High School Reunion Blues

Last night I met with nine classmates from 1981, only two of whom I had seen since we graduated. We met to form a planning group of nearly-50s who want to have a 30-year reunion next year.

This is a class that has only had one reunion, a 10th, and I did not attend that one.

My class had about 220 people in it; I was 5th in my class in rank. I was one of two student speakers who stood before the class, along with the valedictorian.

It was a really long time ago, those years when I was 17 about to turn 18. My whole life was ahead of me. If I only knew!

But don't we all say that when we are feeling nostalgic?

It was great seeing these old comrades, even though I was a bit of a loner who did not hang out with any specific group. A class of 220 divides itself into so many smaller sections - the jocks, the smokers, the smart kids, and others. I think this has gone on since time began and will always continue as like seeks like and prejudices remain regardless of the thinking of the day. It is a part of being human, and it is especially a part of being a teenager.

I was saddened to learn that almost a dozen of us have died in the years since we graduated. Two took their own life. One of the girls pictured above died in a car wreck on the interstate near Hollins about two days after we graduated. Several died from cancer. I knew of some of these passings but at least one of them startled me as I remembered vividly a young girl full of life and mischief. But so it goes.

The rest of us are lucky to be moving on beyond middle age and likely don't even realize it. And here we are, thinking about a big to-do to bring us all together. It's kind of exciting, to think of getting together after all of these years.

I wonder what we will find?

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I do when I am home alone!

1. Sing. I do not have the worst voice in the world but I can crack a bad note on occasion. My favorite song to sing when I am alone is The Lion Sleeps Tonight. I really like the high parts.

2. Take pictures. Most of my shots are outside the windows, where I roam from view to view. Sometimes I just slither from space to space, looking to see if there is anything different to see.

3. Write. I prefer to be alone with my thoughts when I am writing, whether it be a blog entry like this one, journaling, or an article for publication.

4. Read. I also like to be alone with I read, not because I am reading anything bad but because I don't interrupt myself. Plus it is like taking a little mini-vacation.

5. Exercise. I like to exercise when no one is around because I prefer to do it in my PJs. Plus I don't want anyone to watch my fat bounce.

6. Play video games. It is not that my husband minds if I play video games; it is that I think he does. I prefer to do this when he is not around. Otherwise I feel like I should be doing something else. At the moment I am playing The Sims 3. I am bored with it but too cheap to buy another video game.

7. Research. When I am looking up facts, I want peace and quiet!

8. Chores. This should be higher on the list because I am very good about doing my chores first and anything that seems pleasurable last. Chores include things like laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, watering the flowers, gardening, painting the walls, etc.

9. Eat. I tend to eat more when I am home alone. This is a very bad thing and a good reason for me NOT to be alone too much.

10. Pace the floor. Sometimes when I am home alone, I wander back and forth and up and down the hallway. This is particularly true if I am writing something and can't get the words to flow.

11. Talk to myself. Sometimes I even answer myself and I understand that is not a good thing to admit at all. However, I have been known to carry on entire conversations, acting as all parties, sometimes to good advantage. Sometimes I have even made myself fall down laughing.

12. Stare out the window. This is akin to pacing the halls or looking for photos, I suppose, but sometimes I just look out the window to look out the window. I am not really seeing what is out there but my mind is going round and round, computing things or puzzling over something. My husband says I never stop thinking.

13. Play the guitar. This is something that I don't do often enough and should do more frequently. I started playing the guitar when I was 12 and have never stopped but sometimes I go months without picking it up. I am rusty though on occasion I can still get some decent sounds out of the thing.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people. You can read other folks' lists here. This is my 151st time to play.

Love is a Rose

When I was young, my inquisitiveness led me to ask questions of everything. Why were people on the earth? Who made the sky? Why do airplanes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle?

And the biggest question of all: What happens when we die?

My mother would answer my questions as best she could. These often turned into meandering conversations that never answered the question but instead acknowledged that I was making important inquiries into mysteries that really have no answer.

In the summer of 2000, my mother was dying of pancreatic cancer.  One day while she was in the hospital, she asked me what I thought would happen when she died. I said I didn't know.

"I want to send you a sign that there is something beyond," she said. "What would you recognize?"

I thought about this for a while, running my mind over the things in my house and in my yard. "Send me something orange," I finally said. "I don't have any orange in the house or the yard."

I did not forget this conversation but I also did not expect much to come of it. Nor did I mention it to anyone.

For my birthday the next year, my closest friend gave me a rose.

I planted it. It took a long time to bloom, but it's first bloom appeared in August, 2001, a year after my mother passed away. The bloom was a lovely orange.

And it has bloomed a lovely orange for me in late summer every year since.

Motivational Books & Tapes

Feel the Fear & Do It Anyway
By Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.
Copyright 1988
Audiobook. 60 minutes


How to Put More Time in Your Life
By Dru Scott, Ph.D.
Copyright 1988
Audiobook. 60 minutes
(Apparently out of print)





The Procrastination Cure (Putting an End to Putting it Off)
By Jane B. Burka, Ph.D. & Lenora M. Yuen, Ph.D.
Copyright 1989
Audiobook. 60 minutes
(Apparently out of print)

Relieve Stress
By Dr. Marlene E. Hunter, M.D.
Copyright ???
Audiobook. 60 minutes
(Apparently out of print)

The Power of Optimism
By Alan Loy McGinnis
Copyright 1993
Audiobook. 60 minutes
(Apparently out of print)


So, why tell you about a bunch of motivational tapes that are almost all out of print? Well, if you live in the Roanoke Valley you can check them out from the library, like I did, if you are interested.

I saw these on the shelf at the Blue Ridge Library a while back and on impulse took them all.

Pop psychology, I think these are called, and once they were the big thing in the motivational fields and in self-help circuits.

These tapes offer up ways to beat pessimism, find more time, overcome your fears, feel better about your life, and how to get moving if you're stuck in a rut.

They all say the same thing in different ways: you are what you think, and your thoughts control how you feel, so if you can gain control over your thoughts you can move forward and onward and be happy and live a great life.

They are very cheerful things to listen to, and who knows, you may learn a technique from one of them that you have not tried and find it to be just the thing to stimulate positive change.

I actually plan to listen to them all again before I turn them in to the library, maybe this time in the house instead of the car. That way I can have a pencil ready to jot down a few ideas that I liked.

I wonder where to find today's equivalent to these things -  podcasts, maybe?

Feel the Fear, by the way, is a good book. I read it about four years ago and found it helpful. It is still on my shelf. The audiobook is an early version of the print book, I think.

Organize? Organize!

Here's an interesting question for you, dear reader.

How do you keep up with blogs (or favorite websites, for that matter)? Do you simply follow and then read them in a reader such as Google reader?

Do you subscribe to RSS feeds or have them emailed to you, and read them that way?

Do you add them to favorites on your browser? And if so, do you categorize them at all, or just have them all in there willie-nillie?

Perhaps you use Delicious.com or some other method to categorize and decide what to read? If so, what program?

How do you come back to your favorites time after time? What method do you use?

I am curious and looking for new ways to do this. My own methodology works for about 50 blogs but beyond that it grows cumbersome.

O Covergirl!

I am not sure when Covergirl changed its products, giving things a new look and adding new items to its lineup.

Being old school (not to mention growing a little old), change sometimes frustrate me. Why can't they leave well enough alone, I wonder. I've been buying Covergirl since I was 12 years old. Give me a break.

Recently, when I went to purchase foundation, I discovered new bottles and a new sensitive skin product. Covergirl's water-based products have always been very good for my use; they had little smell or perfume, didn't break out my skin and I had no allergies to their items, unlike oil-based products which were guaranteed to turn my skin red and cause me no end of tears. It has literally been 20 years since I last tried another brand of makeup.

So there I stood before the makeup, blocking the aisle, trying to make a purchase when things were different. I pondered for a time, trying to figure out which, if any, was the old product and which did I want to buy. Finally I opted for the sensitive skin foundation.

The new foundation is a little chalky in feel and it seems to take a bit more to do the job than the old foundation I used previously. But the most unfortunate thing about this change is the darned stuff won't come out of the bottle.

No amount of shaking forces it out onto a finger. Instead I have had to resort to dipping a toothpick or Q-tip or makeup applicator or whatever else I can find into the bottle and forcing the foundation out. It is very wasteful.

I almost went back to get what I thought was the regular product but I haven't so far. Why? Because I think it is the design of the bottle and not the product that is causing the issue, and the bottles are all shaped the same way. Once the new sensitive skin foundation is out of the bottle, it flows fine.

Others agree with me. Check out comments on the Covergirl website to see what other unhappy women are saying.

Apparently Oil of Olay, which like Covergirl is a Proctor & Gamble product line, dropped one of its facial cleansers that I used faithfully, Sensitive Skin hydrating beauty fluid, because I can't find it anywhere anymore. Neither can anyone else, based on comments on the Olay website. I tried the suggested substitute and was so unimpressed that I no longer buy Oil of Olay anything, even though I used it for over 20 years. Now I am using Cetaphil, because it was the only sensitive skin item I could find that was marginally close. Cetaphil is owned by the same folks who own L'Oreal and is not a P&G brand.

So what does it say to me, Mrs. Older Consumer, who has been a faithful user of these P&G products for decades, when things change and it appears as if the company doesn't care? I am sure these changes are aimed at younger, more snazzy young women, those 20-somethings who do not have as much money as I do (if they have a job at all in this economy). I have never been a fan of marketing techniques that focus on younger people because it ignores the rather obvious conclusion that older folks of a certain age (say, 40-60) generally have more "extra" money than any other age bracket. We've already bought our towels and curtains and have a little to spend on things like beauty fluid.

What I am hearing is this: hey, Mrs. Older Consumer, go see what Maybelline and Avon and some of those other cosmetics companies that you've always ignored are offering these days.

And so I will.

Books: The Grilling Season

The Grilling Season
by Diane Mott Davidson
Performed by Cherry Jones
Copyright 1997
Abridged 360 minutes

I have a friend who really likes these Goldy the cook solves the mystery and saves the day books. They are okay but I am not that into recipes and cooking. I find those parts to be very boring, but I understand I am not normal in that respect.

In this book, Goldy's ex-husband has been charged with murder. Since he used to beat Goldy she is not unhappy about this, but her son, Art, wants his father cleared of the charges and begs his mother to help his dad. Goldy reluctantly begins making a few inquiries.

Some parts of this book bothered me; I don't like it when men beat up on women simply for the sake of beating up on somebody. Perhaps this is why I am not a big fan of this series, because in the couple of books I have read Goldy almost always ends up getting hit or hurt by someone and the violence seems a little gratuitous instead of being something that forwards the plot. But perhaps I am simply oversensitive to this issue.

Not a bad book, but I am glad I listened to it by checking it out of the library.

Thursday Thirteen #150

In absolutely random order, 13 people I know.

1. My nephew, Emory, and his new guitar. He and his ol' aunt (that's me) went out yesterday to make this purchase.  Emory is a student at University of South Carolina, where he is majoring in Biology. He plans to be a trauma surgeon.

2. My friend Amy, who now lives in North Carolina. She used to be my editor when I was writing for The New Castle Record. She moved away from the writing business and became a librarian, which was a very smart move on her part. She recently dropped by for a visit; I hadn't seen her in years and it was nice to catch up.

3. My nephew, Trey. He is a big wrestler at his high school. He also likes to hunt and is being groomed to take over his grandfather's business someday (currently his father, that is, my brother, is running the operation).


4. This is Rena, who works at the Fincastle Library. She is an avid genealogist and an interesting person to talk to.



5. This is Steve, the library director for the county. I serve on the Botetourt County Library Board of Trustees and so we have a working relationship. I have known him ever since he came to be the library director, which was back in 1985. He is a very nice guy.



6. Meet Ed. He is the editor of The Fincastle Herald, the newspaper I was writing a lot for up until the recession. I have known Ed since he came to the county in 1984 and have been writing off and on for The Fincastle Herald ever since then, too. Maybe right now I'm just in an "off" phase, eh? Ed worked with me to hone my writing talent and taught me how to put some of "me" into my stories so that they have a little personality.



7. My friend Leslie is a lovely lady who has listened to me complain and whine about things since 1983, when I went to work for a lawyer she worked for at the time. Though I left there in 1985 (and she's since moved on to a different job, too) we have remained friends. We have lunch together at least once a month and annually make a trek up to the Green Valley Book Fair in northern Virginia.



8. Gwen is running for the Board of Supervisors this year. She is the manager of the local family orchard and packing house. We have been friends since about 1993.


9. This is James. He is my husband. We met in October 1982, married in November 1983, built our home we live in in 1987. He is a Battalion Chief with the Roanoke City Fire-EMS Department. I am very proud of him.



10. This is my nephew, Chris. He likes to hunt, fish, farm, and drive pickup trucks. He's a crackerjack.




11. This is Amanda (left) and myself (don't look!). Amanda is a professor at Hollins University and a famous author. This picture was taken a few years ago. I had Amanda for several classes when I was working on my Masters of Liberal Arts Degree at Hollins.


12. This is Lanetta. She is my next door neighbor. She is retired and she runs a cattle farm. She also used to be an athletics professor at Hollins University.  She has been inducted into the UR Athletic Hall of Fame, the Virginia Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the Hollins Athletic Hall of Fame.




13. This is my niece, Zoe. She participates in beauty pageants and just this weekend won the title of Ecusa National 2010-2011 Ultimate Grand Supreme. I confess I have no idea what that is, but there you go.


Thursday 13 is played by lots of people and you can see more folks' lists here. This is my 150th time to play.

Summer Roses

Elbow Macaroni

Over the course of the last several weeks, what with the painting and wallpapering and gardening and other things, I have managed to hurt my arm.

Specifically I have given myself lateral epicondylitis. It is more commonly called "tennis elbow," but I don't play tennis. I think I have also heard it called "housemaid's elbow" and that one I can relate to. Essentially, I've torn a tendon or two in my arm near my elbow.

One of the things that irritates this, unfortunately, is working at the computer. (Actually it hurts like the proverbial hole where the bad folks go when I try to type for very long.)

Rest and not doing things that hurt my arm is one of the prescriptions for cure.

Hence, my posting has been sporadic and probably will be for a few days.

This is one of the more painful things I have experienced in that stuff hurts that shouldn't. Taking pictures, for example, hurts. Brushing my teeth makes my arm hurt. Trying to tug the covers away from my husband makes my arm hurt. Driving, lifting a glass of water, loading the dryer with wet clothes - pretty much anything - has become a chore to be performed through gritted teeth rather than something one barely thinks about.

I saw the doctor about this today, as my own feeble efforts at cure (which consisted of occasionally trying to rest it and using Arnica gel on it) were not working. She prescribed a prescription-strength anti-inflammatory, suggested immobilization for a few days with a sling or a brace (which I could pick up at the drug store), and later the use of one of those elbow bands (see the Ace thing above) that fits just below the bend in your arm. She also told me to ice it and took me off of one of my blood pressure medications that can cause joint pain.

I picked up a sling but don't like it - I brought it home, wore it about 30 minutes, and then put it back in the box. I am thinking of returning it. However, as the day grows a little longer, and what with this weirdly damp weather, the ache is making me wonder if putting the sling back on might not be the wiser course. I can't decide. Obviously I can't use it while I am typing on the computer. But I suppose that is the point of the sling, to keep me from doing things I am not supposed to be doing while this injury heals.

I opted for the sling over a brace simply because I couldn't find a full elbow brace that fit, and I have yet to buy the little elbow band.

In any event, I miss blogging and I will try to keep it up, but I did want to let anyone checking know that I haven't stopped writing. I'm just trying not to stress this arm.

Books: Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Finger Lickin' Fifteen
By Janet Evanovich
Copyright 2009
308 pages

I last read a Stephanie Plum book in 2008. While this next title has been out a while, I waited to read it until I could get it at the library.

In this romp, Lulu gets front and center. She is always good for  a laugh and this time was no exception.

Stephanie also blew up a great number of cars. She was in between men and couldn't decide  if she wanted to go back to Morilli or not, so she spent most of her time with Ranger. Make sense? Of course.

There were a number of mysteries in this book, and Stephanie manages to solve them all.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I offer up a list of things I have thrown out in the last few months:

1. Socks and underwear. I dumped all of my white socks and all of my husband's white socks and replaced them with completely new socks. I did the same thing for my husband's underwear. It is the best way I know to ensure that he is not wearing threadbare clothes.

2. Teas. I had lying about the house a huge number of teas that I could not drink because they had caffeine in them. Many of these were gifts I had received last Christmas, and they were still quite good. I gave them to the postal service when it had a food drive in May. I was glad they would not be wasted.

3. The idea that I can't finish anything. I had it in my head that I could not finish long-term projects, or stick with something to completion. After coming up with a very long list to negate that idea, I decided it was an old notion that I needed to throw out. I have found, unfortunately, that such embedded ideas sometimes need to be thrown out again and again, as they return to the closet of the brain much like that ragged shirt of my husband's keeps finding its way back onto a coat hanger.

4. Computer and software manuals. I had every manual for every computer I had ever owned, apparently, because generally I can't resale the computers because I use them up. Finally I threw many of those manuals into the recycling bin.

5. Pillows. I have trouble with my pillows on the bed in that my neck gets crooked quite easily. I am like the princess and the pea - if things aren't just right I know it. So sometimes I go through pillows with alarming regularity. Somehow I had managed to collect 11 old bed pillows in one of the closets. I suppose I thought I might recycle them somehow. Failing that, I sent them all to the landfill. What a lot of space that freed up.

6. Plastic grocery bags. I use canvas totes when I shop but somehow still end up with plastic bags. I do not get as many as I once did but even so they still find their way home with me, wrapped around meats or used to separate frozen foods. I collect them and use them in trash cans in the bathrooms but they do pile up. I hauled a bunch to the grocery store, where they have a little collection bin specifically for these bags.

7. Old cards. I had a large assortment of cards that had yellowed and which I knew I would not send to anyone. I recycled them.

8. Tax records. I am a paper pack rat and up until recently I could have told you what we ate back in 1983, when we first married, by pulling out the grocery receipts. I threw some of that stuff away and some of it I moved to the attic.

9. Computer hardware. Two printers and a few other items found their way to Goodwill a while back. Computer stuff is really difficult to dispose of, isn't it?

10. 10,000 images from my hard drive. I went through and hit the delete key on a lot of pictures recently. I had about 27,000 on the computer and it was getting difficult to keep up with them. Who needs 14 pictures of the same flower anyway?

11. Wallpaper. I recently ripped all the wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen and repainted. It was a relief although I still find myself looking for the wallpaper and being alarmed by the plain painted walls. Hopefully I will get over that.

12. Old spices. I had a spice rack that my brother gave me sometime in the early 1990s. The spices that I had not used were still in their original bottles and still sitting in the spice rack. The other day I threw every single one into the trash. There was some satisfaction in hearing the clink of the jars as they landed next to one another. I also cleaned out my cabinet where I kept other spices and tossed everything that was out of date.

13. Old DVDs and VHS tapes. We had several VHS tapes and a few DVDS that I knew we would never watch again that went into the trash bin. We actually still have a VHS player that I use sometimes to tape a TV show, but so infrequently that I wouldn't miss it if were not available. I can't remember when we last watched a VHS tape. The DVDs that I threw away were some that were scratched and so I knew we would not watch those again, either.


Thursday Thirteen is played by many bloggers. You can see more lists here. This is my 149th time to play.

Customer Service?

Today I went to a local big-chain bookstore in search of a cookbook for a nephew who will be spending his sophomore year in college eating his own food and not the university's.

I had found the book I wanted by looking at the company's online store and had printed out the book and price. It was on sale online for about 1/3 of the retail price, even to non-club members.

However, when I asked a salesgirl if I could purchase the book in the store for the online price, I was told I could not. I was unhappy about this but I wanted the book and did not have time to have it shipped, so I decided to buy it at full price.

I told myself as I wandered the store that if I had been a store manager, I would have instructed my clerks to offer some kind of markdown in the event of a question like that, so that you did not have a disgruntled customer. And while I was not angry, I was little miffed.

Later, as I checked out, the young man behind the cash register asked me if I was a club member. You know, you pay them $20 to join and you receive a discount from the full purchase price of the book.

I told him I was not a club member and did not wish to be.

He then proceeded to tell me how much I would save and how if I bought books more than once a year I would save money.

I told him I was not interested and that the price for the club was too high.  I used to be a club member, back when it was not a small fortune, I explained, but I would not pay the price now, and particularly not when I could purchase the same books online at much cheaper prices.

He continued to pressure me about buying a card and went into a song and dance about "bricks and mortar" costing more than online sites and that was why the club was good. I finally had to interupt him to ask him to ring up my purchases.

You would think at this point someone would take the hint and let it go. However, he continued to try to get me to buy a card even as I slid my credit card through the little machine. I finally looked at him and said, "Keep it up and I simply won't be back here at all."

I picked up my stuff and walked out.

I used to shop this store a lot. I love browsing a book store but I fear that, thanks to visits like this and the ease with which one may purchase books online, that book-browsing as a past time will one day go the way of the rotary dial telephone.

I find myself in this store less and less, because each time I go in I am pressured about this club membership. It ruins the entire experience.

Customer service is an art, apparently a lost one. Today, the first clerk should have offered me the book with a 10 percent discount when I presented the online book price to her, and the second clerk should have stopped  pressuring me about the club membership the moment I said no. I don't expect to be greeted at the door with a Coke and a smile, but some acknowledgement that my presence in the store is valued might make a difference, you know?

Bambis

Baby deer.

Hatchlings

The mockingbird nest in the tomato plant now has baby birds!

The nest

A baby bird mouth waiting on mama

Here I am, mama! Feed me! Feed me!

Here's mama (or maybe daddy) but not feeding - getting ready to attack the photographer!

It is very hard to pick tomatoes when a bird is diving at your head.

My father-in-law passed away this morning.

Please pray for my husband, his mother, his sister and his nephews.

Books: Runner

Runner
A Jane Whitefield Novel
By Thomas Perry
Read by Joyce Bean
Unabridged
14 hours
Copyright 2009

Jane Whitefield has a special talent: she makes people disappear. She gives people on the run the tools they need to create a new identity and a new life.

People who are in big trouble come to her. She helps.

Whitefield is like a superhero, almost, in that she takes on all comers and takes no prisoners. She is an impressive character with a lot of knowledge.

This is a return character for Perry, who had written Jane Whitefield books previously. I was unfamiliar with both the character and the author.

In this story, Whitefield, who five years earlier had retired from helping people disappear, is approached by a young pregnant woman, Christina, who is in trouble. Whitefield agrees to help her and the two leave New York to try to outwit and outrun the goons who are after Christina.

The goons are guns hired by Richard, the father of Christina's baby. He is a psycho who wants the baby because his parents (also rather nuts) want to take away Richard's birthright and inheritance unless he produces an heir.

This was a very engaging and interesting book to listen to. There are few books that I will continue to listen to in the car in the garage when I've finished my driving around, but this was one of them.

Sickness

My father-in-law is in the hospital for a second time this month.

I have been unable to see him because I have a sore throat and a general malaise that indicates I have a virus. It is best that I not give it to him since he is already ill.

A few weeks ago we had my father-in-law and his two sisters all in the hospital at the same time. The sisters have moved on to rehabilitation clinics. My father-in-law came home for a while only to end up back in the hospital this weekend.

Getting old is not for the feint of heart.

Messy Job

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to say goodbye to the wallpaper that had been decorating my kitchen for a good 15 years or more.

The border was of a farm and the wallpaper itself had pineapples and hearts. I put it up initially because I have no back splash on the stove and I was worried about the grease on the walls, which did not wipe off well without something on them.

As you can see, it did not look especially bad. But there was a big problem.

In 2004, I had an accident with a two-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. As I carried it in with the groceries, it slid from my hands and landed on its top. It immediately exploded, and Dr. Pepper went every where. The bottle flew around like a rocket ship, skittering in a circle on the floor until I could get it stopped.    Sticky softdrink covered the walls, the refrigerator, the telephone - pretty much the whole kitche. Even though I cleaned it, every year the wallpaper wept Dr. Pepper when the humidity was high in the house.

When I removed the wallpaper from the wall that had been splashed the most with Dr. Pepper, I discovered that the soda had eaten through the gypsum in the wallboard. The walls were damaged.

It took a great deal of spackling and many woman-hours of elbow grease to get the holes filled up and sanded back down.

My reward is a sparkling kitchen with walls that no longer weep soda pop. To protect the wallboard behind the stove, I painted with a semi-gloss latex paint that wipes off easier than flat paint.

A Radiant Me

Last night I attended a seminar at Divinity Spa, which is located in Botetourt but near Roanoke.

The event was called Seven Keys to Radiant Well Being. It was conducted by Meenakshi Angel Honig, an Internationally Acclaimed Wellness Consultant and Yoga Instructor.

My registration was a spur-of-the-moment activity, made early on Tuesday morning before I was fully awake. I had seen an announcement about the seminar on Facebook and ignored it. But when a friend sent me the information, I decided when I saw it in my inbox that this meant I should go.

Afterward I second-guessed my decision. I feared I would not know anyone there and also that I would be the fattest and most unhealthiest person in the audience. I figured it would be full of stick women who do yoga four times a day and eat alfalfa sprouts.

While there were a few of those folks there, there were also a number of older women (even older than me, old lady that I am) and many had large bellies and butts so I did not feel quite so out of place. I also knew a few of the ladies in attendance and that definitely made me feel better.

The seven secrets were not new information for me, but apparently I need the message knocked into my head many times over in order to actually practice these things.

The first secret was breathing. A few weeks ago I met with another yoga instructor to focus on breathing and in particular breath exercises for my blood pressure. So I was already doing this first secret and I was pleased about that. I felt like I was one up on the game. In yoga, a breathing practice is called pranayama and it is the life force. Life begins and ends with a breath, Meenakshi told us last night. "Breath is the link between the finite and infinite," she said.

The second secret was to visualize your body being relaxed and to tell yourself that you're an okay person. I also do this to calm down, having learned it a long time ago. There are many ways to go about this but it is a great way to bring on sleep if you're having a tough night.

The third secret was range of motion movements. This was not yoga or even deep stretching - just moving your head about, lifting your arms, pulling out the muscles. I liked this part because pretty much anyone, even someone as stiff and unyielding as I, could do these.

The fourth secret involved attitude and then taking positive actions when faced with a negative situation. Meenakshi urged us to develop a positive attitude all the time and to see the good in stuff, whatever  it may be. That is not always easy to do. And then do whatever is necessary to correct the problem, but without complaining or whining. "There is no such thing as stress, only stressful thoughts," she said.  Also, "be the writer, producer, director and star of your own movie" and give it an upward spiral and a happy ending. I liked that idea.

The fifth secret involved lifestyle choices based on a "wellness" wheel. Even this was not new to me as I had come across a similar wheel during the Life Planning class I took at Hollins University this spring. So I already had a good idea of where I am deficit. I think her wheel had a few different categories. Her categories are spiritual, nutrition, yoga and exercise, positive thinking/communicating, relationships, stewardship, and creative self expression. Can you guess which of those I thought I was deficit in? After figuring out which area needed work, one must then create an affirmation about it, write down an action step, and give it a time frame. For example, I wrote: "I now have the tools to eat right and make healthy food choices," as my affirmation.

The sixth secret was nurturing activities. Taking care of yourself. Things like taking a break from a hard day to listen to the wind or the birds, using lotion on your scaly skin, that sort of thing. Smelling the roses.

The seventh secret was to have "attitudes that release stress and enhance well being." This would be things like remembering that the check out clerk is having a hard day when she snaps at you, or forgiving people who hurt you, stuff like that.

"Feel good, feel god" Meenakshi said.

This seminar fit in well with what I have been working on the past few months. Reducing stress is almost a full time job, at least for me.