Something attempted, something done

Posted on May 26, 2026 by dfolstad58

I’m happy to say that “any rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated” which is a complete theft from Mark Twain.

Hello, I hope you are enjoying your day.

Thank you reading today and for reading my past posts. I began this blog to see if I could do a blog and gratefully I found friends in the blog world who read my posts and so I continued. I never meant to take a break, but life intervened and then I found myself having “cold feet” per se about what to say to you.

My blog has a number of different categories and I tried to make it meaningful to you, the readers. I thought that a blog must have something of worth for the readers.

I think there is part of me that wants to keep trying new ways to be creative, and challenge myself. I have always been trying things and I recommend it to everyone. Yoga, tai chi, 10 km running, and more.

The world isn’t static, our lives are changing so let’s keep learning and challenging ourselves. What are you doing now to challenge yourself?

I have continued as a Toastmaster but I have added new elements to my routine like making jewelry, and I am taking online educational courses albeit only spending a short time each day.

I have resumed a routine of regular reading to focus myself, I found that social media was destroying that ability I used to have of being swallowed by a book and speaking of books, and reading….

The last words (almost) of the book, Three Against the Wilderness that I finished reading today are:

Something attempted, something done.”

It’s was a succinct ending to the book that perfectly summed up a 30 year biography of a fur trapper in the British Columbia (BC) wilderness.

That ending and quote certainly reflects also the part of me that want to stay active.

The wilderness was truly wilderness in the 1920’s when Eric Collier arrived in BC. Eric and his wife Lillian set out where there was barely a trail with a wagon, tools, and two pack horses to build a one room cabin and survive on their own.

Now, and after having spent five long days in the saddle, skirting the edges of the marshes and following the deer paths through the forest, and in all that time glimpsing no other furbearer’s track except those of the coyotes (their tracks were everywhere, I summed it all up by declaring,

“It’s hopeless.”

Lillian was staring into the flames of the campfire. With a sudden impulse, she looked up at my face and said quietly,

“Eric, I never want to hear you say that word ‘hopeless’ again.

We may not have much of anything here in this wilderness.

But the one thing that we’ll always have plenty of is ‘hope.'”

I was fortunate to find a copy of this book but it has been printed at least eleven times. It must be a classic because when I went to a used book store, they knew at once what I sought.

My copy is signed by a previous owner in 1970. I don’t know how many people have read and shared this book, as I surely will. It has at least 56 years worth of appreciative readers.

Eric Collier wrote this single book, printed in 1962.

It contains his story that he concluded so succinctly.

Perhaps you will be fortunate enough to find a copy to read for yourself. ♣

This is not…

This is not a “check in” like you may have received at Christmas time wherein I will list the places I have visited, trips taken and so on.

I wanted today to let anyone wondering about me that I have not forgotten about my blog, but time has slipped away as I have diversified so I don’t sit at the desk as much.

I am doing my best to be healthy, and enjoy my priceless gift of being born.

I celebrated being SEVEN this year.

I celebrated in April of this year my seventh anniversary of my kidney transplant with dear grandson and granddaughter.

When I woke up in Vancouver General hospital more than seven years ago I had no inkling that I had such a wonderful job ahead of me being a “Pop Pop”♥

There is nothing like the eyes of a child who is happy that you are there.

Another gift that my kidney donor gave me.

I am daily a grateful person.

If I fall behind in posts again, please imagine me riding my bike, or reading to my grandkids” .

I value your encouraging words, and thank you for your blogs, and inspiration.

I hope to hear from you ♥ David

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Rediscovering Joy: Cherishing Friends and Laughter

Posted on July 5, 2025 by dfolstad58

Dear Friends, Thank you for visiting and forgiving me my long absence. I am grateful to you for your blogs and comments as visit this way.

First a fast update:

This spring and summer has been a warm one and my cherry tree was ready earlier than usual. We were able to pick the tree when the cherries were really dark red/black and juicy. It’s been fun to enjoy them, give some away and can some for treats when days are long and furnace is on.

Where have I been?

My son and I did a fun road trip to Castlegar, Nelson, Greenwood and area a few weeks ago. We had a house on the river in Castlegar so we could have a bonfire and watch the swallows swooping over the river. There were herons also and it was a fun spot. I think a separate blog for this trip will be forthcoming.

Have you ever visited this area called the Kootenays?

Today’s Post

Laughter and Friends – we love them both!

Your lives no doubt have faced some days which were hard, we call them challenging time but they are more than that. Sometimes those days you might have felt weighed down, lacking energy and maybe just want to sleep to avoid reality.

Laughter is an underestimated force, will you agree?

When enduring months at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) I was fortunate to have family and friends who would come visit and help me to laugh. One friend who travelled from Langley, sneaking in Chinese food after visiting hours!

Our visits were filled with laughter, even during very tiring times.

Laughter with my friend, who brought it with him, always raised my spirits, and allowed me to put the day behind me.

Have you ever have your day turn around because a friend made you smile? or laugh?

Laughter releases endorphins and heartwarming laugh with friends has always been easier for than chasing those same endorphins with running, and without having to put on shoes!

Laughter has other health benefits; boosts immunity system, lowers stress hormones and gets rid of facial wrinkles (let’s hope that’s true).

I think the benefits of laughter are known to us all.

We know it makes us feel good.

We feel it physically when we laugh that laughter is healthy for us.

We miss it when laughter is missing from our lives.

Our day, our physical and mental self can be revived, has been revived by laughter.

That leads me to my final point; those people in our lives that bring us laughter.

Protect them, cherish them, keep them close – they are part of keeping you healthy.

Those sweeties with the tinkle in their eye, those best friends that understand us like no one else. That one person that makes you smile just by thinking of them. ♥

Stay in touch with them, as we get older sometimes it happens that we lose contact with friends that really are special.

Those laughter bringers could family members, friends, colleagues, or even pets.

They could be storytellers, or witty but somehow laughter is infectious as part of them being them with you.

Avoid the regret of lost contact with the friends who bring you the best health supplement of all – laughter.

My grandpa Ed Folstad had a wonderful chuckle and laugh. He’s gone but he loved to tell stories and when he did with me his eyes twinkled, his belly bounced and his voice chuckled.

I remember bottle feeding lambs at his farm and him chuckling while he milked the cow and squirted the cat with milk!

Please say hello in the comments – talk to you soon. hugs, David

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Today a Guest Post – A Piece of Paper won’t stop a thief

Posted on April 29, 2025 by dfolstad58

Hello friend, just a short intro and a link today to a blogging friend’s important post called ” Give up Crimea? How about Florida? Alaska?

I read this post today and it was a compelling read about how Russia’s attack on Crimea and it was a broken agreement that limited the Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

An agreement that the USA promised to support.

It also illustrates the actions of the USA (under the Trump Administration) right now to also break agreements and ignore law.

But Canadians are well aware of that right now.

It must pain so many Americans and people around the world who have seen America in the past as a country that was a nation of laws and fair beliefs.

Please click now and read my friend’s post –

https://robbyrobinsjourney.wordpress.com/2025/04/29/give-up-crimea-how-about-florida-or-alaska/

It’s a spring day, and best wishes to all. ♥ Dave

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Darkness into Light

Posted on April 28, 2025 by dfolstad58

Dear friends of my blog, I have been thinking for a few days about a post to honor the donor of my kidney transplant six years ago.

The timing of this post is because his surgery was April 23, 2019 and mine was the next day on April 24, 2019 – as you can see we just celebrated our 6th anniversary of our separate surgeries.

I have been struggling with finding the words for his selfless act. For each of us the reasons we were there in our hospital rooms were different, and our reasons for undergoing surgeries were different as well.

I was there because my previous transplant had failed. I was very sick but surviving because of dialysis. I reached out for someone to donate. It felt like I had shouted out my need but the silence was deafening in response.

I was on hemodialysis three days a week, a very restricted diet, 5 hour cycles on the machine and days away from death if not for the sustainment via dialysis. I needed help and there is no let-up for a dialysis patients, I went for treatment even on Christmas morning for example.

As you can see I walked in the shadows of death in a sense but also with light at the end of a tunnel if I received a transplant. But the “if” of receiving a transplant is important to highlight. There was light at the end of the tunnel if someone made it happen. Light being very important symbol here.

Then my friend brought the light with him. He offered an amazing gift, that he didn’t need to give. He was already my friend for life. But after much thought and discussions with his family, he wanted to help even at the cost of unnecessary surgery for himself.

My donor friend was healthy, and strong. He needn’t have been in that hospital room and he sacrificed to be lying on that slim board in the cold surgery room. He went to multiple appointments, travelled thousands of miles and it took effort to be a donor and committment. He didn’t need to be there and he didn’t do for reward.

He did it because he could offer me health and, I feel, light. Light representing life, and future.

What bigger gift? He sent away the shadows, he gave me a future, and freedom. A future that came from a compassion built on his courage to give an amazing gift.

A donor gives not just an organ, but a future: birthdays that can be celebrated, dreams that can be chased, families that can stay whole. They give a piece of themselves, sometimes literally, to heal someone else. It is the ultimate sacrifice: offering part of your body, your health, your very being, so that another person can live.

This kind of gift doesn’t come with medals or headlines. It’s a humble, sacred act — one that continues to give, day after day, year after year. Every breath a recipient takes, every milestone they reach, every memory they create — all of it is tied back to the moment when a hero chose to say, “Yes, take this gift, and live.”

I was reading about Thomas Edison and it became clear to me the blog I wanted to share.

When Thomas Edison set out to invent the electric light, it was an unknown and not a version of something that already existed. He had a vision of homes and streets light up safely and steadily with a new kind of light. It took a faith that such a light could be found, that it existed – to unfold a future that existed in a whole new light.

My friend also acted in an act of faith envisioning for me a future that was there to unfold and develop for years to come and in a multitude of ways that neither he or I could imagine.

Simarly Edison left a legacy of light bulbs that dispersed darkness, lighting up homes, and hospitals because he was willing to work and find a solution.

My amazing friend, is an inspiring person who acted in faith taking action to allow light into my life, and dispersed darkness and shadows of an uncertain future. He strove to make it happen and it was not a painless process but he persisted and here we are today, six years later. He is well and and I have two grandchildren I might not have met, hugged or loved if not for his gift.

I could have missed it all.

I feel that my ability to be able to enjoy and create memories for these past last six years is part of his legacy that he created by his gift.

My friend hopes that others will be brave and be donors also because the need is huge.

3,427 Canadians were waiting for a solid organ transplant as of December 31, 2023. Of these, 71% were waiting for a kidney, 14% for a liver, 5% for a lung, 3% for a heart, 3% for a pancreas and 3% for a combination of organs.

There are many others now on dialysis who are on the waiting list for a donor. Investigation is the first step to find out if it’s right for you.

Living Kidney Donation – link here to learn more

Happy sixth transplant anniversary to both of us.

“Being an organ donor is one of the purest forms of heroism — it’s choosing to save or transform lives, often without ever seeing the impact firsthand.

It’s a quiet, selfless act that creates ripples of hope and second chances in ways the donor might never fully know.

True heroism isn’t about recognition; it’s about compassion, courage, and making a difference because it’s simply the right thing to do.”

Thank you for reading, I hope in your comments you will gift me with your reactions to this post. Talk to you soon.

David

♥Please read the circumstances of my third transplant by clicking My Third Transplant – Miracles Happen

I love this Two Percent story and share it often with renal patients in Penticton.

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Invisible or Heard?

Posted on April 21, 2025 by dfolstad58

Greetings in the warmest possible way to you today. Thank you for arriving to read this post and double thanks to those who gift me with their thoughts in a comment at the bottom of the post. Sincerely I mean that.

Anyone who had taught someone else knows that it means you need to learn that “thing” even better in order to teach someone.

In the same vein, in order for me to give a condensed 7.5 minute speech I need to have a fairly good handle on it to condense it down so I can share it in a very brief conversation with an audience. I tried my best on this topic.

Recently that topic was explaining “Diminishers” and Illuminators” as discovered by David Brooks in his book “How to Know a Person“.

I heard him on Youtube and he seemed clever and well-spoken but he described himself as having the “social skills of a head of a cabbage”. He was committed to learn more and he states that is what writers do – learn and share what they learn.

He discovered in the course of researching his book that in society today there large numbers of people who feel unseen and misunderstood.

In his book “How to Know a Person” he identifies that there are two broad categories of humans with respect to human interaction.

You can identify which of them you are interacting with by how they make you feel.

Diminishers, who might be oblivious to how they are acting, and decent people can make others feel insignificant or even invisible.

Illuminators are those people who put a cloud under your feet and you walk away afterwards with a smile inside and out.

♥Illuminators are uplifting, you feel valued in their eyes, they are focused on the other person. They make you feel special, heard, respected, noticed and valued.

David Brooks set out to become an illuminator and help others as well.

I confess I have not finished the book, partly because it is so well written I find myself re-reading portions. If it wasn’t a library book – I would have attacked it with a highlighter by now.

In my recent speech at Toastmasters I shared the behaviors of Diminishers and Illuminators.

Diminishers:

  1. They are quiet, they are seeing you but they aren’t curious. They don’t ask for more detail.
  2. They talk too long and dominate the conversation. They may ask a question but are really quick to return the conversation to themselves. The words of their chat are filled with “I, me, mine, my”.
  3. They are insensitive to what they are told. They neither celebrate, empathize with what they hear you say and don’t ask follow-up questions. They are on their phones! They don’t make eye contact. While “listening” they are watching something else.
  4. Diminishers interrupt which causes speakers to feel disrespected and unheard.

Illuminators

  1. They are conversation cheerleaders, David Brooks calls them Loud Listeners. They are asking questions for more detail, colour? Taste? Yay! Speakers feel the listeners attention. Illuminators are curious.
  2. Illuminators talk, sharing is important for them also but they don’t dominate the conversation. They replace “I, me, mine, my” with “you”. They say things like “I am sure you can relate, or You probably have had a similar experience, or I am interested in your thoughts.
  3. They are acknowledgers. They welcome you standing, and bid you good-bye standing. They wave, and fist bump, they dance up and down are filled with enthusiasm that is sincere and genuine. Even if they are busy, they find a way to wave and acknowledge you when they see you.
  4. Illuminators do not interrupt. They do not reply to what you say but they respond. They respond by echoing or paraphrasing what you said to show they were listening and to ensure they understood.

Now that took nearly seven minutes of my speech to explain the behaviors of each and do my opening and so I had thirty seconds to wrap up.

Which I did with my condensed version of behaviors that I would try to remember to do better in my interactions in the future.

Firstly – wait two seconds before speaking when listening to someone.

Secondly – not reply but echo what I heard to share what I think I heard.

Thirdly – Smile and ask if I got it right?

I think the proverb ‘ Be Slow to speak, and Quick to Listen” is a wise motto.

But David Brooks goal is not to help us become good listeners but instead better conversationalists. He explains that a good conversationalist leads people to a mutual expedition toward understanding so that both participants are uplifted and enriched, (Perhaps being an illuminator is the first step?)

“The real act of, say, building a friendship or creating a community involves performing a series of small, concrete social actions well: disagreeing without poisoning the relationship; revealing vulnerability at the appropriate pace; being a good listener; knowing how to end a conversation gracefully; knowing how to ask for and offer forgiveness; knowing how to let someone down without breaking their heart; knowing how to sit with someone who is suffering; knowing how to host a gathering where everyone feels embraced; knowing how to see things from another’s point of view.”
― David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

Thanks for reading, – see you next time♥

I am happy to report the warm weather of Easter opened up the cherry blossoms on my tree and hopefully this is symbolic to all of us having a fruitful spring.

Best wishes truly, Dave

PS – Let me know what you think below. ♥

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It’s Time for a Review

Posted on April 19, 2025 by dfolstad58

Dear blogging friends, Happy Easter weekend to you! I hope that you are enjoying time with your families walking in the spring sunshine.

Here in the Okanagan valley, spring is evident. Snow is no longer on the caps of the valley around us. The cherries trees are in blossom in the valley and I can’t decide if I like pink or white blossoms more, what a conundrum eh?

Yesterday on my bike ride to the north side of town and Okanagan lake I had a nice surprise. I saw something large dive when I was standing out on the pier that juts out into the lake. It was much larger than a duck and I saw a streak of white.

My son spotted it first when it bobbed to the surface. a beautiful loon. It was black with a white band around it’s neck and at first it was fairly close then it swam/sauntered away before diving and disappearing. It was gone so long that we mounted up to continue our ride along the lake.

No photos of the loon, but as we rounded the corner, the marmots were there looking for a treat. People often drop off carrots for them and you can hand feed them, the carrots, not your fingers.

But I diverted from the theme, Time For a Review – my wife made me delicious blueberry pancakes this morning! She is too busy in the mornings to do that often but today I enjoyed her gift.

We all had blueberry pancakes, maple syrup of course and some were left over! Wahoo! (They could disappear though)

I jokingly told her I was going to go online and give her a review, and here it is: Five Star! The pancakes were generous with blueberries, still hot and had that lovely golden brown I like – they were a nice size also, bigger than silver dollars and smaller than a suitcase. LOL

“Sweet April showers do spring May flowers.” – Thomas Tusser

Reviews seem to be everywhere now and many businesses pester online for reviews for even the smallest transaction.

I mainly do reviews for small businesses that I like such as new restaurants, coffee shops, fruit stands etc. These are family businesses and they genuinely appreciate the support that a positive review brings.

What about negative reviews? If it’s a small business, talk to them directly as they will happily handle any reasonable feedback to help make you a regular customer. No business gets it perfect every time and so I think we should give businesses a second chance before reacting anyway. Most of negative reviews I read reflect badly on the people who wrote them and not on the business I think.

What about our review? How many stars would my wife and family give me? Fortunately they indulge my foibles and blunders and haven’t installed an ejection seat in the car.

Signing off now with pics of the baskets I made for Easter and thank you bunny much for reading today.

hugs, David♥

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