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Jul

Two sides of loving.

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Inspired by friends Kevin and Dorota. • Jesus defined two sides of loving. • Who is my neighbor? • What about today?

I RECEIVED AN EMAIL TODAY FROM FRIENDS KEVIN AND HIS WIFE DOROTA. It was an appeal for money to support a young nurse in her education. It was a GoFundMe format that my friends helped set up. Not only that, the nurse lived in Tanzania, in Africa. They are dreadfully short of nurses over there: only one for every 27 patients.

I found this individual effort inspiring — to help a young person, who is not well off and living in another country.… More

Nov

Jessica Eubank: an Inspiration.

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Cerebral palsy. • The danger of driving. • Frustration. • When things seem hopeless. • The car that changed Jessica’s life.

Now and then I hear of a heart-warming story that is truly inspirational. This story was written from the perspective of Jessica’s mom who I know rather well. Here it is:

CEREBRAL PALSY. When you ask expectant parents if they’re hoping for a boy or girl, often the response will be, “Either as long as it’s happy and healthy!” Sometimes life throws a curve ball and the child you have been waiting for is not what you expect.… More

Oct

Sleep loss: startling new info.

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • A goldmine of info by an expert from Harvard. • Consequences of sleep loss are startling. • What about sleep apnea and insomnia?

HARVARD SLEEP EXPERT. At Harvard University, sleep expert Dr. Charles Czeisler unveiled a new sleep class for all freshmen. His work has exposed results of sleep loss that are startling.

The following bullets come from a podcast on NPR’s Here and Now, on 12 October 2018:

• Insufficient sleep can be deadly: causing traffic accidents, contributes to obesity and diabetes, • Harvard has a mandatory online sleep class for freshmen. It will soon be mandatory for upper classmen as well.… More

Aug

Fish Creek, Wisconsin.

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Fish Creek beach. • A little like heaven. • Tragedy at Independence, Kansas. • The process of pain. • Any good purpose for the trials of life?

Fish Creek, Wisconsin is a tiny village pregnant with tourists in Door County – a finger of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan about a hundred miles north of Chicago.

FISH CREEK BEACH. I’m typing up my thoughts on my deck at 3 pm. Across the road is a beach. It’s not a man’s beach like in Australia with enormous waves crashing on miles of golden sand, and tanned surfer-hunks on the watch for rip tides.… More

Dec

Kids and smartphones: The danger

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Nina Langton’s scary experience with depression and suicide. • The latest statistics on teenage mental health. • A teen’s brain is still developing. • Limiting smartphone use in schools. • Tips to get teens to put down their smartphones. • The Gray Nomad’s body-image and insecurity.

This blog falls in the category of Health and Hiking. My two other blog categories are Science and Energy, and Inspiration and Hope. My next blog is planned to be about cancer.

Teen depression has surged, fueling concern about iPhones and other smartphones. It’s become a serious issue. The following is excerpted from an article We need to Talk about Kids and Smartphones in Time Magazine on 6 November 2017, written by Markham Heid.… More

Sep

Teenagers cutting themselves

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Teenagers cutting themselves. • Anxious, depressed, and overwhelmed. • What are the reasons, and how can parents help. • Kara’s discovery

Just to clarify: each of my blogs centers on one of three things: (1) Inspiration and Hope, or (2) Science and Energy, or (3) Health and Hiking. The last two blogs about stress and depression and also this one about anxiety of teenagers fall into box number (3). Next week I shall rotate into another box, I promise.

I was shocked, to be honest, by an article in Time Magazine on 7 November 2016, entitled The Kids are not All Right, by Susanna Schrobsdorff, because it talks about teenagers cutting themselves.… More

Aug

Depressed or not

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Feelings of uselessness, worthlessness, and depression. • Dr Hogsett’s take on this. • Some valuable solutions. • John and an immigrant. • Breaking news: test for clinical depression • Staci’s FitBit.

Just to clarify: each of my blogs centers on one of three things: (1) Inspiration and Hope, or (2) Science and Energy, or (3) Health and Hiking. The last blog about stress and this one about depression fall into box number (3).

I WENT TO CHURCH LAST SUNDAY, AND WAS GREETED BY A TALL STATUESQUE BLONDE LADY. She was friendly and complimented me on my jazzy belt from New Mexico.… More

Aug

Eight actions to reduce stress

I RAN ACROSS THIS LIST OF STRESS-BUSTERS IN AN AMOCO MAGAZINE. My old company Amoco merged with BP in 1998, so this list may be 20 years old, or more. However, it struck me as a very sensible approach to reduce stress, and all the items seem attainable for most people.

I scored 5½ out of 8, so at least I’m above 50%. My weakest one is number 3: Talk it out. I don’t do this enough with friends and family. I tend to slug it out alone. But I have talked with a psychologist for about six months after a doctor said I had acute anxiety syndrome.… More

Apr

Back pain hope: How Mary got her life back. Part 2 of 3.

BACK PAIN HOPE – WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Cement injection into fractured disc. • The darkness. • Spiritual resource. • Laser Spine Institute.

BACKGROUND. This is Part 2 of a long story about hopes built and crushed. My goal is to chronicle the account of one remarkable woman’s faith and enduring persistence through a debilitating health crisis of back pain. In Part 1 (click here) Mary was immobilized by a new back injury received during a bad fall in her bathroom. She can’t drive, she can’t walk, and she can’t stand more than about 10 minutes without excruciating back pain.… More

Mar

Hope in back pain: how Mary got her life back. Part 1 of 3.

WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Car wreck that leads to back pain • Back pain after surgeries • Back pain after tripping on a dog • Toward depression

This story is long, and therefore in three parts, each about one week apart. The person called Mary is close to me and I know her story first hand. She has given permission to write this account. To summarize her personality by two words, I would say Mary has an indomitable spirit. The word means to never give up. Winston Churchill, who led England against Hitler’s Germany, once gave a graduation address by saying only the words, “Never, never, never give up.”… More

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