Dancing with Ivy

It happens every year.  I try my best not to be tempted.  But that feeling of being  outside on a clear summer’s day and immersing myself totally into nature is what I yearn for all winter.  Being at one with the soil, shovel in hand, pulling out weeds with a vengeance and planting with abandon.  That sheer joy of a perfectly groomed garden patch.

And she waits for that moment when my guard is down.  When I’m engrossed with the job at hand and forgetting myself.  Or even when I’m not even near her…second hand contact.  Each time I believe I can avoid her and each time I realize what an illusion that is!

Ivy, Sumac, Oak and who knows what others.  I thought I wouldn’t get the poison this year…I did everything I was supposed to and the night after I thought, I’d won this time.

The following morning, one innocent bump appeared on my arm.  “oh, that’s nothing”, I thought.  Wrong.  It has now spread rampage…my right hand has the worst with bits on the rest of my body.

My mother, brother and I have always been sensitive to the poisons.  It’s not too bad if it’s not in a prominent place…but if it’s on your face and neck, hands…people tend to look at you as if you have a contagious disease.  We could get it even if we were standing somewhere and the wind blew in our direction.  Or if someone were burning wood or brush and it was in there.  If clothing, etc. had been near it and we touched it.  Any outdoor pets who had been close to it…it would all affect us.

First the bumps.  Then the itching(nighttime itching is the worst). And lastly, the oozing before it would dry up.

I have large bandaids on my hands now when I go out in public.  It’ll go away in a day or so and I will forget about it once again…until next year!  When  I once again… dance with Ivy.

til next time…Eva

Questions…

Photo by Eva 2106

I’ve been thinking about my Dad today…some of the things that used to mortify me growing up, I find I’m doing them now.  Case in point…Questions.  My Dad was ALWAYS asking questions.  Not nosy questions but questions about everything else.  I remember hearing him asking a question and responding, “what do you want to know that for?”  And his response was always, “I don’t know why…but I need to know.”

Recently I was chatting on Facebook with a friend when she piped up, “you ask an awful lot of questions.”  It stopped me on my tracks and over the next couple of days I was more aware of what I was saying.  I then realized that I really did ask a lot  of questions.  And I also noticed that a lot of people don’t seem to ask questions at all.

Being a baker, my Dad was alone most of the time with a radio for company.  I’m alone in my job most of the time as well…so I wonder if that has something to do with it.  Or, maybe, there are just people who have that “need” to know.  If I don’t ask questions, I have the type of brain and imagination that tends to make stories up…you know when you’re at a restaurant and you study the people at the table close to you.  By the time dinner is over, you have a whole scenario in your mind?  No?

My Dad was a great story teller too…his bedtime stories were amazing.  When I’d sit down in the bakery during the early morning hours, he would make up stories for me(I remember the one of why the skunk got his stripe…

Another thing my Dad loved to do was negotiate prices…it didn’t matter what it was(back in the 1950s/60s there were still mostly local stores).  I used to HATE going shopping with him cause I knew he would haggle with the owner/clerk to try and get the price down…and most of  the time, he did…and did it quite well.

You know…I kind of wish now that I had learned that talent…

til next time…Eva

 

 

Aknowledging Our Successes

I have been doing the 10 Day Transformational Principles from Jack Canfield’s  “The Success Principles”.   http://jackcanfield.com/10-day-transformation-blog/     It’s free of charge and every day for 10 days you receive an email with the day’s lesson and homework.  I must say it is not for the weak hearted.  It requires you to dig deeply into your belief system to be totally honest with yourself.

I am presently on day 4.  The other days required me to: a. take responsibility for everything I do, everything that has happened to me.  b. To stop blaming others and to determine who it is I blame.  c. the five things I want to transform my life  d. within those five areas, why are they not successful now and what am I going to do about it?  and today…writing down all of the successes I have had in my life so far.

Why is it that we are so good at remembering everything that is and has been wrong in our lives and not the successes?  We remember the failures…bankruptcies, divorces, business failures, interviews that never became jobs, not finishing school/college, getting married too young/not getting married, regrets, and the list goes on.  It reminded me a lot of the “family jokes” I was writing in an earlier post…our friends and families tend to remember most of the bad areas in our lives.  Not intentionally, but they do.  I am reminded of my friend’s son.  He’s now quite successful in his job and has a large salary.  Very responsible in all areas.  Yet…when he was just out of college, he managed his money badly.  Had some serious problems and his mother helped him out with money.  To this day, she still worries about him and his money.

Another friend’s son over did the partying mode while in his last year of college and his grades suffered.  He lost his scholarship and his parents couldn’t help him financially at that point.  He had to leave college and get a job.  He too is now very successful at work and this is quite some time ago, yet his family still comment that he is a party person and ruined his life.

It was not til I was thinking about this course that all of the examples came to me.  We all seem to have one of these stories to our names that people just won’t let go.  And we don’t let go…maybe it is time we do.  Today.  Now.  Do yourself a favor and write down everything in your life that is a success for you.  Large and small.  And when you are feeling that your life just isn’t going the way you want it to, look over this list and remind yourself that you aren’t the failures in your life…you are the successes.  Encourage others to remember their successes as well…you never know who needs to hear that positive news.

I can highly recommend doing this 10 day program…it’s an eye opener and hopefully will be a life changer as well…

til next time…Eva