February 10: Writing Prompt #41-Teachable Moment

You have to learn a new skill. Do you prefer to read about it, watch someone else do it, hear someone describe it, or try it yourself?

Honestly, I can’t pick just one of these ways because I learn best through using multiple learning styles.  I prefer to teach this way too.  So, if I have to learn a new skill, I like to read about it first (to take it all in), then watch someone do it (catching the things I missed when reading), then try it myself (to discover what I still need to go back and focus on learning better).  The only one I think is NOT as helpful to me (at least by itself) is hearing someone else describe it.  I can learn OK this way, but I will have to ask you to explain it more than once because if there’s not something visual (the actual words, pictures, or watching someone do something), I may zone in and out and not catch everything you are saying, especially if you are long-winded like me.  If you just zoned out, I understand. J  OR, maybe more accurately, I will starting thinking about the first steps of what you said, trying to remember them, and then miss the next part, which leads to how it can work for me combined with other ways of learning…

Take yoga, for example, I love how the best of yoga instructors, like Rodney Yee, walk you though the positions both verbally and visually.  Putting those learning styles together reinforces that I am doing things correctly.  Then, if I can read about the positions along with drawings or photographs of the positions described, that’s even better. I’ll be an expert before you know it.  Well, close….J 

Bottom line, whether I’m teaching English to adults or life skills to kindergarteners, the more I am able to incorporate the 3 main cognitive learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) into my techniques, the more likely my “students” will have success.  This means presenting new material or ideas in multiple ways, i.e. talking about it, writing about it, providing a hands-on activity, etc.... It also means offering opportunities to learn individually, in small groups of 2-3, and in larger groups.  The best teachers I have ever known and learned the most from are the ones who tailor their teaching to the various learning styles of students in their classes.  I think we have certain learning styles that are stronger, but we all learn in more than one way, so I don’t think you can answer this with just one of the 4 choices from the prompt…What do you think? How do you learn best? 

February 9: Writing Prompt #40-Childhood Revisted

Sure, you turned out pretty good, but is there anything you wish had been different about your childhood? If you have kids, is there anything you wish were different for them?

This is a difficult one for me to answer because I believe every experience happens for a reason and can make us better, wiser human beings if we choose to learn from them instead of allowing bitterness and anger to take over.  That said, if someone was twisting my arm for an answer to this one, I would have to say the only thing I wish had been different about my childhood is that my parents would not have divorced (and that my father had not chosen to commit adultery). 

When I was a teenager (my parents divorced when I was 12), the majority of my close friends had two happily married parents. I loved spending time at the homes of these families.  There was no tension, awkward moments, no step moms and step brothers, just loving parents and their kids.  Not that I had any issues with the step mom and step brother I had in my life for a brief period of time, but it was just like living in two different worlds: my world at home with my mom and the world I entered on the occasional weekends with my dad and his new family.  It was awkward.  I recently discovered some pictures from the day my dad was remarried the first time, and the tension in my face was palpable.  It didn’t even look like me.  Most days, after a weekend with my dad, I would come home and break down in tears, not because I was sad or had a bad time there, just because I wasn’t sure who I was in his world anymore.  I wanted to please him and spend time with him, but there were so many new variables introduced with his new family, and I don’t know if I ever really found my place there before that marriage ended for him as well. 

The funny thing is, after over two decades of marriage and 3 kids, then over 2 decades of divorce, my parents got remarried and have been remarried for about 5 years now.  So, the years in between are kind of like the “lost years” now.  I love my dad, and everyone makes mistakes.  My mom is certainly not perfect either, and as I know they read this, I don’t want them to feel bad or sad about it because in the end, I don’t think we could be the family we are today if they had stayed together all those years.  We ALL grew and changed and became better, wiser human beings because of the pain we went through after their divorce.  I know it sounds strange, but I am thankful for those “lost years.”  Although, when we are asked if we could change anything, we are usually going to choose to change those things that caused us the most pain, and for me, their divorce was the most painful part of my childhood.

Unfortunately, for me, I would change the same thing about my children’s lives. I would wish for them that they did not have to live apart from each other (one with dad and one with mom), and that they were not products of a divorced family. Don’t get me wrong on this one, the divorce had to happen; otherwise, they would have grown up seeing the wrong example of a healthy marriage because that is far from what their father and I had together (and the first 3 and 5 years of their lives were lived in a very unhappy home), but if I could change things, it would have been to marry the love of the my life the first and ONLY time around (instead of the second and last) and to bear and raise my children with him. But, that’s like changing the entire story of my life, and I would never want to change having the two precious boys I have now, and I may have never met the love of my life if I had not ended up in the Marshall Islands, which was a direct result of my first marriage. All of this brings me back to my original point…

It’s really difficult to go back and say you wish for anything to be different because to me that means you have not found peace and happiness within the world you live in now (disfunctionalities and all), and you have not grown from your mistakes, but instead, live in the past, wishing for things to be different (or the same as they used to be) and never finding your contentment in the present. And that’s the last thing I want. I choose to live in this present moment and take the good and bad in life for what it is, simply the good and the bad, then learn from it and move on. 

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

February 8: Writing Prompt #39-Karma Chameleon

Reincarnation: do you believe in it?

The short answer is no.  If you haven’t figured out already, I was raised in northern Alabama in the protestant church (Southern Baptist to be exact). Church, youth groups, singing in the choir, Sunday and Vacation Bible School were all a HUGE part of my life until I was in my early teens.  After my parent’s divorce, my mom had a hard time fitting in with the church we had been members of for so many years because “divorced” and singles groups were not a large part of the Baptist churches in the south at that time.  She found friends, compassion, and understanding in the non-denomination churches in the area, and I followed her there.  I am so glad I did. It opened my eyes to other ways to worship, to deepen my relationship with God, how NOT to judge others no matter what or where they came from, and how to just LOVE unconditionally.  

Although I do believe that God finds a way to reveal himself in many different types of religions and belief systems, and I do NOT think there is only one particular group of religious believers who will go to heaven to be with God, but more simply, it will be ALL of us who believe and receive our Savior Jesus with our whole hearts, no matter where we “go to church,” I do believe we go to either heaven or hell when we die, not reincarnate into something or someone else.  To me, this devalues our worth as human beings and sons and daughters of the Most High God.  I mean, if I believe God created us each in his image with a soul and a special purpose in mind for us, then how can my human soul come back as an insect? It’s something I’ve just never been able to wrap my mind around.  I prefer to believe that God created me to be me and only me for whatever the length of my life will be, and I have no desire to continue to live my life over and over again as anyone or anything else. 

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6-7

February 7: Writing Prompt #38-Right to Health

Is access to medical care something that governments should provide, or is it better left to the private sector? Are there drawbacks to your choice?

Here’s my experience with government-run health care.  In the early years of my first marriage, before children, I traveled with my then husband to New Zealand and Australia.  The flights we arranged required us to fly from Kwajalein to Hawaii, and then Hawaii to Sydney, Australia.  Before we left Kwajalein, my traveling companion was feeling a little uncomfortable. He was having shortness of breath and chest pains, but he didn’t want to postpone or forgo the trip, so he shook it off, and we headed for Hawaii. The uncomfortable feelings he was having did not go away, so in Hawaii, hours before we were to depart on our red-eye flight to Australia, we were in the hospital, and he was hooked up to monitors for his heart.  Problem is, they wanted to continue to monitor him overnight and possibly do a stress test the next day, so we had to make the decision to stay or go, again.  We checked out of the hospital and caught our flight. It was uneventful, but when we got to Sydney and started touring the famous Sydney Opera House with its 72 stairs on the outside going in, the chest pains and shortness of breath started again. The next day we were set to go to Kangaroo Island for a couple of days by plane, but 3 times is a charm, I guess.  We stayed in Sydney the extra days instead so that we could go to more doctors to check things out. 

Australia has been on a government run health care system since 1975 (New Zealand since 1938).  It’s a two-tier system where the government mandates or provides for catastrophic and minimum insurance coverage for all residents or citizens while allowing purchase of additional voluntary insurance when desired. 

For us, this meant that we went to the doctor free of charge. They ran some tests, took some blood, and concluded it was probably just the result of some minor virus he may have, but felt that it would still be a good idea to have a stress test to be sure. Thinking this could take up the rest of our 3-week trip, we braced for the waiting.  Surprisingly, they booked an appointment with a cardiologist the same day. Amazing!! The stress test came out just fine, and I think the knowing everything was okay (and the potential virus working it way out of his system) caused the remainder of symptoms to lessen and eventually disappear over the next few days. 

The health care was free, efficient, and immediate, and we were back on our way to enjoy the rest of our vacation.  Crazy, huh?  Well, that’s the up side and because we were just visiting, we never had a chance to know or hear about the cons from the citizens and residents who were most likely helping to pay our bills for health care out of their taxes, but I thought it was great.  Of course, with the two-tier system, there’s both public and private sectors involved, and with Obama care here in the US now (Insurance Mandate), it’s the same way.  There are some countries that have Single Payer health care where the government pays for everything and studying this list of countries (http://truecostblog.com/2009/08/09/countries-with-universal-healthcare-by-date/) and the number of years they’ve had universal health care, I have to consider that it’s probably working pretty well.

As US citizens, I think sometimes we are resistant to change, resistant to the government being involved or “helping” us in any way.  We are afraid of it becoming a dictatorship, afraid of losing our freedoms in one way or another, but I think if we are going to continue to thrive and evolve as a civilized country, we need to be open to potential positive changes, although I admit that I don’t always understand all the intricacies of the issues. That being said, I googled the pros and cons and found a very succinct and simple explanation (just as I like it when it comes to politics, which I am NOT well versed in AT ALL). You can find it here, http://www.livestrong.com/article/30692-pros-cons-universal-health/. Check it out and tell me what you think. 

February 6: Writing Prompt #37-Choose your Adventure

Write a story or post with an open ending, and let your readers invent the conclusion.

There once was a young girl who moved to an island over 6,500 miles away from all she had ever known to take a chance on love.  She was scared, but she took the leap anyway.  Once there, she discovered that love was a lot harder than it felt like it would be at first, and she had a lot of time on her hands to think about it or NOT think about it.  So, she explored her new tiny, coral atoll from behind the windy, fence lined salt water pool that overlooked the crashing waves of the Pacific to every crushed coral pathway along the shores of its full 3 mile length and ½ width.  She found her favorite spots to write, to dream, to pray, and to consider her life.  The more she hunted for beach glass and broken shell treasures along its coastline and rode her 3 speed bike around and around its coconut palm tree lined perimeter, the more she fell in love again, but this time with the beauties of a tropical paradise she now called home, not a fallible, human being much like herself. 

As the years passed, she continued to try and figure out how to make love work with someone she didn’t quite understand; she was lucky enough to stumble upon two jobs that she would become very passionate about and would have never chosen for herself, and she would birth two adorable baby boys, who would also fall in love with the island as much as their mother had during her initial years there.

As seasons changed year after year, so did our young girl. She became a woman, a woman much different from the girl she started out to be.  All of a sudden, she realized that she felt very trapped, and the island she loved became a prison of sorts. During these tortured years, she dreamed of living back in her home state, another island, or really anywhere other than where she was. She spent long hours imagining what it would be like to be a mother, a grown individual, and a valued employee someplace else.  She had never really lived as an adult with a spouse, children, a full time job, a house of her own, etc…before she left her life to come to the island.  She dreamed about the possibilities of life outside paradise, and she feared it immensely at the same time.  She took her children on multiple mini vacations to see her family and experienced immeasurable sadness and anxiety each time she had to return to what had once seemed such a wonderful place to live. 

Then, it all came to a head. Divorce, splitting up time with her babies between their dad and herself, a new job, a new, much smaller home for singles only (no children allowed in these quarters), and relief.  Time to herself to heal, to get to know who she had lost in those blurry, dismal years, time to really appreciate her children and give them her all because she was no longer wasting her energy on something that was long lost and unrecoverable.  Time to rediscover her island home through the eyes of new friends, new love, and new hobbies. 

She never thought she would remain in this place for almost 2 decades. She never thought she’d survive the divorce there, much less be found by and start a new life with the man she was meant to be with all along.  Never the less, it was never meant to be forever, this island life. It was only for a few seasons, a few more than anyone ever expected it to be, but the day came when it was time to move in a different direction. So, she and her family moved back to the states and began having new adventures there.  Every now and again, she would think back very fondly on her island life, friends, and work there, and she would wonder what it would be like to go back and visit someday.  She evened considered that maybe, if the opportunity presented itself, her family would go back to live for a little while longer, but that never happened. That’s okay though because she went on all kinds of other journeys with jobs in Germany, Japan, and all over the world, falling in love with each place traveled for it’s own unique qualities. 

Then, one day, after her children were grown and she had retired, she was invited to come back to visit the island by an old friend, and at first, she was hesitant. She thought that after all these years, she wasn’t sure she’d want to see how it is now because she wanted to continue to treasure those old memories of how it was then, and seeing it now might ruin that, but she took another chance. This time, for the love of her friends who were still there. 

As she started the long journey on the island hopper jet stopping every few hours to let passengers on and off at various stops, she had plenty of time to think, to reminisce….which made her both happy and sad. So much of her life had been shaped by this place, its people and her experiences there, and she was unsure of how would she respond to it now. In the middle of her reverie, the wheels touched the ground of the tarmac, and she closed her eyes and took one last deep set of breaths before exiting the plane. As she stepped out of the door and into the outside world (there’s no jet way here), she felt a “warm, wet washcloth” of humid air brush across her face with the trade winds,  just as she had felt her first day on island years ago, and she realized…