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talktodiana

~ Igniting the power and passion in others…

talktodiana

Tag Archives: Kamloops

Crotchety Old Fart

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by dianasschwenk in Hump Day Chronicles, In My Opinion, My Stories

≈ 40 Comments

Tags

aging, caring, Charity, community, compassion, courage, Diana Schwenk, easy-going, family, friends, generosity, happy, health, integrity, joy, Kamloops, kindness, laugh lines, laughter, living in the moment, love, passion, peace, Pinantan Lake, Purpose, Relationships, tolerance

They say we can’t choose the face we’re born with but we can choose the face we grow old with.

My friend Helga and I have lots of discussions about the things that are really important in life.

I have this theory that the older we get, the more intense our quirks become.kindface

Say for instance, a young person is a neat freak. Everything has its place and every place has its things.

As this person ages they become almost neurotic about neatness.

Helga feels that the older we get the less tolerant we become and she points back to when we first met to illustrate this.

I hope she’s wrong but more on that in a moment.

~

I’ve known Helga for 27 years. We met at Pinantan Lake, just outside Kamloops, British Columbia.

Pinantan is a small community, and when I lived there in the 80’s it had a population of about 300 folks, including chickens and other livestock.

Just the other day we were talking about how easy-going we were in our early 20’s.

If one of us was cooking dinner when the other came over (unannounced) we would just set another place at the table.

Or if one wasn’t awake yet when we went to the other’s place, the visiting one would just put on a pot of coffee, sit right down at the table and wait for the other to wake up.

That’s right; we didn’t lock our doors back then!

This is the house we rented for $150 per month.

This is the house I lived in and rented for $150 per month.

If a neighbour needed help, we would just drop everything and head over there.

(Or at the very least volunteer our significant other)

We didn’t pay much attention to how others dressed, kept their homes, raised their children or anything else.

We just accepted people for who they were.

We had a certain laissez-faire attitude about life.

There wasn’t a lot of money in our community but we had each other and we shared our resources.

I had laying hens, someone else had a milking cow, we went out in groups to get firewood for the winter, we baked bread and cooked all our meals and made all our baked goods from scratch. And oh so many fun potlucks!

They were simpler times and we were happy.

I’m not sure how I would feel about stumbling out of my bedroom to find someone waiting for me in my apartment now – even with coffee!

What I do know is that I remember our days there with great fondness. People took each other at face value and we didn’t waste a moment worrying about whether someone was playing us or not.

~

For the last decade or so, my heart has been longing for that kind of simplicity again. I still look for the good in people but I’ve been a little slower to trust, a tad sceptical at times and downright inhospitable at other times.

I hope my theory is true. I hope that who I was at heart when I was younger will intensify as I get older. Because I would rather trust people and be burned than be suspicious of every person I encounter.

But maybe the truth is simpler. Maybe I just have to choose to be a certain way.

Maybe theories are just that – theories.

~ THE HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

I want to grow old with a kind face, with eyes that are crinkled with laugh lines and smile lines deeply carved around my mouth.

I don’t want to be a crotchety old fart.

How about you?

One mouth and two ears

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by dianasschwenk in Hump Day Chronicles, In My Opinion, My Stories

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

communicate, compassion, forgive, friends, Kamloops, kindness, Kitchener Ontario, listen, Montreal, one mouth and two ears, Relationships, speak, supportive

God gave us one mouth and two ears, we should use them in proportion to each other…

I’m a communicator

I love engaging in conversation

I love the back and forth flow of words

I strive to understand

I strive to be understood

On my good days I’m curious and open-minded.

~

On my not-so-good days I’m stubborn and it’s more important to broadcast my views.

The year was 1987.

Looking out the window

I was on a Greyhound bus with my best friend.

We were heading back east because her dad had passed away.

It was a 3 1/2 day drive.

That’s a long time but we managed to stay civil all the way there.

I don’t know if you’ve ever taken a bus across Canada without stopping anywhere to get a good night’s sleep and shower…

By the time we got to Kitchener, Ontario the bus was ripe with body odor.

We spent a few days there so my friend could be with her family and then continued on to Montreal, Quebec to visit with my folks.

When it was time to go back to Kamloops, British Columbia we’d become a little … well…sick of each other.

The 3 1/2 day bus ride back dragged on and felt like forever. We began to snap at each other over really stupid things.

Finally we didn’t want to sit together.

When we got back to our respective homes, we didn’t even want to speak to each other. This went on for 2 – 3 weeks.

During this time I gave some thought to our cross-country trip. How had it become such a disaster?

I mean seriously, the reason I went in the first place was to support my friend during a difficult time.

Why had I been such jerk?

I should have understood.

I should have shown a little grace.

I should have been more supportive.

I don’t remember who finally called who but we started talking again and I’m glad we did. We forgave each other and went on being friends even to this day some 20+ years later.

Today we joke about our ‘Bus Ride from Hell.’

A bus ride that taught me when I stop listening…

when I insist on broadcasting my opinion…

dialogue turns into monologue and relationships fall apart.

~

It’s a lesson I still have to remind myself of.

Sometimes I forget and am quicker to speak and slower to hear.

Today my best friend and I like to share a coffee at our favourite park

I’m not always true to who I am.

But as someone wise recently told me …

we all have our off days, so when you mess up just forgive yourself and try again.

So when I slip

I forgive myself

try again

re-engage in the conversation

and become quick to listen and slow to speak.

God gave me two ears and one mouth – I need to use them in proportion to each other.

Do you struggle with using your ears and mouth in proportion to each other?

Thanksgiving and Columbus Day

10 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by dianasschwenk in Hump Day Chronicles, Out and About

≈ 48 Comments

Tags

Columbus Day, Diana Schwenk, friends, Kamloops, memories, Paul Lake Provincial Park, Thanksgiving

It’s been my experience that when I am thankful, I am happier.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada.

Since my family is spread out across the country and I wasn’t going to see any of them, I needed to find something to do.

So last Monday, on a whim of an idea I called my friend Sue who lives in Vancouver and said, “Hey, want to meet in Kamloops this weekend?”

And she said yes!

Sue and I in the lobby of the newly renovated Plaza Hotel, Kamloops, BC

Sue and I have been friends since we were neighbours in Chateauguay, Quebec.

We met when I was 18 years old and we traveled out west together in 1983.

She and her boyfriend moved to the mainland and me and my boyfriend went to Kamloops, well Pinantan Lake actually, to help his sister June build a log home.

As the years went by, Sue and her husband also lived up at the lake for about a year and a half and we all lived in Calgary for a time as well.

I stayed here in Calgary and Sue moved back to BC.

We hadn’t seen each other for about 3 or 4 years and the Kamloops trip seemed like a good way to catch up.

A four-hour drive for Sue and an 8-hour drive for me!

So Friday after work I drove out to Golden, BC (about 3 hours) and stayed the night there. I planned to leave for Kamloops the next morning.

Here are some photos from my drive the next day.

Golden, BC

Salmon Arm, BC

I got to Kamloops first so I thought that while I waited for Sue to arrive I would go exploring.

The town had changed since I lived there 22 years ago!

The Grind Coffee Shop

Victoria Ave

They don’t mince words in Kamloops

The next day we drove up to Pinantan Lake, population approx. 500 including dogs and chickens.

We had the distinct pleasure of running into some folks who still lived up there and seeing the house that I helped to build.

This is the house I helped to build.

It was great to catch up with June and her daughter Kimberly as well.

How time flies, I met Kim when she was 4!

Me and June

Me and Kimberly

When we left to go back to Kamloops we stopped at Paul Lake Provincial Park.

In my 20’s I practically lived here in the summer!

Paul Lake, BC

All in all, it was a great trip.

Thank you Sue for agreeing to meet me.

Thank you June and Kimberley for your hospitality.

If you’re Canadian, how did you spend Thanksgiving?

If you’re American, how the heck do you celebrate Columbus Day? 😉

Talk to Diana


"I RELATE WITH, PROMOTE AND SPEAK COMMUNITY WHEREVER I AM..."

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