When a handyman or contractor comes to your home to give you an estimate, your cringe if you hear them say these words,"This is so Mickey Mouse". You know they're referring to shoddy workmanship and dollar signs start floating before your eyes as they tell you the extensive corrective measures necessary.
When did the mouse become associated with sub standard materials and labor? Disney must be turning over in his grave.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Youth Rx
I find myself firmly planted in middle age, not ready yet to embrace "senior" despite the evidence of my AARP card, and pondering age and ageing. Ageing is more than the passage of time and the sagging of skin and weakening of muscle.
One benefit of the years I've lived is the development of filters. From experience and sometimes painful experience I screen and filter many more people and things than I did when I was 20. I choose whom to associate with and how to spend my time. I decide who will be invited to my hearth and heart. I even have a Christmas filter. I choose what will fill my soul during the holidays and turn away from the shoulds and the musts.
My mom lived to 93 and I wonder if I will reach or surpass that milestone. I seek to nurture curiosity. Remaining curious and questioning maintains mental flexibility and staves off ageing.
My filters protect me and my curiosity stretches me.
One benefit of the years I've lived is the development of filters. From experience and sometimes painful experience I screen and filter many more people and things than I did when I was 20. I choose whom to associate with and how to spend my time. I decide who will be invited to my hearth and heart. I even have a Christmas filter. I choose what will fill my soul during the holidays and turn away from the shoulds and the musts.
My mom lived to 93 and I wonder if I will reach or surpass that milestone. I seek to nurture curiosity. Remaining curious and questioning maintains mental flexibility and staves off ageing.
My filters protect me and my curiosity stretches me.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
We All Can
Ask a 5 yr. old to paint you a picture and he will. With enthusiasm. Fast forward a few years and ask that now 12 yr old to paint you a picture and he'll shrug you off and say he's not an artist. What has happened in the intervening years to dampen his enthusiasm and change his perception? Maybe he was given a coloring book and praised for staying in the lines. Maybe his schedule was so full with more important pursuits there was no time to doodle or draw. Maybe his artistic expressions were criticized and not encouraged.
We are all creative although we will not all be great artists. Creativity needs freedom to flourish. Fear kills it. Give yourself permission to play. Sit down with a pad of paper and a fresh box of crayons. Don't worry that you can't draw. Stop the inner critic. Embrace the 5 yr old you once were and recapture that earlier joy.
We are all creative although we will not all be great artists. Creativity needs freedom to flourish. Fear kills it. Give yourself permission to play. Sit down with a pad of paper and a fresh box of crayons. Don't worry that you can't draw. Stop the inner critic. Embrace the 5 yr old you once were and recapture that earlier joy.
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