Christmas Wishes

                I remember past Christmas’ in which approximately 20 family members who celebrated together. Now we are so few, two or three at a time. Celebrating two Thanksgivings with four people  and then five people, back to back.  That was this year, but there have been years when it was just the two of us. Nice times but not the large gatherings of the past. What has happened to our family gatherings and our need to spend time together?  Smaller gatherings seem to the trend.  We need to hold onto the special moments.

                Family does not only mean our biological family any more. Often our closest friends are more like our family than our biological family. Stressful and hurried times create stress among families. Too much to do in so little time. The advanced technology has not lighten our burdens, it has seemed to add more on our already full plates. Sometimes we are guilty of placing too much importance on what we need to do such as chores than maintaining and sustaining healthy relationships. We need to take the time to let the people in our lives know how important they are to us. I know I am guilty of placing too much importance on tasks them people at times. We have become more of a task oriented and thing oriented society and we lost touch with the warmth and love we can experience from being close to people. I have a lot of wishes I would like fulfilled in 2016.

                I wish that we can become closer to our loved ones and friends and that we will make it a priority  to build happier and healthier relationships. Hand held devices cannot replace a hug. Seeing a warm smile can provide the heartfelt feeling on a cold winter day, nothing better than warm snuggles from friends and family.  An earlier study revealed that we need so many hugs to get over anything traumatic in our lives. Hugs are very healing.

                I wish that we would all let go of our resentments towards one another and see the beauty and depth that exists with all of us. Forgiveness is done for us and not for the other person who harmed us. Holding resentments is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to become sick. We need to forgive. It doesn’t mean that we have to have that person in our life. It means accepting the harmful situation for what it was and letting go of the harm that situation caused us.

                I wish all of us would reach out and volunteer in our communities. The best way to feel good about ourselves is by helping others. I feel very rewarded when I help others even if those others are animals. A tail wag and purring is very therapeutic. We all have a few hours to spare to help others. There are many ways to do so from volunteering at a soup kitchen, walking dogs at the animal shelter to cleaning a section of road. We need to get out there and see how we can be part of the solution.

                I wish all of us would take care of ourselves physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. We are all important and we need to treat ourselves as such. If one of the above areas is off, we are off. We need to take the time to meditate and pray, to eat right with healthy foods, to exercise on a regular basis and treat our minds like they are gardens needing to be fertilized and nurtured. We are very important.

                I want to leave you with a poem to set the stage for the holidays.

A Special Time

Judy Schwab

Shopping lists,                                                                   Memories shared,

                Kitchen smells,                                                                  a quiet tear,

Children singing,                                                               Some are gone,

                Jingle Bells—                                                                      still wanted here—

Colored lights,                                                                   A time of Peace,

                Falling snow,                                                                      and hope renewed,

Fireplace,                                                                            Our fellow man,

                With amber glow--                                                          with love imbued—

Trees adorned,                                                                 A host of things,

                A holly bough,                                                                   so many more,

Parties, friends,                                                                To answer then,

                Blessings now--                                                                 what’s Christmas for?

Be a Master of Your Time

-----Time-management strategies for entrepreneurs

Self-professed “No B.S.” entrepreneur and author Dan Kennedy takes a hardnosed approach to time management in his book No B.S.: Time Management for Entrepreneurs (Entrepreneur Press, 2044). He says despite your description, no one works an eight-hour workday. Why? “Not a soul on the planet gets in eight productive hours a day.” The culprits are so-called “time vampires,” meetings, interruptions and lack of discipline. Kennedy offers these strategies for increasing your productivity and maintaining your sanity:

1.      If you don’t know what your time is worth, you can’t expect the world to know it either. Just like an attorney, think of your time as billable. For every minute you waste, think of the money you also wasted.

2.      Time vampires will suck as much blood out of you as you permit. A typical time vampire is Mr. “I just have a quick question,” who drops by several times a day. Kennedy says to imagine him like a vampire sucking out a pint or two of blood each time. By he end of the day, you’re drained.

3.      If they can’t find you, they can’t interrupt you. The average business owner is interrupted once every eight minutes. That adds up to a lot of lost minutes. Kennedy suggests setting aside “do not disturb” times at work, with a closed door and a phone- and email-off policy.

4.      Punctuality provides personal power. Kennedy says you cannot reasonably hope to have others treat your time with respect if you show little or no respect for theirs. So, do what you gotta do,  and be on time.

Source: Success ] From Home. Volume 10 – Issue 4, April 2014.

Sidenote: I am a busy women who writes, has published books, is a professor, wife, grandmother and mother and volunteers at a local animal shelter. Managing time has to be a priority. Hopefully, you find this information interesting and helpful.

Sole Survivor

I attended a presentation provided at the Sault Locks Visitors Center. Dennis Hale was the sole survivor of the SS Daniel J. Morrell on a cold blustery stormy night off the thumb of Michigan. Winds exceeded 70 miles per hour with swells of over 25 feet. It started out as a normal trip, nothing out of the ordinary. Dennis almost missed the ship. The second time he had to board the ship at a different port. Making the last run of the season was its sister ship the Edward Y. Townsend. During the early morning the captain of the Townsend decided to pursue safety from the storm in the St. Mary's River heading for the protection of Thunder Bay. The Morrell was left alone in the waters off the north shore of Pointe Aux Barques, Michigan.

At 2:00 a.m. the Morrell started sending out its screams with the banging of metal as the ship was being torn apart by the swells of wind and waves. Many of the men jumped to their deaths in the 34 degree waters of Lake Huron. Dennis was clothed in a pea coat, boxer shorts and a life jacket. His life jacket served as a prop during this presentation. First the attendees of this presentation were shown a video of the ship as it rested at the bottom of the lake. Dennis Hale's cabin was shown along with the rest of the back portion of the ship. The ship was broken in half during its assault on that stormy eve of November 29th, 1966. The ship housed fish who saught its protection.

The length of the ship was 580 feet, a beam of 58 feet, height of 27 feet and was operated by the Cambria Steamship Company, a Bethlehem Transportation Company Mgrs. subsidiary. The ship was a bulk freighter like the many ships that sail through the Sault Locks. There were 29 crew members, with only one surviving the trip.

The crew was called on board by the load crashes.  By 2:15a.m. the ship was ripped in half. Because things were happening so quickly, an SOS was not sent.  The remaining crew men boarded a raft at that forward section of the vessel.  While they were waiting for that portion of the ship to sink, there were shouts that a ship was spotted off the port bow.  It was soon discovered that the ship they thought they spotted was the aft of the ship they were on.  This portion was barreling towards them under the power of the ship’s engines.  The two section collided, and the back end of the ship kept traveling at a fast pace off into the darkness.  It was reported as looking like a wounded beast with its head shot off.

Dennis reported that it took him 24 years to talk about this incident.  When he finally spoke of what happened that stormy night, he felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders.  He boarded a raft with three other crew members.  While they drifted he was under the impression that the other crew members were off on other rafts behind them in the darkness.  As they clung for their lives battling waves of up to 35 feet, one by one the three crew members lost their lives.  Mostly due to lung problems, and the frozen temperatures.  John Cleary was one of these crew members. 

He asked Dennis to tell his wife he loved her.  Dennis reports being in a lot of pain as he laid against two metal devices that were ridged into his back and hip.  When he was saved he told the medics that he had broken bones because he was in so much pain. 

He began shooting off flairs to no avail.  After hours he welcomed death.  He finally heard the sounds of a helicopter above him.  As far as I understand he was hung up on the shore of Lake Huron.  He has written a book about this experience A Sole Survivor. 

During this approximately 38 hour ordeal, Dennis received messages from what he thought was real.  He was told not to eat the ice from his jacket because it would freeze him from the inside out.  He followed these orders.  Dennis visited a meadow with flowers.  He also suffered from a loss in faith. 

Dennis showed a video of his trip on a ship called the Roger Blough.  He vowed and stuck to this vow for many years that he would never step foot on another ship.  A short time ago some of his friends joined him on this cruise and a song writer joined them and wrote a song about it.  The presentation ended in some humorous things written about that excursion.