Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 9th

The more informed you are, the less arrogant and aggressive you are. - Nelson Mandela

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. - Henry Ford

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. - W.B. Yeats

Recently, an author that I greatly enjoy used the following quote from Richard Restak’s book Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot:

The richer my knowledge of flora and fauna of the woods, the more I’ll be able to see.  Our perceptions take on richness and depth as a result of all the things that we learn.  What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned. 

Today, it the 50^th blog post for Terri’s Tuesday Tip.  Over the last 50 weeks, I have had the wonderful opportunity to impart new and interesting thoughts into your life.  To continue to have new topics to discuss, I have continued to learn, experience and see new things to impart that knowledge to you.

I love to read and have completed my 2015 reading goal.  When I read this quote, I decided my brain needed to expand its horizons in different areas.  I obtained Richard’s Restak book about the brain and started implementing some of the 28 exercises he discusses to stretch my mind, challenge myself and increase my memory.  Additionally, I started searching for knowledge on new topics and different viewpoints.  It has been a challenge for me in the short term to grasp new knowledge, but will have great benefits in the long term. 

To give perspective of how I know this will be beneficial, here is an interesting story.  I was recently at a coffee talking to a gentleman about my travels to Europe last Christmas and he said he was going to Thailand for 3 months.  He told me that when he travels he likes to completely immerse himself in the culture and enjoy the opportunity to the fullest.  If I had not experienced my International Adventure last year, I would not have been able to relate to what he was talking about and understand his perspective on traveling. 

What new experiences are you encountering this year to help your perceptions have a deeper richness in your life?  Embrace new challenges and learn from them.  Take what you learn and help someone else.  As human beings, we need to continue to learn, grow and help others.

The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know. ― Michel Legrand

The education of a man is never completed until he dies.  - Robert E. Lee

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. ― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 2nd

Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life. - Joni Eareckson Tada

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor E. Frankl

Memorial Day is supposed to be a day of remembering the men and women that have served this great country and lost their lives in that service.  However, May 26, 2015 will be a different memory for me.  As most of you know, Texas has been going through a drought for a number of years and May 2015 has been a recording breaking season of rain for Texas.  On this particular Monday about 3:30 in the afternoon, the rain came and kept coming for over an hour and half.  It was literally a torrential downpour here in Austin.  About 4:45pm, I heard water and my first thought was that for some reason my toilet had overflowed.  No…rain was seeping under my front door and my apartment was flooding.  The apartment complex later came to discover that there was an issue with drainage and the amount of rain we received in such a short amount of time caused the issue.  The apartment complex staff has been dumb-founded all week because nothing like this has ever happened before. 

When crazy things happen, what is a lady to do…have the right perspective!

Once I discovered the flooding, I immediately called my apartment complex and a long story short they had the wet carpet out of my apartment with furniture moved within 4 hours of the flooding.  Before everything was moved, I was at my aunt and uncle’s for dinner and my aunt said I was actually handling this so much better than she had ever seen me handle something.  I was smiling, laughing and showing pictures.  Honestly, no one ever thought the rain would be that bad and when she looked at this apartment with me we never thought it could flood. 

As I am writing, there are men in my apartment putting down new carpet after 5 days of humidifiers and fans drying it out.  There have been times I have gotten a little testy and I can definitely say I am ready to sleep in my bed again (I have been on the couch because of the heat from the humidifiers in my bedroom). 

Last week, I wrote about how we do everything we can and then have to put things in other people’s hands and have the right perspective no matter what.  This week, I have learned that unfair or crazy things may happen to us and we still have to have the right attitude and perspective.  I can honestly say this has been an excellent learning experience for me!

How I Benefited from This Experience:

- I got new carpet.
- I rearranged my bedroom to try a new layout. 
- I learned to stay calm when I am dealing with things beyond my control.

Perspective is the most important thing to have in life. - Lauren Graham

Here is a picture of the water in my entryway....