Unsung Heroes

Little notes written to encourage someone to keep their chin up, to remind them that God hasn't forgotten them.  And neither have you.

Long, boring hours beside a hospital bed, holding the hand and whispering into the ear of a dying grandmother who may not even know you're in the room.

An hour-long, nonsensical Barbie adventure with your four-year-old (complete with your own falsetto voices) even though you were just fifty pages away from tying up the loose ends of a good mystery novel.

Great people in God's eyes are the ones...who are willing to be faithful when it doesn't show, humble when it doesn't profit, and unafraid to say no to their own self-will...

They will know the joy of sharing a kind word, the pleasure of buying someone a cup of coffee.  They will come to know quicker than the rest of us what life is all about.  Life is in the little things.

(Reprinted from The One Minute Bible)

A Quiet Day

Whoa.  Under 50 degrees all day and this is Florida?  The locals tell me it happens, but isn't usual in winter.  I guess I'll find out.

It was mostly an inside day, with one trip out into the world, just to beat any case of the lonelies that could've arisen had I not ventured out amongst the peeps.

What an exciting afternoon.  Here's where I ended up:

Olive Garden.

For soup and salad.

(And a piece of Tuxedo pie to bring home....yum)

A Strange Combination....for me, anyway

(Click to enlarge and actually see)

After sunset, 49 degrees, no one at the pool's happy hour bar (duh), sound of waves on the beach, and

Christmas lights.

Just doesn't seem to add up, in my Midwest experience. 

Those features should be in distinctly separate scenarios.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (not in that order)

Many times I am driving along in my car, singing along with the music, and feeling absolute joy.  I love my life and have been greatly blessed.  I feel such gratitude and happiness most of the time.

Other times, I read things like the following and am saddened and angered by life....or I should say by "people"?  I'm sure I'm no different than most of you out there in these fluctuating emotions.

Here are three things that sobered me today:

From Verbatim in Time magazine:

"I was shouting, but no one could hear me."

Rom Houben, a Belgian man who was mistakenly presumed to be in a coma for 23 years after becoming paralyzed in a car crash.  A recent journal article revealed that doctors, using new scanning techniques, discovered in 2006 that Houben, who could not speak, had normal brain function.  He now communicates using a special keyboard.

(I'm not blaming doctors for not knowing the man was viable in this scenario.  From this tidbit of information, it sounds as if the technology to discover his predicament didn't exist until now.  But it does underscore what people need to remember:  Medicine is an art as much as a science.  And there are good doctors and bad doctors.  And we really need to be our own best advocates by researching and researching and continuing to ask questions.  Don't rely on one doctor and stop there.)

"I want to have an easy job.  A job where nobody hits or hurts us."

Sabar Mina, an 8-year-old Pakistani girl, who, instead of attending school, is forced to work for pennies smuggling food across the Afghanistan border.

(Will we ever have a world in which the innocents, children and animals, aren't abused, neglected or exploited?)

On the encouraging side:

"To change America's course we need to change ourselves, our expectations and our willingness to accept the unacceptable.  When we refuse to allow our children to receive a trophy for [simple] participation, we are on the road to restoring the meaning of merit in our Republic.  When we insist that no one is too big to fail [Wall Street, corporations] we will be able to learn from our mistakes."

(Thank you, Glenn Beck, from a liberal who doesn't usually agree with you.)

A New Venture, Long Overdue

In my 30's I became an "idiot vegetarian". 

No, I am not saying vegetarians are idiots;  quite the opposite.   Vegetarianism has it way over non-vegetarianism in terms of nutrition for longterm health and detrimental effects on the planet. 

What I mean by an "idiot vegetarian" is that all I did really was cut out meat and eat too many "bad" carbs instead of  "good" carbs, and not nearly enough beans and legumes or nuts and good fats.  Can you imagine my diet in view of that and the fact that I didn't cook?  Like, at all?  In fact, my doctor told me I was borderline anemic.  (So that's why I would lie on the floor of my classroom during my free period and instantly fall asleep!  I just thought it was teacher-single parent exhaustion.)

I actually did this (idiot) vegetarian stint for several years right after I met some PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) representatives who gave a presentation on their organization's beliefs.  There are many animal abuse/neglect/exploitation issues that PETA works to remedy, but what really impacted me was when the rep said, "If you want to do something that will help the most animals, become a vegetarian."  They explained how factory farming was the area that encompassed the most large-scale abuse worldwide.  (I won't go into the gruesome details here.)  That did it.  Not only was it a healthful way of eating and did not contribute to pollution the way raising animals for consumption does, but it was also humane.

Fast forward from my failed first attempt now that I'm retired and now that I've finally become more interested in cooking.  (Fellow English teachers will appreciate the accidental alliteration beginning that sentence.)  I'm using this winter in Florida to learn some new recipes and skills.  I am again approaching the vegetarianism, or at least ovo-vegetarianism.  But this time, slowly.  And the right way.  I bought two new cookbooks (actually, vegan ones....no animal products whatsoever) and am going to try new recipes every week.  The first time I ate tofu in a stirfry years ago, I loved it.  I already eat more salmon and tuna than meat.  And when I do eat meat, it's usually just chicken or turkey, rarely red meat.  I've cut out probably 80% of the cheese I used to eat.  So I'm on my way.  (We're saying nothing about chocolate in this post, which by the way, is vegetarian anyway...)

Here's what I just bought down here to grill marinated tofu, make some sauces to flavor up the tons of veggies I plan to consume, and to make little grilled veggie sandwiches or egg sandwiches.  (Yes, all cast iron.)

The potato masher?  Oh, that's just because at nearly 60, I've never had one.  (I told you I didn't cook!)

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men....

often go awry....or astray.....something like that.  (By the way, one thing I miss about teaching is reading Of Mice and Men to my junior remedials, doing all the voices, especially Lennie's, and having even the toughest of the boys enjoy it!)

Well, my best laid plan of having an extra car key in my purse just in case I ever accidentally locked my regular set of keys in the car just went awry.  Yep, you guessed it.  Locked those plus my purse with the extra car key inside the car.  And it's 54 and raining here in FL today.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.....and I only say "Brrrrrrr" because after spending four winters in FL, I no longer am steeled against the cold.  Brrrrrrrrr at 54?!  For a Chicagoan?  I'm turning into a wimp!

But I am "home" in my rented condo....had ya goin' there for a while, huh?  And thanks to my trusty AAA membership, which has saved me several other times the same way (when will I learn?!) I am now a free travelin' woman again.  Only took one phone call to a very pleasant AAA rep and a 60 minute wait.  And voila!

And that's my post for today.

Traveling Alone

I have traveled alone since my first trip to Europe in my early 30's up till and including now at 59, spending six months away from home in a condo rental in Florida.  So this article resonates with me. 

Posted on November 8, 2009 - by Janice at Solo Traveler
For Those Afraid of Traveling Alone

In one evening I encountered two thoughts about fear. When ideas converge like that, I just have to write about them.

According to a recent post by Seth Godin, people are “afraid of anything with too many choices, too many opportunities, to look foolish or to waste time or money.” In Steven C. Lunden’s, CATS, The Nine Lives of Innovation, “The doubts and fears accumulated over a lifetime are there, in part, to keep us safe and secure. They can also serve as a straight jacket preventing innovation.”

Solo travel is full of choice, opportunity, occasions to look foolish and waste money. On the flip side, home is safe and secure. But is life in a straight jacket what you want? Personally, I think it’s important that fear doesn’t stop people from traveling alone.

I have met many, many people over the course of writing this blog who have come out and declared their inclination to travel alone. They have felt freed to speak about this choice as positive rather than a sad option. Unfortunately, there are also many people who are fearful of traveling alone.

One of the first steps in facing any fear is to name it. Break it down to see the source of the fear and determine whether it makes sense or not.

What do people fear about traveling alone?

So I put this question to my favourite crowd-sourcing forum, Twitter. Not everyone who follows me on Twitter actually travels solo so this is my best source of a random sample. It includes people who enjoy traveling alone and those who don’t. Here’s what I heard…

@HowdyFrom – 1) looking lonely to others 2) not being able to share the experience.

@20sTravel – safety would be number 1 for me. I should add that it’s really my mother’s fear about my traveling alone more than mine

@rtwDave – Serious illness.

@cultoftravel – Fear of being lonely

@Dtravelsround – Getting wallet/pport/etc. stolen w/no support

@Spitfirekixee – Greatest fear re traveling–getting scammed by crafty businessfolk who prey on “tourist-looking” peeps.

@jianantonic – My biggest (only?) solo travel fear is getting lost. Having to figure out an unfamiliar place on my own is nerve-wracking.

And, I love this one…

@vrdeals – 1 fear: having no one to back up all the stories you come home with!


Deconstructing my fears
I still get nervous when traveling alone. I’m not afraid but I am nervous. It’s not for my safety as I trust most people and I’m careful. I’m not anxious about getting lonely because I’m quite capable of starting conversations. I don’t worry about sharing the experience because I know that I will have to relate the stories too often for my liking when I return.

No, my worry is about me being clumsy with my documents and time. I worry about missing flights and misplacing tickets. I don’t think they’ll be stolen, I think I’ll place them down absentmindedly and lose them.

So, with this understanding, I use the appropriate tactics when traveling alone. I plan my time carefully. I use my project management skills and start with the deadline and back up each step of the way along a time line – with extra time built in for the unexpected – to know my starting time. I have also established a specific place for documents every time I travel and developed the habit of using it.

Deconstructing your fears
I invite you to break down your fears about traveling alone the way I have. Get to know them. Dismiss what isn’t real and develop tactics for what is. And watch the “How to Travel Alone” section of this blog for strategies to deal with many fears about traveling alone.