Until I launch my playfulness blog on July 3, mosey on over to http:/ /dreamreweaver.blogspot.com for any current postings.
See ya later, alligator!
http://dreamreweaver.blogspot.com/2017/06/reiner-brooks-set-up-their-longevity.html
Monday, June 5, 2017
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Making legacy gathering simple, fun
Thank you, Sue Barocas! Your book - Elderwriters: Celebrate Your Life! - is the book I'll give to the friend who loves writing, enjoys working with older friends. & loved ones, wants to find meaning work that touches countless lives. Sue Barocas shows the way to creating a terrific workshop series on legacy-building through storytelling.
It's the book I'll press into the hands of younger friends to help them build stronger connections with grand-parents, great-aunts & uncles, grand friends. Sue shows the ways for preserving family history while forging cross-generation connections.
It's the book I'll give to the activities directors at the "senior" communities I love so they can develop wondrous workshops to help their residents capture & preserve their treasured memories & precious wisdom.
Sue's Personal Legacy Document process gets my blue ribbon for breaking down the barriers that keep most older people from leaving a truly priceless legacy - their own stories.
Sue Barocas takes the terror out of legacy writing, makes it fun & fulfilling. Bravo!
Now get to your favorite bookstore or website & order a copy(ies) - NOW!
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Stuff & nonsense
An answered query this a.m. on Quora.com notes three things everyone should do before they die. Two left me with wistful smiles, they're so spot on - at any age: open up to people & make peace with your past. But the very first - "Get your stuff in order & don't leave the material burdens of your life for those who love you " - has me torn between chortles & alarm, writing this posting before I've had breakfast or journaled.
"Get rid of everything before you die." Seriously? Pretty brutal, I suspect written by a young person with limited, if any, experience of oldsters elders ancients. Their "stuff" are anchors to their past, links back to moments & memories that help keep them grounded in their here & now.
Yes, get rid of your stuff - throughout your life. And let your family know the stories behind the items that matter.
One of my most treasured possessions is a small gift tag that Dad wrote to Mom on their first Christmas, in the heart of the Depression - "Such a small thing to show all my love." I see the young man, making $17 a week (and happy to have that), wishing he could lay the riches of the world at his O Best Beloved's feet, settling for his heart. Over almost 40 years together, he would give her great & grand gifts, but none so precious as that card, which Mom kept by her bedside to her last day. Over the 28 years she was without Dad, whenever she looked at it, held it in the palm of her hand, she was that newly-wed again, 24 & just starting out on their great adventure.
To someone going through Mom's things, that scrap of paper would be charming, but - without the story - meaningless. Sadly, too few of today's young people get to hear family stories as a natural pat of their day-to-day life.
Here's what I would have in that #1 spot - Share your stories. Tell the youngers in your life about how your grandfather turned the rolling pin in your hands for your grandmother. Point out family pictures, give faces & scenes life context relevancy.
Yes, winnow out the things that don't matter, the stuff, then let your loved ones know why what remains matter.
If you are an oldster elder ancient: One last gift to loved ones that really can reduce their burden & stress when you're gone - - clearly identify who in your family & circle of friends get which of your treasures. It can reduce squabbles, clarify WHY you want this piece to go to that person.
If you are a younger: Help your older loved go through & winnow out their possessions, even if they are able to stay in the house you grew up in to their final days. Not to get rid of stuff, but to honor the precious things that should be moved forward to new lives, the ones that need to be bid adieu,, the ones that are kept - and why.
If you are a youngster: Be curious about the earlier years of the olders in your life. The old & the young often form stronger connections & alliances than either can or do with those in the middle. Give it a whirl!
Throughout your life, keep your things to a minimum, which will mean different things to different people. Share your stories. Attach historical/sentimental value to what you have & let others know, too. But "Get rid of everything" ? Stuff & nonsense!
"Get rid of everything before you die." Seriously? Pretty brutal, I suspect written by a young person with limited, if any, experience of oldsters elders ancients. Their "stuff" are anchors to their past, links back to moments & memories that help keep them grounded in their here & now.
Yes, get rid of your stuff - throughout your life. And let your family know the stories behind the items that matter.
One of my most treasured possessions is a small gift tag that Dad wrote to Mom on their first Christmas, in the heart of the Depression - "Such a small thing to show all my love." I see the young man, making $17 a week (and happy to have that), wishing he could lay the riches of the world at his O Best Beloved's feet, settling for his heart. Over almost 40 years together, he would give her great & grand gifts, but none so precious as that card, which Mom kept by her bedside to her last day. Over the 28 years she was without Dad, whenever she looked at it, held it in the palm of her hand, she was that newly-wed again, 24 & just starting out on their great adventure.
To someone going through Mom's things, that scrap of paper would be charming, but - without the story - meaningless. Sadly, too few of today's young people get to hear family stories as a natural pat of their day-to-day life.
Here's what I would have in that #1 spot - Share your stories. Tell the youngers in your life about how your grandfather turned the rolling pin in your hands for your grandmother. Point out family pictures, give faces & scenes life context relevancy.
Yes, winnow out the things that don't matter, the stuff, then let your loved ones know why what remains matter.
If you are an oldster elder ancient: One last gift to loved ones that really can reduce their burden & stress when you're gone - - clearly identify who in your family & circle of friends get which of your treasures. It can reduce squabbles, clarify WHY you want this piece to go to that person.
If you are a younger: Help your older loved go through & winnow out their possessions, even if they are able to stay in the house you grew up in to their final days. Not to get rid of stuff, but to honor the precious things that should be moved forward to new lives, the ones that need to be bid adieu,, the ones that are kept - and why.
If you are a youngster: Be curious about the earlier years of the olders in your life. The old & the young often form stronger connections & alliances than either can or do with those in the middle. Give it a whirl!
Throughout your life, keep your things to a minimum, which will mean different things to different people. Share your stories. Attach historical/sentimental value to what you have & let others know, too. But "Get rid of everything" ? Stuff & nonsense!
Sunday, May 7, 2017
I object!
My mother was typical of her circle of friends in shrugging off the value of internet access. She especially saw little advantage to "getting online." She was a devoted correspondent with a large group of family & friends - barely a day went by when she wasn't dashing off a note, reading a fresh-from-the mail box letter from Kerry or Lorna in Audstralia, Ellen down in Texas, Peggy in Missouri, and all over the globe.
Mom loved going out to shop & was, to the last, mobile & eager to GO - online shopping had no lure for her. As for computer-based bill paying, she distrusted its security & she actually liked writing out the checks - a young adult during the Depression, she never lost a sense of grateful joy making out checks for this or that bill, knowing there was money in the bank to cover it.
What lured Mom onto the World Wide Web was the immediacy of discussion. She quickly grew to appreciate the easy sharing of ideas, opinions, insights. Within a week of venturing out into cyber space, she was hooked!
Not that it ever would have happened if she'd had to navigate the computer on her own. This was long before tablets made computing less daunting for many oldsters elders ancients - just a hulking big personal computer staring her down. But I had a vested interest in getting Mom up & running with computing - she was increasingly isolated. Her health took a beating when she was 85; although she recovered, Mom was never again spry. She didn't venture out of the house if the was the slightest possibility of ice.
Hardest for Mom was the loss of her compadres, either isolated in their homes or moved closer to adult child, or died. She was possibly the most social creature I've ever know; her circle of long-time friends was growing ever smaller, but her love of social interaction was as strong as ever.
Mom slowly evolved into embracing the internet, but once she did, became an online evangelist with a vengeance! She loved sitting close to me in the computer studio, cup of coffee in hand, and dictate or direct, as I transcribed on keyboard. She never did succumb to online banking or bill paying, never could completely get her head around carrying on a real-time e-mail discussion with her Australian granddaughter, but she DID take special delight in going online & ordering a custom designed flower arrangement - complete with small pail & measuring tape - from a Sydney florist when her #2 son opened a high-end hardware store in that beautiful city she loved so well.
While Mom started out objecting to the internet having any value to her, nothing illustrates how fully she'd changed that original judgement than the last week of her full & glorious life, spent in her own room right next to the computer studio, where she received a flow of guests & answered e-mail questions from the local college's psych students.
Although we'd been warned that she could sink into deep depression, that only happened once - on Thursday morning, smack dab in the middle of her last week.
Nothing helped - I sang her favorite songs & hymns, read beloved passages from the Bible, talked about Dad. No improvement. Then I suggested - "How about if I check on any questions?" Got a glimmer of a response, so I high tailed it next door.
Hit the mother lode! One of the students asked, "I believe that I have met the woman I will marry. What can you share with me about love & loving?" Mom swung back to her usual self, taking deep joy in fulfilling the young man's request for wisdom & tender insight. All thanks to getting past her objections to see the pleasures opened up through being online.
Some years later, I was working with my IT support (I have a past history of bad relationships with laptops). We were talking about how few older people back when Mom was alive were active on computers, how rare she was, how much that was turning around. I shared with him my favorite story of Mom adventures in cyber space - the tale of that woeful Thursday & how one e-mailed question turned everything around. Imagine my surprise to see a tear stealing down the cheek of my IT guy!
"I was the young man who asked that question - and I cherish & use what she shared with me every day."
Mom loved going out to shop & was, to the last, mobile & eager to GO - online shopping had no lure for her. As for computer-based bill paying, she distrusted its security & she actually liked writing out the checks - a young adult during the Depression, she never lost a sense of grateful joy making out checks for this or that bill, knowing there was money in the bank to cover it.
What lured Mom onto the World Wide Web was the immediacy of discussion. She quickly grew to appreciate the easy sharing of ideas, opinions, insights. Within a week of venturing out into cyber space, she was hooked!
Not that it ever would have happened if she'd had to navigate the computer on her own. This was long before tablets made computing less daunting for many oldsters elders ancients - just a hulking big personal computer staring her down. But I had a vested interest in getting Mom up & running with computing - she was increasingly isolated. Her health took a beating when she was 85; although she recovered, Mom was never again spry. She didn't venture out of the house if the was the slightest possibility of ice.
Hardest for Mom was the loss of her compadres, either isolated in their homes or moved closer to adult child, or died. She was possibly the most social creature I've ever know; her circle of long-time friends was growing ever smaller, but her love of social interaction was as strong as ever.
Mom slowly evolved into embracing the internet, but once she did, became an online evangelist with a vengeance! She loved sitting close to me in the computer studio, cup of coffee in hand, and dictate or direct, as I transcribed on keyboard. She never did succumb to online banking or bill paying, never could completely get her head around carrying on a real-time e-mail discussion with her Australian granddaughter, but she DID take special delight in going online & ordering a custom designed flower arrangement - complete with small pail & measuring tape - from a Sydney florist when her #2 son opened a high-end hardware store in that beautiful city she loved so well.
While Mom started out objecting to the internet having any value to her, nothing illustrates how fully she'd changed that original judgement than the last week of her full & glorious life, spent in her own room right next to the computer studio, where she received a flow of guests & answered e-mail questions from the local college's psych students.
Although we'd been warned that she could sink into deep depression, that only happened once - on Thursday morning, smack dab in the middle of her last week.
Nothing helped - I sang her favorite songs & hymns, read beloved passages from the Bible, talked about Dad. No improvement. Then I suggested - "How about if I check on any questions?" Got a glimmer of a response, so I high tailed it next door.
Hit the mother lode! One of the students asked, "I believe that I have met the woman I will marry. What can you share with me about love & loving?" Mom swung back to her usual self, taking deep joy in fulfilling the young man's request for wisdom & tender insight. All thanks to getting past her objections to see the pleasures opened up through being online.
Some years later, I was working with my IT support (I have a past history of bad relationships with laptops). We were talking about how few older people back when Mom was alive were active on computers, how rare she was, how much that was turning around. I shared with him my favorite story of Mom adventures in cyber space - the tale of that woeful Thursday & how one e-mailed question turned everything around. Imagine my surprise to see a tear stealing down the cheek of my IT guy!
"I was the young man who asked that question - and I cherish & use what she shared with me every day."
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Put the peddle to the metal
Pretty amazing feeling, experiencing the first stage of my current - perhaps greatest - true north passion as completed. I've successfully expressed my core goal for Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT). That might seem a no-brainer. "You've been batting this around for over 15 years - you only just clarified it in your mind?!"
YES.
All anyone has to do is read last fall's crowdfunding request to see that I'd thrown a lot of different balls in the air. They were all worthwhile, it's just that while all had grabbed my attention, I hadn't taken the time or the due diligence to determine which one or two grabbed my heart.
Although I was not consciously aware of how flub -a-dubbed I was, my True Self knew & shut me down. Without realizing it, I shifted gears, going offline (except Facebook & an occasional peek at e-mail). For five months, I immersed myself in reading.
I'd actually starting my reading jag back in the late fall, reading or rereading Brene Brown, devouring Glennon Doyle Melton, refamiliaring myself with Taming the Gremlin. Marney Makridakis transformed my relationship with time. Came February, I hunkered down with John Tarnoff, Tim Ferriss, Sarah Pennypacker, Guy Kawasaki, Peter Guber, Doug Stevenson, Robert Grudin, Alexander Osterwalder, Marie Clapsaddle, Abby Stokes, Chris Murray, Adam Steltzner, Milchael Miller & the awesome TODD HENRY.
It took me a while to realize my thinking had turned from personal to professional development. Went down on my knees in gratitude at the number of exceptional books being written for creatives in business today. (20 years ago, Guy Kawasaki was basically the only author equating business with flat-out FUN - and he's gotten even better & more passionate with the years.). I look at my reading table, at shelves to my left & right - books on business models & the power of storytelling, computer basics & translating passion & purpose into a compelling business plan.
They - and the many scores of books in bookshelves throughout the house - all helped boost me to this moment, where the vision part is DONE, the peddle-to-the-metal part begins.
"WHY?"
The WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is simple - freedom & choice. Witha friendly person keyboarding at their every whim, an oldster elder or ancient once again holds the reins.
The impact isn't theoretical for me - experienced it 1st hand with my case study of one: Mom. At 85, a major medical crisis transformed her health from fairly robust to relatively frail. Although she still got out more than most of her friends, putting even ones in their 70s to shame, she was definitely slower, more cautious & less likely to want to head out in icky weather. For the first time, Mom found herself increasingly home bound.
Around this same time, a lively discussion in our church that engaged Mom's attention moved onto the internet. Mom was hooked. Although she hesitated to get her own e-mail address, she was an enthusiastic participant, writing under my address, using my tip-tapping skills to share her thoughts & experiences.
Would she have ever ventured out into cyber space without such a compelling spur? I doubt it. But once out there, she was a passionate participant. But still under my address. Until...
Until a sensitive situation with someone she loved spurred her to get her very own address. I still keyboarded, but getting that separate address seemed to give Mom a fuller-throated voice, both online & in real life.
Mom (always a great letter writer) took to social networking like a duck to water, using e-mails to share with an ever-expanding dist list stories, thoughts, small moments & big-hearted memories.
In a way, Mom was blogging before blogging was cool!
Doing that took courage, guts & grit, because my older sibs each made it clear they did NOT like this Mom 2.0. Her vignettes & musings weren't intimate or intrusively personal, but they were from a mother my sibs did not recognize & showed had no interest in getting to know. Yet, still she persisted.
It's easy to feel shocked at my older sibs' resistance, but put yourself in their shoes.
First off, they were all in their teens in the '50s, with an Eisenhower-era view of mothers being there for their family, not the reverse. For ALL of their lives, Mom's only thought had been what they wanted, never what she needed. Just expressing her unique voice was experienced by them as a threat. They asked her to stop; when she didn't, they distanced themselves from her life.
And still she persisted.
Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is important because it opens new doors. Mom went through ones that helped her become more the person she was when my father - her O Best Beloved - was alive. That was her experience; other people will have different doors opening, taking them in their own new directions. It could be as simple as surfing the internet for fun places, listening to podcasts or TED talks, or shopping for a too-far-away grandchild's sixth birthday. They may want to get in face time with far distant friends or even start their own blog! They could just want to e-mail an ever growing dist list. It's up to them.
Choice & freedom: the all-important, all-empowering WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Mounting up with wings like eagles
5+ months since writing on this blog. The GoFund!e crowdfunding request raised $150 online, far from my $20,000 stretch goal. That said, the request was a WILD success for gathering my energies together, letting them know that transforming CATT into hard-edged, real-time/real-life reality is not mere piffle on my part. If getting them on board had been the only outcome of the request, laying myself bare with the GoFundMe request would have been worth it. And I have $150 to put toward my website costs.
What calls to be done has less to do with funding, everything to do with grit, grace & gumption. We are at the grunt work stage. FINALLY!
Am starting a new blog, connected to my Wordpress website, but will still be checking in here. The new blog will go with me as I put elbow grease & focused forward action behind my dream, but will keep checking back here. This blog holds a lot of important insights, ahas & info of interest that's forever valuable.
What calls to be done has less to do with funding, everything to do with grit, grace & gumption. We are at the grunt work stage. FINALLY!
Am starting a new blog, connected to my Wordpress website, but will still be checking in here. The new blog will go with me as I put elbow grease & focused forward action behind my dream, but will keep checking back here. This blog holds a lot of important insights, ahas & info of interest that's forever valuable.
Will check in next week to tell y'all what's afoot, what's accomplished, what beckons.
Friday, November 25, 2016
You never forget your first one!
The other day, we received our first energized card back from one of our Earth Angels. Today, we received our first contribution to our crowdfund request.
Two might not sound like a lot, but they are both proof positive that we actually GOT the request written, GOT it posted online. Those are things over which we have control. And we did both. Our intention turned into COMPLETED actions.
We did it!
That is no small accomplishment, at least for me.
It's wonderful, dropping the shackles of the past. However I came to get the message that what counts is what we dream of doing, the great & lofty goals we set - not what actually gets done - doesn't matter, only leaving it in my past.
I still have to fight against the tendency to get a task almost completed. The desire to take tasks to DONE is firmly embedded in my nature, but wildly NOT part of my nurture. It's marvelously empowering, being old enough, experienced enough, WISE enough to see the perversity that's kept me from doing what calls to be done, to step past it.
There might not be any more contributions to our crowdfund request ~OR~ we could end up fully funded, even go well past our goal. We might just get the one card back ~OR~ end up with our po box full to overflowing. How beyond-imagination fabulous that those are our "mights," not "we might get this posted" or "what might have been if we'd done a gofundme request."
Our task is completed. Someone responded. There may be more, there may not, but we will never forget our mega precious firsts!!
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The right ones
Just writing our crowdfund request has been transformative. And such a incalculable blessing.
This, in spite of not a single penny being registered as contributed to the request. In spite of receiving a grand total of one (1) note card returned with a name & "You go, guys!" comments. Zip & one.
How does that make me feel? At peace. Best way to describe it.
It also reinforces my gratitude for coming to peace with how few friends showed up after Mom died - her death was announced at the Contemporary & traditional adult church services; only six stopped by that day. That's how I always experience it - "Only six people..." Until something happened last week at the wee small hours tag end of a cast party, when comments from two formerly pleasant acquaintances, now treasured friends, turned my feelings around.
They weren't the only six people - they were the RIGHT six people.
Ditto with the crowdfund request. It could be that no one chips in. It could be that our one friend is the only one who returns a card. Could be the Universe will be telling us that we can whack our way through on our own, that the one friend is the right person to respond. Hey, Universe - we're listening!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Trust in the Lord, be of good courage
What an interesting, enriching three months. In September, John & I finally posted our online crowdfund request focusing on our eldercare revolution efforts. In a State of the Human letter we're just now sending out, we've shared the link with our circle of Earth Angels, emphasizing that the greatest investment they can make is to return an enclosed card with artwork & works by the awesome SARK. Energies, more than money, are what POW!er us forward.
Right after posting the request, our computer conked out. We'd only had it for two years, so it didn't make much sense for it to turn its toes up & depart from us. Except... Not having a computer had added an unexpected depth to my life. I've done a lot of things over the past year - a workshop & three conferences, many books & articles read, TED Talks given a listen (went to two!), and a whole lot more.
This is the first posting I've written in those three months. It's also the first time I've checked the crowdfund site - not a single contribution. But we've received wonderful comments & blessings, which is what we knew we'd treasure most, what we know will be the greatest fuel powering our next steps.
I hadn't intended for our State of the Human letters to go out around Thanksgiving. The plan was to have them all done by mid-October ~ that was before the laptop went bye-bye & I was left to write everything at the library. Seriously slowed things down! But that's okay - gave me more time to ponder what to say.
Each letter has three parts - the update, thanks for having the person in our life, a link to the crowdfund request. And two cards - one to keep, the other to return.
It's been a remarkable experience, checking the site & seeing not a single contribution AND not feeling in the least bit downcast. "For peace has in it confidence in the Divine, that God leads all things to a good end." I truly believe that. I've believed it my entire life, from childhood to this here & now moment.
My life in this Thanksgiving week isn't anything like I'd expected back in September. Several hours of my day is spent at anyone of several libraries. Someone who has been pretty awful planning my day is now learning how to make each hour work for the best. Each day is a blessing, not dwelling on what went good or bad yesterday, not over thinking about tomorrow. Being HERE, NOW.
Over the past twelve months, I attended my first writing workshop lead by Nancy Slonim Aronie at the Rowe Conference Center in beautiful NE Massachusetts. My 2nd Leading to Well-Being Conference in the spring; 1st Positive Aging Conference in the summer; 3rd National Center for Creative Aging Conference - all of them reinforced my sense of being on a divinely-intended path. And I was able to underwrite all of them on my own, so my expectation is that 2017 will be graced with more of the fabulous same!
To our incredulous delight, two of the items on our crowdfund wish list are already checked off. Out of the blue - unrelated to the request - friends gave me a gift card that paid for an iPad mini. And other friends decided their Grand Marquis was too fuddy duddy for their young selves - our new "grannie ride" & 2nd (at last!) car was a remarkable buy!
Two things on our list that fell into our laps - THAT is what happens when energies get unleashed, when the Universe knows what we're looking for & can send requested goodies our way.
It's splendid looking around & seeing wondrous things tucked into every part of our lives. We have our unexpected challenges - vet bills, car challenges, house stuff - but there is also a continual sense of balance, which is something I've sought for as long as memory serves me. I am, at last, living in my now.
Each day is greeted with the intention to make the BEST use of its 24 hours. Our circle of friends is a forever blessing on our lives. We - okay, I am okay with who I am & no longer fret that I'm not more this way or that. I am me. One of the greatest things I've learned over my lifetime is the importance of being comfortable in your own skin. I guess that's what feels like my greatest calling, the use that keeps nipping at my soul to get my act together & take it on the road ~ ~ to help others, whatever they age, feel at peace with themselves, to remove obstacles so they can be their best possible version. I want people to be filled with the spirit of Auntie Mame & LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!
Trust in the Lord, be of good courage... THAT is what I want for all my clients, my friends, my family & loved ones. And that doesn't need anything more than an inspired spirit, caring heart & will hands to make it so!
Right after posting the request, our computer conked out. We'd only had it for two years, so it didn't make much sense for it to turn its toes up & depart from us. Except... Not having a computer had added an unexpected depth to my life. I've done a lot of things over the past year - a workshop & three conferences, many books & articles read, TED Talks given a listen (went to two!), and a whole lot more.
This is the first posting I've written in those three months. It's also the first time I've checked the crowdfund site - not a single contribution. But we've received wonderful comments & blessings, which is what we knew we'd treasure most, what we know will be the greatest fuel powering our next steps.
I hadn't intended for our State of the Human letters to go out around Thanksgiving. The plan was to have them all done by mid-October ~ that was before the laptop went bye-bye & I was left to write everything at the library. Seriously slowed things down! But that's okay - gave me more time to ponder what to say.
Each letter has three parts - the update, thanks for having the person in our life, a link to the crowdfund request. And two cards - one to keep, the other to return.
It's been a remarkable experience, checking the site & seeing not a single contribution AND not feeling in the least bit downcast. "For peace has in it confidence in the Divine, that God leads all things to a good end." I truly believe that. I've believed it my entire life, from childhood to this here & now moment.
My life in this Thanksgiving week isn't anything like I'd expected back in September. Several hours of my day is spent at anyone of several libraries. Someone who has been pretty awful planning my day is now learning how to make each hour work for the best. Each day is a blessing, not dwelling on what went good or bad yesterday, not over thinking about tomorrow. Being HERE, NOW.
Over the past twelve months, I attended my first writing workshop lead by Nancy Slonim Aronie at the Rowe Conference Center in beautiful NE Massachusetts. My 2nd Leading to Well-Being Conference in the spring; 1st Positive Aging Conference in the summer; 3rd National Center for Creative Aging Conference - all of them reinforced my sense of being on a divinely-intended path. And I was able to underwrite all of them on my own, so my expectation is that 2017 will be graced with more of the fabulous same!
To our incredulous delight, two of the items on our crowdfund wish list are already checked off. Out of the blue - unrelated to the request - friends gave me a gift card that paid for an iPad mini. And other friends decided their Grand Marquis was too fuddy duddy for their young selves - our new "grannie ride" & 2nd (at last!) car was a remarkable buy!
Two things on our list that fell into our laps - THAT is what happens when energies get unleashed, when the Universe knows what we're looking for & can send requested goodies our way.
It's splendid looking around & seeing wondrous things tucked into every part of our lives. We have our unexpected challenges - vet bills, car challenges, house stuff - but there is also a continual sense of balance, which is something I've sought for as long as memory serves me. I am, at last, living in my now.
Each day is greeted with the intention to make the BEST use of its 24 hours. Our circle of friends is a forever blessing on our lives. We - okay, I am okay with who I am & no longer fret that I'm not more this way or that. I am me. One of the greatest things I've learned over my lifetime is the importance of being comfortable in your own skin. I guess that's what feels like my greatest calling, the use that keeps nipping at my soul to get my act together & take it on the road ~ ~ to help others, whatever they age, feel at peace with themselves, to remove obstacles so they can be their best possible version. I want people to be filled with the spirit of Auntie Mame & LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!
Trust in the Lord, be of good courage... THAT is what I want for all my clients, my friends, my family & loved ones. And that doesn't need anything more than an inspired spirit, caring heart & will hands to make it so!
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
NOLA OCHS - life at full throttle
Between TRYING to get my contacts from the Positive Aging Conference in some sort of sane order before heading back down to D.C. this weekend, printing & cutting out masks for a local elementary school creativity activity that's open to the entire school, getting ready to dive into my Cupcake Lady duties on Saturday then take off FROM THE FARM MARKET for the train to 30th Street to catch the train to Union Station, making sure everything is ready to pack, debating whether to get a BIGGER student-style backpack ~AND~ wanting to get four sets of my ValuesVisionDreams activity cards d-o-n-e by Thursday at the latest, decided it was wise to cancel a coffee & catch-up scheduled tonight with a friend I haven't seen in over a month.
So glad I did.
Among the original set of fifteen cards, three especially stand out:
Albert Lexie - turns out he's the half brother of a friend of mine!
Alex Scott - everything about Alex makes me turn to a puddle of inspired goopy love.
Nola Ochs - well, Nola is going to take more than a bullet point.
Nola, world's oldest MASTER's degree recipient!
I am using my favorite billboards for a special project. Today, I checked online to find out when Nola had passed. Much to my surprise, there was not mention of her death. But there was a link to "Nola Ochs - obit" inviting friends & loved ones to write an obituary. Turns out that she died TODAY, at 104 years old.
How she would have laughed over the description on the wikiobits site - "Nola Ochs was an Academic who was best known for something."
Putting it mildly.
I discovered Nola because she was featured on a Values.com billboard, exemplifying LIVE LIFE. And did she ever.
Maybe Nola is super dear to my heart because she was born just eighteen months after my own dear Mama - on November 22, 1911. She always loved learning & while she didn't graduate from college,she earned her teaching certificate & taught in county schools for four years, until marrying Vernon Ochs.
I am sure that Nola considered herself the quintessential Midwest success story,
living a rich, full life as a Kansas farmer's wife, raising four sons. But always at the back of her mind was a yeaning to learn more about what was out there.
When Vernon died in 1972, Nola - in what I now know to be the creatively rich 60s - decided to do something that would get her off of the farm.
In 1978, a kid of 67, she started by taking a tennis class at Dodge City Community College. She loved brushing shoulders with her younger classmates - many old enough to be her grandchildren, even great-grands - and the classes filled her up, socially emotionally intellectually. Her sense of humor & easy charm won her friends of all ages, professors students staff.
"The students on the campus accepted me. I enjoyed myself so much, that fall I enrolled in an agribusiness marketing class,” Nola said.
In 1978, a kid of 67, she started by taking a tennis class at Dodge City Community College. She loved brushing shoulders with her younger classmates - many old enough to be her grandchildren, even great-grands - and the classes filled her up, socially emotionally intellectually. Her sense of humor & easy charm won her friends of all ages, professors students staff.
"The students on the campus accepted me. I enjoyed myself so much, that fall I enrolled in an agribusiness marketing class,” Nola said.
"Really, I had no thought of ever graduating. For 10 years, I just took classes that were of interest to me, something that I would enjoy doing; mostly history and composition. And then one of the professors came to me and told me if I would take college algebra, I would have enough credit hours to graduate."
And she did! At 77, in 1988, Nola Ochs received her associate degree from the same school she took that first tennis class.
Nola was up for another goal.
“I still wanted to go to school. It was fun to go to classes. And if I had an assignment to do in the evening, that occupied my time in a pleasant way, you know.”
Dodge City Community College only offered associate degrees, but Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas...
When she applied to FHSU, she mentioned having attended back when it was called The Kansas State College. Her advisor dug through old files & actually came up with an index card indicating her student status - in 1930! She shot her an e-mail - - "Nola, how old are you?"
To begin with, Nola limited herself to long distance courses, but finally moved the 100 miles from farm to campus. Taking her degree in history, Nola was a living reference point for students & professors, winning their admiration & deep affection.
Nola Ochs graduated with a 3.7 GPA - she was 95. She graduated along side her granddaughter, Alexandria, age 21. Straight out of college, she was snapped up by the Princess Cruise Lines, who hired her as guest lecturer on a nine-day Caribbean cruise.
Nola hadn't begun to hit stride. She took time to help the family bring in the wheat crop, then started back at school in Fall 2007. In May 2010, she became the oldest person to receive a Master's degree. As she celebrated her 100th birthday, Nola continued pursuing master classes, had a job as a graduate teaching assistant & was deep into writing a book.
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Nola, with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius
Nola was an inspiration to the at-risk high school kids I taught, she will be an inspiration to all the ages who use my ValuesVisionDreams cards, she will always be an inspiration - and remarkable role model - to me & to all who hear her story.
"Nola Ochs was an Academic who was best known for something." What a hoot! She's forever known around the globe for her full-throttle life, for living every moment, for embodying for her family, friends, fellow students, professors, staff - the world! - how to LIVE LIFE.
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