Meridian, Idaho

Wishing you and yours a happy, safe, and patriotic 4th of July!

Meridian, Idaho

The advertising campaign “Always #Likeagirl: Turning an Insight Into a Confidence Moment.” recently won the Public Relations Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Watching this really struck me. Too often I’m quiet when my pickleball male partners criticize another male with a comment about ‘playing like a girl’ and the comment is intended to be the ultimate insult to another male.

I won’t be quiet any longer…

From now on I’m going to say, “Well, ain’t that a compliment! I know some AMAZING female players!”

And I’ll say it to both the male making the comment and the male recipient of the ‘compliment’.

Thanks to my sister Carol for posting this on Facebook yesterday. 🙂 Watching it helped me find my voice…

Meridian, Idaho

I read an article almost seven years ago and part of the article still resonates with me and provided me with one of my favorite quotes.

The article, written by Ellen Tien, first appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine and was entitled She’s Happily Married, Dreaming of Divorce.

While the article primarily addressed the author’s “Mid-Wife Crisis”, the part that stuck with me for so many years is about alone time.

Here’s the line that hit me the hardest and the quote that I love:

Our mothers feared being left alone. We crave time alone. Alone time is the new heroin.

Cell phones, email, cable television news, etc. combine to instill a sense of immediacy for everything in our lives and everyone else’s lives. It feels like we all have less alone time and even less down time than we ever have had.

I crave alone time like a junkie craves his/her heroin fix. Always have, and always will.

A recent article on CNN ‘Alone Time’ is Really Good for You talked about the benefits of alone time.

The article includes these reasons:

• Being alone will make you more creative.
• And probably make you work harder.
• Spending time alone can help with depression, especially in teens.
• It helps clear your mind.
• You get to do what you actually want to do.

And the most important one for me:

• If you’re an introvert, alone time is key to your happiness.

It’s no secret that introverts interact differently with the world — and one of the most important things to introverts is their solo time.

“Think of each of us as having a cup of energy available. For introverts, most social interactions take a little out of that cup instead of filling it the way it does for extroverts. Most of us like it. We’re happy to give, and love to see you. When the cup is empty though, we need some time to refuel.”

Like many introverts, I can pretend I’m a ‘shy extrovert’ for short periods of time to be ‘relatively’ socially acceptable. But those periods produce a need to cocoon in our comfortable introversion and regroup.

That’s our fix and it’s as important to us as heroin is to a junkie…

Meridian, Idaho

The Tipping Point is an excellent book written by Malcolm Gladwell. “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

We witnessed the tipping point recently in regards to the feelings of the Confederate flag since the Charleston shooting travesty.

While there have been movements towards removing the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina capital for years, the scales just tipped towards removing it and it will be a huge surprise if their legislature doesn’t vote to remove it.

But has the issue tipped too far?

The city of Boise has a display of the flags from all fifty states at its city hall building.

Mayor Dave Bieter has asked that the Mississippi state flag be taken down because it contains the Confederate emblem . “Bieter felt it wasn’t appropriate for the city of Boise – with its welcoming reputation and immigrant population – to fly that state flag.”

I get not flying the Confederate battle flag on state property, but I don’t get not flying a state’s flag within a display of all fifty states’ flags especially when there are six states in the South that live in the shadow of the Confederacy and have purposely designed state flags with that in mind.

From FirstLook.org:

Alabama: Designed to resembled the flag of the 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.

Arkansas: Top star added to show state was part of Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.

Florida: Cross was added in 1900 by suggestion from Gov. Francis P. Fleming, a Confederate soldier.

Georgia: The state has a complex history with several flags. This was the flag from 1956 – 2001.

Georgia: This is current flag. Resembles the first national flag of the Confederate States of America.

Mississippi: This has been the flag since 1894 and attempts to change it in 2001 failed.

Tennessee: This is the flag since 1905. Slightly resembling the Third National flag of the Confederacy.

Meridian, Idaho

I faced a dilemma this morning and had to make a hard choice.

Should I stay home and enjoy some alone time or should I go play pickleball?

Rich is off to build shelves at our friends’ new home this morning.

And my favorite pickleball group is playing at courts less than two miles as the crows fly from our house.

I LOVE alone time. (More about that later this week…)

But apparently, I LOVE LOVE LOVE pickleball even more because I’m off to play pickleball.

There’s nothing like the sweat and euphoria pickleball induces.

I’m shocked that alone time didn’t win, but I gotta go…

Pickleball awaits. 🙂

Meridian, Idaho

I used to ride my bike to and from work when we lived in Fallon. My route was about seven miles, so it was a relatively easy commute.

Easy, unless it was during the dog days of summer.

The morning commute was lovely–temperature below 80, little wind, and car drivers were polite.

The afternoon commute could be a nightmare…

If the temperature was below 90, the dogs might bark but they never came after me.

If the temperature was between 100 and 105, they’d snarl from their place on porches or under trees in the shade.

If the temperature was between 90 and 100, watch out! They were vicious and would come after me and attack my legs with teeth barred.

I started carrying a squirt gun filled with ammonia to ward them off. After I squirted them a few times, they’d usually stay away.

That worked until it got really hot and the temperature was above 105.

Nothing kept them away then…

So I kept a close watch on the weather and wouldn’t ride my bike if the temperature was predicted to be over 105.

Looking at our forecast for the next ten days, I wouldn’t be riding much if I were commuting here in Meridian…

Meridian, Idaho

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there!

A father’s role in his child’s life is so critical. Too often our society places too much emphasis on only the mother’s role. Both parents can and should provide valuable life lessons and help build healthy self-esteem.

I heard this song (Daughters by John Mayer) while driving the other day. It seems appropriate to listen to it on Father’s Day because it warns of the effects of an absent father. While the song is about daughters, the song’s message applies to both sons and daughters–the importance of a father’s presence and role in his children’s lives.

Daughters

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
But she’s just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I’ve done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I’m starting to see
Maybe it’s got nothing to do with me

Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It’s the same she’s been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she’s left
Cleaning up the mess he made

So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You’ll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without the warmth from
A woman’s good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too