Kindness and Friendship

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200 words, being right, community, compassion, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Fear, generosity, growing up, integrity, joy, kindness, Life's like that, living in the moment, love, Relationships, sacrifice

Sprinkle joy.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The act of spreading joy does not often come from a place of my own joy. In fact, every time I can recall my own joy, it’s been a deeply personal experience, felt by an audience of one – me.

The wondrous privilege of witnessing nature; a dragonfly landing on me with wings glistening in the sunlight when I was a child in Chateauguay, a hawk calling while soaring across a central BC sky, a spider’s web sparkling in the pre-dawn light of a full moon in Brown County Indiana, the lull of the ocean’s waves crashing against the shore and receding, crashing against the shore and receding in the Dominican Republic, and more profoundly moving of late in Calgary, dogs approaching me with the same trust and love they used to approach dad with.

My joy comes while living in the moment and is deeply personal.

Spreading joy often comes from a place of brokenness; cycles of dysfunction in relationships or, stubborn ways of thinking or being, when I finally reach out with forgiveness, when I decide to break the cycle to relieve someone else’s pain through kindness and friendship.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

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What To Do When You’re Wrong

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200 words, being right, common sense, courage, defensiveness, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, forgiveness, growing up, health, honesty, humility, I'm sorry, integrity, kindness, lies, life, mistakes, peace, Truth, wrong

“Swallow your pride occasionally… it’s non-fattening!” ~Unknown

Upon the realization that you were wrong, you could continue to argue your point and hope that the individual who is right will just give up.

Or when it dawns on you that your neglect or malicious actions have done another harm, you could just continue to act as if you harmed no one, as if you are free from blame, as if it is the harmed one who is to blame, the one who ruined everything.

You could that, and maybe others will believe you, but you won’t find lasting peace that way.

Why not acknowledge the egg on your face. Own up to what you’ve done. Eat crow if you must. Lay in the bed you’ve made. Pay the piper. Take your licks.

You aren’t the first human to mess up, and you won’t be the last. I mean it’s not like everybody doesn’t already know. Your denial doesn’t make it go away.

So say sorry when you’re wrong. Seek forgiveness. Make amends if you can. And if there’s a price to pay for what you did, then pay it.

Swallow your pride occasionally…it’s non fattening!

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

My Blonde Moment

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being right, blond moment, Diana Schwenk, growing up, humble, humility, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, know it all, laughing at yourself, laughter, living in the moment, pompous, wrong

IN THE EARLY NINETIES I used to work at a hospital.

A certain janitor who also worked there could not contain the joy he felt every time he saw me.

Noooo it’s not that…

He was thrilled to bits because he could share the ‘latest’ blonde joke with a blonde – me.

Q: What do you call a blonde with a high IQ?
A: A golden retriever.

Q: Why did the blonde scale the chain-link fence?
A: To see what was on the other side.

Q: What do you call a blonde with half a brain?
A: Gifted!

Q: How do blonde brain cells die?
A: Alone.

Q: What do you call it when a blonde dyes their hair brunette?
A: Artificial intelligence.

Q: Why do blondes wash their hair in the sink?
A: Because, that’s where you’re supposed to wash vegetables!

Over the years, I’ve heard many blonde jokes.

So many, I’ve probably forgotten more than most people have ever known.

And every, single, annoying blonde joke has one central theme.

Blondes are dumb.

As a blonde, I have been highly motivated most of my life to prove that blondes are not dumb.

This has made me seem quite pompous at times. A know-it-all, if you will. A literal she-is-always-right-and-can’t-admit-when-she’s-wrong-and-always-has-to-correct-others poop head.

So maybe a dose of humility is exactly what I needed yesterday. A Poetic Justice of sorts. Perhaps that’s why I locked my keys and my purse with my spare keys into my running car after work yesterday and had to call AMA to come unlock the door so I could sheepishly slink into the driver’s seat and drive home.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Regardless of your hair colour, ever had a blonde moment?

Falling Short

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200 words, being right, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, growing up, happy, health, life, mistakes, peace

 

“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.” – Dean Smith

Have you ever made a mistake?

And every time you think back on it, you feel shame, “Oh man, that was stupid, I can’t believe I did that.”

And even though it’s long since worked out, you just can’t get past it.

Or can you remember a time when you felt strongly that something very specific, done your way was the only solution to an issue or everything would just fall apart at the seams?

But you lost that argument, and it didn’t go your way, yet oddly enough the world did not end.

Sometimes, especially when you’ve got a lot going on, your day can become a series of things you need to rush through so you can get to the next item.

And as you let the pressure mount, these items become a matter life or death, even though they’re not, and you die a little each time you think you’ve fallen short.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Do you fret about past mistakes or decisions you’ve made? Or do you learn from them and move on?

Um, Actually…

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Almond, Amaretto, arguements, being right, catch a cold, correctors, Diana Schwenk, Disaronno, family, growing up, Hump Day Chronicles, kids, laughter, parents, Relationships, teens, virus

I come from a long line of Correctors.

(By the way,this post was inspired by 40 is the new 13 and my hasty comment here.)

Yes, I said Correctors, not Collectors – although Dad has collections of most everything.

When someone says something – anything at all, someone in my family will surely say, “Um, actually…”

A conversation I’ve had with Mom for forever is about how one actually catches a cold or flu.

This is the way one must dress in extreme weather in order to avoid a cold ~ Mom

Mom: You better dress warm or you’ll catch a cold.

Me: Um, actually…Mom, you catch a cold when you come into contact with the virus.

Mom: Dress warm dear!

Me: Mom! Did you hear me? You catch a cold when you come into contact with someone who has the virus!

Mom: (laughing) I heard you…dress warm you don’t want to catch a cold, do you?

As I’ve matured, it has become less important for me to be right – well most of the time. Maybe I need to let go of this 40 year discussion of catching colds. Maybe both of us are right. Maybe cold weather wreaks havoc on our immune system and then when we do come into contact with someone who has a cold, we catch it.

But then this age-old conversation, albeit with a new slant, resurfaces…

Me: Gee, I have a cold Mom.

Mom: Ha! I told you to stay away from so-and-so yesterday. I told you you would catch his cold but you didn’t want to listen, did you?

Me: Um, actually…Mom I didn’t catch his cold, it takes several days for the virus to incubate…so I didn’t catch HIS cold per se…

Mom: Yet you have a cold after spending time with him, don’t you?

Me: Mom, didn’t you hear me? It takes several days…

Mom: (interrupting) How do you know that??

Me: (rolling my eyes) Mom everyone knows that…

So why was I surprised when my own flesh-and-blood daughter became a Corrector – She can’t help it. It’s in her DNA – From the very moment she could talk she’s been correcting me!

This past Christmas Mom, Dad, Michaela and I were sitting around my parent’s diningroom table. We were playing a dice game and having a few drinks. Michaela was drinking Disaronno with Coke.

Dad: Disaronno is essentially Amaretto.

Me: No it’s not.

Michaela: Um, actually it is Mom, here taste it.

Dad: (grinning)

Me: Yuck that’s gross with Coke! But it does taste like Amaretto. You know…Amaretto is made from nuts – almonds to be exact…

Michaela: Um, actually Almonds are not nuts.

Me: Yes they are!

Michaela: Nope, they are the pit of a fruit most closely related to peaches and cherries.

Me: That’s ridiculous!

Michaela: (picks up phone, googles almonds and slides phone toward me)

Me: (puts on reading glasses and looks) Well I’ll be… how did you know that??

Michaela: (rolls eyes) Mom everyone knows that…

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

In spite of their need to continually correct me I love them to pieces!

My Family

Mom and me in Puerto Plata

Me and Michaela at Callaway Park

with my nephew

with my Sister-in-law

Dad, Mom and me

“I told you to dress warm…”

“What…”

Happy Birthday money

Michaela’s grad

Mr. Fix-It

Mike, Spencer and Heather

The coolest picture of my brother ever!

What conversations have you had with your family for forever?