Category Archives: Life Lessons

December 1, 2012 · 1:21 pm

Work View

DSC01493

Elim Village.  This is one of the views I get depending on which parking spot I choose as I arrive for work.  Mostly, this is a Dutch community, beautifully designed and constructed, and welcomes the Senior population.

Over the past eleven years I have worked for various families on a part time basis to fill a need as companion care for a mother or father – doing whatever the family wanted or needed…meal prep, shopping, conversation, reading, meals out in restaurant and to be a friend.

It is with gratefulness I say good-bye to this part of my life journey at Elim Village.  I take with me some great stories of lives well lived, met families who trusted me with the care of their parents – even if just for an hour a couple times during a week and I will miss these connections.

I will stay connected with Elim Village because I will continue to meet with the writers group there – another blessing in my life.  It is there and through story, I have learned the life travels of immigrants, war, friendship, loyalty, love, hurts and pain, struggles, joy, determination…the list is long.

I’m on to the next adventure of my aging self…perhaps more education, seek other employment, write more, definitely play more Pickleball, and maybe I’ll even get my paints out again to finish a picture I started more than a year ago.

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November 12, 2012 · 12:50 am

Skill Development

       Wandering through the programs on my computer I discovered this word,  “painting” and from there I created my first doodle. Of course it makes no sense, has no rhyme or reason but it is a collection of lines and colors, dots and strokes mixed with a few cartoon circles.   I am glad I wandered and visited  unknown places on my still new laptop.  Not sure how I got there, not sure how I’ll find my way back but in the meantime it was material for a new post on the learning curves and breaking the fear factor of stepping into new territory and just trying something different.Untitled (3)
Poster Doodle

 

 

 

 

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October 27, 2012 · 7:27 pm

A Walk in the Park

Deas Island

Deas Island

This post is another lesson in learning new skills.  Insert a picture, upload, crop, centre (left/right), voila, it should be done… An hour later, and with  the skilled help of a housemate who usually knows what he is doing, and here we sat, baffled.  Pushed a few more buttons, read some more info and magically, never to be repeated in quite the same process, I can say I’ve navigated my way through to putting up a much-loved picture of a much enjoyed walk on a lovely summer day.

I have a headache, my left gluteus maximus is spasming, and I am craving chocolate, a sure sign that I am stressed.  However, this is a happy and relieved midlife empty nester , who is determined to conquer and master my new laptop and my new WordPress blog.

For several hours today I also insisted to myself that I must have victory over figuring out how to use the Excel program too,  because I volunteered to help out with some administrative responsibilities for a program I take part in, called Freedom Session.  That too required the help of a couple of people to gently talk me, and email me, and basically step by step me through to the end.

Here I am, at the end of the day, a satisfied but exhausted person, going out to get chocolate and then crash in front of the TV.

By the way, the photo above is taken by another of those creations given to me, my easy-peasy camera, which also wore me out at first as I read and re-read, then wore out the pages of the little booklet I carry around with me.  Then I had to learn how to get the picture from the camera onto the computer.  That was fun…

Going to get that chocolate now.

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October 27, 2012 · 7:21 pm

Learning Curves

Just wondering how many brain cells I am saving by expanding my knowledge base in the cyber world.  Is that even the correct word to use?  The desire to not lose the ability to converse with the younger generation pushes me to keep learning.

As a writer, keeping up with trends, linking to the writing community, discovering new ways to communicate and not wishing to be left behind also encourages me to find space in my brain to store new with old information and hope that somehow, somewhere in there ‘it’ knows how to process it all when I on the ‘outside’ really wonder about the ability to do so.

So, here I sit, unashamed, eager to learn, sit with laptop in hand, well, actually on lap and determinedly (stubbornly) search, click, arrow back, gasp in horror about what I might have done, discuss out loud – loudly, just what does this new computer of mine think it’s doing when I asked it to do, whatever…and it does something else.

Along with a new laptop, a birthday gift, for an age I am shocked I’ve arrived to, but let’s just say, Menopause about covers the age span –  it seemed like a no-brainer,  this is the time I’d choose to discover how to create a new blog to stretch my mind a little further.

And, who best to teach me all this new knowledge, a young person of course.

So far, I have not sent my personal and confidential files to the world. So far, I have not thrown the laptop across the room.  So far, I’m ready for another viewing through my very carefully laid out, step by step worksheet.  It’s good, it’s all good.

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