Every year at this time, Cece goes on a rant encouraging all her friends to prompt their loved ones to get their annual mammogram screening.  Please do it.  It can literally be a life and death matter.  Cece had her mammogram recently and went to a mobile mammogram site because her insurance contracts with them. It was a huge RV!  It was an interesting adventure!  She asked a lot of questions once inside and found out the mobile lab travels around the State!   She also learned that if you do not have insurance,  you can get a grant to have a free mammogram.  So do not let lack of insurance stop you if this situation applies to you.

We understand that being touched and maneuvered by a stranger to get the screening can be embarrassing and uncomfortable…but just get it done.  Bring a friend.  Reward yourself afterward if it is hard to do…but do it.

To put a light hearted spin on this topic, the Two Whos present this YouTube Video called ” The Pink Glove Dance.”    The various departments at this  hospital got together to produce their segment of this video in their  “pink gloves.”    We hope that you will enjoy this video and that it will prompt you to take action.  September begins the push toward breast cancer awareness month so let us begin to take action and get it  done now.

Remember, this blog has joined the Army of Women (see side bar) and have committed to devote the October 1st blog to cancer awareness.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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Yun takes a longer route to go home after dropping her kids at school, because she wants to say “Thank you!” to the police woman who is guarding the school crossing.  She also likes to see this woman’s bright smiling face when she greets the children as they cross the street. As she watches, Yun remembers this song that Louis Armstrong sings.

When we see the  world and life through the eyes of gratitude, every word in Louis Armstrong’s song “What a Wonderful World!” rings of truth.

About The Mid-Week Symphony: Since Wednesday is the middle of the week, we have decided to take a moment and have a bit of down time from the writing. Each Wednesday, we would like to bring you a symphony of ideas, a harmony of thoughts, beauty, silliness and all things that make the fullness of life. When we started this blog we wanted it to reflect our entire personalities and interests..and that means yes…. Cece loves the Far Side Cows and Yun loves the mumble jumble philosophical books. Yun and Cece have many varied interests and we would like to share some of them with you each Wednesday.

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You may remember the great discussion Yun and Cece had over why did  the chicken cross the road? Well, the topic has come up again!
Previously, it was  decided that maybe the chicken crossed the road  to bring world peace since the making of chicken soup crosses many different cultures. Cece can just see this chicken thumbing its way across various countries!

Anyway, it is getting colder in New Mexico and it is time to make soup again!  As she remembered this post, Cece found herself giggling as she picked out an organic chicken in the market this morning.

But what does making soup have to do with peace making?  Yun thinks that chicken soup is a symbol for love and that it crosses all cultures. So, Cece thinks the chicken crosses the road to bring love and peace between cultures and if only people could sit down together and talk over the soup, perhaps healing could occur!  Maybe simplistic thinking, but why not simple?

Cece  sets out to make a chicken soup from a different culture every so often. So as she got her chicken, she decided to make Chicken soup that has  a Vietnamese  influence.  She also decides to do her own thing and adds leeks to the stock.

Make your chicken soup from scratch or use prepared stock that you add to. Add your dumplings or noodles.   Once the soup is served into each bowl,  put a combination of the following aromatic herbs and vegetables on top: fresh jalapeno pepper slices, bean sprouts, mint, basil,  snow peas, slices of onion, cilantro.  All the aromatic herbs will release their flavors into the hot soup!

We can look throughout the world every day…every minute of the day… and see war and violence and killing at the neighborhood , state and global levels…but let’s begin simply.Let’s begin with ourselves.  Find some friends who have different opinions than you do and sit down and have some soup and conversation together.   And as you are sharing your soup and conversation with people you have differences with, ask yourself, “  Am I going to practice peace or am I going to practice War?”  Let’s begin there and be there.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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In 1988,  a song came over the air waves by Bobby McFerrin  called “Don’t Worry. Be Happy.” The song was a simple solution to complex problems, but was a good song to remember when things got hard and you needed to lighten up a bit!    It was the first a cappella song to make it big! Part of the lyrics are “in every life we have some trouble….” and The Whos thought of this  song as they wrote this post.

It has been raining cats and dogs lately.  So, you hear lots of cheers as well as lots of  curses.  People have their own reasons and their own likes and dislikes, so we are happy and not happy accordingly.

A friend of Yun’s loves swimming.  She would swim everyday if she could.  So, Sunny days are her best friends.  She is as cheerful as the sunshine, bubbling with joy for life.   The past months have been unpleasant for her with all the rain and thunder and overcasting sky.  You hear her complaints more about things in life. It seems when the Sun and clouds are not collaborating, nothing else in the world works. She has the excuse  to be unhappy, and she makes it clear and she sticks to it.

Well, it so happens, that an old friend of Yun’s  is a gardener! He loves gardening  and has  a house on the hill with  lots of land to tinker with.  However, friends joke with him and call him  “such a grumpy old man” because he has such strong political positions.  Unfortunately, our political environment has not been to  his liking for many years.   But lately, instead of politics, he sings the praises of  how wonderful the rain has been,  how refreshing the air smells and how lush his garden is now….On and on, he is beaming with cheers and joy.   He is happy for a very good reason, and he makes clear of that.

One day, after a  chat with both of them  back to back, Yun starts to laugh  and marvel at the human’s incredible capacity to be happy or to be unhappy.  The physicist Yun said to the artist  Cece, ” It is almost like in scientific research… one makes a hypothesis, and starts to design an experiment to collect data to prove the hypothesis.  In most cases, one manages to find the data to prove that your  hypothesis is correct!”  Cece giggles too.

Why is it that we allow our minds to take such control  of us that we determine our happiness by the rain or the current political climate or whether we can swim or not?  What if we enjoyed each moment as it presents itself…and what if we could be here now…and relish in the very moment we are in…whether we are driving or walking or working or doing a repetitive task?  Could we perhaps find joy in those little moment by moment things that are happening right now?    What if our mind went astray and went to being unhappy about the political climate?  Could we re-direct it into the here and now and focus on this moment only?

If we decide to be happy, we will find the reasons.  If we decide not to be happy, we can find the reasons too…. The reasons for both are only  in our mind’s eyes.  Make sure that what your mind’s eye sees is working for you… not against you  “Don’t worry, be happy” and make it so!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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Cece works at an agency that supports people with disabilities.  It is a multi- faceted agency that provides many services and supports.  One  part of the agency that is in Corrales,  has 4 greenhouses.   In the fall,  they grow over 8000 poinsettia!  Through out the year they grow  organic wheat grass that gets sold to wheat grass lovers and then the majority is sold  to Keva Juice.  They also grow lots of bedding plants and flowers year round.

Recently they were gifted with an organic farm!  Many departments at the agency have taken turns going out to the farm to team build and do some weeding.  As they found out this morning, weeds abound! In the midst of the weeds are asparagus and berries, garlic, tomatoes and other veggies.  They sell this produce to local restaurants.

The management team arrived at the farm!  Some had  experience…. and some  realized they were better off behind a desk!

Cece received instruction in how to wield a hoe and then it was determined that she would do better with a wheel barrow.  She learned that once her weeds were picked up and piled and balanced perfectly in her wheelbarrow,  then she would cart them a way. Others were pulling weeds in other rows and  when she would come back down the cleaned up row,  she discovered that   more weeds would be thrown “willy nilly” into her cleaned up  row…a metaphor for life…often  we have to deal with other people’s weeds.  But , we have to focus on pulling up the weeds in  our own  lives, taking the trash out to the curb and then  being willing to let the garbage man take the trash away rather than to hold onto it…..all life lessons that need to be learned and re-learned in our lives.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up  on a weekend morning.  Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast,  and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace.  The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness , food and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.

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