Hip Replacement?

No! This is Marisa. She is probably one of the loveliest Physical Therapists in Manhattan. We have been visiting her for a while now. Marisa and Physical Therapy saved me from the potential of an immediate hip replacement. We are still working on it but hopefully any thought of a replacement will be many years in the future. I have decided that getting old is not for sissies.

Can you tell that I surprised her in this photo. The table behind her is where lots of work takes place. And it is work. Believe me!

Now this is more like it. What a smile!

Our Marriage Encounter Weekend

http://www.presby-me.org/info_otherexpressions.htm

Above is a link to information about Marriage Encounter organizations associated with a variety of faiths. Any one of them welcome any couple that wants to attend. You do not have to be a member of the sponsoring faith. We chose to attend this particular weekend because it was geographically close and on a date that was good for us. However, we are not a member of the faith that sponsored the event. This did not affect the value of the weekend for us and we met many wonderful couples during the 2 1/2 days we were with them. In addition we had the privilege of meeting Father Bill. He fully participated and provided input to us all. At the completion of our weekend Father Bill conducted a service where we all renewed our marriage vows. It was beautiful.

You may wonder what Marriage Encounter is all about. We would like to try and share the general idea. First - it is important to understand that this experience is only for successful marriages. Second - The weekend is a very private experience between only a husband and wife.

Marriage Encounter is an opportunity for married partners to work on their "coupleness." The end result is a renewing of the passion in a marriage with the goal being to have a fully intimate and responsible relationship. Many marriages result in a situation of what is described as a "married/single lifestyle." The coupleness is lost somewhere along the way. To bring the coupleness back we learned and practiced listening with our heart - not just our head. We had exercises to help us communicate openly, to examine ourselves to identify what we perceive as our own failings and inadequacies then share them with our partner. Most importantly, each couple made a commitment to set aside a scheduled time for each other each day for dedicated sharing and togetherness. We learned the value of saying we are sorry to our partner when we have hurt them followed by asking for forgiveness.

How did we learn all of these new skills? The approach is really "cool." It is called "dialog." I guess I should share the setting. We had no TV, no radio, took off our watches, turned off our cell phones, had no books to read and no telephone or clock in our room. When we were all assembled together a question was presented to the group. All of us each have our own workbook. We talked about ways to express our feelings, rules for fighting fair, and other skills. The lead couple presents the question and then shares with us how they had responded at a past weekend to that particular question. After their presentation the wives stay in the meeting room and the husbands each go to their own bedroom. Then we all write our response. The writing is in the form of a love letter to our other half. We are to express our feelings in the best way we can. We write for 10 minutes. Then the wives went up and joined our husbands. We exchange notebooks and read what each other has written. We read the writing TWICE. The first reading is for our heads and the second reading is for our hearts. Then we talked about our responses to what we had read for 10 to 15 minutes. Nobody heard what we said and nobody read what we wrote but us.

What kind of questions? Here are a few --
What is my spouse's most endearing quality?
What do I appreciate most about you? What are my feelings as I write this to you?
What do I appreciate most about us?
What do I like most about myself?
What do I like least about myself?

As you can probably tell, the list can go on and on.

Bottom line: We had a great time.
Below are some photos along with more information about our activities.


John and I attended a Marriage Encounter many years ago. At that time the weekend was conducted at a hotel. That was in the early 1980's in Atlanta, Georgia. This weekend we were in upstate New York. The event was held at a retreat facility for the sponsoring faith, the Roman Catholic Church. This photo is of artwork above and behind the altar area. We learned that each figure represents a different month of the year.


The building was huge! It is completely made of stone. I think it is granite. The design appears to be gothic. There is a chapel (shown in some of the photos), kitchen, dining room, conference rooms, bedrooms for guests (a whole floor or more) as well as resident floors for retired and active religious personnel.


The exterior of the building reminds us of a castle. We understand that it was built around 1901. The grounds are beautiful and serene. On our drive into the grounds we saw deer on the driveway. They felt safe enough to only move once the car came to close to them.


The main portion of our trip was by train from Grand Central Station. The train traveled along the Hudson River the majority of the trip. The scenery was serene and gorgeous.


During an early part of our time on the train we spotted Yankee Stadium so just had to snap this photo of "The House That Ruth Built."


I took this photo to help show the detail of the artwork above and behind the altar. These two angels represent the months of May and June. John is a May baby and my b'day is in June. (a little bit of self indulgence on my part in selecting these two out of twelve).


Here is John in our room. The rooms were large, comfortable and well lit. We had a wonderful view of the grounds and the Hudson River. John is at the desk writing a response to one of the questions given to us over the weekend.





This is a photo of the view from our bedroom window.

Memories of Thailand

Memories -- Thailand stole my heart. I remember most of all – the people. The people of Thailand are warm, giving, shy, patient, and generous. I write about the wonderful people that live in the non-tourist areas of the country. There are Buddhist temples (wats) in the villages and towns. The resident monks are serene, quiet, and kind. Many of the schools in the country are associated with a temple. This is because the first teachers were the monks. And the children, oh, the children. They are one of the country's greatest treasures. I had the privilege to practice teach for two short weeks. The teacher as well as the students gave me indelible memories that will be with me forever.

We lived with a Thai family for 10 weeks and became their “grandparents.” It was so very easy to grow to love them. Some photos of them are below.

Leaving the country long before my expected 27 months of service broke my heart. Unfortunately, my up-front personality was not a good fit for the gentle culture of the Thais. But Thailand will beckon to me until the end of my days.


The two youngsters are age 10 and 19. This lovely girl is a college student. She came home to visit frequently.


Here we all are together. This was one handsome family!


The family is posing in front of two spirit houses in our yard. They are beautiful carved wood and beautifully painted.


We even had a pet dog. Each day upon leaving on our bikes or coming home she was there to greet us. When arriving home she would often bring me a "gift" of a leaf or a twig. I also firmly believe she smiled at us too!

Toys R Us - Manhattan

Wow! A T-Rex right here on the second floor. He moves his head, his front feet, and when he opens and closes his mouth he growls. He's not so scary from far away but when you get up close up, little people freak out.


Inside of the store there is an operating ferris wheel that is 3 stories tall. And our little one loves to ride on it.


The ferris wheel is taking us up soooo very high!


Want to know what you can do with those little Lego building pieces? Well, you can build a replica of the Empire State Building complete with King Kong at the top. John stood next to it so we could have some perspective of how tall it is.


The Statue of Liberty, hot dog cart and seller are all Legos.


John is standing next to a Lego Chrysler Building.

A New York Street Fair

What kinds of things will you see at a street fair here in Manhattan? Today we had three different fairs to choose from. We picked one that was fairly close to our apt. Sixth Avenue from 42nd up almost to Central Park. Have tried to describe the many photos we took. Most are self explanatory. We will have multiple fairs to attend every weekend all summer long.


Orchids from Taiwan.


Food from Vietnam.


Dancers from Peru.


All generations dance in Peru!


Hand knit sweaters from Ecuador.


Gorgeous hand smocked childrens' clothes.


Beautiful hand stitched jackets from India.


Jewelry in all shapes and colors.


John could not resist buying a NY Yankees knock-off hat for $5.


Oil paintings both framed and plain canvas.


Small animals carved from stone.


Hand made refrigerator magnets that look like real food.


Beautiful bonsai trees of many sizes and kinds.


A whimsical dragon made completely from "recycled" found parts.


Only two of many style motorcycles also made of found pieces of metal. Springs, screws, cogs, nails, etc.


Soccer team jerseys from many teams. This one is from England.


Had to take this snapshot of the soccer shirt prices for my friend Derrick in Thailand. (Go-o-o-o Derrick)


Need a suitcase?


How about some socks?


Is this Mexican food? We do not know. A corn muffin that is kind of flat covered with mozzarella cheese.


Need anything in the world for your cell phone? This is the place for you.


Guess tie-dyed is still "in" or has it simply "come back"?


Lots and lots of matchbox cars.


Jewelry made of jade.


Hats for all.


How about some Thai food?


The Thai menu done in pictures.


Perfume of all kinds "just like in the stores".


Caps at bargain prices.


Many types of glasses painted in wonderful ways. That beer glass is actually empty - it is only paint.


This is only one of many, many booths selling purses and bags.


We had a surprise thunder shower. This rug merchant really had no where to take his carpets to safety. So he just rolled them up and dug in till it passed.


Any and all Ipod accessories you can imagine.


Hand made jewelry booth are at almost every turn but they all offer something different.


Beautiful Murano glass jewelry pieces.


Want to know your future or maybe your past? This is where you need to be.


Need some Bob Marley or Dance Hall music? See these folks.


Dead Sea aeromatic salts? We have no idea what this place sells but it was doing a nice business.


Need a sign? Any kind of sign you can imagine can be found here. And if it isn't here I bet the vendor could find you one.


Gifts for golfers. These are ball markers of many kinds.


The sign says NY belts. Best we can figure - all belts are to hold up your pants. What exactly is a NY Belt?















































And after walking from one end of the fair and back we decided to take a rest in nearby Bryant Park.