Author: worrylessjourney

Just Thinking

by worrylessjourney, posted in curiosity, enlightening, knowledge, learn

I am always learning. I recently chose to subscribe to PBS documentaries. That is one of the best decisions I have made. I have enjoyed so many shows from NOVA programs about animals and space, history, fameous people and poetry. The list is really endless.

Sometimes I feel an outsider here because so many prople have PHD’s or are business magnates. My life seems to drab by comparison. However, the longer I thought about it I realized that while they are focused on a specific area my life and knowledge has been so varied.

My education and experience has been so varied that I have more practical knowledge about life and the world abound me than most people. If I wrote out everything I have done it would look so strange….from running conferences to directing choirs. Doing publicity and computer advertising, nursing, teaching and I could go on. The strange thing is that everything that I have done seems to have been just what I needed for the next thing.

I now know that I feel belssed to have had the life I have. I am so enriched by all the exposure to many different pathways and am so grateful for all I did.

I am continuing to learn and do different things so life is not over yet. I am excited to see what comes next!

Ever Changing

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, aging, caring

I am so aware that every day is different. I frequently think about the song ” What a difference a day makes.” Life is ever changing and mine is no exception. After a difficult few weeks things are better and I am so glad. Living in this Independent Living Facility, which is wonderful has the downside of losing friends. I have lost ones who don’t life here but it is different with those I see every day.

It is hard but it is part of life and life is ever changing.

Help us find Hope

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, choices, community, consequences, frustration, hope, problems

Well, here I am again trying to get back into a routine. I need it. I have not been giving my voice a chance to be heard nor have I destressed by sharing frustrations and thoughts. For my own well being I need to get back to writing. I haven’t even written anything else. I have sunk into a low and it is time to move on.

There are so manhy things going on in this country for the first time in my life I am frightened for us. Our leaders and the press spread fire and dissent. We grow further apart. My grandson who is 21 does not expect to live past thirty. He reflects the views of many of our young adults. They have lost their hope and sense of safety. The suicide rate is rising exponentially. Japan has seen a decline in births. We may begin to see the same thing since there is no concept of permanence among those in their twneties and thirties.

I have no objection to those who want to just live together except that it has less sense of committment and it is the children who suffer when someone decides to just step away.

Arnold Toynbee, a history phiilosipher, says that when a nation’s morality, culttural norms, and governement dissolves into chaos that nation is on the way out. I consider us there.

My greatest wish is that we can recover from this but the signs are not favorable. I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to have hope for the future.

?What Seven Deadly Sins?

by worrylessjourney, posted in aging, answers, change

Here I am back again after a long time of not posting. I realized that I have spent little time in introspection and too much time doing things that don’t really matter. I have to take time to share my thoughts….and actually have thoughts. Living in Independent Living can be not living independently. It is a choice. So much is available here it is easy to get comfortable and not streatch my mind. Recently I have begun a book club that reads collections of short stories. I wasn’t sure this was going to be great but it is really wonderful. It is so much more fun to disect a short story with as group of very different people. It is a small group but has three liturature college professors. One from UT, 2 from Baylor and one from Rice. A little intimidating since evern though I have read and continue to read everything this is a unique group. The other members have varied backgrounds but all have amazing backgrounds. It makes for an interesting and fun discussion. The title of our current anthology is “The Seven Deadly Sins” a compilation of major authors whose storries have components that show one of the sins. We just read “anger.”

Enough about this. More nextime, peace, Suzanne

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, aging, change, coping

I have settled in here Independent Living and have learned a lot about what someone needs to know about taking this step in their life. One thing I know for sure is that I wouldn’t want to be living alone in the home I left. There are so many opportunities here for finding new friends and enjoying the activities.

Change is difficult but we experience it throughout our entire lives. Making a change like this can be hard but I find it worth it.

I am working on a book about this step in our lives. I have no name for it yet but think of it as Transitional Grief. That will change as the word grief causes so many negative responses. This will be a challenge but a great way to explore my own experience with the aim of helping others.

Connections Still

by worrylessjourney, posted in choices, communication, community, connections

I continue to ponder on the connection between how cells cooperate and connect to each other in order to work I am working on a poem but strangely it just doesn’t work yet. Hope abounds and I will continue to work on it.

For some reason the connections between Brene Brown and Mukerjee continue to resonate with me. If only we could learn to put aside our differences for our similarities.I can visualize a world in which connections are always there. If only!!

Connections

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, connections, consequences

I’ve been reading the book “the Song of the Cell” by Siddhartha Mukerjee and his owrk has morphed into connections with other things I have been reading. I am stunned by the number of times I have been made aware of the importance of connectivity.

Connectivity is the central point in the thougths of Brene Brown and others and now I am seeing it in the book by Mukerjee. Connectivity goes from its importance in the functioning of the human body and every other living thing to connectivity we see in each society. It has made me realize that all of what we are relies on being connected. From the smallist examples to societal groups, countries, continents, to earth and beyond.

The problem is that we don’t see the importance of it. We are unable to see that when even the smallest parts of cells don’t communicate nothing works. Society is so compartmentalized that we believe that our part can function forever without the rest. But if the cells in the heart don’t communicate and work together the whole organism fails. I so wish that there were some way that we could realize that this applies to everything in the world.

Hello from the long lost

by worrylessjourney, posted in caring, communication, connections

For a while I didn’t write. I don’t know why. It seems as if thoughts were dormant. Nothing new, Nothing to write home about.

Now it is as if I have found new thoughts, new ideas and something to write.That’s why there are two posts today. One some wanderings of the mind and the other a “glad to be back.”

Generational acceptance

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, challenging, sadness

Sometimes it is hard to see the good. Sometimes the down side is so much more visible. I live in a wonderful place. I can want for nothing but I still feel disconnected. With a partner I had what I saw as a life of connections. Picked my own directions…did my own thing. I can still do that but I didn’t realize how disconnected I would feel from the lives of my family.

They were raised to find their own way…to make their own choices and they have done a wonderful job of that. But they frequently called with updates and questions. I knew about their lives. I was connected.

Now I am in a safe, prime environment and for some reason I have become disconnected. Is is me? Am I not functioning the way I used to?

I guess in some ways I was the matriarch. My home was still the center. Now that is gone. In some ways it is a relief to not have that role but I realize I miss it. Something else to absorb and learn to accept. It is the way of life. Each generation moves on and leaves room for the next.

WE

by worrylessjourney, posted in challenging, change, comparisons

Today I want to talk about a touchy subject. …Gender expression. My granddaughter is in her 20’s and talks with me about friends that want to have as a designation “they.” I have no problem with people expressing their gender any way they want but I do think that there is a problem with they and them.

In our society we tend to divide ourselves into groups of us and them. This definitely puts a negative spin on those designations. Are them and they on the outside?

How people see their gender is only a small part of who we are. I am multiple people. My gender is important for me but the other aspects of ME are just as important. I think of myself in many different ways. Today my persona may be an artist or a writer. I may be functioning from a male perspective. I may be childish and not 82 years old. I may look at people as people I need to help from my years of nursing, or taking on my passion for expressions of God. I am many things, many people, multiples. I am not they or them. I am definitely WE !!

So if people want to address me as something other than she I want to be called WE !

WE and WE