April Fools?

God, the universe or out higher power is “The Almighty” of practical jokers! Take this morning for instance. I got up at 4:45 am as usual fed the cats but instead of staying up I went back to bed for a “few minutes”. Three hours later, I awoke in a panic! I was supposed to be in work in thirty minutes instead I was running in circles (which was appropriate considering I was in my NASCAR pajamas) trying to get semi-presentible for work.

After a hair raising ten miles of road racing, I arrive at my school only two minutes late and no student. I checked the phone messages and my student had called to say she wouldn’t be in! April Fools Ginnie!

Who but God would be so masterful? I mean he’s even had the weather April like!

Have a great day and keep your sense of humor, God is watching!

Ginnie

Think Before Yes…

Yes, another blog on woman who do too much. Why ? I hear you asking. Because we need to become aware of the Chronic Yessers. You know who they are, you maybe one of them. The woman who says yes to every organization, charity, family member, pet and stranger who ask for help.

Chronic Yessers start at an early age, wanting to please and be loved. They are the perfect daughter and the best friend. They grow up believing they can save the world, by making everyone happy. Except WE Can’t! Yes my name is Ginnie and I’m a chronic YESSER! I’ve yessed my way to sleep deprivation, migraines, back pain, shoulder pain, and chronically Cranky! After decades of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders – Leading to a left shoulder injury,(Probably over use). I’m here to say we don’t have to say YES to everyone!

What we need to start doing is thinking before we say yes. When someone asks you for a favor, to join a committee, or even to coffee. STOP and think about what is being asked and give it measurable meaning. For example watching a neighbors child for an hour can be measured as 60lbs. Can your shoulders take 60 pounds on top of the 120lb bake sale for the middle school? Notice how if we put weight to tasks or favors we are better able to see how we are becoming over burdened.

We’ve lost the ability to say no, we need to regain control over our lives and it starts with thinking before yes… By the way would anyone like to be on my committee to make habitual yessing a disease?

Don’t you dare say yes!

Ginnie

Knowing No…

Everyone knows a toddlers favorite word to say is no. Toddlers in their desire for independence are constantly saying no or I don’t want to. So how is it a word that came so easily to us at three is almost impossible to say now?

Is this an example of evolution? In order for us to survive with friends, families, bosses and pets we have lost our ability to say no? Has our desire to please and satisfy everyone else supra ceded our need for sanity and our peace of mind? Have we over committed ourselves to the point of being “committed”?

I believe I’ve lost the ability of Knowing No. In my pursuit to be the good daughter, the best friend, the ideal teacher/mentor, and the model business woman I’ve organized my life around everyone else’s needs and forgotten my own. Until today when I decided enough is enough and told my staff that NO I won’t be in to train you this morning!

After three weeks of running around with my head cut off and being all things to all people – I put my foot down! Result I was able to block off an entire morning and afternoon to get some much needed rest and work done. I’ve regained some sanity and maybe even some respect from my staff. We’re still meeting but on my terms, and I’ll be fresher and more prepared for the meeting.

So if your in a state of overwhelm connect with your inner three year old and say “no I don’t want to”….

Ginnie

Wait For Me…

How has life gotten so far ahead? I wake up most mornings at 5am or earlier and still end up rushing – What gives? I often feel like I have been put on pause while the rest of my life kept moving without me and I’m constantly trying to catch up!

With that said, what am I trying to catch up to or with? I’m not sure because I can no longer read all the to dos on my to do list… It’s not just me every day I have friends, clients and coworkers all singing the same tune… “Wait for me!” As time continues to race past at the speed of light while we are still caught in yesterday or as for me last week! I continue to ask myself what am I trying to catch up with???

I’d like to be caught up with paper work, laundry, emptying the trash, sleep, phone calls, reading, friends, projects, you name it .We are all “behind” in one, some or all of these areas. Or are we? Isn’t life made up cycles nothing really ends so how can we “finish”?

Now that I know there isn’t a finish line. I’m going to take a nap – so don’t wait for me I’ll catch you later…

Ginnie

Waxing Simple…

Somewhere on the way to making things easier and more convenient we over complicated simple!

That was my very thought reviewing the owner’s manual to my new car. After realizing there are at ten different ways to turn on the radio (and ten pages explaining how) I opted for a dial! There are voice activated, controls on the wheel, on the dash and probably in the trunk! All these options to do one task! Is it any wonder we are all so stressed? Do we really need that many options to put on a radio?

That experience got me to reviewing the other simple things that are now overly complicated. For instance buying a cup of coffee, I remember when all you had to say was small, medium or large and if you wanted milk and or sugar. Now it’s tall (which is small), grande, or vente with non fat, whole or soy milk, decaf, or half decaf, dark roast or medium roast, raw sugar,white sugar, or any of the variety of artificial sweeteners! Let’s not get into the rest of the ways coffee can be prepared (I need to be at work in seven hours).

Maybe we should stop looking how to make things easier and return to making them simpler. Then we will spend less time and stress less over the many choices! The Buddha explained the greater choices the greater the suffering! I wonder what his advice would be if he were around today? I’m guessing he’d order a medium black coffee and use the dial on the radio!

Namaste,

Ginnie

Compromising…

I find the older I get the more compromising I do! Ironically I had this thought as I ran back from my walk/run. (I walk the out and run the back on a two mile out and back.)

This got me to thinking on how many other “little” compromises I’ve made lately. A pumpkin latte over pumpkin cheesecake, yoga over sleeping thirty more minutes, egg white omelet over pancakes… You get the picture! Remember when it was staying in bed all day, getting up and eating pancakes smothered in syrup, followed with cheesecake for dinner?Sure aging has it’s benefits, we are supposedly wiser, more financially stable (chuckle). We’ve been there and done that and are grown up now.

I’ll close with the one thing I will never compromise; My Integrity, it’s the only thing we get to take with us… Unless the funeral director is willing to compromise and let me take a dozen vanilla creamed donuts…

Ginnie

Questions on Aging?

Okay I admit it I’m 54 years old. Most days I’m okay with that and I take the Popeye philosophy ” I am what I am.” Then there are the damp rainy days when I walk up and down the stairs and can’t tell if it’s the stairs or me creaking. This got me pondering these age old questions on old age: If we call wrinkles laughter lines why do we have them all over our body? Why are brown spots freckles when your young and age spots when you mature? Which leads to the question why are there so many immature – mature adults? What is the time line from a young chick, to a spring chicken, to a mother hen, to just being fowl? Can any one explain how you can go from a 34 B to a 36 Long? Why aren’t spider veins considered body art and tattoos of spider webs are? Do male hair follicles reverse course? Instead of growing on the head they sprout out of noses and ears.

These were just a few, there are a zillion more but I just had a senior moment and forgot them…

Keep on Rocking, (in the chair that is)

Ginnie