven trucks including a couple of grass trucks and the fire chief's truck.
By then Sanna and Joey had joined us along with some other neighbors on our lawn as we watched the fully-clad fire fighters rush into our condo.
One of them emerged with the pan filled with burned cookies that were still smoking. I don't recall what he said, but he we all laughed. All ended up well.
No sooner had the last fire truck rounded the corner on their exit from our neighborhood, Mom and Dad drove around the other corner into the neighborhood. I recall them asking what was going on and getting a laugh at the timing of it all.
I enjoy laughing. My mother's family especially has the corner on that commodity.
I enjoy being with my sister. I have very good memories. Even in the worst of times, I'd rather be with family and enjoying my sister's humor and perspective on things.
I dedicate this post to a most dedicated wife, mother, educator and business owner, my sister. It's always good to see your smiling face and hear your humor! It makes life worth the ride :-)
Say nice things behind their back, and it will be easy to love on them in person!
Say nice things about them in front of them, and it will be easier to be apart from them!
I have not always done these things successfully, but have implemented this tact for many years. Enough to know it works.
My father used to say when I was growing up, "Give people flowers while they are living." He is a minister and has done so many funerals and heard over and over again how the living wished they had done and said nicer things to the deceased.
Look at pictures of happy times, and it will make you happy all over again and in a better disposition to talk to your family!
Forgive the bad times, quickly!
If you have put your family member in any kind of box, let them out quickly! When you don't, you are burying them prematurely!
First do no harm to others, but don't martyr yourself either. Smile when it hurts, and the salve of love with protect both you and your loved ones.
Only find humor in others that they find in themselves, and find humor in yourself, then let others in on the joke! You can both enjoy a great laugh. Laughter bonds!
When you can't be there in person, text, email or call! When someone connects with you in this way, respond! Only the dead don't respond. The living always stay connected! If you don't respond, they will have no choice but to interpret that they are irrelevant to you.
Send encouragement notes! Say thank you to even the smallest encouragement!
Don't be a critic and kill a relationship with a thousand nicks! Instead, build your family's emotional house with a thousand bricks of kindness!
Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up on family! You are their advocate! The world sees them through your eyes, and if your eyes are clouded, it's time to spend some quality time with family! If others try to separate you from your family through jealousy or because they sense you are unhappy, get right quick, set your friends straight, and honor your parents and family always! It's worth the effort!
Always say I am sorry!
Off to love my family today...
This post is dedicated to my family, natural, married-into, spiritual and friends who've been as close as family!
My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother;
For they [will be] a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck.
- Proverbs 1:8-9
Two Words: Duck Dynasty.
I am putting myself on the line as someone who loves words, loves conversation and likes to think things through [maybe more than they should be] when I say the following: It's refreshing to see a TV show about a real family well grounded in God and family values, saying what they mean and meaning what they say with no false humility. I can learn a lot from the Robertson family about making words and actions count.
TV came to them. They didn't go looking for TV. I heard Miss Kay say recently on an interview that she
understands fame is fleeting, and if all of this went away tomorrow,
they would still be fine. I believe they would. They're family. They live life and learn together. They honor the older generation. They guide the younger generation. Peace and reconciliation live in this family. It's evident in the last scene of each episode when the family gets together for a meal learning from their recent events and reconciling any differences over food, with family having fun.
While the world and its problems has been spinning on its axis, one family -- among many of the same spirit who will never be famous -- has stayed on the straight and narrow. They don't strive for eloquence, but strive to get the job done. What one sees for sure is the peace in their souls -- It rings loud and clear though they don't say a word about it -- unless asked.
Years ago my brother and his wife moved their children out to an acreage to ground them more in what is important. It wasn't easy. A lot of hard work and love went into growing their family as they managed the acreage and raised animals. They did many chores and had plenty of play time. Their hands were kept busy so that
their imaginations didn't have time to run away with them and lead them
places they shouldn't be. Did they challenge their parents sometimes? Of course. What child doesn't. But there was room for natural child growth without too much worldly interference.
Their oldest son is a master hunter as far as I'm concerned, along with his brother. Two of the kindest young men I know. Their youngest sister raised a few dogs and cats and several different kinds of birds. She's a joy to converse with.
One story comes to mind. At one time my niece had some unidentifiable type of bird that she named "Chickie." One day her mother called me and said that my niece had something to tell me.
"I killed my Chickie."
I asked what happened, and she confessed, "I didn't do what my mother asked and I hugged her too hard."
I believe she was five or six at the time. One thing my brother and his wife instilled in their children is a sense of honesty and responsibility. What we see in my nephews and niece is what we get, even to this day.
Are they perfect? No. Who is? When you learn where family, food and fun really come from, you're more apt to appreciate it and use it well. Will they have further challenges? Yes. But I believe that my brother and his wife input valuable lessons into our nephews and niece that will bless them in times to come.
My brother passed away ten years ago this year. I don't say this to get pity or make people sad. I only say this because he knew his time was short, as his wife once told me. They made the time count by instilling in their children what they needed while they were younger, and while there was no doubt about what they were teaching them and why.
Education and wealth are great tools for sure, but they can be gods running our lives if we aren't grounded in the real, and that's God who gives life, family, food and fun.
It's a simple take, but it has to be for people to understand it unmistakeably. The Gospel of Jesus is not an intellectual exercise. It's life. And when Christ captures us as He unmistakeably has captured the Robertson's and my brother's family, the rest of life can be sorted out given time, inner grit and patience all bathed in love.
My sister and her family are doing some similar things to keep their children grounded in what's real and true. Are they perfect? No. But the children are being given the best experience their parents can give them now, that they may have firmer feet to stand on later in life.
And somehow I believe they will succeed.
Andreia, here's to you, sis, for the wonderful work you have done mothering your own "duck dynasty." And to you Kim for keeping Richard's legacy alive in the great job you do with your children. I love you all very much!
John and I have been following Downton Abbey, a well-written and acted novella. It is taking me back to a wonderful memory from my childhood.
I like to say "I was along for the ride" when people ask me about what it was like growing up as a missionary kid with my brother and sister in São Paulo, Brazil. It is to my parent's credit they chose to go to Brazil and I was blessed to have that experience as their daughter. South of the equator finds one celebrating Christmas in the summer and enjoying the cool weather during school vacation. Spring comes during our fall and vice versa. My father's main work was building a youth camp, and in it all, we were part of a wonderful team of missionaries who were our family. I believe there were up to 17 families at one time in our mission effort.
During the 1970s there were several novellas that our missionary group gravited to. In between conversations about the advancement of church work and service to the Brazilian people, we were a family. We celebrated holidays together, having our usual Christmas talent show at the Vinzant house. During World Cup Soccer season, the TVs were hot, the flags were flying and emotions were always very high or very low depending on how our beloved Brazilian team did. We gathered at the Norton house a few times to enjoy the sports drama and discuss missed strategies and applaud the brilliant ones.
In all of that work and life together with the team, joy ran rampant even on days where there were great challenges. Because we were family, we were together in mind, spirit and when possible, in body. Yet the event that had us all captured were the novellas, the teleplays replete with familial bonds, intrigue, unrequited love, all wrapped in the warm emotion that the Brazilian people are known for. These stories were masterfully written, lasting a few months with a beginning, middle and end. During one such story, the main character, a professor, played by one of the country's favorite actors died in the middle of the production. The country stopped to mourn the loss of this much loved personality. The story picked up with a new actor and moved on, though you could see in the actors faces the loss they suffered from their colleague's passing. This teleplay was called "O Primeiro Amor," or "The First Love."
Another novella, "Selva de Pedra," or "Jungle of Rock," (a.k.a. "Concrete Jungle") had us glued. The main characters were in love but life kept them apart no matter how close they were to getting together. After a most dramatic separation, they are finally united and the country cheered! Much like Matthew Crawley and Mary Crawley when they got together -- and Mary didn't even have to change her last name!
Don't get me wrong, we didn't live for these TV shows, but nonetheless, in an age where there was little choice for TV programming, people pretty much watched the same thing and had a lot in common to talk about, even on the bus or supermarket line or wherever. Downton Abbey has had the same effect. Many of my friends watch it and it is fun to discuss. For the record, no, I don't like part of the story line involving Thomas, but with that disclaimer, I move on. The rest of the story is fascinating and speaks of family connections, survival together and falling together out of loyalty. Family. Successes. Failures. Celebrations. Losses. Life. It is all inescapable. We all participate in it all, even when we don't chose it. We're related to someone and they us, each with our own good and immaturities to work through together. We sometimes succeed without explanation and sometimes after purposeful planning. We fail due to our decisions and sometimes bad timing. We celebrate good news and have to say goodbye all to soon to certain loved ones. It's all a part of life. And now, how shall I end? I am not sure at this point. So I will go with my first inclination. What strikes me is how blessed I've been in receiving the gift of my family. How patient and loving they've been with me during difficulties, and how kind to celebrate the joyous moments! Some may read this post and may wish you had this type of affectionate recollection about your past. I will bet you have such a past if you frame it reflectively covered in gratitude for the good -- this exercise does wonders to ease the difficulties and injustices of the past and creates a peaceful soul. But even if you don't have anything you feel worth celebrating for unspeakable injustices in your life, it's never too late. You can always start a legacy if you didn't have a good one growing up. Why? Because it's a joy to celebrate life together and to hold tight in difficulty and the next generation is learning from us that they may pass it on to their families.
Spiritually speaking, the church performs the same functions. For better or worse, they are there, and will be there for eternity.
I dedicate this post to Carol Vinzant, a woman who keeps our Brazil family together until this day with emails about birthdays with mini bios and noteworthy news from our group. We love you Yenta!
Interested in encouraging women no matter what age and stage in life. Member Writers On The Storm and American Christian Fiction Writers. Wrote/Edited for Sisters In Service quarterly newsletter/Bammel church of Christ 2005-2007; Member of Words for the Journey Writer's Guild/The Woodlands, TX 2004-2007; Copy edited various publications. Member of Writers On The Storm. Continue blogging on GodReflection and Facebook Coffee At My Table & 1-2-Motherhood.
We kids could rent hammocks, ride paddle boats, play on the play sets, run around the large acreage playing all kinds of games, swim, play clay court tennis, or play on the tennis backboard to get some practice.
.JPG)
