Riding a Bike

There are some things you never forget. Riding a bike is most certainly one of them. It is a life-long skill and best learned when you are young. Teaching someone how to ride a bike also seems like a life-long skill. Both riding and teaching bicycles are metaphors for life. You encounter things about yourself you never knew when you begin to ride, and then, when you try to teach someone else you encounter things you never expected.

Metaphor 1: Balance is a lot like keeping everything steady and on an even-keel in life. When you first take off, you have to learn how to keep yourself steady. It seems almost impossible. Concentrating on moving your feet to push the pedals, steering the bicycle the right direction. Come to a turn - sharp or otherwise - and look out - balance becomes an advanced skill!

Teaching someone else to balance is similar - and yet the trick is being in tune enough with them to know when to let go. When does the rider have the feel, the balance intuitively, that you know as a spotter that you can let go safely and they will ride off perfectly balanced independently?

I find myself thinking about that intuitive need to balance and how it relates to my own life. Some days as I start off slow, or up a hill, or have to come to a screetching hault, my balance may falter a bit. If I'm relying on someone else for my balance, I must be in tune with them - and vice versa. I have to be independent, but not too independent.

Metaphor 2: Self-Reliance and moving toward a goal. Riding a bike finds you providing the power to propel you forward. Other than gravity on a hill, the bike requires you to move it forward. If you push hard, it goes fast. If you slow your pedaling, you slow your travel. You learn to rely on yourself and know that even if you might have some help, from the wind, from the hill, from gravity moving you along... ultimately you are the one making things go. Isn't this true about life? No one else can power your legs to move you faster. No one else can really make you go a speed you do not want to go. And ultimately, where you end up on your bike is where you set out to go in the beginning. Goal setting and achievements in life are a lot like that as well. You have to plan where you are going. If you don't plan, you have to be ok with where you end up and be ready to plan for where you are going next.

I'm excited Noah has deciding bike riding is his thing. It will serve him so well - physically, emotionally, even spiritually. Alone time, pedaling, breathing in cool crisp morning air can be spiritual.

I always felt the downfall of my physically fit state was when I got a car. Relying on my bike to get me where I needed to go in college did limit my geographic boundaries but it also kept me in the best shape I had ever been in.

I look forward to getting reaquainted with my mountain bike. Noah was surprised I still remembered how to ride it and could keep up with him (heehee - I'm not THAT old!). And, I look forward to getting the rest of my family mobile. For now, Noah is left to ride with either D or I... but I can picture all of us in the near future. We will be quite the gang pedaling down the street. Will that mean the serenity of a ride will be lost if my entire noisy crew becomes mobile? I'll keep you posted. I may change my bike riding/life philosophies if that is the case.

Enjoy your Friday! Save some fuel and pedal somewhere.

A Good Tired

So I have this friend. This girl in NYC who has become the best friend in SL. She has a huge heart too. A few months ago she asked if we'd help her with a charity event. At the time, life got away from me and the best I could do was just attend and enjoy and contribute financially. It benefitted the American Heart Association. She got contributions from various designers to donate proceeds from sales and raffled off fantastic furniture sets and things. I was impressed. I knew she was on to something. SL was on to something. Why not party for charity! We are there dancing and tipping anyway!

So then this Relay for Life thing came along. Blissie suggested we host a week of events to raise money. How could I say no? I have had my grandmother and my mom both touched by cancer. I have lost colleagues to ovarian cancer. So I figured... what do I have to lose? I enjoy SL. I spend Linden after Linden on things for me, and tips for my friends, and fun for myself really. It was high time I spend some Lindens on a cause that is so worthy and so real in our lives... so real in my life.

Busybee Beaver was gracious enough to agree to let us have this week of events at The BeeHive! DJ's Borday Moo and Crighton Johin donated their talents, spinning tunes and taking requests. Friendly Fire, the notorious SL band of Case Munro and MacKenzie Rasmuson, donated their rocking talents for a live concert - the first ever at The BeeHive! Not to be outdone, designers such as Jenda Starbrook from Moxie, Cataplexia Numbers from Alternate Metaverse, Amylyn Arcadia from Realasm, Meliora Lilliehook from Prim Sophisticate, and Bill Mondegreen from Savoy. MacKenzie Rasmuson also donated from Gestures by Mack. Have I forgotten anyone? If so, please accept my apologize and know I will amend. It is late and my brain is tired.

Doing good feels good. Thank you so much everyone for contributing your Lindens to this great cause. Join us tomorrow nite for more fun - wear your Relay for Life Gear. Friday nite is the auction and a grand finale you won't want to miss! Cheers to a successful Hump Day! Hoo!

Another Reason to Find Good in Tuesday

Unofficial Earth Day flag, by John McConnell:

the Blue Marble on a blue background.

Hey! It is Earth Day! Take some time to click through on the image above and explore resources available to you. Find out what you can do to make a difference. You don't have to be an Al Gore fan to find good things to do for our world. Heck, just changing out your lightbulbs to those curly-cue ones (technical name of course) can mean huge savings in your wallet, and does good things for reducing energy usage.

My hybrid Honda Civic has been fun to drive, can fit everyone in our family but 1 (is that always a bad thing? heehee), costs under $35 to fill the gas tank (knock on wood), and gives me rights to drive in the HOV/Carpool lane on the freeways. That makes me want to HOOOO! just thinking about it :)

Find a kid and put that kid in charge of recycling if you don't want to take the time. I tell you, environmental efforts are things kids really get into, even little kids. Who doesn't love stomping soda cans or running paper through a shredder?

Make a vow to try this next month to do one or two things differently to make the world a better place. Yes, insert Diana Ross music here. If you haven't checked out Google's Earth Day map yet - make sure you do. Come on... you KNOW you are dying to take a peek.

Dig in Deep... its only Tuesday

I'm tired today. Sick and tired LOL. Bill Cosby has a quote from one of his routines years ago that I just loved:

And tired always followed sick. Worst beating I ever got in my life, my mother said, "Well I am just sick," and I said "And tired." I don't remember anything
after that.

Those two words DO go together. Having an almost 5 year old cough in your face is bound to make you sick -even though his cause is asthma. Anyway... I got up out of bed... I got ready for work and hounded my 4 adorable children appropriately to get ready as well. And D... well who knows what time he got up... he had already done laundry and herded kids toward the getting ready process as well. Some days you just have to get up and do it I guess -force your way through the motions to start to move it, move it.

Once I get people out the door, and myself in my car, and start the groove with some music at unspeakable decibles, life becomes good. Things look up and I start to get my day in focus. Today it was Matchbox 20's "These Hard Times"

These Hard Times Lyrics

Enjoy the video too (I always like those best)

Some days I prefer the shot of Alannis Morrissette. I refer to her CD as my HOV lane minstery because her lyrics and music take me to places I rarely go in my mind without some deep spiritual reflection. But today - "These Hard Times" was just what I needed.

I had a quote that I needed to remember and think about too this morning. In fact, I added it to my profile inworld and wanted to share with you what it means. This came to me as a gift for presenting at an educator conference and the presentation didn't go all that well. The workshop it self was fine - and the strategies were fantastic - but we were in selling mode not freebie mode - and in the end - it really bothered our educator participants. I think this little book and the big messages it contains made lemonade out of lemons, really.

So - for those of you facing lemons with me today - or feeling sick - or feeling sick and tired - take some time to watch this. Think about where you are at and feel encouraged that all it takes is 1 little extra degree. Really - just the decision to get up out of bed, or not. The decision to turn on the music and let yourself feel better, or not. The decision to love what you were put here to do, or not. I'm still tired, I'm still fighting a cold. But... I'm here. I'm searching for that extra degree deep deep down. Join me?

Flip through the book online.
Watch the movie online.

Blogging Metaphorically Speaking

Ok - I lied. I said I was on a mission to blog my creative meanderings until noon. It is 1:35 pm now and where am I? Still multitasking and catching glimpses of online tidbits I must collect.

We watched Juno today. Twice actually. You guys probably know I rarely see movies that don't involve cartoon characters. Heck, tv for that matter. Today has been a veritable media FEST! Hoo!

Why twice you ask? Because multitasking with my 4 friends causes me to miss parts, and D still hasn't seen the first half. But - the lines are amazing. Fantastic writing. Great acting. Hip soundtrack. Rach can wiggle to it - what else makes it qualify to be 5 stars! :) So is there any doubt - I decided I must know more!

I stumbled upon the Director's Blog. At first I thought it might just be media hype. I would still enjoy perusing it - but as I read, I realized, this was not just media hype. This was the real guy - Jason Reitman - right here in black and white type with a few splashes of color thrown in. Ok - I promise you it is not a crush. I do get little crushes on those I become enamored with in the world of media - Rob Thomas anyone? heehee But - this is genuine admiration.

How can you not want to read more when you stumble upon a blog quote like this:

Diablo was in my hotel room yesterday, thumbing through my blog, when she found out that I initially write my blog into Word then copy and paste it into the website. She frowned and explained that real blogging is done directly into the website... "Go Bareback!" she exclaimed as she gave me a look like as though she just caught me polishing a silver tea set. So here I am... going bareback... writing directly into the body of the blog without protection.
~ Justin Reitman

OK... I'll do my best to put my blogging self away now... for today at least. Go watch Juno. Rent it, buy it, call me and borrow it. Hoo! Somebody let me know when they have captured gesture lines for SL from it (hint Jenda? MacKenzie? Anyone?).

Ok you music junkies... Check this out!

Yes... I am on a personal mission to singlehandedly revise my blog before noon today :) Something about waking up in the middle of the night that sparks my creativity and makes me want to write and write and write. I tried to turn my brain off by doing dishes and running interference with the kids. I figured I was out of the blog-obsession-mode safely.

I cuddled up on the couch and settled in to watch my favorite Sunday morning show, CBS Sunday Morning. Yes, I know, it makes me sound so old, doesn't it? Sigh. I battle my kids for the remote and spend most of my time saying "Mommy doesn't watch much - this is Mommy and Daddy's Sunday morning show. You can watch cartoons later. Go watch something good for your brain. See what is on PBS." (shameless advertisement)

Today was SOOOO worth tuning in. Talk about a remix. Talk about touring to support your retirement. Check this out!



Cheers to Sundays and couches and the opportunity to just kick back and enjoy! This one is even kid friendly - how's that for unique in terms of news! Sadly though, Blogger won't let me appropriately tag them with their real name - Young@Heart. Enjoy!

Meanderings and Early Morning Thoughts of a Longer Story

see what you think... not being able to sleep makes for interesting creative writing opportunities...

She laid in bed listening to the sounds of his breathing. It was labored and his tight wheeze had awoken her from a dead sleep. Dead sleep. She hadn’t slept well, restful, dreaming bliss in months, maybe years. Her youngest was still just a baby, not yet five. He was the one who comforted her at night snuggling in so sweetly and whispering “Mommy, I love you.” Dragons and monsters kept him from his own bed, and she welcomed the opportunity to snuggle her youngest one. But tonight, in his fitful sleep, he was not a source of comfort. The clock on the DVR blinked 3:27 am and then 4:23 am. Hour by hour the night didn’t seem to get any shorter and the little one’s breathing didn’t get any easier.

They had moved here thinking things would be better. A promise of a job promotion and the idea that living close to her parents would make a difference brought them from their small mountaintop home to the stark desert city. The trade off to high pollution and long commutes seemed to offer the promise of better things to come. The mountain community paid salaries in beauty and clean air and wide open space, but not enough to make a mortgage or pay for daycare and diapers. The winding dirt roads and breezy summer days filled with wildflowers and cool mountain rains didn’t make the bill payers happy.

She remembered the day she found out she was having twins like it was just yesterday. She had worried she wasn’t pregnant, or that she would miscarry. Years before, the miscarriage had been something that ripped her heart in two and she vowed to never make her family hurt again with news like that. “Momma, the baby died, didn’t she?” the words of her oldest, who was still a baby himself at the time, echoed in her ears and haunted her with his maturity. Jon was a source of comfort to her. His innocence was somehow inhabited by an old soul and he was forever sharing glimpses into his suitcase full of insight.

Her thoughts traveled back to the news of the twins. She took the pregnancy tests at home. She so wanted a little girl. She loved her boys to death but the thought of her having a little girl to hold and love and share life experience with kept her wanting motherhood despite knowing better. Finances were tight and work hours were long. The house was just right for she and Rory and the two boys. Why tempt fate? Fate had taught her that pregnancies could be a cruel joke. The baby, the sweet promise of a baby, was just a dream that had been dashed from her the spring she was told it just never grew, it never grew into a baby. She would need a DNC.

Rory was so good to be by her side. She wondered at times if his heart ached more than hers. He had watched as the ultrasound showed the lack of heartbeat. He had held her hand while the doctor said, “Don’t worry, your body will rid itself of the pregnancy on its own” and while she made the call to a different doctor to beg for a DNC. Life goes on, sometimes as sad as it is. A DNC would move things along and allow them to get on with the business of living.

She walked slowly into the hospital waiting room, holding Rory’s hand, feeling her shoes full of lead and her heart the same. She checked in and told the kid at the desk her name and doctor name. He looked her up in the schedule and said in a much too loud voice, “We always have you see a counselor before a DNC, Ma’am. You’ll need to take a seat and wait.” The words boomed across the waiting area with tall glass ceilings and many many pairs of ears. She was horrified. She wasn’t there for an abortion. She was there to say goodbye to her dreams of having a little girl. Her stone sober face looked at the floor and she longed to melt into the floor below her, just disappear. The tears were long gone from her eyes. The only tears left were in her heart and it sobbed uncontrollably.

She remembered being wheeled into the operating room and counting back from 100 and then waking up holding Rory’s hand. He stroked her face and kissed her forehead. He asked her how she was feeling and told the nurse in recovery she was awake. Her whole body was sore and numb. Her head was fuzzy. She just wanted to go home. She wanted to take a shower and climb into bed and sleep until there were no more tomorrows. The comfort of her pillow and the comforter tucked up tightly around her chin made her wish for sleep.

Her parents waited with worried eyes in the living room with the young boys as they shuffled in with their belongings from the hospital. She barely had enough energy to sit on the couch and make pleasantries before bursting into tears. Once again, Jon offered wise words. “Momma, the baby is in heaven now. It will be ok, Momma.” Younger Noah just clung to her, too young to know how to comfort with anything other than loving snuggles.

Her mother helped her up, and began preparations to get her tucked in to bed comfortably with the reassurance of only medical personnel can provide. Having been a nurse for years, she could compartmentalize things and rationally move to the next step. Her father stayed seated on the couch with the boys, his eyes filled with tears as well. He felt her pain. He allowed himself the luxury of emotion that she and Rory couldn’t feel, or were drained of. He stood to give her a hug tightly as only fathers can. He patted her back and said “We love you babe, you’ll be ok.” She prayed for that to be true. “God never closes a door without opening a window, you’ll see.” She cloaked herself in his reassurances and shuffled off down the hall to find safety in sleep, dreamless sleep.

Should I keep going or just call this a fitful night's sleep and return to blogging the random after more rest?