For eleven days, I will answer her questions in order, and challenge you to answer
too! It's a great chance to evaluate your thankfulness level over the past year.
Thanks to Mary for her questions. Please check out her original post and subscribe to
Goodlife Zen for more inspiration.
Here we go with the second question!
2.What energized you?
In May of 2009, Computer Geek, Weston, Gnome, Hoolie, Neo and I took a trip to Seattle for CG’s father’s 85th birthday. We took two cars, slept on the road, and kept on driving until we got to the homes of CG’s sisters. [Side note: Computer Geek and his children are “This looks like a road that’s not too busy. Let’s pull to the side and sleep for a couple of hours” type of people. I am more of the “I promise to not eat anything for the rest of the trip if we can just stay in a hotel with a real bed and a pillow” type. I lost.]
I had never been to Seattle or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. Utah has been my home for the last twelve years so I was totally acclimated to the color brown. Needless to say, when we drove through Washington I had strange, lustful feelings for the color green. I almost kissed a fern.
Seattle is a very energetic city, full of dynamic people who ride their bikes to work and
run everywhere else.(Seattle is green in more ways than one.) The shops are eclectic and busy. The energy of the city pulsed through me, creating a desire to do, do, and then do some more. We went to the Space Needle, The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum, The Aquarium, a harbor tour, the zoo, a Mariners game, and rode the monorail. Of course we rode a ferry and hit Spud's on Alki Beach . Yummy fish and chips!
I was warned that my stay in Seattle would be a very wet one (all that green comes at a price) but it only rained one day out of the week we were there. The frigid waves of the Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean were energizing in themselves.
If I ever come up missing, look for me in Seattle, my caffeine-substitute.
What energized YOU?
The trees! The mountains! The water!
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm pumped to go again!
Winston: Can I go?
ReplyDeleteWow, it looks GORGEOUS!
ReplyDelete...at least it did, until I read "frigid waves of the Puget Sound", LOL.
Hayden: The waters there are frigid, no doubt about it! We went in May, so maybe they warm up by July, but I somehow kinda doubt it. Winston? What say ye?
ReplyDelete2009 has been a particularly challenging year for me. The things I normally look forward to, and get energized from like our annual summer trip, well, in 2009, worked out to be stressful for other reasons.
ReplyDeleteWhat has energized me has been a lot of the little things - meeting certain people, having amazing chats with those people, gaining insights when you least expect them. I have tried to be very appreciative of the little things, because it's been a year of grasping the joy in the little things, or else I'd be overwhelmed by the big things.
The Puget Sound cycles between 45 and 49 degrees F. Normal people don't play in the water until June, but I had a neighbor who was a member of the Polar Bear Club and he swam in it every day. Insane...
ReplyDeleteSleepless On The Way To Seattle
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a movie?
Daisy: Thank you so much for answering these questions. It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into these. That is great that you were able to energize yourself by the little things. So many times, that's what it's all about isn't it? (That's why I have Robert Brault's quote as the motto for my site.) I agree with you, it's a big energy drain when something we would hope would energize us (a vacation) actually end up causing more stress than they're worth. Here's to a better 2010, Daisy!
ReplyDeleteWinston: Thank you for the update on the waters of Washington! So there you have it, Hayden. It's pretty much cold water all the time.
Auntie M: Funny! And Sleepless on the way back from Seattle too! At least on the way back we stopped at a rest area where I hung blankets around the windows. I hate the thought of people looking into my car and seeing me sleeping.
It was actually six hours longer coming back because we took a shortcut. :)
Now I want to go to Seatlle too! I think I would get a real charge out of that kind of energy.
ReplyDeleteReturning to a life of prayer has energized me lately. I'm trying to be more prayerful in my day and I'm noticing that I'm happier and more energized in many ways.
septembermom: You would SO love Seattle. It's a city that has a very "intelligent" feel to it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning prayer as a form of energy. You are so right. There are sometimes days when I "forget" or am "too sleepy" to pray, but on those days when I take the time, it does wonders. Good comment.
My friend and I were recently talking about how involved with technology our daily lives have become. Reading this post makes me think back to that debate we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as memory becomes cheaper, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I dream about almost every day.
(Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://kwstar88.zoomshare.com/2.shtml]R4 Card[/url] DS FFV2)