The Nine Reasons Why
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books, Health
A friend of mine is the Queen of Excuses. Need a reason why something hasn’t gotten done – she’s got one. Clever ones. Believable ones. The Nine Reasons Why list (I call it) because she can give you a whole long list of reasons why she can’t do this or hasn’t done that. If you are looking for an excuse for something, she’s your gal!
It is easy for me to see right through her list of excuses. I can spot them before she even finishes her story. Most all of her reasons boil down to one or two basic themes: perceived lack of time to do something or lack of money. Really though, you could probably break it down even more; when it comes right down to it, isn’t it really just a matter of motivation? You are either motivated to do something or you are not. Because, if you are truly motivated, you will (somehow) find the time …
How to Not be a Knucklehead Coach
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
A must read for all parents AND coaches!
So much is said about sports parents these days, and rightly so. As the joke goes, remember the players are kids, the coaches volunteer and the umpires are human – it’s not major league baseball you’re watching as you sit on those cold metal bleachers at your town’s local baseball field. In other words, parents, sit down and shut up. What is not talked about as much are the coaches. These men we entrust our children to for a third of the year. Each season is an opportunity for both coaches and players – but perhaps the real question is: an opportunity for what?
I think back to the coaches we had – men with demanding careers who were willing, some even eager, to put in all that extra time to coach a large group of boys. They were all coaching their son’s baseball team, but their own love of the …
Watermelon in February?
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books, Food
“Why can’t we get the watermelon?” my kids plead with me as we cruise the aisles in the grocery store. Not in season, I reply, not to be persuaded. The irony is I don’t think twice as I reach for the asparagus, setting it down gently in our cart next to the carton of strawberries and on-the-vine tomatoes. Yeah, not in season indeed.
I grew up in a family that was conscious of growing seasons. My mom would never buy strawberries out of season, primarily from a cost perspective: out of season items cost more. (They also don’t taste as good, and if you don’t agree just taste succulent summer corn on the cob or red, ripe strawberries freshly picked and so sweet they just melt in your mouth). My mom knew what was in season and what wasn’t and shopped accordingly.
However, I also don’t think we had as many options back then. Nowadays, in our 24-7 society, you …
Simple Sundays
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
What is your favorite day of the week? Maybe Friday, with the anticipation (or relief) of the weekend approaching? Monday perhaps, with all its promise for a new and hopefully better week ahead? Or Saturday, with the possibility of freedom to do as you please without being ruled by an alarm clock or schedule? Did you favor a certain day as a child? And if so, do you find the day(s) to be the same or different day now all these years later?
“..she loved Sundays – the way they all lingered at the table, her parents telling stories of …the funny things people said and did. …on and on they went until everyone was hungry again, sandwiching bacon between leftover biscuits and drinking down the rest of the lukewarm juice for lunch.”
– from Carry Yourself Back to Me
Sundays were like that for me growing up. There was a routine to Sundays that I came to …
Back in Time for a Do-Over?
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
If you could go back in time to one particular day and do things differently, what day would you choose to change?
A book I just read reminded me of the question my son asked me one day after school, which really had made me pause. I was about to give him my standard answer of how I try to live my life with no regrets, but then I started thinking. There are many things I look back on and grimace. Did I REALLY do that, say that, behave that way? A do-over…would I take it? Would you?
“I know what you’d say,” he told me. He was tired of waiting as this Zen Mama Wannabe revisited memories from a long time ago. “You do??” Believe me, he actually had no idea, but I was curious to hear what he had come up with.
“You’d go back to the day Grandma died. You would …
Lunch in Paris – in another Lifetime
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
In another lifetime, I decide to go to Europe upon graduating from college. In another lifetime, I have kept up with my high school French and can follow (understand) a real French conversation – instead of just catching a chance word here or there. In another lifetime, I am not the squeamish vegetarian I am today, and instead enjoy a variety of foods such as foie gras, cassoulet, and andouillette. In another lifetime, while enjoying my exciting Parisian life, I meet a sweet, handsome Frenchman (as wonderful as my American one is today, but one who says my name in that caressing French way that makes me melt every time I hear it) who sweeps me off my feet and adores everything about me (well, almost everything – no one’s perfect – not even in this fantasy of mine).
But alas, this was not the path I chose in THIS lifetime, and although I have no regrets, …
New Year’s Resolutions that really Take the Cake
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
Are you like the 92 % of people that make New Year’s Resolutions only to soon find that you haven’t been able to keep them? I never liked to think of myself like that, but during some end of year reflection I realized that my resolutions for 2011 were sounding a lot (ahem…exactly) like the ones I had set the previous year – and perhaps in all honestly, like the ones for the year before that! The common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting to get a different result. So what was going to be different THIS new year? How was I going to achieve success this time around?
There are a lot of things I want to do MORE of: cook, write, exercise, spend quality time with my family, read…those are just the TOP ones. But putting all that off to the side for the moment, how can I really…
Playing the Numbers Game
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books, Life
I have played the numbers game for years. 85. 68. 72. 91. These numbers may not mean anything to most people, but for over half my life they were a measure of my own good fortune. I would read in the newspaper that a woman died at age 72, and up until recently my mom was still alive at 90. Ok…deep breath…we’re doing okay.
Now my mom is gone – and I have the audacity to feel cheated. Living to 90 is having a good long run (and my mom certainly did). In that respect she was blessed and I am thankful. The fallout of having a child late in life, however, is that most people MY age have parents who are currently in their 60’s. Assuming all goes well, they are looking at having their parents around for another 20-30 years!
I feel too young to have lost both parents – cheated out of years most everyone else my …
The Trouble with a Good Book
Posted by Zen Mama Wannabe | Filed under Books
For over a week now I have been insanely jealous of my 9-year-old son. At first I was supportive and excited for him. Yet somehow envy slowly took over and I started thinking, “I want that too!” He’s been on a streak of some sort lately, one good one after another. And I couldn’t help but think, “When is it MY turn?” I want to be like him and have a book so good that you just can’t put it down. A book you could read for hours and hours and lose all track of time. I want what he’s having – is that really asking too much?
I glanced at my bedside nightstand. There, on the top of the stack, was a book I needed to read for the From Left to Write (Online) Book Club I am involved with. To be honest I’m not sure it is a book I would have just picked …
