Category: Life’s Lessons

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Great Courses – Yoga

Keep moving, no matter what. When you don’t want to workout or exercise, do it as soon as you can. Don’t leave it for months at a time. I have made a point of getting a sweat up for most of my life. I know that sometimes it is difficult to get to a gym or to have exercise equipment in your house, however, it is so worth it.

I just got my blood work back recently. The results are amazing. I have extremely low C-Reactive Protein, >2.90. What that means is very low inflammation going on in my body. Inflammation is the cause of most aging disease. Exercise helps keep that low. I also have hurt myself moving my sister in and out of a car to the point that I could hardly move. Yet, within a few days, I am back up and on the treadmill. And for the record, I am on a testosterone prescription. I can only say that the difference is incredible, for all the right reasons. Strength, stamina, mental attitude – especially, weight control, hair loss, skin dryness.

I decided to start Yoga exercise for when I cannot get to the gym, however, I am already finding that the stress release benefit can be felt every day. I am excited to start a new chapter of exercise that I have always wanted to experience. Through the National Geographic, The Great Courses offer so many courses that I have wanted to learn. Now I can do that from wherever I am in the world. Check out what they offer.

National Geographic –  Great Courses – Yoga

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Cow Killer Wasp

Wow! Just Wow! So I look down and see this in the grass and think, how unusual, think I will try to capture it. Then sense grabbed my arm and said, hmmm… might want to ask Mr. Google about that before doing that. So I take a pic and ask Mr. Google. Holy Crap, it is dangerous as hell. Eastern Velvet Ant, which is not an ant, but a solitary wasp, whose sting can kill a cow.

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Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do!

The times I am going through right now reminds me of my dad, or pop, as we all called him. As a child, I remember him saying that sometimes you have to be “hard-nosed”. I smile as I realize that I thought the saying had something to do exclusively with his nose. You see, my dad had a real schnoz.

I realize also that his hard nose policy got him through many things in life, including a handicapped child, cancer, divorce at 80 years of age. Whether it worked for him in all life situations is a good question. All I know for sure is that I adopted the same method of dealing with difficult situations.

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Introducing Clara Sophia

The role of parents is to give unconditional love and do whatever it takes to increase every child’s self-esteem. I am so proud of my daughter Mary and Clara. What a journey the universe brings to spiritual beings.

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Mother

I was raised to love my parents, no matter what they did to me. At what point does parenting cross the line to abuse and trauma?  Sorry just does not cut it. I have lived my life, as well as my siblings, always trying to overcome the PTSD that resulted from being beaten as a child. I am not talking about a small pat on the butt to get me out of the street and back on the sidewalk.

I am talking about being hit so hard with the back of my father’s hand at the dinner table that my chair flew backward and I landed on the floor. Not a word was spoken by anyone at the dinner table. I picked up my chair and began eating again.  After what seemed like an eternity, my father said, “Don’t have your hand on your glass and eat at the same time, it shows you are too anxious about life.” He would repeatedly tell me that I needed to learn the lessons quickly because he was old and didn’t have enough time to teach me over again.

Several thoughts have emerged as a result of this past weekend being Mother’s Day and so many social venues almost piffle over how much people loved their mothers and how much mothers love their children. Was it love from my mother that allowed her to stand in the kitchen preparing dinner while my father had my brother and I on a fold out couch with our bare asses exposed, while he beat us with a 2×10, so he could hit us both at the same time? Was it love that allowed her set dinner and sit quietly as my brother and I were forced to sit at the table, humiliated, abused, traumatized and in desperate need of comfort and affection from a nurturing parent?

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Birthday 67

The great thing about a “Bucket List” is that it is flexible and ever expanding. One of my favorite “stay young” songs is “18 Til I Die”.

I had the most epic experience for this birthday, just to make sure I was not slowing down in any way. The Virginia International Raceway (VIR) has an annual charity event that provided me the incredible opportunity to whirl around a race track at over 150 miles an hour in BOTH a Richard Petty NASCAR AND a Lamborghini. Each had its own experience, however, the Lamborghini can be bought for a mere quarter of a million dollars. I didn’t ask what the insurance cost would be.

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Thoughts From Journals Past

One of the most important things for me to do is to write.  I remember as a young child 7-8 yrso, I would tell stories to myself and write stories all afternoon on a sunny day outside. They most often started with “and then”.  Each chapter would continue with “and then”. Even now I seem to receive an enormous amount of satisfaction and increased self-esteem simply by writing what is on my mind.

Due to that compulsion, I have written journals dating back to my early twenties. Every once in a while, I pick up an old friend and languish in the joy and misery of times past. I am often amazed, and amused as well, by some of the nuggets that I have thought to paper.

Here are some samples:

“Safety in a shipwreck can only be appreciated from the side of disaster.”  – January 2012

“Happiness is not simply about laughter or sexual release or being fulfilled, or purposeful, or determining why we are here. No, it’s the feeling of contentment of knowing we are being here in the moment, exerting as much focus as possible on keeping love in our hearts for as many minutes as possible; so that at the end of the day we can feel that we have invested sufficient amounts of time and energy to be able to say; “I did my best”. – January 2012

“Love is also fiery with contrast – looking for a new and exciting place to land.” – December 2011.

“Changes are like emotions. They can occur quite unexpectedly, like no rhyme or reason. They take us by such surprise that we are caught totally off guard and simply unsure of the direction to take. All we know is that we have to deal with a new environment that will require the same attention, minute by minute, feeling by feeling, ever mutating to the point of near insanity. Constantly we examine our truth. Being true to oneself can invite the Freudian mind to intercept and pirate our thoughts to less qualified endings.” – December 2011

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Begin Again 2014

It always surprises me, and I am not sure why, that when it is time to begin again, to wipe the slate clean and start over at any time, I seem to need some outside source to get me to see it all over again as something new, yet not new at all.

Yesterday was one of those events.  I met with a Duke University psychologist to try to get a handle on some confusing issues that was leaving me stuck in negative emotions for more time than I wanted to waste.

His advice was  I know, begin again. Imagine being at the beginning of a new conveyor belt, and I can go in any direction, or not. The choice is mine. As always, I choose forward with the necessary changes to have more fun and enjoy the life I have.  All we have is NOW!

It is said that people feel peace-of-mind to the extent that they feel in control of their lives. This should really be in control of their attitude, that illusive being that functions as both brake and accelerator of our happiness.

An interesting thing, depression. When someone can change their attitude so quickly, and often so effortlessly, by such simple things as answering the phone or gaining some input from outside influence. The difference for deep depression is that no input gets through. It acts like a secret dark veil that shrouds our minds to the point of numbness to all stimulus.

 

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I Love My Mom!

My mom read books every night. Mysteries mostly. She would take me along with her to the Akron Public Library every Thursday night, where she would direct me to the children’s shelves while she selected at least 4-5 books for the next week’s reading. She would read from late evening until 2-3 am every night.

Being so artistic, she also enjoyed writing to people. The following was sent to me along with a couple of crochet doyleys. What an amazing woman! Insightful, able to teach by fable, ability to laugh at the moment, and uplift the soul.  Mom, I love you!