I quit going to the gym a few years ago. I could never get motivated enough to get there more than once a week, and I ended up spending a lot of money on a membership I seldom used. I liked the cross elliptical trainers best; those are the machines that work your legs and your arms (in a cross-country skiing way). But they were always in use, so that you ended up having to wait to use them. So, I'm now biking and walking as much as I can, having integrated those exercises into my daily life and routines--walking to and from work, biking to and from work, biking instead of taking the bus, walking instead of taking the car or the bus--those kinds of things. That's what works for me. I realize that I don't miss the gym at all. In fact, I wouldn't go back, because I realize that I enjoy being outdoors while I'm walking and biking. I missed being out in nature.
I decided recently that in addition to these activities, I wanted to strengthen my arms since I've never had much arm strength. Serendipitously, I came across a video and a website link that inspired me to start doing push-ups. Normally, I am a bit skeptical when it comes to books or shows that promise that after 30 days, you'll be in great shape, for example. But I decided to start doing push-ups. Over one month later, I actually do have muscles in my upper arms that weren't there before I started the push-ups. I can tell you that push-ups do work to build up arm muscles and to make your arms stronger. I don't know that I'll get to the point that the young lady got to in the video after 100 days of push-ups (I'd like to), but after one month, I have muscles that I never thought I'd have. She did it as part of the Give It 100 movement (https://giveit100.com/), and documented her progress on video each day. I'm challenging myself without documenting my progress each day. I'll keep on going, because I got results, and because I want to see how far I can actually go.
Here is the website link to Womanitely: 7 Exercises that will transform your body---http://womanitely.com/exercises-transform-your-body/. I'm doing some of the other recommended exercises as well. I can do them at home, whenever I want, and there's no pressure. Just do a few of them once a day. You'll see a difference after one month.
And here's the video that originally inspired me to try doing push-ups:
Monday, July 14, 2014
Saturday, July 12, 2014
What Georges Bernanos said
Faith is
not a thing which one 'loses,' we merely cease to shape our lives by it.
Hope is
a risk that must be run.
It's a
fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.
No one
ever discovers the depths of his own loneliness.
The wish
to pray is a prayer in itself. God can ask no more than that of us.
Hell,
madam, is to love no longer.
It is
the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave
man.
Truth is
meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterward.
Little
things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which
individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.
The
first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end
justifies the means.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Georges
Bernanos wrote a wonderful book, Diary of
a Country Priest, that I read many years ago, but stumbled upon again
recently. First published in 1937, it is the story of an unassuming parish
priest, who tries his best to serve his people. His trials and tribulations,
his poor health and his feelings of inferiority are really what the novel is
about—how he tries to be a good and humble priest, a good man and a good
Catholic. Well worth reading.
Friday, July 4, 2014
What I did before my summer vacation (one hectic month in the life of an academic researcher)
Academia is an
unpredictable profession at best; for the most part, one never knows from year
to year how much funding one will have to design and implement research
projects, how many students one will have responsibility for, how many grant
proposals one will write, or even how many papers one will write and send for
publication. The unpredictability of the profession stems from the
unpredictability associated with grant funding: is a researcher’s proposal good
enough; will it get into the top ten percent; will it get funded, and if so,
how much will the researcher get; will he or she get support for students and
lab consumables or just consumables; and what happens if he or she doesn’t get
funding. The list of worries is potentially a long one.
December and June are
always busy and hectic months in academia, mostly because researchers rush to
finish experiments and to send out their articles before the Christmas holidays
and summer vacation, respectively. They are stressful months that have to be
confronted and tackled before one can take vacation in good conscience. The odd
thing is that the pace of academia is so erratic; during the other months,
there are often lulls when one wishes one was busier. Personally, I would
prefer if the pace was more even and thus less stressful during the entire
academic year, such that the amount of work was spread out more evenly.
So what did I do from mid-May until now, before my summer vacation? I am co-adviser for a PhD student who has to
deliver her thesis by the end of July, plus send her last article for
publication so that she can write in her thesis that it has been submitted for
publication. I am senior author on that paper, so I have read through and
edited the paper several times during the month of June. Additionally, I have read
through and edited her thesis for both scientific and grammatical accuracy
several times. Most Norwegian students write their theses in English. I believe
it is now a requirement, whereas their defense can be in Norwegian, although
many choose to defend in English. Most Norwegians speak English well,
especially the younger ones who have grown up watching American TV programs and
movies, surfing the internet/social media, and listening to music. So it is not
a major problem to edit a thesis for correct English usage; it just takes time.
But this is what a senior scientist does—it’s part of the job.
I also wrote a grant proposal that I submitted to the Cancer Society in
early June. I spent more than a month reading background articles and writing
the proposal, which had to do with treating gastrointestinal cancers with drugs
that drive them into a senescent (non-proliferating) state. I was a peer reviewer for an article about treating colorectal
cancer with a combination of natural compounds that led to effective tumor kill
without killing normal cells, a win-win situation for patients. I was also an external
grant reviewer for another country; this is often done—that granting agencies
send out grant proposals for external review outside their own country. In this
case, I learned a lot about treatment of colorectal cancer with adoptive cell transfer
using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. This is a field I knew only a bit about,
but about which I know quite a lot more at this point after having read the
proposal and a number of review articles that helped me to understand it so
that I could review it properly. I also read and edited an article written by
two of my colleagues who asked me to check their review article for correct English
usage and grammar. I also read some background articles about ionizing radiation
and how it is used in cancer treatment; this was information I found on the
American Cancer Society website. I am impressed with the information that is
available there to patients and their families, and impressed with the writers
who create these articles and brochures. Finally, I printed out a number of
review articles about mass spectrometry imaging of tissue samples; this is a
cutting-edge technology that has a bright future not only in cancer research,
but in pathology generally, as well as in disease treatment, pharmacology and
toxicology. I need to learn as much about it as possible in case I travel to
visit a medical center in the States that uses this technology successfully in
their research projects.
It occurred
to me today that I could work as an editor of a scientific journal, as a senior
adviser for any number of scientific/political organizations, and as a scientific writer.
I do all these things in my job as an academic research scientist, in addition
to planning research projects and figuring out how to implement them. One must
also figure out how to do all these things on a limited budget if such is the
case. Academia is really a creative profession, in more ways than one.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Learning by living
Eleanor
Roosevelt was married to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the
United States, and served as First Lady during his three terms--from 1933 until
1945. Her husband died in 1945. When she married him, she found herself thrust
into the limelight of politics and political society, which at first made her
uncomfortable, but which she learned to master with time and experience. I
recently finished her amazing book You
Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life, first published in
1960 when she was seventy-six years old. She writes from the heart, in an candid
and straightforward way, about the following: • Learning to Learn • Fear—the Great Enemy • The Uses of Time • The
Difficult Art of Maturity • Readjustment is Endless • Learning to Be Useful• The
Right to Be an Individual • How to Get the Best Out of People •Facing
Responsibility • How Everyone Can Take Part in Politics • Learning to Be a
Public Servant.
The first
thing that struck me was that her wisdom and advice are every bit as good as,
if not better than, most of the advice proffered by self-help books authored by
psychologists or psychiatrists with years in their respective fields. Why?
Because she not only talks about the fears and lack of self-confidence that she
had to overcome in order to become a public person, she says flat-out that we
must do that which we think we cannot do. We must face our fears if we are to grow
and evolve as human beings, if we are to live an honest life. She also talks
about the importance of being useful and embracing politics and public life.
She stresses that we must take an interest in politics as the citizens of a
democratic nation; that is our responsibility as free people. We must not stoop
to cynicism and negativity when we talk about politics and politicians; they
are important for the future of a free country. She is a wonderful role model for a successful
and honest life, for both women and men. Her advice is relevant for both
genders. But I would absolutely encourage young women to read her book, especially
in this age that defines a person’s worth mostly by whether they are good-looking
or not. Eleanor Roosevelt said about herself that she knew that she was not the most attractive woman in her family already when she was a child; it never stopped her.
Young women especially need to hear this, because there is too much emphasis in
today’s world on having the perfect face and figure, often at the expense of
cultivating one’s intelligence, wit, and talents.
Eleanor Roosevelt was an honest, intelligent, introspective, persevering, patient and empathetic woman, who made a real success of her life in spite of the many difficulties she faced. I found her advice quite straightforward, no-nonsense, honest and helpful. She really did 'learn by living', and that is the message her book imparts. It's possible to grow and change with experience, if you tackle the challenges that life tosses you rather than evade them. She was way ahead of her time in terms of how she lived her life and how she looked at her life as a woman. I recommend this book if you want wisdom that will actually help you as you make your way in this life.
Eleanor Roosevelt was an honest, intelligent, introspective, persevering, patient and empathetic woman, who made a real success of her life in spite of the many difficulties she faced. I found her advice quite straightforward, no-nonsense, honest and helpful. She really did 'learn by living', and that is the message her book imparts. It's possible to grow and change with experience, if you tackle the challenges that life tosses you rather than evade them. She was way ahead of her time in terms of how she lived her life and how she looked at her life as a woman. I recommend this book if you want wisdom that will actually help you as you make your way in this life.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
USA advances in the World Cup
Loved this tweet from Razzle on Twitter with the accompanying photo of Bill Cosby! It pretty much sums up exactly my own understanding (or lack thereof) of the World Cup rules, but hey--the USA team advanced tonight despite their loss to Germany. So they 'won' even though they lost. Go figure. They're a good team so it's fun to cheer them on.
I think I finally understand why I don't watch sports very often or follow my favorite teams--it's way too stressful. I end up screaming at the TV like my father and brother did years ago when they watched football, and like my husband sometimes does when he watches soccer (with him however it's mostly running commentary). The screaming at the TV is not good for the blood pressure!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is me still trying to understand the FIFA rules. #USAvsGermany pic.twitter.com/2xb472yf8h
I think I finally understand why I don't watch sports very often or follow my favorite teams--it's way too stressful. I end up screaming at the TV like my father and brother did years ago when they watched football, and like my husband sometimes does when he watches soccer (with him however it's mostly running commentary). The screaming at the TV is not good for the blood pressure!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is me still trying to understand the FIFA rules. #USAvsGermany pic.twitter.com/2xb472yf8h
— Razzle (@MyNameisRazzle2) June 26, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Travels through Italy
I've been thinking about the different countries I've traveled to since I moved to Norway in 1989. After so many years living in Europe, the countries add up; besides traveling around Norway, I've been to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Scotland, and Ireland--in some cases several times to a few countries (France, Italy, Denmark, England). Hopefully I'll get to Spain and Portugal in a few years; I especially want to visit Spain because I took six years of Spanish (high school and college) and I'd like to have the chance to use this beautiful language after all these years. Australia and New Zealand are also on my bucket list, as well as a few countries in South America. I also want to do a cross-country trip across the United States, most likely in a few years.
In 2005, my husband and I decided to visit Italy. My paternal grandparents were born in southern Italy--Caserta and Ischia to be exact--and our plans were to meet my sister and her husband on Ischia and to explore the island and experience the land of our ancestors. Our first stop was Venice, where we stayed at a Victorian-style bed and breakfast establishment on the Lido for one night. I don't remember the name of place, but it was beautiful. We took the canal boat along the Grand Canal, and I took a lot of photos from the boat, many of which came out quite well. We walked a lot around the city, and it struck me how easy it was to lose your sense of direction while walking around. The city was also a bit eerie in the evening; I was reminded of the film with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, called 'Don't Look Now'--a brilliant yet creepy film in many respects, especially the scenes where Donald Sutherland wanders around Venice in the evening following someone he thinks is his (dead) daughter. We enjoyed a good dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the side streets, and then listened to some really good jazz at one of the outdoor restaurants on St. Mark's Square. The following day, we drove further to Perugia to visit Loretta, a colleague and friend who works at the University there; we spent several days with her and her family. We managed a trip to Assisi together and a visit to the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. We then made our way further south and west to Caserta, where my grandmother was born and where we stayed for two nights. We visited the Reggia--the Royal Palace of Caserta that was built during the 18th century. It was a lovely place with gardens that seemed to stretch for miles; we walked the length of them and I took some nice photos of the statues and waterfall. The luxury of the Reggia and its gardens stood in stark contrast to the rest of Caserta, which I would not describe as luxurious. Its inhabitants were friendly and hospitable and I was glad to have seen it, to have seen where my grandmother grew up before she left her country behind for the United States. We took the car ferry from Naples to Ischia, and drove to the Hotel Pithaecusa in Casamicciola Terme (northern part of the island) where we stayed for several nights. My sister and her husband arrived the day after we did, and we met up with them at their hotel on the southern part of the island, close to Barano, the town where my grandfather was born. We spent two days exploring the island, eating very good meals, swimming in the warm ocean, and drinking wine in the evenings. We did not have the time to delve into our family history or to track down family records. It was enough to have seen where our grandparents came from; it made me understand why they left Italy in the early 1900s for a new (and presumably better, at least financially) life in the States. There were not many opportunities for them at that time--my grandfather could have become a fisherman or a sailor. He did become a sailor, but studied to become a pharmacist once he arrived in the States, and that is what he worked as for the rest of his life until he lost his drug store in the Great Depression.
Time moves on; it's been nine years since we visited Italy for the first time. We were back in Italy in 2008, this time in Rome, and that was also a pleasant visit. However that trip was somewhat marred by the theft of my computer, camera, wallet and passport on the train that took us from Budapest Hungary (where we had been to a scientific conference) to Rome. So I have no photos from that trip to Rome, unfortunately. We stayed at a hotel outside of Rome, on the beach, and commuted into and out of Rome during our stay there. We visited the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, and the Trevi Fountain and ate some wonderful meals. I would like to visit Rome again, this time without the stress of having to rush to the American Embassy to obtain a temporary passport, and without the horrible feeling of knowing that my personal possessions were in the hands of thieves. I do not want to visit Budapest or Hungary again; while I harbor no resentment toward the thieves, that experience made me feel vulnerable and less safe, and took away my desire to travel there.
Here are some photos from Venice, Caserta and Ischia:
In 2005, my husband and I decided to visit Italy. My paternal grandparents were born in southern Italy--Caserta and Ischia to be exact--and our plans were to meet my sister and her husband on Ischia and to explore the island and experience the land of our ancestors. Our first stop was Venice, where we stayed at a Victorian-style bed and breakfast establishment on the Lido for one night. I don't remember the name of place, but it was beautiful. We took the canal boat along the Grand Canal, and I took a lot of photos from the boat, many of which came out quite well. We walked a lot around the city, and it struck me how easy it was to lose your sense of direction while walking around. The city was also a bit eerie in the evening; I was reminded of the film with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, called 'Don't Look Now'--a brilliant yet creepy film in many respects, especially the scenes where Donald Sutherland wanders around Venice in the evening following someone he thinks is his (dead) daughter. We enjoyed a good dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the side streets, and then listened to some really good jazz at one of the outdoor restaurants on St. Mark's Square. The following day, we drove further to Perugia to visit Loretta, a colleague and friend who works at the University there; we spent several days with her and her family. We managed a trip to Assisi together and a visit to the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. We then made our way further south and west to Caserta, where my grandmother was born and where we stayed for two nights. We visited the Reggia--the Royal Palace of Caserta that was built during the 18th century. It was a lovely place with gardens that seemed to stretch for miles; we walked the length of them and I took some nice photos of the statues and waterfall. The luxury of the Reggia and its gardens stood in stark contrast to the rest of Caserta, which I would not describe as luxurious. Its inhabitants were friendly and hospitable and I was glad to have seen it, to have seen where my grandmother grew up before she left her country behind for the United States. We took the car ferry from Naples to Ischia, and drove to the Hotel Pithaecusa in Casamicciola Terme (northern part of the island) where we stayed for several nights. My sister and her husband arrived the day after we did, and we met up with them at their hotel on the southern part of the island, close to Barano, the town where my grandfather was born. We spent two days exploring the island, eating very good meals, swimming in the warm ocean, and drinking wine in the evenings. We did not have the time to delve into our family history or to track down family records. It was enough to have seen where our grandparents came from; it made me understand why they left Italy in the early 1900s for a new (and presumably better, at least financially) life in the States. There were not many opportunities for them at that time--my grandfather could have become a fisherman or a sailor. He did become a sailor, but studied to become a pharmacist once he arrived in the States, and that is what he worked as for the rest of his life until he lost his drug store in the Great Depression.
Time moves on; it's been nine years since we visited Italy for the first time. We were back in Italy in 2008, this time in Rome, and that was also a pleasant visit. However that trip was somewhat marred by the theft of my computer, camera, wallet and passport on the train that took us from Budapest Hungary (where we had been to a scientific conference) to Rome. So I have no photos from that trip to Rome, unfortunately. We stayed at a hotel outside of Rome, on the beach, and commuted into and out of Rome during our stay there. We visited the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, and the Trevi Fountain and ate some wonderful meals. I would like to visit Rome again, this time without the stress of having to rush to the American Embassy to obtain a temporary passport, and without the horrible feeling of knowing that my personal possessions were in the hands of thieves. I do not want to visit Budapest or Hungary again; while I harbor no resentment toward the thieves, that experience made me feel vulnerable and less safe, and took away my desire to travel there.
Here are some photos from Venice, Caserta and Ischia:
Venice |
beautiful building on the Grand Canal |
a canal in Venice |
another canal in Venice |
our hotel on the Lido in Venice |
The Royal Palace of Caserta--the Reggia |
Trond in the Reggia gardens |
waterfall at end of Reggia gardens |
sculptures in the Reggia gardens |
Ischia |
hills of Ischia |
Parrot eating a grape outside a shop in Casamicciola Terme |
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Reflections on and some quotes about cynicism
It might be
my imagination, but it seems that there is a lot more cynicism in society now
than ever before. How is cynicism defined? The online dictionary defines it as ‘an
attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the
integrity or professed motives of others’. Another definition is ‘the beliefs
of a cynic, a person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness or
whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative’. It manifests itself
in the snappy retorts I often get when I comment (infrequently) about some good
thing that a politician or a large company has said or done—for example, comments like 'so-and-so is an idiot and a jerk', or 'that company is corrupt and worthless'. For
example, in today’s news, it was reported that Starbucks will pay for its
employees to get an online college degree at Arizona State University. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/15/starbucks-online-college-arizona-state_n_5497622.html).
There are no strings attached—employees can work at Starbucks, study whatever
they like, and are free to leave the company when they have achieved their goal.
If you ask me, this is a positive gesture on the part of a large corporation
that has a lot of money, one that looks ahead and has understood that the
middle class is having a difficult time paying for college education and making
ends meet. They are trying to meet the needs of the future. I read the newspaper
article about this and then the reader comments that accompanied it. At least half
of the comments were blatantly cynical. It struck me that it is nearly impossible
to be taken seriously these days, whether you are an individual or a large
company interested in trying to do the right thing. You will meet the cynics,
the negative people, and the attackers—no matter what good thing you do or try
to do. I say, do it anyway and let
the cynics and all the other negative people wallow in the mud of their
negativity. It will not do any of us any good to become like them. Each time we
respond cynically to a particular event, we undo ourselves; we dismantle our
own belief systems. We essentially say that there is no reason to believe in
anyone or to believe that anything good ever happens in the world, that there is no
altruism, and that all people have ulterior motives and are ultimately selfish. In other words, there is no such thing as a good deed.
I’m not
advocating naivete, ignorance or stupidity about what goes on in the world. There
are enough societal problems to solve that will keep us busy for many years to
come. But I am an advocate of accepting the goodness in others when they do a good
deed and of taking things at face value if someone does you a good turn. I’m an
advocate of kindness, civility, and respect toward oneself and others. If we
respond cynically to everything around us, we disrespect and destroy ourselves
and others, we disrespect and destroy our relationships, and ultimately we disrespect
and destroy the societies we live in. Cynicism negates gratitude; in a cynic’s
world, there is no need for gratitude, because there is nothing to really be
grateful for. Living in a world full of cynics is about the closest thing to
hell on earth that I can imagine.
Here are
some quotes about cynicism:
- A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. ― Oscar Wilde
- Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist. ― George Carlin
- Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes'.― Stephen Colbert
- Life is not an easy matter…. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness. ― Leon Trotsky, Trotsky's Diary in Exile, 1935
- Cynicism was a one-way path, and once taken the way back was lost forever. ― Chris Wooding, Poison
- Cynicism is when a small mind and a hurt heart reject the hope, love, and truth of a big and caring God.― Jayce O'Neal
- I fight cynicism. It`s too easy. It`s really boring. It`s much harder to be positive and see the wonder of everything. Cynicism is a bunch of people who aren`t as talented as other people, knocking them because they make them feel even more untalented. ― Ewan McGregor
- To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being "in the know," cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit...A praying life is just the opposite. …..Prayer is feisty. Cynicism, on the other hand, merely critiques. It is passive, cocooning itself from the passions of the great cosmic battle we are engaged in. It is without hope. ― Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
Sunday, June 15, 2014
On Father’s Day, remembering my father and my mother
There was
little in the way of material wealth in the family in which I grew up. My
parents were not rich nor were they particularly preoccupied with accumulating
wealth in their lifetimes. Sometimes I wish they had been better at financial
planning or at saving for retirement, but they weren’t. We had the things we
needed, but no more. When times were financially difficult in our family, we
felt it. My parents made mistakes in that regard in terms of saving money for
uncertain times, and my father would have been the first one to admit that. But
by the time he understood that, his health was poor and there was little he
could have done to reverse the course of things. We managed, but there was
never really enough left over to secure a comfortable future for them when they
got older. As fate would have it, my father passed away in his late 60s,
leaving my mother alone for what should have been their retirement years spent
doing enjoyable things together. But that was not to be.
My parents
were preoccupied with other things than money and career—books mostly, during
their lives. They loved to read, and they shared their thoughts about what they
read with us. My father especially was an avid reader, and he and I would often
walk together on summer evenings when I was a teenager and discuss books and
life in general. He and my mother also enjoyed classical music and shared that
with us as well. They read newspapers and we discussed politics and current
events at the dinner table. We did not get together often with extended family,
but our friends were always welcome, and in that regard, the door to our house
was always open. It never seemed as though we lacked for much, and I did not
compare what we had to what our friends had. I was never particularly
interested in doing that. It always seemed to me that some people had more money
and material things, and some people didn’t. That was just the way life was; I
rarely pondered it when I was a child or teenager. But the difficult times in
our family, e.g., when my father was unemployed for nearly two years and his
subsequent gradual decline in health, taught me to be independent and to not
rely on other to support me financially. So the hard times did have an
influence on my adult career choices, and I do feel that I made the right
decisions when it came to pursuing a career.
On Father’s
Day, I cannot remember my father without remembering my mother, who passed away
sixteen years after he did. During her life, my mother did what she needed to
do for herself and for my father; she did it without much fuss or talk. She was
a doer, not a talker. She took good care of my father and of us, but his
cardiovascular disease had its roots already in his late teens as a result of a
ruptured appendix that nearly killed him. His illness manifested itself in his
early 50s, with his first heart attack at the age of 52. In response to this,
my mother prepared low-fat meals which we all ate. We mostly ate lean baked
chicken, lean cuts of beef, and fish. Sometimes she would make pork chops or
tuna casserole. There were never heavy cream sauces or gravies to accompany the
meats or fish. We rarely ate mayonnaise, ice cream or drank whole milk. My
parents would drive to the local farm stands during the summer to stock up on fruits
and vegetables; that was an important part of summer meals. My mother ate very
little in the way of dessert and rarely snacked on junk food and there was not
much of either one in our house. She did buy cookies and cupcakes for us to eat
as snacks after school when we were children, but they were regulated—we were
allowed one or two and that was all. We were not allowed to raid the
refrigerator at will; the refrigerator was off limits once we had eaten our
snacks. In that way, she controlled the amount of food we put into ourselves.
Dessert after dinner on weeknights might be Jell-o with fruit, or a few
cookies. On Sundays, we usually had a lemon sponge cake from the local bakery
for dessert; she also made a great lemon cake drizzled with lemon juice. When I
think back to the way she ate, I realize that she ate a bit of everything, but
she did so in moderation. She never overate; she never overdid anything when it
came to food. She was more the type to make sure that others were full before
she was. But that could also have been her way of ensuring that she did not
overeat. She drank a lot of water, loved her black tea, and drank a couple of
cups of coffee per day. Breakfast for her was toast and tea. When she and I
would go out to eat (when she was in her 70s), we usually found the local diner
and ordered ourselves grilled cheese sandwiches with cole slaw on the side and
a cup of tea. That was enough for the both of us.
My mother
was a great walker for most of her life. She didn’t learn to drive until she
was around 65 years old, and even then, when she got her license, she drove for
a couple of years around town, and then gave up driving and sold her car. We
often wondered why she did that; I think it was because she missed walking
around town. She understood that she was onto something by walking. She didn’t
turn down the offer of a ride if she had a lot of groceries to shop for,
especially as she got older. But she looked forward to getting outside to walk,
in all types of weather. Rain never bothered her, ditto for snow. She was in
good shape for most of her life, rarely sick, not overweight (she was
slender)—and she didn’t look her age. She was proud of that. When I look back
at what mattered to her in the way of her personal health, I know now that my
mother was interested in taking care of herself long before it became trendy to
do so. She never announced it with fanfare; she was not an ardent missionary
for the cause nor did she nag others to ‘see it her way’. She just did it. She
would just say she was going to the supermarket to pick up a few items, and
that was one of her several walks for the day. Sometimes we joined her,
sometimes not. It didn’t matter to her if she walked alone; she enjoyed it. All
these years later, I realize she was on the right track when it came to eating
and taking care of herself. My mother was a quiet instigator of change. I
appreciate her simple wisdom and ways of doing things, more and more as I get
older. Her legacy lives on in the way I approach my life and in my approach to
getting older. I wish my parents had lived longer. I got to know each of them
first together, as my parents, and then separately as I spent time with each of
them individually. I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with each of
them.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Summer's light
I love the summer's light--the way the sun shines into our apartment during mid-afternoon. Peaceful. There is a haziness to the colors of the tree and building outside--the sun is strong. There is so much light around; everything indoors and out is bathed in light. This is just one of the things I love about summer--the light that goes on and on. It can be light here in Oslo until well after midnight, not as strong as at midday, of course. As we move toward summer solstice, it will continue to get even lighter, at which point we will have the longest (and brightest) day of the year, and then the days will (very) gradually start to get shorter.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Come summer with your gentle breeze
This is my new poem--Come summer with your gentle breeze--part of a new collection that I am working on and that I hope to publish later this year or early next year.
Come
season of life-giving balm
Warmth
and peacefulness
Come summer
with your gentle breeze
Whispering
through the trees
Children
playing out of doors
Windows
open to streets below
Harkens
back to childhood days
Of
barefoot romps and non-stop play
Come
blessed season of few needs
Save sunshine and easy days
A good
life without many things
To
clutter peace that summer brings
A stroll
along a flowing river
A
pleasant walk, a cycle trip
Such are
summer’s many pleasures
Such are
summer’s many treasures
Copyright 2014
Paula M. De Angelis
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
The Birds of Oslo
It is not
my imagination; there are a multitude of birds in the city of Oslo now. This
must reflect the abundance of trees and bushes—plantings that have been
prioritized during the past decade’s period of urban renewal that Oslo has undergone.
Sparrows, starlings, magpies, blackbirds, pigeons, doves, thrushes, crows,
swallows, seagulls, mallard ducks and Canada geese—to name just a few. Not only
is the city lovelier after extensive urban renewal, it is livelier in the
natural sense. I can lie in bed with my eyes closed, and for a few seconds,
imagine that I am not living in a city at all—because we awake to the sound of parent
and baby magpies calling to each other in the tree outside our bedroom window. Sometimes
when it is quiet in the evenings, you can hear the gulls and the doves calling
and chirping to one another, each with their own distinctive sounds. Or when I
walk along Kirkeveien road to the tram station at Ullevål Hospital in the
morning, I watch the birds forage for insects and worms in the newly-mown grass
of the fields that surround the hospital. They’re plucky creatures and they
have a lot to teach us, if we only pay attention. The seagulls have discovered
the Akerselva River, and they can be seen flying in and around the apartment
developments along the river as well as hanging out on the islands of the inner Oslo
fjord. Sometimes they’ve landed on the balcony outside our kitchen window, and
the noise they make can be deafening. The other day we saw three of them in the
road near where we live; someone had tossed a bag of half-eaten chicken onto
the road. They were greedily scavenging what remained; my husband commented on
the fact that they eat the remains of other birds. In one sense, we can be
thankful for their scavenging traits, because they clean up the sea and now
even the land. Mallards and geese live along the water, whether it is the
Akerselva or the fjord. A pigeon flew into our dining room last week; the
weather has been so warm and nice that all the windows in our house are open
most of the time. It didn’t seem to be too scared; it flew to the top of the
hutch and then out again. It was one of the ‘tagged’ pigeons—those with a small
metal band around one leg. I read online that this tagging may be part of an
initiative by the Norwegian Bird Association to track the movements of pigeons
around the city and the Oslo area in general.
I don’t
know much about the different kinds of birds, but am beginning to be inspired
to learn more about them. I’d also like to get better at photographing them,
but that’s going to be quite tricky. I’m on the internet a lot to search for
photos of thrushes and thrashers and other birds that I know really so little
about. I found this website for those of you who might be interested in
learning about what birds there are to be found in Oslo; there are quite a few,
which was pleasant and interesting news to me: http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=noos&list=clements
Monday, June 9, 2014
Hanging out
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
My new poem---Beyond this world there lies another
Beyond this world there lies another
Beyond
this world there lies another
Peopled
by shades that walk among the trees
Elysian
Fields the beckoning meadows
The
gathering dark the gentle breeze
Stand as
in a trance, entranced
On the
shore Charon awaits
With his
humble ferryboat
Lights
upon the water dance
The trip
across the river Styx
Who
waits upon the shore afar?
For
those aboard to disembark
Stumbling
blindly in the dark
Who
guards the gates of Hades
Cerberus
with his three heads
A
devilish trinity of sorts
To
gather in the souls that dread
Once the
ferry crosses over
To the
shore of no return
Once the
gates behind souls close
Open others at key’s turn
Entry to
the netherworld
Place of
light, hole of dark
Fate of
souls whose lives unraveled
Eternal
rest the disembarked
--------------------------------
copyright 2014
Paula M. De Angelis
Monday, June 2, 2014
Quotes about Life
You've
gotta dance like there's nobody watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing
like there's nobody listening, and live like it's heaven on earth.
―
William W. Purkey
To live
is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
― Oscar
Wilde
There
are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The
other is as though everything is a miracle.
― Albert
Einstein
Life is
like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
― Albert
Einstein
Life is
what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
― Allen
Saunders
Life
isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
― George
Bernard Shaw
Finish
each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and
absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a
new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered
with your old nonsense.
― Ralph
Waldo Emerson
The fear
of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to
die at any time.
― Mark
Twain
If you
don't know where you're going, any road'll take you there.
― George
Harrison
You cannot
find peace by avoiding life.
―
Virginia Woolf
Get busy
living or get busy dying.
―
Stephen King, Different Seasons
Life can
only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
― Søren
Kierkegaard
It isn't
what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes
you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.
― Dale
Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Moments of peace
Everyone
has their own idea of what heaven might be like. Mine is a sunny warm summer
day, with all the windows in my home open, a soft breeze blowing, and sunlight streaming
in from all angles. I’m standing in the kitchen, my favorite room in the house,
puttering about, as I love to do. No cares, no worries, completely relaxed. I love
that state of mind. Maybe working on a recipe, or re-potting a few of my plants.
Or leaning on the sill of an open window, looking out onto the world below and
about me. Listening to the birds, talking to the pigeons on the balcony, or watching
the yellow jackets as they fly in for a visit and then out again. If our cat was still alive, she would have hopped up onto the sill and joined me, and we would have been looking out at the world together. A little
slice of heaven—a world of sunshine and peace, a natural world, peopled by animals, birds, nature, living things. It’s what my
heart seeks return to when I’ve managed to move myself far away from it, or when
I’ve let the many negative distractions in the world move me away from it.
The
priest at mass tonight talked about the necessity of moving ourselves ‘up’ and
away from the dark cellar of depressing or sensational news stories that the
media bombards us with, because it is the only way to find inner stillness and
peace, both of which are needed for prayer. It’s hard to pray when your mind is
full of anxiety and uneasiness, when your mind is stuck in the dark cellar. To leave the
cellar means getting up and turning off the TV, or not starting the day by
sitting down to breakfast with a newspaper full of depressing news stories. I
don’t want to shut out the world, nor do I want to ignore social injustices and
moral outrages. I simply want to choose how
to let them into my heart and soul and how
I want to deal with them. I don’t want to be lectured to or informed by the media that this
is what I should be paying attention to, or else. I have realized that I cannot
tackle all the injustices in the world; I’ve got to start small and accept that
I will make a small difference. Mother Teresa also said something similar to that.
You need to start at home or with the situations around you. Otherwise you will
end up feeling depressed and defeated because you are not able to make the
world into a better place. And that defeated feeling helps no one. So I am thankful for the little moments of heaven that are
allowed me in this life. They restore my faith in my ability to make a difference
in this world, however small it is.
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