Week Ten 1/12-18

I'm a little late with this week's words. Busy, busy, busy. I've been helping out a friend and it has been time consuming. The friend is Sheila and I always love getting a chance to spend time with her. Life just seems to get in the way of a lot of the time for both of us, as it often does, but no matter how much time passes we have the ability to pick right up where we left off and enjoy each other's company.



I do love Sheila! She is my girl and so much fun to be around and talk to. We have been friends now for around twenty-five years I guess. She is one of those people who has Lived. I have told her often she needs to write a book of her adventures. I know it would be a best seller. She has hitchhiked across the country back when you could without worry, she has sold flowers on street corners in Arizona, went to concerts in her hippy days...I asked her if she went to Woodstock and she said no, at the time she heard about it she had decided it sounded boring, but you have to think how it sounded: 'Hey, wanna drive for thousands of miles to go to a concert in New York state in a cow pasture?'



When I asked her about the free love at concerts back then she answered it like this: "If you have a loaf of bread, and you meet a guy with a jar of peanut butter, hey, you got together."



Before you get an image in your head, she is not one of those people who never left the 60's or 70's. She does not live in a dome house out in the middle of the woods growing her own foods. She lives in a duplex.



I remember Stephen King talked about people who quit growing mentally and emotionally at a certain period in their lives: The man who still slicks his hair back and wears his high school letter man jacket even though he's old and retired. Or the woman who still rats her hair like she did in high school 40 years ago... They reached a high in their lives and don't want to leave that time, so they refuse to acknowledge life has marched on. But life is about change. Change is good most of the time. It's like the people who won't try a new food. I don't get that! I love finding something new. It's how you experience life. My life would be so sad if I had never tried GOOD balsamic vinegar, or wasabi, or Greek yogurt, or Kobe beef...mmmmm. I think everyone should try new foods when the chance presents itself. You may say, oh, yea? Would you eat chocolate covered grasshoppers? My answer is yes I would! I've never had the opportunity, but I would! I expect my son to try new foods, and I must lead by example. My experience had been 80% good, but even if it was 50% I'd continue. I love that moment when you take that first bite of something new and awesome and your eyes roll back in your head and it is almost orgasmic! Never want to give that up!

Lessons learned?

1. To live in the now and grow in all the ways I can. The past is over, learn from it. The future is yet to come, so worry won't help you. Enjoy today! It's all we've got!