Feeling Small?...by Jim Terry

Boy how time flies, as I am getting older. And with the swiftness of time, as it passes, I sometimes find myself feeling a bit deflated, insignificant, unimportant or small in this big ole world we live in. A minute becomes a second, a month becomes a day and a year becomes a month. As I look back on what I have written in past posts, I have mentioned this before but it really is true that time really does speed up as we age.  Maybe a better outlook, since I am a self-proclaimed optimist, is to say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

So in light of mentioning time and it now being officially September, I wanted to know what last hoorahs or plans you have for the end of the summer (Labor Day) and the beginning days of another school year?   If you don’t have any ideas for that last-minute trip, don’t worry. I have one that may help you make a decision on where to go and what to experience.

Just recently, I found myself in a conversation with one of my patients. Most of my patients know about my love of the outdoors and how much I love to hike, raft and just experience nature. It recenters me and helps give me a bit of focus and peace in the crazy world we live in.  So upon further discussion with this patient, he mentioned an area that I should visit, that was close to work, doesn’t have a lot of foot traffic and is easy to get to. The place he mentioned is called Purisima Creek Redwood Preserve.

Upon entering this serene place away from the hustle and bustle of life, a small squirrel greeted me. This little guy was either welcoming me to his home or was looking for a quick free meal.  I think it was the latter! 😀 Once I passed by my little friend and started my hiking adventure, I had to stop for a minute, close my eyes and take a deep breath. There’s always something so refreshing and energizing about clean mountain air that's laced with pine and freshness isn’t there?  It literally rejuvenates my soul and magically clears my mind somehow.   It was right after that moment, when I reopened my eyes with now more tranquility and clarity in my mind, that I noticed a wall in front of me. It wasn’t a “wall” per say, but it was a wall of green created by some of the biggest trees I have seen to date. 

As I continued on my journey, I began to notice my environment around me.  The impact and quietness of my shoes upon the forest’s floor was gently cushioned with the evergreen leaves that had fallen to the ground. The canopy above me was slowing closing in around me not allowing much light onto the forest floor but provided just enough to generate some of the most beautiful and biggest ferns I have seen. The faint whispering of the wind gently rocking the trees to and fro was only subdued by the distant hoot from the hoot owl waiting for night to fall in order to capture his next meal.  And with the few openings in the canopy above, if there was a ray of light that hit the forest’s floor, it generated one of the most amazing Technicolor hues that anyone could witness.

Now I may be biased now that I have experienced this, but the redwood trees really should be the 8^th wonder of the world. Did you know that redwoods can live over 2,000 years and can be nearly 400 feet tall? Did you also know that they can have branches up to five feet in diameter and bark that grows up to 12 inches thick? 

And do you know or have you seen the pictures of redwood trees that get so big and wide at the base that you can literally drive a car through them? This then means that the average width for a giant redwood tree can be up to 30 feet!

So if by chance you live anywhere near the coast of Oregon or all throughout northern California, make it a priority and see one of the MANY State and National Parks associated with the Redwoods. You certainly will not be disappointed. And if you, like me at times in my life, may be experiencing some sense of “smallness” in the big ole world we live in, maybe it’s time to stand next to a giant.  Where being small is just A-Ok!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!

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HAPPY 4th Of JULY

We hope you have a great day filled with fun and family. Just remember to be 

"SAFE and SANE!" HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

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HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

With a recent trip to San Diego within the last year, I had to take a minute and stop when passing a certain landmark.  I was on my way to see Cabrillo National Monument and before arriving there I was taken back by another nationally recognized place known as “Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.”

As I entered the gates of this serene place, I couldn’t help but to think about all the stories I would hear if I were able to speak to the war heroes themselves or the families of the soldiers who had fallen.

“What was their life like? Why did they choose to serve? When did they die and where?” I had to ask myself and then continued…"Whom did they leave behind? What did they witness and experience in order to provide the freedoms we have?”

With row after row, line after line and “V” after “V” witnessed of the perfectly aligned headstones, I found myself contemplating my own life and freedoms I have in this country and why I have them.  My thoughts then wandered to focus on some of my own family who have served in wars past and are currently serving...to friends and their families who have served...to friends of friends and so forth.

So with Memorial Day upon us, make sure to give “THANKS” to those that are serving or have served and remember all those people in your lives who are important and may no longer be here with us. I recently came across a quote that really sums up how we should remember this day..."In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." 
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!

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Moms Know Everything...by Jim Terry

There are times of the year that I feel that I am more inspired and motivated than other times during the year. Don’t you?

Summer, for me at least, always seems to bring out the energy in me due to the long summer days and the warmth of the summer’s night air.  Another time of year that motivates and inspires me is during the holidays.  I notice that it always seem to bring out the good in me and in others. I feel as though I am kinder, more charitable and want to help those in need. Spring is another time of the year that helps rejuvenate a lot of us because the life in Mother Earth returns and can once again be witnessed. This comes in the form of green grasses growing, flowers blooming and what once was twig-like silhouettes in the trees are now full of life and can now provide shade and shelter from the summer’s sun that is only a month or two away.

I also am always partial to and inspired in May and in the spring because it is the time of year where we celebrate Mothers.  Now that my Mom is not here with me and because she is the one that started this blog, I find inspiration and motivation in my memories of her, the good person she was and in the lessons I learned from her.

One of the best lessons I learned in my life was when I was five years old. The year was 1975.  My mother and I were running some errands and we had to make a quick stop into the local “five & dime” store known as Sprouse-Reitz so that I could buy a toy truck I had been saving for. This store chain ceased operations in the mid-1990s but this was one of my favorite stores to go into when I was young. This store would be the equivalent of what a dollar store is now. They had lots of toys, trinkets, and candy for kids and the best part; it didn’t cost a lot of money. This was really important especially for a kid on a limited income of an allowance that consisted of $.50 a week.  

As we approached the checkout at the front of the store and after picking up my Tonka Truck I wanted, I noticed at kid’s eye level, of course, there was the array of candy. Now let it be known that when I was younger there were two things I always loved. Bubble Yum Bubble Gum in grape flavor and Tic Tac that was orange in flavor.

As I handed my mother the money I had earned with my allowance to pay for my truck, I couldn’t resist the temptation of also taking an orange flavored tic tac. I knew I didn't have enough money to buy the tic tac too, so when I thought my mother and the lady behind the counter weren’t looking, I gently placed my favorite candy inside of my pocket for safe keeping until later. 

I laugh at myself at times and how my adult brain works or doesn’t work some days in my adulthood, but I still wonder why or how on this particular day, in my mind as a child, I thought I could get away with something I knew was wrong or do something that my mother would possibly notice. I mean, after all–MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING! 

That night after the incident and when I thought I had gotten away with it, my mother carefully tucked me into bed and began to tell me a bedtime story as she always did.  I will never forget the story that night and listened intently because of what the story was about. Ironically, the bedtime story entailed an example of a young boy that stole something in a store, didn’t tell him mom about it and how that made his mother feel. Which was, in her own words, “Very bad.”  As the story ended, my mother did as she always did and gave me a kiss goodnight, told me to sleep well and ended it with “I love you.”

As she left my room that night or any other night, she would always leave the door partially open in order to let the light in from the hallway so I wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. On this night, however; I think the crack was left in the door so she could listen to her small son contemplate the things that he had done that day and how he might fix it.

As I lay in my bed that night I stared, for what seemed like hours, at my glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations that were placed on the ceiling. Oh, how I wished that I could be anywhere else in the universe but in my bed after what I had done.  You know how you don’t sleep on Christmas Eve night when you are a young child because of the excitement? Well, this night was wrought with sleeplessness because of my own wrongdoing and what in my mind was a “bad thing to do.”

“How could I tell my mother what I had done?” I asked myself. “And what punishment might I receive?”

The next morning as I awoke and because of my mom’s intellect in knowing her son’s mind, I went into the kitchen, cried my little blue eyes out and told her what I had done. She told me she was proud of me for telling her what I had done but we had to make things “right.”

Later that morning, my mother drove me back over to Sprouse-Reitz and gave me the $.12 for the Tic Tac plus tax which I needed to pay for the stolen Tic Tac. She told me that I had to admit what I had done, I had to pay for what I had taken and I had to do this all by myself. I still to this day will never forget how afraid I was and that I would have to talk to a stranger and tell them what I had done.

As she watched me through the front glass doors of the store, she witnessed me hesitate two or three times while looking back at her and motioning for her to come with me because of my fear and tears that day. I’m sure it was as hard for her to watch her young son learn a life lesson at such a young age as much as it was hard for me to do, but she stood her ground and I completed what I had started...by myself.  I didn’t understand it at the time but I now realize that this situation helped me learn a life lesson, or two, that day. Moms are tricky that way in how they teach us so many lessons! 

Lesson #1-Crime doesn’t pay.  You will all be happy to know that was my one and only shoplifting incident in my life.  J I now pay for everything that I take from a store.

Lesson #2- On this special day make sure to treat your mothers well.  I am so lucky to have had the mother I had and am still so broken hearted that she is not here with me to thank her and tell her how much I love her on her special day. And for those of you who still have your mothers here, treat them with kindness, honor them, love them and make sure if you are ever thinking of doing something wrong, refer to Lesson #2... “MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING.”

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS OUT THERE!!!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, here we are at the end of another year! Here is wishing that your last year was good but that your new year is even better. We hope you can bury the old hardships and challenges that 2018 may have brought you and your family and wish that 2019 brings you great joy, hope, successes and changes for the better.  As they say about change, "Change is a road less traveled, but a remarkable journey to take." ~Dr. Milan LaBrey. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

LIGHT...by Jim Terry

You know I have always wondered what it is about Christmastime that makes it so special…so magical? Is it the hustle and bustle of the shopping frenzy that emanates and now starts with displays being put up around Labor Day? Is it the change of the weather that accomplishes the goal of the traditional Christmas song’s theme, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas?” Is it the newfound kindness towards mankind and helping each other, which seems to be forgotten for most of the year, which helps make it more special? In Judaism, they may say it is because of their celebration of Hanukkah.  With Christianity, they would easily say that it is because of the obvious…their celebration of the birth of the Savior.  And yes, I think all of these things are important too and is why I wrote them, but there has been and always will be something about the LIGHT that is displayed this time of year that makes it so special.

©Jim Terry Rockefeller Center

I remember as a kid loving to help set up the tree. As most of you know from our previous blogs, Christmastime would start with our yearly trip to the mountains, the weekend of Thanksgiving, to cut down the “perfect” Christmas tree. Once home with our tree, I remember that my Dad would tell us we would first have to “put it in the stand overnight and let the tree warm up.”  I never asked why a tree would have to warm up before we decorated it but the next morning when our home was filled with that wonderful scent of mountain pine air, the concern I had with having to wait to decorate the tree always seemed to miraculously drift away into memories past.

As we started to decorate our tree, I know my favorite lights on our tree were always the old-fashioned bubble lights.   You remember the ones, don’t you? They were the lights that had the small glass tube on top of the light which were filled with different colors of water. Once the liquid warmed up, you would then be able to witness “bubbles” rising to the top of that small tube.

I remember sitting there for hours at times waiting for each individual bubble light to start working.  If they didn’t work, I would make sure to let my Mom or Dad know because I wanted them all to work perfectly because it was the Christmas season.  And once they all started working, I would then just sit there and stare into the tree until the lights became one and formed a blurry lit hue which allowed my mind to wander into wonderful memories of family, of friends, of the magic, that always exists this time of year.  And more often than not, my Mom would find me on the floor in front of the tree after I drifted off into a peaceful night's slumber because of the comfort and warmth I felt from simply staring at the light on our tree and the memories they evoked. When I think of it now, I am actually surprised that something as simple as a “light” would make a young boy like me, who always had to be doing something, calm down and sit there until visions of “sugar-plums danced in my head.”  

In going back to and to answer my own question I posted earlier, I will just say this, "Whether that be a physical display of light on a tree or on a home which evokes memories of harmony and warmth or the light of His goodness that makes people kinder... more charitable...more patient this time of year is really what makes Christmastime so special...so magical for me." 

So while I will only have to dream of a white Christmas this year since I will be spending it in California, I can promise you that there has been and is going to be, more moments for this older child who will be sitting on a couch in front of a tree. And as I once again stare into the light with my Christmas music quietly playing in the background, the scent of pine in the air and the lights slowly combining into that giant lit hue, I may just drift off into a peaceful slumber once again knowing I am blessed, loved and so lucky to have experienced the light! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

P.S. Here is another great example of what light can do. Not sure who wrote it but I thought this analogy was a great example for this time of year and follows with our theme of light.  

“Gracefully broken!! 
I was in Dollar Tree last night, and there was a lady and two kids behind me in a LONG line. One was a big kid, and the other one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for them. The Mom opened the pack and gave him one, which stopped his tears. He walked around with it smiling; but then the bigger boy took it, and the toddler started screaming again. Just as the Mom was about to fuss, the older child bent the glow stick and handed it back to the toddler. As we walked outside at the same time, the toddler noticed that the stick was now glowing; and his brother said, "I had to break it so that you could get the full effect from it."
I almost ran, because l could hear God saying to me, "I had to break you to show you why I created you. You had to go through it so you could fulfill your purpose."
That precious child was happy just swinging that "unbroken" glow stick around in the air, because he didn't understand what it was created to do - which was to "glow".
There are some people who will be content just "being," but some of us that God has chosen... we have to be "broken."
We have to get sick.
We have to lose a job.
We go through a divorce.
We have to bury our spouse, parents, best friend, or our child...
In those moments of desperation, God is breaking us. But... when the breaking is done, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created and why we are here.
So when you see someone glowing, just know that they have been broken but healed by HIS Grace and Mercy!!!”