The Two Whos

Cece is counting her blessings…and the other morning, she really had a wonderful blessing come her way.  It was the gift of laughter!

Do you remember Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon?  They were one of the most funny comedy teams…with Johnny as the jokester and Ed as the straight man.  Well, the other morning, Cece thought she was riding  with them both.  Just imagine Johnny Carson on a road bike with Ed McMahon in tow.  This is how Cece’s morning began.

She arrived at the Open Space and glory be..there was her friend Tom.  He is an older gentleman and  he used to be a professional cyclist.  You may remember, he is the leader of the Cement Factory Spin that Cece and Yun attend each January!  He had with him, his friend Jim…who also was a professional cyclist….and thus… the dynamic duo was born!  Cece is still lamenting that she did not bring her camera, because there were many missed opportunities…for great pics along the way…but she digresses!

Jim is Johnny and Tom is Ed. We agreed that we would ride slow and flat and Cece checked in with them on what speed was slow to them at this point in their lives.  In the past,  slow would have been 20 mph!    When they told her, Cece  agreed that  their pace was slow  and off they went.!  As we all cycled along….Tom would prompt and provoke Jim and somehow, with great adeptness, Jim would weave a joke into the normal conversation.  It got so that Cece could not tell reality from fantasy!  Cece laughed the entire way.

At one point, as they rode in a pace line of sorts, Cece called up and said, “Men! I just want to tell you that I cannot hear…so if someone comes from the back, I cannot hear them if they call out.  I do not wear my hearing aids when I ride.”  From the front of the line came, “OH!  I wear hearing aids too.”  then from the middle “OH!  I wear hearing aids too.”    Cece started laughing and then heard all the hearing aid jokes….and Jim…I mean Johnny said, “OK Now I am going to tell you a joke that is not dirty, but that will make you just sick!”  “Oh great,”  Cece chuckled!  And  so it did!

Neither men had eaten and it was hot and Cece gave them her food. But then the drama  unfolded…I’m sick. I’m tired, I might have taken the  wrong meds.   Maybe we should call a taxi so we can get home.  Cece is CPR certified, but she has never had to use it.   Another older gentleman friend tells her where his nitro is located when they cycle together so… all these comments about health were kinda scary to Cece.  Both men sat back and watched Cece sweat  as they chuckled at how they had pulled the wool over her eyes!    “I just think we need more food,”  says Tom…..off we cycled to the Flying Star for breakfast!

One man flirted with the waitress and it got him a huge slice of bread pudding with extra sauce…lucky guy….. and later as we got back to the parking lot , he commented….”See that man in that car ?  He  is probably the private eye that my wife hired to watch me!”…this from a happily  married man who just wanted a special piece of cake!

The gift of this ride was laughter.  It was riding unexpectedly with friends who had the same goal…to have fun. be social and laugh a lot!  What could be better on a hot July day?

So, when you find yourself getting too serious, perhaps the universe will gift you with friends who can re-direct a situation with pure laughter and hilarity!  That was the gift of the day!

“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 and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.

A cocoon is a safe place for transformation.  If you think about it, the caterpillar hangs upside down, inside the cocoon.  It hangs  from a branch and is free to dangle in the wind no matter how turbulent it might be. It hangs  by a thread  for a long time.  What we do not see is the nurturing and growth that is going on, even in the complete darkness  inside.

When the cocoon finally opens up and the butterfly begins to emerge, one drop of blood is let go.  This is symbolic of the pain… death to being … as once known …and changes that had to occur.

This is the work of transformation…an  essential part of the cycle of life that enables generation after  generation of beautiful butterflies  to come into shape and form.  Cocoons  are  a symbol of life, death and rebirth.  For  Cece and Yun  the cocoon  is a symbol of family and friends that offer a safe heaven for us to be who we are.

If we are lucky, we have a family and friends who allow, support and nurture  us in this  “cocooning” process.  They   love us  and wrap us up in the millions of silky threads that create its  stable frame work. When we are hanging upside down, and are hanging on by a thread, we feel the support of those millions of silky threads of love helping us to stabilize.

And so, as Yun is visiting her parents  and family in California, she is thinking about this  cocoon of love!

When some of  Yun’s  well intended friends heard that she would be with her parents for 2 weeks, they said, “Wow, that’s nice. Enjoy!  But I know how it goes sometimes visiting family, so  take care of yourself.”   Yun understood  what they meant… family ties and family disputes go hand in hand sometimes.

However, for Yun, there is no family like the family her mom and dad and her culture have created.   Even with all the flaws in it….the dramas and the comedies… the family is a safe haven.   The moment she enters the door where her mom and dad are, she is a child again.   She is taken care of  and worry free,  and it is all OK.   When Cece checked in to see if Yun had arrived OK,  Yun’s response was,  “It is so wonderful to see my parents smiling and to see the kids screaming for joy!”  Cece  said,  “It sounds like a cocoon of love!”  It is always a wonderful reunion and a wonderful return to the comfort and protection of “home.”

This  cocoon started being woven many years ago  when her mom and dad endured hunger during the trying years of China…. so the kids could eat…and then when the young sisters lent  hands to each other to help their mom and dad in the hard times…and then when they saw their mom and dad and then the families around them argue and then  unite over and over. It was the beginnings of the weaving of the  cocoon of love….into a  safe haven.  Thread after thread was woven in.

Today, the weaving continues.   Her mom and dad still take care of everyone in their own way after 50 years.   Everyone can still argue, even in loud voices if they want because they know they  are loved.  They still pass food and tea around and even come all the way to your computer desk!    The kids are still allowed to make a mess or a loud noise, to speak their ‘irrational’ reasons and be heard seriously. Best  of all, everyone is still allowed to develop and transform and  become who they are meant to be…from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly!  They are allowed to be in the erratic period of underground growth and darkness… they can be sometimes moody; sometimes happy; sometimes lazy and sometimes busy; sometimes nice and sometimes mean.

The cocoon of love is a safe place created and held by mom and dad, their parents, and their parents’ parents.   Yun hopes that this safe  haven is a memory imprinted in her children’s  hearts and souls  and that in the future,  they can pass on this cocoon of love to their own children

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Cece and Yun both like flowers but there are some who like them  more!

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.

As you may remember, Cece has trouble  opening certain packaging.  Remember her 4 hour attempt to open the packaging on her new GPS? Here is a summary of the first 2 hours:

“  ……I contemplated calling the bomb squad to blow it open…but I kept telling myself to be a big girl and struggle through it…to take some cleansing breaths….and that this packaging would not get the best of me! I contemplated using my teeth, but my mother told me never to use my teeth as a tool! I tried knives,…both serrated and regular, a screw driver, scissors, a butter knife to try to pry it open and finally after several attempts with a serrated mega shear….I was able to almost sheer it open,…and glory be, I did not cut myself in the process!”

And so, it was with great trepidation, that Cece contemplated opening up her fresh coconut. Did you know that coconut water is a wonderful source of electrolytes? It is the purest liquid second only to water.  It is chock full of calcium, potassium and magnesium and can be used in an emergency to replace IV fluid for hydration.  It can be used to break up kidney stones, can replace blood plasma,  is antibacterial and can kill HIV, herpes, the flu and other forms of bacteria.  It also controls vomiting.  WHEW!  What  a super food!

Believe it or not, there are directions on Cece’s coconut!  It tells her in several different languages to “insert a straw at the indicated place.”  She keeps looking for the X.  She is not sure where that indicated place is!  She imagines it is those dark “eyes” the coconut has!  Then step two tells her how to open it.  It says to “put the coconut in a plastic  bag and throw it on the floor.”    Cece is laughing out loud hysterically…. thinking of her downstairs neighbor  who has trouble enough with her early rising and her flamenco dancing…never mind coconut throwing.

OH Well, it looks like she will have to wield a screwdriver and a hammer.  A very scary prospect on a round object!    OH.  She forgot step 3:  Get the pieces out of the bag and take the pulp off the bounced coconut with the proper tool.”    She will try.

PS.  Yes!  She did try organic coconut water that comes pre-packaged, but it tasted horrible.  Cece will attempt the fresh!

Post Script: Cece was able to open up the coconut without incident!  There was a lot of water in the coc0nut…about 16 ounces….AND it was absolutely delicious!  There was NO comparison between the organic coconut water in a container  and the fresh.  The fresh was sweet and coconutty…..very refreshing! The organic in the container was undrinkable.

This is a good “back to basics”  lesson.  Whole foods are always better…they may  take a little more time, but whole foods are usually better for you and more tasty than processed.

Cece waited until about 9am to put the coconut into a bag.  Then she went  onto her landing outdoors with her hammer to finish up the job!

Post Post Script: Well on Wednesday, Step 3 above got the best of Cece!  What IS the proper tool?  She  just finished applying first aid and a butterfly bandage to her thumb which she sliced across the joint with a serrated knife…you guessed it…cutting the fleshy pulp of the coconut off the hard  nut part.  Coconut with blood on it is not a pretty sight…the white and red….NOT!  She thinks that she will revert to using her teeth as a tool !  Much safer!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Yun ventured out and took a risk this time: she took her sons camping alone!  Normally, she’d invite a few friends along just to feel safe and have additional helping hands.  But,  it has been a year since they camped, and Yun is a bit braver than normal, and the kids are one year older!

So, they decided to camp alone in the  Jemez, which is only 1.5 hours away.  Upon arriving, the kids were eager to work!   They unloaded the tent and started working on setting it up  as Yun watched on!   The poles were  flying ups and downs, the tent was unruly and disobedient!   Mommy finally stepped in to get the tent and poles into  orderly positions.. Once the tent was finally up, the boys wanted to put the flyer on: “It is going to rain!”  one child announced seriously and he was determined to convince mommy that the flyer is absolutely necessary.  So, Yun watched again as the canopy began to fly all over the place.   It took them 30 minutes to set up the tent- the longest ever in Yun’s memory, but the most fun to say the least!

Gavin decided to make the bed.  He disappeared inside the tent for a long time, finally, there was a shout: “Mommy, come look!”.  Peaking though the ‘window’, there were three ‘beds’, a hanging lamp, three pieces of “personal suitcases” lined up on one side of the “bedroom”…  All Yun could express was a big smile from ear to ear.

When it was  time for the  camp fire, the air of excitement quickened as the pace of gathering wood picked up!   For this task, Yun knows she must be in charge.  So she did.  But the boys got to use  matches to light up pieces of paper and insert them into the places Yun indicated…  Soon enough (even though it took longer), they have their camp fire going.  Patrick started to make a  marshmallow roasting stick by clearing  a couple of the small Aspen branches.  He got to use his Swiss army knife for some real (and supervised) first time use.

When the night finally came to the family’s camp site, the moon was already half way through the sky.  As they turned off the lamp and got ready to sleep, Yun heard a very satisfied voice from Patrick saying, ” I have had the most fun because I have a lot more responsibility.”  Gavin echoed immediately,  “me too.”

Yun was taken aback by what she heard.  She never knew that her kids actually take their responsibilities so very seriously and willingly.  “Fun” has different definitions for an adult and for a child,.  The adult’s mundane or dreadful chore can be a child ultimate fun… Go figure.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos