Birthday Fun, Good Times, Good Times

While doing my garden walk through today, I saw a dark something or other in the sweet potatoes, so I stopped to look. There was this beautiful butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, so I ran to get my camera to capture it before it flew away. When I first saw it, it was still damp. By the time I got my camera, it had dried off quite a bit, so I'm sure it was going to ready to fly off soon. Isn't it beautiful? Just another blessing from doing my daily "chores".

I'm sure better authors than I have done some brilliant parables regarding the butterfly as he emerges from the chrysalis, but I can't help but see this wonderful phenomenon as a type of our lives. I won't bore you with the analogy. I just hope you will spend some time today thinking about it!

I had a great weekend with my family. I celebrated my birthday, and Dorian and his family as well as Darius and Alicia joined me in Daytona. We spent some time at the beach, shopping, playing games, and watching baseball. It was great. A big thank you goes out to those who joined me for making it special for me.

It has been an issue for our family, this food thing. In the past, when we have had family activities, they have been very food centered. In fact, when we rented houses for everyone to stay together for a couple of days, our main activity has been preparing various dishes to show off our culinary skills. Since we have made some dietary changes, we have had a hard time finding other activties to replace our previous ones, and it has been a real challenge.

When the children were little, we used to play games. Granted, many of them were sedentary as we were too fat to do many physical games with them. Once Dorian became a teenager, we didn't have as many family activities as he spent a lot of time with his friends. The younger boys and I spent a lot of time doing 4-H projects and running the store. Roger worked his regular job and worked at the store after he got off work, so there wasn't a lot of leisure time although we did spend a lot of time together.

The point being, we lost a lot of the game playing we used to do. I had the bright idea to play some games at my birthday party, and it seemed that everyone had a good time. It didn't take up the time having a feast would have, and I'm sure some didn't enjoy it as much as they would have enjoyed the traditional Bar-B-Q, but I did the best I could coming up with family unifying things. When I am with the grandchildren, they enjoy playing card games and doing crafts, going to movies, and such, so that is working out ok. It is the big kids that are hard to amuse!

I am going to start a file of games that we can pull out at a moment's notice. I'm not good at remembering this kind of stuff, so I have to write it down. I used to have some great books when the children were young, so I'll have to dig some of that up. I'll bet it would help if I started a prize box too!

Yesterday at church, I had to give a talk in Spanish. I didn't do very well for the talk part, but I guess my testimony part was ok. I wish I knew more verbs and nouns. I still struggle with conjugating in the past and present tense as well. We had a nice treat as well as Darius was the 2nd speaker, and he did a great job. He used Alma 37 as the basis for his talk with the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and their committment to not pick up weapons of war once they were converted to the gospel. When we are committed to something, amazing things can happen. The Spanish members love hearing a gringo give talks in Spanish, especially when they can actually understand him!

3 of the Spanish sisters gave me gifts. It is very humbling when they do that as I know that their means are very slim. They always remember me on my birthday and at Christmas. They are truly a blessing in my life. I consider them my friends as well as my sisters even though the language barrier prevents us from sharing as many things from our hearts as we would if we could communicate better. It truly speaks to the fact that we communicate more from our heart. I love the card from Graciela. The card was Spanish, and of course, she signed it in Spanish "para mi amiga y hermana".

Volunteers

Doesn't all this greenery look lush and beautiful? This is our volunteer sweet potato patch. We planted NONE of these plants. They all volunteered to be in our garden this year based on some roots left over when we picked last year. This is truly a beautiful stand. Isn't it neat thinking that there is food under it? You can never starve when you have a garden.

I was thinking this morning as I combed the garden and yard for weeds that I might be going crazy. Surely anyone knowing what I was doing would think so. I have even potted some up to show to a friend who knows wild plants. I decided though that it doesn't matter what they are. I know the big danger is that I might juice something poisonous, so it is more important to know what plants we shouldn't be eating. I think I know those, so I am not worrying about it. I don't think I have anything poisonous in my yard.

Just to be safe, though, I only add one different kind a day. That way if it does make me sick, I'll know not to use it again. It is all getting a little blurry though, so if I'm serious about this method, I should be a little more systematic about it. The other worry would be that the plants picked might not taste good. I have not found that to be the case, surprisingly. I heard someone say you should taste the plant to see if it tastes good, and if it tastes good, then pick it for your salad or green drink. That wouldn't work for me. One of the things I've been putting in my drink is something I don't like to take bites of: aloe. It is weird how the plants have a good flavor when they are all mixed together. One day there was a slight bitter taste, but it was not unappealing. Maybe my tastes are changing. I suppose if you're used to soda pop and Koolaid, my green juice might not appeal to you at all.

Last night when I got home from work, Roger parked in a little bit different place. When I got out of the van, there was a beautiful dandelion plant. I was thrilled and couldn't wait to pick it today. Most people have tons of dandelions, but we don't here for some reason. All the organic stores sell dandelion greens, so they are being cultivated nowadays. I really like them. I would plant them in my garden, but that seems really absurd...isn't it? One of the other things I like about picking weeds for my drink is that it is hard in the summer time to find greens for juicing here in Florida. Lettuces and other greens thrive in the winter time, and we have more than we can ever use. That dries up as soon as the spring heat sets in. I think I had lettuce this year until about April. So being able to pick weeds that don't seem to mind the heat at all is a nice boon. Likewise, the weeds don't thrive as much in the wintertime, although there are some.

One thing I've noticed in my daily collection walks is that different things sprout at different times. I know this sounds obvious, but right now there are thousands of tiny weeds sprouting that waited until this particular time to do so. Some of the others are waning (not too many though). Some weeds only grow in certain areas. It is very interesting.

One thing I have been picking the last couple of days is volunteer watermelon sprouts. Roger emptied some of our compost bin into a couple of our raised beds. We started doing that a few years ago when our bins were full but our boxes were lying fallow. (Nature abhors a vacuum, don't you know?) We've been eating a lot of watermelon since our garden is producing so much, and the volunteers are producing far more than can ever survive as plants, so I am thinning them for my daily drink. Then I had a bright idea while eating my watermelon today: why not save the seeds, rinse them off, and plant them in my little sprout planting system (like I do the sunflower seeds). I think they taste similar. They are good in the drink, anyway.

It makes me think we buy a lot more stuff than we need, especially when it comes to food. There is an old pioneer saying: make it do or do without. We have truly lost sight of that in our current economic plenty. Perhaps our tight money times will lead us back to that way of living.

Personal Development for Smart People

While it's fresh on my mind, I'd like to give a heads up to Steve Pavlina. I've known about him for about 6 months now, but I have tread lightly trying to figure out if he is for real or not. He makes a living out of helping people improve themselves, and he sells a lot of self-improvement type books and products. My reason for mentioning him is that I find his business model pretty interesting. I believe he has gotten into this business by his own self-improvement lifestyle. Each month he does a 30 day trial of something he sees as an area he would like to improve in his life. He has some pretty interesting trials. He started doing this in 1993. He said he got the idea from the shareware industry where they will let you download software on a 30 day trial basis.

In the self-improvement vein, he uses the rationalization that anyone can do anything for 30 days. If you find out after the 30days is over that you don't want to continue the activity, you can do so, but you commit at the onset that you will stick to the plan for the designated 30 days. Some of his trials he has adopted, and others he has let go. His criteria for accepting the practice is interesting as well: if his life is improved with the new habit or activity, he will continue doing it. (There was one trial he did with sleep habits that did vastly improve his life, but he felt like it was too difficult to implement into his schedule and his family's schedule.)

Here is his website:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/

He gives a list of suggested 30 day trials. He chronicles his 30 day activities on his blog: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/

I don't read his stuff every day, but I am definately fascinated by his methods. I think the business model is one that could be emulated as well. I have always believed we would have a better country if people were not so dependent on "the man" for how they support themselves. There is only one way to make a living, and it is by depending on ourselves, our gifts, our talents, our enthusiasm, our energy, and our smarts. While the income may not be as dependable as a traditional job, it is more rewarding in lots of other aspects. Of course, that goes back to the old adage that "money isn't everything". Of course, for some people, money IS everything, so none of the other perks mean anything to them.

For me, the biggest advantage is that I can schedule my time to do what I want to do. Yes, I have to schedule time to do the actual work needed to keep my business going, but because I like doing this work (usually), that is not a difficult thing to do. Of course, if one is self-employed, the choice should be something that is enjoyed enough that time will want to be spent doing it.

I am actually trying to change this up a bit right now. I am feeling impressed to move on. I am not sure where this will end up, but I am sure it is going to happen as I follow the direction into which I am being led.

Isn't life a wonderful thing when someone like me can decide that I want to do something different, and then I can actually do it? I will be 55 this month, and I am sure this is a pattern I will follow all of my life.

I am always excited when something new looms on the horizon. Some of the best times in my life have been when change has brought me to a new place. I can remember almost all of them vividly. Even moving from being a single person to a married one, and then from a couple to a family are changes that make life more interesting. I definately am not one to sit in a stagnant pool. I can even recall times when as a child changes came about. When my sister(s) were born, the family dynamic changed. Moving from one house to another brought more exciting elements into our life as did my mother's choice of husbands. Joining the church was another amazing change of very long lasting consequence. Some changes were more welcome and enjoyed than others, but none the less, the element of change kept things hopping. I thrive on this apparently.

I never realized this until a couple of years ago when I knew there were going to be changes in my life. I could just feel it! As an adult, I have learned that I usually have an inkling that change is in the air if I listen closely enough to the spirit. I usually don't know what the change will entail, nor do I know which area of my life it will affect, but I know to look for it and consequently welcome it as something that will benefit my life.

I forget about the fact that something good will come of it when the change comes in a difficult, challenging manner. I tend to think of it as an O-Crapper until I see the intended result down the line. Such has been the state of affairs in the last year of my life. It has been an incredible roller coaster ride that didn't look like it would be very much fun at the beginning. Still not sure about some of it, but I'm trying to have faith!

The fact is that change (and the resulting positive benefits) NEVER comes without a price. Sometimes we might decide that price is too high for the benefits we see that might be attained. Unfortunately, we cannot always see all the benefits, and this limited eyesight causes us to sidestep something that could bring many great things into our lives. Other times, change is thrust upon us. We try to hide from it if it is seemingly unpleasant, but we will not reap the benefits until we fully embrace it, pain and all.

Isn't this aversion to pain and discomfort a funny thing? For me, it has really caused me to waste a lot of time while I tried to avoid them. Ultimately, the pain and discomfort don't go away; they are temporarily assuaged until I accept their reality and succomb to it. As I get older, I would like to learn to consent earlier to the imagined unpleasantness as it is never as bad as I think it will be. (Real pain has come more often in ways I could not control.) Then I would be able to reap the benefits sooner without wasting the time avoiding something that never happens. That is a nice goal for this new year (decade? millenium??).