A "Wild" night in Wenatchee

I was lucky may times over on Thursday April 13th.  Ron came with me to the Columbia River Reads evening with Cheryl Stayed at the PAC!  We got the last available parking space in the PAC lot!  I found a penny!  And best: as we made our way to the overflow section - as I was not able to get auditorium tickets - NCRL staff member Kim N spotted me and gifted us with two auditorium tickets of seats in the second row center, right in front of the podium!!!  Wow, it was great!

Cheryl was warm and friendly and very at ease during her off-the-cuff discussion.  She said she decided to do the PCT hike because she remembered her mother saying "I've never been in the driver's seat of my life" and she wanted to fulfill every ambition she had to honor her mother.  She was close to quitting the first week, swinging between "I can't bear it" and "I have to bear it".  She did not want to give up on herself.  She came to realize that the huge heavy pack was a symbol of the burden of life without her mother.  She learned self reliance, self endurance and self acceptance.  She chose not to wreck her own life; rather to trust in herself that she could go on and be okay.  She said none of the bad stuff in her past is gone.  "I just learned to carry it better,  I learned acceptance; how to carry on even when I thought I couldn't."

She left us with this insight: "Don't expect it (things/life) to always be good.  When things are bad, push through it.  Expect discomfort; it will only last a while.  Every life is an evolving journey and that journey is never ending."

May meeting

Debbie G was scheduled to be our hostess for May, but her schedule is so busy she asked Judy to switch months with her.  So, we will all enjoy gathering at Judy's home on Wednesday May 3rd!

Hawaiian Holiday

Thank you Debbie D. for hostessing our April book club meeting in a festive Hawaiian theme.  Luau anybody?  Our book was set in Hawaii, so Debbie provided a delicious Hawaiian Chicken and Rice entree and everyone brought other tropical dishes to share.  It was a lovely evening despite the rain.

"The Three-Year Swim Club" proved to be a subject none of us knew about.  The time-frame of the story was 1930's & 1940's and focused on the children of Maui sugar plantation workers and their teacher who, although he did not swim, taught them how to swim using the irrigation ditches on the plantation as they had no pool facilities.  The coach, Soichi  Sakamoto, was a very progressive thinker and did technical analysis of each student's body type, realizing that this greatly affected their individual swimming techniques.  "Every body needed its own particular stroke, a signature movement."  The goal was the the 1936 Olympics, but these games were cancelled due to WWII, as were the 1940 Olympics.  Several of the swimmers stuck with the coach and their training and went on to win many national and international swim competitions, as well as future Olympics.

This non-fiction story was a bit detailed and dry at times, but the over-all story of the coach and the kids was very interesting.  Their focus and dedication changed all their lives.  "The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."  "Commitment was an exercise of will, and that will was the constant application of one's choice."  "Every moment of your life, come storms, come twists of fate, come waves that threatened to overcome you, if you wanted to become a champion, then every minute of your life you had to be one."

I'll close with one other noted quotation:  "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." -Gautama Siddhartha