February Blues Go Away

As we know February can be a very depressing month.  We overcome the letdown of Christmas during January but we are often faced with the Christmas bills, annual fees and so forth during January.  By February we are so depressed at paying out all our cash, we have exhausted ourselves with the financial stress so we’ve naturally ignored our health.  Struggling through February we forget to exercise, we have long since forgotten our New Year’s Resolutions that probably included eating healthy.  And worst of all we have hunkered down in the house and so have ignored our very important sunshine and Vitamin D.  Richard Simmons’ blog today is very informative, reminding us of what we already know but tend to forget during winter.

http://www.richardsimmons.com/site/daily-message?view=application

In light of recent tragedies as well as the new Health Report on Mental Health we should not only give ourselves a once over to ensure that we are in a good state of mind but we should check up on our loved ones and our friends.  It is so very easy to forget the important things in life because they are so simple.  Get out your calendar, your Outlook, your notepad and create your “Must Do List”, the one that will help you stay on track with your wellness.  Be sure to include plenty of activity and social contact so that you are stimulated.  As Richard says, Make Plans, Stay Active.

Even those of us who don’t struggle on a daily basis with depression will still have our slumps so it is very, very important to create a routine that includes activity, phone calls, getting outside.

Please, take care of yourself and your friends and family.  The next 10 days promise to be full of sunshine and hope, so get out there and enjoy!  And thank you Richard for a timely reminder.

Thinking About Thinking

Have you ever wanted to remove your head from the rest of you just so you could have respite from all the thoughts swirling around in your brain?  Sometimes the noise in your head is all humdrum anxieties related to every day life and while that is annoying or frustrating it’s not necessarily those type of thoughts that can lead to mental exhaustion.  Sometimes analyzing what happens outside of our control are the things that can make a person go crazy.  Or one can wrestle with a stream of creative thoughts that conflict with each other or are impossible yet desirable.  One can experience a complete jumble of all the different types of thoughts and then it’s time to give up and take a sleeping pill!

Fortunately most days we can regiment our thinking quite well yet this too can end up being a little bit frustrating because we can get stuck inside the box.  We can lose our creative edge or our analytical skills if we become too complacent with routine thinking.

The other day my mother brought me one of her old Familie Journalen for me to read an article relating to living to 100 in which the article mentioned a book I was somewhat familiar with, Bernie Seigel’s “Love, Medicine and Miracles” published in 1986.  I decided to Google the book and discovered a number of other books by him on his website.  The website led me to some other books by different others; what could be more appealing that “Brain Power, Improve Your Thinking”? Since I had just confessed to my sister that I had more than 4 books on the go I resisted buying any of the books but it’s good to know that there are any number of excellent books available to improve one’s thinking.

Thinking about thinking can be both amusing and exhausting but as my mother reminds me every now and again, it’s important to laugh every day and that, my friends, is a no-brainer.

Salt of the Earth

When we use the term “he’s salt of the earth” we usually mean that the person is reliable and worthy (taken in the context of Matthew 5:13) although it can also be used as “being the best and noblest elements of society which is rather different.  I am using it now in the first meaning when I say that my people were Salt of the Earth type people.

In today’s world we may easily be led into undervaluing the characteristics that makeup the best of society.  Those every day people who drive our buses, clear our streets of snow, serve our lunch at our favorite cafeteria and ourselves as we put in our 8 hour day in service “to the man”.  I love the speech in “Meet John Doe” when he describes the work-a-day people through the centuries and they were indeed the salt of the earth. 

We are getting deep into the season of Hollywood appreciating themselves and I just want to remind my readers that the real heroes in the world are the ones who keep it going day in day out.  Farmer Jones in 1650 may never be remembered even by his own kin but if he hadn’t planted his potatoes (or wheat, or barley, or dug out the coal for heat, or fished for cod in the Baltic Sea), if he and others like him hadn’t done their duty, where would society be today?

Think about your great, great grandparents when you go to sleep tonight and maybe even whisper a little thank you for what they went through to provide for their family.  If it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t be here.

Making Connections

When you go through a guided meditation you can really experience a breakthrough into yourself and your connection with the universe.  That sounds very airy fairy until you have actually had such an experience when you can get a sense of profound wisdom.

“Earth to Sanne. Earth to Sanne.”  I know that is maybe what you are thinking right now and I am into one of my flight’s of fancy but you would be wrong.  During my last 21 Day Meditation with Deepak Chopra we used the theme Belief.  By the third week I was well into making a connection with the universe and by that I mean that I was seeing past my personal experiences and just sensing space.  And then one day I felt this tremendous connection with others, not personal and not as theory but, Just There.  It sounds very odd as I say until you experience it yourself but it was very powerful and 2 months later I still think about how I felt in those moments.

Yesterday when I was writing about family I had a mental image of my readers judging me or arguing with me about how it isn’t possible to give so much time to their families.  I found myself smiling as I remembered my Connection Experience and it made me shake off that second guessing on whether I should post or not post (you’d be surprised at how many of my thoughts never get posted, believe it or not).

Why does one write?  Is it self-indulgence, wanting to be heard, making a connection, creating a story, using one’s imagination?  Perhaps a little of each but as one blogs one definitely feels they are making a connection with their readers.  Bloggers “put it out there” and for those of us who are Pollyannas at heart we just want to make folks smile, laugh, think and connect.

 Oh, and of course, we all want Peace on Earth.

Family Day A Legacy

Here in Alberta the second Monday of February is designated a statutory holiday in name of Family.  For many years Albertans did not accept the holiday for what it was meant to be, honouring ones family and staying home with them.  Instead it was just another long weekend but in recent years the various big cities like Edmonton and Calgary have put on a large number of programs on this holiday to encourage families to be with their families.  I think that’s a good thing and I for one am thankful that Premier Getty took this initiative.

In our family there has long been a discussion on whether it was possible to turn back the clock for things such as Sunday shopping and mothers staying home once the children were born.  I can remember when I was 18 years old visiting Denmark for the first time I was simply appalled that all the stores (even the one big department store) closed at noon on Saturdays and did not open again until Monday morning.  The only shop open on Sunday was the bakery because Danes must have their Sunday buns and pastry.  In the mid 1980’s Alberta allowed Sunday shopping across the board and we thought it was great.  Today however we can see the toll Sunday shopping has taken on families as well as on income spending. 

As for women staying home I find this a very slippery slope as it seems unfair to deny women their full potential in education and career if that is what they want.  But there are many women who want neither higher education nor a career but because the societal economy now runs on the theory of a dual income family it is very difficult for families to live on one income.  So everyone is stuck at least from the economic standpoint.

The best solution to having a family life is to consciously make the effort to set boundaries around one’s time such as keeping at least one day on the weekend special for family time and as many nights as reasonable but at least one night as a family night.  I think about how my parents worked things out because even though my mother was a stay at home mom we only had one car so every Saturday morning Dad would drive her to do the weekly grocery shopping.  Then we’d always have a special lunch with fresh bread, open faced sandwiches and lots of talk.  Dad was always home on the weekend and always spent time talking with us kids, playing board games and when we were younger he frequently played rough house games with us. 

Today I hope families really spend time with each other and enjoy good quality time because it’s a memory legacy your children will have forever.

Detective Work as Research

Working on genealogy is labour intensive detective work.  It’s extremely important to have your initial facts correct such as your grandparents’ names, birth dates and even birth place. 

When you are dealing with Danish names once you get beyond 1856 it can become extremely confusing.  In Denmark the use of patronymic surnames was in common use even into the 1870’s so if your great grandfather’s father was Christian Nielsen your grandfather could be named Jacob Christiansen and so on down the line of ancestors.  Therefore it’s vital to have more family detail, such as the names of the grandparents’ siblings, who they married and so forth.  If you don’t have that you are in real trouble. 

Knowing some family stories is also of great help, such as nicknames which may be tied to a location.  Other eccentric naming conventions still in use are adding the wife’s maiden to the surname (sometimes after but usually before the husband’s surname).  Worse still some assumed the wife’s name (rare, but it did happen).  And while the sons were called, for example Jensen, the daughter would be Jensdatter (i.e. daughter).

I have been very lucky in that two of my maternal cousins, once removed, were avid genealogy enthusiasts so I had a great start to my own research.  As well, I adored hearing stories of my family so I had a huge store of facts from my father’s family.  I cannot tell you how excited I was to discover my great grandmother’s true first name when I found her on a census in the Danish Archives (this was before my search in MyHeritage).  I couldn’t have been more excited if I had personally discovered King Tut’s tomb.  Confirming her name took my deep into the 18^th century and currently there are “Discoveries” into the 17^th century but I am hesitating to confirm them without more backup information.

It is a slippery slope to accept a computer program’s “research” without having your own facts and convictions to back up a find.  There’s no use in telling me that I suddenly have a match in Copenhagen when I know all my people are from Vendsyssel (Northern Jutland).  While cousin Verner got his tree all the way to Gorm den Gammle I am pretty sure I only have rough & tumble fishermen and sea captains in my line.

But I will keep an open mind of course!

Minimum Wage vs Fraser Institute

A couple of headlines caught my eye this morning but I decided to go directly to the source so I headed over to the Fraser Institute’s website.  Needless to say every article I looked at had a strong conservative bias.  I’ve long known that the Fraser Institute was no friend to labour but some of the research papers were so obviously wrong that I am surprised anyone can take the Fraser Institute seriously.

The institute appears to be adamant that 87.5% of individuals on minimum wage are between 15 and 24 years.  All evidence of my eyes to the contrary and anyone who strolls through Walmart, drives through Tim Horton’s, buys a burger at MacDonald will tell you that the majority of the workers are well over the age of 24.  Then the enlightened ones go on to break down the numbers further by saying that 26% of minimum wage earners had a working spouse as though that justifies a lousy $9.50/hour wage.   A mere 2% of minimum wage earners are single parents, according to Statistics Canada.  The percentages all sound very dubious to me but I won’t belabor my doubts.

Meanwhile the institute goes on at length to say that raising the minimum wage will create job loss rather than raise workers out of poverty.  Naturally, when the labour laws allow employers to cut hours this can happen.  Alongside of any minimum wage increases the provinces should strengthen labour laws.  As I have discussed in the past, operations that can be open 24/7 365 days a year should have a high percentage of their employees working full time (as in a 40 hour week) with full benefits [i.e., at least 50% should be full time and that is just a starting benchmark number – in reality it should probably be more like 80%].

Aside from rental or mortgage payments labour costs is the highest cost that an employer has to make in his business but society has an even bigger obligation to its citizens which is allowing each and every citizen to have a decent standard of living regardless of the type of work they do.  Citizens, not capitalism, should be our sacred cow.

Jumpstarting My Thinking

Oh dear even typing down that title has me in palpitations.  That’s correct, my thinking is causing me to be disturbed.  Alright I can hear the sarcasm from my readers, “wasn’t she always disturbed”?

All kidding aside, I have been diligently reading (and thinking) using Maxwell’s little book of suggestions “Jumpstart Your Thinking” but some of the exercises are very daunting. For instance “. . . how does changing your beliefs about the ongoing obstacle to your progress change your expectations regarding it . . .”  I am having to rack my brain to change my mindset from “work related” obstacles to something that aligns with my current life.  So I feel like I am having to do a double-wammy in thinking and naturally one wonders, should that be a problem?  After all, you want to change your thinking, or rather, improve your thinking.

These exercises are serious and remind me to some extent on how I felt about goal setting.  And yet I like the challenge even though I feel that I may be failing in the tasks.  I don’t want to take shortcuts and I have to fight against taking them because Thinking is Hard.  I used to say that scornfully when someone would whine about this or that, feeling very superior in my own ability to think.  Thinking is one thing, but changing a mindset that you have believed was superior is very hard indeed.  First of all you have to come clean with yourself in acknowledging that some of your thinking has limited you in “success”.  You have to evaluate what you mean by success, where you want to go at this stage of your life and you have to look beyond the grave. 

Beyond the grave?  What I mean is that at this time of your life you have to look at the Future as being a future and not as though you are one step away from going to the grave.  You have to look at what you want out of the next 30 or 40 years of your life as being Possible.  So in that regard, I have recognized that I have been talking the talk but I have only been partially believing that it is so.  I can, and I will, have a wonderful, fulfilling life ahead of me.

A week ago I had recommended this book having only just skimmed through some pages but today I give you fair warning, when using this book you will truly have to do some real thinking.  Thinking about thinking, analyzing past thinking and acknowledging that change is needed, can happen and is worthwhile to happen!  So my friends, go for it.  It can be profoundly life changing even for Zoomers, Boomers and Seniors!

Store Conspiracy

I like to shop.  Even if I am just “window shopping” I enjoy looking at stuff.  Believe it or not I am not a huge clothes shopper although when I am in the mood I can really enjoy myself and have a lot of fun trying on outfits.  But what I really enjoy looking at is home and garden décor.  My family has declared that I don’t need any more knick knacks but what do they know?  In any event, I like looking.

But I have a pet peeve, in fact it is beyond a pet peeve.  Why, oh why, do stores insist on putting the price sticker of a frame on the glass?  Seriously I have never yet bought a frame that didn’t have the sticker glued by Hercules onto the glass.  Every other product appears to be nicely priced on the bottom or back.  What gives with a frame?  I think there is some serious passive aggressive marketing going on there.  The guys in the back room probably do the frames last because there are so many of them and they are so fragile.  It’s the end of the day and they decide they are going to stick it to all those fussy customers and bam, the price gun goes down on the glass.  Wham, let’s give it a good firm rub while we are at it so that the customer will break her fingernails trying to tear it off.  An extra good press and she will only tear off the paper, the glue will stay there, nice and stuck.  Hahaha, won’t she have a time getting that off?  I hope she cracks the glass scrubbing it off.

What the heck did the customer do to deserve this bitterness?  I feel that I am going to have to write a letter to the President of Homesense to give their stock boys sensitivity training.  This is just not right.

 

 

A Barbie Fan Speaks Out

I will freely confess that I am a Barbie fan; I stayed in the closet for a long time but I played Barbies well into my teens and even after that I still made all kinds of Barbie clothes, mostly “olden day” gowns and hats.  I even made bloomers and lavish petticoats.  I made doll houses for Barbie and created all kinds of stories for her while playing with my little sister.  We made one doll house at the bottom of Mom’s linen closet and amazingly my mother let us keep it there for weeks on end.

This week Mattel revealed a new series of Barbies that included petite, tall and ‘curvy’ as well as various skin tones and ethnic looks.  There is a lot of discussion around this new creation but some of it seems a bit of bosh to me.  First of all the skin tones and ethnic looks are not new, they have been around for quite a while and does anyone remember Barbie’s original best friend Midge who had a very different face, a pug nose and freckles? 

The real talk is about Barbie’s unrealistic figure which of course has been talked about a great deal of the years but from the first time I saw Barbie I fell in love.  I liked a “grown up” doll much better than the baby dolls which I abandoned immediately when I got my first Barbie (which was actually the doll Mitzi – Barbie’s original rival).  I loved to be able to dress her in different fashions and back in the early 60’s Mattel brought out really great quality costumes complete with hat, gloves and shoes to coordinate with the outfit.  In those days the outfits were beautifully tailored unlike the cheap clothes that is put out today.

The discussion I heard on the news this week claimed that Barbie was basically a fashion doll and not in keeping with real life.  I thought “what kind of talk is that”?  Of course, girls love to dress up the doll in different costumes but if a girl has any imagination she is going to make a story out of the costume.  Today Barbie is wearing her stewardess outfit and she is flying off to Hawaii.  Once there she will meet Ken and they will have a holiday on the beach where, of course, they will find a body of GI Joe.  Barbie luckily has brought her camera and immediately takes pictures of the crime scene.  As luck would have it, she brought along her notebook, etc. 

Any girl with the real stuff knows how to play up with Barbie or any other toy.  Her imagination is only limited by whatever is put in her brain by negative talk and curbing adult ideas. 

The difference with the 1960’s and 2016 has a lot to do with the programming on television.  Today children appear to be taught by the example of what is thrown at them on television; vampires, crime and sex seem to be the fodder on television and even in young adult books.  In the 60’s we watched westerns, detective shows and family shows.  Even by the mid 60’s there were female detectives like Honey West, Emma Peel and April Dancer (the girl from UNCLE).  Enlightened parents taught their daughters that they could go to university and aspire to any professional open to men.  Today, what is being taught?  I’d like to know where the problem lies.  But don’t blame Barbie, please.