Memorial Day Tribute

For All Sailors, past, present, and future

I LIKE THE NAVY
(Author Unknown)
I like the Navy. I like standing on the bridge wing at sunrise, with salt spray in my face, and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drive her through the sea.

I like the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the bosn's pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the 1MC and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.

I like the vessels of the Navy - nervous darting destroyers, plodding fleet
auxiliaries, sleek submarines, and steady solid carriers. I like the proud sonorous names of Navy capital ships: Midway, Lexington, Saratoga, Coral Sea-memorials of great battles won. I like the lean angular names of Navy "tin-cans": Barney, Dahlgren, Mullinix, McCloy. Mementos of heroes who went before us.

I like the tempo of a Navy band blaring through the topside speakers, as we pull away from the oiler after refueling at sea. I like liberty call and the spicy scent of a foreign port. I even like all-hands working parties as my ship fills herself with the multitude of supplies, both mundane and exotic, which she needs to cut her ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe, where there is water to float her.

I like sailors, men [and now women] from all parts of the land, farms of the mid-west, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the praries, from all walks of life. I trust and depend on them as they trust and depend on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for courage. In a word, they are "Shipmates."

I like the surge of adventure in my heart when the word is passed, "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port." I like the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pierside.

The work is hard and dangerous, the going rough at times, the parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy laughter, the "all for one and one for all" philosophy of the sea is ever present. I like the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flit across the wave tops, and sunset gives way to night. I like the feel of the Navy in darkness, the mast head lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters as they cut through the dusk and join with the mirror of stars overhead. I like the drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that tell me that my ship is alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch will keep me safe. I like quiet mid-watches with the aroma of strong coffee - the lifeblood of the Navy - permeating everywhere.

And I like hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed, keeps all hands on a razor edge of alertness. I like the sudden electricity of, "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations" followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and decks, and the resounding "thump" of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself in a few brief seconds, from a peaceful work place to a weapon of war - ready for anything. And I like the sight of space age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize. I like the traditions of the Navy, and the men and women who made them. I like the proud names of Navy heroes, Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, Farragut, John Paul Jones.

A sailor can find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms, pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade. An adolescent can find adulthood. In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness and respect, the ocean in all it's moods, the impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm-tossed green water surging over the bow. And then there will come again, a faint whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom, and chief's quarters and the messdecks. Gone ashore for good, they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the seas belonged to them and a new port-of-call was ever over the horizon. Remembering this, they will stand taller and say:
"I WAS A SAILOR. I WAS PART OF THE NAVY AND THE NAVY WILL ALWAYS BE A PART OF ME!!"
(Author unknown)

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day and remember to say a prayer for the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have made this country an amazing place to live. Tina

KS&L 322 The Image Element in Weight Loss - a Personal Story Part 3

Finally, to make my transformation permanent, I had to change my life long attitude toward exercise. I still don’t sweat, but I have figured out how to work out and not pass out. Along the way, I met some really great women, who were/are just like me, seeking to transform themselves and take better care of their bodies.

I had to change my attitude toward portion size and how to eat. I can eat 100 calories every three hours and lose weight any time I want to because I have retrained my body to do so. I always ate in a healthy way, now I do it with greater awareness.

Life is going to go on with my family and friends. I still go to lunch. There are still lots of visitors, birthday parties and holiday celebrations and there is always a lot of great food, but now, I am far more conscious of the calories I am eating and their affect on me. I am now always mindful of my food choices.

Keeping weight off when I travel is admittedly a challenge, however, in my travels, I did not gain weight. The same wise choices made at home, can be made on the road, it is just harder.

I have changed myself. I have watched people change how they see me. I realized that I could never keep weight off unless I changed my image of myself on every level. I love wearing clothes that fit again. I love this elegantly proportioned body and how beautifully she has responded to the love and focused care I am giving her. I love how my husband fully supports the new wardrobe and ‘wearing me on his arm again.’

I still have about 15 pounds to lose, as I head toward a size 4-6 petite. I am still working on it, every day, and along the way, I am having a great time. I see the food traps and I see the food path. Ironically, you have to eat well, to lose weight. I have also noticed that my energy level is significantly higher.

I am most grateful to my daughter, Jeanne Marie for having the courage to challenge me to be better than I was and for helping me to change. I have to say, I think I was a pill sometimes but she did not give up and now when we go clothes shopping, we discuss outfits that we can share.

I have even embraced the physical and spiritual practice of yoga, seeking this crucial [for me] next step on my spiritual path. Yoga, practiced correctly, can help you ‘de-age’ faster than anything I can think of because it brings your body into balance on every conceivable level. Even my husband has discovered how much he appreciates how yoga has helped him make so many aches and pains, purely old memories.

None of us are perfect. Each of us is seeking to find those areas where we can reach positive spiritual growth through even the most mundane processes, and that includes losing weight. Perhaps sharing my experience will be helpful to someone else.

Achieving the perfect weight isn’t as much about food as it is about changing yourself on multiple physical, emotional and mental levels. Diets will never work long term. What will work for the long view, is a personal commitment to seeing yourself as a thin person, beautifully dressed with an energetically strong body and a new perspective on your life as you are now going to be living it.

KS&L 321 The Image Element in Weight Loss - a Personal Story Part 2

Jeanne Marie and I began to outline a plan. We analyzed what I eat, which wasn’t really bad. The changes to my eating plan were actually minimal; we just cut portion size down. I do not use diet anything, so I did not have to get aspartame out of my system. The real issue, was exercise.

I have come to understand that you cannot lose weight if you do not exercise. I think I knew that on some level, but exercise took me back to middle school and high school gym class where being the shortest person in the class was always a challenge. The fact is, I hated gym with a passion and that feeling had been with me all my life. So, let us fast forward to now.

My daughter had me join a local YMCA and joined me in enrolling in a step aerobics class. The first day, we noted that the room was air-conditioned and that I could place my ‘step’ in front of a fan. I made it through the first class. I noticed that there were other chunky women in that class. I had to push myself for the first six months to go to the class religiously, and that brings up a very important issue: time.

I discovered that to lose weight, you have to consciously decide to spend time on yourself. That sounds like a no-brainer to most people perhaps, but it was huge to me. By the time, I changed clothes and drove 15 minutes one way to class, spent an hour there, drove back, changed clothes, I had lost about an hour and a half of productive time. Do that four times a week and that is not quite a day of productive time. My personal challenge was to realize that the exercise time was productive time, because it was productive time I was spending on myself.

Jeanne Marie would also run me all around the block and up and down the hills of Mt. Helix. And you know, the weight began to come off at the rate of about 5-6 pounds a month. What became a challenge, however was that as my first book became published, I was traveling all the time. In one year I made seven trips, including three round-trips to the East Coast, and one trip to Europe. Traveling is a profound challenge to anyone seeking to lose weight, but I did not give up.

As the weight came off, my daughter insisted that we go clothes shopping. In this year, I have gone from a size 1X or really extra large, to fitting into size 8 petite jeans. Starting in March of 2009, my daughter and I went clothes shopping at Nordstrom’s. We bought size 12 and 14 clothes and they were really tight, but she insisted I wear them. She also insisted that I stop wearing pants with elastic tops. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but when you wear pants with zipped and buttoned fasteners, you cannot fudge. They either fit, or they don’t.

I had to stop wearing loose fitting clothes that hid my body. So the message was that I had to stop hiding my body. I began wearing clothes that really fit. Emotionally, I had to change my image of myself and that change took a year to accomplish.

Along the way, I had several makeovers, but finally, I realized that I had to have a more youthful haircut and I had to really learn how to put on makeup that looked youthful and professional. I also had to spend the money on myself.

So, to take weight off, I had to look inside myself and agree to change. I had to start to see myself as a thin person. I had to decide that the old me was chunky and that the new me was very chic and that under the chunk, was a really terrific body. I bought two size 8 bathing suits and wore them. When you have avoided using a swimming pool because of how you look in a bathing suit, it is its own miracle to put on a size 8 bathing suit and have your husband say 'WOW.'

But that wasn’t all, I had to change other things too, to be discussed in the final chapter, part 3.