Mar07
Posted on Mar 7 by Ruth Davis
There comes a moment when you know that they way you’ve been doing something no longer works. Sometimes, you can change the behavior right then and there. Sometimes it takes a good long time from that moment of realization to actually taking action to do it differently. The biggest factor is, how do you treat yourself during the transition. I don’t remember the first time I smoked pot, but it was some time during my sophomore year in college with friends. I liked the silliness, the laughing, and how ideas just exploded, especially when we were brainstorming together. I started smoking regularly in the late 90’s, after many years of discovering and writing about my deepest secrets of loss and sexual abuse. I just needed a break from the trauma and depression. I remember going to an art store where I’d heard the owner sold marijuana, and asking, “So do you have anything to inspire my creativity?” He had no idea what I was talking about until I asked straight out, ” Can I get...
Feb07
Posted on Feb 7 by Ruth Davis
We left the rainy, cold Oregon coast at the beginning of January, expecting to do a quick, four day drive down to Morro Bay, enjoy a week of fresh fish, friends and birding, then head to the Salton Sea, south of Palm Springs for the month of February. But the west coast experienced some of the biggest wettest storms in history, which changed our travel plans. Instead of staying one night at a casino at our first stop over the California border, we stayed for six, to avoid the icy roads, the big winds and all of the rain. We had no hookups, and there was no sun to charge our solar panels, so we ran the generator as needed and did fine. They had a dump station and fresh water, so we still had everything we needed. After the first storm passed, we drove 100 miles to another small casino in the town of Laytonville. A new Mac client lives there so I asked her for dinner recommendations, and did she want to join us. Instead,...
Jan04
Posted on Jan 4 by Ruth Davis
We left our amazing campsite on the bluff of the Umpqua River Lighthouse last week and spent a day and a night in Coos Bay to take care of some things on the RV before heading south. While the RV was at the shop, Mabel got her toenails clipped, Marika and I got haircuts, we stocked up on groceries and dog food, and enjoyed the water views. We spent New Year’s Eve at Harris Beach State Park where our Cape Blanco co-host friends Paul and Jayne are now working as yurt hosts. We had reservations for 2 nights, intending to begin our journey south on Monday morning. But as we were walking with the dogs around the campground on New Year’s Day, it was such a beautiful day, and the beach was right there, and Marika said, “I wonder what we would need to do to stay another night.” Wow! It hadn’t occurred to me but, yes, I loved the idea. We didn’t have to be anywhere until Morro Bay on the 8th, and I had added...
Dec28
Posted on Dec 28 by Ruth Davis
I can’t believe it’s almost the end of 2023. It’s been quite a year for me! Really high highs and incredibly low lows. And everything in between. Like most of you. So often, if we’ve had a loss in our life ( a loved one, a job, a relationship, etc) we say it’s been a bad year. Yes, definitely, it’s been hard, but every moment hasn’t been full of grief. We couldn’t survive if it were. In the midst of all of the hard stuff there are always moments of hope, of joy, of gratitude. These last few days of the year are an especially opportune time to reflect on ALL of the moments that have made up this year. It’s easy to list all of the BIG stuff that has happened to us, for us. But what else has happened? What else have you done? Taking the time to honor and acknowledge our lives can be so empowering. I invite you to find a quiet place and take out a piece of paper. Ask yourself these questions: What...
Dec21
Posted on Dec 21 by Ruth Davis
As you may know, I am in the process of closing my Mac training business after 30 years of helping people love their Macs. I’m doing it for all of the right reasons and it feels good. I’m excited about whatever is next, and I know this is what I really want for myself. Yet, this in-between time niggles me. I used to spend a lot of my working time gathering content and publishing the weekly Mac Tips and sharing the Mac love on Facebook. Now, without that busy work, I twiddle my thumbs and wonder what I’m supposed to be doing with this time. One day last week I even considered continuing to send out the weekly tips, because folks really do enjoy them. I thought about charging for the yearly subscription to make it worth my time. And then I caught myself. This is not where I want to grow my energy. This is no longer the relationship that fulfills me and shines a radiant, glowing future. I need to stick to the plan...
Dec14
Posted on Dec 14 by Ruth Davis
Our new volunteer job at the Umpqua River Lighthouse includes giving tours AND selling tickets to the museum, which means using a cash register and making change. My first real job, scooping ice cream, included ringing up sales on a cash register. And in college I was the assistant manager of a recycled clothing store where I learned how to run a credit card through the machine to generate three carbon copies, cash out the register drawer, run daily reports and fill out reconciliation sheets. So working the cash register at the Lighthouse didn’t scare me, though I knew I’d have to learn a new system, a new sequence of buttons, and how to use a chip-reading credit card machine. Marika, on the other hand, has never worked a cash register, never made change, and is not tech-savvy. But even though she was terrified of the job, she wanted to try a new thing. The day before our first official shift, we hung out with our co-hosts, Jackie and Ray, to learn the ropes of closing the...
