Enjoy this article and to help us keep stories fresh and current, support our advertisers by exploring their sites. We appreciate feedback - there's room for your comments below
 The Arizona sun is signaling the end of summer; coming up later and later in the morning, the hot summer days are fading into the horizon. Once a week I find myself meandering among the vendors at the farmers market and without much fanfare the vegetables tell us when the end of summer or the beginning of fall is approaching. The market produce is changing as more and more beautiful vibrant colored vegetables are appearing; purple eggplants, yellow squash, red chiles and bright orange pumpkins.
As I am profoundly connected to the Local Farmers Market I have always made it a choice to eat more locally grown food and support our regional farmers in the process. It has been my personal quest this year to inform our customers at the Farmers' Market about fruits and vegetables that are in season. Fall is approaching, and September through October is Harvest time! There are so many varieties and different kinds of produce available. This is the time (if you were lucky) when your mothers and grandmothers started to preserve the seasons’ bounty for the upcoming winter months. As I am really busy, managing the Farmers' Market and helping out with the Maya Tea Company, I find that freezing vegetables is an easier option for me.
What’s available? Yellow wax, green and purple beans, okra, pumpkins, pickling & lemon cucumbers, egg plant, green and purple bell peppers, chile peppers, jalapeno, squash, red & white onions, shallots, herbs (basil, chives, oregano and parsley), rhubarb, kohlrabi, turnips, as well as red and yukon gold potatoes. Early apples, pomegranates and pears are also starting to make an appearance.
So as the day temperatures begin to drop to our delightful mid 90’s (it is Tucson, after all), the vegetables signal to us that it is indeed the dog days of summer and the change of seasons. Keep your eye on the evening temperatures, because all great things must come to an end, and for the farmers it will be the first fall frost.
Can't Pretend I'm 40 Anymore
 This year marks a milestone for me-my son turns 30. We mothers celebrate every birthday of our children with tender memories and this one will be no different. This birthday has a lot of significance for two reasons. First, I can no longer lie about my age. Having a 30 year old son puts me out of my 40's forever. Secondly, I remember vividly the year he was six and I was 30.
It was at his birthday party that I finally decided I had to get help and find out what was wrong with me. I struggled badly to entertain my family and a few of his friends for the birthday bash, I was fatigued, constantly, and no amount of rest seemed to help for more than a few hours. There were times when I couldn't stand I was so weak, and even breathing was labored. My job as a classroom teacher was in jeopardy; heck, my life was in jeopardy. I knew that day if I wanted to see another birthday party for my kids I had to find answers.
Many specialists, diagnoses, and 3 years later I had an answer. It was an incurable neuromuscular disease called myasthenia gravis. No cures, but lots of treatments existed and were available to me. It took another three years to pull myself out of the physical and emotional valley I was in.
There were times I wasn't sure I would make it, but I fought for reasons big and small. One thing that sustained me then and now is a deep faith. I was pretty sure God wasn't done with me yet at 33 years of age. And the thought of not being there for my kids was something I was not going to accept. Birthdays, high school, weddings, and now looking toward those grandkids! One small but significant encouraging factor was my “dream trip” list, a bucket list if you will; of all the places I wanted to visit when (not if) I got well. I checked out every book on travel in the library twice, clipped magazine articles, searched through phone books, and scoured brochure racks. I was an armchair traveler extraordinary, even planning out itineraries for myself and my friends. Is it any wonder I became a travel agent?
Now, I am doing great and still enjoy planning trips, particularly as girls getaway travel consultant for our agency. I gave you the above background so you will know where I speak from when I say what an honor it is to work with two noted disability specialists, Connie George, and Vicki Thorpe. These two gals work tirelessly with the tiniest of details to make sure that people with disabilities have the chance to say “I can go too”. Ladies, I salute you for your dedication and experience and the opportunity you give everyone to fulfill their own travel bucket list.
Happy traveling and remember to look forward—not back! The power of a positive mind in dealing with disease in invaluable. Email me to tell me your story, we need each other on this journey.
Sandy, the diva cruiser, is in reality Sandy Wheeler, the Chicks at Sea lady. Follow her adventures on Twitter @thedivacruiser, and www.SandyWheelerTravel.com
We are constantly on the look out for guest authors and bloggers. Check out how you can share your story.
Life After Fifty
Seems like only yesterday…or at least last week. Seaside, Florida, has two wine festivals each  year. Great wines, sunshine and shorts (when you're from Iowa this is a big deal in November), and watching the sun set over that emerald sea from a roof top just begs a travel article. Only problem is, an article like that has been written about a gazillion times.
No one was more surprised than me when the check arrived in the mail with a letter telling me a magazine actually wanted my article on Seaside's Wine Festival. How did I do it?
Let me start at the beginning, or at least the beginning of my life at 50. My Norwegian grandmother gets credit for my positive attitude and outlook on life. Her use of a common Scandinavian saying “Uff Da” stuck with me all my life. When perhaps a situation didn't go exactly like she planned, she muttered “uff da”, told me we needed to look at things differently and off we went. Funny thing, it always worked out for her.
Fast forward through my successful health care administration career and into a buy-out of our health-care system. Being told I wasn't the “right man” (at age 51) for the job did more than knock me down. This was my career…the one where I struggled to succeed, in a man's world. To be honest, I felt sorry for myself for a while. After all, how could they get rid of me? I had helped build a successful network and just knew they couldn't continue without me.
Better yet…what was I going to do?
I could just hear my grandmother telling me to get back up and look at things differently. But how? Remember, this was more than a job…it had been my career.
I contacted a writer friend and after many discussions and glasses (or was it bottles?) of wine she mentored me through a “what do you want to do now” period. My life-long love of travel and my ability to write could be the start of an actual freelance career. Journals of mine ranged from the “what I did on my summer vacation” to detailing interesting people we met in the hinterlands of North Dakota or in the bayou country of Louisiana. Just like in Seaside, I had always looked for the unusual parts of our travels.
To get started I took some courses specific to travel writing, completed an online program in record time, and took advantage of all the mentoring available. Not everyone can pick a completely different career out of the blue, take some online courses and make progress. But being self-motivated, this was easy for me. If this was going to be a career, I'd better know what I was doing. And I wanted to do well at this.
Selling my Seaside article was easy, perhaps too easy. I happened to pitch it to the right publication at the right time. Trying to sell the second article was difficult. They politely told me they couldn't use it. How can that be? I'm a bit impatient and since the first one sold immediately, I didn't understand what was going on with this one. I tried a third one…and didn't even hear back from them. Okay, not a good start for a career move.
I signed up for a second workshop and learned, really learned, more of the nuances of travel writing, queries, pitching and the whole business of writing. At that workshop, I visited with one of the main presenters about my career change, about taking their online course and why I was here. She recognized my name as I was one of the few who had taken advantage of all their mentoring and coaching.
She asked me to present at that workshop and consequently at several others. Then she critiqued my articles that were not selling…and my new career was off and running. Now I have hundreds of articles published, both in the US and Internationally, have written an ebook on becoming a travel writer, and have branched out into a successful editing business.
This could end here…but it doesn't.
I still love traveling, writing and selling my travel articles. Why can't I do more? Well, I can…and I did. My newly gained confidence as a travel writer prompted me to branch into other forms of writing. Remember the friend who suggested I start travel writing? She and I have written a book, “My Life: The Sequel, A Girlfriends' Guide to Personal Success”.
Creating new habits, taking a good look at what I want out of life, setting my goals, and going after them, I'm living this book. Setbacks don't stop me. I mutter “uff da” under my breath, thank my grandmother, and move on.
Recently I joined two women to form a complete virtual assistant business for authors. You have a book? We will edit it (my part of the group), format it, design a cover and market it for you. Stay tuned…this one is taking off.
Am I still self-motivated? You bet. My calendar gets updated every Monday, I know which articles I need to write during the week, time gets set aside to work on my latest book and I don't beat myself up when something doesn't get done. I've been asked to teach a workshop on women and success…moving in the right direction for YOU.
Maybe you've heard things happen for a reason. I believe it's more than a saying…I'm proof that they do. Of course, the right attitude helps.
What's next? You'll just have to wait for the sequel to our book…or my next venture.
You can see more of Wendy's work and contact her through her website travelsandescapes.com
We are on the look out for guest writers and bloggers. Share your story, describe your passion, connect with other women.
|
