Day 57 It's a Zoo Out There!

It’s been a very busy day! And I am going to attempt to get down as much as I can before nodding off while I sit here. I’m truly exhausted!Actually, I’m beyond exhausted... I’m a blogging zombie at this point. 

We did make it to the Bronx Zoo today, but it was so incredibly crowded. I think it must have been Group Day or something, because there were hoards of people wearing matching shirts. It was definitely more crowded than my trip there a few weekends ago and we found it very difficult to get through any of the indoor or outdoor exhibits. I often thought that the animal exhibits looked much more inviting than the current one I was walking in at the time. We missed out on a lot of exhibits today, but we had a good time despite that.

Tonight was also my last Reiki Master class! I am officially a Reiki Master after many years of practicing Reiki and I can’t express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to learn more about this amazing technique. Reiki has astounded me once again with its abilities and I know that I can only grow from it. I love that Reiki has provided me with opportunities to help my children, family, friends, and myself. I absolutely love that my children ask for Reiki when they are hurt or not feeling well, but what I love most of all is the peace that shows on my son’s face during a Reiki treatment, the calm that comes over his restless mind. I intend to provide more treatments for him on a regular basis to help him deal with his frustrations, focussing issues, anxiety, and self-control. If you would like to know more about Reiki, healingreikienergy.com is a great place to read up on what Reiki is and to read articles about how it being used today by pro golfers, NFL athletes, and how Dr. Oz has Reiki practitioners in his operation room during surgery. Reiki is amazing and still astounds me many years after my first experience. And believe me, I was a total skeptic in the beginning and thought my good friend that introduced it to me and eventually taught it to me, was on the looney side. Oh, I thought she was extremely sweet and good hearted, but maybe a little crazy. 

After a day like today, that consisted of endless walking and hectic crowds, I’m completely overstimulated. With a trip planned for tomorrow, I would typically have trouble putting my mind at ease before falling asleep. Tonight, I’ll be treating myself with Reiki and I have a feeling I will drift off rather quickly. I’ll even practice smiling while I treat myself. That sounds like an excellent way to drift off to dream land.

Day 42 Scooting Past Anxiety

My daughter is a cautious girl. She’s afraid to ride her bike because she fell last year. She won’t even consider riding on my son’s small four wheeler or motor bike, even with me or my husband driving it.  When she’s feeling adventurous, she’ll grab a scooter and baby step it along the driveway. Today, she was feeling adventurous apparently. 

I watched her scootin’ along the driveway at a speed that I’m pretty sure my grandma could beat, but hey, the more she pushed along, the more confidence she will gain. Ideally... But even with her dawdling pace, she managed to trip. 


Now, I don’t know much about calculating speed impact, but it always seemed to me that the faster an object is going when it hit a wall (or a driveway in this scenario), the harder the hit. The harder the hit, the more damage there is. If that rule holds true, then I’d hate to see what she would’ve looked like if she had been going faster. She managed to scrape up both knees, one knee in three places, scrape her elbow and and bruise her hip. I knew she was alright by the way she ambled over to us, but I could tell that this was going to be a situation.

I greeted her compassionately, trying to keep her calm. I knew that once she got sight of a little red, she would lose reason. I beckoned her to sit on my lap and I would give her Reiki. She sat down and before I could hover my hands above her knee (the worst one) she caught sight of the RED (we can’t say blood in this house). 


Her eyes widened, her hands tensed, she kicked her feet and began begging for a band-aid.  “Please, I need  a band-aid!! Just let me have a band-aid!! Please!!” 


I wanted to give her the band aid, believe me, but I also wanted her to settle down first -- take control of her anxiety. I assured her that I would give her the band-aid after I gave her Reiki, to which she reminded me that I could do it afterwards too. With that remark, she grinned... knowing she had me. How could I argue with that reasoning? I smiled with her and instead of caving, I asked her how many raspberry bushes did she think we had in our yard. I asked her to count them out loud. As she counted, I asked the Reiki to flow. She kept counting.. 13, 14, 16. “Wait, a minute! You forgot 15 again. Poor 15! You always skip poor 15.” And I was glad she decided to take this opportunity to argue this with me. Hey, she wasn’t screaming for a band-aid. She continued counting and I continued treating her with energy. 


She was calm, feeling less pain, and in control. 

I took her in to get the band-aid as promised, but she not once lost control of her senses again. As we found the perfect sized band-aid, she smiled and laughed with me. I couldn’t have been happier for her. She later took a peek behind the band-aid, and saw how much red was on the gauze. She simply covered it back up and continued on with her playing. Phew! I’m so glad she was able to act nonchalant about it although I knew it was bothering. She didn’t allow it to take her over again. For every one of her moments of success, even if she may not realize the success at the time, I smile a little brighter. I can see how far she’s coming and I couldn’t be happier! Now, I've just got to get her back onto that scooter... I see elbow and knee pads in our future.

Day 36 A Friendly Smile

I had quite a few smiles today. Spending time with my daughter shopping was actually a treat today (she didn’t complain or beg to go home). She honestly said that she wanted to spend to time with me all the time and in my eyes, that’s enough of a smile to last for days! Then, my son made way for a new smile. He redecorated under his loft to make room for the old school house desk we had and then assisted with the assembly of their new computer desk. I can’t help but smile when that boy starts wielding a screwdriver. But what I loved more was him saying thank you to me for the desk. Seeing my husband walking to the track to relieve me of my parental duties in order for me to get to my first night of Reiki Master class was a definite boost to the morale as well. Reiki class, with its meditation and reflection, certainly left me feeling ready to enjoy my evening. But what I needed was simple...

A friend and a conversation... and maybe a glass of wine. The comfortably cool evening, the sound of the lake lapping against the dock, and laughing with a friend while sipping on a glass of wine make for a great big happy smile. It was a beautiful scene. Then, a weird all white skunk walked by and straight up the walk way which just so happened to be the way I had to walk to my car. I was in even less of hurry to rush home after that... And did you notice that I said it was all white. That left me with more time to enjoy some smiles before I cautiously made my way back to the car to return home. No need to follow that critter too closely. Oh, and you better believe that I jiggled the keys and vocally forewarned any smelly stripe-less skunks of my presence when I did head on home. I’m pretty sure sneaking up on an unsuspecting skunk is a pretty fast way to demolish a smile and I want to hold on to mine for as along as possible.

Day 19 Repurpose, Relax, Reiki

So what do you do when your day was filled with smiles and you realized how special all those smiles were when they were actually happening and not just at the end of the day during reflection? Cartwheels!! Ha, nope, I didn’t do cartwheels. I’m nowhere near coordinated or graceful enough to accomplish that... Remember Day 4? I did pat myself on the back and allowed myself to soak in the day!

I started the day doing things that generally don’t bring about the wonderful feeling of inner peace and joy, you know...cleaning and gardening. I know some people enjoy gardening and don a cute little gloves, kneel on those padded rectangular thingies and get dirty. That is most certainly not me! I’m no diva, but I do happen to like having clean nails and those gloves never seem to do their job. As for cleaning, I know there are some people (crazy people)  who like to clean (no offense to you crazies that enjoy cleaning). They find it therapeutic and purifying. I can understand that too if it wasn’t such hard and gross work. The gloves for that job aren’t so wonderful either. Today, though, I didn’t mind the housework and yard work. Okay, I could’ve done without the cleaning, but it was fine in the end, of course; however, the gardening was almost fun. My flower garden (looks like a weed garden) is a work in progress. I keep adding to it little by little. It’s not so pretty right now, but maybe one day it will be. What’s been fun is the repurposing part of it. My husband’s been cleaning out the shed and I’ve been finding new uses for some of the goodies he’s dragged out. The wood from a beat up bench (I broke it with my car, oops) became part of the walkway through the flowers, old buckets and ice shovel became a planter and decoration. That’s the fun stuff! 

In that shed was some sprinklers left behind from the previous owner as well, so we got one of them working. Presto chango, backyard water park! I smiled particularly wide when I watched my husband take a break, scoop up our daughter and run her into the traveling water spray. There’s not much more precious than a dad playing with his kids. 

Then there are the kids themselves. I had a good chuckle over the neighbor’s four year old declaring “I’m so thirsty! If I don’t get a drink a soon, I’ll die of a heart attack! Man, I’m sweatin’!” My son made me proud of him when he took a break from all the hubbub of the children’s games when he was feeling overwhelmed. He didn’t try to stick it out and end up yelling at other kids like he usually does. I’m so glad he stepped away for just a few minutes to relax and then joined back in. Way to go, son! And my little girl, the one terrified of bugs, had me out catching lightening bugs (or fireflies, whichever you prefer). For some reason, lightening bugs are cute and other bugs aren’t. She later drew a picture of us catching fireflies (I think this is what she prefers to call them) together and we both had huge smiles on our faces. It was an accurate depiction! 

Today was also filled with Reiki and that is always a great thing for me! I had a friend come over for her first treatment and she left wanting more, so I’m thankful that she enjoyed it. It always makes me smile to hear what someone says about their treatment, especially their first treatment. And when the kids saw that the Reiki table was up, they wanted their own treatments. So they each got a treatment on the big table before bed, which means I got to carry my sleepy little girl back to bed again. Yay! My son got off the table euphorically saying that he felt great and ready for bed! 

It doesn’t get much better than all that, and I’m grateful for every moment of it. As I sit here in front of this computer, I have to smile at myself too because I keep falling asleep and bobbing my head when I awake, fingers still on the keyboard. Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself too.

Day 13 Painted Smiles

I’m in the parking lot of a grocery store, peering into the trunk of my car. I really do attempt to prepare myself for any occasion by stocking my car with anything I can imagine that could come in handy! Need a place to sit while visiting a playground? I’ve got blankets for that. Does someone want to play baseball while out and about? I’ve got a bat and whiffle balls just for the occasion and a football if you change your mind. Oooh, paper cut? Yessirree Bob, I’ve got a first aid kit. Umbrellas, games, fishing gear, shoes, clothes and more, it’s all back there and usually fairly neatly stored. 


Today, I needed items to preoccupy the kids while waiting for the fireworks display. I’ve shoved glow sticks, sweaters, and balls in my bag, clutched blankets and a cute little fairy fold up chair and start off towards the fields. Wait, headphones! “Don’t close the trunk!” I grab headphones and turn away back towards the fields. Oh, you know what, I’ve got face paint! Yep, I have face paint in my trunk. What, you don’t?. “Open the trunk again!” After I’ve shoved the palette of  perfectly pretty pastels into my handbag, And I’m off to see the fireworks, for real this time. 


As I’m carrying this load across the parking lot to my awaiting family, I begin to feel burdened. Literally, I’m carrying quite a bit here. I’ve got the tinker fairy’s chair banging against one leg, my over flowing handbag falling off my shoulder, a blanket unravelling and I’m trying to keep my tied sweater from sliding off my waist. I picture that Breathe and Flow jump rope with a new notch in it and decide to use the mantra. I take a big, belly filling breath and release. I wasn’t exactly shocked to feel calmer or better, but I was surprised where my brain took me in that breath. I thought “What a great moment this night will be! Don’t forget any of it!” I was right. It was a fun, easy going evening, and I loved it all!

There were countless smile moments! We set out our blankets, I got out the face paint. My moxie-filled diva of a daughter sat in front of me and we began the artwork. I started one on her and she moved on to decorating me. We had a blast adding flowers, butterflies, angels and mom “tattoos” to our canvas of skin. 

Up walks more family and friends and what’s not to do, but smile! My son was in a great mood almost all day and it continued into the late night. Even almost throwing a football up an innocent bystanders behind by accident didn’t make him upset. And there’s nothing like cheap plastic light up toys to make a child smile either! The fireworks began, my daughter wore her headphones and listened to music to keep from having to cover her ears from the booms, and we all gathered closer to watch the spectacular event. It was stress free. We were all happy in that moment. The fireworks were great, but the moment was enlivening! It was a great evening and I will do everything I can to try and remember it all. And hey, now that I see how I look with multiple colorful tattoos up and down my arms, maybe I’ll design a real one to remember the evening. Maybe a few fireworks on the upper arm. Heh, well it was just a thought and even that one made me smile again! 

Day 8 Mile of Smiles

It was another easy going day. I love summer vacation, especially when we don’t have places to be everyday. 

Today’s highlight was that my husband was able to join us at my parent's home finally. What I really enjoyed was taking some time for each other. I know this may not sound like quality couple" time, but we took a nap on the couch together! I don’t think we’ve been able to do that in years! If either of us try to sleep during daylight hours, our kids have an uncanny ability to lose any form of self-reliance. I have also noticed that they feel the need to inform us of their every move, which is great in some ways, but I don’t need to know that they’re going to the bathroom to pee. It can be particularly grating on the nerves when it interrupts you from much needed beauty sleep and I’m pretty sure it’s the reason I have to dye my hair so often. 

After the nap and a family dinner, my husband and I took a nice little walk around the neighborhood. It was time spent together and I don’t think we talked about anything stressful. Not one thing! It was just time with one another, reminiscent of when we first started dating and walked for hours up and down the streets of our city. As we walked along the unfamiliar road tonight, observing the surroundings, I found myself smiling and laughing like the old days. Each step along the mile or so reminded me that this is a man I enjoy having by my side. 

The kids have been playing well together today, for the most part at least. I tucked them into bed and gave them Reiki treatments. Reiki is a Japanese form of healing that uses energy to provide relaxation and well being. If you’re not familiar with it, it can sound pretty crazy, but I’ve been a practitioner for a few years and have been amazed by it. While I don’t actively seek clients with my hectic schedule, I do provide treatments to my family. As part our anxiety reducing techniques, I thought I would include regular Reiki treatments into our routines. I am hoping to give treatments to the kids for just a few minutes at night. The kids like getting the treatments and they seem to enjoy it quite a bit before bed. We’ll have to see how I do with that commitment. I can’t see myself doing that nightly, but maybe I can get a few nights a week in. The problem is, I’m in such a need of that beauty sleep that I tend to nod off during their treatments! Oh well, some Reiki is better than none and I always feel so much better after giving a treatment. It really is good for each of us and will only lead to more smiles down the road.