Family, Our Beloved Journey And Is It An Obstacle Or An Adventure

Write down these two words on a sheet of paper or type them on the computer screen.

Obstacle, Adventure

When you encounter stresses do the following. Think, is that stressing an obstacle in my life or an adventure to learn from. Adventure is a process from where you learn something even from an obstacle.

The physician’s assistant I see in my internist doctor office happens to be a certified counselor and he told me that phrase and he uses it sometimes for his patients. I thought it a marvelous saying, actually a wonderful phrase to be utilized by all of us. His name is Dennis H. Myers of Baltimore, Maryland. A finer medical person like Dennis, will be hard to find.

I am a born worrier, my husband says I worry even more than my mom and she was a great worrier. I feel that sometimes we should worry about things because if we do that, it means in my mind, that we think things out before they happen or will happen.

If we do that, then perhaps we can reason out the outcome and possibly change the result to a better solution. I fell on Friday, July 2nd.2010 going down a curb in front of the hair salon I frequent on Friday afternoons. I stepped down between two parked cars..

Now, I am not implying that this obstacle was an adventure in the making, but it certainly was a huge and ugly obstacle. I decided right then and there in the midst of a sunny July afternoon that this would be an adventure of sorts, probably bad sorts, but I had to start it, by helping my aching knees and lifting myself, so the two men could get me up. I did and they did and the rest is an aching and sore adventure.

I went to the doctor’s office where the dear physician’s assistant checked me out and told me to ice the tussy (rear end) area for twenty-four hours, then heat on it, take Tylenol, heat on my knees and etc. etc. It was a holiday weekend, so I could not go for x-rays until four days later because I have an aversion to emergency rooms in hospital. So on Tuesday, I went for x-rays of the right knee and hip and pelvis x-rays too. Everything was ok and I was black and blue on the tussy and even nine days later, it was a palette of dark navy blues. Blue is my favorite color, those blues were not favored.

This obstacle-adventure was a rough one, full of pain, hard to sit and an aching knee. I wound up taking seventeen x-rays which pushes into my body much radiation but the doctors had to know of injuries. So in the long run at this senior age, I guess all this radiation will not matter. What did matter then is that I recovered after many weeks back in 2010.

However, I did not mention why I fell. I always try to walk off a curb by going to the slanted or slope part of most curbs and even if I have to walk a tiny bit further, it is well worth not falling like I did. My dear husband said "you can walk between the cars, I will hold my arm out for your hand and you go down the curb, so do it." I, knowing better what I can accomplish at this senior age, should have held my ground(no pun intended) walked a few seconds longer down the slant/slope and everything would have been fine. I decided to listen to him (that will be the last time forever) especially when I know at this senior age, what I cannot or can do. I should not have given in and done what he wanted. I should have had enough sense to know what my body can do or not do.

When there is an obstacle and we see no adventure side by side with it, then we should follow our intelligence, mind and thoughts and do what we want, not what somebody, even your husband, child, friend or even a co-worker wants you to do and that being what they want. Go ahead and be brave and take the obstacle that looms before you and let something else lead you to a real adventure that is full of hope, health and happiness.

Obstacles can be what they are-obstacles. We can keep them in their category and instead take a tiny adventure-walk, an extra few feet to the slant/slope sidewalk and not be the recipient of many weeks of pain.

It is not worth it especially to please someone else. When you or I know what we can accomplish, then we are wise persons to accept what is reality for us and what we can do or not do at this age.

We will live longer for it, take fewer antibiotics and keep our mind and body active. Knowing that any obstacle overcome can be an adventure (in my case a hurting adventure). All adventures will not always be great happenings, but they can be a learning experience as I have had. Mine is that I do not need to please everyone all the time at this senior age. I am old enough and wise enough to know what my body or mind can accomplish. Just because I choose to walk a slope/slant than go down on a curb because someone wants me to, does not make me a bad person. In fact, it shows that I have courage to do what I want, where I want and when I want. Then a good adventure evolves and in this case, a much happier person, because I did not fall.l   took precautions.

Do not let obstacles whether in the mind, thoughts or in reality in front of you like a curb you could not handle get in your way of having adventures. Adventures can be only simple things like going to a library and taking out a new novel. It can be signing up for group dance sessions; it can be signing up for private dance lessons. It can be an adventure of anything you want to be a journey, a voyage, a trip.

When we go every third Sunday to Northern Virginia to see our son, daughter-in-law and the two younger grandchildren Ethan and Ava that is our supreme adventure driving over eighty miles one way in lots of traffic. Traffic may be an obstacle at times, but the adventure is getting there and seeing all of them. That makes the driving obstacle turn into a grand mission. I have been in my younger years to Spain, Portugal, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Hawaii, Venezuela and lots of our country. When we visit Northern Virginia, those places never hit the high mark of seeing your son, daughter-in-law and the two children. This visit supersedes all of my travels, because family is our beloved journey.

My daughter-in-law Lan heard Ethan age six ask me on the phone the other night “Grammie, how was your day and what did you eat for lunch?” That is my journey now in my life to speak with my grandchildren, to visit them, to buy them electronic games and discs and to love them so much, they will never forget it.This is my quest in my now senior years.

This is the adventure I seek every third Sunday to see them and on the other Sundays, it is to go to a ballroom Sunday tea dance at our studio The Promenade. My aching knees will be an obstacle for me to dance easily but the adventure will be trying to do it and succeeding and as Ethan said how my day was; my day will be pain free, hindrance free and a blessing of my being at the dance hall.

Do not let any obstacles deter you from any adventure that may result whether it is ballroom dancing, visiting someone or anything you want that is worthwhile in your senior life. Let the obstacle become the adventure you seek because surely you will be the winner and life will be sweeter.

Dad always said tomorrow will be better, that was not always true, but he truly believed it and taught us kids to believe in that saying. He was the most optimistic person I have ever come across and even though he did not have many material things (by today’s standards), he thought it was true.

A young lady I met named Erica told me her three year old son gave her a verbal list of all the toys, electronics and books he wanted for this Christmas 2011. In my day, I would get a doll, a book and some quarters in a little pouch with a drawstring to hold them. I thought myself quite rich and happy with those small gifts. This is what mom and dad could afford and all the friends and neighbors living in the neighborhood received the same things. The boys would get a bike if their parents were better to do than us. The girls all received dolls, doll clothing for them, books that we could keep and not return to the library and some pretty new clothing. I felt quite on top of the world simply owning a book that I could write my name in to show possession.

The children now days are more sophisticated because they watch television and see all the special toys advertised right in front of their eyes. They know Mommie, Daddy and various grandparents will buy them these objects of their vision. I do that as a grandparent. I tell my daughter-in-law to buy them what they want or she thinks will be fun and educational for them and then I pay her. She keeps them in her house and when we visit, I bring up two toys, one each and they close their eyes in excited anticipation for what Grammie and Grandpa brought them. This does not make them wanting too much, it lets them know that Grammie and Grandpa love them up to the sky and always bring them something. When I was small, my grandparents were gone; I never knew any of them. My dad’s two sisters without their own kids (I wrote about this in an earlier article called Sarah and Jenny) were very poor. They adored me and whenever I came, they put a few pennies, probably ten of them in a satin pouch they had hand sewn and pulled the little cord and looked with awe at my excitement to receive ten pennies. In those days, two pennies could buy candy, new sharpened pencils, and a few more pennies, a coloring book. Again, I felt so empowered with richness, I was so happy

Take your journey without obstacles and you will be extremely happy at your success. Tomorrow will be a better day, but today is pretty wonderful too.