Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Widder Lady: Swiming at 80!
Widder Lady: Swiming at 80!: Being 80 (which is only a number for God's sake) now means further fixating on disciplined choosing. Each morning offers another chance ...
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Swiming at 80!
Being 80 (which is only a number for God's sake) now means further fixating on disciplined choosing. Each morning offers another chance to choose a few more hours of doing something that furthers "good health" or doing nothing at all, just nothing. However, choosing to do nothing is actually doing something isn't it?
I've mentioned my daily doings which I list and share each day with my Facebook "Homemakers' Encouragement" group. We start off with someone listing their "things done - item by item" and the next person follows with their completed tasks. In my list I include: swim 10 laps, did water exercises.
I do some morning arguing with myself deciding whether or not that I "feel like it" - feel like slipping into the cool and sometimes very chilly pool water. The water welcomes me. The flowers around the pool say "Hello, It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
There's a CD player on the cottage porch which I use to play music of Caribbean steel drums, classical guitar and/or boogie woogie piano. Music helps.
Looking at the huge trees on the horizon helps me count each lap. I like seeing he bright open sky (sometimes without clouds - just a swatch of cerulean blue) which may signal a clear day. Other days there are varied cloud formations which may be an indication of rain "later". Then, there are the times when it's fun to swim as big rain drops splash down and around me. (I choose not to swim when it's lightning, of course).
After I complete my morning swim routine, I am chilly unless I take a hot steamy shower. It takes hours to warm up, but the "whole routine" does wake me up and gives me "a better mind-set".
I label myself as a "swimmer" because it's been the exercise I have been doing for a lifetime. I'm a casual swimmer, not an athletic swimmer. I swim because I like swimming. I like water. Mama started us off by taking us to the local swimming pools in Glendale and Wyoming, Ohio. We had lessons at the YWCA on 9th Street in Cincinnati. I took swimming lessons at 4-H camp and at Ohio State University. I even had my Red Cross Life Guard certificate! So, I definitely am a swimmer!
Later in life I've enjoyed swimming at a local gym, in hotel pools, lakes (not Lake Tahoe, too cold) and the Caribbean waters. The challenge now is to "keep on swimming"!
I've mentioned my daily doings which I list and share each day with my Facebook "Homemakers' Encouragement" group. We start off with someone listing their "things done - item by item" and the next person follows with their completed tasks. In my list I include: swim 10 laps, did water exercises.
I do some morning arguing with myself deciding whether or not that I "feel like it" - feel like slipping into the cool and sometimes very chilly pool water. The water welcomes me. The flowers around the pool say "Hello, It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
 |
| The Pool and The Cottage |
There's a CD player on the cottage porch which I use to play music of Caribbean steel drums, classical guitar and/or boogie woogie piano. Music helps.
Looking at the huge trees on the horizon helps me count each lap. I like seeing he bright open sky (sometimes without clouds - just a swatch of cerulean blue) which may signal a clear day. Other days there are varied cloud formations which may be an indication of rain "later". Then, there are the times when it's fun to swim as big rain drops splash down and around me. (I choose not to swim when it's lightning, of course).
After I complete my morning swim routine, I am chilly unless I take a hot steamy shower. It takes hours to warm up, but the "whole routine" does wake me up and gives me "a better mind-set".
I label myself as a "swimmer" because it's been the exercise I have been doing for a lifetime. I'm a casual swimmer, not an athletic swimmer. I swim because I like swimming. I like water. Mama started us off by taking us to the local swimming pools in Glendale and Wyoming, Ohio. We had lessons at the YWCA on 9th Street in Cincinnati. I took swimming lessons at 4-H camp and at Ohio State University. I even had my Red Cross Life Guard certificate! So, I definitely am a swimmer!
Later in life I've enjoyed swimming at a local gym, in hotel pools, lakes (not Lake Tahoe, too cold) and the Caribbean waters. The challenge now is to "keep on swimming"!
Monday, August 14, 2017
Widder Lady: Sunday!
Widder Lady: Sunday!: It's Sunday morning! In the past, I "went to church". Church was meant to be a time to learn a lesson from the Bible. Church m...
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Sunday!
It's Sunday morning! In the past, I "went to church". Church was meant to be a time to learn a lesson from the Bible. Church meant seeing friends and neighbors dressed in their "Sunday Best". Church meant music and prayers. Church was when we reviewed our behavior and promised to "do better" to "do good" for another week.
My "religious" life has included several different denominations: Christian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, plus a year of Catholic school and all the associated events at its associated church across the street. Zen and teachings of the Buddha inspire me, too. CD's of Yoga Chants are often calming. I like watching television church services, too. I'm not Catholic but I do watch Easter and Christmas Vatican celebrations. It's all so amazing to see so many different religions! I even watched a Russian Orthodox program - people stand throughout the entire ceremony.
Way back in the 40's at the beginning of WWII, we lived in a beautiful home on a sloping hill. I remember the sunlight pouring in the windows. I remember wearing long white socks that snapped on with garters and shiny black patent leather shoes. We went to church. When we came back our home was filled the wonderful warm smell of beef pot roast. I remember lying on the floor and reading the funny paper. And, often the record player was playing big band songs that Mama would whistle to.
After "things went South" and a lot of "stuff" happened, we were in a rental two family in east Walnut Hills. That's when I went to Assumption school for the second grade. We attended a Presbyterian church on Madison Road (now demolished for a condo development with only the steeple part left). Then, with Mama pregnant, we moved "out to the country" to a tenant farm house with the outhouse and a well for water.
Our church was Withamsville Baptist Church. It was primitive with its stove heat and outhouse, too. Lulu Hall played the piano and sang, too. I loved the old hymns and still do. My folks got an old push pedal organ where I played those hymns, too. I sang in the choir for awhile and taught Sunday School. Sometimes we would go to the Wednesday evening services, too. Eventually I was baptized Baptist. The "dunking pool" was at Linwood Baptist Church on Linwood Avenue. That church is still there. (Two doors down I purchased a home as an investment - to rent and eventually sell). I still have some memorabilia from that home - a picture of Christ knocking at a door.
After our Baptist days, Mama and Daddy joined a Presbyterian church. I married Harry H. Garrison at Westwood Methodist Church and then during that marriage attended Walnut Hills Methodist Church where I also taught Sunday School and became Methodist. (I think my church affiliation is still Methodist). After the divorce, I didn't attend church. After remarriage, I didn't attend church either. My spiritual development has become more attached to nature, to creating, to life itself. It evolves with each passing day. It arrives with energy, hope and acceptance.
Maybe it's just being "older" or maybe even being happy with "life as it happens" that puts my church-going days into perspective. I know and I know. I live and I live. And, with this knowing, I understand and accept that "all is well". That's my "church message" for today. Tomorrow a new page will be turned and new lessons will be revealed. In the meantime, it's Sunday everyday!
My "religious" life has included several different denominations: Christian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, plus a year of Catholic school and all the associated events at its associated church across the street. Zen and teachings of the Buddha inspire me, too. CD's of Yoga Chants are often calming. I like watching television church services, too. I'm not Catholic but I do watch Easter and Christmas Vatican celebrations. It's all so amazing to see so many different religions! I even watched a Russian Orthodox program - people stand throughout the entire ceremony.
Way back in the 40's at the beginning of WWII, we lived in a beautiful home on a sloping hill. I remember the sunlight pouring in the windows. I remember wearing long white socks that snapped on with garters and shiny black patent leather shoes. We went to church. When we came back our home was filled the wonderful warm smell of beef pot roast. I remember lying on the floor and reading the funny paper. And, often the record player was playing big band songs that Mama would whistle to.
 |
| *Note: Found this "treasure" at Valley Thrift Shop. Serendipity! It's a square tile "etched" in black. |
After "things went South" and a lot of "stuff" happened, we were in a rental two family in east Walnut Hills. That's when I went to Assumption school for the second grade. We attended a Presbyterian church on Madison Road (now demolished for a condo development with only the steeple part left). Then, with Mama pregnant, we moved "out to the country" to a tenant farm house with the outhouse and a well for water.
Our church was Withamsville Baptist Church. It was primitive with its stove heat and outhouse, too. Lulu Hall played the piano and sang, too. I loved the old hymns and still do. My folks got an old push pedal organ where I played those hymns, too. I sang in the choir for awhile and taught Sunday School. Sometimes we would go to the Wednesday evening services, too. Eventually I was baptized Baptist. The "dunking pool" was at Linwood Baptist Church on Linwood Avenue. That church is still there. (Two doors down I purchased a home as an investment - to rent and eventually sell). I still have some memorabilia from that home - a picture of Christ knocking at a door.
After our Baptist days, Mama and Daddy joined a Presbyterian church. I married Harry H. Garrison at Westwood Methodist Church and then during that marriage attended Walnut Hills Methodist Church where I also taught Sunday School and became Methodist. (I think my church affiliation is still Methodist). After the divorce, I didn't attend church. After remarriage, I didn't attend church either. My spiritual development has become more attached to nature, to creating, to life itself. It evolves with each passing day. It arrives with energy, hope and acceptance.
Maybe it's just being "older" or maybe even being happy with "life as it happens" that puts my church-going days into perspective. I know and I know. I live and I live. And, with this knowing, I understand and accept that "all is well". That's my "church message" for today. Tomorrow a new page will be turned and new lessons will be revealed. In the meantime, it's Sunday everyday!
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