Thoughts on Dentists and Music

Just returned from the dentist where I had a filling which was leaking fixed. I have not had any dental work for about two years with any freezing so I as I type, my mouth or at least the left side of my mouth, my lips and my tongue are still frozen. It is an interesting sensation as the freezing starts to wear off and the tingling sensation creep into my consciousness. 

The Dentist is friendly, as is his assistant, I was in and out of there in about 20 minutes with a precaution not to eat for about an hour. I can do that, yesterday I went for blood tests and made the mistake of not going in the morning. I was required to fast for 10 hours before the appointment, but I was not able to get in until the late afternoon. The receptionist, when she calculated the time I had been fasting was surprised that I had fasted for 20 hours.

I talked about this before, I was moving on slow down time and it gave me pause to think about the people who have no choice in when they eat. We are very lucky in Canada but we forget sometimes how lucky we are, so if you can please continue to support your Local Food Bank. There are many of our neigbours and friends who use and need these services.

As I was sitting in the Dentists chair, the Dental Hygienist said, I think I was born in the wrong generation, I love my parents music--she was of course talking about my generations music. Our music touched our soul and still touches our children and our grandchildren soul. I think because the music of the boomers was trying to find out who we were and what we valued. The music did not just talk to the right or to the left, but reached us all.

Life on the West Coast

I love these days, the wind is blowing the clouds away, the sun is shining but not warm. Suddenly everyone is running as hail comes out of nowhere. The hail turns to heavy rain, then the wind picks up again and just as suddenly as they appeared the rain, hail and clouds are gone. Spring on the west coast, energy flowing, life is good on the west coast. I read a wonderful post on one of the blogs I follow The Legislature Raids which is partly quoted below for the full post check out the blog:

The perfect explanation from an unexpected source: why we stand up for British Columbia


BC Mary comment: This is the best-ever explanation of what drives so many of us to protect one thing after another ... BC Rail ... BC Hydro ... BC rivers ... and so many issues that create the beautiful province we once knew. We owe great appreciation to Alexandra Morton who stuck to her one issue and has explained it so well, all along, but never so broadly as today's message ... "

My hope is that the Boomers will remember that we have to set the example and be the first to stand up and be counted.

Every day is a good day

One of the people I work with said to me this morning that everyday that she is breathing is a good day, and laughed. I have been very lucky in my life to have met and worked with some wonderful people who have had to overcome many illnesses. Many of these people believe that having a good attitude helped them survive and defeat the illness that they faced. I believe they are partially correct, attitude is an important part of how we deal with life.

I counsel that we cannot control how others behave, all we can do is control how we react to the behaviour. However, if one is sick, or tired, or depressed then our ability to control our own reactions are limited. I have a friend who believes that balance is one of the four (Spirituality, Health, Relationships and Work) important aspects of life. Easy to say, hard to do, I am not a spiritual person, so I find it hard to work that aspect into the balance that I seek. I strive to balance, relationships, health, and work so perhaps I am not a square, but a triangle. I think the ideal of spirituality residing outside of one's self is interesting but not relevant to many of my generation. I believe that if one should seek spirituality within, by the way we see ourselves and how we interact with others and our environment. Many of us are on the phenomenal plane and in the pursuit of pleasure, but the pursuit of pleasure sometimes brings pain. Maybe we should be searching for Bliss.

The Buddhist quote for the day: On the phenomenal plane we seek pleasure and the avoidance of pain. On the noumenal plane we know the absence of both - which is Bliss. - Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei...

Boomers turning 66--it is not the end of the world

There will be some interest, I think in the fact that the first of the Baby Boomers turn 66 this year and the pundits and those who want to make more about the aging of the boomers will carry on a conversations that are of little interest to us. The Beatles had a song about turning 64, but the song is about the sustaining of relationships not growing old. The lyrics are about how to keep love alive and the need we have to know that the relationship we are in is the correct one for us.

I had an interesting conversation the other day with three young colleagues (two men and one woman), it was after school and they were talking about how to know if a relationship was good and what they could do to maintain. I was asked my views and I suspect they thought that they thought with the wisdom of age I would have the answer. Sorry to disappoint but we as boomers value relationships, but many of us are not good at keeping them. All I could talk about is the following:

The idea is that we need to be honest to our selves about what we want and what we need, at an emotional, physical, and intellectual level. To find out what we need requires hard thought, and self investigation and is not something that is done easily. However, once you have spent the time and energy to find these things about yourself then be honest and communicate using "I language" to your partner what you need. It may be that your partner cannot give you what you need at this time in your life. If this is the case move on. This is easy to say but hard to do, however if you want to be happy then you may have to make tough decisions about the type of relationship you want.

Back to the Beatles, I saw the Beatles when they came to Vancouver in the 60's and enjoyed the show and love their music still today. Boomers may hold on to old memories but we find ways to make them come alive today. Music was an important part of my life and I have talked about this in an ealier post.