Can You Hear This?

Spring is in the air and as the trees become leafy and green and the buds begin to burst into bloom, you look in the mirror and want to see something new there too! All of us do, at some point or another. Male or female, it makes no difference.

So, here you are, it’s Spring and you want a little bloom of your own. Like all new plants, you could probably use a little water!

You learned in science class long ago that your body is made up of mostly water, about 70%, I think. As we go through life, we regularly consume water in many forms. Unfortunately, most of us don’t consume ENOUGH water regularly and, even when we do, it’s in a poor form. Believe it or not, it necessary for your physical energy and your spiritual energy. Dehydration can actually contribute significantly to higher stress levels.

I’m not saying that if you’re thirsty, you’re going to stress out. What I am saying is that, if you’re thirsty, physically or spiritually, whatever stress you experience will be exacerbated! (I’ve actually tested this with sales people and, after several weeks of drinking sufficient water daily, they all reported feeling much less stress in their jobs!)

It is necessary for your overall well-being to drink 65 to 70 ounces of pure water daily. This not only maintains your body’s hydration, but it helps keep it flushed of toxins. You should also note that for every 8 ounces you drink of coffee, soda, or alcohol, your body requires at least 16 ounces of plain water to offset the negative effect those beverages have on your system.

The results of this drenching……………..you’ll have more energy, feel more buoyant, and your skin and hair will shine!

Take a minute to sparkle and shine, have a drink! Make sure you get your daily quota of water and enjoy your new bloom!

It has been a very frustrating day for me as I am one of those technology “challenged” individuals. I’ve accepted the fact that as technology advances, I will continue to be a “special needs” student.

When computers started popping up everywhere and “surfing the net” was a major pasttime, I was a single Mom with a very limited budget and I didn’t own my own PC. As, at the time, I was working in the health care industry and they were one of the last to get on board with technology, I didn’t have a computer at work either.

By the time my budget included a PC, everyone was arguing over dial-up versus cable modem (which had just become available in my area). I didn’t even have an email address, let alone an understanding of the internet.

Now I work in an industry that relies almost totally on the internet for all transactions. I have a computer that is so portable it goes everywhere I do. One email address isn’t enough, I have four. Today, however, I think I would have done just as well with smoke signals.

Apparently, unbeknownst to me until almost 5 pm, my web-hosting service was having some server problems. It’s a computer, it happens! Nonetheless, I became suspicious around lunch time when I began to receive multiple copies of the same email messages to my work address.

Then, the phone calls started. Why had I not gotten an answer to a client’s question? Why hadn’t I sent that client the information requested? Why hadn’t I responded to an associate’s lunch query? It was safe to assume at this point that there was a problem somewhere.

Given my handicap, I, of course, began looking for operator errors……………mine! Imagine my relief upon learning that I hadn’t broken or screwed up anything, it was some other computer’s fault.

It’s going on 8 pm and email is still not working so if you start seeing smoke, read carefully, it’s from me!!!!

I’m from the South (South Carolina, to be exact), I speak with a drawl and I think ya’ll is perfectly acceptable English grammar! Yes, we speak slowly compared to the average New Yorker and are amused that this is interpreted by other folks as being slow witted. We wave to folks going down the street, whether we know them or not, speak to complete strangers in public as if we’ve known them all our lives.

We believe everybody is welcome, when you’re with friends or family, you’re at home and it’s pretty much what you see is what you get. That means if you show up unexpected, but perfectly welcomed, and there are dishes in the sink or dust on the tabletops, you overlook it.

There are certain aspects of behavior that I have grown up with and become accustomed to in the South. Girls were taught to be ladies and appropriately groomed for the occasion. Being polite is a way of life. Boys are taught to stand when a lady enters the room, hold doors open, carry the bags in from the car and the trash out. Both are bred to have an innate understanding of true hospitality and to offer it, no matter what.

I grew up with friends, relatives and neighbors dropping by the house, sticking their heads in the screen door (we didn’t have air conditioning) and saying “anybody home” or “yoo hoo”! If it was hot, they got offered some ice tea and to “have a seat on the porch”, if it was cold they got offered some ice tea and to come in and “sit a spell”.

If we were sitting down to supper, (in the South dinner is at noon and supper is in the evening) they were invited to “pull up a chair”. No one thought a thing about droppin’ by to visit without callin’ ahead.

I know what it’s like for it to be 95 degrees in the shade and so humid you have to cut the air and chew to get a breath. And I know the incredible excitement of seeing those first few flakes of snow falling, guaranteeing, since it only took one or two, that we’d have a “snow” day off from school.

I love the smell of freshly cut grass and gasoline from the mower. I love watching the sky turn purple during the twilight and seeing the lightening bugs under the canopy of trees in the backyard. I played hide n’ seek, red light/green light, and roll the bat during summer evenings.

I know there’s nothing worse than long Sunday afternoons after church with nothing to do and I know there’s nothing better than long Sunday afternoons after church with nothing to do.

And I grew up with women and men that knew how to prepare and appreciate a home cooked meal. One that didn’t come out of box (although it may contain some type of Campbell’s condensed soup) and could often be made up of nothing more than the fresh vegetables just picked that day from the garden.

When a meal was put on the table, it didn’t matter if you had two or twenty there was always enough to go around somehow. It was worth cleaning your plate in order to have dessert, especially if it was ice cream made in a hand-cranked churn.

Good food was a constant. It was always there. You never wondered if what you were going to find on the table was good, just whether or not it was going to be one of your special favorites. The result of all these culinary blessings as I was growing up is my love of cooking……………….especially cooking for those I love. I realize that in today’s world of instant gratification, I’m in the minority when I say I would rather come home after work and cook a huge meal, from scratch (save those Campbell’s condensed soups) and serve it to my family, than to go out to a fancy restaurant.

All I need to wind down from a stressful day is my family on stools at the island counter, plenty of fresh ingredients, particularly vegetables, a glass of wine and an idea for a good meal. Whether it’s 2o minutes or 2 hours, we enjoy each other, the process, and, of course, the results! I think nothing of making biscuits from scratch to go with the fried steak and gravy or creating a tangy marinara to go with the pasta, grilled salmon and steamed asparagas. Cooking is one of the most relaxing things I do and it feeds both the body and the soul.

We all need nurturing of some kind on a regular basis and with life being as hectic as it is today, this is one of the ways I nurture both myself and my family.

I highly recommend, even to those of you that can’t handle making a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, you try to start some self nurturing with some simple recipes and fresh ingredients. Make yourself a salad, cutting up the vegetables yourself rather than going to the grocery store salad bar. You might be surprised how many hungry parts of you get fed!

One of the things I’m often asked about is how I manage all my responsibilities as a business owner and single parent. There are a lot of people out there juggling these responsibilities everyday and probably more successfully than I do.

When asked, however, I always recommend that parents talk to their children directly about what is going on, whether it’s a tough day because of the boss, the car needs some repair, the grass hasn’t been cut or you just can’t think of anything to fix for dinner. It’s not that you need to go into detail about whatever is creating your stressful days but, it’s better to tell them that your boss was acting like a jerk, than for them to think they’ve done something to upset you.

I am a great believer in “time out”…………..and I mean “time out” for me!

When I’ve had a really bad day, getting home still stressed out and keyed up, and my son wants to tell me all about whatever has happened in his day or has some question that he just has to ask, I often have to say “time out”.

I have to go to my room, change my clothes, go through the mail or just sit and breath until I’ve decompressed a little bit. I remember seeing a talk show years ago and a single mom said sometimes she would lock herself in the bathroom when she got home from work to decompress so she wouldn’t take out her irritation on her kids. I knew exactly how she felt. I explained it to my son so that, if I said I had to be in “time out”, he would understand what was going on and know I’d be back soon to hear all about his day in a little while.

So take a “time out”! Whether it’s a walk around the block, five minutes with your favorite magazine, weeding your garden, soaking in a hot tub, or sitting down and just breathing, take a “time out”. In the end, your family will benefit from it as much as you do!