Cinco de Mayo for Franco-Americans?

 Found myself one year in a Phoenix, AZ park on Cinco de Mayo Day. Colorful costumes, lively music, lots of balloons and bright colors. Evidently this was a popular day of celebration. But I really had no idea what the celebrating was all about.

Seem the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Contrary to widespread popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day  which is actually celebrated on September 16.


I'm a New England-born, French Canadian Caucasian. My history's the furthest you can imagine from Cinco de Mayo. Relevant to my ancestors is the date June 22,1774. That is when the Quebec Act, guaranteeing civil, language and religious rights to French Canadians, came into force. Maybe I should give some thought to creating a special events day to celebrate it.


Why not? America is a melting pot...bringing together every nationality imagined and melding them into one cohesive unit. Yes, our diverse cultural history is part of what makes the United States unique. So...the Irish have their St. Patrick's Day, the African Americans have their Kwanzaa. Why not a day to celebrate the endurance of the French to hold on to their identity? 

More on Dragons

This is the Chinese year of the dragon and China is expecting a 5% increase in the number of babies born in 2012.

The dragon, considered the most auspicious zodiac sign in Chinese culture, is often associated with good fortune and intelligence and is believed to be the sign of those destined for success.

Some famed dragon babies include martial arts star Bruce Lee, Spanish artist Salvador Dalí and President Bill Clinton.

People who are born in the Year of the Dragon share certain characteristics. These may include: innovative, enterprising, flexible, self-assured, brave, passionate, conceited, tactless, scrutinizing, unanticipated, and quick-tempered.

These to-be-desired characteristics do not, however, exhibit themselves in the real-live dragons that inhabit the world we live in.

Thriving in the harsh climate of Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years, Komodo dragons are considered the dominant predators on the handful of islands they inhabit.

Komodo dragons are the heaviest lizards on Earth, reaching 10 feet in length and more than 300 pounds. They have long, flat heads with rounded snouts, scaly skin, bowed legs, and huge, muscular tails.

They will eat almost anything, even humans. Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo can anticipate a short life span. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning.

On second thought, perhaps Komodo dragons can be considered enterprising, self-assured, passionate, and unanticipated. Seems like these characteristics are desired in both the human and reptile world.

Deja Vu Versailles

When I was in my second year of high school, my family moved to a village called Versailles. It  boasted only a Congregational church, a combination post office-market, and a few hundred souls. Dominated by an empty  paper mill and its accompanying multiple-family housing units, my curiosity remained on who had the temerity to give this place such an audacious name.

  Surrounding towns reflected its Native American past and bore names like Mohegan, Uncasville, Occum, and Moosup and a river named Quinnebaug divided the village. The town's name, Versailles, stuck out like a sore thumb.

Fast forward thirty-two years. My family, including husband, two sons and eighty-year-old father, were on a touring trip of Europe. We'd spent the day in Paris, specifically at the Eiffel Tower, and were driving back to our auberge in Bordeaux near the coast of France. As we sped the highway, I sighted a marker indicating nearby Versailles--the original Versailles--and insisted on a side trip.

Short on time, we couldn't tour the grounds but we did take time to stop beside the large entrance sign long enough to photograph my father beside it--a high-light of his trip.

Z is for Zest

Do you have a zest for life? Do you wake each morning eager to greet whatever the new day will bring? Do you set out, anticipating the coming hours hold delightful experiences? If so, then you are to be envied.

Many people live lives of quiet desperation. Dreading the morning alarm’s call to rise and face another twenty-four hours of drudgery. For some, life has lost its zest.

But there is hope.  All it takes is looking at life from a different perspective. Our daylight hours are filled with a constant barrage aimed at creating a state of discontent. Our media sources are swelled with images and messages designed to produce a state of wanting ‘something else.’  And that something else shape-shifts into an unlimited variety of forms.

We’re urged to envy those who have what we don’t want; to desire those things not needed in our lives. The challenge is to refuse to surrender to that state of wanting what we don’t have. I challenge you to develop a state of contentment, to be satisfied with what you already have. 

We who live in these United States have so much more that so many in the rest of the world. There should be no cause for discontent. Consider the riches that surround you and be grateful. Rebuild your zest for life.  

I had prepared a posting about yurts for today's blog for 'Y'. Took the time to locate a couple pictures to illustrate the point I wanted to make about how yurts are used all over the world. It looks like that draft got eaten by the computer.

So, now I'm having to free-fall something else. It's nine-thirty at night and I've had an almost twelve-hour day attending NETWO's writers conference.

So, all I can say is YES.

YES, it was a fabulous event. Our new venue, the Civic Center in Mt. Pleasant more than adequately served our needs.

YES, the new caterer served us the most delicious meals. Thanks Hershel's of Mt. Pleasant.

YES, all the presenters gave us super info and encouragement.

YES, even the feedback resulting from my meetings with New York agent Weronika Janczuk, Publisher Vivian Zabel and Editor Liz Ragland was extremely helpful.

YES, will I attend the conference next year? A most definitely YES!

What's with X?

When it comes to “X”, there aren’t many choices to work with. The Oxford American Dictionary lists only twenty words beginning with ‘X”. Nine on the list are simply one or two-letter words. So, today’s blog posting became a real challenge.

I could go with X – to cancel by writing a series of x’s over. Or I could mention xi – the fourteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.

The longest word in the group is X chromosome – a chromosome in which the number of cells of one sex (in human, the female) is twice that of the other sex.

Or how about Xe – symbol xenon? Now what did you learn from that information?

Here’s one that I can comprehend, not that I’ve ever fell victim to it: xenophobia – a strong dislike or distrust of foreigners. Hey, did anyone ever tell you we are all foreigners to someone else?

Before I go x-rated (not to be seen by persons under seventeen years old), I think I’ll end this.

Why East Texas?

Why did my husband and I deliberately transplant our family to the piney woods of East Texas? There are many reasons. When we previously existed in a cookie-cutter suburb of Dallas, the at-speed-limit rush of an ever-grasping culture drove the lifestyle we lived. All the while, our souls hungered for a place where we could stop and savor being alive.

Our move to the Longview area and subsequent settling in a farmhouse nestled on seventeen acres outside of Big Sandy brought us the satisfaction we desired. That was thirty-seven years ago.

We chose to live in East Texas because the stillness of our nights is now punctuated by a distant train whistle, not the wail of a speeding ambulance. Now, missing is that subliminal hum of a motorized society restlessly on the move, always chasing they knew not what. Instead, I'm lulled to sleep by the cooing of mourning doves.

Free from the anxieties imposed by a society striving to exceed itself, we take time to drink deeply of each day’s offering. We can pause to hear treetops rustle as the wind passes through, or smile at the raucous squawk of a noisy bluejay. We can sit on our front porch at night without fear of invisible dangers lurking in the blackness.

We don’t miss our former life. Our days are filled with soul-satisfying work and we are surrounded by people who take time to really care about each other here in East Texas