Chain emails - hate 'em

Chain emails, like chain letters before there was such a thing as email, always irk me a little and sometimes a lot. They always start out innocently enough with a prayer or good thoughts or encouragement to do a good dead. Then when you get to the bottom it's always "send this to 5 people before the end of the day"; or "send this to 10 people in the next 10 minutes." Then there's the thing that determines whether I'm irked a little or a lot. The ones that don't have this, then I'm only mildly peeved. It's always something forward this and "you will receive a blessing in the next 24 hours" or "you will your luck will get better" or, in the case of one I just received, "make 3 wishes, forward this to 10 people in the next 10 minutes and you will get your 3 wishes in the next 3 days". Yeah, right, sure I will. This is the part that I think is the most disturbing because it plays on a person's desire to be better, do better or get something for free. It preys upon those among us that are lonely, weak and vulnerable.

What I dislike most is the veiled message that a person is not worthy to be blessed or lucky or whatever unless they forward the email. The God that I believe in doesn't bless us based on whether or not we forward an email. We are blessed every day when we look at the blue sky and the green leaves on trees. We are blessed when we hear birds sing or smell the sweet scent of flowers. We are blessed because we live.

Another one

I just came across this one in a magazine. It's from actor Kathy Najimy,

• "What I wish for women is that they try to be spiritually and physically healthy and then -- whatever their size -- live their lives to the fullest. Jump out of airplanes. Have a Lover. Do the tango. Figure out what it is that makes you happy and do it. Don't spend your whole life trying to be what someone else says you're supposed to be."

Powerful reminder to be who we are.

Various sayings

As I sit here at my desk, I see several quotes and affirmations that I've gathered over the years. I've taped them around on my desk where I can see them. Most of them don't have names attached and I have no idea of where I got them from. Such as

• "The last step of any journey may be the first step of an even greater journey"
• "All you can do is the best you can and hope everything turns out all right in the end"

Some, on the other hand do have that info or I remember such as:

• "Do what you do so well that people seeing you do what you do will tell others they should see you do what you do" Walt Disney
• "Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain - I first saw this engraved in large letters in stone in the lobby of an organization at which I was applying for a job. I didn't get the job, but I really like the quote.

And lastly, there is this one. It never ceases to make me smile or even chuckle out loud. That may mean I'm twisted somehow, but ... at least I laugh! I clipped this out of a travel magazine. The article was on trips to Antarctica and was warning people about some of the dangers. I have often wondered if this was written truthfully or if it was a joke.

• "Resist the urge to pet the cuddly penguins, which have no fear of humans and are given to unpredictable fits of horizontal projectile defecation."

I just love the mental picture of the seemingly formal penguin bending over as if it were bowing and suddenly "pa-ching"!

Trigger Thumb Surgery Update

My surgery has been rescheduled to July 11 due to the death of my surgeon's mother-in-law.

unexpected blessing

My latest business trip was canceled at the last minute ... literally just 2 hours from when I was due to get on the plane. It left me in a sort of limbo. I always get into this Zen like zone when I travel. A space where I don't let things bother me like they normally will. There are so many things at airports than can really tweak me off if I don't get into that zone. After I cancelled, I was like "yeah!!! I don't have to travel today!!!" but then felt I was in an odd place for the rest of the day.

Then last night as I snuggled back to back with my husband and my white cat snuggled up to my front so that I was in a sandwich of love ... I thought what a wonderful unexpected blessing it was that my trip was cancelled. I thought hard and long on how absolutely content and loved I felt at that moment. I'm hoping that I can hang on to that memory forever.

If it's not one thing ....

I FINALLY got into see the ortho doctor about my trigger thumb. It had locked up again back in April and I had to get the 3rd and last steriod shot in it. Next step and step of last resort is surgery. From what I heard, this doctor is worth the wait. I have to admit, I did love his "bed side" manner. He drew pictures of what was wrong and was very detailed about what needed to be done. He even insisted on giving me a bottle of water ... "Must keep hydrated in this weather" he said.

He also noticed this lump on my index finger. I had assumed that it was a calcium deposit where I had broken that finger once. But he said "Nope, it's not. Let's take a picture!" So he personally x-rayed my hand, personally developed the film and then showed me it was not a calcium deposit. The lump does have calcium spots in it so he said that was worrisome.

So, I'm scheduled for surgery next week to release my trigger and remove the tumor. I'll blog the results later.

The days just fly by

I remember when I was growing up, the grown-ups would say how fast the year, week, month, whatever went by. I never really understood that until I became a grown-up. The months just seem to flow by so quickly. My husband and I had an opportunity back in May to take a brief vacation. We traveled to Estes Park, CO. We had very limited cell phone coverage and no internet access ... ok, actually, if we had visited the coffee shops, we would have had internet access ... but the point was to get away from all that.

We rented a lovely little cottage along the river, had fires each night and cooked smores. More than once, I thought to myself, capture this moment, tuck it away, I want to remember this forever. It was all in all a very lovely time. This is a view from our cottage.

We also took the time, although, not anywhere near enough time, to visit our niece in Laramie. She is beautiful, intelligent and very grounded. We are quite proud of her and wish we had arranged to spend more time there ... the time went by so fast. I feel so old and grown up.