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The
"Your Life is Your Story" Blog Archives
© Tom
Gilbert
Read
about
quality family history and life story news, views, methods, products,
links, services
...and whatever else catches our fancy of personal
historian
October, 2021
current
blog entries
blog
archive
index
Days of the
Dead
October 31, 2021
It is Halloween, the holiday of ghouls, witches, ghosts and other
costumed characters. Trick or treating, candy and sugar rushes.
Admittedly more for kids, but plenty of adults get into the holiday
spirit.
Spirits of another kind, the passed away loved ones in our families,
are honored this time of year with the Latino celebration of Dia de los Muertos.
It falls right after Halloween, but instead of the ghoulish themes and
"trick or treating", the Day
of the Dead focuses more on remembering loved ones.
Healing
Powers of Journaling
October 19, 2021
I continue to find evidence that regular journal writing can improve
your mental and emotional state. It can promote wellbeing. It can even
help heal you from trauma, heartbreak, anxiety or depression.
I am a big fan of journaling on a regular basis. I do it on a computer.
But it can be extremely valuable to do it with handwriting. There are
plenty of blank journals available. The advantage of the handwriting
approach is that you can also doodle or add some art. And as a teacher
I've discovered that there is a difference between brain to hand
writing function versus keyboarding.
However you write your thoughts, feelings, memories, gratitude and
expressions, doing it with a journal is a "no threat" way to get some
of what you have inside of you down on paper or screen. Nothing listens like paper.
Check out this article, 5
Ways Journaling Heals the Soul and Mind. Many
valuable benefits that come from journaling are listed.
You can also read what I've written about journaling with Journal Writing Ideas
and The Journey of Journaling.
90
Year Old William Shatner Boldly Goes to Space
October 13, 2021
 Actor
William Shatner is 90 years old. He is now the record holder for the
oldest person to go to outer space as he rode aboard the latest Jeff
Bezos' funded Blue Origen mission. Shatner was part of a four person
crew that took a 10 minute rocket ride into space and safely returned
to Earth.
Shatner is best known for his role in the television science fiction
series Star Trek
as Captain James T. Kirk. He and his crew were on a five year mission
to explore new worlds and "boldly go where no man has gone before." Now
that statement has a deep and personal meaning for Shatner.
After the historic flight he stated, "You look down, there's the blue
down there and the black up there ... there is Mother Earth and
comfort, and there is, is there death? I don't know, but is that death?
Is that the way death is? ... It was so moving; this experience, it was
something unbelievable," he said while the crew celebrated behind him
(source is CNN story).
Privately funded space exploration is currently the domain of extremely
wealthy billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
Some people believe they could do something better with their money. I
feel like we should keep a space program and the dream of space
exploration alive. But it would also be wonderful if those richest
people in the world also invested in ways to improve lives for our
societies here on Mother Earth.
Trekkie or not, this was a great day to celebrate the accomplishment of
another space flight and I am glad Shatner got to do it. Here's to also
helping others achieve dreams, be they to have a good education, better
opportunities for a good career, or a loving family able to support
them.
Special
Shapes Hot Air Balloons Bring Joy and Art to the Skies
October 7, 2021
There are all kinds of shapes. If you like geometry you can enjoy
countless ones. But nothing quite brings joy, and art, to the skies
above than special shapes hot air balloons.
In Albuquerque there is the annual International Hot Air Balloon
Fiesta
and balloons from around the world come here to fly in the beautiful
October skies. Albuquerque is a city where the wind patterns often are
quite favorable to flying, including changing directions at different
altitudes. You can't really steer a hot air balloon, so pilots rely on
the winds and the regulation of hot air in their massive balloon
envelopes to maneuver. Sometimes in Albuquerque there is what is
referred to as "the box" effect. Balloons can lift off and eventually
through rising and dropping travel in a box direction, sometimes even
landing quite close to their launching area.
Hot air balloons are pretty colorful and wonderful to look at just with
their typical spherical shapes. Amazingly enough, some balloons are
constructed with a special balloon envelope shape. It takes a
combination of art and engineering to pull this off. But how cool to
see cows, birds, bees, stagecoaches, various heads of famous people,
and even unusual things like Yoda and Darth Vader of Star Wars fame.
If we can appreciate the beauty of special shape balloons, why not
celebrate the variety and diversity of human shapes? Every body
is different. Our mental and emotional shape will be greatly improved
when others don't put us down or expect us to live up to ridiculous and
unachievable body standards.
Let us embrace and enjoy the special shapes in our lives. Here in
Albuquerque it is always a treat to see the special shapes flying
around.
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