Thankful for Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week!  Where has this year gone?  (I think I say that about this time every year.)  I love fall and especially Thanksgiving.  It is the one truly American holiday and it has not become commercialize, much.  Thanksgiving, for most people, is about giving thanks to God for all the wonderful things we are privileged to have in the United States.  Of course, Thanksgiving is also about the food.  Our six-year granddaughter has been learning about Thanksgiving at school.  She is very excited about the "feast" this year.  The "feast" at our house consists of the same food every year.  It is a tradition.  My brother makes the turkey.  I used to make the dressing but my niece wanted to learn so now she has that task (which is fine by me).  My youngest daughter has perfected my mother's candied yams so that is her assignment.  My sister always makes some scrumptious dessert!  As for me, I supply the location and the trimmings.  My husband and I love to entertain so for us it is pure joy to have family gather around our large table for a meal.  I think I will set my parent's china this year.  My father passed away 7 years ago and my mom is in a nursing home so it is a way to include them in this most special day.  We will also wait for my sister-in-law to get off work at Opryland Hotel before we eat.  After all, the fact that she is back to work is something for which to be thankful.

Exercise isn't awful

Saturday I got up at 7:30 a.m. to go train for a 5K I have committed to do in November.  Now, if you do not know me well, that may not seem like much of a big deal.  For those of you who do, I know, it is unbelievable!  The most crazy part of it was that I enjoyed it.

I have always said I hated exercise.  The problem was that I had never found anything I could do physically and feel good about until I discovered yoga in 2008.  It sort of snuck up on me.  I went to a "class" where it was usually just me and the instructor.  That gave me a chance to learn some moves without feeling embarrassed.  From there I ventured into a class that was a combination of yoga, aerobics and dancing to the oldies.  I did fine even though I have two left feet.  I was developing a habit when the gym closed abruptly.  I got a yoga DVD and started practicing at home.  Very convenient but hard to stay committed.

I proclaimed 2009 was going to be our year to get healthy.  I gave Jerry the big speech about us getting older and fatter.  He did something about it!  He hired a trainer and started going to the gym twice a week.  I noticed what a big difference it made in him physically when he played church softball that year.  I continued to make excuses and ate my way through an Alaskan cruise.

At the end of 2009, Jerry told me he was going to sign us up for a family gym membership for 2010.  "You do want to work out, don't you?" he asked me.  Then, when our church women started a new study in January 2010 focused on being healthy physically and spiritually, I knew it was time.  I started cutting back on food and working out with Tracy.  That was the key because I would have felt so uncomfortable around all those sweaty guys and scary machines had I not had someone to show me what to do and stand there with me while I did it.

My trainer got a full-time job and I have to go workout by myself now but I don't mind it.  I just do my little routine he wrote out for me.  I have also found a great, Christian yoga instructor.  I now look forward to my yoga class or going to the gym.  I even took my yoga DVD along on a family vacation so my daughters and I could practice together.  We planned a trip to Burgess Falls and Jerry said "you can hike down to the falls this year."  I am glad he is proud of me.  I am proud of me.

I hope we can keep the physical activity up.  Jerry hurt his shoulder this year and missed a couple of months at the gym but he is back now.  We both want to be as healthy and active as possible well into the future.  We feel we owe it to our children and grandchildren.  We owe it to ourselves and to God, too.  I am sorry it has taken this long not to hate exercise.

Jim Odum

Gosh, wasn't my dad a handsome man?  This picture was taken of him during his Navy days.  I love it because of the smile.  He had a quirky sense of humor and smiled easily.  In this picture, he looks a little like Jimmy and somewhat even like Linda in the eye area.  There is a little of me, too.  None of us got those pretty, blue eyes though.  We got the chocolate brown ones from our mother.  Nice but not as nice as crystal blue.  I remember how crystal blue his eyes still were the week before he died of cancer in 2003.  His old body was thin and tired but those eyes were still full of life and vivid blue.  I made a conscious effort to remember his eyes.  I wanted to remember the life in him, his spirit, not how cancer had wasted his physical body.  Today, on Father's Day, I chose a full-of-life young picture of my dad to share.  This is how I think his spirit looks now.  So, Happy Father's Day, Daddy, you look goooood!

Let Purple Reign

Purple is the overarching theme of my garden this year.  It all started with the purple pansies I bought to use as table decorations last fall.  I had a bunch of them and I did not want to see them go to waste so I hurriedly planted them in any garden spot or free pot I could find.  I have never had much luck with pansies.  They usually never make it through the winter but these (as you can tell) have not only survived but prospered.  It is odd that they survived considering the cold, snowy winter we had here in Tennessee.  Maybe "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is actually true.  How long will the pansies continue to thrive?  The ones planted in the ground have benefited from the extremely wet spring we have had whereas the ones in containers have not faired quite as well.  The secret is being firmly grounded in a vital source of life.  That is a lesson from which we could all learn.  Of course, it is only May.  The pansies will probably not be able to take the heat of June but I sure have enjoyed them whether they were covered in snow or set the stage for purple annuals.  Let Purple Reign!

Feel Teal

On Saturday, March 27th, I will walk in the
2010 Feel Teal – Pray, Race And Yell for a Cure Race/Walk
benefitting the Stephanie Vasofsky Cervical Cancer Foundation.

I wish I didn’t have to.

Stephanie was my daughter’s college roommate. Here’s a picture of them together at graduation. Kelly is the short one, of course. They remained very close even after college. Stephanie moved home to Memphis, married her college sweetheart, became an elementary school teacher, had a beautiful baby girl and then got cervical cancer. Stephanie died on January 11, 2008 at the age of 28. Kelly’s heart was broken.

If you would like to read Stephanie’s story and learn more about stupid cervical cancer, go to http://www.feelteal.org/. You know how pink symbolizes breast cancer? Teal is for cervical cancer.

As most of you know, I am an insurance agent with Aflac. We sell cancer insurance which has a benefit for the vaccine for cervical cancer, Gardasil. Each time I make a presentation and mention the vaccine benefit, I tell Steph’s story. It’s my little way of helping the cause. I walk in the Feel Teal Race/Walk to support Stephanie’s foundation and to remember my daughter’s friend.

Here’s how you can get involved. During the month of March (Steph’s birthday month), I will give everyone who makes a donation of $20 or more to Stephanie’s foundation via the website a very adorable Aflac Snowboard Duck. Just send me an email at wanda_holt@us.aflac.com confirming your donation and the duck is yours. The cool thing is when I purchase the ducks a donation is made to the Aflac Children’s Cancer Center in Atlanta so your gift benefits two great causes at once!

Thanks for getting involved. We never know when and through whom cancer will touch our lives. Let’s pray, race and yell for a cure for cervical cancer. Feel teal, friends, feel teal.

Being Refreshed and Renewed

It is amazing how a few days away can recharge your batteries.  As you can tell from my last post, I am sick of snow and the below normal temps in my native Tennessee.  Right now, I am in the middle of a "three weekends away" reset from winter to spring.  Last weekend I was on a Friday night to Sunday noon women's retreat in Pleasantville, Tennessee.  (Even sounds restful, doesn't it?)  I was able to get away from the stress of life, including cell phones, and get close to nature, friends and God.  Back to work and snow for three days and then Jerry and I flew out to Las Vegas on Thursday.  I don't really like Las Vegas -- not exactly a place to go to relax -- but Jerry had never been.  It took us a couple of days to just "go with the flow".  The highlight of the trip was a helicopter trip at sunrise over the Grand Canyon!  Spectacular!  On Sunday night, our last night in Las Vegas, we moved from the Luxor to The Venetian to stay in a suite some friends had reserved but had never used.  When we got to the hotel, they were overbooked so they upgraded us to a 1,400 square foot one bedroom, 1-1/2 bath, three TV suite.  The timing was perfect since we were so tired.  We have enjoyed our short, little stay in this beautiful place.

Today we are back home for three more days then we are off to East Tennessee to spend a long weekend with our grandkids.  We have not seen them since Christmas so our arms are hungry for hugs.  We are now bracing to go from 60's back to 40's with a chance of snow again this week in Tennessee.  Oh, well, at least it is now March and spring cannot be far away.

How sick I am of snow

I heard last week that 49 of the 50 states had snow.  How crazy is that????  Normally, I love snow.  I love snow because I am a Southern woman and we don't have it very often.  When we do, everything shuts down and we take a day off.  It is an annual, random holiday for us Southerners.  Not this year.  It has become an every week ordeal and I am sick of it.  The school systems are out of snow days.  The road departments are out of brine.  And most of us are out of patience.

I am a native Tennessean.  I didn't choose to live in the South; it was thrust upon me BUT having visited the other 48 states (that currently have snow), I would choose Tennessee.  One of the main reasons I choose to live in Tennessee and the reason a lot of other folks have chosen to move here is our weather.  We have four seasons, each lasting three months.  Yes, it is February and that is winter for us but I have had crocus to bloom in February as a little hint that spring was just around the corner.  The crocus are not accustomed to being covered in snow for days on end and neither am I.

The weather forecast is predicting more snow for the coming weekend but today I saw a patch of blue sky about the size of a man's hand.  These dark clouds won't be here forever.  There is hope in a Southern girl's heart.

My Friend, Jim Dale

My friend and mentor, Jim Dale, passed away on May 19, 2009.  I didn't find out about his passing until the evening of May 21, the day of the funeral.  Jim couldn't be dead; he was only 66 and I had a book laying in the kitchen to loan to him.  I was crushed that I could not honor a man at his death who had done so much for others during his life.

 

During the 1980's I had the opportunity to attend a seminar by Zig Zigler and Brian Tracy.  It is not an overstatement to say that I learned things that day about being a sales professional that literally changed the course of my life.  It also set me on a course that would lead me to Jim Dale.  After that seminar, I had a desire to do what they did -- change peoples lives by sharing valuable information in an entertaining way.

About 10 years later, while visiting my parent's church in Nashville and it occurred to me that a speaker, John Grogan, also attended that church.  John was a dynamic speaker and had appeared on stage with Norman Vincent Peele and others.  I approached him and shared with him my desire to be a speaker.  He said, "If that's what you want to do, I know someone who can help you."  John and Jim belonged to the same speaker's organization and John knew Jim had a mentoring program for speakers.  In September of 1999, I met Jim Dale and spent three days with him learning as much as I could about public speaking.  With his course, came access to all his resources along with lifelong mentoring.  Even though I lived 200 miles from Jim at the time, we spoke on the phone often and we became friends as well as teacher and student.

In the next few years, both of our lives were touched by serious illness.  In 2000, I had a brain hemorrhage and in 2002 Jim almost died of stomach cancer.  A life-theatening illness along with the crippling effects 9/11/01 had on the speaking industry basically ended my short speaking career and did serious financial damage to Jim Dale's career.  He somehow managed to continue booking and holding speaking engagements even through extensive chemotherapy.  He had no other choice.

When I saw Jim again in 2003 after I moved to Nashville, I could not believe it was the same man.  He always laughed and said, "I'm half the man I used to be."  Over the next six years, we would met occasionally for lunch or Jerry and I would meet him for dinner.  He could not eat much so he would tell stories and we would listen.  Jim was a quiet and lonely man with few close friends.  To supplement his income, Jim had started substitute teaching in high schools around Nashville.  He used his famous stories and magic tricks to educate and entertain his students.  By the stories he told me, I knew how much Jim loved his students and how much he wanted them to understand their true value.  In April of 2009, Jim told me how excited and honored he was that his favorite high school had asked him to be the baccalaureate speaker in May.  It was his last speech.

When I found out that Jim had passed away, I called John Grogan and told him the news.  We talked at length about Jim's great gift and his passion for God and serving people.  I was comforted by the posts made on Jim's memorial site and especially by the post of a man who had heard Jim's last speech and been profoundly affected by it.  I tried contacting Jim's daughter whom I felt I knew from Jim's stories but she never replied.  I wanted her to know what a great man her father had been and how deeply he had touched people's lives.  An employer of mine once told me if I wanted to know how important I was I should stick my finger in a bucket of water and pull it out and see what kind of impression it left.  Well, life is not a bucket of water.  One person's life can matter a great deal more than one may ever know.  That was Jim Dale, my meek and kind friend and mentor.