Sunday, May 15, 2011
Pray For A Freind
I have a dear friend that is extreamly sick. I ask that we all pray that God gives her an easy path to follow to him. We would like to keep her with us but know God is wanting her too. God, we ask that you carry her qently to her new home.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Happy Mothers Day
Sitting here thinking of tomorrow brings that old nostalgia and sorrow back from the depths of my heart. Tomorrow is mother’s day. I know a lot of you have lost your mothers and know the emptiness of which I am speaking. The vast majority of people today will out live their parents, usually loosing them in their seventies or even eighties. I was blessed to have my dad until just a few months shy of his eighty-first birthday.
Some are not as lucky. I lost my mother when I was eleven years old. She was thirty-three. Just at the time in life that a young girl needs her mother most. Mother’s days have brought that pain back to me every year for a very long time now. I have had that grief with me, not just as an adult that, over time finds a place to store it in a very special corner of the heart but also first as a child, not knowing what to do with it.
I am now a mother, grandmother and great grandmother and enjoy my children all through the year. Still on this day, there is a little touch of blueness and a few tears for what I never knew.
My mother is always with me and I know your’s is with you, so hug your children and grandchildren. Cherish them on this day and know your mother thinks you did a good job.
Some are not as lucky. I lost my mother when I was eleven years old. She was thirty-three. Just at the time in life that a young girl needs her mother most. Mother’s days have brought that pain back to me every year for a very long time now. I have had that grief with me, not just as an adult that, over time finds a place to store it in a very special corner of the heart but also first as a child, not knowing what to do with it.
I am now a mother, grandmother and great grandmother and enjoy my children all through the year. Still on this day, there is a little touch of blueness and a few tears for what I never knew.
My mother is always with me and I know your’s is with you, so hug your children and grandchildren. Cherish them on this day and know your mother thinks you did a good job.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Rainy Weather
Hi everyone, sorry it has been a week and I was quiet. I had a lot going on and wasn't on the computer. I really need to keep in touch and will try and post something everyday.
The weather is unbelievably cold and very wet for this time of year. Truthfully, I like it this way but I know most folks don't. I do enjoy the sun but with that comes the heat of summer and I could do with out that.
Speaking of summer, I hope everyone has found a Red Cross or YMCA / YWCA to sign up for CPR classes before beach weather gets here. We all need to know the basics. Besides it's an activity to plan to get you out of the house.
This week I plan on posting some of the danger signs and things to watch for when you take your kids and family to the pool or beach.
The weather is unbelievably cold and very wet for this time of year. Truthfully, I like it this way but I know most folks don't. I do enjoy the sun but with that comes the heat of summer and I could do with out that.
Speaking of summer, I hope everyone has found a Red Cross or YMCA / YWCA to sign up for CPR classes before beach weather gets here. We all need to know the basics. Besides it's an activity to plan to get you out of the house.
This week I plan on posting some of the danger signs and things to watch for when you take your kids and family to the pool or beach.
Friday, April 22, 2011
What's My Story
Ok, why I am so interested in the awareness and prevention of drowning?
I was a spoiled 11 year old when my mother and my best friend drowned. There was no warning, there rarely is, and no one to help, until it was too late. My friend, her sisters and I were playing in shallow water when an undertow dragged us into deeper water. The beach where we swam was, and still is, a state park. There were no life guards, no signs posted, yet, “swim at your own risk” was implied. How? There were changing booths, special parking areas, concession stands, park rangers cleaning the beaches and yet no life guards.
I was a spoiled 11 year old when my mother and my best friend drowned. There was no warning, there rarely is, and no one to help, until it was too late. My friend, her sisters and I were playing in shallow water when an undertow dragged us into deeper water. The beach where we swam was, and still is, a state park. There were no life guards, no signs posted, yet, “swim at your own risk” was implied. How? There were changing booths, special parking areas, concession stands, park rangers cleaning the beaches and yet no life guards.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Safe From The Storms
I just wanted to shout out and say that I hope everyone is ok and survived the terrible storms that moved through Oklahoma the other night. They continue to move east and I pray everyone in their path heeds the warning and takes shelter. We needed the rain but we didn't need the tornadoes. Mother nature seems to give us a little too much some times.
Everyone have a blessed and safe weekend.
Everyone have a blessed and safe weekend.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Introducing " Mario Vittone"
Mario Vittone has a wonderful web site explaining what I am talking about here, in my blog.
"It dosn't look like drowning"
Mario Vattone is an author and lecturer on the subject of drowning. Please check out his web site, http://www.mariovittone.com/
Mario Vittone has nineteen years of combined military service in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. His writing on maritime safety has appeared in Yachting, Salt Water Sportsman, On Scene, Lifelines, and at the Naval Safety Center’s Online Resource Site. He has also written for Reader’s Digest magazine. He has lectured extensively on topics ranging from leadership and innovation to sea survival and immersion hypothermia.
Mario worked as an Aviation Survival Technician and helicopter rescue swimmer for the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans, LA and Elizabeth City, NC, flying on hundreds of search and rescue cases. He is currently working as a Marine Safety Specialist with Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads in Norfolk, VA
"It dosn't look like drowning"
Mario Vattone is an author and lecturer on the subject of drowning. Please check out his web site, http://www.mariovittone.com/
Mario Vittone has nineteen years of combined military service in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. His writing on maritime safety has appeared in Yachting, Salt Water Sportsman, On Scene, Lifelines, and at the Naval Safety Center’s Online Resource Site. He has also written for Reader’s Digest magazine. He has lectured extensively on topics ranging from leadership and innovation to sea survival and immersion hypothermia.
Mario worked as an Aviation Survival Technician and helicopter rescue swimmer for the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans, LA and Elizabeth City, NC, flying on hundreds of search and rescue cases. He is currently working as a Marine Safety Specialist with Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads in Norfolk, VA
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Happy Swimming This Summer
As the short cold winter days slide into a warm gentle spring we anticipate the longer, sunnier days of summer. I think everyone looks forward to spending several of those days at the beach or poolside or somewhere that we can cool down and enjoy the water. I pray that before that time gets here we all take a few minuets to refresh and reacquaint ourselves with the safe ways to have fun in the water, of knowing the signs when someone needs help, and knowing what to do.
I wanted to start a blog that would serve a double purpose. First, I would like to remind everyone how important it is to know how to be safe while swimming. Second, knowing what the signs of a drowning person are and how to help, can actually save a persons life. Also, anyone out there that would like to share what has happened or almost happened to them, please add your input. I want to prevent death from drowning this year, or at least cut the figures way, way down. Some times there are circumstances that just can not be fore seen but too many times it is the people that are just out having fun that forget what is safe and what is not. What we have already been through might help to open some eyes and save some lives.
I lost my mother, my best friend and almost lost my own life in a drowning accident and have wanted to express my feelings about what happened, how it changed my life forever and how it might have been prevented. Now we have the technology and the resources to be more aware, make better choices and be more informed about where we go and how prepared we are even if it is “just having fun.”
Going to the lake at a state park or a public pool, the old swimming hole down at the creek or a stock pond, to cool off and play. The precautions that one must take are the same. There are not always lifeguards, in fact there are very few these days. Many states have done away with the lifeguards at state parks, looking for a way to cut state budgets. They add facilities with showers, for a fee, and elaborate concession stands hoping to draw more of a crowd and thus more revenue. They don’t seem to care about the safety. The signs read “SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK” or “NO SWIMMING”. Yet we want to get in that beautiful, cool, welcoming water. A child can drown in 20 seconds. Drowning is often silent as the mouth fills with water and the victim is unable to call for help. One does not jump up and down, wave their arms and yell. They are trying to get their head high enough to get a breath. As the arms come up to push their weight down to elevate their head and grab some air, there is no time to yell. Even a parent, untrained in the signs, will not know what is happening until it is too late. Parents that may be trained can become so distraught over seeing their own child in danger that they panic and cannot think clearly. These facts and the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as reported in a special report from the Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General, “Eliminating lifeguards on lake beaches at Pennsylvania state parks“, May 2008. That report found that the second leading cause of death due to injury among children between the ages of 1 and 14 is drowning. More over, those children between the ages of 5 and 14 typically drown not only in swimming pools but also in open water, such as lakes and rivers.
More trained eyes on our nation’s beaches, not less, would be worth it if they saved just one life. What lifeguards we do have are usually underpaid collage students that have to pay hundreds of dollars for their own training. An article in the New York Times, in September of 2010, reveals lifeguards caught using cell phones and texting, taking their attention off their duties. Your safety and your children’s safety are up to you. Learn CPR; know the water you are diving into, how deep it is and if there is a current. Know, and be honest with yourself, about your skills as a swimmer. So, what if some of the others in the group tease you if you say you can’t swim, it’s your life, not theirs. Be sure that the distance you swim out, you can swim back. So many times people misjudge, muscles get tired, cramp up, we are “out of wind”, our lungs are burning, gasping for air, but now we have to swim back. Maybe we are on the way back and try to signal for someone to help us. They are all partying, already back on dry land; some may even wave to you thinking you are just waving to them. What happens now?
My mother knew how to swim; she drowned saving the lives of her child and her friends children. The distance was too great and the waters too rough. She went back one too many times. I thank her everyday for what she did but I also wonder what my life would have been like to have a mother.
I wanted to start a blog that would serve a double purpose. First, I would like to remind everyone how important it is to know how to be safe while swimming. Second, knowing what the signs of a drowning person are and how to help, can actually save a persons life. Also, anyone out there that would like to share what has happened or almost happened to them, please add your input. I want to prevent death from drowning this year, or at least cut the figures way, way down. Some times there are circumstances that just can not be fore seen but too many times it is the people that are just out having fun that forget what is safe and what is not. What we have already been through might help to open some eyes and save some lives.
I lost my mother, my best friend and almost lost my own life in a drowning accident and have wanted to express my feelings about what happened, how it changed my life forever and how it might have been prevented. Now we have the technology and the resources to be more aware, make better choices and be more informed about where we go and how prepared we are even if it is “just having fun.”
Going to the lake at a state park or a public pool, the old swimming hole down at the creek or a stock pond, to cool off and play. The precautions that one must take are the same. There are not always lifeguards, in fact there are very few these days. Many states have done away with the lifeguards at state parks, looking for a way to cut state budgets. They add facilities with showers, for a fee, and elaborate concession stands hoping to draw more of a crowd and thus more revenue. They don’t seem to care about the safety. The signs read “SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK” or “NO SWIMMING”. Yet we want to get in that beautiful, cool, welcoming water. A child can drown in 20 seconds. Drowning is often silent as the mouth fills with water and the victim is unable to call for help. One does not jump up and down, wave their arms and yell. They are trying to get their head high enough to get a breath. As the arms come up to push their weight down to elevate their head and grab some air, there is no time to yell. Even a parent, untrained in the signs, will not know what is happening until it is too late. Parents that may be trained can become so distraught over seeing their own child in danger that they panic and cannot think clearly. These facts and the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as reported in a special report from the Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General, “Eliminating lifeguards on lake beaches at Pennsylvania state parks“, May 2008. That report found that the second leading cause of death due to injury among children between the ages of 1 and 14 is drowning. More over, those children between the ages of 5 and 14 typically drown not only in swimming pools but also in open water, such as lakes and rivers.
More trained eyes on our nation’s beaches, not less, would be worth it if they saved just one life. What lifeguards we do have are usually underpaid collage students that have to pay hundreds of dollars for their own training. An article in the New York Times, in September of 2010, reveals lifeguards caught using cell phones and texting, taking their attention off their duties. Your safety and your children’s safety are up to you. Learn CPR; know the water you are diving into, how deep it is and if there is a current. Know, and be honest with yourself, about your skills as a swimmer. So, what if some of the others in the group tease you if you say you can’t swim, it’s your life, not theirs. Be sure that the distance you swim out, you can swim back. So many times people misjudge, muscles get tired, cramp up, we are “out of wind”, our lungs are burning, gasping for air, but now we have to swim back. Maybe we are on the way back and try to signal for someone to help us. They are all partying, already back on dry land; some may even wave to you thinking you are just waving to them. What happens now?
My mother knew how to swim; she drowned saving the lives of her child and her friends children. The distance was too great and the waters too rough. She went back one too many times. I thank her everyday for what she did but I also wonder what my life would have been like to have a mother.
Friday, April 8, 2011
The Beauty and The Danger
If you look closely at the picture in the background of this blog the picture is of a wave, a huge wave rising up from the depths. In The Swim of Things will talk about life after surviving such waves, loosing a mother to them and preventing such tragedies. Below is a picture of surf on Lake Erie, Ohio
Just a Start
I had a time trying to decide what I wanted this blog to look like. Most people would see the rain as sad or threatening. I see it as being washed clean, getting ready for the next step of my life. I love to stand at a window and watch it when it rains, specially a spring rain, leaves everything fresh.
I didn't always feel this way, it took a long time to realize that it was up to me to be happy, to accept what I had and be thankful for being alive. It was up to me to find what I wanted in this life and not blame God and everyone else for what I didn't have.
I don't want this site to be "preachy" or "I know it all". I wanted to do some writing for several years now, and I am hoping this will be my way of sharing.
I didn't always feel this way, it took a long time to realize that it was up to me to be happy, to accept what I had and be thankful for being alive. It was up to me to find what I wanted in this life and not blame God and everyone else for what I didn't have.
I don't want this site to be "preachy" or "I know it all". I wanted to do some writing for several years now, and I am hoping this will be my way of sharing.
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