TA-DAH! Week 3

♫Reach Out and Touch♫

#3 - Touch Someone Else's Life

This week's Ta-Dah! is about being altruistic.  The physical reward is that it slows your heart rate and disease-fighting chemicals rise.  But then, if we did things for others for that reason, it wouldn't be altruistic!  However, if you are able to use your particular talents to help another, you can't help but reap the rewards along with the person you're helping.

When I moved to Maryland after I married I was a 12-hour drive or more away from my parents and my grandmothers.  Perhaps that is why I found myself drawn to older people and wanted to befriend them.  When I quit work to start my family I started volunteering in my county as a Friendly Visitor.  They assigned me to Mrs. Smith, the lady in the above photo who lived in a nursing home.  She was 82 in this photo, 78 when I started visiting her every week.  Sometimes I'd take her out in my 2-seater sports car (before my boys were born) to shop at McCrory's.  I brought her to my  home at Christmas and on other special occasions.    I took my children to visit her, a particular delight because she'd lost her only child from meningitis at age 8 in the 1920's.  She called me her angel, but she did not realize how much she filled a need in my own life.

Loretta LaRoche points out that it is hard to be depressed when you're helping someone else.  Some suggestions she makes are:  welcome a new neighbor (with flowers or muffins), leave flowers on a co-worker's desk, pay the toll for the person in back of you.  I'd add visit an elderly person in a nursing home and take along your children or your pet (after checking to make sure the pet is welcomed), help out at the community food kitchen, become a Big Sister or Brother, offer to babysit your neighbor's children so they can go out for an evening.....you get the picture.  Just look around to see if there's something someone needs that you can offer, and do it.  Be sure to let me know what you did.

Garrett County Weekend

♫A Gaelic Dance♫

We recently spent the weekend in western Maryland's Deep Creek Lake area of Garrett County with our family....  

Gabriel had the back seat of our minivan to himself... 

TA-DAH! Week 2

"Words are not only descriptions but prescriptions.  They elicit emotional responses.  They can be a cure or a curse."  -- Loretta LaRoche, "Relax--You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left"

♫Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!♫

#2 - Talk to Yourself in Fun Ways

This week's Ta-Dah! is about the Committee that lives in your head.  It's all those important people in your life when you were a child who told you how you should live your life.  For the most part, it was probably good information to know, but we are individuals and too often the messages were of the one-size-fits-all variety.  Parents and teachers were all too busy (or didn't want to put forth the effort) to see us for who we really were.    And many were vastly under qualified for their jobs!  Hence, some of the messages were just plain wrong.   So how do we deal with this now?  Do we continue to believe them?  

This week's assignment is to just step back and observe all those thoughts and feelings that float through your head.  Don't judge them.  Don't fixate on them.  Just observe.  When a particular thought suddenly seems absurd to you, allow yourself to laugh about it.  Then talk to yourself in a fun way.  Perhaps sing the song that is playing right now.  Be a little silly and see what happens.  Be sure to let me know!

TA-DAH! Week 1

♫When You're Smiling♫

I'm reading a book entitled RELAX--You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left" by Loretta LaRoche.    She is described as an Erma Bombeck with a wellness agenda.  She writes, "A childlike TA-DAH! blesses the moment you're in.  It permits you to enjoy wherever you are and to realize, more often than not, that you choose to be there."  I thought it would be fun to make Tuesdays the day I share one of her TA-DAH suggestions (10 in all) and hopefully we will all make a conscious effort to practice it for the week.  I'd love for you to report back to me how you practiced it and the results.  OK?

#1 - Trade Frowns For Smiles

This is something I already practice, but not nearly enough.  There is a theory called "Facial Feedback" that proposes that if you smile you'll begin to experience the pleasant feelings associated with it.  If I am proof enough, then it should be called a "law" instead of just a theory.  What happens is you breathe through your nose when you smile which lowers the temperature of your blood.  When this cooler blood reaches your brain certain chemicals are released which suppress pain and help you feel better.

Just the other day I was walking into the library when a mother and her two young children were exiting.  The little boy, probably about 4 years old, looked up at me and smiled which immediately elicited a smile from me.  I can't say enough about how great that made me feel!  So next time you notice you need a mood boost, just smile--whether you feel like it or not.  And if you do it in the presence of someone else you may just be surprised how the benefit is multiplied exponentially!

Autumn

♫Autumn Leaves♫

I love this time of year....I'm always glad to see the hot, humid summer end.  I welcome the Autumnal Equinox first by putting away my summer decor and bringing out the Autumn garland for my fireplace....

Then I add the autumn flowers and gourds, switch out the lamp shades and put a tablecloth on my dining table....

I take down the blue curtains and put up the red....

The wreath by the front door gets autumized...

The Mums begin to bloom....

....and the Sedum....

The Virginia Creeper has turned a lovely shade of red....

....and the trees along the driveway have begun to change....

I feel called to the mountains this time of year.  The mass of various colors of red, yellow, orange, and green speak to my soul in the same way the different shades of green do in Spring.  We are so fortunate to be close to West Virginia....

And southeastern Ohio....

Pennsylvania....

Virginia....

And our own western Maryland....

Soon it will be fireplace weather....

Martha's Vineyard - Saying Good-bye

♫Time to Say Goodbye♫

Journal entry:  6:24 a.m. Garden.  My last morning in my little garden....

It is early....only 8:00.  We walk into town to look for breakfast and find this cafe, Mocha Motts.  I sit at the little table outside to wait for Ken to bring our food.  There are just 5 tables and they are all filled.  I see several cars go by and a few people stroll down the street....

I have come to Martha's Vineyard because of Susan Branch's Blog.  I had hoped to run into her while here so I could give her the gift I brought to say thank you for her Blog and all the ways it has enriched my life--like allowing us to see Martha's Vineyard's charms through her eyes--which is why we came.  So we walk over to her house and leave my gift on her front porch.  There is a policeman out front directing traffic around some construction further down her street. Here I am leaving her porch, hoping she has not seen me lingering while Ken takes my picture....

When I return to our house I e-mail her that I've left the gift along with the flowers I've been enjoying all week.  The policeman must have knocked on her door to tell her some lady left something on her porch because when she e-mails back to thank me it is clear she had already found them.  We finish packing the car and head for the ferry.  We drive past Susan's house and the policeman sees me and calls out that she got the flowers!  I think he must have worried I was a stalker!

We plan to park the car in the boarding line and walk around for half an hour but when we arrive we are told there is a ferry leaving in a few minutes.  It is the freight ferry.  I'm disappointed, but realize because we arrived an hour early, our allotted time is up.  We stand at the rear of the ferry amongst the trucks and watch as Martha's Vineyard grows more distant....

Goodbye lovely schooner....

I wave to the people on the ferry headed for the Island, cup my hands around my mouth and shout, "You're going to love it!"....

♫Home♫

I am home now....writing my travel blog and reliving the special moments.  To go on vacation is to vacate one's live for awhile.  It comes from the Latin word "vacare" which means "left empty".  We need these times away from our routine so we can open ourselves to new experiences and in order to receive something in return we must be  emptied of our old routine.  

I look at my collection of shells and think of what I have read in "Gift From the Sea"....

"The sea does not regard those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient.  To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith.  Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches.  Patience and faith.  One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach--waiting for a gift from the sea."  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Martha's Vineyard on Dwellable

Martha's Vineyard - Day 7

♫Sunrise♫

Journal entry:  7:20 a.m.  It's too cold to be outside.  We went to Oak Bluffs for the sunrise--sat huddled against the cold wind on the bench overlooking the beach to watch the sun rise over the clouds.  It was nice to be out that time of day.  We stopped at Black Dog Bakery so Ken could buy his breakfast muffin.  Today is his 66th birthday.

6:06 a.m.  There's something about the anticipation of the sun rising....

6:07 a.m.  The vastness of the sky especially over open water is mesmerizing....

6:15 a.m.  We humans must crave light and the colors it creates to spend so much time gazing at it....

6:16 a.m.  The clouds appear as mountains on fire....

6:18 a.m.  I'm hoping to catch the sun as it rises over the clouds, but it will be awhile yet....

                 

6:28 a.m. Ta-Daaaa....

♫Wonderful Tonight♫

We are back in our little nest by 7:00 to eat breakfast and get ready for our sightseeing in Edgartown.  First stop is the Martha's Vineyard Museum.  This is the oldest on-site, unremodeled house on Martha's Vineyard built by Temple Phillips Cooke between 1720 and 1740.

This sampler is hanging on one of the walls....

On the grounds of the Museum is a gallery that features portraits of various people on the island.  This explains a little about the exhibit and the following portrait of Dr. Michael Jacobs....

If you look closely (you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it) you can see how the artist used maps even for her subject's skin....

This exhibit is in the carriage shed....

We never made it back to the cemetery to look for Nancy Luce's grave but we find the tombstones for her chickens here....

This lens was used in the Gay Head/Aquinnah lighthouse from 1856 to 1952....

From the museum we walk several blocks over to the actual oldest house on the island--Vincent House--built in 1672, but having been moved to this new site from Edgartown Great Pond in 1977, it has lost it's distinction of being THE oldest house.  This is the cooking area in the house....

We visit the Dr. Daniel Fisher House and then on to the Old Whaling Church....

We are ready for lunch so we find this cute little outdoor cafe.  I choose it because it is called Among the Flowers Cafe....

After lunch we walk to the dock and climb the stairs to the observation deck.  We can see the Chappy ferry boats running back and forth....

....and in the distance the Edgartown Lighthouse....

We take the long way back to our car through the lovely neighborhood and see this 1950's jeep that had followed us the week before onto Chappaquiddick....

I love this carriage house turned house and learn later it is one of the guest suites of the Charlotte Inn....

We turn the corner to find the Inn.  I am glad to find it because I had seen a pictorial book about the Inn in the Bunch of Grapes book store in Vineyard Haven.  This is the side garden of the Inn.  Charming....

We take our time driving back to Vineyard Haven, going down side roads whenever we can.  When we get back Ken takes a nap and I walk into town to buy ice cream to help celebrate his birthday.  I find a book on Rosemary's bookshelf entitled "The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself" and settle in to read it.  We have the leftovers from the night-before's Lobster/seafood dinner and start to pack.  We leave tomorrow.

Edgartown on Dwellable