Life is Too Short

While I was still trying to resolve the passing of someone from my company, I was informed of the quick passing of someone else I worked with.  Both were taken by cancer.  In this day and age it seems unbelievable that we lose so many to the many forms of cancer.  We are certainly trying to invest tons of money into finding cures.

I should point out that I also lost my mother and my oldest brother to two different forms of the disease.  Mostly it just seems that life is too short for some.  On the other hand, my dearest friend Viv will be 90 next year and she has two friends that are over 100!  So, what are they doing differently?  Isn’t that just the age old question!

I remember the Flintstone’s movie a few years ago, where Barney is bugging Fred for eating one of those huge drumsticks for lunch and telling him that he should eat healthier.  Fred says that what he is eating is fine and that his father died at the ripe old age of 32!  Okay it may have been 36 or 38, but it was thirty something.  You get the point.

So, basically, we are living longer for the most part, but we still seem to have these nasty diseases that can take us whenever they like.  Not to mention that many of these things didn’t even seem to exist years ago.  Mostly, I am referring to allergies. When I was growing up, you heard of the odd person with a peanut allergy and yet now, there are way more folks with food and other allergies.  What’s up?  Don’t we all wish we knew?

Suffice it to say that no longer how long you live, or the bumps along the way, life is too short, especially, if you don’t make the best of it.

We need to quit blaming others for the challenges in our lives and turn the challenges into opportunities.  Strive to do the things you want to do and give back to your community. That way, when your number comes up, you can say that you did your best to make the world a better place and while doing so, made yourself the best you could be.

God bless all of you with your challenges!

Has the World Gone Apple?

Good Saturday afternoon!  It is a rather dull, but not rainy at the moment, day in the resort town of Cobourg.  The perfect day to catch up on the week’s newspapers.  If it were cooler, I would say that it’s a great day to make some soup or stew, but although the temperature is a little cooler than before, it is still humid outside.  Very strange.

I write this this a day ahead of heading into Oakville with Cavan because he is buying an Apple computer (that he found on Kijiji no less!).  If you know Cavan, you will find this quite odd.  Although he has long since stopped being enamored with Windows (he much prefers Linux these days), he is actually going to be teaching Apple stuff to seniors.

By Apple stuff, I mean that he will be teaching iPhone 101, iPad 101 and MacBook 101 to seniors at the Cobourg Community Centre starting the 22nd of September.  He will also be teaching Windows 201 to seniors, as well, for those who want to know more than the basics of Windows.

I think he will be great at it and I also think that it is a great way to connect with the community that we have come to be part of.

What surprises me is that seniors want to get into Apple.  I’m darn near a senior myself and I have one of the old iPads (one of the originals!) that I hardly use.  Oh, I can read and respond to e-mail pretty much anywhere--my Sumsung Android phone, my Apple iPad, my Dell laptop from work in my front office, my HP Windows All-in-one workstation downstairs, or the Chrome Box I’m working on right now. But when it comes to much more than that, I have to stick with Windows.

From what I’ve seen, Apple does have the home market and doesn’t seem to be interested much in the business market, but it seems to be mostly the younger generations that are embracing Apple.  Both of my daughters have Apple phones, iPads and computers and they are in their mid twenties.  Us old fuddy duddys seem to stick with the older technologies.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Who knows.  As long as we can connect with the outside world, we all seem to be happy.  Even my kids seem to be impressed with my over 4400 Twitter followers!  Imagine!  Who knew that was possible?

So, grab your technology and connect with the world out there!  I’m of the belief that one day, God or Jesus will find a way to connect with all of us through the many technologies out there.  Do you think they would prefer Apple, Windows or Linux?

Press on with your choice of technology and God love you all!

Rejoice!

Good Sunday morning everyone!  It’s a dull and cool day here in the lovely little town of Cobourg.  A perfect day for curling up with a good book.  The grass and the flowers need the rain that is falling on and off, so it’s all good.

I am rejoicing for something pretty small, but none-the-less, it’s kind of big for me.  I got a royalty check this week!  Wahoo!   Okay, so it’s only $2.18 (US!), but it means that someone went to the bother of buying one of my books.  That makes me very  happy!!  Of course, the ultimate would be to sell enough to retire on, but it’s worth rejoicing over the small stuff.

I have the Toronto Word on the Street coming up on September 27th and I am looking forward to the event.  Perhaps a few more sales!  I am staying very positive.  Quite frankly, although I don’t go to many of these events, I do enjoy them.  I love meeting other bibliophiles in general.  Unlike the Toronto Book Fair I was at last year, there are some really good deals to be had at this event.  I have only attended a few times, but it truly is an event worth attending.

For those of you in Toronto and the surrounding area, please come to the event, if you can.  This is the first time that small-time authors, like me, are able to have tables.  So, it will be a great event--everything from the big folks like Amazon, right down to the little folks like me, will be there.  If you do come, please pop by and visit (or even buy a book or two!).  I’ll be in the KidStreet indoor area.

There will also be a few authors at this event.  Quite a few, as a matter of fact.   You  may get to meet some authors you have only known through their work.  There is also free stuff being handed out--bookmarks, magazines, etc.  I am hoping for good weather that Sunday, as most of the tables are outside.  They are under tent awnings, but none-the-less, it is better with good weather.

Of course, for those of you who cannot attend, you may find my books here:  www.animalsofthebible.com or even on my own site www.janetkwarren.com.

So, happy Sunday to everyone and may God be with you as you go through this week!

Pep Talk

I find myself often looking for a pep talk.

I have given many to my kids over the years and even to Cavan on occasion.  Sometimes, I even give them to myself, only I’m afraid that the pep talks to myself are a little more brutal, but then, aren’t we all a little hard on ourselves?

Just yesterday, I sent a Pinterest pin to one of my kids saying ‘Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.’  Every now and then we need someone (even ourselves!) to remind us that even though we are at a low point, we are not worthless and just need some encouragement to carry on.  

Sometimes we are at a really low point and need serious help and a simple pep talk isn’t good enough.  I thought I was at that point a little after my ex-husband left me when our youngest was 4 months old.  I saw a ‘shrink’ who told me that it takes about two months for every year you were together, to get over a person, and that by Christmas I would be fine.  That was not a pep talk and was not of use at all quite frankly.  Not to mention that everyone goes through things in their own time.

So, we all learn to carry on in our own way, or not.  I remember another instance, when I was in hospital, when I was first diagnosed with MS.  My neurologist recommended that I see a psychologist at the hospital.  It was funny actually, he asked me several questions like, ‘Are you sleeping okay?’, ‘How much are you drinking?’, ‘Are you taking any drugs?’, that sort of thing.  After that he said ‘So, you seem fine, why did you come to see me?’

I explained about my husband telling me he was leaving when our youngest was a week and a half old, going to tell my parents about it and finding my father had a brain tumor, losing a great aunt that I was very close to, being effectively demoted when I returned to work, living on caffeine pills to function when I returned to work from maternity leave and then the MS symptoms and diagnosis.  As I went through my story, his eyes got bigger and bigger and at the end, he wrote a prescription for antidepressants, without saying another word.  Interesting.

I think that in either case, a really good pep talk would have been more helpful.

Having said that, my favorite, although useless, pep talk of all time had to be by a friend of mine after I returned to work with MS; ‘Having MS is a good thing.  Now you can worry about having MS instead of worrying about not having a husband.’  Seriously?  Not having a husband never caused me even one minute of concern.

So, my personal pep talk for today; ‘Come on!  You will be fine!  Another year or two of work will be a breeze, compared to the 34 years before it!’

God love you all!  And may you be able to provide your own pep talks, with God’s voice in your own head, and carry on!!