Thanks Mum

While listening to a song from the 1960's this morning, a memory emerged from my subconscious of my mother taking me to a diner we frequented together during that time. Without knowing it, she introduced me into the world of music. She died early last year after breaking her hip & battling Alzheimer's, but time cannot erase all of those songs I discovered during our visits to that local diner with its small jukeboxes at each booth.

She gave me what time she could spare. She worked for a living, so time was something she didn't have a lot of. Weekends were typically days spent cleaning, washing clothes, preparing Sunday dinner & shopping for food.

My love for music began at the age of four when my eyes first gazed with wonder & amazement at the small jukebox. The list of songs seemed to go on forever to me, as my little hands flipped the menu from page to page. There were times she could spare a nickle for one song, other times a dime for three. I figured out a way to outwit the company that manufactured the booth size jukeboxes, just before the last song would end, if I pressed a letter & number combination, I was able to play as many songs as I wanted without my mother having to pay another nickle or dime. I guess today that would be called hacking? I simply thought of it as outwitting the creators of a machine. 

The music that came from that mini jukebox the first time, filled me with enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm".

The source of the word is the Greek enthousiasmos, which ultimately comes from the adjective entheos, "having the god within," formed from en, "in, within," and theos, "god."

Over time the meaning of enthusiasm became extended to "rapturous inspiration like that caused by a god".

This accurately describes what I felt from that day to this one.

Music has various effects on pretty much all of humanity. It can instill calmness, happiness, reflection, the need to move or dance, conversation, ideas, peace or restlessness, garner support for a positive or negative cause as it's happened throughout history, it's timeless, mathematical, precise, calculated, and has inspired countless humans to feel joy or cry tears of sadness.

Music touches each of us in some way. I'm certainly no exception.

For that magical experience we call enthusiasm and my first taste of such an important part of my life, I thank you Mum.  

 

To anyone that takes the time to read my blog, a big thank you. I don't write every day nor do I want to. Perhaps there's an unwritten rule that a blog should be daily to attract as many readers as possible, but that's not important to me. Sharing a part of me with you, and hopefully what I write may bring us a little closer together as brothers and sisters is all that matters to me.

Best wishes.

A need to slow down & actually live life.

As an owner of an automobile & one time motorcycle owner, I have my views on the pros & cons of owning as well as driving them. When I first started driving it was on the red dirt roads of the province I call home, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Gas was around 65 cents an Imperial Gallon, and the roads were my second home. My first car was an ex RCMP highway interceptor, a Plymouth Fury 440 Commando engine. If you're wondering what that means, well, if I put the gas to the firewall,your body would feel the push of G-Force. How proud I was to own it, after all, it cost me $600.00. I worked to save enough to buy it. 

During that time in my life I was a risk taker both with my car & motorcycle. I had several close calls due to my actions & thinking how great a driver I was. Obviously, it was more luck that I'm here to write this than my skills as a driver.

Over the years I've changed vehicles several times, mostly due to just wanting a change. That attitude changed around 26 years ago when I realized that when it came down to reality,owning the latest greatest auto meant I'd also be in a never ending loop of making payments for the loans & for what. We can never keep up, someone likely near you just bought something better, right?

There's no doubting autos last overall much longer than they did 30, 40, 50 years ago. Engines that once were expected to last 60 thousand miles (roughly 97,000 km) often rust would ruin a car before that. Of course there were exceptions, there always are. But the strange thing was that overall, people kept their autos longer than now. They rebuilt motors, transmissions, had body work done & the cars repainted or did a lot of these things themselves on their days off. In these parts & many other areas, owning a "bungalow" & having a part of an acre of land was considered to be doing well & most couples had at least two children. 

Then, sometime in the first to mid part of the 1980's autos changed & so did the way many people viewed their status in life. Chrysler started a new trend with the Mini-van in 1984 & soon they were everywhere, Ford, GM, Toyota through Mazda. In the 1990's another trend began. People were buying trucks even though the majority had zero reason to own one. In he past ten years we've seen the rush to buy "cross-overs", a sort mini-van/car. Now I see ads for autos that will take over & parallel park for you. 

Autos made in the past 20 years can last 10 years & some many more than that. So why do I see so many new autos on the roads? Are the advertisers just doing a fantastic job or does it go far deeper than that?

We've come to a time where standard transmissions are becoming few & far between, I've been told people don't want them or don't know how to shift gears. Personally, if it's a small car, I don't want an automatic. 

The big shiny new trucks are wonderful to look at & some ride as well as a car, but rarely do I see one that's used for actual work. You remember when truck owners were pretty much farmers, fishermen, tradesmen that rarely had time to wash them & dents & scratches were common. Not often anymore though. Typically, what I see is just the driver without passengers & rarely is there a speck of dirt on them when the weather is good, even this winter I see most have been washed even though a snowstorm is on the way & the roads will be a mess. Some of these trucks are $40,000 & prices go way up from there here in Canada, That would have bought that pretty nice "bungalow" around here around 1980. Prices go up but there are so many cheaper in price autos than these trendy ones that are all the rage now & some of them last longer than the more expensive models, much longer.

So, my question is when times are so tough & the typical family is 1.? children, why the need for such expenses? Huge homes & huge overvalued prices, just like the autos.

It seems to me that many in society have lost or never had a healthy sense of self worth. We live in a time where how you look, what you drive, where you live never meant so much to so many. 

My view is we need to get back to living simpler & being content without the trappings of more is better.

I'd love to hear what others think. 

Best to you all.

My cancer scare

Sitting here it seems like a long time ago. But, it was December 31. Thirty five days ago after I had previously had a yearly Fecal Occult Blood Test.  I was contacted that my test was positive for blood in my stool & I would be contacted by a surgeon.
It took a month to see the surgeon, but he arranged a date for me to have a Colonoscopy. I arrived at the hospital on Decemeber 31 & had the test, which by the way is highly uncomfortable. I told them I wouldn't have the drug that reduces the discomfort, I didn't want to be in a drug induced fog for hours after. I would advise anyone to take the drug if offered, unless you can withstand a lot of pain.

The Colonoscopy took roughly 30 minutes after which I was told by the Dr. that he found polyps as well as a tumor bigger than my fist. He showed me on the screen.

He made arrangements for me to have a CT Scan which took place 10 days later. No discomfort from this test.

Yesterday, February 2, I met with the surgeon again & he told me he would have to cut part of my bowel out as well as several lymph nodes in order to find out how far the cancer has spread & that I would be in hospital for roughly 5 days. From there, he said it would take roughly one week to get the results.

If you've ever been through the detection of cancer personally, you already know the emotional toll it takes on you & family, friends etc. I consider myself fortunate that I've been practicing Mindfulness/Meditation for the past year. It allows me to live in the moment & to quickly notice when my mind begins to wander to places we all spend too much time. For instance, the past or future, instead of being here right now in the present. If you haven't already tried Mindfulness, I would ask you to give it a try for a few months, it is one of the most healthy & positive things I've experienced in my life.

As you can guess, I'm not looking forward to the surgery & if I dwell on it, the future could be a scary place to live. Thank goodness none of us lives there, this moment in time is it, it's all any of us has.

I'll continue with updates on how my experience with cancer unfolds. If nothing else, I hope my experiences will help even one person see that living life one moment at a time is the healthiest & happiest ways to live, regardless of how much time each of us has in life.

Love others without judgements, give of yourself to others regardless of who they are without expectations of gain of any kind, love & be very kind to yourself, if you're not, you can't love others. Be at peace with whatever comes along, allow negative thoughts to be noticed but let them move along like the waters of a brook. Most of all, live every moment.

Thanks for reading & I hope you continue to visit to catch up on my thoughts & opinions.

For more information on Colorectal Cancer & the importance of screening.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/colorectal-screening

PS, this is my first attempt at a blog. If you have experience with blogging please share tips & constructive criticism, they will always be welcome.

Again, thanks for taking the time from your day to read, it's appreciated more than you know.