Day 18: Here's To Health

It's funny. I never noticed how many cliches seem to govern my life or my thoughts until I started writing this blog. But when I think about how I have nicknames for everything and everyone it shouldn't surprise me. I think in soundbites, so cliches are just a natural outgrowth of that. One of my friends keeps telling me I should write my own "Judi" decoder book so I won't have to keep telling people "catch up."

Ah, but I digress (yet again). So what's the overused and tired phrase that I am thinking about today? It is, "when you've got your health, you've got everything." While it is true that after working for hours on the computer, my wrists are either on fire and/or numb, and sometimes when I get up in the morning I am a bit stiff, for the most part I am very healthy.

I am thinking about health for a lot of reasons, most of them are really good. For one thing, my Aunt Julia is turning 90 tomorrow and shows no signs of slowing down. And my Uncle Sam and Aunt Hazel are both turning 90 later this year and are also doing wonderfully.

And, of course, there's my Dad, aside from having to replace knees and hips, at 80, he's incredibly healthy and active. I know a lot of that is strong genes, but I also know a lot of it is because he has taken good care of himself and ironically, all that physical activity wore out his knees and hips.

I remember getting so mad at him when I was a kid because he wouldn't take us to eat fast food because he thought it was crap. Hmm, smart man. He would give in on my birthday because it was a big deal when I was a kid to go to Mc Donald's. Brilliant I know, but it wasn't something most people did that often in those days.

I also know that taking care of yourself is not always a guarantee. Which is the other reason I am thinking about health today. I had lunch with another friend today and we had a great time catching up. She's a history buff, and she was eating up the stories of what I have uncovered through my research and what is going into our book, like it was candy.

But, sadly, her husband has cancer, and there's not much else they can do for him, and while we didn't talk about it today in specific terms, we did talk about how life is going to change and has changed because of it.

It just makes me think about how we never know what's in store for us, or how long we really have and how we need to live while we are here and healthy. And, I mean really live, not just be a passive spectator in my own life.

As I took my walk this afternoon, I reminded myself that I am only here for a short time and to not let anything stop me from doing what I want to do, and to enjoy the time I am here and to have fun!

 

 

"Unbeing dead isn't being alive." ~e.e. cummings

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance." ~Author Unknown

Day 17: In Pursuit of a DFZ (Drama Free Zone)

Today has been one of those days that I might have called boring when I was young, say 20-something (yeah, that was a long time ago). Not that I was bored, or that I didn't have anything to do, or that I found it boring. I had plenty to do and I did a lot of it. In fact, I have so much to do I didn't finish it all.

It's just that as I have been working on looking at my life differently, I realized what I used to think was exciting when I was young, was just getting caught up in everybody's drama. Ironically, it gets really boring if that's all you ever get from them.

As I have gotten older, I find that I really have no tolerance anymore for drama, big or small. And, I am really, really tired of people making little things so big, or turning everything into a hassle when it really isn't.

I am digging my heels in and not allowing myself to be dragged into it anymore. And, it's not for lack of other people trying to create it. I have just reached the point where I have just started to back away and to "disengage." I don't get angry, I don't get upset, and I just respond politely and then stop responding by moving on to something or someone else.

To yet again use another tired cliché, life is short. There are so many things I want to do and see, so many people I want to be with who don't create drama, and sadly, there's enough "real" drama in living, you don't need to create your own. Why would I want to waste what precious free time I have in helping you do that? So, if anyone wants to join me, I would love some company in my pursuit of a DFZ!

Day 16: Not Another Manic Monday

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today was Monday (again, I am on fire with the calendar skills). But, unlike most Mondays, today was very calm and it was not as hard for me to get going as it usually is on Monday.

One of the reasons is that today is Dr. King's Birthday/Holiday (his actual birthday was yesterday) and I always take time to reflect on his life and legacy and my own progress in helping others. Up until about a year ago, I was volunteering and helping so much, that I was neglecting my own life and the things I needed to do for myself.

So, this past year, I made a conscious decision to cut back, and have been focusing less on my volunteer activities and more on my work and my own life. I am still an active, certified UC Master Gardener and I volunteer and lead garden workshops in the community. But, I am not currently on any boards or commissions and I honestly don't miss it.

And, once my book is done I might add something else back in, but it will be more focused on these kind of hands on things. Not only do I find them more meaningful, but I enjoy them more. I have found nothing better than having somebody thank me for giving them back the gift of gardening because they thought they couldn't do it anymore.

Today, I didn't do any volunteer work but I did have a lovely afternoon with a long-time friend looking at her garden(s), yep she has two spots to garden, one of them has 1,400 square feet and is an urban farmers' dream.

She wanted me to come over and give her some ideas of what edibles she should plant, etc. So, hopefully I gave her some useful info. and inspired her to keep growing. We had a great conversation not only catching up, but about the responsibility that we all have to be stewards of the earth, and to leave a legacy for the future.

While it wasn't the usual way I give back to the community, it was a great way to celebrate Dr. King's legacy, sharing the love of gardening and helping others with an old friend that has always inspired me and continues to do so.

Day 15: The Power of Productivity

Well, today has been a very productive day: I took a walk, I cleaned the house, I got more research done on my section of the next book chapter and wrote some more of it too. So, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time: I took a bubble bath in the middle of the day. It was wonderful and it felt so decadent. It reminded me that I need to do things like that more often to reinvigorate and recharge.

And now to end the day, I am writing a blog post here. I am not sure what it is about writing this blog but, it really has reinvigorated my writing, has gotten me re-motivated and has actually made me more productive. I was worried that the opposite would happen and I would spend all my time on this and not my work.

I don't know if there's a tired cliche like there is for everything else, but I am thinking, "productivity breeds productivity" works for what I am trying to convey. Oops, maybe not such a good idea :)!

Writing something so different from my usual "just the facts m'aam" stuff seems to have helped me break through my writer's block. I have been struggling since November with the book and other writing projects. Not sure if it was the holidays, or something else. It could be all that's going on in my brain. That is yet another topic for another day and/or blog.

As I was searching for some brilliant writer's motivational or writer's block quotes, I came across this poster. It answered my question about whether or not there was some kind of connection between stopping to do things like take a long, hot bath, and writing something like this blog. Turns out there is a direct connection and that I am supposed to be writing about doing those things. Hmm, sounds like a great idea for a blog....

Day 14: Four Months From 50

Today is January 14 (again, my brilliance at calendar reading is impressive I know). What that means is that my 50th birthday is exactly 4 months from today.

And, while I am not exactly celebrating that fact, I am celebrating the completion of another chapter of our book!!! This is Chapter 11: World War II and Post WWII Agriculture in Los Angeles. I have sent the draft off to my writing partner Rachel and am hoping that it is as interesting (and hopefully coherent) to her, as it is to me and that in turn, once the whole book is done, it is interesting to other people too.

As I have been working, often until midnight or 1 a.m. while still getting up by 8 a.m., getting crankier and crankier, while my hands and wrists alternate between aching and numbness (yeah, been ignoring that for 20 years), I am ironically feeling happier and happier.

This got me to thinking and I realized that when I was younger, I never thought about work as something that was fun or that could make you happy. It was just something that you did to earn a living. And, I never thought that as I was approaching 50, that I would be looking forward to more years of working. I always thought I'd be ready to stop. But, I am not. I want to keep going, keep learning more and keep writing.

Because I have been pretty much writing/researching/etc. nonstop for the past three days, I thought I'd let some of my favorite quotes about finding and using your passion express how I am feeling. 

 "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman, author and philosopher 

"Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night." ~Terri Guillemets, creator of the Quote Garden

"One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar."~ Helen Keller 

"Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a career. Trust what inspires you.” ~The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success

Kind of expresses how I am feeling tonight!

Day 13: Finding That Friday Feeling

It has only been two weeks since my 50th year started, and I am already finding it hard to find something positive that I feel is worthy of writing about each day. While I have found that each day I am noticing the good things around me, it doesn't necessarily translate into something I can write about.

Take today for example. I am not really sure that even I would want to read about the piece of gravel I found today that I think resembles a heart. Does it really look like a heart? Or, as my friend Joe Galliani sees it, maybe it looks more like the Nike swoosh. And, seriously, what would I write about it anyway? Something sappy about love, how it is all around us? How I am overflowing with love? Please. Sappy and I do not play well together. Or, conversely, something pathetic about how I am in such need of it that I imagine seeing hearts everywhere? After all, it's just a piece of gravel.

Heart or Nike Swoosh, You Be The Judge!

So, since it is nearly midnight, and I just realized it is Friday night, and I have spent all day working on the book and am still not done with the WWII ag. chapter, all I can think about is how I miss Fridays. Or, more specifically, the feeling of Fridays knowing that you are work-free for the weekend.

Aside from the steady and predictable paycheck, oh yeah, and the paid vacation, holiday and sick days; having an entire, work-free weekend is the only other "perk" I miss about working for someone else. When you work for yourself, or work for an industry that doesn't stop on weekends or holidays, you work on the weekends.

I usually don't mind it because I love what I do so much. But, when I am working on a big project, say, like a book, it does get to me at times. As I have written about many times before, it reminds me of being in college, you always have papers, tests, etc. hanging over your head, but at least in college, I had definitive breaks, like spring break, ah my favorite.

But, even though I am prone to complain (yeah, shocking I know), I do know that I have one of the greatest gigs around. While I may not have traditional weekends free anymore unless I plan ahead for them, I pretty much get to work when I want to and I just have to remember that if I stay on top of my workload and my deadlines, I can create that Friday feeling whenever I want to, and don't have to wait until a "real" Friday to do it.

Day 12: "If You've Never Failed You've Never Lived"

I have never really been one of those people who is a big believer in "signs." You know, those things that people say are showing you what the universe has in store for you, or where it is pointing you, or that they are some kind of sign from a higher power.

As I wrote yesterday, I am a skeptic, and I have to have things right in front of my face in order to believe in it. But, I do believe in paying attention and being aware when several things that are quite similar happen during the same day because maybe there's some lesson I can learn from it, or that I can share with others.

The quote in my subject line comes from this video, also labeled "Best Motivation Video Ever." This video is short, a little over a minute. But, it is powerful and I just saw this on my news feed on Facebook, it is all about very famous people, gifted people from Thomas Edison and Walt Disney to Michael Jordan and the Beatles who were all told they weren't good enough, or, weren't very good at the thing that they ultimately became so well known for.

This was the third thing that happened to me today that was all about taking a risk and putting yourself out there; and that in order to be a complete, whole human being, we all have to experience rejection, competition, and failure. But, as one of my good friends always says, the only failure is never to try or do something because the doing is succeeding.

I completely agree with that. I have found that only through being rejected from employers, graduate schools, dozens of publishers, and even romantic partners, that I learned how strong I am and how to not only survive being rejected, but to come back even stronger. It also reveals to you just how strong your passion or desire is for something. If you are going to let other people's opinions stop you, then you are never going to get anywhere.

Nobody can teach you this, you have to live it and to experience it for yourself because once you "fail" and get back up, there's not much anybody can throw at you that you can't come back from.

 "If You've Never Failed You've Never Lived."