Lesson #22: READ
that is all..
...well not "all", but here's the expansion in my lesson (if you made it this far)
Reading ALMOST ANYTHING......improves almost everything about you. Reading forces you to think, but Reading can also just be FUN and stress-reducing.
GO TO YOUR FREE LIBRARY NOW...or buy books at the local store or amaonsmiles.com
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Friday, September 7, 2018
Post #21: 50 things I've Learned in 50 Years: Consider the Source
Lesson #21: Consider the Source (before you react and stress yourself out or become as MEAN and unKIND as the source)
I have learned that there would be a great deal less conflict and more adjusted people in this world, if we could ALL learn to "Consider the Source" when someone tries to tear you down or insult you, b/c that source may be extremely mis-informed and/or sadly upset with their own circumstance that they feel it's necessary to bring others down to their level.
In addition to that, I have taught my kids "KNOW the FACTS before you REACTs". I hate when people go on a rampage when they DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE F'n TALKING ABOUT.
Had an older lady tear into me today b/c her perception of the situation was that I WAS BEING RUDE TO HER (b/c she thinks she responded via email -- THAT I never received and calmly tried to explain that to her, but she proceeded to NOT LISTEN and continue to say REALLY RUDE THINGS to me)....and it really PISSED me off...but i kept to the High Road and tried to explain, but she passed the phone off to her VERY SWEET husband who said "she didn't hear that last part"...LOL! Guess he's the only reason others have tolerated her rude and nasty behavior all these years!?!??!
So I have applied the "Consider the Source" lesson and thought to myself, "Just be kind...she has NO F'n IDEA what she is talking about and if she feels she needs to be a bitch to me to make herself feel better, then it's pretty sad that she lived a 70 or 80+ years of life and never learned the lesson to be KIND!!!"
Monday, September 3, 2018
Posts 16 to 20: 50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years - Several Shortcut Lessons
Back on Post 14, I shared the lesson "Shortcuts are OK".
This will be an occasional "feature" of this series as I know it's going to be tough to come up with 50 NEW and original lessons. I'm starting from the beginning of this blog 10 YEARS AGO and will add in reverse order some of the best lessons - IMHO. Also, I will add some pix to make this "seem" more interesting (as when i link it to other social media, pix may lure some in....HAHAHAHA - using my evil, manipulating laugh)
SOOOOOOO... here I go with shortcuts for the Posts 16-20 (click thru to old posts that I still think are good lessons i've learned in 50 years)L
Post 16: Lesson #16 (fr 10 YEARS AGO): Get Out and LIVE your life, don't post about it all the time
Post 17: Lesson #17: Make Celebrations Special
Post 18: Lesson #18: Take Time to Read (and Write) POETRY
Post 19: Lesson #19: NOT TIL i was 40, did I learn the word "Sagacity" & started my "Search4Sagacity" (little spin on the journey to the "city" part of the word)..
Post 20: Lesson #20: Grieving is DIFFERENT & Unique for EVERY SINGLE PERSON
 |
| ME and Chris - 10 YEARS ago (when i started this blog) |
This will be an occasional "feature" of this series as I know it's going to be tough to come up with 50 NEW and original lessons. I'm starting from the beginning of this blog 10 YEARS AGO and will add in reverse order some of the best lessons - IMHO. Also, I will add some pix to make this "seem" more interesting (as when i link it to other social media, pix may lure some in....HAHAHAHA - using my evil, manipulating laugh)
 |
| Target letters - no "L", so I improvised. |
SOOOOOOO... here I go with shortcuts for the Posts 16-20 (click thru to old posts that I still think are good lessons i've learned in 50 years)L
Post 16: Lesson #16 (fr 10 YEARS AGO): Get Out and LIVE your life, don't post about it all the time
Post 17: Lesson #17: Make Celebrations Special
Post 18: Lesson #18: Take Time to Read (and Write) POETRY
Post 19: Lesson #19: NOT TIL i was 40, did I learn the word "Sagacity" & started my "Search4Sagacity" (little spin on the journey to the "city" part of the word)..
Post 20: Lesson #20: Grieving is DIFFERENT & Unique for EVERY SINGLE PERSON
Post 15: 50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years: Friends Give Good Advice
15th in the series of posts I started a few months ago. To start at the beginning, go to: https://sheilasjumpinoff.blogspot.com/2018/05/search4sagacity-50-things-ive-learned.html
Could ramble along on all the good advice I have received over the past 50 years, but just going to share this short story of my friend Kristina who encouraged me to continue with this blog idea of adding "50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years"...she was dropping off her lovely daughter, Elise, in Colorado Springs a few weeks back. Elise will live with us through the end of the semester at UCCS as she pursues her Film Studies major as an exchange student from University of Memphis...but I'm sure I can turn that experience into one of these posts later...
BUT, the point of this post is to say "THANK YOU, Kristina" for this encouragement. I thought I would abandon this effort, but now I think I want to complete all 50 "Lessons" b/c:
A. If I don't, I will be stressed out that I left something incomplete.
B. I *DO* think I have some interesting rambling thoughts that might be useful to someone out there.
C. This is a great way to procrastinate on more important things in my life, but I can rationalize that this is somewhat important to...
D. Why the HELL NOT!?!?
Okay, enough of that, I still have 35 MORE TO GO!!! AGHHHH...
So Lesson #15:
FRIENDS GIVE GOOD ADVICE
Could ramble along on all the good advice I have received over the past 50 years, but just going to share this short story of my friend Kristina who encouraged me to continue with this blog idea of adding "50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years"...she was dropping off her lovely daughter, Elise, in Colorado Springs a few weeks back. Elise will live with us through the end of the semester at UCCS as she pursues her Film Studies major as an exchange student from University of Memphis...but I'm sure I can turn that experience into one of these posts later...
 |
| Kristina, Elise, Quinn, ME - Aug 2018 |
BUT, the point of this post is to say "THANK YOU, Kristina" for this encouragement. I thought I would abandon this effort, but now I think I want to complete all 50 "Lessons" b/c:
A. If I don't, I will be stressed out that I left something incomplete.
B. I *DO* think I have some interesting rambling thoughts that might be useful to someone out there.
C. This is a great way to procrastinate on more important things in my life, but I can rationalize that this is somewhat important to...
D. Why the HELL NOT!?!?
Okay, enough of that, I still have 35 MORE TO GO!!! AGHHHH...
Well, THANKS, Kristina
(in my snarky, sarcastic voice that she will understand is only playful, loving joking).
Post 14: 50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years: Shortcuts are OK
I think it may be hard for me to come up with 50 original posts about 50 things I have Learned in 50 Years and I HATE TO LEAVE THINGS incomplete (or I will feel stressed that i didn't follow through on a promise...which i'm pretty crappy about following through on promises to MYSELF...have always been pretty dependable in following through on promises to OTHERS - I was nominated "Most Dependable" in 1986 by my classmates my Senior Year at St. Pius X in Atlanta...but i'm going down the wrong path here...).
SOOOOO, the next few posts are going to be repeats of previous published posts that ARE INDEED things I have learned in my 50 years, but I'm using a SHORTCUT and I've learned that SHORTCUTS are OK! That's the "Lesson" of *THIS* POST #14.
I learned "Shortcuts are OK" from Mrs. Patricia Griffin, my 5th, 7th and 8th grad MATH teacher who was an EXTRAORDINARY Educator!! She showed us how to do complex math problems the "long way" and then once we understood, she showed us the SHORTCUTS! What a lesson to learn at such a young age. Luckily I taught it to my SON and he used it as an EVEN YOUNGER AGE of about 8 (that's the age of 3rd graders, right?). See this:
SOOOOO, the next few posts are going to be repeats of previous published posts that ARE INDEED things I have learned in my 50 years, but I'm using a SHORTCUT and I've learned that SHORTCUTS are OK! That's the "Lesson" of *THIS* POST #14.
I learned "Shortcuts are OK" from Mrs. Patricia Griffin, my 5th, 7th and 8th grad MATH teacher who was an EXTRAORDINARY Educator!! She showed us how to do complex math problems the "long way" and then once we understood, she showed us the SHORTCUTS! What a lesson to learn at such a young age. Luckily I taught it to my SON and he used it as an EVEN YOUNGER AGE of about 8 (that's the age of 3rd graders, right?). See this:
Post 13: 50 things I've Learned in 50 Years: Flower Power
Flowers speaking to me in Fox Run Park (Sept 2018)
I have always thought that nature and in particular, FLOWERS, are one of the unique ways that God is trying to communicate with us. And now, as I have more loved ones than i prefer living in heaven, I think they are using flowers to contact me as well.
 |
| Flower Field in Fox Run Park (Sep 2018) |
 |
| On bench I see when I hike in Fox Run Park. |
Post 12: 50 Things I've Learned in 50 Years: Never too Late to Read a Good Book
THERE ARE SOOOO MANY GREAT BOOKS OUT THERE...i have learned that no matter how long ago a book may have been published, if it's new to me, then it can be such a wonderful little gift to read it. There are timeless human themes no matter the genre, setting, characters, plot, etc...and I always come away learning something new or thinking about something in a different way...even though I have walked this earth over 50 years!
I think those who are not reading are truly cheating themselves (and the rest of us) by choosing to keep their brains "locked down"...I am stunned when I hear people say they haven't read a book since they graduated (from college or high school....). How do they stimulate their brains!?!?!
Here are a few examples of long-ago published books that were "Best Sellers" in their time, but I didn't read them during their "heyday":
Only a few summers ago, I read The Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner and published in 1972 (when I was 4...so i would not have known about it back then...LOL), but it was still a wonderful and beautiful book. Quick synoposis (as i remember...been a few years now since i finished it): historical journey through many generations of mining families in the West (set in several little towns in Colorado, California, etc).."angle of repose" is a mining term (and now I turn to Google to remember) meaning: "the steepest angle at which a sloping surface formed of a particular loose material is stable."
About 4 years ago, I finally read Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery published in 1848 (final installment as it was published over several years in a magazine).
Today, I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was published in 2005 and I remember many of my friends and family talking about it then...but I just finished it. Here is my favorite quote from the book:
“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
― The Book Thief
I think those who are not reading are truly cheating themselves (and the rest of us) by choosing to keep their brains "locked down"...I am stunned when I hear people say they haven't read a book since they graduated (from college or high school....). How do they stimulate their brains!?!?!
Here are a few examples of long-ago published books that were "Best Sellers" in their time, but I didn't read them during their "heyday":
About 4 years ago, I finally read Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery published in 1848 (final installment as it was published over several years in a magazine).
Today, I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was published in 2005 and I remember many of my friends and family talking about it then...but I just finished it. Here is my favorite quote from the book:“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
― The Book Thief
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)