Only change is constant!

I have a famous quote I coined...well maybe I didn't really coin it...but I like to quote it often, like my personal mantra. I could have said this to you before and I will probably say it again

"The only thing that remains constant in life is the fact that things are always changing"

or more simply put,

"The only constant in life, is change."

Yet, for some reason we all fear and resist change with all our might. We lift our cheeks, colour our hair and cling to people whom we should have let go of a long time ago!

Yeah, letting go of people can be one of the hardest changes to accept. Perhaps if we borrowed a leaf from nature, then we would move through life more gracefully.

Just like trees shed leaves in fall to put on new ones next spring, whether we resist it or not, when a person's season is over in your life, they may need to be shed.
Now, before you go ahead and decide to shed me, remember, that not all people in your life are leaves! There are always some people in your life that are meant to be there forever. They are like buttress roots, holding you firmly to the ground.

So go on – find out what season it is in your life, figure out what part the people and things in your life play – then boldly embrace change!

My Pet Dog, Procrastination

You would not believe the number of blog entries I have written in the last month. They are absolutely numerous!

Ever since I begun riding the blogging wave, every conversation I have, any discussion I hear or any argument I get into is a potential blog entry –

You: "Ethel, how soon can you print my cards?"
Me: "Ah! Cards! Now, that would make a good topic for blogging!";

You: "It looks like rain today!"
Me: "The weather...hmm...I think I can still create an interesting twist to talking about the weather"

You: "I broke up with my boyfriend last night"
Me: "Relationships! What curious things they are....I will definitely write about falling in and out of love!"

So where, I hear you ask, are all these amazingly interesting entries? Ummmm, well....my dog ate it! Honest, he did!

I didn't get to blogging right away, and somehow the Procrastination ate up all my ideas and now I cannot even remember what I was supposed to be saying in the first place...So you are reading the rumblings of a mind that is exhausted from searching for what it had been thinking about yesterday, and the day before and before that.....and before that.......

You are as old as you feel

I seem to have a penchant for quoting very cliché quotes... But bear with me please, I got some really funny stuff about age I just have to share with you!

The other day I got an email forward from a friend. I am not really a fan of forwards (please note, friends!) but this particular one really tickled me. Perhaps because it hit so close to home?

It was a really long one, but I will just pick out what I thought were the choicest parts.

One of them goes like this:

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about ageing that you think in fractions. 'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half (and all the ladies in the house said....).

Another one said this:

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. 'How old are you?' 'I'm going to be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're going to be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .... . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!! But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

It went on and on through the different landmarks of age, but the part that really got me in stitches was this one:

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Now back to the moral of the story - You are as old as you feel or as young as you wanna be. My advice to you? Throw out all the non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Lets take time out – to be thankful

While sipping on on juice this evening at a friend's house as I fussed over and was absolutely fascinated by her wee little bundle of joy (yeah, it amazes me every time to think that we all metamorphose from that helpless state), she pointed out how lucky we were that we could actually sip on our juice... and even taste it while there was someone lying in a hospital bed who didn't even have the strength to use a drinking straw.

Her observation at the time seemed out of the blues, but it really got me thinking. Actually, I do have it better than so many people! I have a roof over my head, I have the option of having three square meals a day, and snacks in between, I can actually chew and taste my food, I am sitting upright as I type this blog post... come to think of it...I have sight, I can even use the computer (don't throw pillows at me just yet, I know that sounds cliché but bare with me).

Just thinking of my friend's statement has got me on a roll tonight. I really do hate being preached to about how much better I have it than other people when I am right in the middle of feeling sorry about something in my situation, but today, I am actually going to stop and think about it and I'll ask you to join me.

You may not have an idea where your next meal is coming from (seriously....it happens, I know) but think about it – if you can at least read my post on a computer or on you're phone, and if you have the energy in your finger to click the button at the corner and close this window, then truly, you do have something to be thankful for!

A "wee" bit of sacrifice never killed anyone, or then again, did it?

There are very few things that would induce me to give up my creature comforts.

For instance, why in the world would I want to give up the roof over my head in exchange for a tent on my back for a period of two weeks? Or the attendant security of knowing that bar any extraordinary circumstances, my door is unlikely to be charged by wild animals. Why would I want to exchange curling up in the evening on my settee with the remote control firmly in my possession (yes, it is I that controls it) mindlessly flipping through TV channels for a night in out in the open, surrounded by pitch darkness with the only source of light coming from distant stars and the glow from a fire lit to keep wild animals away? Or the knowledge that I shall retire to my warm bed with a nice thick mattress and the pillow I am so used to, for the uncertainty as to whether my bed for the night, a threadbare sleeping bag that has to be so in order for me to lug it around for the duration of two weeks, will be dry or wet.

I could actually fill several pages with the comforts I would rather not give up, and still not be done, but I think you get my point. That is why I look at my friend Anne with a mixture of respect and fascination as she prepares to walk for two weeks, through the Rumuruti forest (I am sure some have no idea such a forest exists and I will probably have to tell you all about it at some point) in an attempt to raise funds towards saving this forest and by extension, preserving the water system that depends on it.

I did promise to tell you all about this friend of mine and her quest to make a difference; so this is just the beginning. Hopefully, I will inspire more of us to do whatever little we can towards that worthy cause we have always wanted to support.