Well, it's with uncertainty and sadness that I post this. More emphasis on the uncertainty, but sad all the same.
If you've read any of my Life posts, you'll remember that when I was little (0-6) I had chronic ear infections that left me profoundly deaf in my right ear. The past few years as an adult have seen a resurgence of ear infections (I've always gotten them, but I'm getting an unusually high number as an adult). Usually ear infections are a childhood illness that goes away once the Eustachian tubes mature, thicken, and become more vertical. (The Eustachian tube also drains mucus from the middle ear. Upper airway infections or allergies can cause the Eustachian tube to become swollen, trapping bacteria and causing ear infections. Earaches are more common in children because the tube is more horizontal and thinner, making the movement of fluid more difficult.)
Anyway. The infections have gotten progressively worse. Over the past couple years I've been getting them in both ears (in contrast to usually only getting them on the right side), and they've been having a much larger affect on the "good one". For the past few weeks I've had them in both ears, and it's been really screwing with my hearing in my "good ear". Much like being underwater, or at least having water stuck in your ear. I'm at the end of a course of several antibiotics, and it's still really messed up, meaning I'm going to probably have to see a new specialist, yet again, and potentially have surgery (this would be #5). There is of course the possibility that s/he could fix the problem, and recover hearing in the 'bad ear', but there is also a chance that irreparable damage is being done, and I'll end up losing both.
Yeah, complete restoration, or profound deafness in both ears; those are the prospects. I'm not sure why I'm blogging about it now, since I don't actually have all my thoughts together on the subject, either way. I guess I'll have to do some thinking/soul searching and post a part II
All I know is that I don't want to have to start thinking about the last time I hear my husband tell me he loves me with his voice, or my kids, or the rest of my family. The last time I hear the sound of rain, or thunder, or the breeze through the leaves, or waves crashing, children laughing, my husband whispering 'goodnight' or the other multitude of sounds that touch my ears, and heart, daily.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tortoise and the Hare Revisited
This is brilliant, and not mine. My friend Jack Ratana posted this and it inspired me, so I in turn am posting it for you (with a couple of punctuation/spelling corrections which are not noted). I'm not sure if he wrote this himself, but regardless, "Cheers, Jack".
Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster .
They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.
The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.
The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.
The moral - "Slow and steady wins the race." This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
it continues as follows......
The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.
The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.
It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.
The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.
The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the
playing field to suit your core competency."
THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED
The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together.
Both realized that the last race could have been run much better So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could." In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work
harder and put in more effort.
Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.
And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learned another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.
Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster .
They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.
The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.
The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.
The moral - "Slow and steady wins the race." This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
it continues as follows......
The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.
The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.
It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.
The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.
The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the
playing field to suit your core competency."
THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED
The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together.
Both realized that the last race could have been run much better So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could." In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work
harder and put in more effort.
Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.
And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learned another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
All Hallows Eve
So this past Halloween marked the first of the "Seconds" for our family. And by that I mean, up until now, all of the holidays, trips, events, and other annual occasions, had always been the first time we'd done them together as a family. We'd had Claudia and Joe on an over night stay just before their placement last year over Halloween, so this was the first annual event that we'd already done once before. It was really fantastic to think back over the past year and how far we've come, grown, learned and changed.
So this year, Claudia was a Princess (not a Disney one, just Princess Claudia for the evening) and Joe was a Cowboy. Darren had to order Joe's guns (cap guns) online since apparently it's not PC to sell any sort of toy resembling a gun anymore. How sad. And Theia was a monkey, it was so fitting, and when we picked out the outfit in the store and she tried it on, she instantly started laughing and jumping around so we knew it was the one for her. These are a just a couple photos of them from the beginning of the evening.
Claudia's hair was done in a French Braid, starting off center at the base of her skull, braiding up and around her head in a crown. (after all a woman's hair is her crown right?) She loved it, or I should say she loved when I was finished. About half way through she moans "AND WE'RE NOT EVEN DONE YET! SIGH!!" It was very funny, but she knew it would be worth it, and everyone who saw her that night ooohhh'd and ahhhh'd over her hair and reinforced that she'd made the right choice by suffering through the process. Here are a couple photos of the finished result.
Early in the evening we lost Joe, fortunately we did get him back, but for the most part that's how the evening was. He was off doing his Cowboy stuff and we just kinda let him be. Theia was a wreck pretty much all day. We'd been at church since 11 am and the event didn't start until 6 pm. She slept a couple times for about 30 minutes in her stroller, but as any mom of a 12 month old knows, that didn't help much. Needless to say, by 9 pm she was one pooped monkey! Here's a photo of her as she got too tired to fight being in the stroller.
All in all it was fantastic. The kids had a blast and no naps aside, it couldn't have gone much better.
So this year, Claudia was a Princess (not a Disney one, just Princess Claudia for the evening) and Joe was a Cowboy. Darren had to order Joe's guns (cap guns) online since apparently it's not PC to sell any sort of toy resembling a gun anymore. How sad. And Theia was a monkey, it was so fitting, and when we picked out the outfit in the store and she tried it on, she instantly started laughing and jumping around so we knew it was the one for her. These are a just a couple photos of them from the beginning of the evening.
Claudia's hair was done in a French Braid, starting off center at the base of her skull, braiding up and around her head in a crown. (after all a woman's hair is her crown right?) She loved it, or I should say she loved when I was finished. About half way through she moans "AND WE'RE NOT EVEN DONE YET! SIGH!!" It was very funny, but she knew it would be worth it, and everyone who saw her that night ooohhh'd and ahhhh'd over her hair and reinforced that she'd made the right choice by suffering through the process. Here are a couple photos of the finished result.
Early in the evening we lost Joe, fortunately we did get him back, but for the most part that's how the evening was. He was off doing his Cowboy stuff and we just kinda let him be. Theia was a wreck pretty much all day. We'd been at church since 11 am and the event didn't start until 6 pm. She slept a couple times for about 30 minutes in her stroller, but as any mom of a 12 month old knows, that didn't help much. Needless to say, by 9 pm she was one pooped monkey! Here's a photo of her as she got too tired to fight being in the stroller.
All in all it was fantastic. The kids had a blast and no naps aside, it couldn't have gone much better.
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