Pandora's Planet

Over the years we have been striving to provide freedom to all those who suffer throughout the world.  Often we think of this as physically freeing someone from an oppresive physical encapture.

It has become apparent to the Pandora's Pantry members that FREEDOM must come from within. 

We want to know what you would like to free yourself from.  Is is a relationship, an idea, or a habit?  Share it with us by commenting here and you can win the chance to name our FREEDOM Tea and a sample in your honor!

We thank Sherri Osborn a seasoned Guide with About.Com for her lion tamer suggestion...amidst the challenges...let's never forget the fun. 

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/mayholidays/l/blmay19th.htm

Hey there Pan Pan Girls, Just a quick note to say Happy Circus Day!    I know—“who knew?”   One of the things I love most about the circus is watching the people in the audience.   That’s right.  What with their fixed gazes and open mouths staring at seemingly impossible feats—for me it is a spectacle not to be missed!

If one were to think about it, attributes necessary to be successful in the circus are equally important to living successful empowered lives.  With focus, courage, harmony and balance (a little love and laughter never hurt either) we can do any and everything.   I wonder if Ringling Brothers knew that when they opened on this day in 1884.  I don't know...but I think I am going to paint my face today for the laughter of it all, maybe even wear a clown hat, and experience the circus from a different angle.  If i think it may be a spectacle that will make you laugh, I'll share.  What will YOU do today, Circus Day, 2010?  Whatever it is, remember focus, courage, harmony and balance for today and everyday will bring us through.

In the Highest Vibration of Pandora Love

In light of current events in the Gulf of Mexico, this could not come at a better time.  Exactly how The Sisterhood of Planetary Water Rites chose today as World Prayer for Water Day is not clear, but that they did is pretty special.  Today,  people are asked to join their efforts to unify in mass people with the same intent and purpose;  that our waters will once again run pure and plentiful.  Celebrations will be held at many of the Earths Waterways.  "Water is the foundation of life.  Without it there would be no life on Planet Earth.  We have been brought together as a dedicated voice for our waters," say the women of the Sisterhood.

So much has been threatened as a result of the debacle in the Gulf.  The Grandmother Elders say there have been remarkable results shown within once polluted lakes and streams using the ceremonies that will be performed today.  If there is even the remotest possibility the ceremonies found on their website are beneficial we hope many of you will share this time with  friends, family groups small or large at a waterway in your community.

 

In the Highest Vibration of Pandora Love

St. Mary’s Catholic School (1969) ~

Dottie Pender was just my eighth grade English teacher ….until~

 

Sister George saw me…my heart was beating so fast – I had seen that scowl on her face before…“Debra, what happened to your face?”  To me those words echoed loudly throughout the halls of the school.  Looking at my feet, I mumbled something about falling…being clumsy and stupid…in tears I ran to the bathroom to hide my humiliation and my fear.

 

Mrs. Pender followed me…I was so worried that they’d say I told…She sat down on the floor with me-shoulder to shoulder- and very simply whispered, “I’m here and if you need to talk it will be our secret…I promise.”

 

That summer she took me home with her for a two week vacation and as she often referred to herself - she became my BUM – my back up mom. She kept that secret and many more for the next 40 years as my mom.  She was always gracious to my real mom…but she continually created reasons and ways for me to go and stay with her and her family.

 

Before long…I had my own bedroom in her house…and I stayed there every other weekend and every holiday.  She opened my eyes and mind to unlimited possibilities of a new life.  She convinced me that I was a bright and beautiful young woman…and I seemed to require a great deal of reassurance back then.  But she stood by me…all through those years.  She taught me that I didn’t have to be a product of the family or the neighborhood that I came from.  She taught me about dignity and integrity and character ~ she taught me love.  She inspired me to recognize my passion and desire for writing.  She taught me to believe in myself. 

 

She showed me a whole new world…one that I could only see through her eyes…and one that I may have never experienced had she not so unselfishly opened her heart and her home to a lost 12 year old girl.  With her encouragement, I went on to be the first in my family to graduate from high school and then to graduate from college.  And when I married and had my first child and when I divorced…when I lost my own mother…she was there…in fact she was there for every event of my life for the next 40 years.  When I went home for vacations or holidays…I went to my home with her and I stayed in my room where I was safe and where I was loved.

 

I went home to her for the last time on April 9^th, 2009, because it was time to say goodbye to my Mom Pender…my mom, my best friend, my mentor.  And hello to my own personal Angel ~ because you see, she always was my Angel and I know she’ll be watching out for me. 

 

 

I thought of the television reality show “Last Comic Standing” when I titled this apt tribute to a mother – who, over the years, has kept us all in stitches, while – at the same time – tending, as most mothers do, to the continuously fraying family fiber.

Mom is a real Betty; not a short one –short for Elizabeth that is; and there is a difference. A real Betty has a particular style - a joie de vive – that is at once adventursome and playful and committed and tough...as in "tough beans - you'll do what I tell you to do!"

True Betty's have a deep reverence for life coupled with a profound resolve for disallowing any one thing to make that much of a dent in the overall experience. She cares - deeply - yet is ardently aware of life's inconvenient realities. “It is how it is,” she says with a shrug - whether to an aberrant crop of bug-infested celery or to the death of a close family member.

She is a gem, of course, sparkling with every flash of her million-dollar smile – a split-toothed grin markedly similar to that of Alfred E. Neuman.
According to mom, she’s had a relatively blessed life, with the exception that is of her depression-era underwear, hand-made by her mother (another amazing woman) from a bit of failing elastic and old flour sacks. “Those were a disaster,” she says with a guffaw, “but probably helped my parents afford a college education for all of us.”

Her Eastern European father – arriving alone from Austria at the age of eight – made himself a nice enough life to send her to nursing school at Iowa State. This was a wild adventure for a woman raised in Western Pennsylvania in the nineteen-forties - one that a Betty would most certainly relish.

That is the thing about mom: As a nurse and a woman, she didn't shy away from too many veins. As the opportunities came along, she plucked them no matter the challenge. This Betty took on a nursing career, entered into and won car races, mastered table tennis, married an alcohol-dependent husband and helped him through recovery, gave birth to and raised three girls, and started a private day-care business that at its peak had three centers serving 120 children - and it flourished for nearly 14 years. She did all of this with the same steady resolve demonstrated by her immigrant parents.

Along the way, she has amused many with her characteristic gaffs – namely a clumsy nature and a persistent struggle with dyslexia and intestinal disturbance. The most incredible thing is that she is the first to laugh…and to laugh them off. It is as if she knows their place in life. She knows - and has always known - that she wasn't those "problems," and that life was way too precious to not laugh at them. What a gift to the world, and to our world - as her daughters.

I am thankful that I still have my mom. And it is my sincere hope - for all who know her and who don’t - that she stands as strong and proud and vibrantly comedic until her final day. I love you, mom.

Before you read this post, I invite you to watch the video and then you'll understand my message more clearly....

Life is like a cup of coffee

I was feeling sorry for myself the other day. I'm packing my life in card board boxes. Ten months of being unemployed has taken it's toll. Still no full time job, can't collect unemployment because I taught at a Catholic School, and I've lost everything I've worked hard for, my whole life.

Recently I was speaking to my daughter about my mother.  From the time I can remember mothering my duaghter I remember that she wanted nothing more than to have a house full of children, not because she grew up with lots of siblings but because she did not.  Our story is interesting because while I knew her as an infant, she wasn't a child I birthed.  As a matter of fact there are just 10 years that seperates us in age. 
I didn't become her mother well until she was nearly a teenager, after a terrible tragedy which left her without her birth mother - my god-mother and her being shuttled from foster home to foster home.

When I began to parent her I remember people wondering how I was going to parent a child that had such harsh experiences as my first.  All I needed to do was remember my own mothers love.  And if I could times that love, if I could be anything like her, I knew as long as my daughter knew she were loved she too would grow to spread that love.  She does.  My daughter and I have experienced tough times in our relationship, but I can surely say the  good times outweigh the rough ones.  And it's all because of Love times Love.

She looked at me with dark hazel eyes as if to say, don't worry every thing will be okay; as she tried to escape from the grasp of my stepfather.  As I looked back at her, I could see how terrified she was.  But, there was also something else, something mystical, some thing so far away.....a hint of hope.

     It was then that I realized if I didn't do something quick the person that guided me through life would be hurt.  I picked up the phone, but my hands were shaking too hard to dial.  I tried again once more and managed to dial 911.

It’s been a few years now since I’ve used standard letter closings such as “Sincerely, “Best Regards”, or “Much Success.”  Finding a way to convey what I’d come to believe was my truest and best expression to the recipients of my letters and emails– quite possibly a stranger – suddenly was giving me agida.  Quickly and without much thought, I created what I thought to be the quintessential alternate, yet was immediately confronted with fears that someone might get the wrong idea.  Additionally I faced my own duplicity as I questioned who might receive these veritable “truths” of my very being–and who wouldn’t.  Before any decision could be made, I was forced to ponder how I could profess such a profound gesture for some but not for others?  Nevertheless, once all my deliberating was done my concerns yielded to a decision that saves me from ever having to contemplate my “sincerity” or the desire for ones success anymore when sending mail.