Posts Tagged: life


5
Nov 10

Canoeing Over Class 5 Rapids

autumn-river1I never got the hang of water skiing.  I tried.  I only ever managed to cling to the rope while I was drug around the lake, ending up with extra long arms to prove how hard I tried.

I’ve kayaked once, canoed a few times, and rafted more times than I care to mention.

I’m more the lazy canoe or solo kayak type.

Perhaps I am a control freak, or maybe it’s just that I don’t like being spilled over the edge of some rubber flotation device, forced to drink a gallon of river plankton, while scraping the flesh off my shins, all by noon.

I thought of my relationship to water when I took my kids down by the river yesterday to do a little fresh air home schooling. Continue reading →


3
Nov 10

Gratefulness

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your life mightily.
Gerald Good

 

 

 


1
Nov 10

What Did You Do?

crunchy-leavesIt’s November 1st.  The bathroom has yet to be painted.  The pumpkin vines are snaking through the dead tomato plants.  The leaves are piled against the west fence.  I have managed to put the Halloween decorations up on the shelf in the garage, but the Thanksgiving decorations are piled on a chair next to the dining room table, waiting for me to decide where to display them.

I have a tendency (you probably have that same tendency) to beat myself up for what I didn’t get done, instead of reveling in the things that I accomplished.

There were plenty of things on the list for 2010.

Many were crossed off.

The book isn’t done. Continue reading →


30
Oct 10

I Am A Minimalist Parent

At this moment, Jenny is entranced by the Tim Burton version of Alice In Wonderland. Will finished making a batch of pancakes and is downloading skateboarding videos.  Later, they’ll make a birthday card for their cousin, ride their bikes on this glorious Fall day, and go to a bowling birthday party.

I’m not rushing around taking them to soccer practice, a Boy Scout meeting, a dance recital or karate lessons.

I take a minimalist’s approach to parenting by not jamming their schedules with lessons and practices.

I take issue with kids having schedules.

I could over-schedule them and decide what they should pursue to try to pave the way for an enriched future full of interests. Continue reading →


26
Oct 10

What’s The Rush?

fishin-but-not-catchinI took this picture four summers ago.  We’d gone camping a month after we’d moved out of their dad’s house.  I often wonder what Will was thinking while he was sitting and waiting for the ‘big one’ to land on his line.  I hope he was thinking like any other boy doing what he was doing – that he was thinking about fishing.

I don’t want to believe that he was thinking about not living at his dad’s.  I don’t want to know that he was wondering or worrying about what was happening to his eight year old life.

__________

Fast forward to today.

I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and I looked up at the calendar for something. Continue reading →


24
Oct 10

Making It Look Easy

tender-berriesThe Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.
Galileo Galilei


*Dear Jessesee if you can exude the same kind of grace.


22
Oct 10

Permission To Move On

The Universe wrapped her arm around me Wednesday evening.  I felt her warm breath on my ear.

This is what I heard her say:

“Listen, Honey, you’ve done a fine job.  I’m proud of you for doing your best.  I know this was hard for you.  You got through to him as much as you possibly can.  He’s injured, Dear, and you can’t do anything about it.  You knew that when you married  him, and you know that now.

You can rest easy in the knowledge that you have done as much as you possibly can.  I don’t expect any more from you.  Now you must focus your energies on caring for yourself and your children.  You have avoided the negativity as long as you could.  You tried tenderness and compassion.

It’s time for you to move on.”

__________ Continue reading →


21
Oct 10

When To Be Done

How long should you try?  Until.
Jim Rohn

 

 

 


18
Oct 10

Let Them Be

playing-at-being-a-kidTo bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
Josh Billings


Children have more need of models than of critics.
Carolyn Coats


Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children.
Marilyn Penland


What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.
P.D. James


When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen.  When they’re finished, I climb out.
Erma Bombeck

 

 


17
Oct 10

It’s All Perception

pleasantville“Clean up this mess!  How can we expect to have people over if this is what this place looks like?  Are we Pigs, here?  Can’t we put some order to this place?”

That is not what I said.  It is what I have thought.  I’m careful to not call it a ‘mess’, or ‘junk’.  I know she loves all her stuff.

Yes, it makes me crazy.

I can be heard saying, “Okay, I’ve had enough.  We need to find where this stuff lives.  It’s my house, too.  I love that you feel comfortable enough to explore, create, play and be, but at some point, I want to walk through the living room.”

I am done making excuses to friends. Continue reading →


15
Oct 10

Notes On Stress

clothes-on-the-line

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight.
Benjamin Franklin

 

 

Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.
Unknown

 

 

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.
Lily Tomlin

 

 

Stress:  The confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it.
Unknown

 

 

There are thousands of causes for stress, and one antidote to stress is self-expression.  That’s what happens to me every day.  My thoughts get off my chest, down my sleeves and onto my pad.
Garson Kanin

 


14
Oct 10

Drip, Drip, Drip

This chronically, unresolved stressful stuff with Mark is like a leaky faucet.

When we’re busy, we don’t hear the constant dripping.  When the music is turned up loud, I’d swear the plumber had been here today.  When we’re having dinner at mom’s, I might comment that I really ought to call a plumber, but 20 minutes into our visit, I’ve forgotten about the faucet.

I’ve asked several friends to recommend a good plumber.  I’ve checked the yellow pages.

When lessons are completed, the skateboard rests, and Barbie is tucked away for the day, the dripping is relentless.  We can hear it from every corner of the house.  When the three of us are tucked safely into our beds, all we can hear is the incessant DRIPPING.  We’ve gotten quite comfortable sleeping with pillows pressed to our ears.

When I’m lying in bed listening to the drip, I am convinced I need to call a plumber.  I know that if I attacked that faucet with a wrench, we’d have a geyser on our hands.  We’d have a flood instead of an annoying drip, drip, drip.  But, damn, plumbers cost a lot of money.

The three of us looked for a new house the other night.  We were on the internet, looking at new houses with shiny faucets, in new towns, in far away states.  Why does moving to a new state frighten me less than calling a plumber and tackling this drip head on? Continue reading →


13
Oct 10

Coincidence?

This isn’t coincidence, there’s no such thing.
Brandon Boyd

 


12
Oct 10

The Universe and Lima Beans

bambooShe was standing in the rice and beans aisle in the grocery store.  She’d forgotten her list.  She knew she needed some sort of rice or pasta or beans or some such.

All she could think about was buying a pack of cigarettes.

She wouldn’t smoke the whole pack.  She wanted to taste one single cigarette – not even the whole thing – one deep, long drag.  She stood there arguing with herself.  The first thing the surgeon said when she came to, after heart surgery six weeks ago was, “Listen, if you want this to work – if you don’t want to see me again – you MUST quit smoking.”

For the first few weeks, she had no desire.  Every single thought in her head was consumed with the act of survival.  All she could do was breathe and let her body heal.  She barely gave cigarettes a thought.  Who was she kidding?  She thought of them, but not with the desperation that she’d expected.

Now, on her first solo shopping trip, six long weeks after surgery, she was consumed with the prospect of buying and smoking one delicious, long. slender best friend. Continue reading →


10
Oct 10

The Power of Thought

energyThoughts have power; thoughts are energy. And you can make your world or break it by your own thinking.
Susan Taylor