Keepin’ On

Learning to be me is still young

even tho' seven decades have passed

Becoming my self

outside of a dedicated life

is an opportunity to explore

a differently dedicated living.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

~ Albert Einstein

After Effects

Four years ago tonight

my nursing career 

came to a gentle stop: 

 

Life has blossomed with

craft projects for 3 year olds, 

new friends and old, 

exploring Regina again,

the kitchen as my happy place, 

writing projects in progress. 

and beautiful ordinary household chores,

shopping for groceries and home

   caring for my feline roommate. 

It’s all good!

“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, 

life will reward you with a new hello.”

~ Paul Coelho

Embrace ~ HOME ~Theme for December 2021

Home, a feeling surrounded by photographs and recipes…….

Open air, whether in deep forest, widening prairies, or bottomless ocean……..

Moving from house to house….

Exploring, in baby steps,  I welcome the ghosts…………

“Home is where one starts from.”

~ T.S.Eliot

Pie

Energy focused on 

Sensational sensations

Magnificent medals

Amazing adventures

       ~ feels like a delicious pie     

     in the sky

Energy focused on 

Commitment to learning more

Confident knowledge of self

Curiosity for more exploration

      ~ feels like a butterfly in the palm of my hand.

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”

~ Lloyd Alexander, American author (1924 - 2007)

Suddenly Choices

Lynn Canyon Park, North Vancouver
from the centre of the foot bridge

Standing tall and taking a deep breath, 

     potential, 

      risk and 

       possibility surround me.

But which wins my heart and soul?

Or will it be all three?

Only the one

     in front of me

       planned with exploration the goal

         popping up out of the blue

With intriguing elements that 

     warm my heart

        bring smiles to my face

           expand my soul.

Always room for the challenges of

     Rocky roads

       Sudden detours 

          Stormy weather.

Standing tall and taking a deep breath, 

I choose.

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”

~ Nelson Mandela

A Second Childhood?

I’m curious. Authors and writing educators say ‘Write what you know.’ Thus my curiosity. I am often asked the question: ‘how do you like retirement?’ Or how’s retirement going? Probably daily I hear some version of these questions. Sometimes I have an answer. Sometimes I have a faint distant headache from trying to think of an answer. Because I don’t know retirement. I only know that I’ve retired from being employed as a nurse. I’ve let go of my nursing registration. My question is: who was I before I was a nurse. Before I was married. Before I was raising my two sons. In essence: Before. I only remember that person as a child, an adolescent… and then life changed, 

Thus my curiosity, because I haven’t retired from life. Or from being me. I could say that I retired from being me just after high school, giving my self over to the world of adulthood, and all that came with it. So am I now in a second childhood? Not one of senility or being in my dotage. But having the ability to play and learn. To read interesting books. To explore. These things and more along with the life experience of an adult. There are more things to play at ~ going to plays, movies and musical events of my choosing and on my own should I decide to. To have a library and book stores within walking distance. To wander through the city and the park to find out what is there for me to enjoy. To learn. To learn my style of home decor after years of just putting things together. What time should I set the bread to rise.

So how is retirement going? To-day is a good day with my unlimited imagination only reined in by the oven timer going off ~ Bread’s done! By the phone ringing and a good chat with my sister. By going out this afternoon to slip into the sparkling pool for fun and exercise. In between all of these things, it is doing nothing, or paying bills, exploring through old pictures and journals. In short, I have a choice between retiring from life or retiring into a very interesting life. Even shorter: I’m curious.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own 

reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates 

the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is 

enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”

~ Albert Einstein, “Old Man’s Advice to Youth: ‘Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.’” (LIFE Magazine (2May1955) p.64

Wizardry

Note the peanut above the rhizomes!

Magic happens today

when I read stories, ideas and essays

that turned invisible switches

in my too scheduled habits 

thoughtfully sliding them into 

slots lain empty for years 

gathering the empty dust of longing. 

With the fresh breath of new ideas 

dust scatters as though never there 

leaving a shiny and new space, 

  a void, 

    a vacuum 

awaiting keys to new kingdoms 

of thought, adventure and ideas

for exciting exploration and growth.

Magic happens today 

when I feel the minutiae of 

my life like precious gems,

while watching tiny flowers open 

cautiously in the protected shelter of 

the twigs, pebbles and mulch of experience 

welcoming each fresh drop of moisture 

to nourish roots already established,

growing with each breath in story, song and dance.

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes 

the whole world around you because the greatest 

secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. 

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

~ Roald Dahl

Slippage

Slipping out of our comfort zones 

sometimes feels like

stepping on a banana peel 

landing hard

ego bruised with embarrassment,

taking a deep breath

wiping any stray tears away

(but there’s never any tears)

standing tall - or at least tallish -

peering into a new world.

We are, after all, resilient,

able to set one foot after the other

to find the intrigue and mystery

of exploring our own limits

finding a world more than we have ever known.

“A man grows most tired while standing still.”

~ A Chinese Proverb

Somedays

Somedays

I feel like a lab rat trapped 

inside the maze of my skin

feeling all the twinges of my age

not serious twinges but enough that

I hear whispers - 'Scurry off to a doctor.'

'Tell me what's really wrong.'

Somedays

I know that my nursing wisdom 

tells me that there are a million reasons

for each twinge, ache or pain and that 

asking for machines to beep and buzz

is not a good use of our health care system.

Somedays

I get scared and know that

my twinges will result in 

fatal disease or major surgery,

chronic consequences filled 

with pain and disability

Somedays

I feel like an explorer

investigating the depths of my body

ferreting out forgotten strengths

finding that I am not trapped but

I am healthy with no need for labels or prescriptions.

Somedays

my inner wisdom may grow weak

but if I breathe deeply it glows with strength 

finding peace for soul and family, 

healing for body and mind 

knowing that a twinge may just be a twinge.

“It's never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, 

stupidly obvious things about oneself.”

~ Alain de Botton

A Review: Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer with Dr.Mireya Mayor

Exploring in Beacon Hill Park September, 2014

It was the land. The exotic wildlife in the trees - silky lemurs, coiling venomous snakes and silverback gorillas. The broad, thick rivers of the Amazon and the dense jungles of Madagascar. Dr. Mireya Mayor, not allowed to join the Girl Guides because her mother felt it was too dangerous, went on to be an NFL cheerleader, went to law school and detoured to wildlife research and exploration. Always interested in animals, she told us of the menagerie of cats, dogs and other animals she had as a teenager. It was a natural progression to expanding that interest to research about animals, although it took time and daring. Even with all the cultural experiences I have had here in Victoria, Dr. Mayor gave me a trip that I, and most of the audience at the Royal Theatre this past Tuesday night, will possibly ever take. Scaling perpendicular cliffs to a three foot wide base camp where their group’s tents were secured by one spike in the cliff. Better to see that experience than participate. Traveling by boat on the Amazon. While researching lemurs in Madagascar never before researched, Dr. Mayor discovered the smallest known lemur that she was able to hold in the palm of her hand. Lemurs are very cute! Descriptions of gorilla culture and family life - both humorous and dangerous. Her presentation was accompanied by video clips of her explorations. It all excited and at the same time brought me peace while I watched and listened.

Microphones were opened to the audience for a twenty minute question and answer period following this very interesting presentation by Dr. Mayor who has been dubbed a ' female Indiana Jones' because of her adventures. This was as interesting and enjoyable as the presentation. Most of the questioners were children of, I suppose, about 10 years to 12 years old. They were articulate and curious about how to get involved in similar adventures and how Dr. Mayor developed her interest. Questions about climate change and how it affected her work. As Dr. Mayor had spoken of the poverty of the communities she had encountered. The question that arose from that was how her exploration and research was of benifit to them. She replied that they try to hire as many local people as possible, provide education about the wildlife around them for adults and children and support the conservation of the area.

For anyone interested in young people’s involvement they can go to the National Geographic website. Dr. Mayor did suggest that there are now grants for youth as well as grants for research or exploration involvement.

“But in life there are detours, and for a brief time 

I headed not toward the wilds but in the opposite direction.”

~ Mireya Mayor, Pink boots and a Machete: 

My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer

Dr. Mireya Mayor has written a book entitled: 

Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer with the forward by Jane Goodall

Published by National Geographic

Copyright 2011

ISBM: 978-1-4262-0721-1 (hardback)

Continuum

At the beginning of any continuum there is a word ~ 

boredom begins it's own 

continuum floating 

in the mist marking time 

'til creativity begins a dance 

along a time line to curiousity 

and exploration 'til 

boredom loops around again
closing the circle for rest and calm.

“Patience is the ability to enjoy the calm of boredom.”

~ Jakub Boźydar Wiśniewski, 

The Pith of Life: Aphorisms In Honor of Liberty

Permission Granted ~ 1

At the beginning of formal education, we are not asked if we wish to go to school, nor are we given permission to go to school, but we are expected to go to school. There is a buildup, to follow our siblings footsteps into classrooms and activities of learning. This expectation arose with the development of public school systems over the last 150 - 200 years, and in some countries only over the last 50 years. Each culture has had their own formal educational systems, much of it tied to the religious organizations of the day - whether Catholic, Islamic or Jewish. 

As cultures have meshed, secular ideologies have developed, schools focused more on the task oriented classes - reading, writing and ‘arithmetic; shop and home economics. Art, penmanship and music, while in early classrooms was standard, have been winnowed away with education dollars.

Arithmetic has graduated to calculus, algebra, and trigonometry - much grander forms of mathematics, none of which were my best subjects. Reading is no longer just from hardcover textbooks but Google Scholar, Wikipedia and a host of search engines. The permission to be creative is relegated to the arts and yet creativity shows a deeper value in development of any of the classes whether task oriented or not.

One of my previous posts asked the questions 'who thought of' and 'who developed' in relation to the immediate needs of blankets and clothing. I ask these questions again in relationship to any piece of technology we use in the present day. Development becomes creativity in action after any question has been posed. In our classrooms, if questions are shunted aside because it does not fit a curriculum creates it's own potential. Snuffing out an idea, putting a period behind a question. 

As a child before school days consume waking hours, creativity is what children do with all manner of games and activities. As a child, listening to trusted adults, the permission to explore the why or how come or an idea may not be given. The exploration can then be toward who will give permission. And some of those may be a marvellous teacher who sees potential and recognizes curiosity an uncle or aunt, a parent or grandparent that shares and works with the spark of enthusiasm, a librarian who redirects a teenager to obscure or maybe more timely writings……. 

Recognizing the spark and nurturing it, whether in ourselves or in a child is one of the lovely responsibilities of life.

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, 

we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.”

~ Sir Ken Robinson