OASIS

What’s with the constant struggle to remember things these days?

It’s frustrating as hell and the one thing about where I am in my life that really bothers me – well ok maybe there’s a couple more, but this is the main thing.  Plus those of us who are mothers know that some portion of memory gets ejected with the placenta right, so we already have one strike against us.

Mostly I resign myself to the fact that this is an undeniable, no way around it sign of aging, but you can have a little fun along the way.  When I first heard someone refer to it as half-heimer’s, I bust out laughing (wish I could remember where I heard it and who said it – see there it is again!) and now shamelessly use the expression myself because it makes people laugh and laughing is super good for your health.   (This is, of course nothing whatsoever to do with Alzheimer’s which is not funny in the slightest. )

Anyway, I also put this state of forgetfulness down to being too busy, having just too many things going on in my head, and that is a daily reminder to self that one of the most important parts of what I want in my life going forward is simplification.  Not an especially easy goal to achieve when you’re cut from the busy-all-the-time-cos-there’s-so-much-to-be-done cloth, but definitely in my life plan – hence my Oasis and doubly so now I’ve stated it here (aah the key – writing things down makes them real for me, makes them stick.  A simple tool I’ve used all my working life.)

So is it because time gets more precious as we get older, it seems to pass quicker and quicker and thus we feel the pressure to get everything done because time is running out?  Maybe that pressure is zapping our memory cells??

Have a happy weekend .. it is Friday isn’t it???

Tonight there was a gorgeous full moon at the oasis.  It was balmy and breezy on my walk with the dogs.  The palm trees were swaying wildly and the shadows were alive.

Those kind of summer evenings always make me think of Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man.  I need to find a copy and remind myself why it had such an impact on me all those years ago.  His rich detail always thrilled my imagination.  Anyway, I love his writings and know Ray Bradbury’s had this kind of life-long affect on so many people, in fact someone was saying exactly that on Los Angeles public radio earlier this week, for her it was specifically Fahrenheit 451, a book that was required reading in my son’s Freshman year at high school.

I can’t imagine not having books to read, it’s a deep and genuine pleasure for me. But I sometimes wonder if my generation is the last, true, book-loving one. I have plenty of friends who read, but does my teenage son? I bet not. 

Each step forward on the path automatically generates a knowledge upgrade.

Having finally officially become a blogger, I naturally revisited the question “How Do I Get Readers to My Blog?”  From a quick  Google search I opened up a long “How to Blog” post by MasternewMedia and discovered something new (note: it’s an older post so maybe this never caught on?  Let me know what you know).  You have to scroll down several pages to the section on Windows Blog Editors, which includes a video review on Windows Live Writer.   This is a Windows desktop application with, as far as I can see, everything you need to quickly whip off a pretty professional post (includes linking, image editing, maps, etc.) super fast, but the whole key is that you can prepare your posts off-line in web-ready form.

Nice and easy, that’s the way we like it these days.

Welcome to my little Oasis.

A couple of weeks ago my lovely younger sister Judith, together with my niece and nephew, came over from the UK for a visit.

It was a wonderful, much needed break for the two of us.  We both love being in the garden, working in it too.  My back yard is pretty big and over the past year had finally gotten the upper hand.   Between my girls Daisy and Bluebell (lab-pointer mixes – also sisters), and the tenacious weeds, even I had to say “you win.”

The dogs are now 4 years old and have ruled the yard for the last couple of years.  Lately I’ve really wanted to separate the yard into two sections, one for me (and my friends) and one for them.  I had thought about this many times, but never to the point of action.  Judith, bless her, got right to it!

With her inspiration and design, and the hard work of my great gardener Javier and his team, the backyard was cleared, 28 Fern Pines were planted and fenced off, add to that the truly magic ingredient water, and in just one day I had my secret garden, my oasis.  Within a week the grass was green and lush, and now my friend Lou has put in beautiful gates at either end so I can enter without having to hop the fence.

So I have my separation, my dog-poop-and-pee-free zone, and most of all a place of quiet retreat.  What we did was different, definitely outside the box, but those initial resistors trusted and went with the flow and I thank them for that.

Biggest lesson from this so far is how having an extra head and heart in your life can so easily get things done for you.

Gillian

****be still and know*