The day started out a little too early for me. I'm not sure why but I woke up at 6. It more than likely had to do with the snoring cow I was in bed with. At home I refuse to sleep in the same room as Tony. I don't really have that luxury in these hotels and bed and breakfasts. I do have my rain and thunder sound maker on my iPad. I'm sure it's quite confusing for the people in rooms close by that might hear it.
Our breakfast was nice and Mrs. Doubtfire talked with us. We figured out it's not penguins all over the house but puffins. Slight difference. LOL If she said "lovely" and "guud" once, she said it twenty times. Such a happy lot these Scottish. I like them!
We headed to Durness and saw some incredible sights. The coastline is rocky and cliffy. We found Smoo cave and walked down to it. We found beautiful beaches and stopped to take pictures. We were going across one little bridge out in nowhere and Tony wanted to hike down by the water to see it. Again, we meandered our way around the top left edge of the island and saw sights that words nor pictures can ever capture.
The roads through this part of the highlands are nothing more than single track lanes that go carts would traverse. Every 50 feet or so there are what they call passing places. The way it works is that when you see another car coming, the first one that comes to a passing place is supposed to pull over and let the other pass.
This works great when you know what you're doing. For those of us that are new to this fun little activity it seems a lot like playing chicken because of course the goal is to not have to be the one to stop. And let's not forget the added challenge of having sheep and cows in the road. If I don't have bleeding ulcers by the time this trip is over, it's gonna be a miracle!!!
After coming through Durness and heading south, I had to give Tony the reality check of his goal to see Ireland. We made the hard decision to skip Isle of Skye and head south toward Glasgow. It wasn't easy to give up on our planned route, but realizing we could spend a month in the highlands alone we're grateful for what we have seen.
I'm a huge Harry Potter fan so we stopped in to see the bridge the train crosses to get to Hogwarts. It's pretty but off at a distance. The movie production of it is far more glamorous than the hill top view we had. Nonetheless, it was cool to see it and get a picture. Now if J. K. Rowling would get back to writing about Harry. I miss him!!
On the way back to civilization the GPS took us on a "short cut". We were back to single lane roads that were very curvy and had trees. It became a little spooky as night began to fall. We saw a baby deer and got his picture. He sat and looked at us for the longest time. His momma ran out the other end of the road and we shewed him toward her.
We avoided the sheep, cows, and cars along the way. There was a body of water that was to our left and Tony kept looking for the bridge to cross. I told him we must be driving around the end of it because the GPS was counting down to a turn. However, when we got to the place to turn, the GPS said "Turn left and board the ferry". If only we had an in car camera to have captured the look on both of our faces. We just knew we were screwed and would have to travel back the way we had just come. Fortunately the ferry ran every twenty minutes for a fairly small fee.
We made it back on the road after a 5 minute ride across the water. We drove through a glen for the first part of the trip and the car in front of us hit a deer. The rest of the way was pretty much intense, and the planned sleep I was hoping for didn't happen. We're now in Kilmarnock and expect to head to Ireland tomorrow. Let's hope that trip is a little less eventful than today!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Fairy tale castles
We woke to a nice breakfast and tried to get moving a little earlier today. I rested very well and was ready to take on the day. We drove into Inverness for a bit and got out to take some pictures. It's a cute little town. Last night we had walked downtown for dinner. There is a bridge that they have a light display on. It was neat. They also light up the castle. I didn't take my camera, so unfortunately I missed those shots.
Our goal was to drive to Wick and then stay in Durness. We happened upon a castle (Dunrobin) on the ocean front and decided to stop and check it out. It looked just like a fairy tale castle! The inside was done in four different phases over about 400 years, and it was interesting to see how they were tied together both inside and out.
There were beautiful gardens outside that we walked through, too. I find it amazing that they have colorful flowers that pretty much bloom all year long. And they are so meticulous in keeping them. It was very pretty to look down on them, and then once down there, gorgeous to look back up at the castle. A gorgeous wedding setting for anyone wanting to travel to Scotland to get married.
They had a guy on staff that did a falconry display. He had eagles, falcons, and owls. I was amazed at how well trained they were. He had them flying right at us as part of the presentation. One even landed on the head of this guy in the audience. Very cool.
The last part was a museum building that once we got into it, I wanted to leave immediately. It was an entire building of dead animals! Tony was in heaven. They were all the trophies that the 5 generations of dukes had killed over the years. There was a poor giraffes head and neck coming out of the floor. My girls would have died on the spot as they both love them. It was quite disturbing!!
We got back to the car and realized we just spent two hours on our folly. We made it to Wick and checked out the coast line. We tried to find some place to eat to no avail. They don't have a lot of signage here and everything is in extreme under tone. You won't see any flashing neon signs which is nice, but sure does make it difficult to find things.
It was on to Durness then. I ended up falling asleep in the car and the next thing I knew, Tony was pulling in to a hotel. Unfortunately they didn't have any vacancy. Nor did the next 5 places we stopped. Tony was getting in somewhat of a panic, which for those of you that know him is totally out of character. He falls asleep during MRIs if that gives you any clue. So, when he was driving like a bat out of hell between places, I just had to take deep breaths. I had resolved myself to staying in the car for the night if need be.
We went past a couple of hole in the wall places and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bed and breakfast sign. We turned up the road and started driving. First we saw sheep in the road. Next it was the cows with all the hair falling down in their eyes. The houses were less than appealing and we kept driving further and further. I told him I was hearing banjos and squealing pigs and it was time to turn around. He refused saying there had been a sign!
Fortunately his perseverance paid off. We are in a very nice place that is warm, has its own locked door and bathroom, and there are no children saying "redrum". It's the little things I'm learning to be grateful for on this trip! The woman sounds just like Mrs. Doubtfire, and I love listening to her talk. She does like penguins however and there are an abnormal amount of them throughout the house. Tony will just have to whip out his batman cape if a life sized penguin does show up, because I'm not getting back in the car to look anywhere else now that it's dark.
Tomorrow it's Durness and heading for Isle of Skye. We are starting to close in on the allotted time for Scotland and are falling behind on sights we've seen. It's amazing how even when you have two weeks to work with in planning a trip, the days fly by. But we're continuing to remind ourselves that it is vacation and there is no set agenda.
This morning I decided that we needed to call a truce. We've both been a little edgy, and I had had enough. However, as the day wore on, we realized we were not being very successful. I think it has to do with being in the car driving so much. At home I'm not a very good passenger with him as he has quite a few bad driving habits (as I mentioned in an earlier blog). Compound that by being in a country where everything is backwards and dwarfed in size compared to the US, and it makes for very testy relations. I guess we'll try again tomorrow to be nice.
The one nice thing about Tony's fear of not being able to find a room is that he starts looking relatively early in the day. That always means we're in early for the night. I'm liking this whole get to bed at a decent hour thing. Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting back on track in the sleep category. Hopefully that will help with the "make nice" effort as well.
Our goal was to drive to Wick and then stay in Durness. We happened upon a castle (Dunrobin) on the ocean front and decided to stop and check it out. It looked just like a fairy tale castle! The inside was done in four different phases over about 400 years, and it was interesting to see how they were tied together both inside and out.
There were beautiful gardens outside that we walked through, too. I find it amazing that they have colorful flowers that pretty much bloom all year long. And they are so meticulous in keeping them. It was very pretty to look down on them, and then once down there, gorgeous to look back up at the castle. A gorgeous wedding setting for anyone wanting to travel to Scotland to get married.
They had a guy on staff that did a falconry display. He had eagles, falcons, and owls. I was amazed at how well trained they were. He had them flying right at us as part of the presentation. One even landed on the head of this guy in the audience. Very cool.
The last part was a museum building that once we got into it, I wanted to leave immediately. It was an entire building of dead animals! Tony was in heaven. They were all the trophies that the 5 generations of dukes had killed over the years. There was a poor giraffes head and neck coming out of the floor. My girls would have died on the spot as they both love them. It was quite disturbing!!
We got back to the car and realized we just spent two hours on our folly. We made it to Wick and checked out the coast line. We tried to find some place to eat to no avail. They don't have a lot of signage here and everything is in extreme under tone. You won't see any flashing neon signs which is nice, but sure does make it difficult to find things.
It was on to Durness then. I ended up falling asleep in the car and the next thing I knew, Tony was pulling in to a hotel. Unfortunately they didn't have any vacancy. Nor did the next 5 places we stopped. Tony was getting in somewhat of a panic, which for those of you that know him is totally out of character. He falls asleep during MRIs if that gives you any clue. So, when he was driving like a bat out of hell between places, I just had to take deep breaths. I had resolved myself to staying in the car for the night if need be.
We went past a couple of hole in the wall places and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bed and breakfast sign. We turned up the road and started driving. First we saw sheep in the road. Next it was the cows with all the hair falling down in their eyes. The houses were less than appealing and we kept driving further and further. I told him I was hearing banjos and squealing pigs and it was time to turn around. He refused saying there had been a sign!
Fortunately his perseverance paid off. We are in a very nice place that is warm, has its own locked door and bathroom, and there are no children saying "redrum". It's the little things I'm learning to be grateful for on this trip! The woman sounds just like Mrs. Doubtfire, and I love listening to her talk. She does like penguins however and there are an abnormal amount of them throughout the house. Tony will just have to whip out his batman cape if a life sized penguin does show up, because I'm not getting back in the car to look anywhere else now that it's dark.
Tomorrow it's Durness and heading for Isle of Skye. We are starting to close in on the allotted time for Scotland and are falling behind on sights we've seen. It's amazing how even when you have two weeks to work with in planning a trip, the days fly by. But we're continuing to remind ourselves that it is vacation and there is no set agenda.
This morning I decided that we needed to call a truce. We've both been a little edgy, and I had had enough. However, as the day wore on, we realized we were not being very successful. I think it has to do with being in the car driving so much. At home I'm not a very good passenger with him as he has quite a few bad driving habits (as I mentioned in an earlier blog). Compound that by being in a country where everything is backwards and dwarfed in size compared to the US, and it makes for very testy relations. I guess we'll try again tomorrow to be nice.
The one nice thing about Tony's fear of not being able to find a room is that he starts looking relatively early in the day. That always means we're in early for the night. I'm liking this whole get to bed at a decent hour thing. Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting back on track in the sleep category. Hopefully that will help with the "make nice" effort as well.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Riding with Jason Bourne
The wonderful sleep that my body needs is alluding me. We thought we didn't have internet access last night so we crashed around 9ish. But then I woke up at 12:30 and could not get back to sleep for three hours. I kept having thoughts of ghosts and strange ideas about the children in the house coming into our room and standing over us. The fact the latch on our room door didn't work is probably what fueled all that nonsense. All I could think about was The Shining. CRAZY!!!
But by morning, no one had killed us and if there were any ghosts, I didn't see them. The bathroom situation was strange as we shared the one that had a shower with the family of the house. To say that Bed and Breakfasts here are a tad different than those at home is an understatement!! But breakfast was good and we headed off.
We made our way to St. Andrews first thing. The odd part for us in this part of the country is that there are sheep and cow fields as green as any mountain valley right beside the coast line. It's hard to wrap our minds around it. The soil here is rich and dark, unlike the sand along our coastline back home. Seeing fields of baled hay and then the ocean behind it is hard to fathom.
The roads here are a little tricky. For one, you'll be riding along and all of a sudden you're passing through a town. The sidewalk is about 2 feet wide in places and the buildings go straight up from there. Today as Tony was buzzing through a small town and we took a very sharp, very fast, left turn to simply following the road, it made me think of the Bourne movie series.
Watching the movies is intense enough in those crazy driving scenes where he drives on sidewalks and such. But to actually be experiencing it (albeit at a far slower speed) I was starting to turn a bit green. All the while, there are cars behind you urging you to go faster. Pair that with having no idea where to go (even though we have the GPS trying to tell us), and you can understand why we are often cussed as "dumb Americans" here.
The other nice feature are the cars parked alongside or in the road. Many times I just close my eyes and if I don't hear tires screeching, horns blaring, or the sound of crunching metal, I know we've made it through. One of our favorite lines related to precarious car driving is "Hold on to your ass, Fred" from Smokey and the Bandit. This whole driving adventure is a "Hold on to your ass, Fred" moment for sure!!
The Cathedral and castle ruins in St. Andrews were lovely. We drove through the little town but it was just so congested with college students along the sidewalks. Fortunately Tony knows my aversion to crowds and got us out of there. It was back to zooming through the country to the next little town.
From there we drove through the mountains toward Loch Ness. The mountains here are very different. There are hardly any trees on them and they have various colors of low lying shrubbery. I keep thinking that it's the altitude and the tree line is due to being too cold like the Rockies back home. But every once in a while we'll see a patch of trees at the top of a mountain. It's just very odd to see all these mountains with little to no trees on them. The other strange thing is that without trees, you can see the roads that snake to the tops of them and then over the summit. I can only imagine how long it would take to traverse up one of those roads.
Once we hit the lochs, there were tons of pine trees. They look like Blue Spruces, my favorite. They are straight up with beautiful, long branches with dangling boughs. At one point it totally felt like traveling along the Parkway at home. The Highlands are very pretty.
We are staying in Inverness tonight at a more traditional B&B. I've checked and the door does lock and we have our own bathroom. So hopefully I can get that much needed rest. Tomorrow is Wick and the northern tip of Scotland. From here Tony says the roads narrow, and I think we may have to share some with the sheep. We may even get to take an off road excursion up one of those winding mountain trails. I'll do my best to dream of it.
But by morning, no one had killed us and if there were any ghosts, I didn't see them. The bathroom situation was strange as we shared the one that had a shower with the family of the house. To say that Bed and Breakfasts here are a tad different than those at home is an understatement!! But breakfast was good and we headed off.
We made our way to St. Andrews first thing. The odd part for us in this part of the country is that there are sheep and cow fields as green as any mountain valley right beside the coast line. It's hard to wrap our minds around it. The soil here is rich and dark, unlike the sand along our coastline back home. Seeing fields of baled hay and then the ocean behind it is hard to fathom.
The roads here are a little tricky. For one, you'll be riding along and all of a sudden you're passing through a town. The sidewalk is about 2 feet wide in places and the buildings go straight up from there. Today as Tony was buzzing through a small town and we took a very sharp, very fast, left turn to simply following the road, it made me think of the Bourne movie series.
Watching the movies is intense enough in those crazy driving scenes where he drives on sidewalks and such. But to actually be experiencing it (albeit at a far slower speed) I was starting to turn a bit green. All the while, there are cars behind you urging you to go faster. Pair that with having no idea where to go (even though we have the GPS trying to tell us), and you can understand why we are often cussed as "dumb Americans" here.
The other nice feature are the cars parked alongside or in the road. Many times I just close my eyes and if I don't hear tires screeching, horns blaring, or the sound of crunching metal, I know we've made it through. One of our favorite lines related to precarious car driving is "Hold on to your ass, Fred" from Smokey and the Bandit. This whole driving adventure is a "Hold on to your ass, Fred" moment for sure!!
The Cathedral and castle ruins in St. Andrews were lovely. We drove through the little town but it was just so congested with college students along the sidewalks. Fortunately Tony knows my aversion to crowds and got us out of there. It was back to zooming through the country to the next little town.
From there we drove through the mountains toward Loch Ness. The mountains here are very different. There are hardly any trees on them and they have various colors of low lying shrubbery. I keep thinking that it's the altitude and the tree line is due to being too cold like the Rockies back home. But every once in a while we'll see a patch of trees at the top of a mountain. It's just very odd to see all these mountains with little to no trees on them. The other strange thing is that without trees, you can see the roads that snake to the tops of them and then over the summit. I can only imagine how long it would take to traverse up one of those roads.
Once we hit the lochs, there were tons of pine trees. They look like Blue Spruces, my favorite. They are straight up with beautiful, long branches with dangling boughs. At one point it totally felt like traveling along the Parkway at home. The Highlands are very pretty.
We are staying in Inverness tonight at a more traditional B&B. I've checked and the door does lock and we have our own bathroom. So hopefully I can get that much needed rest. Tomorrow is Wick and the northern tip of Scotland. From here Tony says the roads narrow, and I think we may have to share some with the sheep. We may even get to take an off road excursion up one of those winding mountain trails. I'll do my best to dream of it.
Best laid plans are sometimes better to be broken
Since my body was pretty much in shock, Tony felt sorry for me and we slept in today. I say it was for me, but he slept longer than I did. We spent the night in an Ibis which is much like a Holiday Inn Express back in the states. He stays in an Ibis in London when he's working. His there is the size of a tuna can. This one in Edinburgh was even smaller. It's a good thing we don't take up a lot of room.
It was fairly noisy as it was right in the middle of pubs and busy streets. But I didn't hear anything. I slept fairly soundly but was surprised that I did wake up a couple of times. And I also woke up at 7 and couldn't get back to sleep for about an hour. Fortunately I waited it out and slept a couple more hours. We ate a late breakfast and headed out.
We hadn't planned to stay in Edinburgh to sight see. But once we drove around a bit decided we should alter our plans. It's a beautiful city that is a manageable size to traverse. I took many pictures (shocker!) of the various buildings and sights. We found a memorial for Sir Walter Scott that had 250+ steps up to three different levels. We got to see the beautiful layout of the city from the very top. It's a beautiful Gothic structure built in the mid 1800s, about 100 years after he died. It's nearly black from all the pollution, but they can't clean it or it will eat away the sandstone surface.
Today when we did the bus tour of the city, a young man commentated. I love hearing the Scottish accent. His was not as thick as some we've heard. Even still, it was hard to follow what he was saying. It was just so melodic when it came out. I was thinking at one point it's as if we've traveled back in time. There was just something about his accent and voice, plus all the old buildings, that made me feel like it could easily be the 1800s.
We finally headed out of town toward St. Andrews. We took the scenic coastal route and still haven't made it there. I think we are only 10 miles outside of it though. We are staying at what is called a B&B, but is actually the house of a family of five. I'm pretty sure they are farmers. It's a neat old house, but doesn't have wi-fi. I'll be posting this at some later date. Who knows when we'll have internet access again on our trip.
The best thing about our trip is that the itinerary is totally dictated by what we want to do and see. We don't have to freak out that we aren't on schedule or that we have some place to be. I guess we really don't have any specific place to be besides two weeks from tomorrow for Tony to report to work. That's a pretty awesome feeling.
It's only 9:00 but we're both worn out. We've decided to hit the sack early. Our hot tub would feel really great right about now. Instead were in a chilly, old farm house in Scotland by the sea. What an amazingly, incredible alternative!!
It was fairly noisy as it was right in the middle of pubs and busy streets. But I didn't hear anything. I slept fairly soundly but was surprised that I did wake up a couple of times. And I also woke up at 7 and couldn't get back to sleep for about an hour. Fortunately I waited it out and slept a couple more hours. We ate a late breakfast and headed out.
We hadn't planned to stay in Edinburgh to sight see. But once we drove around a bit decided we should alter our plans. It's a beautiful city that is a manageable size to traverse. I took many pictures (shocker!) of the various buildings and sights. We found a memorial for Sir Walter Scott that had 250+ steps up to three different levels. We got to see the beautiful layout of the city from the very top. It's a beautiful Gothic structure built in the mid 1800s, about 100 years after he died. It's nearly black from all the pollution, but they can't clean it or it will eat away the sandstone surface.
Today when we did the bus tour of the city, a young man commentated. I love hearing the Scottish accent. His was not as thick as some we've heard. Even still, it was hard to follow what he was saying. It was just so melodic when it came out. I was thinking at one point it's as if we've traveled back in time. There was just something about his accent and voice, plus all the old buildings, that made me feel like it could easily be the 1800s.
We finally headed out of town toward St. Andrews. We took the scenic coastal route and still haven't made it there. I think we are only 10 miles outside of it though. We are staying at what is called a B&B, but is actually the house of a family of five. I'm pretty sure they are farmers. It's a neat old house, but doesn't have wi-fi. I'll be posting this at some later date. Who knows when we'll have internet access again on our trip.
The best thing about our trip is that the itinerary is totally dictated by what we want to do and see. We don't have to freak out that we aren't on schedule or that we have some place to be. I guess we really don't have any specific place to be besides two weeks from tomorrow for Tony to report to work. That's a pretty awesome feeling.
It's only 9:00 but we're both worn out. We've decided to hit the sack early. Our hot tub would feel really great right about now. Instead were in a chilly, old farm house in Scotland by the sea. What an amazingly, incredible alternative!!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Tony and Machelle's Big Adventure
The Tony and Machelle Big Adventure has begun. Many of you expressed such interest in the blog I kept last time I thought I'd do it again this trip, too. And it's also a great way to help us remember all the things we will be doing. On trips like these, we see so much in such a short period of time, it all runs together.
I made the mistake of letting Tony plan the first day. He had the bright idea of spending the 12 hours related to flying to London, then spend 8 hours driving to Edinburgh. Needless to say, it is an idea he has lamented. I just hope it doesn't put us too far behind the eight ball in exhaustion that we don't recover.
I didn't sleep a wink on the plane for some odd reason. And for some other odd reason Tony can't follow the directions the GPS is telling him out loud (yes it's in American English!!) for me to get to sleep while he drives. I've had about an hour of sleep in the last 38. The one time I finally got to sleep, he missed an exit and got us about 30 minutes behind. I've refused to sleep since for fear of having to spend he entire night in the car.
To keep myself occupied, I've been reading the motorway road signs. I've found that they are more a conversation than instructions. They are very distracting and difficult to read the full sentences while trying to stay focused on driving 70 mph. However, they are entertaining. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Free recovery, await rescue - if your car breaks down alongside the road. Jennifer would probably become quite familiar with this option here. Hopefully it wouldn't require a helicopter rescue every time!
- No phone whilst driving - oh so proper.
- Tiredness can kill, take a break - Oh how I'd love to honor this one!!! I might just break Tony's neck for creating this exhaustion!!
- For Eccleshall leave at J14 - Wouldn't it just be easier to have the town name and the junction number?!
Nonetheless, my tired mind and body make me more than a little critical and grumpy while reading some of them. Tony says it's just being polite. Maybe tomorrow once I've had some rest I'll see them in a different light.
Tony has done well strapping back on his English chauffeur hat. We haven't had any other challenges than his usual annoying driving skills. I'm convinced he uses the little reflectors imbedded in the road between the lanes as curb finders. He's always needed to be on one of those tracks where the car has a single rail underneath to keep it on track. He's a sight see-er driver for sure, weaving back and forth.
We traveled up into the Lakes area of England today. Around dusk the sky was gorgeous with its sun rays peeping through a mostly cloud covered horizon. The grass was so green and the fields full of sheep made the scene look photo shopped. There are a lot of the new, modern, LARGE wind mills in this area. There are just one or two at a time dotting the landscape that they don't look out of place or an eye sore. We've also seen a lot of Holstein cows this trip. Their sharp black and white bodies against the vivid green grass is beautiful. At one point we saw a bridge over the motorway with what we thought were people walking across. It turned out to be cows. We've never seen Anyang like that before but both got a good chuckle out of it.
The further we drove, a mountain range came in to view. I told Tony that it must just be in our blood to gravitate to mountains. They are beautiful and a warm reminder of home. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Shenandoah Valley. We have mountains on both sides of us and beautiful green fields in between. The farms and old, rock homes are simply breathtaking.
Tomorrow starts the real vacation part of our journey. It was hard to pass all the beautiful sites today without a single picture. But I'm sure I'll see just as many tomorrow and all the days to come. Now to get some rest. Oh yeah, and to put my feet up. I've lost my ankles along the way and cankles have replaced them. UGH!!
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
A compliment is a gift
I love to give compliments and see the face brighten as it sinks in what was just said. Many people today are somewhat taken aback when you're nice because so few people are today. I really wish they'd get rid of the terminology "paying a compliment" because the daggone things are free and easy to give away!!
Today I was given one and it felt great! A person came in to buy a gift certificate. I'd never met her before and it seemed she was looking at me rather intently. I was a little self conscious as I had sprinted out of the gym before work today and didn't put on any make up. I figured she was noticing my raccoon black eyes and wrinkles.
One thing led to another and we somehow got to the topic of children. I mentioned mine are grown. She asked how old they are. Then she asked how old I was. When I told her I'd be 48 in October, she asked if I was going to share my secret. I wasn't really sure what secret she was talking about, and the look on my face told on me.
She proceeded to tell me how beautiful I am and how wonderful my skin looks. She kept trying to get me to tell her my miracle skin regime, and I had to be honest and tell her I'm awful at that stuff. But I did tell her that having Native American blood is most likely the secret. People with more pigmentation in their skin age better it seems.
Nonetheless, I thanked her and had a smile the rest of the day. I will have to remind myself of her kindness the next time I look in the mirror and wonder who the heck it is staring back at me in that reflection!!
Have you given someone a compliment lately? If not, try one on for size. I bet ya 10 to 1 you'll get one back in no time at all. Sometimes it's the very things we're insecure about that people compliment us on.
I'd love to hear of any experiences you have in this little experiment!!
Today I was given one and it felt great! A person came in to buy a gift certificate. I'd never met her before and it seemed she was looking at me rather intently. I was a little self conscious as I had sprinted out of the gym before work today and didn't put on any make up. I figured she was noticing my raccoon black eyes and wrinkles.
One thing led to another and we somehow got to the topic of children. I mentioned mine are grown. She asked how old they are. Then she asked how old I was. When I told her I'd be 48 in October, she asked if I was going to share my secret. I wasn't really sure what secret she was talking about, and the look on my face told on me.
She proceeded to tell me how beautiful I am and how wonderful my skin looks. She kept trying to get me to tell her my miracle skin regime, and I had to be honest and tell her I'm awful at that stuff. But I did tell her that having Native American blood is most likely the secret. People with more pigmentation in their skin age better it seems.
Nonetheless, I thanked her and had a smile the rest of the day. I will have to remind myself of her kindness the next time I look in the mirror and wonder who the heck it is staring back at me in that reflection!!
Have you given someone a compliment lately? If not, try one on for size. I bet ya 10 to 1 you'll get one back in no time at all. Sometimes it's the very things we're insecure about that people compliment us on.
I'd love to hear of any experiences you have in this little experiment!!
I cried in yoga tonight. Sad you say? Let me explain.
This past week on vacation I practiced yoga on the dock on the river most mornings really early. It was an amazingly peaceful setting. In the past when I've sat down to do yoga on vacation, I've always brought the burdens of life with me and asked my mat to cure them. This time, I had the realization that I didn't have any major burdens to bring.
It was a scary feeling instead of a relief at first. It was a distraction in that first practice. But I slowly opened my heart to it and settled into this new feeling on my mat. It was wonderful to feel comfortable and confident in my own skin. My mat no longer had to be about mercy!!
Tonight I shared that story with my class. And I was just overcome with the emotions around it. As I was telling them, I thought of all the reasons I'm in this good place.
I get to do the work I love day in and day out. I live in the most beautiful place a person could imagine. I have a wonderful husband that it seems I keep rediscovering. I have two great kids that while trying at times, that at their worst are far better than most people's best. I get to build and nurture positive relationships with all walks of people.
In summary, I'm in a zone. And while I know there are things that could be better, life is great! And I wanted to share that with my class to thank them for their participation in my journey. So that was what had me tied in emotional knots this evening. Nothing sad at all. But HAPPY!!
I wanted to share that story here too as so many of you are part of the fabric that has been woven into my happy place. I love seeing your pictures, sharing in your triumphs, praying for your needs, and rejoicing in your happiness. I am so grateful for FB and the miles it has diminished in keeping in touch with family and friends.
I love you all!!! Namaste
It was a scary feeling instead of a relief at first. It was a distraction in that first practice. But I slowly opened my heart to it and settled into this new feeling on my mat. It was wonderful to feel comfortable and confident in my own skin. My mat no longer had to be about mercy!!
Tonight I shared that story with my class. And I was just overcome with the emotions around it. As I was telling them, I thought of all the reasons I'm in this good place.
I get to do the work I love day in and day out. I live in the most beautiful place a person could imagine. I have a wonderful husband that it seems I keep rediscovering. I have two great kids that while trying at times, that at their worst are far better than most people's best. I get to build and nurture positive relationships with all walks of people.
In summary, I'm in a zone. And while I know there are things that could be better, life is great! And I wanted to share that with my class to thank them for their participation in my journey. So that was what had me tied in emotional knots this evening. Nothing sad at all. But HAPPY!!
I wanted to share that story here too as so many of you are part of the fabric that has been woven into my happy place. I love seeing your pictures, sharing in your triumphs, praying for your needs, and rejoicing in your happiness. I am so grateful for FB and the miles it has diminished in keeping in touch with family and friends.
I love you all!!! Namaste
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