Tuesday, March 22, 2011

There are countless challenges we must all get through, and at the root of our success is endurance. Whether it is tragedy, rejection, heartache, illness or catastrophic act of God, the human spirit has within it the ability to overcome. Of course, having said that, there will be those who are quick to argue that not everyone has the staying power needed to make it through all things. And frankly, all I have to say to that is…bull!

The human spirit is what each of us makes our own to be. If it’s strong, then that’s because the individual put in the effort required to dig deep to find the single grain of intestinal fortitude that they could build upon until they had what was needed to make it through. Those whose spirits are weak, in my opinion, got waylaid somewhere along their path to discovering their own inner strength. That could be due to a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that they just plain gave up.

Let’s look at it another way.

Think of the person who fights hard to lose weight and continues to go through the necessary motions to keep the weight off. That doesn’t just happen. No. Instead, the ability for a person to shed unwanted pounds to get, and then remain, in shape requires gut-wrenching, back-breaking, sweat-filled countless hours, days, months and years of extreme self-discipline. If at any point along their journey the person slacks off, relies on others, or seeks a “quick fix,” then their efforts ring false and the results can be quickly seen.

Building one’s human spirit to the strongest it can be requires the same amount of dedication, determination and die-hard mentality as the person who wants to lose weight and get in shape. Can everyone do it? In my humble opinion, yes! Will everyone have what it takes to follow through? Absolutely not! But…that doesn’t mean that those who fail didn’t have success within their grasp, only that they were unwilling or able to carry through with the task of endurance.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Since last Thursday, I have been in Las Vegas, arriving home yesterday. While in Vegas, the hotel where I was staying was having massive trouble with their Internet service. And despite working with their technical maintenance workers every day and being given a direct cable that should have solved the trouble, nothing resolved my lack of connection. This is why I decided to just forego trying to get any blogs posted while gone. My intent was to get one up yesterday, seeing as I’d be back home. But…things didn’t exactly play out the way I’d hoped.

Arriving home, I unpacked, got caught up with a bunch of work for a few hours and then headed to a late lunch with my family. About halfway through eating my meal, my stomach began to feel unsettled, a sure sign that what I was eating wasn’t good. For as long as I can recall, food poisoning sets in with me about twenty minutes into eating tainted food.

So, I didn’t eat the rest of my meal and poured myself into bed, hoping to sleep it off for a couple of hours upon getting home. Waking up, I immediately began getting violently ill. That lovely process had me lying on the floor of the bathroom for the majority of the next twelve hours, not able to be further away from the toilet. My illness kept up throughout the entire night until 6:30 this morning, the first time I was able to successfully keep some fluid in me.

Throughout today, I’ve been exhausted and needing to rest after doing the simplest tasks. I wasn’t able to eat all day. By this evening, I did eat and have been able to keep in me, a tiny piece of plain chicken my daughter made for me. My body feels like it was in a losing battle with a Mac truck, but I’m so very grateful to not be getting ill non-stop any longer.

So, there you have it—the reason why a blog wasn’t forthcoming yesterday. I was so ill that I couldn’t even sit up to draft a quick note that one wouldn’t be coming. With any luck, I’ll be back to running at near my normal speed tomorrow, and I am beyond appreciative of everyone’s patience with the blog being down for a period.

Friday, March 19, 2011

Due to my currently being on the road, and the fact that I have had virtually no Internet service since Thursday, I will not be posting another blog until Sunday, March 20.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Ah, the joys of flying….

I headed to the airport today, mindful of what I was wearing, you know, to make the whole gotta strip off your shoes, etc, at the security checkpoint thing go more smoothly.

Apparently, the TSAs didn’t like the way I looked, and invited, well…not that I really had a choice, me to step into their full body scan machine.

I feel so special!

The machine scanned me while I stood there, my hands upon my head, as my briefcase, etc, went through their own x-ray machine. Then I got to stand in front of a woman who told me to keep an eye on my belongings while she waited to get clearance that my scan had gone okay.

Like they’d actually let me move to intervene if anyone tried to take my stuff. Riiiiight.

So, standing there, hoping my scan “turned out okay” (whatever the heck that means), I watched my belongings roll out of the x-ray machine. Then the woman spoke in a hushed tone into her radio. What she said, I had to reprocess a couple of times, unable to believe that she was referring to me. She said, “Okay, cocky has cleared.”

What?! Cocky? Cocky! How could I have been considered cocky when all I’d done was to be pleasant to her, smile and do as asked without attitude?

Turning to look at her, I gave her a look that implied, are you for real. She looked me in the eye, shrugged and told me I could go.

Oh, what fun!

Texting with my girlfriend a short time later, we shared how both our flights were delayed. Then I mentioned my total body scan and how it had turned out okay. She chuckled at my being referred to as cocky, since she knows me well enough to know that isn’t true. Then she said her trip had begun equally well with a full body pat down, the TSA spending an inordinate amount of time on her ample breasts.

Lovely!

We both had a good laugh at how our weekend getaway has begun while commenting on the joys of traveling by air these days. Wonder what the rest of today will reveal?