AGE IS JUST A NUMBER!!  IT'S ALWAYS TIME FOR IMPROVEMENT!!  

I don’t ordinarily talk, gripe, or worry about my age.  When I turned 80 I switched to “Dog Years” and celebrated that I was 11.4 years old!  Age should not be such a burden.  Age is what it is, and can be a time to successfully sort out and confront its real and not-so-real expectations. 

I have had an age-related problem for several years.   From the time the AARP card arrives in the mailbox, many of us are faced with it but avoid it as one of those “old folks things.” Others won’t swallow their vanity long enough to consider it.  So, I feel compelled to share my excitement with my friends because my decision has truly changed my life, regardless of my dog years.

A few weeks ago I finally bought hearing aids and, like I just said, they have changed my life.  For several years now family members have urged me to be tested and I resisted their suggestions – not for vanity but because of the anticipated expense typically not covered by any insurance.  During the last two years I began to admit to myself I was struggling to hear all the details in classes, meetings, and parties I attended.  During Thanksgiving dinner with the family around the table it was hard to cover all the conversations.  I had stepped into the subject as far as talking to friends who already had hearing aids, but when they commented about the cost, I went no further. 

But how strange is this?  Three months ago I woke up one morning with no hearing in my left ear at all.  Truthfully, it was quite scary.  After being checked by my personal physician and an ENT, it was determined that this new development was here to stay with minimal improvement expected in days ahead.  My only alternative was to “bite the bullet” and explore the mysterious, pricey world of hearing aids. 

Today as I return to writing more regularly on my BLOG, it seems like a great time to share with all my friends how I’ve learned the miracle of hearing aids.  If you are still young and your ears are operating like the day you were born just tuck my discovery away until one day it will come rushing back through your memory and you will trust me and move ahead for yourself.  But if your AARP membership card is 20 or 30 years old, think again.  Do you find yourself lost in group meetings, struggling to hear details while eating a meal around a table at family reunions, or (heaven forbid) catching the most important points of the Sunday sermon?  Do the new super hero movies blast you off your seat but you still don’t pick up on some of the dialog?  And if you can no longer win a game of Scattergories with your grandchildren…well, you are a serious candidate for hearing aids.

I had a beloved uncle who wore one hearing aid from the time he was a child.  The transmitter was almost the size of our old portable radios so my impression of wearing a hearing aid related to something out of the Stone Age.  Friends, by comparison to his aid, mine is a space age adventure.  I have totally come alive again to the sounds of living around me.  I can even soften the sound of those annoying Texas cicadas, finally enjoy the the singing birds in the back yard, or balance the music our Alexa is playing while it’s all controlled by my iphone.   Every morning I can’t wait to put them in my ears so I’m back in the swing of things for another day. 

I’ve already told you more than you care to read about my new life of hearing so I won’t elaborate on how much of the world’s sounds you can temper, separate, sharpen, or eliminate.  Your iphone will become your best friend even if you aren’t already weirdly protective of it like I am.  And just be warned, if we’re ever together and someone starts to gossip or expound about politics or religion, you’ll see me reach for my iphone and tap on my hearing aid app for the Noise Filter. 

I hope I’ve convinced you all at any age not to miss out on the sounds of life because of vanity, cost, or the fear of feeling old.  Count up your dog years, swallow your vanity, and write the check.  You won’t be sorry.

A HAPPY, HEALTHY YEAR TO ALL OF YOU IN 2014

from Fred and Terri Clamons

 “My Favorite Things” is, undoubtedly, our favorite song from “The Sound of Music.”  It has been heard more recently since the TV production, and we’ve enjoyed the song’s return to popularity.  But last week a central Texas radio personality complained it was not a Christmas song and programmers should quit including it with traditional carols.  Hmm.  We feel quite the opposite and chose it as a good theme for our 2014 New Year Greeting.  We could fill the entire letter with the joy last spring when we celebrated our 50^th wedding anniversary with a week in Kauai.  But then the wheels of our wagon started to fall off, life changed, and we’ve decided to list our “favorite things,” as the perfect way to bring you up to date with our lives.  When Fred and I sat down to create a list of “favorite things” in our lives, he spoke up first with his #1 on our hit parade.

                #1 – This “favorite thing” is the word “cure,” which took on a whole new meaning when Fred’s kidney specialist and oncologist looked him in the eye, told him he has bone marrow cancer (Multiple Myeloma), but with new chemo available it can be cured.  Terri agrees that moment can’t be beat for #1, thanks to Fred’s doctors, who combine brilliant medical knowledge with compassionate care and communication.  God is at work in mysterious ways.

                #1, scene 2 —Fred and Terri agree this “favorite thing” is the bold journey daughter-in-law Jodie in Kansas has begun to fight her breast cancer.  It insures her success to be cured and cancer free sometime in 2014 along with Fred.  Sharing chemo day experiences will not be a new way of life for long, and she and Greg with their three children have tackled this challenge with a vengeance. 

                #1, scene 3 – Grandson Matt introduced us all to this “favorite thing,” the miracles and loving care of the famous Texas Children’s Hospital.  He spent time there in June, educating us on kidney impact from Rhabdomyolsis, known among professional athletes as Rhabdo, but not usually connected to a 12-year-old. 

                #2 – Terri insists a “favorite thing” of the year (even better than a week in Hawaii) is to be surrounded and supported by family and friends beyond her wildest imagination.  The love and support have made this journey, so far, much easier for patients and caregivers.  Truly, God is alive and well in them all and prayer works.

                #3—Fred and Terri list one of their personal “favorite things” as the discovery that San Marcos has an amazing medical support system and our hospital and medical resources here reassure and comfort us while drawing on area specialists needed for this journey.

                #4— We both agree on the final “favorite thing” as we send up prayers of praise for continued strength for loved ones who recently have been declared cancer free and for those who still fight a variety of health challenges as we move into a New Year.

                #5 – In the midst of Fred’s diagnosis and treatment plan, cancer took our beloved canine companion, Sweet Jenny, in late September. Through the miracle of “being in the right place at the right time,” yellow Lab Buffy has joined our family and keeps us loved and cared for while providing us with laughs through her sense of fun and play.  Surely, God does work in mysterious ways.

                Please know that we are fine and with the support of everyone’s prayers we continue to break down barriers and jump hurdles on the path toward wellness.   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THE MIRACLE OF GRAMMY LOVE

            “Grammy, when my new baby cousin is born this summer will you still love me like you do today?  I already have to share your love with a lot of cousins.”  My young granddaughter threw her arms up over her head, apparently describing the many cousins she has.   

            “Come sit with me and I’ll tell you a story about the Miracle of Grammy Love.  Grammy Love doesn’t come in one size and cut into pieces for grandchildren to share.  As families grow bigger, Grammy Love grows bigger and bigger so there is always more than enough love to go around.”

            “Do you mean when the new baby is born there won’t be less love for me and my cousins?”  She tilted her head and scrunched her nose into a wrinkle.   “Are you very sure it works like that?”

            “I am very, very positively, definitely sure it works like that.  My Grammy Love already is growing bigger to get ready for the new baby.  And, do you want to hear something more exciting?”

            “Yes, yes,” she squealed and hopped onto my lap.

            “Every day my love grows bigger for my happy grandchildren already here.  And, that means you.  Every day I have more and more Grammy Love in my heart so each of you is loved more every day than the day before.”

“So I don’t have to worry about your running out of space for me in your heart?”

            “Never.”  I tapped my finger against my chest.  “There’s always enough love in here for every grandchild.”  I hugged her close to me and she hugged me back.  Suddenly she sat up and placed the palm of her hand on my chest, right where my finger had been.

            “That’s a good story you told me about Grammy Love.  Now I know there’s lots of love right here in your heart for me and all my cousins.”  She looked up into my face.  “And, lots of love for Grandy, too,” she giggled and she laid her head where her hand had been. 

            “Oh yes.  There’s lots of love in my heart for Grandy, too.”

            “I’m going to remember this story forever, Grammy.  When you have more grandchildren to love, your Grammy Love for me doesn’t get smaller.  It grows and grows and grows and grows…” 

            Her voice faded as she added more “grows,” and her breathing became even and quiet.

I held her close as she slept in my arms thinking about the miracle of Grammy Love.

(THE MIRACLE OF GRAMMY LOVE can be the perfect Mothers' Day gift.  You are invited to send it by email, FaceBook or Twitter to the special mothers and grandmothers in your life.)

Let's create "all kinds of happy!"

Do Easter Resolutions count? 

 

It’s Easter!  March 31.  I’m still struggling with my New Year Resolutions, and my Lenten sacrifices are down the drain.  What a slug!  Shame on me!

 

I gave this some serious thought this week and realized my resolutions and sacrifices are directed totally toward me -- change MY behavior, make ME a better and stronger person. Some are simply useless.  I resolved for years to become more beautiful, and that was a waste of time.  But isn’t that the kind of thing most of us resolve?  Lose weight, give up coffee, exercise more, write more every day, keep work spaces more organized.  I even resolved a few years ago to take time to iron Fred’s favorite shirts occasionally, and that was really a useless one.  I’ll bet you recognize some of those and could list even more that are all directed at YOURSELF.  That’s why I can slack off so easily.  If my resolutions are personal and I stay mum on the issue nobody knows I’ve broken them by February 1.  And the New Year Resolution Police probably had their budget cut after January 1 so I’m home free to be a slacker the rest of this year. 

 

No.  No, that’s not the way it works.  Resolutions fail, but Lent comes and I start all over again giving up personal behaviors, casting aside things I need to say goodbye to, stopping destructive behaviors, eating foods that don’t support my healthy body, and going places and doing things I have long declared as bad habits.  New Year Resolutions are customarily things I plan to add to my life, and as soon as Lent arrives I give up or cast out bad habits and behaviors. 

Here I sit on Easter, three months into my Resolutions that never left the launching pad for 2013.  And the things I gave up for Lent?  I confess I did not do well in that department either.  I’m truly a work in progress, caught between adding and deleting good and bad habits like the passages I write into or edit out of the books I write.

  

Pitiful me.  Serious dilemmas require serious thoughts and serious solutions.  There are days when I think giving up social networks would be a positive move.  No more reading the griping and gossiping, moaning and groaning.  I could delete the news app on my phone so I will not be tempted to check up on the same squabbles and power struggles in Washington from day to day.  Should I skip meetings and gatherings where everyone focuses on the negative?  My brow’s been furrowed most of this month on my sad dilemma. But as I reached the point of adding more wrinkles to my already over-landscaped face, I had an “Aha Moment.”

“Jump out of yourself,” a mysterious voice said to me. “Focus on others.  No more useless New Year Resolutions.  No more lame sacrifices for Lent.  “Make a plan that makes other people happy,” the voice inside of me continued, “and you’ll discover it feeds your happiness at the same time.  And everyone’s happiness will create your discipline to stick to the plan.

One of my granddaughters said recently, “Let’s have a day today of all kinds of happy.”  I will love that statement forever, so I decided to start an epidemic.  Or an explosion.  Whatever works! 

Come join me!  Let’s start an epidemic of “all kinds of happy” together.  Every day we’ll each email, text, call, or hand write an upbeat, happy message to one person on our correspondence or contact lists.  On an especially frantic day or during times when life just isn’t going very well, a simple cyber smiley face may be the perfect kind of happy one of your family members or a friend needs to see. 

  

Could this create chaos of happy for our world?  Will “way too-serious people in high places” wonder what we’re up to?  I surely hope so.  I hope they come find me so I can get them involved in our plan to create “all kinds of happy” for our world that spends far too much time searching for joy and struggling to survive. 

Let’s not waste time.  Get started today.  Send a happy note to just one person each day and let me know what’s happening at your end of the line.  Cheers and special wishes for days of “all kinds of happy” to everyone!

Terri Clamons, author
Cocaine Campus, The Toy Room, and Corporate Prince,

Suspense, adventure, and intrigue with a light love story.

The Church Mouse That Flew, a story of learning to pray for children and adults

Jenny And Her Backyard Zoo, a story of Peacemaking for children and adults

Crosswise Charlie, a story of building lasting friendships for children and adults

All 6 books available as paperbacks and ebooks at Amazon,

       listed under Terri Clamons 

You are invited to visit my website: http://terriclamons.com

Please read and comment on my blog: http://blogbyterri.blogspot.com

Is it SPRING yet?

My calendar tells me it’s only March 14, but my feelings tell me something else.  Thoughts running constantly through my head have convinced me it’s already SPRING.  Our Texas winter has been so mild this year, but it still limited what I love so much – yard work, raking, cleaning piles of leaves, assessing how my plants have survived a few frosts, moving plants to the deck that have “wintered” in my sunroom, and, best of all, planning trips to the garden store. 

March 21, the vernal equinox, is the day that daylight and night time are even.  I always look forward to this time of year since mid-December when we gradually have more hours of daylight, which means more hours to spend outside, either working in the yard or reading and eating supper on the deck. 

  

I know many of you are still covered with snow, and when burrowed into down-lined jackets and coats it’s hard to get excited about gardening.  I lived like that for many, many years, but now Texas is my home and SPRING comes sooner.  No more do I have to wait until the “vernal equinox” to get my hands dirty with yard projects and plantings.  And, that’s a good thing because this year my patience has grown short and won’t allow me to wait seven more days until SPRING officially arrives.

  

Yesterday we went to Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with our 8-year-old granddaughter and my urge to get my hands in the soil grew even bigger.  When we took her home her mother gave me some plantings that today ache to get into the bare spots around my deck.  I’m afraid trips to Lowe’s or Home Depot this week will end up with the garden sections sucking me outside like a giant magnet.  Sad, but true, the moment I pass through the sliding door from the interior of either of those stores my frugal efforts vanish.  I can justify any purchase there as I cruise my shopping cart up and down the aisles of lush, green ground cover, freshly budded plants ready to burst into color, shrubs begging to join others thriving in my back yard, and house plants ready to the take the places in my sunroom now occupied by begonias and geraniums staying warm through the chilly winter days.  And, when my nose catches the scent of cypress mulch in bags stacked against the fence, it is truly the fragrance of my SPRING.  “Yes, I’ll add a few bags of that to the cart,” my heart and mind will insist.  Does a gardener ever have enough mulch?

Well, enough of my personal celebration of SPRING.  What are plans for your garden and yard this spring and summer?  Please share your comments about SPRING arriving next week and what gardening and yard work is like in your neck of the woods.  You don’t have to be a Master Gardener to share great ideas that everyone can enjoy and use.  What are you going to try that’s new to your yard or porch?  I’m looking forward to some helpful tips, myself, especially if it means I can head back to the garden store again before “playing outside.”

Terri Clamons, author
Cocaine Campus, The Toy Room, and Corporate Prince,

Suspense, adventure, and intrigue with a light love story.

The Church Mouse That Flew, a story of learning to pray for children and adults

Jenny And Her Backyard Zoo, a story of Peacemaking for children and adults

Crosswise Charlie, a story of building lasting friendships for children and adults

All 6 books available as paperbacks and ebooks at Amazon,

       listed under Terri Clamons 

You are invited to visit my website: http://terriclamons.com

Please read and comment on my blog: http://blogbyterri.blogspot.com

What are you doing for Spring Break?

Today is the first day of the rest of my blogs!  Yes, it’s March 7 and I am finally getting to my New Year’s resolution -- the fun, the mischief, and the challenge of regular blogging.  And this time I am going to stick to it.   I have many subjects to cover and I expect regular comments and responses from my readers. 

 

But first I need to clear up the issue of Spring Break.  It’s the time schools close for a week of refueling both teachers and students for the final run to the end of the academic year.  The strange thing I’ve contemplated this year is how Spring Break casts it control over the entire community – and me!  Even families with no children in school are impacted by Spring Break.  It interrupts community and school spring sports, civic groups cancel meetings in case members are leaving town, church fellowship activities cease, even during Lent, because “everyone is leaving town,” and areas with multiple school districts and a large university work to coordinate schedules so everybody shuts down for Spring Break at the same time.  And retired grandparents find themselves residing in a ghost town caused by the arrival of Spring Break while they wait until some week ahead or the few days surrounding Easter weekend to visit grandchildren out of the area. 

 

“I want to buy some spring flowers,” I asked the woman at Lowe’s, and she responded “They won’t be coming in until after Spring Break.  No one’s home to plant them this time of year.”  I smiled my pathetic “stay at home” smile back to her.  While shopping for a new swim suit last week the store clerk answered my question, “Oh. Swimsuits?  The new shipment won’t be on the racks until after Spring Break.  Most people are still skiing during Spring Break.” “Skiing?  In Texas?” I asked.  She rolled her eyes impatiently at me and walked away.  The pastor announced, “The new Bible Study scheduled to begin this week has been delayed due to lack of enrollment until after Spring Break.”  After breaking my neck to finish a new book, my voice mail informed me, “Sorry ladies, but we’ll have to postpone the book club meeting next week because too many members will be gone for Spring Break.” 

Spring Break is ruling my life!  I’m not in school, I’m not a teacher or school administrator.  My children are grown and out of school.   But strangely my life is still controlled by the school schedule.  It truly seems everyone, but me, is leaving town for Spring Break.  

The lesson I’ve learned from Spring Break is this:  When you find your life controlled by something out of your control, take control and make it good.  You all know the lemons into lemonade story. 

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  My neighborhood and town this week will seem vacant and lonely.  But I choose to take the up side and positive view.  Think how pleasant shopping will be at HEB with no lines and cranky shoppers to slow me down.  I won’t even have time to read gossip magazines in the checkout lane.  Everyone’s gone for Spring Break!  Could Fred have the Activity Center pool to himself this week?  Yea!  Everyone has left town for Spring Break!  I can go to a movie alone and no cell phone will go off in the middle of the most dramatic scenes.  Everyone has left town for Spring Break!  Eating at our favorite restaurant will seem so exclusive because our server won’t be helping anyone else. Everyone is gone for Spring Break!  And best of all, my dog, Jenny, and I will walk through the neighborhood without being chased by unleashed dogs.  This week they’re all at the boarding kennel.  Their owners are gone for Spring Break!

With an attitude like this, I can see myself actually enjoying Spring Break this year.  How about you?

Are you staying home for Spring Break?  Share your comments and ideas about spending a fun week of Spring Break at home.  I may steal some ideas for next year.

And, if you’re heading out of town for Spring Break, have a great time and come home safely.

 

Terri Clamons, author
Cocaine Campus, The Toy Room, and Corporate Prince,

Suspense, adventure, and intrigue with a light love story.

The Church Mouse That Flew, a story of learning to pray for children and adults

Jenny And Her Backyard Zoo, a story of Peacemaking for children and adults

Crosswise Charlie, a story of building lasting friendships for children and adults

All 6 books available as paperbacks and ebooks at Amazon,

       listed under Terri Clamons 

You are invited to visit my website: http://terriclamons.com

Please read and comment on my blog: http://blogbyterri.blogspot.com