Learning as we age

 From Deanne Fitzpatrick's blog page....she was talking about getting older.  I love this and wanted to share:


The following is from one of our famous journalists, Regina Brett, who is 57. I think all of you will enjoy it!
- Regina Brett’s (Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist) 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written.
My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
Warmly,
Marianna

Books suggested to read by Erica Baumeister:  I love her books so I want to read some of these books...it feels like we would have the same sort of taste...if I love her work!

The Art of Eating – MFK Fisher
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Baby – Patricia McClachlan
Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Blackbird House – Alice Hoffman
The Blind Contessa’s New Machine – Carey Wallace
Broken For You – Stephanie Kallos
Chocolat – Joanne Harris
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant – Anne Tyler
Emma–- Jane Austen
Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Armin
Garlic and Sapphires – Ruth Reichl
The Giant’s House–- Elizabeth McCracken
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue – Susan Vreeland
Guernica – Dave Boling
Here at Eagle Pond – Donald Hall
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
The Language of Baklava – Diana Abu-Jaber
The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
The Madonnas of Leningrad – Debra Dean
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
A Natural History of the Senses – Diane Ackerman
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard
A Room With A View – E.M. Forster
West with the Night – Beryl Markham
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

How to Find More Time for the Things that Mean the Most to You This Year

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
Charles Richards

There are many important things in life.
Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. Reading, learning and growing as person.
But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.
But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your time. In this article I’ll share some of the most effective strategies I have found for doing so and for shaking yourself out of a rut and reconsider how you actually spend your time.
Focus.

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work. On things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or other unhelpful reasons.

To become more focused:

• Write down your top 4 priorities where you see them every day. To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you. So think about it and reduce what is important in your life at this moment to the top 4 most important priorities. Write those four things down on two notes and post one in your workspace and one your night table.
• Reduce distractions. Ask yourself: what are the 3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way? Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by shutting the door to your office, by putting your phone on silent mode for an hour at a time or by having notifications for email shut off.
• Find balance. If you just work and work you will quickly become unfocused and the longer the week drags on the more tired you become. To work smarter try using a timer – on your cell phone or use an egg-timer – and set it for 45 minutes. Then put in a drawer or somewhere where you can’t see it.
  During those 45 minutes dive in and immerse yourself in the no-distraction zone and your work until the clock rings. Then set you timer for a 15 minute break where you get away from your work space if possible. Take a walk, go for a snack or have a conversation about something else than work.

Simplify.

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time that we explore quite a bit in the 31 Days to a Simpler Life Course is to set limits.

Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful limits for:

• Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.
• Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.
• Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this year.

Minimize or eliminate.
What else can you eliminate or minimize besides the things listed above? Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some online forum you hang out on a lot?
Question and reconsider your own habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it what you usually do. See if you want make changes to make more room for things you would honestly get more out of.
Find unnoticed free time in your day.

One final tip. There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year. What will you use your such time for this year? Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or listen to audio books while waiting for a meeting to start or while you are out driving your car.

Even if you only have 20 minutes of commuting time each day then you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.

Image by bogenfreund (license).


P.S: If you are serious about making small and big changes that matter and that stick in 2013 then join us in one of the Positivity Blog courses:

- Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start creating a life of self-love where you feel you deserve good things and happiness and dare to follow your dreams - with The Self-Esteem Course.

- Minimize the clutter and the unnecessary. Maximize your relationships, health, effectiveness and the things that mean the most to you - with the Simplicity Course.

- One small task each day for 31 days to simplify your life step by step - with The 31 Days to a Simpler Life Course.

Copyright 2006-2013 Henrik Edberg.

Here is my rug that I am still working on.......but I am trying to do hooking on it at least 2o min a day.  Its working...I see progress.  I read somewhere ...dont worry about finishing...think about starting each day...each day a new start...and then it will get done...a different way of looking at it I like.

Wondering what this would look like in all blues and whites and greys...again, just for myself...my living room as a rug.

 Want to do this as a quilt ....there is a show coming up about children....but not sure I have the time to finish it by the show.  Would be fun to find the fabrics for this quilt...all those cute happy prints are so in right now.

 I want to needlework these for my living room

This took forever

I saw this on a page on The Welcome Mat..and she found it on Pinterest...dont know where...sorry......I laughed and laughed ...This definitely has to go on everything I make!  Let everyone know....THEY BETTER APPRECIATE this gift!  It took forever...with LOVE and CARE to make...just for them.  Even if I made it myself...to remind me to appreciate what I finished!!!!

Making slippers of wool

 From Wanda at The Welcome Mat...wanted to have it where I could get at it later!  How fun to decorate these when done!!!

Not exactly fiber art...but...sparkle time!

Here is my new sweater...which I think is almost fiber art!! :) but technically not. Made in a factory...and mass produced...etc...however, I love the textures and color.  This is part of  my New Years Eve outfit for this year...I love to wear sparkles on Christmas and New Years.  Dont let anyone take away your sparkle!!

 Another idea for a rug--I am into horses and ships...for some reason.  Do not have a horse or a boat...nor do I sail or live on the ocean...still love ships right now...looking for a huge model ship that I like.

 This is a rug I am gathering wool for...bought this way too small wool suit online and will use for the blue in this rug and maybe the sailing ship if I do that.
 I would like to do an English Flag for my family room in rug hooking....will make it look a bit old...tea stained kind of...

About living in the moment

When we ,as artists, start worrying about taking the time to create art....saying to ourselves that we should be doing this or that....here is an article about living in the moment...and tying to have less stress and worry in your life.  For me, creating art, does help my stress level....I do tend to get lost in what I am doing..and I do live in the present moment when I am creating.  How about you?

The Draining Worry Habit and How to Overcome It

Image by amira_a (license).

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
Swedish Proverb

One of the most common and subtly – or not so subtly – destructive habits people get wrapped up in must be worrying.

It has certainly been one of my biggest issues.

I get a lot of emails from people feeling that they worry too much about work or their loved ones and they create create elaborate and negative scenarios in their minds. And it sucks so much energy from them.

In the past few years I have become pretty good at handling worry quickly when it pops up. And to keep it far from my mind most of the time.

And I’d like to share my most effective tips with all of you that may have this draining habit in your life. I truly hope you’ll find something that helps in this article.
Stay in the present moment and today.

Worries come from imagining how things will go terribly wrong sometime in the future. They become bigger as you spend time building elaborate scenarios in your mind. And can become even bigger as you replay that one bad event from your past over and over in your mind and fear that it will be your reality in the future this time too.

When you spend too much of your energy and time imagining the future or reliving the past then that often leads to a lot of worries.

So an important key to drastically less worries is to not spend more time than necessary there and to spend most of your time in the present moment and on this current day.

Two of the most powerful tips I use to do that are:

• Just take care of today. When you start your day or when worries start to cloud your mind then sit down for a minute. Breathe. Then narrow your focus greatly. Don’t look forward because then you’ll see all the things you have to do to, for example, reach a goal. Instead, focus on just taking care of today. Nothing more. Tomorrow will come in time. And then you will take care of that today too.
• Tell yourself: now I am… As I do something I simply tell myself this in my mind: Now I am X. For example, if I am brushing my teeth, then I tell myself: Now I am brushing my teeth. If am writing then I tell myself: Now I am writing. It is easy to drift away to the future or past. This phrase keeps me grounded in the present moment and in today.

Ask yourself: How many of the things you feared would happen in your life did actually happen?
Most things you fear will happen never happen. They are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most often just a waste of time.
This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually happened you can start to release more and more of that worry from your thoughts.
So whenever I am struck with worries, I ask myself this question and I remind myself of how little of the things that I have worried about over the years that have actually become real. I find that this most often calms me down.
Refocus your mind from the powerless worrying to how you can solve the situation.

To move out of worry I find it enormously helpful to just start moving and taking action to solve what I am concerned about.

And the simplest way to do so is to think for little while and to come up with one thing I can do to start solving this worry inducing situation. And then to start doing that in small steps to keep discomfort, fear and procrastination away until the situation is under control or not an issue anymore.

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The Positivity Blog Courses and Guides:

- Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start creating a life where you don't hold back anymore. A life of self-love where you feel you deserve good things and happiness and dare to follow your dreams - with The Self-Esteem Course.

- Minimize the clutter and the unnecessary. Maximize your relationships, health, effectiveness and the things that mean the most to you - with the Simplicity Course.

- How to triple your productivity, minimize stress and free up more time for yourself and the people you love - with The Art of Relaxed Productivity.

- How to become a more mindful and motivated optimist (and a whole lot more) - with The Power of Positivity.

Copyright 2006-2012 Henrik Edberg.

"Say Hello to my little friend!"

Those of you who know the movie (Pacino)...know what that saying is all about...but this is not THAT!!  I got a new puppy on Sunday....Still have not named him...I feel like I need to live with him a bit and his name will come forth.  He sure is cute.  He is a mix of schnauzer and bichon frieze.  Called a chonzer.  All I know he is cute!  I suppose as he gets older I will have his hair cut as a schnauzer but now he has that just got from bed look :) !!!!  Bed head!  He is more himself than he has been the first 2 days..today he is feisty...and I am saying to myself ..oh my, what have I done??!!  But he is going outside pretty good ....so heres hoping potty training will be successful...I have to keep my eye on him 24-7  as he is chewing on cords and shoes and anything he thinks smells and looks like it needs chewing.  His cuteness will get him through....I keep telling myself ..this too shall pass and then he will be awesome.  He really is already...my heart is exploding with love for him already.  I cannot leave his sight or he cries like someone is torturing him,...hey, at least I feel needed and loved for sure!!!  Here are some pictures...my camera went dead after I took these so I cant take more till I go get batteries. We named him Hans.