Friendships

One of the women I ride with every day sent this to me...it struck home!

They Teach It at Stanford 

In an evening class at Stanford the last lecture was on the mind-body

connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of

psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things

that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a

woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her

relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was

serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that

help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences.

Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin -

a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling

of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around

activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel

about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports?

Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers,

and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with

a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at

a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing

something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are

wasting our time and should be more productively engaged—not true.

In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal

relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as

smoking!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on

the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We

are indeed very, very lucky.

Sooooo… let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it’s

very good for our health.

Life isn't about surviving the storm; but how you dance in the rain.

It's R A I N I N G ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Well, that may not seem like such a big deal to some of you, but we central-Kansans are in dire need of rain.  Yeah...means I didn't get to ride this morning...but it's beginning to clear off a little (and we didn't get NEARLY enough rain) so I may get in a ride yet today.

My "main" riding buddy is in Colorado for the next week or two but Mary and I rode to Nickerson yesterday morning.  We had planned to ride today but it was wet.  Tomorrow and Thursday Mary has other plans so I may have to just get out there and DO IT!  So much easier and so much more fun with others.

I stopped by over at a friend's house this a.m. and she has a not-quite-6-month old Yorkie.  He's up to 3 lbs. 5 oz. now.  Without a doubt the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Brutus!  I didn't have my camera with me but I have to get photos soon (if I can get him slowed down enough.)  They're having a 6-month birthday party for him September 4...maybe then.

Hope you're getting rain if you need it...hope we get a little more.  

Too Funny Not To Post

My apologies in advance...but this just cracks me up!  A cousin sent me this as an email and it just made me laugh!

I suggest all men should boycott Kohl's until the cruelty stops!!!

Neighbor's Cactus

This is my neighbor's cactus.  My understanding is that it only blooms once per year...and it had 22 blooms.  It still has a BUNCH more buds that she assures me will still open.  I didn't get there in time to take pictures when it was fully open...but I took pictures of her pictures.  This would almost be reason enough to have a cactus...but I don't have a very good history with cactus.  Gorgeous, huh?