Friday, July 15, 2011

Blogalicious blog tour

How to stay worry free


Welcome to another blogalicious blog tour compliments of Dora and all the other wonderful bloggers. You've just come over from Roy and his unique way of putting things. Stay a while here, browse and then head on over to Ryder. Hope you had fun and gained some insight on "How to stay worry free".






Usually when I have to write about a specific topic, I like to get opinions from various people, namely the members of my family. How to stay worry free is this week's topic and it can be akin to finding the holy grail for some if not everyone. 
Here are the responses I got after some weird looks, raised eyebrows and gestures that mean "are you crazy?"

My husband aged 49 - pray and remembering God
Mariam aged 21 - yoya after crying about it
Samirah aged 20 - have someone to talk to about it
Nazeefah aged 16 - listen to music
Dinah aged 13 - I don't know
Danyal aged 8 - I don't worry
Me aged (never mind) - don't sweat the small stuff

Worrying is relative according to my family. Depending on the age, lifestyle, and emotional level of the person, everyone has a different view on worrying and how to stay worry free. I have learnt a long time ago and many parents would have done the same as I, to ask myself this question when faced with a dilemma "Will this still bother me tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, five years from now, ten years from now?" and deal with the situation as such.


Many times, the situation can be dealt with as needed, others you need a bouncing wall to get your thoughts together, sometimes, you actually need someone else to put things into perspective. Still with others, music, a movie, a good night's sleep or even a tub of ice cream seems to do the trick.


I have a question though, do we really want to be worry free? Without worry, will we be able to plan for our very near or even distant future? Will we be able to think ahead and make provisions for our safety? Turns out I have more than one question. Worrying whether it's about our health, wealth, children, spouse, home, cars, religion, politics, education is an essential part of our make up. When it not too much, such as borderline neurosis  worrying can help keep us sane!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Bee Sting

Show of hands all those who have read "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf. Great! Those of you who haven't read it as yet - please put it on your "To Be Read" list. Quite a story.

For the sake of keeping my readership, the story is a sweet tale of a bull who was quite content to sit and smell the flowers in his pasture. One day when the bullfighters came to choose bulls for the next bullfight, Ferdinand just happened to sit on a bee. How Ferdinand roared and performed! The men thought that they had found the most fearsome bull and took him away for the next bull fight. In the interest of protecting people who don't like when they are given spoilers for a book, I won't tell how the story ends.

Why am I writing about this? Well I was quite content like Ferdinand and liked doing my own thing, just like Ferdinand. Only I didn't smell the flowers all day. My forte was just happy being the person I was. But was I really happy or even satisfied?

I just turned 40 something, and for some time now have been peering into greener pastures.

I had been teaching for some years now and really looked at my life and decided that there was something else out there for me to do, so I decided to become a nurse.

 I started from the bottom, did a CNA course and started working in the hospital - no bee sting yet.

My husband got into a terrible car crash and then I broke my arm - no bee sting yet.

Went through some really tough times with kids and other such - no bee sting yet.

I wrote a bunch of stories for kids and actually self published one - no bee sting yet.

Then I looked at my self in the mirror - the bee is buzzing.

Realization sinking in that I'm at high risk for diabetes - the bee is getting uncomfortably close.

Factor in that I already have hypertension with an apple of a body - the bee is coming in with deadly aim.

Given a challenge to lose the weight by someone who we will call my muse - BEE STING!!

Now I've started my "lose some weight " plan, not a real organised plan, but a plan - more than what I had a year ago.

- Watch portion size - now only eating what I would give Danyal my 8 year old.
- put that Pilates DVD to some work and gain some return on my purchase
-walk up and down the rolling hills surrounding my home in upstate NY
- make some sort of connection with the Wii fit sitting in the family room
- join the kids in doing "Just Dance" instead of laughing at them

A plan of sorts.
Keep checking back for updates as this is sure to get very interesting real fast.

A number of things have the possibility of happening:
a. Shaeeza continues through this summer and makes her doctor very happy
b. She runs out of steam and returns to smelling flowers like Ferdinand (oops, sorry)
c. She ends up actually gaining more weight as is her luck
d. none of the above

Let me ask you this - what will make your bee sting? For those who haven't yet read the book, what are you waiting for? A bee sting?