Canada

A Good Piece of Advice

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I am not usually a person who seeks advice on how to make a decision about something I’m stewing over. I figure I can solve my own problems, thank you. Furthermore, I don’t appreciate people who don’t know me very well to offer their solution to my dilemnas. If I really need someone’s advice, I will ask for it. However, when I read today’s prompt to write about the best piece of advice I have ever had, I immediately thought of what my dear Aunt told me when I was preparing to leave home for a university where I would be living in residence while studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree.

We are going back to 1963 when leaving home to go to university was still a big deal. Many of us gals who were lucky enough to go beyond high school were going for an Arts degree with little thought of what we would do once we achieved that. Oh yes, I had a couple of ideas in mind such as teaching or social work and possibly even as a foreign diplomat. Unfortunately, at that time being a foreign diplomat wasn’t a job which wanted women unless she had very high marks. Sensing that I needed some advice on what to do with my undergraduate education, my aunt advised me that I had better not graduate with an MRS degree. “A what,” I asked? When she pointed to her fourth finger on her left hand, I got her message loud and clear. I will never forget that moment. Not only did I learn about a new kind of degree, but one which turned out to be the best advice I could have gotten. She wasn’t far off the truth as many of my friends and other classmates were engaged by their senior year. Nevertheless, it did bother me a bit because I worried too much about whether I would even have a date for the Senior prom.

Not forgetting my Aunt’s advice, I realised I had to pursue more than an Arts degree, so decided on a teaching degree. Then, after two years of teaching, I managed to save enough money to take a sabbatical for a year to fulfill my life long dream to travel. Along with two girlfriends, the three of us having graduated without rings on our fingers, we took off to backpack in the year of 1969/70 around Europe, Israel and Turkey on $5 a day.

Thank you dear Aunt Dee Dee for your support and guidance which was one of the best things I have done in my life.

I Am So Excited

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“What was the last thing that got me excited?” I must admit there hasn’t been much to get me excited lately. Nevertheless, as soon as I read today’s prompt, my first thought went to Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech and the joyous reception it got from all those who were there to be a part of what could become one of this century’s most historic events.

I actually felt my adrenalin rising causing chills throughout my body and my heart to flutter. Mind you it was all in a good way. Most of the time when I hear the latest political news about my country, Canada, and that of so many other countries around the world, I am left with a sense of despair.

Kamala, as we have come to call her, has to be one of the bravest people on the planet to take on the job of winning over the confidence of her fellow Americans especially those who support her opponent. Somehow, she must gain the confidence of all of those who feel left out, such as those of colour, new immigrants, the poor and disadvantaged, the youth who are now able to vote, and those who have been so discouraged they have given up voting.

She faces huge challenges more crucial than anything her predecessors have. Never has there been a woman President of the US one of the most influential countries in the world. She will somehow have to address much of the mess that she has inherited from those before her. Let’s face it! Never have there been so many wars going on all over the world at the same time. Never has the world had to face a rapidly changing climate and how to deal with it. Never has our world been faced with having to change almost everything we have ever known, such as our past beliefs, old traumatic experiences, and outdated customs to name a few. We are being forced to make changes to our thinking and old habits so quickly. We can’t do it on our own so we need strong and open-minded leaders to help take us on this journey. It truely is boiling down to a matter of survival. I am feeling confident that Kamilla is the kind of leader we need: a beacon of light we will need to begin the process of making our world a better place to live in.

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
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Taking A Risk

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What constitutes a risk you might ask? For me it’s about doing something that could be done on the spur of the moment when suddenly I get a notion that this seems right. I guess you would call it a knowing that comes from inside you and not from the outside as on a dare or because someone has said you should do this or that. For some people taking a risk could be carried out after thinking about what they must do to attain it. That would be called a calculated risk. However, most people tend to risk doing anything because they overthink it. I have discovered that the more I think about doing something that could be risky, the less successful it has turned out.

A risk to my mind is doing something new which you haven’t done before. There is usually some fear attached to it. It could be something like jumping off a diving board into the water for the first time or climbing a mountain. Or how about crossing a street in Viet Nam where the rules around traffic and giving way to pedestrians are non-existant. I have been to this country and will never forget the first time there in Hanoi when I had to go outside my cozy hotel room and face the main round about in the centre of the city to get to the nearest coffee shop. As I waited with a couple from Britain on the curb hoping the onslaught of motorbikes would slow up and give us a chance to cross, it finally dawned on me that I had been warned about Viet Nam’s chaotic traffic but never did I think it would be like what I saw. Finally, I looked at the English couple and said, “Shall we go”? They looked at me in agreement. We stepped out into the traffic and just kept walking but keeping our eyes looking forward to the curb ahead. To our amazement, the traffic seemed to gracefully manoeuver their way around us allowing us to reach the other side safe and sound.

This was a risk to my phyical body and one I won’t forget. When I think about what risk is all about, I realise I’ve taken many in my life. In fact, doing anything new could be called a risk. My most recent risk was one I took last August when I volunteered to take on the responsibility of managing the community garden where I live. This garden was founded about fifteen years ago by a woman who saw a vacant piece of land which she wanted to make into a community garden for the residents and a nearby elementary school. Last year she decided to retire after suffering various health problems forcing her to neglect the garden. Unfortunatly, no one responded to her reaching out for someone to take it over for her. Since I was renting a plot there, I took the risk of saying that I would try to fill her shoes. I have to admit I gave it about a week’s thought before I made the committment. I had no idea what lay before me which is probably a good thing. If I had known how much of my time it would take to get the garden back into shape, I probably wouldn’t have taken on the responsibility. Now as I look back over the last eight months, I am happy to say that it’s been successful for me. I have learned how wonderful it is to work with a team of gardeners which has given me a useful purpose for being here on this planet. I feel like I am helping this community to pull together. Four of us who have formed a committee are working hard as a team which is more than enough to say in all honesty that taking the risk when no others would has paid off in spades for me. I have learned more about myself and others than I ever could have by taking the risk of reviving a dying community garden.

Daily writing prompt
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?
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A Shopping Spree?

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These days the last thing I could ever see myself doing would be to go on a shopping spree at least for myself. I have always had difficulty in shopping by myself and for myself especially with clothes. I am most successful when I have someone like my daughter or a close friend who knows me well and is honest and not afraid to say that something I might be interested in wouldn’t look good on me.

However, I seem to have no trouble shopping for others. I was once a buyer for a retail store that sold kitchen and gift ware. I loved doing that type of buying, displaying what I bought, and having our customers buy the merchandise I had chosen. I am still doing this today in my retirement years. For the last ten years and more, I visit Chiang Mai, Thailand which has markets galore. One day I suddenly realised that I should buy some of the great clothing and other accessories I was seeing at these markets and take it home to sell. I didn’t have a clue how or where I could sell it, but somehow knew I would. I was right and it did. I am still doing it. I have no trouble shopping for this little business and seem to make good choices because just about everything sells. Somehow it’s easier for me to buy this way whereas when I have to shop for myself, it’s much more stressful. Why? Probably because I am looking at the price tag and finding it’s too expensive. Besides most of the stuff I see these days I don’t really need. I am a retired senior so I don’t need a fancy wardrobe. When shopping for my business and for others, I don’t have to worry as much about the price tag. I know my customers well enough now that I can pretty much target the price range that will work. The other big bonus is that I can make enough money buying for others to help pay for another shopping spree in Thailand.

Daily writing prompt
Where would you go on a shopping spree?
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The Bangkok News

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“Where your mind goes your intention goes”  – Craig Hamilton

Ever since November, when I first returned to Chiang Mai, my mind has been focussed on obtaining a copy of the Bangkok Post. For the past few years, it hasn’t been readily available in the restaurants, hotels and tourist information sites where I used to find it. I was beginning to think that it had gone the way of many newspapers in these times… extinct like the proverbial dodo.  I eventually found one copy in a small cafe which was nowhere near where I am staying. Since the odds seemed to be stacked against me for getting my hands on that one available copy in that distant cafe, I was about to give up my search. I told myself that having a break from news back home in Canada wasn’t such a bad thing. I could live with that for awhile. However, I did regret not knowing what was happening here inThailand. Continue reading →