Here are the four Share Your World questions for this week. I hope you have some fun playing along. It sure is fun learning about all of us.
What’s my favorite holiday and why?
Do you prefer your food separated or mixed together?
Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say?
When yo are with your friends. Do your interactions include much touching—for example, hugging, kissing, rough housing, rubbing backs? Would you like to have more of this?
See my answers below.
Even though I oftentimes will add photos to my answers, it is not a requirement to participate in Share your World.
I will be putting out four different questions each week for you to answer. There are two ways which you can participate.
Create a Share Your World post. Then post the link to your blog in my comment box or leave your answers in the comments box of my blog.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Share Your World” tag.
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly reminders.
I will state the questions first and then post my answers in the bottom part of my blog. I’ve also created a banner if you would like one for your blog.
Here is the second part of my blog today. I waned to do ripples and reflections on different blogs. Because they really are two different things.
When I reflect back on my life, I really have no regrets. Yes, there are probably little things I would do differently, but as a whole I wouldn’t change a thing.
What a adore about reflections is that we can remember how we want to view them. Sometimes, memories are blurred and totally different from how other people perceive them. Tthere are times the view is clear, crisp and sharp.
I thought I would have a lot more to say on reflections, but I really don’t. My own thoughts and perceptions of reflections have changed over the years. What I truly appreciate is that reflections of the past can change, just as life’s desires, hopes and dreams change. Even the so called bad memories now have a warm place in my heart. For example, because of having Lyme disease, I find I’m full of optimism and curiosity. I may not always know what I am curious about, but I do know that I wanted to live and it’s fun finding out the hopes and desires that come from being at death’s doorstep as many times I have been. Reflections are good, because we can make them what we want them to be.
Depending on my view point of my own reflections in life, helps me monitor how my attitude for life is. I’m really happy to say that most of the time, my reflections are wonderful!!
I hope you enjoy my choices for reflections photos. As always, please scroll down to view larger versions.
Reflections of some of the scenery outside a nursery in Sherwood, Oregon.
Reflections of waterlilies.
Broken reflection of fallen trees.
Reflections on a river in Van Duzer Forest Preserve.
Reflections of a buildings in downtown Portland on a bright sunny day.
Reflections in the window at Wooden Shoe Tulip farm. I love that tree.
I love that this photo has double reflections. One of the boat in the water, and then the water on the side of the boat.
I love this one. Such colorful reflections of people gathered on a small lake. Some of them were fishing.
I’m writing this blog because I read Work the Dream, How is Your Race Going blog? When I first read her blog I was wondering if I ever go beyond what I am capable of. Then I watched the video she had along with it and I just cried. As many of you know I have chronic lymes disease and it definitely has altered my life, energy and put limits on what I can do, physically. The past couple weeks I’ve really pushed the boundaries for me. And for the past few days, I’ve not been able to do a whole lot. Walking has been hard and I felt drained and exhausted. But At the same time I have been so happy and content.
Since I’m getting ready to take my Energy Medicine course, I’ve been talking with a couple of people to see if they’d be interested in me using them as “guinea pigs” as I learn. So I’ve been thinking about opening up a group specifically for that . And as most of you know I have been looking into the Red Hat Society, since lymes has kept me so isolated. I’ve been to a couple of functions with the Red Hat Society and I am having a blast. There is a group that meets fairly close to us and is just fun. They also meet at various times of the month so Chris has been able to join as well. So after summoning up the courage to meet new people and go new places, I was pretty exhausted. I even stayed up extremely late (my favorite time of the day) on Saturday night. It was the first time in ages. I so love staying up until 2-ish. It is so quiet and peaceful. So on Sunday morning I asked Chris, is it all worth it since I am so tied. Chris didn’t answer. It was okay, because I answered it a few minutes later. I realized I was happy and full of life. I told Chris, yes it is worth it.
This morning I am actually feeling energy boil back up inside me. So I’m incorporating all my new activities real well and I am looking forward to new adventures. Today I am off to get an energy medicine treatment and see my mentor. I’m so excited. I may need a few days off here and there, but it is all worth it!!!
Here is the video I talked about earlier in my blog that Work the Dream had posted. ENJOY!!
I have been stopped in my tracks this week. Last week and the beginning of this week, I’ve been so busy that I’m just exhausted. And with Chronic Lyme Disease, I do mean exhausted. Right now it is even difficult for me to walk. I am planning on going to the pool in the morning and doing some mild stretching and aerobics hopefully that will keep me more mobile. Anyhow, below is my entry for the week. As normal, please scroll down for enlarged versions.
Amtrack traveling through Canby, Oregon and stopping traffic.
Canby has a car show (one of the biggest in Oregon) every year. And this beauty was stopped for pedestrians.
This car stopped to let off a passenger for a classic car show that was held near Eugene, Oregon.
I was feeling pretty down today and feeling a little sorry for myself. Actually more accurate I’m grieving the loss of my adulthood. Having been sick for all of my adult life and not knowing it. I have no idea who I could have been if I wasn’t sick. I just know that I am now healthy enough to want to rejoin my life, but I have no idea how to do that.
I’ve lost my sociability skills. I’ve learned to take life way to seriously and really don’t know how to have fun. One of the things I was was talking and crying to Chris this morning is that I don’t even know what I want to do. I want friends and some kind of social life, but I have no idea how to be a friend or have a social life. I don’t know how to play, be silly, or have fun. Having had Lymes undiagnosed for so many years, I slowly stopped participating in groups I belonged or any social activities. Now since I’m getting healthy for the first time in my adult life, I want to do something, but have absolutely no idea what that “something” is.
So going through my email today I saw Lady Barefoot Baroness Blog where she mentioned The Red Hat Society. All of a sudden a light came on. The Red Hat Society would be a great place to learn how to play again and be social with other ladies my age. I’ve seen them all dressed in purple with their red hats having a lot of fun when Chris and I travel on photo shoots. I don’t know that much about The Red Hat Society, but I do know they have a lot of fun. So I’ve joined. Now I need to find a local chapter. This is hopefully going to be fun and I get to meet a lot of new ladies.
For my photo for today. This is a young girl I took at the beach. She reminded me of how I usually feel. Alone with no one around.
Last night Chris and I watched one of our all time favorite shows NCIS. The show was all about the What Ifs in Leroy Gethro Gibbs (main character) life. See Chris’s blog NCIS is a Great Teacher for more information.
The show made me think about the big what if’s in my life. Here are a few examples of some obvious what ifs in my life.
When I was in high school in southern California, I wanted to be editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. I always have liked journalism. So what if I took my scholarship and got a journalism degree? Would I have found photography and become a photo journalist, perhaps travel the world and end up working for the National Geographic? Now that could be awesome. But then I could have been a small town newspaper reporter writing about events that happened last week and trying to make those events sound interesting.
When I was 20, I had a chance to work with the CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency) in their Los Angeles, California office. I had to have a Top Secret clearance before they would do the final interview in Washington DC. Those months I was connected to the CIA were the most interesting months of my life. I was a naive, wide-eyed 20 year and I loved every minute of it. The only reason I didn’t get the job, was someone didn’t file the right paperwork and the job went to someone else. Many years later, I met someone who was retired from the CIA and he said I would have been well taken care of by the Agency, but my life would have been so very different.
So here is another photo of Hope………It’s a spring photo!
I’m a healer. And have been for many years. I practice Eden Energy Medicine and Quantum Touch. I really believe that energy medicine can help anyone feel better and heal….especially in conjunction with western medicine, when needed. For simple little headaches, backache, migraines, etc. energy medicine can work well and painlessly.
The best part of being a healer is that Chris gets the advantage of having me around. When Chris was a toddler, she had polio and as a result, she has one short leg. I’ve actually healed her enough not to have to wear special built up shoes. I can keep her hips in alignment. She is so thrilled. It gives her so much more freedom than she ever had before.
When I told Chris that Hope was the weekly photo challenge, she instantly said I had to put in more photos from when I was in the hospital. I agreed. Yesterday I talked about water and how healing it is for me. Another symbol, again related to water, of hope and strength is lighthouses.
Here is a photo of my shadow and Chris making a labyrinth of a Northern California beach. (camera used was one of the original digital Sony)
Me standing in the Pacific Ocean in Northern California.
Chris took this photo on day 3 of my 40 day coma and 5 month hospitalization.
To read more please scroll down and enlarged photos.
When I first walked into our hotel room this past weekend, I nearly started to cry. I love water so and can stare at it and meditate all day long. Our hotel was built on a pier over the Columbia River in Astoria (see We Finally Made it to Astoria blog). I’ve had a love of water ever since I’ve been a little child. I was fortunate enough to always live by huge bodies of water like Lake Superior and and the Pacific Ocean. My grandparents also lived on a lake in Northern Minnesota. Water has always been so healing for me. I can be depressed and spend some time near moving water, and all the stress within me just disappears.
When I first saw the view out our hotel window, my first thought was I’ve come full circle since I first got sick in 2001 (see my Living with Lyme Disease page). The weekend before I was rushed to the hospital was one of the most loving and memorable weekends of my life. Chris and I knew something was going on with me. I was tired and we even discussed if I was “truly” ill. And I had no symptoms that anyone could pin-point. We were living on the sandy dry plains of Colorado near Colorado Springs. Chris drove me to Pueblo and found a reservoir that was we could drive down to the water. It was freezing cold (mid March) and I just had to get my feet in the water. Then she bought me a 150 gallon fountain that we could set up in our huge house. She set it up and put it in my office area which was open to the living room, kitchen and family room. I so loved the sound of that fountain. I’d get up at nights and just rinse my face with the water.
Four days later, I was in the hospital and near death. It was the beginning of a nightmare for the both of us. For the next 40 days while I was in a coma, Chris did not know if I would live or die. The doctors had no idea why I was so ill and in organ failure. So for me to feel like I have come full circle from that weekend means so very much to me. I can’t put it into words. Chris just loved to see me sit and watch the water, and then run out to take photographs of all the big and small boats on the river with at least two cameras in hand.
Here are a few photos of the Columbia River that I shot. Hope you enjoy the show. As always please scroll down to view them larger. Thanks.
I got a gift from Chris this weekend. I simple 4-drawer plastic chest of drawers. When I first saw it in the store a week or so ago, I just fell in love with it.
Before I got hospitalized the first time when I had my 40-day coma (March 2001). It appeared as if Chris and I lived a charmed life. Just months before, we had bought our dream home on 35-acres. The house was in the eastern plains of Colorado about 40 miles east of Colorado Springs. For those of you who don’t know that part of Colorado is high desert. So our land was full of shrubs and sand. It once was home to Indians and their spirit was definitely present. Our house was situated so we looked toward Pikes Peak (14,000 ft) Mountain. The view and skies were phenomenal! We could see the storms, clouds and rain.
Chris sitting/meditating in the labyrinth she made while I was in the hospital. She always wanted a labyrinth. Before I got sick, we were starting to lay it out.
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