What are you doing to challenge yourself?

Tags

challenge, growth

Remember when you didn’t need a purse or wallet, when you ran everywhere, laughed at everything, and only worried about making it to dinner on time?  Remember when taking on a dare gave you courage and you spent more time on friendships because you had more time?

Some challenges are physical…

When songs and stories take us back in time with an eye toward recalling important lessons, I believe we can find the wisdom and confidence we need to face the fears of growing up, taking risks, and growing old.

Some challenges are more personal…. like getting her email address.

In preparation for a radio interview I gave last month, I was asked to list some of the lessons in Memory Lake.  Of course, I’d prefer readers discover them on their own because they are woven into the novel, but that would not make ‘good radio’.  So, to meet that challenge, I compiled the six main lessons of Memory Lake:

1)      We are only as good as the company we keep.

2)      A forever friend is a friend made, and kept, without pretense.

3)      Jealousy springs from a limited sense of blessings and a belief there is not enough good to go around.

4)      We all have been blessed with hidden talents and our task in life is to find them.

5)      Growth happens when we challenge ourselves.  If we only put ourselves in safe situations, we do not grow.

6)      It is important to continually challenge ourselves and to find something of value from every mistake.

Number 6 is the reason I get up in the morning and do what I do.   So, what are you doing today to challenge yourself?

 

A Memory of Mom on Mothers Day

Tags

Bazooka, bubble gum, Memory Lake, Mothers Day, Tribute

My earliest memory of Mom is tied to laughter. It was 1961, I was two, we lived in a new house, in a new neighborhood, and a new young president ran the country.  Mom sat on the herringbone sofa, propped her loafers on the low blond coffee table, and placed two hard squares of Bazooka bubblegum in her mouth.

Mom posing for a rare photo without her glasses…

She rarely relaxed, so my older sister  and I immediately gathered beside her. Her first few bubbles grew to the size of quarters, popped quickly, and only stuck briefly to her lips. Now we had the idea and smiled as the next one popped near her nose. She slowly and methodically peeled the gum away and returned it to her mouth. She chewed with her lips together and maneuvered her hidden tongue to attain the gum’s proper shape. We fiendishly anticipated the pink bubble’s tiny emergence from her bright red lipstick mouth. We barely breathed as it grew. We began to giggle as it increasingly thinned. We screamed when it popped.  

She did it over and over again, at our insistence.  Each bubble grew larger than the last and each grew dangerously close to her black horn-rimmed glasses. We wondered if she would dare allow the pink, sticky gum to touch the glasses she always wore, so desperately needed, and never allowed us to touch.  When a bubble grew bigger than her head, we knew this would be the one.

Mom and her glasses…

When it popped, it plastered a pink mass of stickiness over her cheeks, forehead, and the glasses.  She barely cracked a smile.  I curled into a ball next to her and hugged my stomach because I was giggling so hard my sides hurt.  I alternately laughed then returned my disbelieving eyes to her mess.  She just sat there covered in pink goo. After a while, she simply peeled the strings of gum away without removing her glasses, or saying a word, which made me laugh all the more.  

From that moment on, I tried to blow bubbles like her, but the gum just flew from my mouth in a stream of spit.  It took years of practice and I eventually mastered it, but to this day, every time I blow a bubble, or see someone blowing a bubble, I recall his memory.  Surely, this is why it remains so vivid today.  But, there is another reason.  That day was the day my mom became more than just our caretaker.  As each bubble grew, she grew in my estimation to a mysterious individual separate from me, full of hidden talents and a quiet dignity.

Going after those glasses before I knew better…

From that day on, I had wanted to be just like her.  And no one has, or ever will, take that place.

This was my guest post on Linda Johnston’s blog.  (Linda has authored an important collection from the Kansas Territories; Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from Kansas Territory)

Why Summer Camp is Important…

Tags

American Camp Association, Sleepover summer camp

It is time to enroll your kids, or grand kids, in summer camp!  Give them a summer free from electronics and immerse them in nature. Do you know someone whose kids could benefit?  Share this link;  http://find.acacamps.org/

I wrote Memory Lake for camp lovers, and for those who had never attended camp, so they would understand why so many of us grow wistful and blurry-eyed at the mere mention of the word ‘camp’.  I wanted to immerse readers in the camp experience, so they would feel as if they had attended, and so they would understand why they should send their kids to camp.  I also wanted to give back to the camp culture, to ensure it remains alive in the United States, because I believe it is important for our kids to experience nature.  (Link to Memory Lake in e-book: Click Here)

The Majesty of Nature…

Why is it important for our kids to form a connection to nature?  Because nature connects us to our humanity.   As humans, we are spiritual beings, whether we acknowledge it or not.   The essence of what makes us human, our self-awareness, and our ability to choose, these are spiritual gifts.  Some people float along without purpose, never fully knowing what they are capable of through these gifts.   Being in nature allows our spiritual identity to emerge.  It doesn’t take much to be in awe, in nature, a sunset, a thunderstorm.  And when we are still, and in awe, we discover our inner self, we have that epiphany, that revelation, and from that, we derive a purpose.

Sleep-over summer camp is a very effective alternative environment that jump-starts maturity levels and helps kids to find, and be, their true selves by helping them find their inner strengths.  It also helps them find friends who will celebrate their strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses.

A Past President of Harvard, Charles Eliot, said over a hundred years ago, “The organized summer camp is the most important step in education that America has given the world.”

A contemplative view…

Discovery and adventure allow growth…

I used to attend camp on Lake Michigan, near Sleeping Bear Dunes, for seven weeks at a time over five summers in the Nineteen-Seventies, as a teenager.  Memory Lake is that trans formative journey and it shows how sleepover summer camp, and nature, can change even the most troublesome teenager into a confident, grateful, and inspired adult.  This is not the National Lampoon version of summer camp, where boys and girls just want to sneak out, or mean girls play mean pranks , or everyone just wants to win some crazy competition.  This is summer camp as it was intended to be; education over the summer that immerses kids in nature and gives them real challenges with a system in place to develop integrity and courage, and a spiritual connection. 

All high school kids are ready for sleepover camp.  If children younger than high school are home-bodies, try day camp.  If they always want to hang out at a friend’s house, send them to sleepover camp as young as twelve.  You will never regret it and your kids will thank you, thank you, thank you.  Search for a camp near you;  http://find.acacamps.org/ 

I’m already saving up so KT, (my daughter) can send Lilly (my granddaughter) some day!

KT, camp alumni, and Lilly, future camper!