Another Aha! Moment

I've enjoyed reading for about 60 of my 67 years. Thousands of my articles of choice have been connected to the whys of human behavior and studies on the workings of the brain. I'm pretty introspective and have wondered about my various personality quirks such as why I've always thought of myself as shy, my "loner" instinct and my delight with God, angels and all things spiritual. Now I've just finished reading an article in the January 2009 O magazine, that packed a powerful punch and shed a bright, bright light on the reason behind so much of human behavior. I feel so enlightened by this bright light and I want to share it........Here's the gist of the theory presented by Robert Kegan, PhD, and Lisa Lahey, EdD, experts in adult learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education: " What lies underneath the surface is anxiety...the most important - and least understood- private emotion in public life. Most of us think of anxiety as panic attacks or stage fright, acute episodes brought on by a big presentation to the boss or some other high stakes presentation. Or a condition specific to people who were traumatized as children or survived some horrifying event. But Kegan and Lahey see anxiety as our brain's background noise, revving up when we're confronted with something new, unfamiliar or threatening, and operating at such low volume that we don't even hear it...We all have anxiety just by virtue of being human. We don't think of ourselves as continually fearful...because we have figured out how to manage the undercurrent of anxiety.".....These thoughts made me think of all the different ways people handle this murmuring state - pills, alcohol, meditation, yoga, sports, movies and all the other diversions created by our technologically advanced civilization. My method of coping with the anxiety has been to call on and establish a relationship with God, Blessed Mary, my guardian angel and various other saints . I always thought I was abnormal because of my "shyness" but now it feels good to know I'm just a normal human being and I'm glad I've chosen God and His cohorts to calm my murmur rather than some of the other methods. How do you calm your murmur of anxiety?

This and That

Our spring is moving along fast here at Lakeside Gardens. The garden is planted but we've had several nights that the temperature has gone down to 34 and 33, so close to freezing! But, thank God, not to that killing frost. It warms up to the 5o's and 60's during the day so the veggie and flower sprouts are poking through the black earth.

Bing and I really hustled this spring. Our deadline to get things done was May 30th, when the four fishermen from Milwaukee would be arriving for a week's stay. We planted and cleaned and helped Tony and Carmen with some dump hauling as they made their move from one house to another. The boats were put back in the water after their winter siesta. We also helped stimulate the economy by replacing our non working whirlpool tub with a new one and by getting some new living room furniture. Now, we're living with just one vehicle since the car has been at the shop for a week and they can't figure out what's wrong with it. Maybe we'll have to look for another good used one. Life is never static - we and the universe are always in motion.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Our computer crashed and it took about a month to get it working again. If you would have asked me before the crash, how much would you miss your computer if you didn't have it? I would have said a little. But we missed it a lot! I didn't realize that we had become pretty dependent on this handy dandy high tech thing a ma jig. So we're back on board but a little more appreciative of the amazing reach of such a device.

While we were crashed, Spring did its magic on our Northwoods. The landscape is now sporting fifty different shades of green and the blossoms and early flowers are shouting for joy. The Loons are yodeling and the Peepers are peeping. The pictures don't capture the scents and sounds of springtime but they give a glimpse of the miracle of seasonal transformation.

A couple of the pictures show our memorial stone garden on our hillside. It reminds us of the love our deceased family members bestowed on us. We offer prayers of thanksgiving for all of the sacrifices they made for us and the values they instilled in us. We can learn much from those who have gone before us.

Happy Easter 2009

It's a happy, hopeful time of year. It's fun to have holidays, holy days and celebrations sprinkled throughout the year. These are days to gather and play out the various traditions. Egg dying and dummy bunny making was fun yesterday when Courtney, Alexa and Eli spent the day with us. It was extra fun because Grandma Milli, who is 96, is visiting. The kids love showing her all their skills and keeping her informed of their activities. We even had a nice walk down Apple Lane with them on their scooters and a tricycle. It's so neat to think of the possible two centuries that could be scanned by Eli, 3, and Milli, 96 - what changes and amazing transitions from horses and buggies to who knows what?! Happy Easter everybody and may the risen Lord within us fill us with joy and gratitude and enlightening thought!

March Flew By

Wow! It's the end of March already. It just flew by and it's a good thing all our months aren't twenty eight days. There wouldn't be enough days to do the proper March things. And what are they, you say? Well, we've basked in the sun, shoveled snow, tapped Maple trees, boiled the sap and made a few gallons of Maple syrup, planted some seeds and marvelled at their sprouting, sanded some chairs for repainting, walked on the lake as it's still solid ice, saluted St. Patty and tried some Lenten self sacrifice. March weather is baffling and unpredictable and the wind never seems to stop. I think it's God's way of blowing the winter debris aside. But if you look with the eye of a nature child, you can see tiny buds forming on the willows and feel a happy little hope in the heart for the inevitable and welcome transformation from the winter palette to the screamingly audacious greens of springtime .

Ponder, Ponder - why not Make Some Changes

This whole big economics mess in which the world finds itself brings on the pondering. I'm trying to think ouside the box and that's a little hard for me because that box for me has never been too defined or distinct. ...........But here's my latest thought. 1. People need jobs to earn money to live comfortably. 2.Many people have jobs who already live comfortably and could probably work only half of the hours they do and could give half of their job to someone else who could also get by on half a job. That would mean that all of these people would work twenty hours per week instead of the usual forty. That would free these folks to become more involved with their families, the arts, athletic pursuits, gardening, canning, hunting, fishing and so many other healthy and meaningful uses of time. They would have the time to use their particular God given talents to find ways to survive comfortably on a smaller but sufficient income and time to train themselves to be less of a materialist and more of a contributing citizen of the earth. These lifestyle changes would in turn lead to much less demand for medical services because the stress would be so reduced. ......... I will not turn this into a frightfully long dissertation but let yourself ponder it awhile and see if it has merit............The picture is from Google images . It's an unemployment line somewhere.

Building Projects

Last Saturday we had a "special day". That's become the name of days we spend with our grandchildren. Sometimes we have one or two or three or four or five kids. Last Saturday we had all five. Part of the day was spent using the living room as a tool shop. Bing's brother, Paul , works part time at Lowes in his winter home of Fort Myers, Fla. Lowes has workshops for kids sometimes and Paul nicely collected a lot of the extra kits and sent them up to us for the kids. We brought the big box out last week and let the kids pick whatever they wanted to make. Eli, 3 picked a sailboat and Uncle Bernie helped him make it. Jamie, 10, and Alexa, 6, picked race cars, Michaela, 13, picked a squirrel feeder and Courtney chose a bird house. It was fun to see them work hard to put them together and hammer the nails. etc. Bing and I helped a little and Jamie helped Alexa a lot. They were pleased with their results and the three girls painted theirs. It is so neat to see these five cousins growing and learning and establishing family memories.