Please take a moment to think about the most inspiring, humble, beautiful, amazing people that you know.  Next, let’s consider how in the world these incredible people became the way they are today.  As I think of the “lights” & unsung heroes that I have the blessing to have in my life, there is a common denominator within the group.  The trait that all the everyday heroes have in common is that each one of them lives a life of intentionality.  These Dear Hearts did not become the people of character that they are without making intentional decisions, choices & actions.  They behaved their way into becoming champions.

If someone is fit then it is very likely that that person has become fit out of intentionality.  The person is sure to have a commitment to his or her physical fitness & a routine or set of established habits that drive them in this direction.  When we see folks who are enthusiastic, positive, optimistic, people, the same concept of intentionality can be applied.  These are traits that people behave themselves into by establishing day in day out habits of thinking, behaving & believing & sharing.  Sure, by nature, a person may be more naturally inclined to either pessimism or optimism however inspirational people go way beyond that.  Folks that are everyday heroes make choices with their thoughts & behaviours no matter what the external circumstances of their world or the larger world is providing.  Out of hardship, we see the grace of countless folks who lived with such inspiring positive determination & intention.  These people saw the roadblocks yet they did not give up.  Why & how is this done?  The why is sure to be at the centre of each one of us.  The how is the intentional part.  The how is a system or set of habits or routine.  Every day no matter what, little by little, these champions have built the beautiful spirit evident within themselves. 

To be honest, my natural tendency is to be spontaneous.  Spontaneity still has a special place I find in my life.  It inhabits a much smaller space in my life though out of discerning choices.  Spontaneity, for example, when it comes to my personal development does not fit.  Let’s take exercise as an example.  What usually happens when we decide that it is time to begin an exercise program?  We may be gung ho for a while or maybe not at all.  The program may get started only to fizzle out or it may not get past the “I will start that soon” phase.  Once we choose the exercise that we best enjoy, there is a big step beyond that.  The step is to set up a system for our exercise.  The system may be a simple one like mine.  I identified my favourite exercise, then committed to it, found a person or 2 that I knew I would be accountable about the plan with, then choose a timeframe every day at the same time to exercise.  The same system works for me in the other domains in my life like continuous learning & spiritual growth  to name a couple.  Do I enjoy routine?  Not really.  Does it work for me as a system in making wee steps forward each day, absolutely. 

Do you believe that both enthusiasm & pessimism are contagious?  Over the years, I have had a number of people say to me that they find me to be consistently enthusiastic.  I will joke & say that it is contagious.  In all seriousness though, I do believe that it is contagious.  Why do I say this?  I have caught it “on purpose” or intentionally.  How do you catch enthusiasm on purpose?  I find that it is extremely contagious when we gravitate towards the people & activities that are positive.  Folks that are courageously genuine, kind & remain that way through both the low & high tides of life are unsung heroes.  Those are the people in my life that are a joy to share time with.  Through these “lights” I have learned that if I want to keep my enthusiasm that I have to “feed” it daily.  I do this through quotes & pictures & through reading uplifting books & music & spiritual time & time with unsung heroes.  I like to think of it as feeding the enthusiasm & safeguarding against pessimism.  It does not mean that when adversities hit that I am excited about them but rather that I face them with a spirit of determination & knowledge that overall life is incredible when looked at through the lens of gratitude.  My heart knows that life will improve even when a storm hits because that is the only possibility that I allow my mind to go in the direction of.  Once hope & positive action steps are added in daily, the storm does pass in time every time.

My mission is not to climb Mt Everest yet there is one that is exactly right.  We each have a mission that is exactly right.  Along the way, our system or habits or routines will help us to see the wee steps that we are taking.  We may not see the fruits of our systems, routines or habits day in & day out yet if we look back say on several months or a year; we just may be pretty thrilled.

The flip side to not having a system is to not live with intentionality or a bit of a template.  We may find ourselves making some steps forward yet not the lasting progress that we hope for.  Or we may stand still in the various areas of our lives & not move forward for a time on our missions.  And if you or someone you know is quick to say that enthusiasm or living to our potential is risky or finds fault with us for living with joie de vivre, then we may want to consider the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt.  The sage quote is:  “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.  So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” 

When we think about how intentionality speaks to diabetes or 365 challenges, we are reminded that an enthusiastic template may again be what we gravitate towards.  Little, enthusiastic, positive steps day in & day out or a system, routine or set of wholistic health-building habits are a choice that we get to make each & every day.   Sure, there are bound to be days when even though we try our glucose numbers are “hairy” yet what is the alternative?  We get to face those days with either a critical attitude or the heart of a champion.  We get to choose to do something “with” every day.

My heart’s hope for you is that you live each & every single day in “the arena” of the champions who enthusiastically live with big time excitement.

Smiles, Saundie :)

Friday blessings & this coming Monday, Yay, Easter Monday, I will share, "Do We Have a Pulse."  Wishing everyone a joy-filled weekend!  :)

How funny is it when you hear someone referring to someone else as “Dude?”  A few years ago, our oldest son & his friends basically started every sentence referring to one another as “Dudes” & that really seemed so funny.    My son & his friends were 9 years old at the time.  How old is a “dude” anyhow?  Well, I think a “dude” is somewhere between 5 & let’s say over 35 years old.  What leads me to say this?  Yesterday, our youngest son was calling me a “dude” at the beginning of his sentences.  My favourite sentence starting with “dude” in reference to me by Alex yesterday was:  “Dude, I know you are 23 years old this year.”  My response was, “thanks, Alex; you are right, Mommy is at least 23 years old.”

The word “dude” is kind of endearing through our boys so it is a word that makes me laugh & smile.  It would be a challenge for any topic after the word “dude” to be anything other than one of excitement.  Not only does the word not bother me, it just is a fun word in my mind.

Are there some words or phrases or inferences that are the pets that we can do without?  I am referring to pet peeves.  Thankfully, I find that I don’t have very many pet peeves.  How about you?  When we think about any peeves that really bother us on an ongoing basis even though try as we may, these “pesty peeves” remain.  Pet peeves by another name is the “hot button” that bugs you or I.  To share with you, my ongoing “pesty peeve” is unsolicited reference, advice and or inaccurate communication about diabetes.  A mentor shared with me years ago that when other people have a little bit of information about a given topic that often the brain will automatically try to fill in the missing pieces of information.  The mentor went on to say that unfortunately in most cases, the filled in information is inaccurate yet the person essentially believes that he or she has an accurate idea of the topic matter. 

When you think about your hot button or pet peeve, does it too tend to be one involving either diabetes or another ongoing 365 challenge in your life?  Please do not get me wrong.  I love making & taking the opportunity to build awareness surrounding diabetes.  Additionally, it is great to dispel myths if the person is willing & open to hearing what diabetes is really like.  If the other person however has already made up his or her mind or is making derogatory remarks, insisting that they are correct or the worst one of all…saying that they understand yet the person continues to make previous inaccurate statements & behave the same old way even with the information shared.  It is great to understand that you & I cannot make choices for others.  That means that if another person does not want to think differently about a chronic illness or another matter, then that is something that we choose to accept.  We do our best in sharing information yet the other person has to take it from there by their choices & actions.  The other person may choose to be unaffected by the information that you or I have shared.  That is a lost opportunity for the other person in my mind yet I know I have to accept that the other person must make decisions for himself or herself.

Recently, I met a lovely lady at a social gathering for the first time.  She approached me & said that she noticed that I was wearing an insulin pump.  She shared that her grandson has type 1 diabetes also.  Right after she had said that, she next said that she was sorry that she had mentioned diabetes because I was sure to be uncomfortable about talking about it.  I reached for her hand & assured her that not only was I very comfortable talking about diabetes, but also that my heart smiles to reach out in support to other folks who also have diabetes or other 365 challenges.  We started a new friendship over diabetes!  That is cool.

There are a few folks in my life that I will admit that I have a pet peeve with their ongoing statements.  I will share right away that I am a sensitive gal so what may bother me may not bother others & that is “exactly right.”  A small group of folks though often say insensitive things to me about my health.  Time after time, I attempt to correct their misconceptions yet it is evident that they are not hearing me.  It is a tiny group so I choose not to focus on this often at all.  Truthfully, it is unfortunate though because the tendency is that my family does not share much time with this tiny group of folks because they push that hot button of insensitivity towards my health.  I am working on getting to an attitude within myself that the insensitivity does not divide us.  It is a work in progress.    The great news is that we always have the choice to love others for the sake of other even when the behaviours that are being chosen towards us are not unifying.  Even in those moments of feeling that “pet peeve” welling up, we get to realize that there are so many more folks out there that understand what we are truly going through.  We have a community of battle buddies that either share the health challenges that we face or buddies that have lovingly chosen to sensitively, compassionately try to understand the day to day journey that we travel.

A  while ago, I had an encounter with that pet peeve.  The great news is that through sharing the frustrating story with other friends who have type 1 diabetes, I soon came to realize that this “pet” is one that others also have.  Then, together, we shared a few moments of emailing wee jokes back & forth.  The laughs were medicinal.  Belonging & understanding is the antidote to division & that feeling of being misunderstood. 

My heart’s hope for you is that if & when you have a pet peeve about your 365 challenge that you too have some battle buddies that you can go to & receive understanding & belonging. 

Smiles, Saundie :)

Have a beautiful week & I look forward to sharing, "Templates & Enthusiasm" with you this Friday.  :)

What is in a name?  Maybe you even know the meaning of your first name.  My first name is of Scottish decent & means, “Peace maker.”  If you have not had the opportunity to find out what your first name means, it may be pretty cool to look it up on-line & see if you think your name “fits” you or not.  Then you may find yourself proceeding on to look up family members’ name origins as well.  It is kind of a fun exercise to see if the name & meaning match up or not.  Within our nuclear family, all 5 of our names are spot on.

From my earliest memory, my heart’s hope is that conflict be minimized & peace maximized.  This is an understatement.  My natural tendency was to try to resolve unrest in any setting even as a young gal.  If each of us carry various mottos that we live by throughout different phases of our lives, my motto growing up was, “can’t we all just get along.”  It seemed like the natural & easy thing to do.  That is a child’s view of the world.  Perhaps, it is the adult world that complicates the simple somehow.  For sure, it is more complex than that yet there is some basis in changing the world for the better within the heart set of simplicity & the guidepost of “doing the next right thing.”  Please know that I am not suggesting that I did not get into many arguments myself as a youth.  It is always easier to examine under a microscope others’ actions & motives & behaviours versus our own.  Learning & choosing to hold ourselves accountable to the same scale as we hold others is one that comes with maturity in most cases.  Not too surprising, my natural tendencies lead me to pursue a career in counseling which is my heart’s passion to this day.  If we extend the saying, “you can take the girl out of the small town but not the small town out of the girl”, as well to “you can take the person away from counseling for brief periods yet you cannot take the counseling out of the person.  I love cognitive behavioural therapy because literally we can each employ this method as a wee bit of a resource.  This is really the basis of my mindset & that is that we each have free will & therefore have choice over what we allow to linger within our minds.  We can choose & influence the population of thoughts that go through our minds in a given day.  Just because a thought comes to mind does not mean that it is correct or fits.  Let’s say that a traffic light was not working.  What do we do?  We obey the traffic laws, right.  Why?  The reason is that we have discernment or the ability to know the difference between what is right (behaviourally) & wrong (incorrect behavior).  Over the years, I have retained that peace maker’s heart yet developed a couple of decades ago, the experience & knowledge to know that a world free of strife is a tall order.  Now, rather, I concentrate on the breath taking positive changes/differences that can come out of resolved conflict or conversions of mind & heart.

My husband’s name means “warrier.”  You will not hear anyone that knows him challenge that name meaning.  He is a man of character, the most self-assured person that I know & he bases all of his actions on his principles.  Folks that have not seen his gentle heart are intimidated by him.  Isn’t it amazing in life when you meet someone & you get a certain impression say that this is a dominant, unapproachable person to later learn through sharing additional time together that this is a stand-up, go-to person that has the heart of a treasured friend.  That is a little hidden treasure.

For our sons, our oldest son’s name means “gift”, second son: “ virtuous & person of strength” & youngest,” peace maker”.  Each name fits beautifully.  To enjoy one more generation, my Dad’s name means “gift” & my Mom’s name is the female version of my Dad’s name.  I hope you enjoy a wee bit of time treasuring the “you-ness” of your name.

What lead me to reflecting on names & meanings at this point in time?  Ideas come to me all the time.  I thrive on that & absolutely love that.  Recently, it occurred to me that although I tend to name everything that I can some version of the tea theme, that within the initial name of our community, I had missed an opportunity in the name.  The overall name was of course, “Exactly Teatime” with the motto of “this community is our cup of tea.”  A couple of neat things evolved.  One is that although the community started out as one for folks with type 1, type 2 or other forms of diabetes & family & friends that love us that other folks identified themselves as wanting to become part of our community as well.  These folks are people that have other ongoing health struggles which soon became dearly referenced as folks with “365” health challenges since there are so very many ongoing health challenges.  That lead me to love the idea of enhancing the name of our community so I went ahead & came up with a different community name still with my usual “tea” theme (with a twist) & updated motto.  It dawned on me that since I write the blogs & have type 1 diabetes, that it would be helpful to include that clue somewhere obvious on our community website.  There the name emerged, “Exactlyt1d time”.  On a humourous note, Dear Hearts who know me well know that one of my favourite things to say or imply is that it is a good job that we are sharing time together because it is “exactly teatime.”  I have a little cartoon in our kitchen that one of our sons cut out a while ago that has a title on it of” what time is tea time?”  Underneath the title, there is a picture of a clock & the hands are pointed at every number!  Well, that is a little like, when  we have type 1 diabetes…well, draw the hands of the clock…guess what, it looks a lot like the cartoon photo because it is 24 hours a day.  That is how the twist on the previous community writer name emerged.  The motto was a “no brainer” with a “Our diabetes & 365 community is our cuppa.”  For folks who are not addicted to tea, the word, “cuppa” is a British term meaning “cup of tea.”

It will be exciting to have our community soon share thoughts on whether the new community blogger name & motto are each person’s “cup of tea” or not. 

The great thing about our names & names that we choose is that we get to decide whether they fit or not.  Once we find the name that exactly fits each one of us, it is a warm, comfie feeling indeed.

My heart’s hope for you is that you find either a name or a quality that speaks to your heart & that you live your passion with pizzazz.

Smiles, Saundie :)

Enjoy your weekend & please join me again this Monday with the sharing entitled, "Dude, It's About the Pet That You've Got There."

If you were a kid once, please take a minute to picture a time when another person told you, “You can’t do that!”  How vivid is that memory?  Have you heard those same words many times since you were a child?  Hopefully, you have not heard the words too frequently.  Most of us share in the experience of hearing the words more often than we prefer.  We may have even spoken those words to ourselves or others along the way.  When we were smaller in stature, there were items that we could not reach.  Silently or aloud, we may have told ourselves that we could not reach the items & added on to that our exasperation at not being “big enough” yet.  Many of us will share the memory of feeling frustrated when it was that inevitable time of the evening:  bedtime.  It seemed to always come too soon & be set at a time that we may not have been satisfied with.  That seems to be a timeless situation.  Our children also share that frustration over the time set for sleep time.  Our sons enter into high level negotiations over bedtime extensions at least 5 out of 7 evenings a week.  In a similar way to us, our children silently voice that they will stay up all night when they “grow up.”  Life is tremendously funny that way, right?  When we are children, we want to stay up late & as we “mature” in age, we look forward to a “reasonably early” sleep time.  You & I have likely shared the experience ironically that often our later bedtimes are a result of our own children’s countless methods of prolonging their own bedtimes.  As a small aside, years ago, a conference speaker shared with the audience a truth that has stuck with me.  The gentleman’s statement was, “the highest energy wins.”  That explains, perhaps to a certain degree, why children seem to be able to “negotiate” their causes for a very long time!

Do you think that it may be a natural reaction for a child generally to have that “yes I can & I will show you” spirit when he or she is told, “You cannot do that?”  That is one reaction.  Another one may be sadness or disappointment.  Frustration & anger may be other responses.  Personally, even as an adult, I love the spirit of the response of using the “you cannot do that” & turning the “can’t” statement into a springboard for trying more diligently to accomplish the more difficult things in life.  Most people will admit that they have or do face challenges in some areas of life.  Whether a person has a health challenge or not, no one tends to have a life of “smooth sailing.”  We all face adversity or challenges along the paths that our lives are travelled upon.  You know it is coming & here it is:  what do we do “with” the “Nor Easterly” winds that are challenging the direction that we are trying to go in?  Are the voices that are telling us that we cannot do something external or internal ones?  What is the motivation behind the voice that is discouraging us from doing a particular thing?  When we are children & we are advised not to do something because it is an action that will likely lead to our harm, then that voice is a wise one & worthy of listening to.  There are other types of motivating forces/factors behind external heeds of “you cannot do that.”  Some folks care about us & what happens to us & therefore their words mean something to us.  There are times when folks will have genuine & good intentions yet lack the information about a given situation.

Let’s focus on the situations that present themselves in life surrounding our diabetes or other 365 challenges for a moment.  Have you found that every once in a while a person will approach you with the “you cannot do that” because you have diabetes or another health challenge?  If that person is someone who has your best interests at heart & all the accurate facts about the health challenge, then his or her advice is likely to be of great value to us.  How about those times when others do not have accurate facts or may not have our best interests in mind?  Those are situations that we may benefit greatly from being prepared for in advance.  If for instance, someone tells us that we cannot eat or exercise in a particular manner or attend a party due to our diabetes, then a red flag will go up.  Why is this person of this mindset?  Is it lack of information about diabetes or our health challenge?  Is this person behaving in a passive-aggressive manner possibly?  Thankfully, the majority of the time, whether another person has accurate information or not, he or she usually cares about us.  What does our internal voice say in response either silently or out loud?  Do we carte blanche agree with what folks tell us or do we have a “processing centre” for information to determine whether the suggestion fits for us or not?  Do we heed the advice or do we make use of the advice by using it as a springboard to do the things that truly matter in life whether folks believe that we “can” do these things or not?

I like most of the colours in “the crayon box” including black & white.  When it comes to thinking however, I am not an advocate for “black & white” thinking.  Do we let others or ourselves limit our choices with “either or” thinking?  If we truly can accomplish something that is meaningful to us safely with diabetes or another 365 health challenge yet we don’t because someone tells us that we can’t, then we are being short-changed.  Are some activities more difficult due to either diabetes or another 365 challenge?  Realistically, they just may be.  Is the activity important?  With greater effort, can we accomplish the difficult?  We get to answer these questions for ourselves.  A couple of months ago, I received a quote that stated that “the greatest disability in life is a negative attitude.”  Negative attitudes, I believe are extremely contagious.  At the heart of a number of negative statements is the word, “can’t.”  Personally, I am not too fond of that word.  The only value that I have found with that particular word is to let it propel me into doing the exact thing that I have been told that I would not be able to do.  I admit to feeling pretty feisty when I hear a statement about my type 1 diabetes preventing me from doing something as a piece of advice from someone.  Again, either being able to do something or not being able to do something falls short of the full spectrum of available thinking.  There is, for instance, the possibility of doing an activity even though it is difficult with considerable effort.  As an aside, last year, I read a book full of “brain massaging” by Stephen Covey, entitled, “The 3^rd Alternative.”  It is absolutely abundant in thought provoking information that we can each choose to implement in the world. 

Let’s conclude our time today together on a lighter note with 2 brief stories.  When our 2 younger sons were toddler-age, my husband & I did what most parents do, we “child-proofed” the house.  Not only did we put the baby proofing plugs into each electrical socket, we also put special knobs over the door knobs & latches onto cupboards.  With the proper motivation & a little old-fashioned ingenuity, our sons soon demonstrated that our baby-proofing efforts were no match.  One morning, my husband & I entered a room at the same time to the sight our 18 month & 3 ½ year old sons taking a snack out of one of the cupboards seamlessly & then replacing the latches back on the cupboards.  Another time, our than 3 year old youngest son, was seen basically scaling the refrigerator to reach a drink because he wanted to “do it himself.” My husband & I coined the phrase at that moment of, “the refrigerator seems to have legs” & little Alex thought that was a hoot!  Whether we implied by the baby proofing methods or through our words, we soon discovered that our sons did not have the tendency to take “can’t “for an answer.  Stepped up, the baby proofing started to take on more of an appearance of a person on the basketball court “guarding.”  Have you ever had a problem reaching a geographical destination?  Do you remember the “old days” prior to GPS?  I will share with you that I sure do!  About 12 years ago, my husband & I were on our way to a conference one evening in Markham, Ontario.  We had thankfully left ourselves an extra half hour to arrive there on time.  We had reviewed the map prior to leaving & brought along the paper map with us.  The majority of the drive had been uneventful until we were about 2 minutes away from the destination.  We tried to turn into the venue of the event to discover that although we could see the building, the street had an unusual break in it.  You could go a certain distance on it & then there was a curling club in the “middle” of the road & then the same street carried on just on the other side of the club.  For a minute or so, my husband & I sat in the car & laughed at this.  Then we both said, “you can get there but not from here.”  That essentially meant that we needed to circle the block until we could find the “rest of the road” & make a turn into the venue.  We certainly did not entertain a thought of “we can’t get there so we should turn around & go home.”  No, instead, all this temporary setback represented was that we would need to make more effort to find a way to get to the conference. 

These stories are a little like life whether we have diabetes or another 365 challenge.  Activities are not always going to be easy yet if they are worth it, we will go ahead & expend the extra effort.  We may at heart be “those legs that have grown out of the refrigerator!”

My heart’s hope for you is that the external & internal voices that you listen to with intent are the ones that have accurate information topped off with profound & earnest care. 

Smiles, Saundie :)

Have a beautiful weekend & looking forward to sharing, "Hey, You Were Missed", with you this coming Monday :)

If you are raising children or have raised kids, then you will have surely received the odd telephone call from the school.  For our community members who are not parents, do you remember either making a telephone call to your parents or a teacher or principal calling Mom or Dad?

By the way, my favourite people are either kids or were once kids!  That is a wee twist on something that I will often say to new parents when I get to meet their tiny Dear Heart for the first time.  I will often say, “my favourite people are babies or once were!”  Kids are comical at times, exasperating sometimes, teach us often, are the source of instilling humility & humour & are Dear Hearts within our entire human community.

You know what is endearing?  It is the absolute joy that fills our hearts to witness children & adults having good old-fashioned fun together.  Within the simple, we find immeasurable fun.  My heart believes that will never change.  If you are a parent, you will have snapshots of times either in the form of literal photos or pictures for the mind’s eye of adventures that your children have shared with their grandparents. How amazing is it to see the bond that is shared between grandchildren & their Dear Heart grandparents.  My heart smiles when I get to see my Mom & Dad playing with our sons.  They all bring the beauty of a child’s heart.  For that time together, they all simply, “get it.”  Collectively, they understand the simple yet spectacular gift that comes out of being present with one another.  I know this feeling too because my Grandpa was someone that had an infectious laugh, the heart of a servant, the bravery & courage that you instantly felt & the absolute knowledge that this time shared was all that mattered for that time.  Not once in 13 years did I ever see my Grandpa look at his watch or ever say that he was busy.  From this gentle giant, I learned through having “little eyes upon” him day in day out example. This example built the internal compass that I carry with me to today.  Grandpa taught me by example to be present with people naturally, to put first things first, to laugh as often & as hard as possible, to share freely, to make the most out of any situation & to love & honour  with all my heart my family & friends because it is people that truly  matter. 

When  we temporarily forget to use our internal compasses to guide our decisions daily , don’t you find too that a gentle tap on the shoulder comes in one form or another.  Hopefully it is not in the form of a health scare or other forms of that magnitude.  Maybe instead, we have a literal object or mindset that acts as our continuous compass.  It reminds us of Stephen Covey’s wise gem that “things that are most important should never be at the mercy of those things that are least important.”  Stephen Covey beautifully conveys to us that it is so easy for unimportant tasks to either be actioned first by us or have time simply move these to the top of the “must get done” list.  How do we prevent our lives from becoming a collection of decisions to inadvertently action our least important items on our “to do” lists?  Again, my heart says that a compass is just the thing or antidote. 

My grandpa taught me these amazing guideposts over 2 decades ago yet I have carried his wisdom through several geographic moves & all the phases or chapters of life so far.  Again, as I have shared before, a wise mentor said to me many years ago, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”  That is the reason that I choose to carry the heart of a child along with me as I continue an infinite life of learning.  My grandpa taught me to be humble through his actions as well & to just plain be excited about the small things. 

Okay, Saundie, where did this idea or these thoughts come from?  About 30 minutes ago, I received a telephone call from our oldest son, Matt.  Matt is a creative fellow with a caring heart.  He has challenges in the area of organization.  When forms are sent home from school, they just don’t hop out of his backpack onto the kitchen table so that his Dad & I can action them.  As a humourous aside, last year, Matt’s backpack was “exploding” with stuff popping out onto the floor at home.  I let Matt know that he & I would be organizing his backpack right away together.  Yikes, this was in March & what did we find but a form that was due the previous October!  Today’s call was one where he had a level of urgency in his voice.  He had not returned a form for an upcoming school event & it is due the day after tomorrow.  He asked me to come by the school & sign it this lunch hour.  This would surely get him off the hook.  Matt’s nickname is “Matt the Cat.”  It suits him because he usually lands on his feet just like a cat.  (Matt the Cat is the shortened version of “Matt the Cool Cat” that Matt’s Dad & I endearingly have always called him at home).  Immediately two things came to mind.  The first one & most important was my internal compass.  This is a non urgent matter that has moved up the list simply due to the passage of time.  Is this a good reason to action it with lightning speed?  No.  Secondly, this was yet another opportunity to pass along a life lesson to our son.  There are natural consequences to our actions or lack of action.  He would need to take responsibility & explain his lack of due diligence to his teacher.  The hope is that in future he will remember this & action his forms in a timely manner next time.  Decisions become easy to make when we have a guidepost.  If our compass is telling us that we are about to make a choice of “actioning” the unimportant at the expense of what truly matters, then we get the opportunity to make a better choice for ourselves instead.  We have the compass & we can choose to use it.

When it comes to diabetes or other 365 challenges, the compass is in my mind invaluable.  Sometimes we over commit ourselves in terms of activities & tasks at the expense of our health. Or, perhaps we are making behavioural choices that are polar opposite to our compass.  Our thinking can even be off track in conjunction with our values.   Our compass may tell us that we are off course.  We then get to choose to re-focus & go in the direction of our principles & move instead towards that which matters.

My heart’s hope for you is that you have a compass that guides you to giving yourself the dear & treasured simple moments that make up a lifetime of what truly matters.

Smiles, Saundie  :)

P.S.  Hope that you can return to share time again this Friday with the writing sharing of "You May Need to Go Around the Block"  :)

Please take a minute or so & think about a time when you were about 7-11 years old.  Specifically, do you remember the lunches that your Mom or caregiver packed for you to take to school?  Were you usually happy with the contents of your Fred Flintstone, Batman, Spiderman, Bugs Bunny, Princess Belle or other lunchbox?  How come?  Many people will say that opening the lunchbox at school was not exactly the highlight of the day.  Frankly, I feel badly for my Mom because I was a “picky eater.”  We can laugh together if you at one time shared this trait too.  Maybe you used to be in that secret club that did not like anything touching on your plate.  Perhaps you were the person that enjoyed ketchup on pretty much everything.  Funny, the memories that you retain sometimes, isn’t it?  Speaking of ketchup as a wee aside, my youngest boy cousin used to insist on a lunch daily of ketchup sandwiches as a kid!  Sitting across from him at lunchtime was well, not a highlight while watching him savor those sandwiches.

When I was in around 7-11 years old, I detested sandwiches.  I could endure one yet only if there was no butter on the bread.  My policy as a kid was that butter was reserved for melting over popcorn or corn on the cob.  Anyhow, that dislike of sandwiches was a challenge for my Mom as I was growing up.  My heart goes out to her especially now that I am a Mom too making lunches.  Our Dear Heart second born son is the “picky eater” within our family.  He seems to have inherited my distain for sandwiches.  Lunches for him are an exercise in creativity that’s for sure!  The additional challenge though is that he is a bit of a moving target where his taste buds are concerned.  One day he will thoroughly enjoy a dish & the next time it is made, he will insist that he loathes it entirely!  Some days he will come home from school & tell me how yummy his buddy’s lunch looked.  I ask him on those days what it was about the friend’s lunch that made it look so good to him.  Some days he will say something like he admired the lunch because it had fresh cucumbers in it.  Suffice to say, the next day I would put fresh cucumbers in his lunch & you guessed it…the cucumbers returned home untouched at the end of the day.    Oh well, no one ever proclaimed that raising children is a cinch yet it is one of the most precious callings parents will ever have in this lifetime.

All this talk about lunch is likely either making you feel hungry or leaving you with that adult saying/feeling of, “the grass is always greener on the other side.”  In other words, someone else’s lunch just somehow looks better than our own.

Okay, how in the world, Saundie, are you going to link up this analogy with diabetes or other 365 challenges?  May I start out by suggesting that “you don’t try this at home, folks?”  I am referring to a pitfall that I am about to share with you.  It is not my intention to share this story or suggestion with you to sound “preachy” or give unsolicited advice.  Rather, let’s look at the story with the spirit of the image of someone else walking through a minefield & encouraging friends to avoid walking that path out of care & compassion.  When we have diabetes or another 365 challenge, we can land in the pitfall or mine of thinking and even saying something like this to a loved one who does not have the illness:  “you wouldn’t understand because you don’t have this.”  These words are very likely to lead to a division & most likely to hurt feelings.  Early on in my initial days with type 1 diabetes, my blood sugars were frustratingly high.  I don’t know about you but when my glucose is excessively high, my patience is low.  I remember times when my husband was attempting to help out with my diabetes care & my reaction was less than appreciative.  Worse than that, I remember the words coming from me of “you would not understand how I feel because you don’t have diabetes.”  The look on my Dear Heart’s face is one that remains with me as a guidepost of remembering to never utter those words again.  How helpless he must have felt to hear those words.  Of course having our health back would be amazing.  Still though, we do not want to divide ourselves from our loved ones who do not have diabetes or a 365 challenge.  It also goes without saying that we are grateful that our loved ones & friends don’t have diabetes.   We don’t want to look at their health in a divisive way or like another person’s lunch.  Yes, we have a health challenge, yet we get to choose to expand our world in care & compassion as a result of our challenge.  That is how we give our challenge meaning.  We did not ask for a health challenge.  It is here though & now we decide what to do “with” it.  You can bet that I immediately hugged my husband & told him I was sorry with all my heart & soul.  And you can be sure that I have not uttered the words, “you don’t understand because you don’t have diabetes” in the past 5 years.  My promise is to never say those words again.  My husband has on countless occasions told me that he would take this health challenge on in a heartbeat in my place.  I believe him with all my soul.  And of course I would not want this for him or anyone else.  I think you & I know that we are stronger than our health challenges or any challenge that comes our way.  We may stumble briefly, yet we will get back up & be stronger still.  There is a famous quote that says, “fall down 7 times, get up 8.”  That’s the human spirit.

When we are tempted to blurt out to someone else that they certainly don’t “get it” because they don’t have diabetes or another health challenge, let’s press our pause button.  Let’s be ready just in case.  Let’s remind ourselves that those words are not going to help anyone.  Definitely, we have the need to express our frustrations with either diabetes or other challenges.  Let’s start the sentence with something like, “man, can I tell you how frustrated I am about diabetes today…”  If we start off by saying, “you wouldn’t understand because you don’t live with this”, it is very likely that the other person is going to at the very least stop listening.  We don’t want that.  I don’t want that for you or me.  Let’s decide to forbid diabetes from separating us from our friends & loved ones.  We are stronger than diabetes.

We are adults so we get to pack our own lunches.  We don’t choose to look at someone else & think or say that his or her lunch looks better.  This is in parallel to our choices when it comes to sharing our frustrations with diabetes or other health challenges.  Yes, let’s go ahead & share yet keep the sharing in the spirit of union, community & human kindness.

Smiles, Saundie  :)

Have a beautiful weekend & looking forward to sharing time with you again this coming Monday with the writing of "Keep Your Compass Close"  :)

Every single person has a story inside.  It is the journey that we have lived, up to, & including this very moment.  Do you think about the story that is yours alone?  Have you shared your story?  What is holding you back from sharing your story?

You & I do not sit down to share our stories like the tales that we have read countless times to our children or other children in our lives.  The beginning of the conversation with another adult does not start out with a “once upon a time, I was born & then…”  Perhaps it would be easier if this was the method of sharing…a bit of a flowchart of sorts.  I am joking of course.  Every person’s story is incredibly unique…a one of a kind.  With whom & how do we share our personal stories & why?

May I offer that I believe that everyone wants to share his or her story with at least one other compassionate person who cares.  Whether you or I are more of an outgoing person or a more reserved person, we have a beautiful need to share & connect with others.  We each need to feel like our journey matters, that we matter.  Perhaps we could even say that this is part of what gives our lives meaning & purpose. 

Do you remember that saying, “no man is an island?”  May I paraphrase that a little by saying that we each need one another to fully experience the journey that we are living.  For some folks, it may be easy to attempt to be super independent & as the song I believe by Paul Anka goes, “I’ll Do it My Way.”  Whether a person admits it or not though, that decision will most likely lead to loneliness.  Consider this as well that perhaps in order to live your life to the fullest, sharing with others is the recipe that will lead to just that.

Let me share with you that I know I am a willful gal in some ways.  Since I am acutely aware of this tendency, I have set up safeguards for myself or a life preserver ring of sorts.  When I find myself willfully steering a situation, I laugh literally at the absurdity of my thoughts.  Then I remind myself of one of the 3 h’s that I don’t dare leave home without.  No, no, I am not speaking of hypo’s or hyper’s here thankfully!  Instead, I remind myself of the need for me to look at decisions through the lens of: honesty, humility& humour.  Sure, there are lots of things that we can each complete on our own.  I am not suggesting that we each become so dependent on one another that we don’t progress with anything on our own.  Wouldn’t that paralyze society’s movements in no time if we lived like that?   Instead, my suggestion is that for the true maximization of our purpose here on earth that we need compassion, as well as caring community to bring out the most in each of us to turn our individual stories into something truly spectacular.  How about if I ask you this question.  Would you like to have an ok day, good day or great day?  Of course, you are going to say, “I will take the great day please!”  Well, when you are asked if you would like to turn your life story into an ok one or a masterpiece, why would your choice be any different?  If we choose to keep our stories buried deep within us, how does it feel if we know that there is so much more?  It is a little like knowing that we are capable of so much more yet we are choosing less for ourselves when it truly matters.

Okay, Saundie, great, there is the “why” answer of sharing our stories.  How about the “with” whom & how parts?  Here’s a question to ponder.  When you are going to be away from home for several days, do you draw up a large sign that says “please break into our home because we are away until next Thursday” & post it on your lawn?  Of course, you & I do not do that for obvious reasons.  We can draw some parallels in sharing our lives, stories, dreams, passions & purpose.  These are deeply personal truths about us.  We may ask ourselves many questions about the types of traits that we need in another person in order for us to become vulnerable enough to share our story.  Perhaps we have even shared something profoundly personal with someone in the past & let’s just say that it did not go well.  Have we asked ourselves if that has at least in our own minds given us a reason to close ourselves off from present or future sharing of ourselves?  If we are answering yes to that question, then let’s go ahead & seek the wise counsel & help to heal from those experiences so that we can move on.  Then, my heart’s hope is that you do know at least one person that you can be totally your true self with & can share your beautiful story with.  If you cannot think of a person that you can do that with right now, I know with all my heart that you will meet them because that person is out there.  We have to put ourselves in the “right” places to make that happen though.  Are we going to decide to spend most of our life securely behind our own walls of our home & expect someone to magically ring our doorbell & reach out to us?  Or, are we choosing with courage to get out there in the world & find communities of people that lift us up?  They are out there.  I know because I see them every single day. 

As a short aside, we can get into cycles of negative thinking especially if we have an ongoing challenge like either diabetes or an ongoing health challenge.  Do we need to permanently reside there though?  Is it helping us to fully live our potential & our beautiful story?  Negativity can surely be a detour yet in my mind, never a permanent residence.  Break the cycle with anything that lifts you in a health building way…physical & emotional & legal of course.  You may not want to pick the phone up & ask your friend or family member to meet you for a “Timmy’s.”  Do it anyway.  Go for a walk.  You probably will not “feel” like it.  Go for the walk anyway.  Better still; go for a walk with a friend in nature if physically possible.  It takes courage & wisdom to know that just because we don’t “feel like” doing something that is life enhancing for us, that we need to fight through that barrier & do it anyway.  That is the part of being willful that I assure you is beneficial.  I have found that I know that I have will over my mind.  Just because a thought is in my mind, you better believe that I am the one who decides whether it is nonsense or not.

Okay, so we are not going to choose to share fully our hearts with everyone we meet necessarily.  We have the will, intellect, ability & decision to determine who we will share our hearts with.  Have you thought about what the heart of the other person must look like for you?  None of us are meant to be perfect so I know that we cannot expect that.  How about some traits though like:  honesty, genuine care, love & knowledge that the other person wants the best for you.  You may also love when someone else celebrates the talents that you have up until that point “kept close to your vest.”

How do we share our hearts & stories?  That is a question that each of us gets to answer.  One that comes to mind though is through the communities that we choose to belong to.  We may quietly join a community & initially sit back & listen to everyone else sharing their stories.  There is absolutely no fault in that.  There will come a time though that we get to ask ourselves whether it is time to shine & share our story.  You may not feel like it.  I know I frankly never feel like sharing at the time yet if I don’t, when I return home, I am figuratively kicking myself for missing a chance to become part of a bigger story of the community.  The communities that we belong to become brighter, more exciting respites of aliveness when we authentically share our talents & stories as long as the members want the best for us.  Maybe we find it easier to ease into sharing.  Perhaps we share individually versus in group situations.  We are all exactly, beautifully ourselves.  Let us pause frequently though & ask ourselves if we are capable of more…more of what truly matters & go ahead & do these things that we are capable of whether we “feel like” it or not.  It is a little like diabetes or other 365 challenges.  Do we let these challenges hold us back or choose to let them be a reason to opt out of shining or do we choose to make diabetes or other 365 challenges be the inspiration to live more fully?

My heart’s hope for you is that you find your voice, share your talents, your story that is burning within you & that you are met with an abundance of community support.  Then there is the joy-filled knowledge that you are living life in accordance with your abilities fully.  What a euphoric feeling that is.  You are not invisible & you have something dear & spectacular to share.  Have a hit it over the fence life!

Smiles, Saundie :)  Looking forward to sharing our time together again this Friday with the writing entitled, "Someone Else's Lunch..."   :)

Identify, Obtain, Wrap & Open!

How does your life look to you when compared to your life last year?  Day by day, little changes creep into our lives that affect us each & every day.  They are so small though generally & we may not notice how our lives evolve within say a year or so.

How much of what has changed within the year has been as a result of daily decisions that you have made day in & day out?  What about the changes that happened within your life that are a result of external demands?  In attending to these demands, did you lose a little bit of your own personal passion or purpose day after day?

When I think about time, I equate it to that of a budget.  A financial budget is an easy comparison.  There is x amount coming into the household each month & the key is to determine how we allocate this.  Where time diverges from finances though primarily is in that we have absolutely no idea how much time we will be gifted with on this earth.  Each day can be seen through the eyes of excitement, gratitude, adventure or through the lens instead of repetition, anxiety, and boredom.  Of course there are states in between these as well.

We can have those times in our lives where it seems as though external demands are monumental & need our attention.  When our children are very young, for example, our personal daily time budget is by nature exceedingly low.  As things change in our lives though & other doors open up, do we fill in some openings within our personal time with activities that renew us or drain us?  Truthfully, there have been times when I would rather not silence my mind long enough to ask myself that question because I already knew the answer in my heart & brain.  Here’s the part that I disliked the most about realizing that I had at times given my time to activities that were not adding to my purpose & passion in this life & that is that in recognizing that fact meant that I had to make some changes.  If I did not choose to make changes then my principles, values & purpose were made meaningless & that to me is pain personified.

Personally, I choose to assess how things are going in November & February.  There is no real intention behind those months for major reflection.  That is just how it has unfolded over the years & well, it works.  November can be a somber month particularly climate wise, however at the same time, can be filled with gratitude & excitement.  Why?  November is the month that we have Remembrance Day.  It is a time of profound gratitude that I love to live with all my spirit in honour of the heroes :  our soldiers of past & present.  It is the month as well that folks with diabetes can choose to be more of an advocate since it is diabetes awareness month.  It is a month that we can choose to give ourselves credit for taking great care of ourselves every day of the year when we look at that big light blue circle of hope.  There is a saying & please forgive me because I don’t remember who coined the phrase.  The quote is, “we need to calm the monkey mind.”  It is not meant to be a disrespectful term.  It simply reminds us that it is extremely challenging in this fast paced world to quiet our minds so that we can connect with our spirits & “check in “ with ourselves to see “how things are going really.”  Monkeys seem to appear in November & February in my life on a comic note.  November, I have “blue monkey” my diabetes awareness mascot stuffie & in February, I have the imaginary of “calming my monkey mind.” 

On a joking note, you know that line in “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” by the Grinch where he says,”oh the noise, noise, noise, noise!”  Have you found though that when your home is quiet or there is a lull in conversation that there is a level of discomfort.  Do you tend to fill that time of silence with noise in one form or another?  Does it seem unnatural to you to have quiet for even a short time?  I will share with you that left to my own natural tendencies, I would not seek the quiet that my spirit thrives upon without these reflections in November & February to see how far “derailed” my life little by little may have become one decision at a time, one day at a time.

When I reflect upon 2010, 2011 & the first half of 2012, I know through & through that I did not “quiet my monkey mind.”  I kept telling myself that if I simply completed the list of tasks & obligations that I had (over committed) myself to that then I would reflect & make any course corrections in my life.  My husband has an eccentric saying & that is “when you think that you are too busy & too stressed that you need to go for a 30 minute walk right away & if you think and or say that you are too busy for a 30 minute walk, then you need a 60 minute walk.”  I see wisdom in that saying.  During those 2 ½ years, I put my purpose & passion on hold & frankly said no to my “bigger yes.”  It was a painful time…painful.  The lesson though will be one that lasts.  I learned to turn myself right side up again one day at a time, one decision at a time.  Yikes, I even learned how to use the word, “no” every once in a while too & the sky did not fall!  It was a humbling experience.  When I look at what my life looked like last winter & compare it with this year, I am absolutely amazed about the difference.  Life is not perfect for anyone & I do not expect to live life in any other form than with the ups & downs that we all experience. I had listened again to my spirit & heart within the quiet times & it was medicinal.  Reflection was something that I had inadvertently given up for 2 ½ years.  Prior to that time, I had stayed on track but somehow, day by day, I fell off the tracks & my life I realized was not being living “on purpose” but rather more like perhaps for the purpose of a myriad of others & their passions.  Becoming derailed & then getting back on purpose has taught me more than ever how to be more thankful for this time of reflection that I had for years taken for granted.

Whether you have type 1 or another form of diabetes or another 365 challenge, don’t you find that you thrive when you are living your own unique purpose?  Have you thought about what your mission or purpose is?  Then do you make daily choices to keep driving in the direction of your purpose?  What reminds you to stay on purpose?  Last winter, the thing that broke the cycle of being derailed & getting back to reflection & course correction was an additional health scare.  That was the tap on the shoulder & I sure listened to it.  Day by day, I made changes & admitted to myself that I was way off track.  I realized what was truly important, then figured out the decisions & actions that I was committed to making each day & I wrapped it up & gave it to myself!  Today as I share this with you, I am sitting in a quiet room in our home with our goldie all curled up next to me.  Beyond the couch, I am absolutely captivated by a simple painting that we recently hung up on our wall.  It is a painting of Georgian Bay.  It reminds me that I will always take my growing up years in Georgian Bay with me.  The painting is of a tree along the shoreline. I know I have walked that exact location in the painting & my heart smiles & feels peace in experiencing this painting.  It anchors me to look at this simple painting.  It is indeed medicinal.  Do you know who painted this simple landscape?  It was created by the man who is responsible for literally saving my life.  Perhaps he saved your life too?  He did if you have type 1 diabetes.  It was painted by Sir Frederick Banting. 

My heart’s hope for you is that you give yourself a priceless gift of identifying, obtaining, wrapping & opening up your purpose.  Go ahead, live your life on purpose…your purpose.  There is a quote that is especially “exactly right” & that is, “an original is always worth more than a copy.”  Are you living your life as the beautiful original that you are.  My heart hopes so.

Smiles, Saundie :)  Oh, and it will be lovely to share time together this Monday with the writing entitled, "Once Upon a Time...Come on, Ask"  :)

Two words: public speaking.  Okay, test your pulse now.  Just kidding.  Are you one of those fortunate people that is able to stand up in front of a collection of people & speak?  Or, are you a person who finds his or her heart racing, palms “glowing” and throat becoming so dry that only a mere peep of a noise can be heard?  Perhaps most of us are somewhere in between these two guideposts when we think & participate in public speaking.

If we carry at least a little bit of our childhood with us throughout life’s journey, then speaking in front of larger crowds may bring back memories of the first time that we were given no choice but to speak.  Yikes, the earliest speaking in front of a group of others memory that comes to my mind is the entire grade four year.  This will not likely surprise you to hear that I have always loved reading.  Basically from kindergarten to grade 11, I was painfully shy.  Reading was a welcome refuge from that quietness.  Although, I was quiet, at the same time, there was a spark within me of creativity & this lead me to challenge myself to journey well outside of my comfort zone especially from the university years until now. 

Does a first memory of public speaking come vividly to your mind?  Was it an uncomfortable feeling or did you “hit it out of the park?”  Perhaps, you have a talent for delivering an amazing presentation & you find the experience of speaking in front of a group to be an exhilarating one. Positive adrenaline can feel absolutely fabulous.  Let me share with you a wee snippet of grade four.  Grade four in a small town of 1200 people was super in many ways.  In our town, we had one school for grades kindergarten through to grade 3.  There was another school (elementary) for grades 5 through to grade 8.  Aha, what about grade 4?  Would you believe that we had our very own school for just 2 classes of grade 4?  It was a tiny, old-fashioned building with a bell at the top of the second story.  Each morning, a student would receive that coveted honour of ringing the bell to start the morning classes.  The day that you got to ring the bell was the day that you kind of felt like a VIP & superhero wrapped up in one.  Grade four was the first year that once a week, we could feel grown up enough to purchase one lunch a week.  Both classes ate their lunches together in the large gym.  The lunch that was offered for purchase once a week was a simple one of cup a soup & crackers.  All the kids loved that day of the week though.  Behind our small school house, we had a cool hill that we tobogganed on in the winter.  We received oodles of snow each winter so grade four for the tobogganing alone brings a smile to my face to this day.  It was a favourite tobogganing spot for sure.  It was the first year that we got to participate in science class & it was very hands on even including our first fish dissection.  None of the class members were faint of heart when it came to the fish since we were after all living in Georgian Bay which is an incredible area for fishing.  To this day, Georgian Bay is carried within my heart.  Our sons & I return as often as possible for family visits, fishing, fresh honey runs and tree-ripened apples.

Grade four sounds pretty great so far, right?  It was.  Here’s the part that was not so great.  Grade four was the first year that the curriculum required reading aloud to the class. Picture a profoundly shy, small town girl having to for the first time find her voice.  My fear at that point of speaking in front of others was so great that literally no sound came out.  My teacher deducted from those repeated attempts at trying to get me to speak in front of the class & same results each time that I could not read.  Worse than that, I was then required to stay after school to work with the principal of the school.  For a shy kid who would prefer to remain as invisible as possible, this was bad news.  It is true that in smaller geographic areas, others soon learn of what is going on in our lives.  I had managed to blend in for years & frankly that was exactly within my comfort zone.  Thankfully, the first day that I stayed behind with the principal, she soon found out that not only could I read, but I was in fact a “read-a-holic.”  The after school sessions could cease thankfully.  The sense of panic however at reading aloud did not go away for many, many years.

Over the years, I have found opportunities to literally keep finding my voice.  Each time that I speak in front of a large audience, I have the same feelings frankly that I had in grade four.  It is that butterfly feeling in the tummy & sweaty palms & racing heart all over again.  The difference though is that I have an excitement at the same time of stepping outside of my comfort zone & working on projects that have filled me with many blessings.  The other neat part is that when other people share how nervous they are about public speaking, I am able to look them in the eyes & genuinely say, “me too.” 

This morning,  a person approached me at a community group that I was attending.  He asked me to share some words with the group.  There it was all over again:  the racing heart, sweaty palms & dry throat.  The child within me (likely that one from grade 4) thought for a fraction of a second of making a speedy get away!  Next though, I smiled & truthfully replied that I would be honoured.  The frustrating part of jumping outside your comfort zone with passion is that type 1 diabetes sometimes does not cooperate.  Each time that I do speak publically in front of a larger audience, I test my blood sugar & each & every time including today, I find that my sugars have shot up due to the “butterflies.”  It is such a common correlation, that I now call that the “butterfly sugars.”  Here’s the important part though.  There is no way that I am going to let type 1 or anything else stop me from living life to the fullest whether it is in public speaking or anything else.  Okay, butterfly sugars, here comes super insulin correction to the rescue!

My heart’s hope for you is that no matter what passions speak to your heart, that diabetes or other 365 health challenges do not get the last word. 

Smiles, Saundie :)

P.s.  This Friday's sharing is entitled, "Identify, Obtain, Wrap & Open." 

How do you respond when even though you planned in advance, something happens to churn up what would have otherwise been smooth sailing?  Each one of us are awesomely, exactly who we are meant to be.  Some of us are super organizers & almost ready for anything that life may toss our way.  There are other folks who tend to “play it by ear” & find that we tend to manage “A Okay” with this method. 

You know that I have shared with you already that left to my own natural devices, my tendency is towards a type of “creative organization.”  Throughout life, that form of chaotic organization worked pretty well most of the time.  Boom, then along came the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes just over 5 years ago.  That was the game changer I found.  “Creative organization” was no longer an option leading to positive consequences I soon learned.  My goal like yours was & is to feel as well as possible.  If that was the result that I wanted then I had to make different choices about how I was going to affect positive results.  There is a quote by Einstein that essentially tells us that doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results is the definition of insanity.  Put a little gentler, may I offer up that perhaps it is at the very least the definition of denial.  It is easy to do things the same way.  It takes effort to replace habits.  It is hard work.  The question that we ask ourselves though is whether the hard work & effort required is going to be worth it.

Within our type 1 community, it is very likely that each one of us have tried our best many times to keep within that magical blood sugar range & have something derail our best planning.  Here it comes.  There are always 2 questions that I take along every minute of the day with me in this life.  They are:  what can we do “about” the situation & what can we do “with” the situation.  Even though we have planned well during a given day does not mean that we will be rewarded with a beautiful looking 5.5 smiling back at us from our glucose meters.  Oh dear, we just don’t know that we are in the process say of catching a cold that has to date been symptom free.  As a bit of comic relief, there is nothing like a person with type 1 being able to predict his or her own cold 3 days before the symptoms begin!  We get the clue to the cold by the bizarre numbers on our meters days before the Kleenex are needed!  How about stress?  Trying to account for stress in advance with insulin calculations is a little like walking the tightwire blindfolded while sleepwalking!  These are just a couple of examples of the trying to do everything right yet receiving less than favourable blood sugar parallels.

It is an instant connection listening to other folks with type 1 speak of experiences that they have had when it comes to low blood sugars.  Low blood sugars are to me a short time span of mini helplessness.  The feeling is awful that’s for sure.  Thinking becomes a monumental task & well, it is difficult to explain the feeling to folks who have not experienced this 20 or so minutes at a time of hypoglycemia. 

Realistically, I have come to accept that there will be incidents of hypoglycemia from time to time.  The doing something “about” part is the preparation proactively each day.  That is the math part where we each calculate our carb to insulin ratio, exercise, stress, colds and that type of thing.  It is also the part of the equation where we remember to do a glucose test before driving to ensure safety of all drivers on the road. 

How about the part of hypoglycemia that speak to the “doing something with” aspect?  We all have countless tales of hypoglycemia that occurred even though we did everything in our power to prevent them.  My heart goes out to you since we all share this frustration from time to time.  Let me share a wee story of dinner out with my “barbaloots” (sons) on Valentine’s Day.

Our second born son, Brian asks every day for the same meals:  pizza, pancakes or hamburgers.  It goes without saying that each of these 3 meals are reserved for the occasional “treat.”  Still, it does not detract Brian from requesting these meals.  Valentine’s Day takes on a little different flavor when you are raising 3 growing boys.  Temporarily, gone are the days of a romantic dinner out with table cloths & soft music for 2!  I say this with a smile though since I would not give up a single day with these precious, adventurous & exhausting boys. 

This Valentine’s Day, one of Brian’s meal dreams came true.  We did go out for hamburgers to Harvey’s.  The Harvey’s in our area is located within the same parking lot as the movie theatre.  The movie goers were out in abundance & found the convenience of having dinner next door to be the thing to do.  Yikes, when we entered the door to Harvey’s, the line up was at least 30 deep.  There is nothing like 3 growing boys motivated to have burgers to keep you all committed to standing in a line though.  I always check my blood sugar before driving, always.  Before we left the house, I was patting myself on the back seeing a delightful 6.7 glowing on my meter.  By the time however, it was time to pick up our order, 30 minutes had gone by.  That was 30 minutes of standing & entertaining boys in a line up.  By the time it was time to communicate what toppings were to be on each burger, my brain drew a strange blank.  5 burgers…and no idea what was to go on any of them including my own.  That was the time to decide what to do “with” what I knew instantly was hypoglycemia.  Two things came to mind & they were:  humour & honesty!  Our sons were comfortably seated across the room at this point & I was standing in front of the lady asking me what to put on each of the burgers.  I looked her in the eyes & said, “I am in low blood sugar & I have no idea what to put on the burgers.”  Then I just chose to laugh.  Years ago, I would have been so embarrassed & tried to hide the low blood sugar but not anymore.  If it has to be a part of life, then I am going to choose honesty & humour or H2 as I have coined the phrase.  As a little addition & comic relief, sometimes I call it H2O because when I have hypoglycemia, it is like my brain is at zero or temporarily erased!  Humour & honesty are just the antidote for that though!  Anyhow, I let the lady know that I would have to call the boys over to do their own orders & that they could also choose the toppings for my burger too.  She joked a little with me & said that I was very trusting to let the boys choose my toppings.  No one had to be “wierded out” & how great is that!

Then the French fry races  began after we were seated.  The competition was a close one since the boys are super fast eaters especially when they are consuming a favourite food.  I usually take about 10 times longer to finish but not this time.  When you are in low blood sugar, don’t you find that you feel that urgency to get your sugars back up in record speed.  I know I always just want the low blood sugars to end as quickly as possible so that my “brain power” is restored again.  The French fry races resulted in a very upset tummy.  Tummy, may I introduce you to Mr. Gravol.  Mr. Gravol & Mr. Tummy have a common friend & that is Mr. Hypoglycemia.  These 3 characters almost always collide during low blood sugar.  Have you found too that you every so often wake up in the night to the “shakes”, test your blood sugar, see that it is low, grab a juice box & drink it at super speed only to a couple of hours later need to get up due to a tummy ache from the juice on an empty tummy.  Those 3 characters in the middle of the night is something that we could each do without!

Have you thought much about what you do to prepare in an effort to avoid low blood sugars?  How about thoughts that you have about what you are going to choose to do “with” those inevitable yet hopefully rare times that an unexpected low blood sugar appears?  Perhaps it is not H2 or H2O that is the answer for you.  Perhaps it is something else.  My heart’s hope is that you find yourself in the company of people who support & care about you during “highs”, “lows” & everywhere in between!

Smiles, Saundie :)

Have a lovely weekend & it will be super to share again on Monday.  This Monday's writing is entitled, "Butterfly Sugars"