Monthly Archives: May 2009

Let me tell you my daughter’s favorite joke. Please keep in mind she is 2 and a half.

“What did the bee say to the flower?”

“Hello, Honey!”

Yeah, yeah, I’m no comedian. Let’s just pretend you laughed uproariously…

What happened?

Dr. Lee Berk and fellow researcher Dr. Stanley Tan of Loma Linda University in California have been studying the effects of laughter on the immune system. To date their published studies have shown that laughing lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, and boosts immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being. And lots more.

Imagine that…

So the next time your kids say they don’t want a girled-cheese sandwich for lunch because it’s made with girls and that’s just not right, let the chuckle out… you’ll be healthier for it.

The house next door to us was torn down today. It was gutted by a furnace fire last winter. It was quite the spectacle to see this morning beginning with the arrival of a huge backhoe at 6:45 am. With one precise movement of the bucket through the front door, the house demolition began. It took about 25 minutes for the entire 2 story home to come down.

It’s quite the emotional range to watch the destruction of a burned building that on one hand is by now a very smelly and ugly building and on the other, used to be someone’s home. All their belongings falling every which way, windows shattering, bricks crashing, so easily taken down with a small push or pull of an excavator.

I love backhoes. In fact, I really really want to drive a backhoe, and watching this backhoe on my front lawn was amazing. But knowing that this was someone’s whole life in shambles was not exactly fun.

It was, however, also a powerful reminder of how much I have to be grateful for.

The couple made it out alive and so did their dog. They left with the clothes on their back at 4am and showed up on our doorstep. We called 911. Twenty two firefighters, 6 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, 3 police cruisers, and various other emergency personnel risked their own safety for ours. They contained and extinguished a fire that damaged this house so badly it had to be torn down.

It was the one sort of nice night we had all winter. Lucky to be sure. If it had been the day before, at -35C, the water would have frozen on impact and insulated the house and fire, creating an even bigger and hotter fire.

If there had been any wind that night, we wouldn’t have a house either. A few days after the fire, we had the worst wind storm in recent history.

The cause of the fire was a faulty shut off valve on the furnace. We had our furnace inspected and repaired just weeks prior to this fire.

We are indeed so very lucky. And we are so very grateful for all of these seemingly small things that when you add them all up are enormous. So many things could have happened to change the outcome and we are grateful this situation unfolded as it did.

And today, the house came down. Yes, it’s messy and muddy and a complete disaster. It’s also raining. Guess what? I’m grateful for the rain – less dust. I’m grateful for the mess – now it’s less smelly. The demolition crew is doing their best to keep things contained but, of course, flying rubble does what it wants. I’m grateful for junk all over my lawn because my house is intact, I have all my belongings, I’m safe and sound, and so is my family.

It would be easy to be cranky about the inconvenience and mess and noise this will inevitably create all summer, fall, and winter (the estimate they gave us for completion is February 2010!). It would be easy to complain about how long it’s taking, and so on. I am choosing to be grateful. The mess, noise and annoyances will be a constant reminder to me of what I DO have.

What are you grateful for? Keep a gratitude journal for 2 weeks and see how profoundly it changes your perspective. Every night before sleep, as the last thing you do, write down 3 things that happened that day for which you are grateful.

Choose gratitude. Choose to be happier.

How did the media fast go? Did you manage to make it the whole week? How did you feel? And whatever have you done with all that extra TIME?

 Ok, it was maybe unfair to do it the week of all the season finales…so hit reset and try again.

 Now, tell me about your long weekend. Did you spend it complaining about the weather? Not a great use of your new found time. But let’s give it its due. So yes, it is May. And yes, it did snow in cottage country on Friday.

 (for those of you not in Manitoba or Canada, we celebrate Victoria day and get a Monday off in May. It’s the first long weekend of the season and many Manitobans head out to their cottages.)

 So let’s reflect for a moment on May long weekends past. Is it usually warm and spring like? Is it odd to have rain and winds and single digit temperatures? Is this sort of weather strange for May in Manitoba?

 NO.

 So why are you so surprised that is was cold? And really what are you going to do about it? We manage to get through winter in the Canadian prairies and yet the May long weekend undoes us completely. Good grief, people, time to move on.

 I packed up my family and we headed up to our tiny cottage we share with my parents. The closest town to our location with weather forecasting reported 20cms of snow on Friday. Our property had so much standing water on it we couldn’t see the grass. And on this particular day, the water was all frozen – at the surface - underneath when your boots broke through was squelchy mud. And we had no running water in the cottage because it was too cold for the pipes to thaw and get hooked up. Hmmm…

 So let me tell you what I did about it. I went down to the crawl space in the house where we store all the winter gear and dug out all the paraphernalia we needed. Toques, mitts, snowsuits, boots. You name it we took it. And guess what? We had a terrific time! The key for me was realizing that I take my children outside when’s -20C and I’m just fine. Why? Because I’m properly prepared. I decided that +2C could also be prepared for. It doesn’t matter if it’s May and I don’t WANT it to be cold. It is. Can I change the weather? Believe me, I’ve spent enough time trying to change it by complaining about it and giving it lots of my energy. It hasn’t worked yet. I’m going with a different approach.

 We suited up – didn’t need the snowsuits after all, but thank goodness I also brought the splash pants – and went off to the beach. We dug in the sand, we threw rocks, we explored, and we had fun. We played board games, did puzzles, ate lots, and said many thanks for electric heaters.

 The next day ended up being far warmer than we expected  (+16C) and we managed a picnic on the beach, short sleeves for some, bare feet for others, and a trip to the ice cream store. A successful May long weekend had by all.

 So how is it that we had a fabulous long weekend and many others didn’t?

 Choice.

 It really is as simple as deciding what you want to experience and then making it be so. What do you want to experience that you think you simply can’t? Make a choice to do something differently. See what happens.

And please… share it with all of us.

Did you take your breaks last week? Every single one of them?

Many of us are unbalanced. The inbox is overflowing, the house is a mess, the laundry is piling up, there is no food in the fridge, lessons to get the kids to, deadlines looming, errands to run, and really who has time to take a break?

You’re not doing yourself any favours by running yourself into the ground. Working harder and longer will not make you more successful. In fact, research shows the opposite is true. The more balance you have, the more pleasure and enjoyment you experience, the more successful you will become.

Ack, you cry! I don’t have TIME for that!

Here is this week’s challenge. Unplug.

No TV, no radio, no news, no video games, no movies, no random internet surfing. Email for work purposes is fine – do limit it and no junk mail reading allowed.

Step away from the technology and watch your life transform.

And before you all freak out and tell me you can’t possibly do that. Breathe. I want you to ask yourself truly and deeply, why not.

Why do you need to read the paper, and the other paper, and listen to the radio news and then watch the news on TV, twice. Why? You do not HAVE to. If it’s newsworthy, someone will tell you.

Think about how much time you let the ideas of others influence you. You read the paper, you listen to the radio while seeing all the billboards on your way to work, you watch TV and the commercials that come along with it, you went to a movie last night, you’re reading a book, listened to some music, and so on.   Are these messages in sync with your vision of a good life?

If you wildly disagree with me, do this. Read your news, don’t watch it or listen. And limit it to once per day. Are those magazines, internet sites, ezines, TV shows really adding to the quality of your life? Ditch them. One week.

You’ll be shocked by how much better you feel. And by how much time you suddenly have.

Ahhhh….balance.