Life and Random Thinking

Everyone has been N’d by someone, and glad for it

Posted on May 1, 2014 by dfolstad58

You probably know someone who is really good at N‘ing.

Maybe you have N“d a few times especially after someone N’d you and you appreciated it.

Most of us need a little N now and then because we get complacent or lack confidence.

Nudging is what I am talking about.

Nudging can be a gentle push, or a prod to get someone’s attention. Your beloved does it, you may tag it another “N” word but it really nudging you mean.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to know someone who mentors us, or watches over us, nudging us gently to do or not do something. Perhaps we hesitate because of fear, or lack of confidence, and that gentle nudge propels us to changes that improve our entire lives.

Perhaps you were nudged into a blind date and met your beloved.

Perhaps you were nudged to apply for a job that changed your entire life trajectory.

Perhaps you were the Nudger, and if you are, ……….Bravo!

I suggest that nearly everyday there is someone in our life that needs a nudge, maybe it’s to count their blessings, maybe it’s to go for a walk with a friend or to call a friend, to write a letter to someone for a surprise AND if you can’t find someone in your life that needs a nudge today, probably the person who needs a nudge is you.

Give a little N to someone you care about today.

What do you think? Nudge, Nudge

(wink) Thanks for reading, your thoughts, and comments are valuable to me.

Posted in Thinking Out loud | Leave a comment

Add or Subtract?

Posted on April 21, 2014 by dfolstad58

I wonder what it is about wasting time that to me is scary. So valuable, yet so easily wasted, so easily slipping through my fingers. I did an inventory and realized that daily there are some things I want to include, and some things that I want to avoid.

Recently I complained to my uncle Ken that I didn’t feel as productive as I felt I should be. He replied that retirement meant I didn’t have to be as productive any more.

That made me feel better but I knew that when I had looked forward to retirement, I had looked forward to doing things. Some things are less visible certainly, like the time I spend memorizing a poem, or reading for relaxation.

Certainly time enjoyed is not always wasted time, it it? In my opinion, balancing active and inactive time usage is my goal, as both have value.

Maybe the real test is how you feel. After you complete an activity, are you glad to invested some of your life in that activity? If you do, then all is good and well, you have no problem.

At the end of the day, I have to have something to point to that I accomplished. I did this, I did that. Every day I do try to balance all types of uses of time. I wrote some letters a week ago, and got cards in the mail for Easter, I worked in the yard (alot) and also managed to grocery shop and make some meals. I also read another Hamish novel by M.C. Beaton which I thoroughly enjoyed “Death of a Policeman“.

Perhaps for me, it is what I try to add each day, and what I try to subtract. I want to subtract my personal black hole of time; television, or at least daytime tv. I have to subtract daytime tv, as I usually regret the waste of time.

Reading is something I add in every day. I have read a ton of library books in my life and certainly reading as a result is a comfortable and pleasurable activity for me, and even enlightening. Reading will always be a part of my lifestyle, and so are libraries.

I am adding into my life; Exercise of all shapes and persuasions (whether walking or riding or whatever, as long as I am moving my limbs it counts), cooking, cleaning, stretching, walking to the store, it’s all good and while I’m doing it my blood pumps and I am free to imagine, and think.

I am adding cooking into my life, and not only am I eating better but I also enjoy the creative side to it.

If you did an inventory of your day

what would you add? write more or read more, or ?
what would you subtract?
Are there any holes in the sidewalk that you are falling into, and would like to walk around in the future?

Thanks for reading! If you love dogs, you will love the video. 🙂

Posted in health, music related, Thinking Out loud | Tagged better use of time, content, discussion, feed jake, inventory, opinion, Time, time wasting | Leave a comment

Stop the day, let’s rewind back and start over

Posted on April 19, 2014 by dfolstad58

Every day I glide out of bed, smile on my face at 5:30 just before the alarm goes off and I feel refreshed, energized and exuberant to face challenges and daily chores.

You think I do? You neither eh? Everyone knows the best sleep of the whole night is what you were having before the alarm went off and your “beloved” skewers you with an elbow to wake up and turn that $#@% thing off. I swear she has been trained to kill with that elbow.

Then I hold my broken ribs together, and after several tries manage to flip myself semi vertical so I can shuffle to the bathroom, my definition of success if I can keep one eye open and only break one toe on the way there, like on a wall or some other surprise obstacle erected during the night. If I break more than one toe, “beloved” chuckles in her sleep – how does she know?

A few minutes later I would like to crawl back into bed, I would like to fall back asleep but survival kicks in, if I do that I risk waking beloved, and waking her again within a span of ten minutes could result in pain and punishment, ……to me. Sleep is over-rated, I’ll pass.

As I’m a devout coward I slink into the kitchen quietly, to quietly make myself useful as the dawn breaks or at least hide quietly.

A couple rebounds off the hallway and I open both eyes and the kitchen and the coffee is ahead. The machine is there, but no coffee. Hmm, maybe if I unplug and plug it in again. It works on the computer, hmmm, still no coffee. Must be broken, that always works on my computer to reboot it.

I better buy a quiet coffee, they open at 6, and I can justify it because I didn’t want to wake up anybody else, meaning no one in particular. As I tie my shoes, a shoelace breaks, , so now I’m taking the broken lace out and trying to re-lace the shoe but it’s frayed where its broken and doesn’t want to go in the holes. Hard to do with one eye open.

Timidly I peek outside, it’s raining, and I see that the wind has blown the garbage cans out in the street for me to chase and pick up various odds and sods. Lovely. I’ll wear sandals, the cold water will wake me up and I’ll save a $2.00 coffee. Oh joy.

Oh yeah and it’s Sunday, so I could have slept in. (forehead slap)

Thanks for visiting and reading!

Posted in humor, Thinking Out loud | Tagged broken laces, BTO, Coffee, Humor, Monday, waking up is hard to do | 2 Comments

Four valuable life lessons reinforced by my running shoes

Posted on April 19, 2014 by dfolstad58

Four Lessons I ascribe to, plus well written! Running is even more fun when you don’t have saber toothed carnivores breathing right behind you.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Swimming in the Rain, part of life

Posted on April 17, 2014 by dfolstad58

In my late teens I lived in North Burnaby, BC, and there was an outdoor pool where I went swimming. It rains year round in Vancouver, not constantly, just year round. The times I liked to go swimming the best were when it rained.

I’m sure the lifeguards hated me. When it rained the pool invariably emptied, except me. I loved the pool in the rain. I had it to myself, and I could float, dive, do whatever I felt like, and no lines at the diving board. The lifeguard had to stay in his chair because I was in the water, but usually there was two, but when I was the only one in the pool, one would go in and take a break.

The water invariably had steam rising from it, and it was warmer in the pool than it was out on the swim deck. Why leave? The sun would come out again in awhile, so I stayed, and loved it.

I have swam in lakes in the rain also, and there is something joyful about swimming in a lake in the rain. Liberating possibly. Lakes are so cold, but with the cold comes real refreshment.

I have run in the rain, biked in the rain, and walked in the rain. Never felt depressed by rain, it’s clean and it falls from the skies, wonderful. Maybe it was because growing up in Vancouver I often walked to and from school in the rain, took P.E. in the rain.

I also remember rain in elementary school, rainy days to me were the best because we would make the huge puddles on the soccer field into rivers running into each other, damming them up and then setting them free. I am sure there many days I had water running down my neck as I went into the school after lunch or recess but still had a smile on my face. I’m kinda nuts that way.

In retrospect I think into our lives that some rain will fall and it will either cause us to run from our beach, or from the swim deck or we can embrace it, enjoy it and see it as part of the whole package we call life.

So when you get cut off in traffic, or miss a bus, or whatever – let the rain run off your back and smile.

It’s just rain, the sun is coming. Thanks for reading, and visiting my blog, 🙂

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