My Big-Girl-Snow-Pants

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200 words, adapt, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, changing seasons, cold, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, dress in layers, Life's like that, snow, winter

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

Carl Reiner

Well it’s finally here.

I won’t be bringing a book, or note pad to go sit on a bench in the park to read or write while sipping a Grande half-sweet white chocolate mocha any day soon. And it will be months before I’ll be jumping on my bike to ride Calgary’s pathways.

There’s no more denying it.

There’s no more deciding not to wear socks, or not to dress in layers, or wear a warm coat. Winter is here and there’s nothing I can do about it. I just have to put on my big-girl-snow-pants, lean into the north wind, grit my teeth and plow through it. I don’t have a choice.

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are excited about winter. You’ve been looking forward to sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, igloo building, icicle licking and whatever else you do in winter.

As for me… should you need me, I’ll be indoors, wrapped in a cozy blanket on my favourite chair, sipping hot chocolate and watching reruns of Island Life.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

How do you feel about winter?

A Master of all Traits?

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200 words, adapt, community, dancing, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, gifts, happy, mission, music, Purpose, skills, talents, Who I am

A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. ~ Henrik Ibsen

I’m not sure I agree with the above statement.

A Master of all Traits?

Everyone has unique gifts and talents and no one can do everything.

Sure we can adapt and take on a different role for a period of time, or perhaps even forever, but we won’t be happy and we won’t do as good a job as could be done.

The other night we went to see a Reggae band. They were playing. We were dancing.

And every now and then the drummer broke into a burst of drum banging that had nothing to do with the music playing.

The band would stop, have a mini meeting on stage, switch instruments and start over.

It was pretty impressive how they could all play every instrument but they weren’t in tune with each other and it sure didn’t do anything for the listener or us poor Smucks who just wanted to dance.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Does it make sense to you for everyone to be able to take the helm?

Why? Why not?

Resistance is Futile

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adapt, children, daughters, Diana Schwenk, family, growing up, kids, loss, love, Relationships, Single parent, things we cannot change

Look at this tree. It’s the only one still hanging on to its leaves. It’s resisting the inevitable…

In a recent post entitled Fear, I wrote about gathering up your courage to overcome your fears in order to face and change outcomes.

In this post, I would like to explore the things we cannot change.

This tree is hanging on to the warmth of autumn

I’m not a fan of winter.

Yes I know, some of you love it.

One only has to look at my

Twitter name @wantsummerback to know that I love summer.

But all the fist-clenching,

face-scrunching,

eyes tightly closed praying

wishing and hoping

will not stop the onset of winter.

Winter will come anyway.

~

Winter is a metaphor to me for the things I cannot change.

Life throws us some doozies, doesn’t it?

Job loss

Illness

Relationship loss

Financial struggles

The passing of loved ones.

And just like winter, they come and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.

Nope – there are some things you just can’t change.

Not all is lost though, not as long as you can do the one thing that humans have been doing since the dawn of man.

The one thing that has, in my opinion, ensured the survival of mankind.

You can adapt.

~

Back before my daughter was born…

before I was pregnant, before I met a man and fell in love, I had decided that I would never have children.

I just didn’t think I had that nurturing gene that all the other women I’d met seemed to have.

Well you know how the story goes…

Girl decides not to have children.

Girl meets man and falls in love…one thing leads to another and girl becomes pregnant.

So I adapted. I became OK with that. I began to plot out how our little family life would play out.

I got excited and really started looking forward to having a baby.

No matter what came, the man I loved and I would figure out how to handle any situation.

When I was six months pregnant, my relationship with the father of my baby ended.

There was nothing I could do. It happened and that was that. The end.

So I adapted.

Don’t misread me – I was devastated, but once I accepted the situation, I began to plot out how our little family life would play out.

When they put my little angel girl in my arms on that snowy November day, I couldn’t help but fall in love with her.

It was my responsibility to take care of her.

I had no choice but to figure it all out.

Me and Michaela in the liquor store – it’s not as bad as it looks!

Sure it wasn’t easy.

It wasn’t an ideal situation.

It’s tough to be a working single parent.

And it’s tough to be the child of a single parent too.

But you guessed it – my little girl adapted and grew up (maybe a little faster than other kids) into a beautiful, intelligent young woman.

She is a gift to me – the best thing I’ve ever done – and I’m so proud to be her mom.

~

The human spirit is amazing – it endures and overcomes.

I’ve seen it with people experiencing homelessness.

I’ve watched in awe as families and organizations regroup and pull together in crises and do what they never imagined they could do.

I’ve read about it – here – in your blogs and have been amazed with your strength in tougher situations than I have ever had to face.

It’s never easy. It takes its toll.

There is no manual with step-by-step instructions to follow.

But the human spirit is amazing – it adapts and endures.

~

Not a great video clip – I probably don’t have a film career in my future

but it does afford you the opportunity to hear my voice!

Look at this tree.

It’s the only one still hanging on to its leaves.

It’s resisting the inevitable

it’s hanging on to the warmth of autumn.

But as you can see…

winter has invaded our city – albeit before the season is official.

Doesn’t that tree know that a time of renewal will come?

 Makes me wonder about the things I’m resisting.

How about you?