WEEKEND ACTIVITIES

    With the sun rising earlier, we are welcoming the longer daylight hours for early morning or evening walks.  When seniors reach their 80^th year, each one receives a government form to determine their state of health, and ability to continue driving on all public highways.  I took the form to my doctor.  She advised me to consider the $100.00 fee required for a complete physical exam and asked if I really wished to continue to drive a car.  My husband had passed away in 2003 after coping with Parkinson’s disease for a dozen years and since I preferred walking, a car was no longer needed.  Within a few days my husband’s closest friend offered to buy my car.  I had seen a car on a sales lot the same year as mine with double the mileage and some rust showing.  I deduced an extra thousand dollars for this friend of ours who pulled out his check book and the deal was completed.  I was glad not to have to place an ad in the paper to sell it and enjoy my daily walks.

    The above all happened 10 years ago and now I live in a retirement home and when friends offer me a ride to church I am happy to accept.  Last week I enjoyed a sermon about and making notes on meditation.  Sometimes I post blogs about family and building health and wellness.  Before my husband passed away I volunteered my services at the A.R.E. Clinic in Arizona for 10 winters and enjoyed the letters I typed for them as they wrote about how to stay well before their disease has already progressed is too far.  Organic fruits and vegetables should be used and getting regular exercise.  There will be more about this in a future blog as often as I can find the time to do so.  My blog can be found at www.stayingintouchblog.blogspot.ca.  If someone offers me a ride to church on weekends I am happy to attend, sing with them and be among friends and listen to the sermon.  For example take a look in your concordance on the main word like meditate.  For example last Sunday featured Psalms 1 and 2 that says “Blessed is the man that associates not with the ungodly.”  Or try out Psalm 91, or even the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible’s New Testament.  The way of learning and living was made very  clear.  My older sister, Helen and I memorized 500 Bible verses and won a Bible, qualifying us to attend a children summer camp at Gull Lake in Alberta.  Since then Helen has spent 52 years in Ivory Coast, Africa as a dental missionary.  I am preparing more about her that will be forthcoming soon in a future blog.  There will also be a future blog about my brother, John who spent 20 years in Kenya, Africa, setting up group farms in order to be able to cope with the famines that often come in times of drought.