Wyzga On Words

Laughter Is As Necessary As Food, Air & Water.

 

No matter  who we are or where we are; no matter our race or creed or gender; no matter our skin color or language - we all laugh the same.

We just don't do it often enough.  Maybe we forget.

The older I get I find there is plenty to laugh about.  As a former nurse I can tell you with certainty that laughter is the best medicine.

Art Linkletter thought so, too.  Time out of mind Linkletter worked in a TV station playroom asking children questions and listening for their responses.  As you'll see, what made it all work so  well was how Linkletter made the kids feel: as if someone was really listening to them.

Here are a few that might bring a smile to your face:

Kids Sat The Darnedest Things1

Kids Say The Darnedest Things2

Kids Say The Darnedest Things3

If kids are not your thing, perhaps The Laughing Buddha might be.

Or, if you prefer puppies, have I got the farm for you.  Juniper Moon Farm and Day #1 of their three-week old Maremma puppies on Day #1 eating solid food.  Kinda reminds me of growing up with 6 siblings.

TIP:     Laugh well and often.  It certainly makes folks wonder what you're up to.

Green Reduces Stress.

 

Environmental psychology researches the value of open space on humans.  Apparently, a stroll in the out-of-doors or just looking at green spaces helps reduce our stress level as well as supplying  much-needed time for exercise, solitude, contemplation, reflection, perspective, a break from the daily, noise-driven routine, and the like.

Check out GardenVisit.com to get away for a week or a moment.

And summer being the time of fresh produce plenty, visit pick-your-own places at Pick-Your-Own.org. As children and gardeners can attest, there's a special joy in getting our hands dirty.

Why Do We Walk? Who Knows What The Walk Will Bring?

Winston Churchill is credited with saying, 'If you're going through hell, keep going."

My friend, Ed, says, "When you ask for courage you are given opportunities to be brave."  Frankly, I would prefer just getting an infusion of courage, like the Cowardly Lion requested from the Wizard of Oz.

When we least expect it we come across stories of those who are given opportunities to be brave and help us find our own way out of hell.

Aspen Matis writing for the NYTimes, "A Hiker's Guide to Healing," recounts the story of her 2,650 mile Mexico to Canada trek to heal herself of a college rape - which is pretty much hell.

God forbid you have to go through any trauma in this lifetime; but when you do perhaps Matis' story of personal resilience, determination and courage will give you a True North direction out of hell.

Women Are Natural Storytellers And Listeners.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Click here for Question #6.

A Plethora Of Story Influences.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Click here for Question #5.

 

Nurses Hold the Space for Patients, Families to Tell Their Stories.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Here's the second post

"Suffering Is Not The Same As Unhappiness."

You are looking at a picture of people contemplating rocks in the Zen Garden at the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon (Ryon-ji) in Kyoto, Japan.

Storytellers look for stories in all the strange and familiar places.  For example, an update on traveling to Kyoto, Japan, might yield wisdom more inspiring than the travelogue.  That happened to me.

Pico Iyer writing for the NYTimes, "Now Is the Season for Japan," tells about Kyoto one year after the two-ton punch of an earthquake and tsunami.  I am humbled by the grief:

"The 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that hit the country on March 11, 2011, claimed almost 20,000 lives, overturned an economy that had already been foundering through 20 years of recession, and demoralized a citizenry dealing with one suicide every 17 minutes, a loss of direction, and what is now seven prime ministers in fewer than six years."

Likewise, I am humbled by a country's resilience that arises like a flower growing from a crack in a boulder.  As storyteller and community activist Loren Niemi never tired of telling me: you know you have gained some sense of the world's story when you can hold two opposing notions in your mind at one time and not go crazy.  This story shows us the way we might do so:

"In Mitsuyo Kakuta’s “Pieces,” perhaps the subtlest and most beautiful story in “March Was Made of Yarn,” an anthology of short fiction just published in memory of last year’s disasters, a woman in middle age looks back on her life after she learns that her husband had been with a young mistress at the time of the Great Tokyo Blackout.

“To acquire was not to be happy,” she had learned during Japan’s boom years, and now she sees that “loss was not the root of unhappiness.” As lights come back to her city, she reflects that the happy moments in her life cannot erase the losses she’s known; nor can those losses ever keep her from knowing happiness.

To hold those two ideas in your head as many in Japan do — to see that life means a joyful participation in a world of sorrows, and that suffering is not the same as unhappiness — is one of the singular blessings this seasoned country still has to offer."  [Emphasis added.]

Indeed, "What you have is all you need."

Why Does It Take Death To Remind Us To Live?

My dad said there would be an obituary coming in the mail.  He did not want it to take me by surprise.

Even with the heads-up, the news took a few days to sink in.

We began dating as high school sophomores, time so far out of mind it really does feel like yesterday.

There were the college years of summer dating.

Followed by the military years (me in the Navy and he in the Army) of "shore leave" dating.  I was a pediatric nurse; he was an Army Ranger who flew helicopters.  He called them "laminated cinder blocks."

As we got older there was even an extended time we lived together until he was transferred to Bermuda.  He made the East Coast his home while I stayed on The Left Coast. 

Emails, Christmas greetings and birthday wishes kept us in touch.  The last one arrived mid-February. And then I learned he passed away quietly in his sleep on February 23rd.

The obituary recounts his many contributions, achievements and exploits.  It does not really tell for what he had affection.  I can tell you two things that remain with me:

1.    Live as if your life depended on it.

2.    "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." [Ayn Rand]

I have yet to come to terms with the reality that a chapter of my life closed with his death.  Sifting through the computer file for clues about my dear friend and once long ago love I came across this Power Point he sent several years back.

In one way it's an oxymoron.  He was not a church-going fellow or one who abided by established religions.  But on this we did see eye-to-eye: God is a steadfast support and romantic with a keen sense of humor as well as being one heck of a terrific storyteller.

It was when I played this Power Point I found the tears that went missing for the man I will miss.

 "Death plucks my ear and says, 'Live! I am coming.'” [Virgil, 70-19 BC]

Planting For Future Generations.

I want to plant an orchard.  I want to feed people apples and other wholesome items that come from apple trees.  I am not a young woman.  Somedays I get discouraged that I will ever plant and till my own fields. 

When I confided my uncertainty about my orchard dreams to a wise storyteller friend, she reminded me of one of her favorite "Hodja" stories.

 Nasreddin Hodja is a cultural figure in Turkey. Depending on the story he may be a fool or a philospopher.  What we can say for sure is that each culture has a "Hodja" who is very much like us.

Here is the story she told me:

Planting an Orchard

One day Nasreddin Hodja was planting tree seedlings in a field near his house. His neighbors collected at the edge of the field to watch him work.  They laughed at his efforts.  "Hey! old man, Hodja, why bother?  You are so old you will be dead before even one of these trees bears fruit." The Hodja continued to plant. After a time he straightened his back, looked at the crowd and smiled.  "Yes, what you say may be true.  But I have eaten apples planted by others.  Now it is my time to plant.  I am planting for the next generation."  And he bent back to his work.

So often we can get caught up in making today happen.  Time goes by.  We may sacrifice dreams because they sound foolish, especially as we get older and become less able to see them all the way through to fruition.  But this story reminds me to hold fast to what is important: now is the time to plant.  Plant the dream - for the next generation.

NOTE:

You can also find versions of this story in the following resources:

Gross, Michael. The Fable of the Fig Tree. (New York, NY: Henry Z. Walck, 1975).

MacDonald, Margaret Read. Earth Care: World Folktales to Talk About (North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, 1999). 162pp. $26.50; $17.50pa. ISBN 0-208-02416-6; 0-208-02426-3pa.

Winter Is Dark For A Reason.

Winter Is the Best Time

    by David Budbill

Winter is the best time
to find out who you are.

Quiet, contemplation time,
away from the rushing world,

cold time, dark time, holed-up
pulled-in time and space

to see that inner landscape,
that place hidden and within.

"Winter Is the Best Time" by David Budbill, from While We've Still Got Feet. © Copper Canyon Press, 2005.  Other poems by Budbill.