Fall 2021    

I am a fan of those laser clear, bright sunny days of early October, when summer has wound down and the heat outside has become more reasonable in Tennessee. Walking the greenways during this time is simply glorious.

The photograph below appeared in the October 2021 issue of House and Garden, UK. It says everything else about fall that I don't know how to express. Savor this...

After these beautiful days pass, the cold rain comes to take down the leaves and let us know the first frost is at hand. I take my cue and begin perching little signs of the approaching holidays around the house to help brighten the dark days of winter.

Stay safe, be well -  Carol in Tennessee

Life is What You Make It

“Invitation” 

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

                  ~ Mary Oliver, “Invitation,” A Thousand Mornings (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).

At this stage of my life I'm well acquainted with how quickly life can turn on a dime and throw you a curveball. Every time this happens one begins to develop coping skills and learn how to think on your feet even as the rug is being pulled out from under you. Life changes are not guaranteed to be either good or bad, they are a mixture of both dependent on the eye of the beholder; and at some time or other, they happen to everyone.

During the first year of Covid I retired and then sat in my house dodging exposure to it. I got thoroughly reacquainted with my housemates after 30+ years of dashing off to work at 6 a.m. and dragging myself back into the house at 6 or 7 p.m. depending on who had a Little League practice or Cub Scout meeting that night. I worked and slept and worked some more for soooo many years - the rat race is real.

Guess what. Within a few weeks of my retirement my blood pressure returned to the normal range and I fell into the sleep pattern (up late/sleep late) that I last recall enjoying when I was a teenager.  My efforts at keeping my blood sugar at optimal levels became successful in a stellar way because now I had 24 hours a day to monitor and adjust it rather than letting it slide because I had to be in a meeting or cater an event or create an expense report. I started to feel better about myself. 

Now I'm upping my game again with better self care and exercise, step by step. Some days it is a real challenge, other days I can glide through it and be ready for more when it's time to stop. I am consciously rejecting the rocking chair and the walking cane in favor of keeping the moving parts moving and pushing onward a little more every day. My walking program has been teaching me about the difference between 'good' pain and 'bad' pain, and recognizing my limits; and I will carry on. My nutrition plan has developed into something I believe I have a right to enjoy rather than something my doctor advises me to do. I'm determined to give it my best shot and enjoy the fruit of better health because of it. I want my so called  golden years to be full of learning and pleasure and joy in all of the little things that used to pass unnoticed in my former rat race days.

I am changing my life for the better. 

Thanks for stopping by, take time to stop and notice the flowers!

                                                        Carol in Tennessee 

It's All in Your Point of View

 

           

The word of the day is: CONFINEMENT.

I was part of an interesting discussion about confinement yesterday in my virtual art class (our group meets once a week on ZOOM). Most of us are feeling the pinch of being old enough to need to avoid the Covid 19 virus because of our age / physical conditions, we do not venture out of the house unless we absolutely have to. Some days the isolation really bugs us and sometimes we fall into depression as a result. Other days we get on a roll with our artwork and don't notice the passage of time as we dip our paintbrushes or apply our pastels to paper, bringing beautiful pictures to life. Those days are the best.

THE BOOKCASE

We talked about the ways we deal with the loneliness, and the subject of Anne Frank came up. She and her family lived in fear of their lives from Nazi invaders for over 2 years, confined to a hidden space in a house that was accessed by stepping behind a hinged bookcase. It's a classic and inspiring true story, because in spite of it all, this young girl had a positive outlook and did not let                                                                                                   the fear and isolation defeat her. 

In addition to confinement, they had to keep completely still and quiet during the daytime, and didn't dare go near the windows in the building for fear of being seen. One noise could betray them all to the Nazis, which meant certain death. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    ANNE'S BEDROOM

Before I retired I would daydream about what it would be like to not have to go to work every day. Often my visions included warm summer days, cold fruity beverages, naps in a hammock, happiness, and not a care in the world. The combination of retirement and a Covid lockdown has certainly shattered those visions with the ice water of reality. My way of coping includes lots of reading, knitting, playing with our dogs, cooking, housekeeping, and finally succeeding in achieving the control of my blood sugar to consistently healthy levels. Most days my strategies work, some days get downright difficult - it is what it is. I try hard to keep a positive attitude and I meditate, reminding myself to stay in this moment - it helps.

This week I'm going to check out 'The Diary of Anne Frank' and read it again. Brighter days are coming. I've spotted big flocks of robins in the area, spring isn't far behind. 

Any comments are welcomed!

Thanks for stopping by, take care of you and yours.    

 Carol in Tennessee

A New Year's Eve Story

 

A New Year's Eve Story

Who has a story from New Year's Eve to share? Here's mine...

New Year's Eve 1999 - Our boys were out with their friends doing what boys do, so Tom and I stayed in for a quiet evening at home. We had a couple of bottles of champagne in the fridge and I'd picked up these 'collectible' party items for all of us, as the turning of a century seemed like a big deal.

And it was a huge deal! Prince had released that famous song about partying like it was the end of the world. People everywhere thought all of the world's computers would shut down when the date rolled over from 1999 to 2000, do you remember all that hysteria? We expected to lose our electricity when the power grids shut down! There were doomsday people taking shelter underground and corporations with contingency plans and lord knows what else. Nobody really could say exactly what would happen......

Ever the optimists, we were in the living room listening to Jimmy Buffett's live New Year's Eve performance over the web, drinking our champagne, had the flashilights ready just in case - and had a box of roman candles to shoot off in the street at midnight. We were ready.

When midnight arrived and Jimmy shouted 'Happy New Year' we went out into the street with an empty bucket and our roman candles feeling really good now that 2 bottles of champagne had been consumed. Tom put the first candle into the bucket, lit it, and off it zoomed into the night sky of a brand new year! He reloaded, and I was commenting 'you know, we need to be careful not to shoot this into the woods, they are so dry this year' when the bucket fell over and the colorful fireballs headed straight for the edge of the very dry woods that surround our house. What!!!

Of course all the leaves and pine straw caught the flame in a flash and our laughter died in our throats. Yikes! we tried to stomp it out but it was spreading too fast. He ran for a rake and I ran for the garden hose that was all the way behind the house. Suddenly we were not laughing any more, afraid of burning down the neighborhood! Sobriety was apon us!

We got the fire put out, thankfully. And stood there in the dark looking at each other like 'what did we just do!?!' That was our welcome to the new century.......thank you, Jimmy Buffett!

What's your story about that night?

- Be Safe, Take Care of Each Other

My Covid World 2020

 

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle with a soft sunroof like this one. My car was three shades of red thanks to various bumps and scrapes it had before it got to me in 1972. It became my ride on my 16th birthday, so the car and I were close to being the same age. It didn't have air conditioning but I didn't care, I loved it. My boyfriend of that time installed an 8 track tape player in it for me and I had a plastic cup holder so life was good. It used $5 of gas a week and had no gas gauge - if it started coasting I just pulled off the road and moved a switch on the floorboard with my foot to open the one gallon reserve gas tank so I could go find a gas station. Life was easy in 1972.

I'd say that easy life ended for me on March 1, 2020. Bye bye, normality - hello Covid. I had flown to Altona, Illinois and back that weekend to pick up a cocker spaniel puppy that was intended to be my companion in my retirement years. That trip included 4 airplanes and two chaotic passeges through Chicago O'Hare airport ; thankfully I had reserved assistance to get to my gates or I never would have made it. I noticed several people walking around with masks on their faces but didn't think about it at all. I played with the dog and brought her home! We named her Tootsie.  

In the March 1st newscasts we got the first clues that Covid had arrived in Tennessee. Of course in hindsight we realize it had probably been here for months, but that was part of the initial mystery. It looked like any town that had an airport also had Covid, and it was spreading fast. By March 6th I was working from home and spraying my mail with Lysol before I touched it. It was perfect for someone who needed to be at home house training a dog. And I could stay in my pajamas all day!

Thousands of people died. We got to see closeups of the mobile morgues parked outside of the hospitals in New York City. Business travel screeched to a halt all over the nation. My job specialized in travel arrangements, event logistics and filing expense reports. By June my job was gone and I was unemployed - poof!

October rolled around. This was to have been my auspicious 65th birthday complete with a week at the beach drinking champagne, getting Medicare insurance, and getting my first tattoo. Another 'poof' - Covid continues to kill and terrorize the elderly. I did get the Medicare but the rest floated away as if in a dream. Bye Bye.....

So I'm home every day with the dogs, filing for unemployment and taking art classes online thanks to the ZOOM app - I'm getting to play with paint and drawing pretty pictures. It is a surreal life that I never would have dreamed of. I go out of the house maybe once a week but you can bet it's a quick trip, I don't linger anywhere. When I get cabin fever I load up the dogs and we all go for a ride around the countryside, windows cracked so they can smell all of the interesting things out there. Otherwise, we are at home listening to audio books from the library or playing with the art stuff. Life is simple and I hope we all survive! Ya'll stay safe - 

Breathe in, Breathe Out, Move On

I am popping in today to briefly comment on some of the wonderful things going on in my life.

I'm successfully using Mindful Meditation to help control my response to stress. I first learned the technique in a Stress Relief class at Vanderbilt University about 8 years ago. Basically what I can tell you is that IT WORKS. Sweet relief is at hand. The more you practice this type of meditation, the more effective it becomes. These days I am also using the award winning iPhone app called Calm while I am working. It's the same principles that were taught in my class. If you are bothered by stress, I encourage you to give it a try.


https://blog.calm.com/relax/calm-mindfulness-journal    Journaling is another technique that I use often. I have two journals actually: one I use to unload thoughts that try to keep me awake at night, which eventually get thrown away; and the other is My Journal of Good and Terrific Things. The second is a journal / scrapbook of all the good things that happen to me. I keep this and often reread it, especially after a tough day at work. I add things like ticket stubs, photos, pressed flowers, you name it.


Don't let stress rob your life of the peace you deserve. Savoring the good side of life is a pleasure!


Stay safe and be gentle with yourself ~

Sweet Anticipation

Hey ya'll -

This morning I am taking a bit of time to savor some of the sweetest anticipation a grandparent can know: the impending arrival of a new grand baby. This child will be our 4th, we have waited the better part of 7 years for he / she to arrive. Yes, the parents wanted a bit of their own sweet anticipation so they chose not to learn the gender of this little one. In another few days we will finally get the big reveal and life as we know it will change once again!

The more birthdays I have, the more I think deep and long about the futures of these little people, and the long lines of generations that have contributed to their genes. Will this child have his mother's eyes, his dad's smile, his grandmother's curiosity about nature? All things to be discovered in their own good time. I can look at other children in my family and see the ancestor's contributions in them, it is fascinating to me. Better than Christmas! And I want so badly to help teach this little one about who they are and who his /  her family are.

Ever since we learned of the impending arrival, I have been knitting up a play blanket, which is almost finished. This weekend I will be up in the attic to pull down the bouncy seat, porta crib and box of infant sheets and things, to get them washed and ready. I have special toys & activities prepared for baby's Big Brother, whose world is about to turn upside down in a major way. I have casseroles in the freezer ready to take for mom & dad's first days at home to ease their load. It's such a sweet, joyful time of life. I am grateful!

My best to you and yours -   Carol in Tennessee