BELLS
Sound weddings
Answer doors
Note elevator floors
Greet winter sleighs
Begin work days
Call meeting times
Signal alarms
Set clocks to awaken
Alert seat belts to buckle
Chime slot machine wins
Give lovers jingles in their ears
Lasting all their years

 

 

USING TIME

 

 

I have come to realize that the time we had off from publishing News and Views this summer didn't actually change the time I use ordinarily. I found that what I have done from day to day didn't change my daily routines. However, not meeting any deadline for a few months allowed me to explore more ideas for writing.

It seems that not having any deadline to meet let me get a little lazy and I became good at procrastinating to write. Now that I still have time, my thoughts have wandered into such a relaxed mode that I have spent much of my time reading and pondering about the world at large.

Outside of the gates of Cascade Lakes there is a plethora of good and bad news. It seems that if we allow ourselves to let local, national and international news become a big part of our free time we might get depressed. For example, the economy has been and still is in trouble. Mother Nature has given us severe draughts and devastating fires. Tragedies of major murders and personal abuses appear to be painful daily events.

However, I prefer to spend more of my time absorbing the news of sports and positive events. Television also offers us a variety of programs that are amusing, educating and entertaining. Sure our personal tastes vary and we have a myriad of choices. Emphasis on those events that are uplifting, stimulating and exciting can be a boon to us. You don't have to like baseball or football but how can you not be captivated by the wonderful athletic prowess of the young people in the Olympics.

Those of us in our senior years may not have the mobility of our younger years but our mental faculties still serve us very well and we can enjoy much of life through vicarious experiences. It is very important to keep ourselves occupied with time that is satisfying and fulfilling. Using our time with upbeat moments can lead to optimistic outlooks.

OUR INTENTIONS

 Our relationships with people can change from time to time. Sometimes we like, love, hate, envy, or resent them. We might even have these feelings toward a person we have never seen or met. To understand these feelings we need to look at ourselves and if you can allow yourself to reach out, it's amazing how much you can accomplish.

Let's begin by trying to understand the meanings of terms we often use. We speak of one having compassion; that is, showing concern for the suffering of another person. We might say we are in sympathy with one's views. Empathy involves the ability to identify with what someone else is feeling almost to the point of actually feeling the emotion of what one is experiencing, be it sadness, happiness or even anger.

There may be times when we don't get along with others or even want to be their friend. But, we all have good intentions and the capacity to wish them well. Some of us may have negative intentions but we are capable of changing those intentions to be positive. It really is a matter of the attitude we have.

Recent research reported in the Journal Social Psychological and Personality Science indicates that good intentions can be an important part in our daily experiences. One example is that one group of participants sat in an easy chair with an electronic massage pad which was turned on by a computer. A second group received the same massages but the pad was turned on by a human. The second group reported experiencing more pleasure from the massage than the first group. In another study, people were given a candy package with a note on it for Valentine's Day. For half the participants the note stated, "I picked this just for you. Hope it makes you happy." For the other half the note read, "Whatever--I don't care. I just picked it randomly." Research showed that the candy tasted better and sweeter when participants received the note of good intentions than the note that stated the candy was chosen randomly.

Acting with good intentions means we are doing something out of the goodness of our heart. That kind of behavior makes for good relationships and can provide enriching experiences. It does matter if we act with good intentions rather than to act indifferently or with meanness. It's a healthy philosophy to believe that people are generally good and want to be happy.
In essence, we do care about what another person's intentions are. The goal is for positive connections.

  Important questions to ask are: Was something done on purpose or by accident? What is our outlook? What will be our intentions to address the matter?



 



   

    OPINION

Speak what you believe

A privilege to say what you want

Without knowing all the facts

Expanding a lie

Waiting to receive an agreement to flaunt

Hoping others will twist ideas

And continue to taunt

Showing how ignorance can fly

Making the truth lost

Never to be taught

While honesty pays the cost

 

KEEP YOUR COOL

"Did you hear the way they were yelling at each other? Did you see how they became red in the face?" These are questions that you might try to answer when you witness arguments. It seems that people can get so emotional they might go out of control. But the fact of the matter is that most of the time they don't end up punching each other. The more important question is "Why don't they punch each other?" 

Theories about emotions reach back at least to the time of the ancient Greek philosophers; and, there is still no simple explanation of an emotion. However, it is considered a very complex interaction of one's physical and mental activity. Given this feeble explanation, we can readily see what a challenge it is for us to maintain a healthy outlook in life. After all, we do have happy and unhappy situations that provide us with strong feelings—emotions.

Psychology over the years has presented numerous theories to describe what causes emotional behavior. The field of neuroscience (the study of the nervous system) has emerged in the 21^st century and has made advances in helping us understand emotions. Dr. Richard J. Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a pioneer in brain research for more than thirty years. In his recent book, The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Penguin Books, 2012, he introduces Emotional Styles for helping us learn how to deal with our emotions.

Richardson claims that each person has unique emotional styles, which consist of six distinct components:
1. Resilience (how rapidly we recover from negative emotions),
2. Outlook (the duration of positive feelings),
3. Context (the degree to which we adapt our emotional responses. 
    For example, you won't talk to your employer the same way you would to your spouse),
4. Social Intuition (your sensitivity to people's facial and verbal expressions; your ability to
    empathize with their emotions),
5. Self Awareness (the degree you are aware of your emotional signals), 
6. Attention (how focused or distracted your mind is).

What makes his research interesting is that he has, through studying brain images, been able to show that there is a definite interrelation between the thinking part of the brain and the part of the brain that plays an important role in our negative emotions, such as stress, fear or anxiety. He discovered that the more connections between these two parts of the brain, the better we are able to manage our emotions. Fewer connections make it more difficult for one to recover quickly, thus, people linger longer in a negative emotion. Formerly, neuroscientists considered emotions mainly controlled by the part of the brain that reacts to stress and fear.

The evidence of his research shows that the brain is now known to have neuroplasticity, the ability to change its structure and function. We can learn to control and manage our emotions by applying the components of emotional styles. You can

 "Keep Your Cool".


 

A WINNER

Never takes no for an answer
Motivated like a prancer
Trying to reach a goal
Overcoming barriers
Using heart and soul
Having patience when needed
Receiving the award
Of self satisfaction
And personal gratification

 

 

 

SKY MASTER

 

I often wonder why we can't have more sunny days particularly during the rainy season. It seems like several days go by and all we get is rain and gray skies. I remember when I lived in England, those gray days lasted for weeks and I came to realize why the English people had such white skin and yet rosy cheeks, because they hardly got to see the sun. Well, I got to thinking about my old friend the Sky Master who once told me many years ago that he was doing some research and some day would finish his invention.

So, I decided to pay him a visit. He lived in an old house in the countryside where he was surrounded by acres and acres of land. When I arrived he was very pleased to see me and wondered where I had been for so many years. He looked hardy and had not aged at all. He still had his white beard and was smoking his curved briar pipe while sitting in his rocking chair on his front porch.

I asked him how he was doing with his weather inventions and without saying much, he took me for a walk to the huge barn behind his house. The double doors were open and as I looked into the barn my question was answered. Hanging on one wall were loads of bicycles with colored umbrellas fastened to them. Another wall was adorned with caps, each with a small umbrella glued on top. On the floor were stacks of hooded raincoats each dyed with rainbow colors. Piled up on the other wall were over a thousand rolls of heavy steel baling wire. As we walked toward the back of the barn I saw thousands of brooms piled to the ceiling. Each broom was about nine yards long with thistles at least nine yards long, made from broom corn, bound on each cylindrical broom handle whose base was at least a yard wide. I was amazed by such a spectacle.

"No doubt you are wondering what all that is about," he said. "Those wires and brooms are for my major project. I contacted a company to build one hundred of their sturdiest and highest flying helicopters with pilots trained to implement my project. I arranged to have each helicopter connected with the baling wire to which the brooms would hang below. The helicopters were to fly above the clouds parallel to one another, each at least five miles apart. Then, the pilots were to synchronize their journey by flying into the clouds and sweep away the rain clouds. For about a few hundred yards it seemed like the project was going to be a success. But, unfortunately, the broom thistles got so wet that the weight of the brooms broke away from the baling wire. Like the Wright brothers in their early attempts to fly failed, so did I. But, all this material you see is my second order of equipment and I plan to try again with more durable thistles."

I know that many of us in the community like to play tennis and golf or bask in the sun near the pool. I guess we will have to wait until the Sky Master succeeds in sweeping the clouds away.