What Does This Mean?

Take a look at some behavior that I've had lately, how I've started to view the world, then myself and tell me what you think this all might mean?

Example 1) A few months ago, I saw hundreds of crows sitting atop the trees right next to the Home Depot parking lot.  I find myself drawn to their crow caws, lured in by their acrobatic loop flying.  I pull into the parking lot, park in a prime location to view the ruckus created by these black winged birds.  I grab my handy binoculars (yes, this too has some type of meaning) from their storage compartment in my car, that I keep in my car, and watch these social creatures, making mental notes of their behavior, location, beak length, body size, and tail, spending nearly an hour mentally logging this along with their social roosting behavior.


Example 2) I have my daily 'date' with a Northern Harrier.  At about 1:00 each day I find myself long fully looking out the window of my office, searching for her side to side swoop as she hunts for field mice. On the days that she fails to show, I'm seriously bummed.

Starling on a wire 
http://www.flickr.com/photos
/mauricewoodworth/2835395156/

Example 3)  During the early fall of last year, I saw hundreds of little birds (I think they were starlings) sitting in a row on a telephone wire.  I'm driving by myself when I exclaim out loud, "look at how cool that looks. They are all spaced exactly the same distance from each other, I wonder what kind of internal mechanism makes these birds sync so well with each other."  Now mind you, I'm alone in the car.  Who do I think is going to answer me?  The birds??

Example 4)  While on my trail runs, I will quite often search the tree tops, top of poles, or cliffs rather then looking at the twisting, turning, root and rock bound ground (yes, this is how my recent foot stress fracture happened - stepping on a rock wrong).  When I find a bird, I quickly try to identify it before it flies away.  At times when I am graced by a hawk soaring overhead, I will stop dead in my tracks, and watch the magnificent winged beauty soar until it's out of sight.  In the mean time, my dog is yards ahead of me looking back in wonder as to when I'm going to start moving - I look at my dog and say, 'Only when this magnificent creature above is out of view'.

Siskin
http://curiousanimals.net/
birds/siskins-singing-birds-profile-and-facts/

Example 5) The other morning I awoke to the chorus of hundreds of tiny song birds out my windows. I know they were singing to me, thanking me for the food I place out for them.  I layed in bed enjoying their tweets, and thinking that I couldn't think of a better way to wake up then to the sound of happy little birdies.  I wrapped my self in my comforter and allowed my self to be lulled back to sleep by the calming vocals of these locals.

Example 6) During this past winter, I was getting ready to turn down my road, when I notice this winged creature, start to stoop after it's prey from the top of a power line.  It's wings sleeked back, talons down and out, ready to grab the unknown prey.  I suddenly come to a stop on the side of the road and exclaim out loud, "I think I've just spotted my first Rough Legged Hawk on my home territory!"  I grab my binoculars (yeah, they are still in my car) and watch this hawk pull up from the ground, talons empty, and land on a farmer's sprinkler system.  I watch this hawk for several minutes, before continuing the quarter of a mile home.  As soon as reasonably possible I grab my bird books (yes, I own 4) and sit down to make sure I really saw a Roughie.

Rough Legged Hawk
http://birdsofessex.
blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

I sit there with my bird books spread open before me, comparing the Red Tail to the Rough Legged Hawk.  Awe-struck at the sight of this breath-taking creature, wishing I would have taken a closer look at it's legs.  For if  I would have I would've noticed feathers that ran all the way down it's leg's creating downy like leg warmers. Instead I concentrated on it's wings, looking at the darker upper 'elbow' region (please forgive me my ornithologists for not remembering the scientific name of that location on a bird). After much looking, I've confirmed that I really did identify a Roughie.

After confirming my identification, I got so excited, wanting to shout out loud, in a wave of unrecognizable noises that would have gone something like; wahooo, whoop , whoopee.  I however, refrained since the inhabitants that also reside in this house (also known as my hubby and daughter), would have no freakin' idea what was going on and would consider having me locked up!

Here's where I start putting 2 and 2 together - admitting to myself that: If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, then it must be a duck.

So after reading the examples above from this past year, I agree and fully accept that I'm turning into a self proclaimed BIRD NERD and I love it!  Birds are everywhere, they grace those who look for beauty in the everyday, for those who appreciate their awe, and to those who take a moment to look around, to them they are numerous and yet not enough.

Masters of Wind and Air - Winged Birds - I love 'em.

A Life In Review??? Yeah - Right.

Today, I turned forty.  Yes, you read that right the big 4-0.

I remember when I was a kid and someone said they were turning forty, I was dumbfounded and couldn't even comprehend living to be that age.  My young mind couldn't even wrap around the concept of living for forty years. I really thought forty year old's had one foot in the grave, napping all the time in their rocking chair with their blanket covering them to keep the chill away, a grumpy attitude towards everything young and awake, creaky bones, swelling ankles, busy planning their funeral, and waiting for old man reaper to come collect their ticket, or something else like that.

Here's the odd thing, I don't feel like what I thought a forty year old should feel (not on most days).  In my head I'm still a rock solid twenty-eight year old (until I look in the mirror and notice a few more wrinkles and other things going south that use to go north)!  Take the mirror away and I'm a twenty-eight year old, with her heels kickin up, screamin let's go, do it again,  jumping in feet first without looking type of attitude.

Yeah, it sounds like I'm in need of changing my views on what age I'd consider old.  I'm thinking 90 is a good old ripe age, it's a hell of a long time to live too (sorry Grandpa, but that really is a looong time).

A typical post of this type would now turn into a 'Life in Review' type.  It would cover items like; what I've learned, what I should do different, what if, what is, blah,blah, blah type of post.  But hey, this is me, and this isn't how I think (remember the twenty-eight year old living in my mind).  I hate to break it to you, but this is NOT the direction I'm going.  Sorry for those who may be looking for a bit of advice, I'm saving that for another day....  Instead, I'm turning to a conversation:

Earlier today I said to my sister (who by the way is only a year younger then me), "I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up." 

My sister started to giggle in that tone. The tone that meant, 'umm you should know by now, your forty for goodness sakes.  You have one leg in the grave, and the other one just about ready to fall in'.

She soon followed her giggle with, "You are forty, you know?"  

My mind want to scream at her, 'What you mean since I'm forty, I'm suppose to have this already figured out?  Well guess what, this forty year old doesn't quite know what she's going to do when she grows up!'  However I calmly (I think) said, "Yeah, but I'm only half way through living!" 

That's right, I still have at least forty more years of living.  A hundred years ago, that was equivalent to two life times!  In modern day America, I have the luxury of living two life times.  This means that I can make-over, change, re-create, or live another life at least two times.  I've spent  my first life time (in a brave, lively, ferocious, pleased, and happy manner), and now I have another one to look forward to and figure out what I want to 'do' and 'be'.

I still don't know what I want to do when I grow-up, but here's one thing I can say about my next forty years. I'm going to work better on getting that damn Sheila in my head to shut up.  I'm going to ignore her fun deflating tone and get out there and act like I'm 28 (well a bit more sober at least).  I'm going to jump in, feet first, not looking back, and grinning all the way.  

I do have a list of items I'd like to do before the old man reaper comes, you can review it here.

Tuesday's Teeming with Treasures 'I Can't Suck'

The other evening my daughter was laying in my bed, on my side no less.  Eating what looked like a homemade frozen pop.

I asked her to eat her food on the floor. She causally said she wasn't eating (technically she's right).  I then asked her to suck on the floor.  

She calmly looks at me and says, "Mom, I can't suck, I'm too awesome!"

Now if only all adults, and children, would embrace this awesomeness attitude, we'd all be living the life we were meant to live.



Tuesday's Teeming with Treasures are quick motivational notes from my life.  Mainly I post them for my use, to help me treasure each day, focus on the AMAZING-NESS that surrounds me.  Most importantly they help me remember to get out of me head and into my true self.

A Forgotten Primal Passion Re-Ignited. Why It's Good to Feel Like a Rat Running on It's Wheel

I've spent the last 10 years or so learning to love to run long distance outdoors.  Now don't get me wrong, I love to run, but not too far (like 1/4 of a mile max)!

I have been blessed with a very powerful and strong body (thanks to genetics) that helps me excel at running sprints.

In high school, I was AMAZING (the older I get the more amazing I was)! I was a better then average, almost collegiate quality sprinter, however the man that was in my life at the time persuaded me to not apply and then turn down the scholarships I did receive - that's a story for another time.

I remember spending hours, upon hours after school with my great runner friend, Melissa. We'd run the stairs, the track, do strides, lift weights, massage out each others' knots from such hard work. 


We streamlined our bodies into musclular, lean, power packed, sprinting machines!  

We could outperform anyone on our team, and we liked that!  

I remember one of my favorite things to do was see how much weight I could lift on the leg press. My goal was to be able to lift at least 300 pounds - almost 3 times as much as I weighed. This one day I remember a football player came to use the leg press after I just finished. It was pretty ego-tistacal when he had to take off over 100 pounds in order to uses it. I had the most muscular thigh quad muscles (looking back that wasn't the best strategy) and I was proud of them!

Now back to the reason I told you about my love affair with the high school gym. I recently got a killer deal on a gym membership that's only minutes from my house. At first I was a bit hesitant since I love the outdoors and I love running outside an being in the mountains. I just love having them as my personal gym. However, I have started to notice that when I run outside, my knees hurt longer and more then usual.

I decided to go for the membership, knowing that some of my knee pain is due to a weakness or imbalance in some of the my leg muscles.

While meeting with a personal trainer, I was telling her that my main goal was to strengthen a few key muscles for the knee so that they don't hurt as much while running. I also explained that I'd use the gym when the weather wasn't ideal outside for me to play in. After our meeting she helped create a plan that would fit my needs and still leave lots of outdoor play time.

After going to the gym for a couple of weeks, I can tell you why so many people run on treadmills for hours at a time. No, it's not because of the TV they watch (but that does help you take your mind off of the fact that you're esentially a mouse on one of those rat wheels), but because it doesn't hurt your knees!




After running on the treadmill, I'm still able to walk down the stairs without shooting pain up my leg, and then walk back up!

I've also found how much I truley LOVE lifting weights. 

There's something so primal about maxing your muscles to near exhaustion, that really pumps me up. I forgot how much I LOVE it! I feel so at home on the weight machines that sometimes I find myself transformed to 20 years ago!


Lifting weights, running stairs, sprinting around the track with a great friend, knowing we were all that, and laughing at ourselves along the way.

I can't wait for my gym day - tomorrow.

BTW, I still play outside 1 or 2 days a week so I can still maintain that base fitness, but man can my knees hurt some days.

Tuesday's Teeming with Treasures! Patience or I Get the 'tude'

Have you ever noticed that when your child has an attitude towards you, it's generally their way of getting some control back in their lives.

Yeah, I've started noticing this from my daughter.  When I'm busy barking orders at her (which I hate when people do this to me), and don't give her the time to do it - she throws me some of her 'tude in an attempt to get some control in her life choices.  (Christel, important note here! She'll get it done, just on her time, not yours....)

Tuesday's Teeming with Treasures are quick motivational notes from my life.  Mainly I post them for my use, to help me treasure each day, focus on the AMAZING-NESS that surrounds me, probably most importantly help me remember to get out of me head and into my true self.