Living to 100

I'm reading the latest book by John Robbins (same guy who wrote Diet for a New America). I just started it and I'm anxious to see what I have to do to live to 100...oh by the way the title of his new book is "Healthy at 100: How you can --at any age--dramatically increase your life span and your health span". The first 2 chapters talk about people who live in mountainous regions and live to be 100 or close to it but live vigorously into old age. Hiking and dancing and just loving life. It made me what to go live among the goats. They also treat their elders with respect. The older you are the more respect you get. In fact older people often inflate their age due to this fact. So heres a new idea for retirement. Instead of moving to Florida or Palm Springs, move to Abkhasia in the Caucacus and then you can be assured of the good life...just don't plan on any golf games or sitting watching the tube...you'll be out their working and tending the goats for sure.

Stock Market Woes

OK...so my friend Ralph who is a financial planner warned me about 2 months ago that the stock market was going to tank. Did I listen? Of course not. I had been looking at my porfolio anyway since I moved some of my 403Bs over to one Fidelity plan instead of having them in 3 different places. I even talked to my fidelity person and my brother and was going to move a good chunk into a money market since I'm 75% in the stock market. Did I do it? No! What an idiot! Now yesterday I talked to my father and he said not to do anything. Nothing. Shum Davar! "You not retiring for many years!" Although this is true...the last time the stock market tanked it took several years to get back to where we were and my friend Ralph said that I may never get back there. Oy! What's a girl to do...I guess I should listen to my friends and gut next time. So often in life we know we should do something "now" and we don't. We know we should make a change, but we sit on it. Similar to my career woes, where I knew that a change was needed but instead I did the safe thing and took a job. Most people would say that was the prudent thing to do. Perhaps it was. I know that if I hadn't and with the stock market taking a tumble I'd be dealing with a father that would be freaking out because I wasn't working. Sometimes you just have to go for the safe thing and save the scarier things for later. Maybe I'll go bungee jumping.

Getting Along with Co-Workers

One of the biggest areas of job dissatisfaction is the inability to get along with co-workers. Often this stems from our own insecurity and jockeying for position. How people treat each other in the workplace also has a lot to do with the organizational culture. If you work in a place where the boss doesn't treat people well or where the boss is insecure and lets people do and say whatever they want, then very likely this will trickle down to his/her employees. A lack of trust develops between people, factions develop, etc, etc. I've recently experienced both situations. Can you do anything about a work situation in which the boss treats others poorly or is a poor manager? Well you can certainly look elsewhere for work, which is probably the best recommendation because no workplace can operate effectively with a boss like this for very long. But you can also get to know your co-workers and treat them with the utmost respect, avoid gossiping, and keep your nose to the grindstone so to speak. I for one decided that leaving was the only was that I could do it...I don't have a very thick skin. In my new job I've been put in a situation where I got a job over the person I'm working the closest with and she has had to orient me. I've been honest, straightforward, and where there were areas of work that were unclear I've suggested going to the boss together to clear things up. I think this has worked well. Of course this being said, I've only been in the position for 2 weeks. We'll see how this all plays itself out in the weeks to come.

Regaining Our Connection with Nature

Although I decided to go to a teaching tonight instead of choir, it was great because the first thing we learned was that Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (he was a hassidic rabbi that was totally into the environment) said that each living thing has it's own song. The rabbi gave the example of a turtle that travels thousands of miles to it's destination. How does it know where it's going? The idea is that in nature animals know their own song, it's only people that have to discover it. I thought this was a profound idea. And, if you look at native cultures who live much closer to nature they we do they are much more tuned in to the earths rhythms and songs.....Aborigines...songlines...Native Americans....and the Bushman....who hearing tapping and can go across the desert by following some inate message. I highly recommend 2 books if you care to learn more about Bushman. A Story Like the Wind and A Far Off Place.....by the same author.

Chemical Sensitivities and Fragrance

For those of us in the world who wake up each day not knowing how we'll feel, life can be challenging. I long for the day when I can consistently wake up refreshed and charged up knowing that my head will be unfuzzy and my remarks will be brilliant because I have the energy to recall that joke from long ago. I also long for the day that I'll get out of bed and won't feel dizzy and can actually say "yes" to a hike in the Cascades.

Because I'm now working with a woman who wears perfume, I've noticed that I'm have more brain fuzz than usual. I got up the guts to tell her how it's been affecting me and luckily she agreed to stop wearing it. Of course who knows how long it will take for her clothes to stop smelling from it.

As a result of this assault on my senses, I really am beginning to believe that my head fuzz and dizziness is a result of being around small amounts of perfume each day. I know even I could be better about using products with no fragrance at all even though for the most part, everything I have is fragrance free.

Some day like smoking, fragrance will be illegal in the workplace. Luckily I work for a hospital so there is a fragrance free policy. I just think it will take a few more canaries in the mine for this to be a no brainer for business.

Neighborhood Shops are Disappearing

About 6 months ago an entire city block near my house was demolished. That block held some longstanding businesses including a Karate place, a bar, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant, and some other small businesses. What has come in it's place are a drug store (not so bad) but also the Money Tree, T-mobile, and Kinko's FedEx. Small businesses just can't afford to pay the price for new construction. And it's a damn shame too. It takes away the small town feel of our neighborhoods and doesn't allow us to connect with the merchants we've come to know and love. Who wants their neighborhood to become a strip mall. Yuck! A friend of mine who owns a bookstore in Seattle and had to close down her bookstore in Bellevue because the building was being razed and she couldn't find anywhere in Bellevue with rent that she could afford. I'm not sure what the answer is but maybe it's our city planners and laws about how areas are zoned. I'm guessing there is not much one can do if the owner of an old set of building wants to sell out for the money. If anyone has an answer to this problem I would love to know about it. Somehow certain neighborhoods like Greenwood have maintained that wonderful small town and individual proprietor ability. I wish the same were true for Lake City.

A News Years Wish

Trying to find inspiration for a New Years wish is not easy. Where does one go for that those illusive words that will give people hope when war we are still at war, when friends are getting divorced, when you are starting a job that is just a placeholder for what you really want to do in life, and there is so much uncertainty. I think that the writings of Pema Chodron is always a good place to go for inspiration. Pema Chodron reminds us that the ground is always shaky. We are constantly searching for the firm, stable place that in reality does not exist. Things are constantly changing. I don't know who said it, but the only thing that is constant is change.

In my women's group we alway talk about living in the moment. This makes the most sense of all when you really think about it. We can make all the News Year Resolutions we want, but likely we will go off that diet, stop exercising, stop meditating, and just plain not doing what we set out to do because life is always throwing us a curve ball. And we just get too dang busy.

So for this New Year try to love the life you have, plan for the future but don't expect it to turn out as you expect, be joyful whenever you can, and relish the happy surprises that come your way.

Happy New Year to all!