HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

Before we jump into what is going to be a very different HERE'S TO YOU post, I want to address the outcome of Battle of the Bands. Participation wasn't as high as normal. I don't know if that was because of the song I chose for the battle, the fact that some people aren't blogging right now, or if the moon was too full or not full enough. Whatevs. :) The song was Crazy Train and the contenders were Ozzy Osbourne (the original) versus Pat Boone (the cover). Not surprisingly, Ozzy won this one with 15 votes. Pat Boone only got 4 votes. I think I should have clarified that Pat's version was originally released on his album In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy (1997). When The Osbournes (TV show) came on they chose to include Pat's cover on their soundtrack. It wasn't an intro for the TV show or anything of that nature. Pat covered 11 other metal bands on that album including, but not limited to, Judas Priest, Metallica, and AC/DC. I cast my vote for Pat because it makes me smile, not that it makes any difference. Ozzy won it by a mile.

Moving on to HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY...

Normally, this post rolls with a video for Everyone followed by a hodge-podge variety of clips dedicated to those of you who triggered a thought of a song or clip. This week didn't work out that way. Every clip this week will be from my favorite TV show of all time... Joan of Arcadia. Plus, I am going to break my Cardinal Rule and tell you why I chose it before the clip.

Even worse, because I don't know when to just SHUT UP ALREADY, I am going to share with you something about ME and this show. In the year 2005 (the year of my separation, divorce, and immediate recovery from said divorce) I watched the first season of this show at least once (probably two or three times) back to back. Marathon watching. And I cried all the way through it Every.Single.Time. In that same year I bought the first season of the show Everwood and cried all the way through it. One could argue that I was just a drippy mess and a commercial could have set me off. I disagree. Everwood's first season revolved around the primary themes of accepting change and loss. (I was experiencing severe change and severe loss.) Joan of Arcadia revolved around the theme that God has a plan for our lives even if we cannot see it. (I needed to hear that particularly loudly right then since I was Out To Sea.) He always has our best interests and actively works in our lives, whether we choose to accept, believe, or understand it. I cannot tell you the number or times that I felt a message in an episode was meant for me to hear, see for what it was, and process it into MY life so that I could move on.

This first clip I found quite accidentally while trying to find a totally different clip. Yep, this is just part of the amazingness of how this all works. It reminded me of MY LAST POST (Getting It Right and Wrong, AKA The Holy Go) about stubbornness, determination, and standing on your principles even when the majority rejects it. It also reminds of how it feels when you DON'T do that and you can lose yourself. So, if you read that post, you should totally get this:



I was looking for a clip for Al Diaz and thought for half a minute this might be it ("eye of the tiger"), but then realized that it really was meant for Robyn over at Life By Chocolate: Robyn Alana Engel's Blog AND Yvonne at Writing My Life Away! Why? Because they are both familiar with loss, dusting yourself up as you get off, and the importance of not giving up on relationships:



If you are loving this version of HERE'S TO YOU, you can thank Red Shoes over at Red Shoe's Chronicles. He wrote a lovely blog about his friend, Scooter, and this journey that he has been on since he died. I went looking for a JOA clip for HIM and found all of the other gems along the way. So, Shoes this one is for you:



When I first started watching this one, I kept watching because I thought, "Oh good. This one actually relates to Julie over at Empty Nest Insider and her graduation post." However, in the end, I knew that this clip was actually for Jasmine over at A Yellow Rose of Texas (not to say that Julie won't appreciate it, too). Graduation is about leaving the familiar, embracing the unexpected, and accepting that we don't control everything. But, it can still be GREAT.



Stephen T. McCarthy touched my heart with his last blog bit (Battle of the Bands). The song made him think of a good friend who took his own life many years ago. My original thought was to dedicate Martina McBride's song Good Bye to him. However, when this post took the JOA turn I also had the perfect clip. If you want to listen to the song, you can click on this link...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x22ems1U3JA

Here is the JOA clip for Stephen:



This one is for Liza at Middle Passages. I printed her poem here during the A to Z. And that inspired her to write a post about what happened after... because of it. And that made me think of this clip. See how the circle turns:



Elizabeth Seckman posted about her 77 year old mother moving to Alaska with an 82 year old fella she met online. It is hard to know when to pull the people you love close and when to let them go. Harder still, that choice can be taken from you. You may want to pull them close, but they are ready to go. This was one of those episodes that netted a lot of crying (as mentioned in the intro of this post). For me, divorce wrenched two small children - not biologically mine - out of my life. I tried desperately to hang on and couldn't find any peace in even the idea, much less the reality, of letting go. So, Elizabeth, I feel for you and here's to you:



I mentioned above looking for the perfect clip for Al Diaz over at Dragon On A Mission. He wrote recently of seeing obstacles as challenges. It took a while, but I finally realized that this was the perfect one to address that idea and so many others that he shares on his blog: