An accounting retiree, relocated across country to be near my son, and his family after his bride could not endure our California earthquakes, I was set to undertake a life of total self-indulgence; painting (my first love), writing and making new friends and perhaps playing some bridge and so on. What was the old joke.. . . .”if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. “
So I was detoured a little as I quite naturally stepped in volunteering to enter child-rearing for the second time after my daughter-in-law’s health broke down leaving her unable to “mother’. A decade here, a few years there, you know how it goes. My grand-daughters are teenagers now, having blossomed into beautiful, healthy, normal and quite independent young ladies with minds of their own and very busy lives. It blows me away to realize how quickly it all goes by. My experience with this is not so unusual these days – - it has been done by millions of others all over our land. Their mom’s loss, my gain. Happy ending for all, ex-daughter-in-law is back now so old bonds are rebuilding. All’s well that ends well.
As a person who dearly loved to smoke and did so for much of my adult life, I can sympathize with those who struggle to quit this habit which co-rules one’s existence. I took classes touted over the decades and used plain old will power. Though it looked like I was successful, all effort ended in my going back to smoking every time. I could quit, but I could not be done with it. I missed the smoking. That’s quite a bit of failure to work through, but still I kept trying for I felt I should quit. My husband had quit, my son hated it with a passion and my friends were giving it up, one by one.
One must be committed to this, not just going through the motions, therefore, I do not believe that one can successfully quit who doesn’t REALLY want to in the first place. (This was one of my problems contrary to what I told myself). Scolding, logic, guilt – none of these things work. Smokers are not stupid people or ignorant of the facts. They choose to smoke (just as I had). So I am not convinced we can or should try to talk adults into smoke cessation. This is a personal choice as it should be. With children, of course, we have an obligation, a need to educate them and spend whatever resources the schools can muster to prevent this in the first place in the same manner we teach math, science and other basics for a productive life well lived.
“QUIT SMOKING – FREE” is a recounting of the plan which finally did it for me and had an entirely different approach, reaching me in a way I guess I needed and is what I am attempting to relate. One might say I was an authority on quitting smoking, not a very good one to be sure, but certainly determined and long-suffering. With my last effort, the fates were kind.
With this smoke cessation program fully presented, I send it out to the universe for the highest and best good and sincerely hope that others can profit from it. Meanwhile, please know that while I will be happy for discussion and comments, I shall now segue in other directions, allowing my pen to go where the ink flows. This could lead almost anywhere, but I must confess that health matters are one of my greatest interests as is quite natural for many virgo people (which I happen to be).
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