Mindset

It reads as follows:

As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a rope tied to their legs. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificient animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"Well", he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were. The powerful and gigantic creature has limited its present abilities by the limitations of its past.

Life the elephants, how many of us go through life holding onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? How many of us refuse to attempt something new and challenging because of our so called MINDSET?

Your attempt may fail, but never fail to make an attempt...........

&

CHOOSE not to accept the false boundaries and limitations created by the past..

Think before you speak

Had an interesting interesting conversation/topic come up recently. One that most would like to perhaps avoid or a best critize severely without really thinking about the situation before responding. Teen pregnancy!

What would you do if you found out that a teen age family member was 8 1/2 months pregnant and until that very moment you had absolutely no idea? I'm not talking about a family member that you don't see on a regular basis. No, I'm talking about a family member that lives under your own roof or a family member that you see very regularly.

There are no outward appearances of any physical change, no mood changes, no eating changes, no sleeping changes, or no changes with academic achievements. And suddenly one family member is the "lucky" family member to learn of this impending birth with very little time to react let alone perhaps make a rational decision on what to do as they are still in shock from the sudden announcement.

If you were presented with such a situation.....for the sake of conversation just hypothetically imagine.......how would you respond? What would be the option(s) (i.e., get the teen to the doctors, tell other family members, keep the child, adopt the child out, etc.)? Keeping in mind that eventhough you are perhaps realing from the sudden shock of the news, there's a teen that has been feeling terrified the entire pregnancy by keeping her silence.

Monkeying Around

During spring break we spent a number of days at the park when the weather was good. Amira's goal was to cross the monkey bars on her own, and she accomplished it. :-) She couldn't wait to return to school to show her friends how she mastered them.

Happy Easter

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Rainy Day Blues

Ugh! Along with the blooming of flowers, the blossoming of new leaves, and the lusteriest green grass all around which represent signs of spring. Scattered showers also represent spring as well. With the days filled with sunshine and the wondrous beauty that surrounds us, I find myself luminous and light. With the days filled with scattered rain, gray skies, I find myself sullen and melancholy.

It is of the later that I find myself the last couple of days, and I dislike how this makes me feel. I acknowledge there are so many things in my life that are a blessing. Moreover, I acknowledge that Amira and I are blessed beyond words. However, there’s that humanistic part of ourselves that even though we realize and acknowledge all of our blessings, we still, at times, long for something else.

For me, it’s a missing of a once great relationship. I’ve not wanted to post about this as it seemed too painful at the time to even put my feelings into words, but perhaps actually putting the words in writing I can finally once and for all move forward in my life.

Three weeks after my mom’s funeral my two best friends of 8 years decided to essentially vanish from my life. They have their reasons but to me I do not understand them. My one friend, Mindy, merely sent an email essentially saying she didn’t know how to be my friend anymore. My other friend, Vicky, slowly withdrew without a trace. It took me longer to figure out Vicky no longer wanted to be my friend because although she’d respond to my text messages she wouldn’t take my calls or accept any of my offers to do anything. Being a little slow and now feeling foolish for continuing to ask someone to spend time with me made me feel like a real ass when I realized she was no longer desiring to be my friend either.

I wish I knew the reason why they’ve decided to no longer be my friend. Although I’m not certain it would really matter-----would it? The end result is they no longer desire to have me in their lives.

I struggle with my feelings over them because I loved these two women dearly and never imagined my life without them. There were times when I’d imagine Mindy and I sitting on a porch somewhere as two old women laughing and talking over our lives journey. How we survived parenthood. How we probably out lived our husbands. How we were grateful to have one another all these years.

I’ve inquired as to what happened in our friendship to cause it to go array and have not received a response from either one of them, so realize I’ll probably never know and should just move forward with my own life as they have. But the pain from the loss is still real, and at times like these damn gray rainy days very prominent on my mind.

Spring is in the Air

Spring is definitely in the air i.e., trees blooming new leaves, flowers blossoming, staying lighter later, the uncertainty of weather (one minute cold and the next moment hot), the wind kicking up people’s allergies and the smell of BBQs to name a few.

Last weekend my dad returned from Arizona----YIPPIE! Thankfully he came home to great weather otherwise I’m sure he would have turned around and headed back to Arizona for a few more weeks. Although the good weather could have been a little trick, as it’s known to still rain and be cold through April and some of May, we’ll see. Anyway, he made it home safe and sound and is happy to be in his own bed after so long.

What a welcoming home though for dad as that very weekend I had bought a new bed for Amira and needed propane for my BBQ, and dad was right there to help. I’m sure he had no idea he was going to be delivery guy. We used his truck to get Amira’s new bed and he and I got it all set up in her room, then at the same time my brother’s neighbor’s niece was having a baby any moment and was in desperate need of baby things so I gave them Amira’s crib which was essentially brand new as she sleeps with me and two car seats. So we loaded dad’s truck up with that stuff and off he went to the next stop.

The next day we fired up the BBQ and I made Amira hamburgers for dinner. She set the table we have outside with our plates, napkins, drinks and condiments for the hamburgers along with fresh tomatoes. She was so thrilled for the hamburgers that she ended up eating nearly two whole burgers herself. I swear I don’t know where she puts that food, but her eating is always a topic for conversation. It seems from what people share that kids can be picky eaters or at best not eat much at all. The parents are always complaining their kids never eat and certainly not vegetables, so when Amira comes along and eats whatever is presented to her it’s as if she’s breaking some non-eating kids record.

Today we will be planting our very small garden, which we are both thrilled about. We are planting tomatoes, strawberries, sweet basil and peppermint. I’ve never personally planted a garden so am thrilled to see what happens. I remember as a kid we had a garden and thought it was thrilling. Although from my parents point of view years later, it was a lot of work. Should the results of our labor produce anything we’ll be sure and share photos.

One of my friends/former co-workers is going through a rough time. She’s the one I may have shared is 20 years old and lost her mom recently. A couple of weeks after losing her mom she was able to return to work, but to only be dismissed from her position after a few days. I’m not certain of the details nor does it matter, but nonetheless I’m feeling for this girl because right now she’s in the place where everything that seems to go wrong will go wrong. So for a good excuse to keep with the use of the BBQ I invited her and a few other co-workers to come for a BBQ.