Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Cel-e-brate! Let us Celebrate!
In this part of Blogland, some real celebrating is going on. You might say it was headquartered in Pennsylvania, at Bev's house; Dipped down to Texas; then stopped a while around Denver, before heading to the western part of Colorado, where the celebration is still going on.
It may also be going on not only in the states, but in other countries. The last time I read the comments posted about this, almost 120 fellow bloggers had left congratulations and encouraging remarks, to my daughter, Barb and her husband, at "A Chelsea Morning".
Our family has never run short for reasons to party. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if it's not done on the exact day, and this one calls for a very big party, even if it's done in cyberspace.
Barb spelled all this out in her recent post called, I believe, "New Hope", where she described buying her first pack of cigarettes, and going to her room to begin a habit that would control her for many years. But that's all changed now. Like remembering our first kiss, or getting our first car, those of us who smoke (or did smoke) can tell you exactly when it began. The reason for it may not be real clear, even to ourselves. Some things we may not need to be very clear about. But I am still surprised sometimes, at the reasons we give.
Barb said perhaps she wanted to feel that she was real cool. She had recently gotten her first wheels, that cute little VW Bug, and drawn her first paycheck. What else did an almost grown up girl need, to help her believe she really had arrived.
Like Barb, my long years of smoking began almost on a whim, except that my reasoning for starting made even less sense than hers did. Acting like a young teenager, although I was older, I just wanted to irritate somebody about it. We all probably do silly things like that, not considering the dangers of it. But we may also come up with other misjudgments. In learning that Barb and Rob are actually quitting smoking, it was said that her sister, Bev did not believe Barb would ever quit, and Barb pointed out that she and Rob each believed the other would never quit. Perhaps we shouldn't decide such important things for someone else, especially those we love the most.
What got my attention about maybe quitting, was that the price of them kept going up. I suppose it doesn't matter what the reasoning is, as long as we do quit, but it is almost scary, thinking of it now, that I, a nurse, knowing all I've learned about nicotine killing, and seeing graphic examples of it in my work, was more concerned about spending about forty dollars a month for cigs, than I was about living. When I began quitting, later I was so glad I did not know that people usually gain weight with it. I would have been more concerned about my waistline, than about being healthy. It amazes me how we can blind ourselves like that.
I do remember getting very defensive about my good old American RIGHT TO SMOKE. I acted like verification of it came with my birth certificate. A few really silly things about smoking did happen. I was working in Boulder. Perhaps you know how conscious they are about health, except with what they choose to inhale. I bought lunch there, and understood smoking was not allowed inside, but when I stepped outside to light up, immediately I saw a well placed sign, saying smoking was not allowed there either. I remember being a little miffed about that, for I didn't want to smoke up my fairly new car. It did not occur to me then, that my attitude smelled worse than my cigarettes did, for it was their land.
Once I was heading home, I mean before that day in Boulder, in an older car, and lit up, as soon as I started it. After a mile or so I thought I smelled some smoke, so looked all around, afraid something was wrong with the car. But it was only that a cig had ignited an overflowing ashtray.
I manage to get home, but the smoke wouldn't stop, so I called our volunteer firemen. I didn't really expect him to show up with one of those big long hoses, but I thought he'd do something about that smoke. All he said was, "Do you think you may have a cup or something in the house you could go bring some water out here in".
The most crucial thinking about smoking that we can hold onto, is what I believe the giant cigarette makers want us to believe, and that is their ongoing media crusade to the world that it is very hard to quit, which at least implies that we may not make it. Think about this: Who do you think stands to gain more if they can convince us of this?
That attitude may apply to some. But I am living proof, a former smoker who loved it, who started thinking maybe I might breathe better, and was really scared when a bad case of pneumonia made me wonder if I'd get through it. But what got my attention most was the cost of cigarettes increasing.
When I reached for that last pack, and knew it would take almost twenty dollars for another carton, I did not want to spend more for them. I was not completely convinced that I could quit. I just knew it was past time I at least tried, and I've always loved seeing if I could be a winner.
I marked the date on each side of that last unopened pack, and tucked it in my nurses' bag. Wanted it handy, in case I changed my mind. My goal each day was to not open the pack, and to Bev's and others' relief, I never did. I've been nicotine free ever since, and that's an important point. Most people say they haven't smoked since a certain time, and it did help, seeing those days increase. But I think it's important to say what you have gained, instead of what you've given up. It is wonderful that Barb and Rob are quitting together, so they know how the other must feel, and can encourage each other, even through grumpy times, maybe especially through the difficult ones. I lived alone, and was doing this solo, and had to get support wherever I could. I must have been awful at work, telling anybody who would listen about quitting, even if they'd already heard it.
Barb got a lot of my silliness in this, for we lived in the same town. Some times I would even tell strangers while in lines at stores. Bev got the easier of it, since she lived far away. She didn't smoke, and her husband had just quit, so they could be supportive. Barb and Rob still smoked, so we mostly never talked about it, except my childlike wonder when I got through another smokeless day. I put Bev's notes about it on my fridge, and since I'm very visual, got a big see through jar, and every day I'd throw two one dollar bills in it, (about what a single pack cost back then). Seeing those dollars adding up became my "Atta Boys".
One former smoker kept a toothpick in his mouth. Someone else I knew, who was big about rocks, kept a little rock in his. I think both those things were not such smart things to do, but we do silly things sometimes, and what could be sillier than starting smoking.
My biggest problem was figuring out what to do with my hands. Instead of having one hand empty, where before one held the coffee cup, and the other that first smoke of the day I grabbed that coffee cup with both my hands, like I'd never let go. Wrapped both hands around it, and smiled, as the non smoking days added up, and I began believing maybe I might make it.
Popcorn and green apple suckers kept my mouth busy. To this day, I avoid both of those, but they served their purpose, and when I hear or see more of those Killer Cigarette Giants trying to persuade people it is too hard to quit, I silently smile.
But they are talking to huge numbers of others still strugling with quitting, and that's where you and I come in. Nothing, except perhaps our lack of interest, or caring can keep us from praying for them. Of all the comments I've heard from Barb and Rob's quitting, what stays with me most is Barb repeating that they can FEEL the love and caring, and the prayers so many are offering for them.
Sometimes for the fun of it, I check todays' prices of my old brand. They're a little more than $5 a pack now, and $45.00 to $50 a carton. One year while wrapping presents, I wrapped that old full pack I never opened, and sent it with Christmas gifts to Bev, and she did what any good Christian woman would. Put it in her prayer reminder basket. She wasn't taking any chances that I might start up smoking again.
Barb said something very similiar to my thinking the other day, about her smoking being done. When I picked up that last unopened pack, and wrote the date on it, that was the shining moment I quit, and Barb's must have been when she gathered everything about smoking in her house, and ditched it. I call those exclamation road marks.
I try to remember how much I didn't want anyone lecturing me about smoking. If someone brings it up, I try to not be smug, and say that quitting is so personal, and you will know when you are ready, and leave it at that, for it really is true that it's only a decision.
Today, when asked "smoking or non-smoking", although that doesn't happen much since braver laws are being made. I don't even need to think about it, but the first time I was asked, it felt kind of strange, even though I hadn't smoked for months. I realized it was because I hadn't taught myself that yet. I didn't see myself as a non smoker.
A while back, when I went to the hospital, an outstanding one that's rated as being one of the country's one hundred best of them, I noticed a huge new banner there proclaiming that the hospital is now totally non-smoking. This is the year of 2009. It blows my thinking that it's taken this long to declare that.
Barb and Rob are in for some pleasant surprises, enjoying things they haven't in years. My first of them was one night coming home from work, as I drove past miles of springtime fields, I smelled freshly turned rows of dirt. If it hadn't been so late, and dark at night, I would have pulled over and stayed a while. Memories like that now take the place of when I lit my first cigarette, and my last. That was then, and this is now. A time to celebrate, to celebrate Life.
It may also be going on not only in the states, but in other countries. The last time I read the comments posted about this, almost 120 fellow bloggers had left congratulations and encouraging remarks, to my daughter, Barb and her husband, at "A Chelsea Morning".
Our family has never run short for reasons to party. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if it's not done on the exact day, and this one calls for a very big party, even if it's done in cyberspace.
Barb spelled all this out in her recent post called, I believe, "New Hope", where she described buying her first pack of cigarettes, and going to her room to begin a habit that would control her for many years. But that's all changed now. Like remembering our first kiss, or getting our first car, those of us who smoke (or did smoke) can tell you exactly when it began. The reason for it may not be real clear, even to ourselves. Some things we may not need to be very clear about. But I am still surprised sometimes, at the reasons we give.
Barb said perhaps she wanted to feel that she was real cool. She had recently gotten her first wheels, that cute little VW Bug, and drawn her first paycheck. What else did an almost grown up girl need, to help her believe she really had arrived.
Like Barb, my long years of smoking began almost on a whim, except that my reasoning for starting made even less sense than hers did. Acting like a young teenager, although I was older, I just wanted to irritate somebody about it. We all probably do silly things like that, not considering the dangers of it. But we may also come up with other misjudgments. In learning that Barb and Rob are actually quitting smoking, it was said that her sister, Bev did not believe Barb would ever quit, and Barb pointed out that she and Rob each believed the other would never quit. Perhaps we shouldn't decide such important things for someone else, especially those we love the most.
What got my attention about maybe quitting, was that the price of them kept going up. I suppose it doesn't matter what the reasoning is, as long as we do quit, but it is almost scary, thinking of it now, that I, a nurse, knowing all I've learned about nicotine killing, and seeing graphic examples of it in my work, was more concerned about spending about forty dollars a month for cigs, than I was about living. When I began quitting, later I was so glad I did not know that people usually gain weight with it. I would have been more concerned about my waistline, than about being healthy. It amazes me how we can blind ourselves like that.
I do remember getting very defensive about my good old American RIGHT TO SMOKE. I acted like verification of it came with my birth certificate. A few really silly things about smoking did happen. I was working in Boulder. Perhaps you know how conscious they are about health, except with what they choose to inhale. I bought lunch there, and understood smoking was not allowed inside, but when I stepped outside to light up, immediately I saw a well placed sign, saying smoking was not allowed there either. I remember being a little miffed about that, for I didn't want to smoke up my fairly new car. It did not occur to me then, that my attitude smelled worse than my cigarettes did, for it was their land.
Once I was heading home, I mean before that day in Boulder, in an older car, and lit up, as soon as I started it. After a mile or so I thought I smelled some smoke, so looked all around, afraid something was wrong with the car. But it was only that a cig had ignited an overflowing ashtray.
I manage to get home, but the smoke wouldn't stop, so I called our volunteer firemen. I didn't really expect him to show up with one of those big long hoses, but I thought he'd do something about that smoke. All he said was, "Do you think you may have a cup or something in the house you could go bring some water out here in".
The most crucial thinking about smoking that we can hold onto, is what I believe the giant cigarette makers want us to believe, and that is their ongoing media crusade to the world that it is very hard to quit, which at least implies that we may not make it. Think about this: Who do you think stands to gain more if they can convince us of this?
That attitude may apply to some. But I am living proof, a former smoker who loved it, who started thinking maybe I might breathe better, and was really scared when a bad case of pneumonia made me wonder if I'd get through it. But what got my attention most was the cost of cigarettes increasing.
When I reached for that last pack, and knew it would take almost twenty dollars for another carton, I did not want to spend more for them. I was not completely convinced that I could quit. I just knew it was past time I at least tried, and I've always loved seeing if I could be a winner.
I marked the date on each side of that last unopened pack, and tucked it in my nurses' bag. Wanted it handy, in case I changed my mind. My goal each day was to not open the pack, and to Bev's and others' relief, I never did. I've been nicotine free ever since, and that's an important point. Most people say they haven't smoked since a certain time, and it did help, seeing those days increase. But I think it's important to say what you have gained, instead of what you've given up. It is wonderful that Barb and Rob are quitting together, so they know how the other must feel, and can encourage each other, even through grumpy times, maybe especially through the difficult ones. I lived alone, and was doing this solo, and had to get support wherever I could. I must have been awful at work, telling anybody who would listen about quitting, even if they'd already heard it.
Barb got a lot of my silliness in this, for we lived in the same town. Some times I would even tell strangers while in lines at stores. Bev got the easier of it, since she lived far away. She didn't smoke, and her husband had just quit, so they could be supportive. Barb and Rob still smoked, so we mostly never talked about it, except my childlike wonder when I got through another smokeless day. I put Bev's notes about it on my fridge, and since I'm very visual, got a big see through jar, and every day I'd throw two one dollar bills in it, (about what a single pack cost back then). Seeing those dollars adding up became my "Atta Boys".
One former smoker kept a toothpick in his mouth. Someone else I knew, who was big about rocks, kept a little rock in his. I think both those things were not such smart things to do, but we do silly things sometimes, and what could be sillier than starting smoking.
My biggest problem was figuring out what to do with my hands. Instead of having one hand empty, where before one held the coffee cup, and the other that first smoke of the day I grabbed that coffee cup with both my hands, like I'd never let go. Wrapped both hands around it, and smiled, as the non smoking days added up, and I began believing maybe I might make it.
Popcorn and green apple suckers kept my mouth busy. To this day, I avoid both of those, but they served their purpose, and when I hear or see more of those Killer Cigarette Giants trying to persuade people it is too hard to quit, I silently smile.
But they are talking to huge numbers of others still strugling with quitting, and that's where you and I come in. Nothing, except perhaps our lack of interest, or caring can keep us from praying for them. Of all the comments I've heard from Barb and Rob's quitting, what stays with me most is Barb repeating that they can FEEL the love and caring, and the prayers so many are offering for them.
Sometimes for the fun of it, I check todays' prices of my old brand. They're a little more than $5 a pack now, and $45.00 to $50 a carton. One year while wrapping presents, I wrapped that old full pack I never opened, and sent it with Christmas gifts to Bev, and she did what any good Christian woman would. Put it in her prayer reminder basket. She wasn't taking any chances that I might start up smoking again.
Barb said something very similiar to my thinking the other day, about her smoking being done. When I picked up that last unopened pack, and wrote the date on it, that was the shining moment I quit, and Barb's must have been when she gathered everything about smoking in her house, and ditched it. I call those exclamation road marks.
I try to remember how much I didn't want anyone lecturing me about smoking. If someone brings it up, I try to not be smug, and say that quitting is so personal, and you will know when you are ready, and leave it at that, for it really is true that it's only a decision.
Today, when asked "smoking or non-smoking", although that doesn't happen much since braver laws are being made. I don't even need to think about it, but the first time I was asked, it felt kind of strange, even though I hadn't smoked for months. I realized it was because I hadn't taught myself that yet. I didn't see myself as a non smoker.
A while back, when I went to the hospital, an outstanding one that's rated as being one of the country's one hundred best of them, I noticed a huge new banner there proclaiming that the hospital is now totally non-smoking. This is the year of 2009. It blows my thinking that it's taken this long to declare that.
Barb and Rob are in for some pleasant surprises, enjoying things they haven't in years. My first of them was one night coming home from work, as I drove past miles of springtime fields, I smelled freshly turned rows of dirt. If it hadn't been so late, and dark at night, I would have pulled over and stayed a while. Memories like that now take the place of when I lit my first cigarette, and my last. That was then, and this is now. A time to celebrate, to celebrate Life.
