Happy Thanksgiving From The Middle of Nowhere!

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Alberta, attitude, blessings, Canada, daughter, disappointments, family, farming, food, grateful, Gratitude, Happy Thanksgiving, harvest, Relationships, Rosalind, thankful, values

If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.

~ John Wooden

Well…not exactly nowhere. But when you’re an urbanite like me, driving on a handful of secondary highways to get to Rosalind, Alberta feels a lot like the middle of nowhere.

Me and Michaela Sept. 2016

I gladly drive those lonely highways though, to spend Thanksgiving with my daughter, her boyfriend Werner and his family.

That’s right. Here in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. My guess is, we pushed it up to line up with harvest time north of the 49th.

Speaking of harvest, that’s what my daughter, Werner and his parents have been up to on their family farm the last few weeks.

What’s more Thanksgiving than that?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I’m going to practice magnifying my blessings instead of blowing up my disappointments into massive proportions, how about you?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Have you hugged a farmer today?

This post has been scheduled to publish on Sunday. When you read this, I will already be in the middle of nowhere cherishing wonderful people. I hope you are also with those whom you love. ❤

Diana xo

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Making a Big Deal Out of Nothing

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Alberta, attitude, Calgary, children, Diana Schwenk, Disneyland, Edmonton, family, friends, Gratitude, growing up, happy, humour, joy, kids, laughter, living in the moment, Red Deer, Relationships, Tourist in my own city

Michaela and me the last time she visited Calgary

I’m not being a Negative Nancy here. It’s not about turning a minor incident into a major catastrophe.

I’m talking about making a big deal out of nothing in a positive way; taking a mediocre event and turning into a really good time.

So I guess I’m being more of an Optimistic Olga or a Gratitude Gertrude.

Like when my daughter Michaela was little and I built up a trip to Shopper’s Drugmart to the equivalent of going to Disneyland.

One’s attitude can go a long way in determining how you experience things.

You choose:

Do you roll your eyes and just endure it? Or do you have the time of your life?

My daughter lives a 3 1/2 hour drive north of Calgary where I live, in a small town called Camrose, 45 minutes east of Edmonton. When I visit her or she visits me, which isn’t very often, it includes at least one sleepover, we DO have lots of fun. But it usually works out to only spending 5 or 6 hours together in a two-day period.

So we came up with a plan, one that took way too long for us to figure out, I might add.

This Saturday, we’re going to meet up in Red Deer to spend the day together and then both of us will drive back to our individual homes. You see, Red Deer is half way between Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta’s two major cities. Red Deer is small compared to these two metropolitans, in fact Red Deer only has a little over 10% of either city’s population.

But just like the long ago Shopper’s Drugmart adventures, we aim to spend a fun-filled time in Red Deer.

In preparation for this adventure, I needed to find out if Red Deer even has a downtown area and by golly they do, as seen in the promo video I found on YouTube below.

Trust me, you want to watch this video!

We plan to visit all the featured places in the above video and maybe even find some other hidden Red Deer gems!

I will share our adventure with you next week right here on TALKTODIANA

Stay tuned you don’t want to miss it!  😉

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

When’s the last time you made a big deal out of nothing?

 

Life is a Beach

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200 words, attitude, believe, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Gratitude, happy, health, joy, life, living in the moment, love

Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you. – Walt Whitman

I’ve only ever been somewhere tropical twice – a resort near Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic with my mom. Those walks just before sundown along the beach are some of my favourite memories. The sun on the horizon shining in our faces while our toes dug into the warm sand.

Sure. We had some rainy days too, but those sunny days more than made up for it. In a way these walks are a microcosm of life.

Into every life a little rain must fall. That’s just the way it is. If all I can do is focus on the rain, even when the sun shines, I am robbed of joy.

I’d rather turn my face to the sun, on those days when it appears, and soak up the rays. If I can live in that moment, feel the warmth on my skin, smell the breeze that moves through my hair, feel the sand squish between my toes, hear the ocean as it laps onto the shore – it makes up for the rain and my life is fuller.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF LIFE ~

Grateful

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attitude, Diana Schwenk, dreams, grateful, happy, health, Hump Day Chronicles, joy, perception, poverty, wealth

It’s Tuesday morning as I write this and set the WordPress schedule to publish automatically on Wednesday morning for the Hump Day Chronicles.

I’ve done that because this afternoon (Tuesday)  I’m driving to Camrose to spend a couple of days with my daughter. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen her and I’m grateful  she has Wednesday off so we can catch up and I can see her new place.

So for this week, I won’t be writing about the process I’m undergoing on what’s next for me and The Other Bottom Line. Instead, inspired by a tweet I read on Monday I want to write about being grateful.

Someone else is praying for the things you take for granted #StayGrateful

A few years back I had a conversation with a man who runs a street ministry in Toronto. I don’t remember everything we talked about but one thing he said stuck in my mind to this day. He said that 97% of the world considers me a millionaire.

The truth is while I may be wrestling with what I want to do with my life.

Others are struggling with where they will get their next meal; how they will survive one more day.

I may be looking around my apartment thinking I need to update its look.

Others are looking for shelter from the sun and rain under the awning of a building and being shooed away for loitering.

Maybe I’m struggling in personal relationships; fighting over unimportant issues, while others are completely alone with no one to talk to.

That Monday tweet was a timely reminder for me. I know I’m happier when I live my life from a place of gratefulness.

And I am grateful.

Grateful  for family and good friends.

Grateful  that I have a place to live and food in my belly.

Grateful  for all the opportunities my life has extended to me.

Grateful  for you and all the things I learn from you.

Grateful  for the reminder that someone else is praying for the things I take for granted.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What are you grateful for?