Sol Onnibus Lucet

The Same Sun Shines Upon Us All

Sol Onnibus Lucet

You Say Its Your Birthday

Fifty years of living. Thanks to the gift of a lifetime bestowed upon me by my parents I have never ever been alone on the planet. I came into the world with my best friend and God willing I will leave without ever knowing a life without her presence. Or should I say her "presents" because she is truly a gift, my sister, my twin, my ever "present" always loving twinnie Clara. Clara Joan.

Maybe it is because the Mongin clan has pretty much put Ned's kids through college with their patron ism of his pizzeria, but whatever the reason when he was approached by our mother to put a birthday message for Virginia's first set of twins on this the day of their half-century mark he not only heartily agreed to do so, but to keep the message up for the entire week. Oh what the heck if 50 years of good clean living - okay okay - 50 years of living isn't worth a week on the local marquee, nothing is.

So head on over to Kimberly. Take in a pizza at Butch's Pizza aka Ned's Place. While relishing your slice of the pie, be sure to check out the marquee. Gosh but I do LOVE a bit of attention, don't you??

Silver Anniversary

On Monday, June 21st, Mike & I quietly celebrated our 25th anniversary. I remember on our wedding day thinking wow, if we make it 25 years I will be turning 50 the same week - two thoughts that at the age of 25 seemed remote and highly unlikely to ever occur. Yet here we are, a quarter century later celebrating the arrival of both of these milestones.
Today marriage is not taken as seriously as it once was. Truth is I have a hard time understanding why such a marvelous institution has taken a back seat in the lives of so many. While I admit it has been a great deal of hard work, I think the truth is; that which we work hard to achieve is met with the greatest amount of satisfaction. Easy street is dull and conquerable. The hard road of real living means tasting the saltiness of your own sweat, watching the seasons as they roll past and living in the moment cause the moments don't last.
Real living isn't for the faint of heart - it takes true grit to get through it.
If you live long enough you learn how to plant your own garden and tend to your soul with the fertilizer of faith, hope & love. Yes and the greatest of these is love.
So to my great love I say; "thank you darling for 25 years of laughter & tears" long may we love.

James & Cassie

What an amazing week it has been. Saturday we had the pleasure of celebrating of our son's wedding (the wedding was May 1st) during an evening at High Cliff Park where we were treated to a spectacular sunset.

As you can see from this pic both James & his lovely bride Cassie were ecstatic to share their happiness with family.

So, as the old saying goes; "we have not lost a son, we have gained a daughter".

An evening spent in the intimate company of our family with plenty of smiles & a great amount of well-wishing both James & Cassie could feel the love enveloping them from all who were present. What a magical, memorable evening we had!

Love Is All We Need

Sometimes in the chaos we call living, the simplicity of how to best live is lost upon us. When I stop, stand back from myself and observe my behaviors it quickly becomes apparent what is wrong if I am "in a mood".
I have forgotten the mantra; "All you need is love" which is as basic and fundamental as any truth ever spoken. In fact it is likely the greatest truth ever spoken.
When I force myself to look past the pettiness, look past MYSELF if you will and embrace whatever/whomever with a sincere wave of love, well it works like a vacuum and quickly sucks up my fixation on SELF and like a giant floatation device I am lifted up - no longer stuck in my muck.
Love is the raft that saves us from stormy waters. Love is the strength that holds us together. Try it on for size.
We don't need a reason to love, all that is necessary is a desire to love and love is all we need.

Hi Clara

You cannot imagine my joy in seeing the smiling face of my twin sister right there on the home page of my blog site. Waving out at me as though this wasn't a moment in history carved out in my blog.
It has taken me a moment or two to take this in. Clara on my blog site. Not just a quick anonymous reading, but a committed follower with photo id' confirmation. I am honored that she has chosen my site as her electronic communications launchpad.
Besides which I am always guaranteed laughter will follow my best attempts to humor if my humor falls on her ears!
Elly are you out there? You won't be far behind I imagine will you little sister? You know how you hate to miss anything.
Hey Clara, over here...I have a secret......

Words Retracted

As the old saying goes; "when I am wrong I say I was wrong":
"I was wrong."
In an earlier post - or maybe the right word would be "rant" I suggested something to the affect of "stop buying from bp" over my frustration with the gulf spill.
Then last night I watched a news segment interview of a local convenience station owner - yes of the bp franchise. This local guy was talking about how much negative backlash his station has received since the oil spill. How he is as angry as anyone, but when he purchased his bp franchise it was not an endorsement of environmental disasters, it was just life in America living his dream.
He feels just as bad about this ongoing situation, probably feels a whole lot worse. His shame is his livelihood and they are one in the same "bp". No more his fault for eking out a living than it is our fault in the greedy pursuit of gasoline.
Sorry bp downhome guy! Of course this is not exclusive behavior by bp. Before we do our filling, somewhere there is drilling.
As it goes....we are all one under the same sun.....

My Mother

The first born child of Paul & Laura Priewe, her father insisted on naming her after Christianities most revered woman; our Blessed Virgin Mary. Hence the name Virginia Mary Priewe.

Sometimes when I image what life has been like for my mother I am in total awe at the immensity of her life. She was always 2 steps ahead of the rest when it came to experiencing life to the fullest and yet she always seemed rather aloof and distant in regard to personal relationships. Of course when one considers herstory it is not hard to understand how she hardened her heart to such trivialities as relationships.

Here was a woman that moved to California after she graduated from high school and while out west she tried to join the military. Unfortunately the Air Force had to eventually (honorably) discharge her from serving in the military, not for any overt reason on her part, but simply because she had the misfortune to wear a size 13 shoe. The military, at the time, was ill equipped to deal with special sizes especially for women recruits and thus Virginia was not able to be properly uniformed and therefore the military was left with no other choice but to discharge her from serving her country. Can you imagine? Discharged not for flat foot, but for big foot. Oh the humility.

So, military career nixed from the "bucket list" Virginia spent years doing radio and just living/loving the single life west of the Rockies. Years later heavy with child, she returned to Wisconsin but was not exactly welcomed back into the open arms of her stoic (German) father. Not only would he not accept her unwed pregnancy, but after the birth of her firstborn son he took to referring to him as "the bastard". Can you imagine? Living with such blatant disappoint and verbal abuse of a strong family patriarch?!

A weaker female would have took to the hills, denounced her faith and spent her years in bitter resentment. Not my mother, oh no Virginia would have none of the "poor me" syndrome we so often find ourselves gravitating towards. No instead Virginia took an office job to support her family and eventually she set her sights on Allouez most prominent bachelor, yes my father, and after a mere 4 months of courtship found herself accepting his marriage proposal. Since he had been a bachelor for all of his 36 years his family was dumbfounded by this turn of events. Needless to say the charms of Virginia wore down the resistance that Ambrose Mongin had spent a lifetime building.

Barely into his 37th year and a year after their first date they were married in a simple church wedding followed by a reception at her parent's home. By this time her father, Paul Priewe had taken to calling his grandson by his given name no longer using the label of the ignorant.

Well the rest of the story is destined for another post on my blog where I will attempt to disseminate the story of their marriage.

Let me leave you with one cliffhanger to dwell on; they had seven (7) children in their first (4) four years of marriage. Yes that is no typo; 7 in 4 without the aiding and abetting of a fertility clinic either.

7 in 4.