More Colorado fun!



 

The Wild Animal Sanctuary

 

This was a great excursion. A mile-long ramp runs the length of the sanctuary about 35 feet above the animals. Being predators, they rarely look up or care what's up there so they're more relaxed. All of their animals are rescues - everything from people trying to raise them in their homes to people raising them for fur to zoos closing down. Some came from a circus that was abusing the animals.

 

Here are some pics of the animals - Lions and tigers and bears!

 

 

 

 

World Famous Rocky Mountain Oysters at Bruce's Tavern in Severance, Colorado

 

Yum! Combo plate of Beef and Buffalo.

 

 

The Loveland Indian - Loveland, Colorado

 



Colorado!

Having a great time in Colorado! Here are some of the pics so far...

 

State Capitol

 

 

 

Denver City & County Building

 

 

Mile High Stadium

 

 

 

Pepsi Center:

 

 

Coors Field

 

 

The Denver Riverfront - Highlands

 

 

 

 At the Dam Store on the road to Trail Ridge 

 

Trail Ridge Store & Café - next to the Visitor's Center - Elevation 11,796

Trail Ridge Summit (we hiked up to here) - Elevation 12,005

 

Pics from the top

 

The only constant is change

As much as most people try to avoid it, change is inevitable. As much as we dig our heels in and hang on with both hands, it happens. It has to. It is the only constant. We know this. Then why do we fight it so?

 

In a major life change for me, I had to let go of my baby boy, Forest, this last week. Looking back on my life with him is a happy journey. I feel so grateful for having had the chance to adopt him into my life. From the outset, I was determined to train him into the best puppy ever, and I did. However, it wasn’t all me. He began as a wonderful, beautiful soul and simply grew from there, accepting and adapting to whatever the world threw at him. Dogs are born with that and it stays ingrained.

 

He was a happy, goofy boy and it was my life’s work to give him every benefit and experience I could. I think back on our first walks together when he got scared of a leaf blowing in the wind. I caught the leaf and showed it to him and told him what it was. Soon, he was chasing the leaves and eventually they were just things that were outside. I did this with anything he reacted to. Every day we walked and when he was old enough we started running together. We ran nearly every day for about 8 years. Those were the true glory days for us. 5 miles. 6 miles. Our longest run was just over 8 miles. Forest always chose the route.  After the run, I’d stretch and he’d get a massage and then we’d share a toasted bagel with cream cheese. I’d go to work and he’d go back to bed. As he got older, he started slowing down, so we’d walk more. Even as fanatical a runner as I was, I didn’t think twice about slowing down with him. I haven’t really run in about 2 years and I’ve been fine with that. We still walked every day and he still chose the route. That was my happiness.

In the last week I've been working on coming to terms with losing Forest. He was my baby boy, my friend and even a confidant at times. Trust me, he understood - he knew English. He just couldn't speak in reply. However, his facial expressions were priceless and, in fact, worth a thousand words. My heart is heavy - only time will lighten it.

Also, in the last week I've seen a great change in Tiger. I realized I was correct in assuming that he was trying to protect Forest. Whenever there was anything that might be threatening, Tiger would get all worked up. I thought he was just being obnoxious - he is still a puppy, after all. But he knew Forest wasn't well. He would sniff and kiss his face where the swollen lymph node was and always checked on him. Actually, he'd been doing that since Forest had the tumor on his jowl that was removed in February. Now, Tiger is more relaxed. At first, he was looking everywhere for Forest - in the apartment and at each of the parks near Forest's favorite places to sniff around. But it's almost like he doesn't feel that responsibility anymore and he's less keyed up. I know he misses playing with Forest. We all do.

 

Momma loves you, baby Nutters. You are the best puppy ever! I wish you the bounciest, funnest, rompingest time in your next life adventure. I’ll think of you every day as I move on to my next adventure here.

 

 

I am never down. I am either up, or getting up.

 I’ve had people tell me that I always have a smile on my face. I try to. I consciously strive for that. I am a very happy person in general. Of course, I wasn’t always. Like anyone else, I’ve had my share of obstacles and challenges. I know now, you do what you need to and go on. I believe there’s no reason to dwell or live in that state for any longer than is necessary. I consciously feel the pain or anguish or turmoil while I’m there – really feel it - then let it go. There is always something to be grateful for. There is always something to be happy about. And the two are not exclusive.

At one point in my life I was not happy. I was stressed out from work, family, friends and my marriage. Basically, I wasn’t happy with life in general. The common denominator? Me! I could either continue to deny there was any issue at all, or take a long, hard look at it. Oh, it is so much easier to deny it and try to forget about it and pretend it doesn’t exist or bother me. So much easier! But it does bother me. And it doesn’t go away, it gets worse. I’d drive to work crying and hoping to be sideswiped by a semi. I had to deal with this once and for all.

I am an avid researcher. I will research the hell out of any subject I need at the time. I’m also a do-it-yourself-er. If I find I can’t do it myself, then I’ll bring in help, but my initial attempt will nearly always be to learn what I need to learn and take care of the issue. The subject of this day: “how to be happy”. Wow. There are multitudes of books, millions of articles, thousands of experts and tons of newsletters. I’m pretty good at weeding out the riff-raff websites but there were still pages upon pages of information. Where do I start? At the beginning.

The base concept I took away from nearly every reading came down to gratefulness. Yes, I write about that a lot – and this is why. I found I wasn’t happy with what I had because I had taken it for granted. The stress and fast pace of life makes it so easy to fall into that trap. I started by methodically going over each issue and looking in the mirror for the answer. If I quit my job and got a different one, would I be happy? No – I’d simply be swapping one set of issues for a different set in a new company. If I stopped seeing all of my friends and got new ones, would I be happy? No – you have to really be a friend to have a friend and I knew I wasn’t holding up my end of the bargain a lot of the time. If I disowned my family would I be happy? Certainly not! Every family I know has some degree of dysfunction. To say “dysfunctional family” would be redundant. And finally, if I left my husband, would I be happy? Well, ok, not at that particular time. Later. But at that time I wasn’t a very good wife either.

Bottom line, I needed a major attitude adjustment. Oh, ugh. That’s going to be a LOT of work! But I found that if you master one small thing at a time, it’s not all that difficult. It takes time to learn to consciously think about what you’re doing – and be happy about it. Vacuuming is one of the most mundane chores a person can do. Your mind wanders other places and before you know it you’re done and barely remember doing it. Next time you vacuum, really look at the carpet and watch the crumbs and lint and debris magically vanish. Think about how much you’re helping the life of your carpet. Think about the allergens you’re removing from your household. Your home is your haven and it should be treated accordingly in order to make you feel safe and comfortable there. When you’re done, you’ll have such a feeling of accomplishment. And, yes, I do this. This works just the same with something less mundane like your job. For me, I was totally overwhelmed, overworked and stressed out. I know how this job is and regardless of where I work, I had to decide if this is truly what I wanted to do for the rest of my working life. I thought long and hard and came to the realization that I love every aspect about the job. I like the fast pace, I like fixing things. I like learning something new every day. My stress came from a lack of time-management and in this job, there is no such thing. I had to accept that fact and simply prioritize. And I did. And, again, I had to consciously feel thankful for my job every day. I had to force myself at first. It certainly doesn’t start out as second nature. I’d think, “I’m so happy that I have this job.” And then think about what makes me happy about it today. Some days I accomplish a lot. Some days, I accomplish nothing productive. But every day moves me in a positive direction simply by what I’ve learned. And for that I can be grateful. And that makes me happy. And the experience teaches me that I can weather any storm and remain happy.

Finally, happy people smile, right? Not always. Some people don’t have that outward show of emotion. If I truly wanted to embrace happiness I needed to exude happiness. The experts say it makes a difference. I can tell you, as cheesy as it sounds, it does work. If you’re feeling sad or a little down you’re supposed to smile for 10 seconds. I think I remember my mom telling us this as well. (Yes, mom?) So, in my attitude readjustment phase, I employed this trick as well. At first I felt so stupid sitting there grinning for no reason. But, funny thing – it actually works. Now I don’t think about it anymore. I smile at people wherever I go. Sometimes it’s a game to see who will smile back.

:-)

Perfectionism

My mom called me a perfectionist. Everything had to be right and in its place. Clothes folded correctly and all the same. My room dusted and vacuumed every week. Hair parted exactly in the center. Even when I ate, I’d eat one thing at a time so as not to mess up my plate. I still butter my toast exactly to the edge. Everything was clean, even and symmetrical. The funny thing is that it sounds extremely neurotic to me now, but when I was a kid, that was just how I was. To this day I love that about my parents. They let us each be what we were and celebrated it instead of suppressing it. (That alone is a topic for a different post.) However, it seems that according to the me now, the me then was neurotic. LOL!

I’ve learned to relax a bit over the years. I don’t have to pick up every speck of fuzz off the floor the second I see it – I waited a whole hour once. I mix up my food on my plate. I part my hair on the side. It’s not completely gone and never will be and that’s ok with me. But it doesn’t control me as much as it used to. Nowadays they call it OCD – the extreme cases, anyway. I think I liked the term perfectionism better. It sounds more human.

As I’ve matured, I see that I’m not only like that because I have a disorder. I’m now a clean freak because I appreciate the fact that I have a home and a car and clothes to clean. I take pride in maintaining that which I am fortunate enough to possess. I see the homeless people often and can only imagine how grateful many of them would be to have even the simple things I have. To be able to bathe daily, to have food in the refrigerator, to care for a pet, to choose different clothes each day – these are things we have all taken for granted at one time or another. We will almost always learn appreciation through loss of these basics. How did you feel the last time your water heater went out? Could you imagine only ever having the option of a cold shower? I did that for a week once – years ago. It was horrible. Now, every time I take a shower I still have a fleeting thought about that week and appreciate my hot water heater even more.

Take care of yourself and your life and everything in it.