There are times in our lives when both age and experience come together to demand that decisions be made. Now, this is not going to be a "woe is me, I'm getting older" post nor is it an "I refuse to grow old and will always be young" blog either. Perhaps somewhere in between. As life catches up to me, I'm finding where I fit in to life here on this planet and how I can manage the events that happen as I journey on this road.
And I'm no exception.
So over the last year I have watched my health change. As noted in past posts, my arthritis and sciatica come and go, making running and even walking tough some days. Although the last month has been rather good in those terms and I have had less of that. Then, during August other things started to happen. My eyesight, while really good with distance, started to show signs of problems when reading. Ugh. That means....reading glasses. So that made an education in glasses necessary. What was next. My body has started to reject many milk products that I have been eating for most of my life. Yep. Lactose intolerance.
As of now, I stay completely away from milk, sour cream, half and half and liquid milk products. What I CAN still consume, is cheese and low fat ice cream as well as other more solid milk products. This is a learning curve that is easy enough,. If I feel like hell after eating it, I note what it is and move to alternatives. So far, I find almond milk to by far be the best alternative for when I want cereal or as an additive.
Oh what fun this is going to be !!!!!!!!!So, what am I admitting? I'm getting OLDER. Not old.
On a much brighter note, and one that makes me very happy... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As for goals? My goals in the self education aspect are to continue my Welsh in some form and to get MUCH better at my German. I'm going to make a confession here now...my Welsh studies and learning have simply NOT been going too well. After much searching, reading and trying to understand WHY my brain is not able to remember or retain the Welsh language, I've been led to believe some of it is simply that I'm not wired for that language. I have tried so very hard to adapt my brain and mind to learning it yet it is not sticking!!!!! Seems that tone,sounds and frequency are factors for some in learning a particular language. Not sure how this pertains to me, but after eight months of Welsh, I'm not able to retain 50% of what I have learned, even after listening to the same lessons over and over more than twenty times each. Sure, I remember some. But they simply are not sinking in. I also blame part of this on the very small amount of use in speaking and using it. Now, pick the other language that has been part of my life a long time, German, and I soar well through those skies. Even many years after taking courses, I can read a lot more of it than I ever expected, even though I didn't study those particular words years ago. There are a lot of similarities between English and German, so that could be it as well as the tone and lower register in that tongue. I simply do not know. But my brain does so much better with German. So....I have now started a refresher course from Houghton Mifflin and Dollenmayer/Hansen. This course will get me to a completed first year German college level. And I'm going to give it a shot. See if the brain absorbs or if my days of learning languages is truly over.
So that's it. Welsh is taking a back seat for a little while as I tackle German. Wish me luck.
**********************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment