Category Archives: children

Character Analysis

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“Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It’s not hard. Character is doing whats right, when nobody is looking” ~Unknown

Yesterday’s blog Gardens Heaven Scent made me think back to a time some years ago when I would hold annual perennial plant swaps in my gardens in Vermont. I’d get out my best china and linen, make fancy finger foods and entertain with a beautiful garden party. I’d invite the gals over to nosh. Some would come dressed in their durable gardening clothes, and others would arrive in their floppy garden hats and finery, appropriate for a high-noon English tea.

What fun we used to have!  Ironically, many of the attendees were book enthusiasts, too. Sharing opinions and thoughts of “characters in the garden” came easily and it was all part of the fulfilling day. We’d discuss:

  • What the reaction of others was to the overall scene.
  • Which personalities had conflicts with their neighbors
  • How figures underwent change through seasons.
  • Which characters ran around spreading their seeds
  • Star performers vs. minor role players.
  • Which cast of characters maintained their uprightness no matter what
  • Weaknesses and strengths in bit players.
  • What elements contributed to the fate of individual players
  • Villains vs. heroes

Gardeners never run out of things to talk about. Swapping talk of the trade is as fulfilling as the act of gardening itself.

As I write this blog, I am about to head off to discuss another of my passions –  growing the garden of independent publishing. Our meet-up group She Writes Steamboat is helping others who want to grow books . We are having a garden party of sorts. Before I go, I’ll leave you with some food for thought. http://bit.ly/oIkV2g

She Writes Home

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“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” ~ Anthony Robbins

 

The other day, I began to think about the consequences of the digital world with regard to personal communication. I think back to my college days of long ago – leaving my family and my high school friends behind. Long distance calling was not cheap, nor was it a daily or weekly occurrence, so I wrote a prodigious amount of handwritten letters to my friends and family, all about the fulfilling life I had rebuilt for myself  some 500 miles from home in the Green Mountains of Vermont. 

Sometimes I tried to be creative. I’d send my family and friends a token from Vermont. A pressed, dried wildflower or single frond of fern, tucked flatly in the envelope. I often walked to the college grounds, through the woods, from my off campus housing. I was always on the look-out for large treasured pieces of peeled birch bark to be used as an alternate source of stationary. Sustainability was not the buzz word back then, but, I did realize on some level that I was recycling and re-using a natural resource. 

Sending handwritten letters on beautiful stationary, envelopes sealed with stamped wax, have nearly gone by the wayside. Now with instantaneous digital communication, people reserve handwritten notes and cards for special occasions – Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Birthdays and Anniversaries. E-Cards have reduced the need for “Belated” cards because you can deliver electronic cards, PDQ! 

It has been a while since I have sent a heartfelt letter through the mail home. Next time I do, I’d like to enclose a sprig of prairie grass, sagebrush, New Mexico privet or maybe a small branch of Apache plume, will do. But I am reminded by the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins: 

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

On second thought, I think I’ll just send an e-card, that way I can design the page with any flower or plant that I want. http://bit.ly/q89tj7.

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Finding Community

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“If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?” ~ Jiminy Cricket

Finding fulfillment in our lives has varied meanings for different people. City life is an ideal existence for large populations of people but for some, urban living would be enough to make a person go crazy and drink…literally, in every watering hole across town. Others enjoy living in tiny little hamlets, such as the town we mentioned yesterday, Moscow, Vermont. Adaptability to environment is far easier for some than others. Creating a satisfying life for oneself in any environment means embracing where you are and becoming involved in the lifestyle and opportunities that the area has to offer. 

There is a book, hot off the press that speaks to this issue of finding personal fulfillment in the places where we live. Mary B. Kurtz’s book, At Home in the Elk River Valley: Reflections of Family, Place and the West is a personal story about living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, an interesting mix of resort and ranching community. http://bit.ly/iDBj3N. 

Mary’s book addresses the topic of living in places by choice and by chance as well as her children’s struggle as teens and as young adults to find their own identities in the world after having grown up in a community of such diversity. The book also touches upon another subject that young people and even adults are concerned with in this day and age – the necessity of sometimes having to leave the borders of one’s own native state in order to find viable work. 

Through this book, readers may discover something about themselves and their own communities. It is a book about values, balance and perspective in life. Mary’s insight into the ranching lifestyle and how communities change has relevancy to the lives of each and every one of us, no matter where we live. 

For more information on this easy to read, poetic memoir, please visit http://bit.ly/ji9KtU

or http://bit.ly/msK6Ez.

Wings and Roots

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“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. “ ~  Denis Waitley

 

 

Last week’s blog entitled “A String of Summer Memories” elicited a response from one of our most loyal readers, Marie. She voiced her concern about the over-scheduled lives of children in this day and age and the effects it has on children’s ability to know how to entertain themselves and to discover and create themselves. I would concur.

Marie’s remark about creative play led me to remember a scene that I witnessed in a parade years ago, in the tiny hamlet of Moscow, Vermont on the 4th of July.

My happy memory involves not a group of children creatively playing, but a group of over-the-hill women who truly understood the concept of finding their own fun. Dubbed the Women’s Lawn Chair Marching Drill Team, they joined in the parade toting their lawn chairs, in celebration of Independence Day. Just as their own self-created, wild and crazy fun got a little out of hand, they’d tire and stop with precision, perform some drill team exercises, and take to their seats. Their movements were orchestrated by the live audio-broadcast of radio station WDEV. It was a fun spectacle to watch, and it made me remember how important and fulfilling it is for aging people  to have fun, too ! 

For more information on Vermont’s shortest 4th of July parade, please visit http://bit.ly/iKGIUF.  Moscow, Vermont, with a “downtown” of  less than a city block,  located in the heart of the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, has grown in population more than 14% since 2000, please visit http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/vermont/moscow/05662.

 I send my Best Wishes to All of you on this 4th of July. I am proud to live in a country that was born out of the independent spirit. Right now, it is ever more important to keep that kind of energy and attitude alive! It begins with me and it begins with you!

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Transient Society is Rich with Stories

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“All things are subject to change, and we change with them.” ~ Anonymous 

With each passing decade, we have become a more transient society.  People are much more willing to go where work takes them and staying settled in the town where one was born has become less common. College grads seeking work, realize that finding work often depends upon looking outside the boundaries of their native state. Michigan is just one state grappling with this issue. http://bit.ly/iXIuQS. 

 If you take a look at person’s Facebook page, you can often see their birthplace and along with their current state of residence,  begging the questions –Why did they move? How did they get there? What opportunities led them to their new place of residence? Is their life fulfilling in their new “home?” 

Because we have become a transient society, it is ever more important to write our family histories and leave “love letters for future generations.”  Independent publishing has provided a way for ordinary people to share stories that are meaningful to their families and to others. People who are considering independent publishing often make the mistake of thinking only their family and friends will be interested in their publication. Not so, the world-wide web allows us to connect with individuals who have walked the same walk, shared the same interests throughout time and in place, and are looking for connection through hobbies, life experiences, occupations and through relationships in the six degrees of separation in a very transient world. 

Next week, on All Things Fulfilling, we will be sharing a book that is hot off the press. It addresses an issue of concern that many families share in this day and age – finding a way so the next generation can continue to live in the same environs that they were raised in, and still be able to make a viable living and a fulfilling life. Travel with us next week as we review a book about family, place and the West. 

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At the Center of Our Worlds

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“Other things may change us, but we begin and end with family.” ~ Anthony Brandt 

Holidays and the steamy, humid days of summer they are the most memorable and fulfilling times of my childhood days. Looking back on the almost 650 blog writings that have been posted on All Things Fulfilling, I find that nostalgic thoughts have crept into my blog writing during those times of year. 

My summer memories would not be complete without the thoughts of my Grandparents, living in the “ summer sauna,” created by nature, of Baltimore City. My parents, my sister, brothers and I lived in the somewhat cooler suburbs, and when things began to heat up too much, my Grandparents would take a “drive to the country” and come to our house, as a reprieve from the summer heat. 

Summer just wasn’t summer without:

  • Watching my Grandfather record the score of the Orioles baseball games on the blank edges of the morning’s Baltimore Sun newspaper. http://bsun.md/miSBsG.  He wanted to make sure there were no errors made on the scoreboard at Memorial Stadium or at any other ballpark in the country!
  •  Rocking  in the chairs on my Grandparents front porch. My Grandmother gave all the passers-by a loud  “Hi, Hon” greeting. 
  • Walking through my Grandmothers impressive, citified gardens as she recited the names of the flowers in bloom, one by one.                 
  • Rushing to the crystal candy dish sitting on my Grandmother’s dining room buffet. We knew it had just been filled, in anticipation of our coming. We found hard candies, spearmint leaf “jellies” and nonpareils, too.
  • Peach-cake that my Grandmother had baked. Like no other!
  • Seeing our Grandfather walk out the door with his bow-tie neatly placed under his chin, dress hat atop his bald head and wearing  his fine leather dress shoes that just been polished, buffed and shined in preparation for a new day. He was dressed like that everyday to build custom homes. And we never even blinked!
  • Hearing our Grandmother announce invariably “Hon, I am going to go upstairs and throw myself across the bed” as the stifling afternoon heat and humidity made her succumb to her  “sinking spells.”
  • Seeing the sweat drip, drip, drip from the kitchen tap on the white kitchen drainboard sink. 

My brothers and sister and I find it hard to believe how many years our Grandparents have been gone from our lives. They were so much a part of our lives and, we, of theirs. My son and his seven cousins will have the same kind of fond memories of their loving Grandparents, only during a different time and in a different place.

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A String of Summer Memories

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“Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.” ~Author Unknown 

Yesterday’s blog writing about summertime in Steamboat Springs, Colorado set-off a string of magical childhood memories of growing up in ‘burbs of Baltimore in the 1950s and 60s. When I return to that time and place in my mind,  it is so fulfilling that I enjoy remaining stuck there; not rushing back into present day life. 

Our neighborhood was outside Baltimore City limits, developed as part of the post WWII surburban boom. The community was filled with children to play with. In our family, as was the case in most others, kids were shooed out the door to play and not allowed to spend much of the day in front of the TV. Had we spent the amount of time in front of screens as kids do in this digital age, it would have given our mother apoplexy. Instead of being inside, our summer days were filled with: 

  • Spontaneous BBQs and games of softball with neighborhood families.
  • Running through the neighborhood playing flashlight and catching fireflies (lightning bugs as we called them).
  • Basking in the sun until our skin turned a lovely shade of toast.
  • Playing in the stream that bordered our family’s multi-acre wooded property.
  • Gathering green moss and piecing it together to make moss mattresses, in the woods, resembling patchwork quilts.
  • Doing swan dives, cannonballs and back-ward flips off the diving board in our family pool.
  • Listening to hits of the 1960s on my treasured transistor radio. It came complete with a wrist strap.
  • SummertimeVacation Bible School at the church my Dad built. http://bit.ly/jA0Cpp.  
  • Selling colorful tissue paper flowers, we had made, outside the neighborhood store
  • Taking a drawing class at the YMCA (I was no better at drawing than playing the clarinet). Some things are just not meant to be! 

Childhood times may be gone, but they need not be forgotten! Have you ever considered independently publishing your life story as a “love letter to future generations?”   Begin telling your life’s tale today! Don’t know where to start? There are companies that can help you along the way.  http://www.telling-your-story.com/seminars.htm

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Hot Dog! It’s Summertime!

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“Every man’s ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.”   ~John Abbott

Hot Diggity Dog! Summer has finally, finally, finally arrived. What took it so long to come to this mountain resort town? God only knows! But – I think the delay was intentional so we would find summertime all the more fulfilling. 

The thing I look forward to is volunteering my time ushering at Strings in the Mountains Music Festival. The art and culture scene is active and alive all summer long in this small town community. Big name entertainment arrives in this region of Northwest Colorado, after the snow is only visible on the highest peaks. Grammy award-winning artists appear on the Strings in the Mountains stage each summer. Wynton Marsalis and Shawn Colvin are just a few artists that are set to appear this year. There is an impressive mix of both classical and different tempo music series along with fun and interactive concerts for the kids, too.  The ever popular Alpin Hong will delight children again this summer. To view the full schedule of events for the summer of 2011, please visit www.stringsmusicfestival.com. 

The Strings in the Mountains Pavilion plays host to a group of intellectually stimulating lectures as well. In this ninth season of Seminars in Steamboat http://bit.ly/lksBM7  the line-up includes:

  • Zalmay Khalilzad who will give an “Insiders View” on Afghanistan and Iraq.
  • David Walker, the founder of Comeback America Initiative
  • Robin Wright, author and senior fellow on “The Conundrum of Iraq.”
  • Pulitzer-prize winner Seymour Hersch. He will discuss whether or not Obama’s strategies are working forAmerica.
  • Tamar Jacoby will be offering a “Fresh Perspective on Immigration.” 

For the calendar of this lecture series, please visit http://bit.ly/muMPVq. Also, keep your eye on Rocky Mountain PBS. www.rockymountainpbs.org.  One of these outstanding lectures will be broadcast, at a later date, on the show “Colorado State of Mind.” 

If you have never visited this beautiful mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, summertime, in my opinion, is the very best time to do it. The town is just as vibrant with activities in the summer as it is during the snowy, winter months.

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A Glimpse into the Colorado Film Industry

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“Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.”  ~ Robert L. Peters 

On this Film Friday, let’s look in on the independent film industry in Colorado, once again. It has been about a year since we have visited the filmmaking scene in the State “where the columbines grow.” 

Did you know that there has been a newly formed Colorado Creative Industries Division? The Colorado Council on the Arts and the Art in Public Places programs merged, last July, to form this new division, which is overseen by the Office of Economic Development and International Trade. http://1.usa.gov/jauOKx. 

The mission of this division is to promote and expand an industry that already creates over 54,000 jobs and $20 billion in revenue in Colorado as a result of making feature films, television commercials and shows, still photography, emerging mass media projects and music videos. The Colorado Creative Industries Division hopes to position the State as a leader in providing jobs and revenue through creative enterprises and entrepreneurs. There are incentives available to entice imaginative and innovative filmmakers to the State. For more information on the application process, and funding for film projects here in the State of Colorado, please visit http://www.coloradofilm.org/incentives.html. 

Perhaps  an independent filmmaker here in Colorado should produce a full length, feature film interpreting author Daniel H. Pink’s vision of a world ruled by right brained thinkers. It would make for interesting viewing and a fascinating case study to look back at the film fifty years from now to see if the world is anything like what Pink envisioned. 

What is your opinion of what a right thinking world would be like? Would it be a world filled with free spirits and dreamers not getting much done or can creative spirit set us on a new path toward a fulfilling, vibrant, unique economy in the 21st century? We would like to hear from you!

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Narratives in Medical Curriculum

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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou 

Writing medical histories through the narrative form is currently being incorporated into curriculums in medical schools in many parts of the country. Medical students are learning how to better assess medical conditions through more intensive listening to the patient, and recording what they hear into narrative forms. The goal is to make healthcare decisions for the patient based not only on statistics and tests but by also “reading” a patient’s unique personal story of how they are feeling and their own symptoms. 

Why is the addition of the narrative form being incorporated into the way medical schools have traditionally taught students to diagnose illness? Empathy for the patient has been missing in this age of highly developed technical medical testing. Listening to a patient’s story leads to a better understanding of the whole picture of a person’s medical situation. A person’s emotions and spirit about the way they are feeling is part of the overall report, too. 

Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, http://www.danpink.com/whole-new-mind explains how our society is on the brink of a whole new age of thinking. We have gone from an agricultural age (farmers) through the factory age (industrial), to the information age (business based on knowledge workers) to the emergence of right thinking business people, who are creators and empathizers. Surprisingly, we are moving into an age where more Americans are beginning to work in fields such as arts, entertainment and design than those working left brain fields (accountants, lawyers, insurance adjustors). In order to be accomplished in these growing fields of work, right brained thinking skills must be used and developed. 

Prosperity and abundance has brought a whole new need for fulfilling emotional, aesthetic and spiritual needs. Jobs in the “caring professions” counseling, nursing, healing are surging, too.  They are not jobs that can be decimated by workers overseas who can work faster and cheaper.

To read more about this movement toward the new conceptual age and right brain thinking that Pink claims will change the world, pick up A Whole New Mind.  Many libraries have it and it is a Business Week best selling book. It’s a fascinating read.

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