Big Fish/Little Pond

Did anybody see what happened to 2013? I know it's got to be somewhere close, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe my advancing age, or my diminished eyesight (you thought I was going to say my diminished wits, didn't you?), one or the other, or possibly both, are responsible for this year flying by me while I attempted to hold my ground. As a youth and young adult, I used to listen to grey-haired people tell me how the years would fly by as you got older, but for most of my life I didn't pay attention. I thought it incredibly ironic that the people with the most time on their hands were the ones who complained about how it flew by faster every year!

I always thought it was funny that they would say this. When you're in your 20's, 30's or 40's there's always lots of time to enjoy Life. You get out of school or the service, get a job, meet somebody special, get married (or not), buy a house, have kids, and on and on. Long days at work made you yearn for the weekend, which seemed like it was a month away. You thought your kids were going to stay babies forever; you counted the weeks and months it took them to crawl, to stand, to talk that first beautiful word, or to get that first tooth. It all seemed to take forever back then, didn't it?

But those days are gone for me. Now I look back and try to remember everything from those days, and I seem to hit blank spots. I tell myself it's because that was so long ago it takes my brain longer to pull up the information. It seems my hard drive's just about full, and I'm not able to download as much as I used to. So here's a little exercise we AARP members can all do to recover some of those youthful moments.

Take your shoes off, go to the middle of the most open room you have and close your eyes. Take three large cleansing breath's and start to move in a circular fashion (there's no right or wrong, here; clockwise or not, doesn't matter). Go ahead, put your arms out, too, and pretend you're flying. When you've completed your first circle, repeat, going faster this time. Continue doing this until you fall squarely on your butt; that's it, you're done. If this exercise doesn't crack you up and make you feel younger, you need to check your pulse to see if you actually have one.

Because you've rocketed yourself back to your more youthful days, you get the added benefit of having memories come flooding back to you from when you were a kid, when the world turned so much slower. You'll remember some of the great moments of your life as they flash before your eyes. Time will slow down for a while as you reach back, and you'll be able to enjoy it more.

Don't get me wrong, though. This isn't a cure for getting old, it's just a way to recapture some of your youth for a few minutes. But wait, it could be a cure for getting old, couldn't it? It's said that the key to staying young is feeding your inner child, and I feed mine whenever I can. Go listen to some old rock-and-roll and crank it up like you used to, go for a roller coaster ride, the new ones where you go upside-down and all around, take your spouse or special life partner out to the woods and go parking; you get the idea. Make up your own as you go along; take yourself back to the days of yore!

And most importantly, pass this on to anybody you speak to in the next few days who complains about 2013 disappearing, and that the years fly by faster as you get older. Maybe they do, but you can slow them down a bit if you want to. Have you taken your shoes off yet?

Happy New Year everybody!

I'm hoping 2014 is the longest year of my life! Please be safe over the New Year's holiday.

 

Mark T. Bradbury, Author

Literary Associate of Little Pond Publishing

Digital Publisher | eBooks | Marketing

For information on my new eBook, Serpent's Curse, please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/

Big Fish/Little Pond

It's almost Christmas, and New Year's Day is just around the corner, so I've been thinking it would be a good time to launch my 1st Annual Thoughts of the Day list. Everyone tells you that it's the "thought that counts", so let's see if we have any mutual feelings.

Sometimes progress isn't what it's cracked up to be. Since I just moved a few months ago, I've had endless opportunities to converse with the automated response options of so many large companies that we all do business with. These companies have taken the "human element" out of their service departments by installing computerized answering systems.

Raise your hand if you've called your cable company, cell phone service, or electric supplier expecting help from a friendly voice, only to have to "speak" to a computer voice. The voice asks you all sorts of questions, many times asking you to repeat your answer because it doesn't quite understand the nuance of real language. Just when you think you're going to be transferred to an actual person, the voice switches you over to another voice, with more questions and further confusion. When you finally stand up to the voice and indicate that you want to speak to a human representative, it puts you on hold and tells you "all personnel are busy handling other inquiries. Wait time is 15-20 minutes. Don't hang up, or you'll lose your place". In the back of your mind you know the voices are all laughing at you as they put you on hold and force you to listen to terrible music streaming straight from some 1970's-era elevator.

        1) Here's my first thought. To all the businesses that employ these voice systems, you get 20 lumps of coal in your stockings, or more, if it fits! How about you actually offer service, instead of "lip service?" Be the first on your block to hire real people to speak to your customers, like it used to be. Make your customers feel better about doing business with your company.

        2) And my second; if, after all of the above, you have the audacity to have another computer voice ask us to stay on the line to do a quick survey about how well you think you're doing, you get a truckload of coal delivered to one of your local call centers.

        3) While I'm on the big companies and their practices, why not mention the difficulty we encounter when we want to call the company in the first place. They don't want you to call them, so they don't list a phone number, just an email or a live chat room. What about us old-timers who just want to talk? Please list your phone numbers for service calls, or you won't be getting that new toy under the tree you've been wanting.

Okay, enough grumbling, how about some nice thoughts? Well, here's a few:
        
          4) Family and friends are what this time of year is all about, so take the time to touch everyone close to you. It really is the thought that counts!

          5) Enjoy the innocence of youth, and savor the wisdom of age. One is free, and the other is earned over a lifetime, but both are precious commodities.Remember, Santa is a very old man for a very good reason.

          6) Stay focused on everything good in your life, and try not to spend any time fretting over what you can't control, or what you don't have. Each of us only has so much energy; try to stay away from the negative and reinforce the positive. This is the most difficult thing for me sometimes, but I keep trying.

          7) How about them Red Sox? I know; not all of you are Red Sox fans, but humor me for at least 10 seconds. Now, doesn't that feel good?

          8) Here's an old one - Respect other people! Not everyone you come across is an idiot; you might even like them if you give them a chance! And Santa will definitely feel better about loading you up next week!

          9) To all my fishing and hunting friends, may 2014 bring you the trophy you've always wanted. Enjoy the outdoors, but protect it and keep it pristine for our grandchildren. That's on all of us; don't let them down!

         10) Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, Women and Children (updated to 2013). I hope you all enjoy your holidays! Merry Christmas everyone!
       

Mark T. Bradbury, Author

Literary Associate of Little Pond Publishing

Digital Publisher | eBooks | Marketing

For information on my new eBook, Serpent's Curse, please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/

Big Fish/Little Pond

Forty-nine degrees! As in, it's 79 right now in Sebastian, Florida, at my home. It's 30 in Taunton, Massachusetts, where I'll be flying tomorrow. Tell me again how you like the seasons up there, will you? And please don't tell me the leaves are beautiful in the fall (I used to rake a half-acre full of dead leaves every fall, and it wasn't that much fun), or that you love the snow (I do, too, when it's on TV. I personally experienced snow for 43 years, and I can tell you that driving down here in a rainstorm is a lot less life-threatening than trying to get to the office before your meeting when the snow is blowing straight from Hell!).

When I lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts, before I moved to Florida eighteen years ago, I used to love to count the cars off the road on I-95 during our first snow of the year. The same idiots who flew past you doing sixty in their 4-wheel drive SUV's were the ones you'd see in the ditch, or up against a guardrail, just a few miles down the road. I always kept count; it was just a personal thing to retell later at the office. The number was always about the same; 15-20 vehicles, every year, during the first snowstorm.

Crazy, right? Newburyport is in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, north of Boston. Back then, my trip was about 20 miles on I-95, so I averaged about one wacko per mile (give or take a little). Every year! What's even funnier is that a majority of these wrecked vehicles were from Maine (thus the title of "Maineiacs"). It's as if living in Maine, a decidedly cold place, protected them from going off the road in snow. I drove a 4-wheel drive Jeep, but I stayed at a safe pace and left early. Not the Maineiacs! It was "pedal to the metal" all the way until they hit the hidden ice patch.

Why would I want to fly into this hellishly frigid place when it's so pleasant here in Florida? For the same reason that so many of us do the unthinkable; it's for family. My mother passed away last week after suffering from complications that developed after hip replacement surgery. The surgery was successful, but she had to be placed in a nursing home for her rehab. There was no way my 84-year old father could take care of her, so there wasn't really an option. She hated it there; not because it was a bad place, but during her entire lifetime, all my mother ever wanted was to be in her own home surrounded by her family.

The sight of people sitting around waiting to die (God's waiting room came to mind on my visits) was probably too much for her to handle. It was a depressing place, but my Dad and my sister Jane went to visit her every single day, and were there with her when she peacefully passed on. The rest of us went there when we could, but we all wish it was for a little longer, and under better conditions. We will all miss her dearly.

And so, my friends, I'll be flying into the cold North tomorrow with a heavy heart. Honestly, I would go through anything to be with my family for the next few days. I'll see aunts and uncles, cousins and old friends that I haven't seen for years, and we'll get to catch up with each others lives. We'll talk about the old days, tell some good stories and probably some bad, but in the end, we'll all be together to celebrate the life of a woman dear to us all.

It's been said that I got my personality and my sense of humor from her, and for that I'm very grateful. She was a lot of fun, and had a great smile. She was an "old-fashioned lady" who everybody loved to be around, so it will be very difficult to say goodbye for the final time, but Life helps us all move on. Her memory will always be in my heart. I'll see you on the other side, Mom!

Mark T. Bradbury, Author

Literary Associate of Little Pond Publishing

Digital Publisher | eBooks | Marketing

For information on my new eBook, Serpent's Curse, please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/