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Archive for the ‘Journeys’ Category

Friday Morning Reflections

Posted in aging, journalism, Journeys, Writing on July 12, 2024| 1 Comment »

Aging My Way

After 60 years and almost as many books, the novelist and travel writer, Paul Theroux, who is 83, says he will stop writing when he falls out of his chair. He says ordering his thoughts on paper is not a job but a process of my life. And he dismisses writers’ complaints about the hellish difficulty of being a writer as a dishonest complaint.

As I came across these words from one of my favorite authors this morning, I thought about my own life. I began writing when I was 25, which means I have also been writing for 60 years. And if I added up my 37 years of daily newspaper stories, my one published book, and over 1,500 blogs on this site, I suspect I’ve written as many words as Paul – and like him, I’m still writing — and still love doing it. 

And today’s Bean Pat goes to all out there who still love what they are doing in life. It means there were at least a few good choices made as we struggled through the years.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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I’m Taking Einstein’s Advice

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, Writing on July 10, 2024| 3 Comments »

          “Someone just honked to get me out of my parking space faster, so now I have to sit here until both of us are dead.” – Facebook post that had be belly laughing.

Aging My Way

OK. I give up. I’ve been trying to write a blog for over two weeks now. I get a good start on one, say about 200 words, which is about half the number of words in an average blog, and then I get stuck. What I’ve written goes into the trash, or sometimes in a file to be relooked at another day.

Well, if I’m to believe Albert Einstein, who says “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it,” I need to try a different approach.

So, at least for a little while, my blog is simply going to be a sharing of my art and a quote that is meaningful to me. I also want to restart my Bean Pat feature, which is a pat on the back to something I, personally, like.

And today’s BEAN PAT is for writers and goes to Dawn Downey’s One Damn Fine Sentence blog.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

 

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Living in a Changing World

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, Writing, tagged , on June 20, 2024| 4 Comments »

I titled this Jungle Aviary. Keeping up with today’s changing world is as hard as finding the possible birds in this charcoal drawing. Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

I was born in 1939, before going to the moon and beyond was hardly even a dream. It was a world in which every home didn’t have a television, computers didn’t exist — and racism was rampant.

While the N word was never spoken in my home, and my parents didn’t believe they were prejudiced, I was taught that separate but equal was the right way to live when it came to Blacks and Whites.

Observing the world, especially as a young reporter, I quickly realized how laughable that belief was. The deck was stacked against anyone but the WASPs.

Then came my acknowledgement that sexual orientation comes in more than two flavors — and I quickly saw that the world was a hard place for those who didn’t fall into one of those two categories. Sadly, my youngest brother was one of those. I don’t think he even accepted himself, and he became one of the early victims of AIDS.

I would like to think the world is an easier place for one of my own children, who came out as gay back in the early 1980s. And even easier – although rarely anyone of whatever persuasion has an easy life – for my dear granddaughter and her dear wife who live next door to me and have become my emergency caretakers.

Meanwhile, the world has changed so much that at 85, I’m having trouble keeping up. And yesterday, I committed what today has become a politically incorrect blunder.

My cardiologist’s medical assistant spoke in a heavily accented voice, and I was having problems understanding him. At one point, I asked him where he was from. “California,” he replied.

After he left, I looked at my granddaughter, who had taken me to my doctor’s appointment, and said: “I shouldn’t have asked that, should I?”

“It’s become a very diverse America, Nana,” my granddaughter replied, noting that she had just completed 40 hours of diversity training for her new job.

Gads! It’s hard keeping up with today’s world, especially at 85. But I guess if I’m going to keep on breathing, I need to keep on trying.

Be kind out there everyone!

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Getting Unstuck

Posted in aging, Art, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , , , on June 12, 2024| 3 Comments »

Having writer’s block is like being stuck up a tree with no way to get down. — Art by Pat Bean

The Write Words

I moderate a small email chat group called Writer2Writer for Story Circle Network. Recently I asked participants to name their favorite author and then write about why.

I started the chat off by quoting Mary Oliver, one of my favorite authors, whose instructions for living a life is to “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” And since Mary was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, when Mary said tell, I’m sure she meant write about it. The words responded with me because that’s what I’ve been trying to do for most of my life.

But lately, I’ve been rather stuck. And that leads me to comment on a response to my writing prompt. It was from Stephanie Raffelock, who wrote: “A battered, dog eared, highlighted and underlined copy of May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude sits on the table next to my chair. I can quote the opening line without opening the book: “Begin here. It is raining.” 

“Such simple lines,” wrote Stephanie. “Crisp and real. Who knew that they would lead to years of journals, which in turn would lead to a first short story and later, essays. Begin here. That’s all I have to do to start writing on any day,” said my writing colleague.

And those words from Mary, Stephanie and May were exactly what I needed to get unstuck. I immediately sat down and filled a couple of pages in my current journal, and then started writing this blog.

Thank you, Mary, Stephanie and May.  

So, who, my treasured readers, is your favorite author and why?

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Learning to Be More Gracious

Posted in aging, Art, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , , , on June 9, 2024| 3 Comments »

Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

On March 31, three days after I suffered a heart attack, the entry in my journal reads Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! The words were written by my granddaughter Shanna because I was hooked up to medical paraphernalia. As an afterthought, she noted that I was in Room 516 at Tucson Medical Center. And I should note that just 11 days earlier, I had a total knee replacement.

The next entry in my journal wasn’t made until May 14, when I recorded a quote from North Woods, the book by Daniel Mason that I was reading at the time. The quote, “Love made the old do the same dumb things as the young.” The words hit home with me because of having seen – and done – just that behavior during my 85-year journey through life.

The next thoughts, which went through my little gray cells after once again posting in my journal, was that not writing about the bad and scary after-effects of my heart attack was a familiar pattern. The many journals that I have kept for over 50 years contain mostly pleasant thoughts and good times.

To my way of thinking, this behavior isn’t altogether wrong, well except for a couple of times in my life when I needed to actually accept a bad situation and move on from it. One of those times was a lengthy period in the late 1970s when the door of the skeleton closet, in which I had shoved over 20 years of unpleasant happenings, burst open.

It took me a year to live through that episode before coming out a happier, more fulfilled person, one ready to grab all the gusto life had to offer, but also fiercely independent believing I didn’t need anyone to take care of me but me. This false notion was flung into the garbage bin when I recently learned that my granddaughter Shanna and her wife Dawn, who live next door to me and who were there for me during my knee replacement and three heart surgeries, were keeping their phones on at night in case of an emergency call from me.

Shit, shit, shit. I cried for three days before finally accepting that I should be more grateful for their love and care then being upset that I wasn’t living up to my own independent expectations.        

So why am I writing about this. Well, it’s just what writers do — and because the focus of my recent blogs has been about aging – and that’s what I’m currently doing. While I’ve always felt blessed that Shanna and Dawn were nearby, graciously accepting their help, and that of others, hasn’t been easy for me.

But I’m learning.

Meanwhile, my life is still good, and I’m going to focus on that – and be grateful for all the good things my journals have recorded.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Sunshine and Rain

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, Writing on May 20, 2024| 3 Comments »

The saguaro are currently blooming in Tucson, thanks to the rain and sun we’ve enjoyed this spring. — Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

When you’re 85, and if you’re lucky, your head is full of memories, and you never know when one of them is going to pop up. Like this morning when I was reading a post by Anne Lamott, one of my favorite writing-advice authors.

She was talking about taking a walk with an old friend and mentioned that they were wearing raincoats because although it was sunny, it was drizzling off and on. “In my family, we always announced during a sun shower that it must be a monkey’s birthday somewhere,” she wrote.

Her family was more positive than mine, because on reading those words I clearly heard my Southern grandmother say that if it were raining and the sun was shining, then the devil must be beating his wife.

Another saying for a day when the sun is shining through the rain, wrote Lamott, is that it’s a day when the foxes are having a wedding.

 A bit of research turned out there were even more old sayings for such a day, including a witch making butter in Poland and day for a parish fair in Germany. And in the Appalachians in this country, the locals might also say that the devil is kissing his wife.

Now I have even more memories stuffed into this old brain of mine. I’m just glad to be remembering some of them.     

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Posted in aging, Dogs, Journeys, Writing on May 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

My first meeting with Scamp. Photo by Kim Perrin, who drove 700-miles roundtrip to bring him to me.

Each day, a page of photo memories drops into my email. The one that dropped today shows my first meeting with my canine companion Scamp. I first named him Harley, but quickly changed it to Scamp – because that is what he truly is.

According to the Ogden, Utah, shelter from where he was adopted, he was eight months old and a schnauzer-mix. He weighed 17 pounds, most of which was a tangled mass of matted hair. While he showed no sign of physical abuse, he had clearly been neglected – and was desperate to attach himself to someone. And I was the willing sole who had made a 1,000-mile roundtrip to become just that.

It’s a good thing I didn’t know how much trouble he was going to be in the coming weeks.      

He peed in the house, tore up 13 rolls of toilet paper he managed to get off the holder, destroyed half a dozen of my writing pens, some of which left permanent ink on my carpet, and chewed up my dining room table and chairs.

If I hadn’t fallen in love with him the second that he first jumped on my lap, he would have quickly gone back to the shelter.

Thankfully, by walking him every hour or so, I had him house trained in three weeks, and slowly he began to learn what toys were his and what were mine. Today, he’s never far from my side, or my lap if he can manage it. I do have one large chair that he and I both fit into.

Even so, it’s not easy as he turned out not to be a 25-pound schnauzer-mix but a 45-pound Siberian husky-shih tzu-mix.

My granddaughter Shanna says he landed with his butt in the butter. I think he and I both did.

Anyway, talk about a picture being worth a thousand words, the one above surely is. And the one below is of Scamp today.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Dung Beetles vs. Silver Linings

Posted in aging, Art, Journeys, tagged , on May 3, 2024| 2 Comments »

Dung beetles enrich the soil so plants can flourish. Did you know that? — Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

One of my favorite bloggers, Dawn Downey, (https://dawndowney.substack.com/) claimed silver linings clash with her complexion and in the next instant, she said, dung beetles were her gurus.

Since silver linings are my mantra, you would suppose that I would be a bit upset with Dawn. But you would be wrong. Dawn gave me another perspective to ponder – and I learned a lot about dung beetles while doing it. Because she sparked my interest, I did an internet search to discover more about dung beetles, and discovered they actually are amazing creatures.

I mean, did you know that nocturnal African dung beetles can navigate and orient themselves using the Milky Way? And that some dung beetles can pull over 1,000 times their own weight.

Long ago, I wisely came to the conclusion that one learns more from those who think differently from me than those who agree with me. That mind set has stood me well, and often pushed me to better paths in life than what I was taught as a child growing up in the South during the 1940s and’50s.

For one thing, it’s not in the best interest of women to stay barefoot and pregnant. And just because you were born in Texas doesn’t mean you’re better than those who weren’t. That, at least was, my grandmother’s way of thinking.

I learned many other things during my journey through life that make me thankful for having diversity in my friends and acquaintances, and I hope they can say the same about me. I’ve also learned even more from other writers, like Dawn. The ability to read is an awesome gift.

Even so, I’ll continue to believe in silver linings — because one doesn’t have to agree with, or believe, everything they hear or read.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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A Bug Named Chigger

Posted in aging, Dogs, journalism, Journeys, road trip, Travel, Writing, tagged , on April 22, 2024| 2 Comments »

In 2014, I bought this red car and named her Cayenne. She is not as shiny today, but driving her this morning felt empowering. Pepper, whom I’m holding, spent the last eight months with me during my RVing days before going to doggie heaven a few years after I moved to Tucson.

Aging My Way

I got behind the wheel of my car for the first time in over six weeks this morning. It was just a short drive, but after a knee replacement and three stents put into my heart, it was extremely empowering.

While most people I know, find driving, especially in rush-hour conditions, annoying and frustrating, the activity has long been my happy place. I think it began back in 1967 when I bought a 1963 red VW Bug shortly after I went to work for a small local newspaper.

At first, I used it just to get back and forth to work, but then I was promoted from dark-room flunky to reporter, a life-changing milestone that begin my 37-year journalism career.

Over the next four years, I drove that Bug over 100,000 miles to get to and from assignments all over Texas Gulf Coast’s Brazoria County. With five children at home, a lazy husband, and a demanding editor to please, driving in that car was the only alone time I had. Enclosed and sitting behind its wheel, I felt serene and at peace, about the only time I did during that period of my life.

This is a 1963 VW Bug, like the one I put 100,000 miles on between 1967-71. Amazingly you can still find them on the road.

When I moved to Northern Utah, I drove between there and Texas to visit family often, heady with each opportunity to find a different route for the journey. And when I finally retired, I spent nine years driving a small RV, with just a canine companion, all over America. I loved every moment of the 150,000 miles I drove exploring this awesome country. I found beauty everywhere I looked.

At 85, and with poor vision in the dark, I gave up night driving several years back. And I know there is going to come a time when I will have to relinquish my car keys because of my age. But thankfully, that time hasn’t arrived yet.

Oh, and by the way, I paid $600 for that Bug I called Chigger – and sold it for $900 four years later. It’s the best bargain I’ve ever experienced.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Life’s Landscapes

Posted in aging, Journeys, Travel, Writing, tagged on April 17, 2024| 8 Comments »

When I was traveling, I always tried to be in Texas for bluebonnet season. — Photo by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

One of my blog followers wrote yesterday that although we had never met, she had been following me so long that she felt I was an old friend. I don’t think there could have been anything nicer than that said to a writer. And comments like hers make me happy to be blogging again after my short sabbatical.

I’ve been blogging here on Word Press since 2010, the year I turned 71 and when I was still traveling around the country with my canine companion Maggie. The view then was ever changing.

It’s cactus-blooming season in Tucson. One of the many things I learned while traveling is that beauty is everywhere. You just have to look. — Photo by Pat Bean.

Meanwhile, this will be my 1,588th blog, and tomorrow I turn 85. A splendid view of the Catalina Mountains from my small Tucson apartment greets me each day, and my canine companion is named Scamp.

I wake up each morning with gratitude in my heart — for what I had in the past, and what I now have. I’m content.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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