Self Care – Page 4

One day you’ll wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.
Paul Coelho

This quote sums up my attitude about life in general.

Maybe I have this attitude because I had breast cancer in 2005. I thought my life was coming to a screeching halt. But life didn’t stop, and fortunately, I’ve been in remission for close to seventeen years. Yay!

After treatment, my only thought was, ‘let me live until the kids are out of high school.’ And a couple of years later, my musing went to ‘keep close relationships with kids and family,’ ‘learn how to write fiction,’ ‘improve health,’ ‘travel,’ and a few other specific ‘must do’s.’

All my future ideas are not ‘one and done,’ meaning they’re all a process. All of these nurture my soul and keep me hopeful.

The idea to become a published writer was a twelve-year learning adventure before a contract was offered. Today, I finished my copy edits and returned the manuscript to the editor. Another yay moment!

Now, I’m off to explore the following destinations on my travel list after a three-year delay because of COVID restrictions.

Traveling to other countries has always fascinated me. Maybe because I grew up in poverty and lived in bland government housing projects. The furthest I traveled before age eighteen was three hours away to San Diego, California.

I read many books as a kid and envisioned the places I read about: England, France, Spain, Mexico, and everywhere.

But, I worked a lot, mothered three kids as a single mom, and had neither the money nor energy to do any travel overseas until they were in high school. From then on, I was bitten by the travel bug.

Today, I’m leaving for Edinburgh, Scotland, Belfast, and Dublin, Ireland. We’ll travel by plane, train, and rental car. Meeting locals and exploring their part of the world is so exciting. I’m eager to walk through the Scottish Highlands and the castles and have a Guinness at a pub.

Photo by Miquel Rossellu00f3 Calafell on Pexels.com

I’m traveling with my sister, who revels in summer after a long school year. She’s the driver of our rental car through Scotland because her first car was an old stick-shift VW Bug. We rented a manual because it’s cheaper and we budget.

To tell you the truth, I’m concerned about her driving on the left side of the road. She says, “no biggie, I’m left-handed, after all.”

Uh, okay.

I read up on the travel books in honor of the big trip and even bought a selfie stick. I felt guilty about that purchase since I’m the person who complains when the youngsters whip out their sticks like light sabers at crowded travel sites.

But I’m tired of getting a travel shot of mostly my face and very little of the fabulous background. Hopefully, I’ll take a few great photos.

If you’d like to see a few photos of my travels and hopefully better selfies, click the Instagram button at the top of the post.

And if you have any travel tips for Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, Belfast, or Dublin, let me know.

Until next month. Be well.

This month’s violence has overwhelmed me and, I’m sure, millions of others. I’ve stepped back from writing and chose to read others’ poems and essays and say prayers.

This has been my protective defense as every time there is a mass shooting, I think of my mother’s experience twenty-some years ago, which took place in the state office where she worked.

Thankfully, Mom is still with us, and we celebrated her birthday last night.

Mom re-experiences the trauma when another mass shooting occurs. My body reruns the emotions I felt when we waited outside the building, newspeople all around, held back by officers. It was a torturous time of slow-motion pain and confusion.

This is only one degree of what the parents feel about their children who they lost.

I thought about the unasked questions kids must have, and like a manifestation, I received this video from my friend, Amada, this morning. I want to share it with you.

This is a children’s book written by a school shooting survivor, Crystal Woodman Miller. It is narrated and contains five ways children can process feelings when they’re overwhelmed by thinking about these situations.

The link below will open to the Canva site where the book was created:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFB1ZHQNGQ/BFcAKI5MFnMOCKOG-ixVDQ/view