Adventure

Looking for gnomes

/ edebock / 9 Comments

After spending the past three weeks caring for my aging parents, we’ve moved across town to our son and daughter-in-law’s for a few days before we head for home. I’m mentally and emotionally worn out and nervous about leaving Mom and Dad on their own and it hasn’t helped that it’s been grey and rainy the entire time that we’ve been in Vancouver. Fun with our grandsons is just the medicine I need at the moment and what could be more delightful than a walk in the woods to look for gnomes?

Twenty-three years ago, when our son, Matt, was in fourth grade, we shared our home with a Norwegian exchange student. Bjorn came to us bearing unique and interesting gifts for each member of the family. The boys received Norwegian trolls about 6 inches tall with mischievous, grinning faces. In recent months, Matthew’s troll took up residence on a shelf in the kitchen of his home. That led to questions from inquisitive 3-year-old Sam and prompted a discussion about gnomes. Searches of the nearby forest followed to see if any of these dwarfish creatures could be found. Yesterday we were invited to go along on one of these adventures!

Could there be a gnome in here?

Or here?

Though we didn’t see any, there must have been one living under this tree because Mommy “found” a teeny, tiny gold key that fits perfectly into the lock of the tiny gnome door that she and Daddy recently installed on the outer wall of the family room! The plan is to put the key back where it was found so that the gnomes can come to visit if they want to.

   

Robin claims that she had absolutely nothing to do with the little gnome gate that we found deeper in the woods. Perhaps, the little people are protecting their food stores from squirrels or maybe they have treasure hidden here!

Our grandsons, Sam and little brother Nate, are fortunate to live just a couple of blocks from the forest and very blessed to have parents who nurture and encourage their active imaginations. Way to go, Matt and Robin!

Coming to terms with 60

/ edebock / 6 Comments

I absolutely loved being 40. By then I’d lived through some of the best and the worst that life has to offer and figured that I’d learned a few things along the way. I had a past filled with memories and lifelong friends and I had a future to look forward to. 40 was a fabulous midway point!

50 was great too! By the time that birthday rolled around, I was looking forward to early retirement and all the adventures that would follow. My fifties have included everything from climbing Mount Fuji to travelling the length of Vietnam on overnight buses to flying over the jungle of Costa Rica on a zipline!

I really haven’t enjoyed being 59 though because 60 has been hanging over my head all year! I want to embrace the next decade with the same enthusiasm that I greeted my 40s and 50s with but it hasn’t come as easily. 60 is such a big number! No longer can I fool myself into thinking that I’m still young. In fact, middle aged is a stretch unless I truly expect to live to be 120!

You’d think that I would have adjusted to being 59 pretty quickly. Immediately after my birthday, we spent several days with my parents. My mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease is obsessed with people’s ages.

“How old are you?” she’d ask.
“Fifty-nine,” I’d reply.
“How old are you?” she’d ask again a few minutes later.
“Fifty-nine,” I’d say again.
Over and over and over again.
“I’m fifty-nine.” “I’m fifty-nine.” “I’m fifty-nine.”
It didn’t really help.

Now 60 is just over a month away and I’ve been thinking about ways to celebrate; ways that might make the transition easier. One of the things that I’m passionate about is making micro-finance loans through Kiva; loans that give a hand up to women who are less fortunate than I am. Last night I invested another $25 in Kiva and gave myself an early birthday present.

Most of the women that I’ve given loans to have been younger than I am because loaning to mothers with children in their care has been one of my priorities but this time I decided to look for a woman who was 60. Kiva doesn’t list borrowers according to age so finding her took awhile. I scanned the long list of women in need, looking at each thumbnail photo for one who looked like she might be 60. Sadly, I clicked on many well worn faces only to find that they were much younger. I was reminded again how fortunate I am to have had the life I’ve had. Finally, after searching through many profiles, there she was. Sofai!  My loan will enable her to purchase chemicals, sprayers, shovels and fertilizers for her small taro plantation on the Pacific island of Samoa.

Sofai

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be looking for other ways to celebrate my “coming of age”. I’m not sure what they might be.

Any suggestions?

Packing again!

/ edebock / 4 Comments

On what is perhaps the coldest day of winter so far I’m taking out my summer clothes! Why, you ask? Because I’m packing again!

Back in October, when Richard and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary, we decided to celebrate by taking a mid winter vacation to someplace warm. I searched the internet for possibilities. I considered a cruise. In fact, I almost booked a seven day western Caribbean excursion but it just didn’t feel right. I thought about an all-inclusive resort vacation and considered all sorts of sunny destinations. That didn’t feel right either. I thought about renting a condo on a beach somewhere. That was appealing but then along came just the right thing… a Costa Rican adventure!

I was looking for something that wouldn’t take as much planning on my part as some of our Asian adventures required and something where we’d feel a little more pampered. On the other hand, we simply couldn’t see ourselves sitting in a luxury resort sipping cool drinks by the pool for an entire week. Not that that doesn’t have appeal but we can do that when we’re too old for more adventurous pursuits.

So what will we be doing? We’ll fly out on Thursday morning and begin with three days at a beach resort on the Pacific coast. Then we’ll move inland to Arenal Volcano National Park where we’re looking forward to doing some hiking and get this… the lady who has worked hard at overcoming her fear of heights is going to experience the rain forest from above on a zip line canopy tour! They may have to push me off the first platform but I can hardly wait!

Our package includes almost everything including a rental car to get from place to place. All we’ll be responsible for is finding lunch and supper each day which means we’ll be free to sample a variety of eating places and local cuisines.

In addition to commemorating our 35 years together, this vacation is also going to be a much needed digital detox for both us. As much as I love the internet, it’s easy to let it to consume more of our time than it ought to so the laptop is staying home this time and we won’t be searching out internet cafes. I’ll definitely be blogging about our adventures but not until we get home. We’ll only be gone for a week though so stay tuned!