Escaping the Heat, and Learning Something

Batteries for fans are a popular item for people seeking relief from the late June heat, and I happen to be at the CVS cash register buying bottled water when a woman in a pantsuit walks in and addresses the friendly cashier in a voice tired from being outside in the sunshine.

“If I were batteries, where would I be?” she asks, putting her hands on her sweaty back, and the woman behind the cash register, Elsie, leans over the counter and says “Right here,” and points to the battery display not six inches from where the woman in the pantsuit is standing.

I laugh as much at the phrasing of the question as at the answer. Elsie and the woman grin back wholeheartedly, and then the woman continues her shopping.

“You know, it’s so funny to me,” Elsie says. “People come in here all the time lately and ask me where the batteries are, and they’re always standing right in front of them when they ask me.”

The heavy heat was driving even more people than usual into the drugstore that day…in fact, into any store, I knew from personal experience, given the number of places I’d already been that day. There would also be more people at the library.

The first library I went to was closed. The second one was packed – with even more cars than in the drugstore parking lot. People were reading magazines and busy checking out movie titles and using the library computers. Some people, I guessed, were probably there for the air-conditioning and a cool place away from the sticky heat of home. But many people who went to the library not really looking for anything -- besides escape -- often left with something more specific and valuable.

“Oh my god! I’ve been wanting to read this since I was a kid! I forgot!” I heard one teenager exclaim as she yanked a book off the shelf next to the empty table with the sign on it that said “Teen Center, For Teens! And Teens Only!”

Needing to escape the heat of my own house that day -- after typing some things up on my laptop at the one free library table left, by then -- I get into my air-conditioned car and drive over to the shady part of the lake, where I know there will be a breeze and a bench where – with binder in hand -- I think, if it’s not too hot, I can work on some things. I park and walk past the barriers to the restrooms and then make the shady walk back. By the time I get back to the bench my head is already swimming with words and phrases which arrive fully formed even more quickly than I can write them down. Oh my god, I think, this hasn’t happened to me in so long! All right!

Sometimes something has to be sitting right in front of you before you can find it. And the lake, I remembered -- now that it was sitting right in front of me -- never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

Keep on growing!

When I was ten I tried to grow pumpkins in our tiny backyard in Texas. I had spotted the seed packet at the five and dime one day after school and had begged my mom to get them for me. She finally agreed, then handed me the packet with an illustrated pumpkin patch on the front of it, which I proudly brought home in the front pocket of my red corduroy pocket-dress – my favorite outfit at the time besides my Walt Disney Jeans, which happened to be in the wash basket at the time or otherwise I probably would have been wearing them with my Keds sneakers.

Once home, I found a spade in my dad’s side of the garage, went around back, and started digging. I had read the instructions on the back of the packet very carefully three times, and cleared as much land as I was allowed to clear, which was about two square feet, and I dug up the grass there and made sure everything was done just like it said on the packet‘s directions.

Then, I watered my pumpkin patch faithfully. A lot of vines came up that year, but a pumpkin wasn’t showing up like in the Charlie Brown series.
I tried everything pushing the flower and stalk together to “cross-pollinate” them (that’s what I thought I was doing, anyway) with my hands. Watering them more. Watering them less…the Internet was years away from being invented for reasearching purposes and the books I found at the Dallas library didn’t go into much detail on pumpkins so I was stumped. I really really wanted to grow my pumpkins but I didn’t know how.

Years later I realize I could easily have gotten my mom to take me to the local gardening place and simply asked someone how to do it. I don’t remember the specifics of our backyard anymore, but the vines probably weren’t getting enough sunlight or vice-versa or maybe I’d just picked a place too close to the sidewalk. (All of thes little things can be important factors). Had I discussed my patch with someone who knew a lot about gardening themselves, I probably could have gotten a pumpkin of my own that long-ago season.

When we’re young, and growing up, or older (and still “growing-up) sometimes we go it alone too much and forget that people can be the best resources ever. I wasn’t the world’s most outgoing kid and I think that fact ended up having something to do with the fact that I was never able to grow a pumpkin in my tiny garden that year. But I’ve been through a lot and learned a lot since then. I’ve grown up a lot. I realize now that people are life’s greatest teachers and treasures. Now I ask for advice and help from people all the time.

It helps me keep on growing.

Anticipation Rocks!

When I was in fourth grade we had this pretty famous (at least: famous-in-our-classroom) object called the “jellybean jar.” The jellybean jar was a huge glass jar filled all the way to the top with an unknown number of jellybeans. The number of jellybeans was not actually a mystery. Our teacher had counted them before filling the jar and she knew Exactly how many jellybeans were in there down to the last bean. But no on in the class knew. So each day, upon arriving at school, each one of us got to take out a piece of folded paper and write down our guess, or “vote,” as to how many jelly beans we thought were in the jar, the anticipation building daily with each wrong guess, because with each wrong guess, we knew we were getting closer to the right one. And the person who eventually got the number right – if any of us ever did – would eventually get to keep the jelly bean jar.

Every day, I was exited to get to school and place my vote. Each day I hoped it might be the day I would become the proud owner of The Jelly Bean Jar. (I didn’t really like jelly beans that much, either way, but that hardly mattered. I would have displayed the jar on the desk in my room with genuine pride).

These days, it occurred to me, on facing the same challenge, a more saavy fourth-grader might just go out and buy a similar jar, fill it up with jelly beans, dump them out, and just count beans one by one to see how many fit into the same-sized jar. But it never occurred to any of us to do that, no similar thought ever entered our heads.

Years later, upon reflection, I’m glad it didn’t because that would have stolen all the magic. All the jelly-bean-count-winner would have won was a jar of jelly beans just like their store-bought one -- immediate gratification and an end to the jelly bean counting contest. With a winner declared, and without the possibilities of the jellybean jar, arriving at school each day would not have been anywhere
near as exciting or interesting.

Here’s a video with Miley Cyrus about the anticipation that builds on the road to always-changing and evolving dreams, or: “the climb.” When I listen to this song, I remember fourth grade and our Jelly Bean Jar.

( Hope you have a great day, whatever your "jelly beans" are. : )

Change Rules!

Change can be strange but it can also open up all kinds of adventures and opportunities! Just last week I thought one thing was going to happen, something completely different came of the situation, and even though it wasn’t exactly what I expected, it opened my eyes. Suddenly I felt like doing new things. I joined a culture club. I hung some of my grandmothers’ hand-embroidered pictures on my wall to spruce it up. I took a walk in a place I’d never been before and noticed the colors of the leaves, branches, the sailboats and everything around me.

Here are a couple of poems/tips/ideas from my upcoming book “How to Deal with Just about Everything.” I hope they bring you a smile or bring comfort or simply give you a new idea, whatever changes are coming your way.


How to Deal with Changes,
Big and Small


Situations you face every day, like, say:
school or work and friendships -- in the end --
are mostly what you make of them
and how you think about them --
and what you can bring to them.
Every Day.
SO…EVEN when the world around you
seems like it’s constantly changing,
maybe rearranging your days
or your emotions, your own ideas
or feelings…
Remember that you
have got a voice too…
and that you are, by far,
a very important, very unique and very individual person.
AND…as you move toward your own future,
towards what you can create, relate to and imagine
that is yours…
AlWaYs ReMeMbeR these things:
HEART
DETERMINATION
BRAVERY.
REAL FRIENDS
GREAT TIMES
LAUGING!
LiFe LoVe and CrEaTiVitY!
Don’t forget them when the day seems long.
Don’t forget them when you feel
like you’re alone.
Don’t forget them…
no matter how close you are to your own dreams -- and no matter how far.
Don’t forget them when you are smiling wide.
Don’t forget them if you feel down sometimes.
Take them with you along the way…in a bright
and bold here-we-go!! suitcase.
Take them with you wherever you are.
And by the way:
You’ve got an incredible life already.
Go with that!



How to Have Endurance

It’s not always the dreams that
come true right away
that keep us going through all our days –
sometimes it’s the ones that, at first, don’t.
And it’s not only the things we know best
that help us face life’s never-ending tests – because there’s always more to know.
And if you don’t succeed
the first time you try something:
Don’t worry at all about that!
When the time’s right for you
you’ll accomplish everything you want to…
You’ve just got to rely on your heart’s endurance.
Trust it.


and one more thing...:

The flame that encourages us
to go on and live our day-to-day lives
and to laugh and to learn and to create things
is largely lit by the lights of those
who have inspired us to be who we really are
no matter what.


Whatever changes you may face today, always be yourself -- no matter what! : )