Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Old Friends

It was a most unusual experience, losing one friend—or someone to whom I tried to be a friend—and finding another. The friend I lost didn’t understand that friendship is a two way street, and the entire burden of the friendship was placed on me. Everyone understands the stress of that situation.

A short time after the non-friend, friendship was over, I noticed a phone ID on my business phone, one of those easy to remember numbers that ends in 00. The name indicated was someone I knew a long time ago who had moved. We lost contact.
So I called the number yesterday, and it was the same person. He had dialed a number incorrectly, and got mine. Bizarre, huh?

What more bizarre than that? This old friend comes to Florida for business consulting at a location that is a few miles from where I currently live. We’ll have lunch on his next trip. That’s something to look forward to.

Life is interesting.

Friday, January 9, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The year 2008 ended with a roar. I became so busy there was little time to take a break. So I took an extended vacation for—the first in about ten years. It felt so good I decided to take a few vacations every year, and leave my old habits behind.

Frequent vacations help people recharge their batteries—so to speak. Human beings need a break from the daily grind to reduce the stress that builds up. Stress can impose chronic and acute illness on individuals.

Stress in the body produces an increase in the hormones adrenaline, noradrenalin and corticosteroids. These hormones generate tense muscles, queasiness as well as an increase in breathing and heart rates. Long-term stress may cause the following complications: allergies, digestive problems, heart disease (including hypertension), and panic attacks.

Fortunately, none of these became an issue for me. That’s because I exercise vigorously several times a week.

So, as you might have guessed, my New Year’s resolution includes frequent vacations—at least three per year.