The Christianville Spirit: No IQ to Judge Me

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

August 29th, 2018-TCS # 604

Hola, My Readers! I am happy to be on My Regular Newsletter Writing Schedule! I missed you guys! So, There is Something that came to My Attention This Past Week that Made Me feel “Special”, and Not the Good “Special”. You See, in Having Special Needs, which One would think is Easier than being Typical, don’t have to worry as much about Life’s Worries, It is an Easy Life! Or, so We think anyway. Okay, Given having Special Needs, gets you some Bypasses and Help as well but with it, comes those Times. This Story is one of those Times. You See, In order to have the Help You need as well as Trying to be as Independent as possible, You have to get Services to help you. Services can be given via The Government or The State in which You live in. In Texas, That means It is given via The State of Texas. Basically, It’s getting The State, Medicaid, and A Coordinator Company to all agree in Giving You Services. It is really complicated! Basically, I have a Case Manager that I see every month and They basically check in to How I am doing. The Extras like Supportive Employment, In-Home Services, and so on, You have to request. Anyway, so Along with The Coordinator Company checking in, The State checks in to see How you are doing in terms of Your IQ, to see See if You need The Services or not. This only happens once every few years, The Last Time being in 2013. Now, It was not The Test itself that bothered me, It was that I was not prepared for It. Now, Truth be told, An IQ Test is not something You need to be prepared for, unlike School Testing, The SAT, or ACT Tests. But, A Psych Person told us to come in, and We thought it was only to Update Yearly Paperwork but, It turned out to be that They were going to Test My IQ, I was Tired and still recovering from Going to Sweden. So, The Person told My Mom leave the room to do The Test. I tried My Best, even with My Perfectionist Ways. Now, They is No Wrong or Right Way to do The Test, Just give it Your Best Shot! But, The Thing is, The Way in which You are treated when comes to IQ Testing as well Other Ways of treating People with Special Needs, tends to swing towards, (In a Child-Like Voice) You be Careful Now because This Person is Speecial! In Other Words, Asking something like “Can You do This?!; Match Shapes?; Numbers? (Frontwards, Backwards, and in Order); 2 Plus 2; Geography Questions (Nailed It!); Science Questions; and, Sometimes, Psych Questions (Luckily not This Time). If It were You, It would make you feel Less Than. Thank God that They changed The Name in which They call Someone with a Low Score, (Pardon The Language here) Mentally Retarded. Today, They use The Term “Intellectually Disabled”. Ya Know, to My Mine, that Sounds like a Machine or a Robot that is messed up a little bit. Not quite that It is Useless but, Quite that It needs a little Tune Up. Computer Nerds, On It! Another Theory is an Office Printer that You need to go to The Printer itself to press “Print” instead of on The Computer. If You do try Pressing Print on The Computer, The Printer say “Intellectually Disabled”. Now, In My Mind, One could read that as a Joke like “A Priest and Rabbi walk into Bar..” and Truth be told, It could be a Joke. But, To Me, It is not. I have known that I have Special Needs and I embrace It! PTLS makes me who I am. But, My Readers, It is NOT Who I am or What I am, if that makes sense. If Someone introduced me as “Hey Guys, This Christian, He has Special Needs, He has PTLS” versus “This is Christian, a Great Friend of Mine”, It makes me feel better. I am proud of Have Special Needs, but to Reminded of It, Is basically Putting a Label on The Office Printer saying It does not work when, It just takes getting up to Clicking “Print” on The Machine and Surprise! It works just Fine! Now, I may not excel in Certain Areas like Math, unless It is showed in a Better Context. I may not be up to The Social Level of People that are My Age. But, I do excel in Other Things, like Geography, History, and Politics. Not to Mention; Road Signs, Human Emotion, and Intuitiveness, to name a Few. I don’t need an IQ Test to tell me about that, because I already know about that. Heck, A Couple Years Ago, I was able to Fix My Computer after It had a Virus. All in all, PTLS makes Me Special, but I like to say that It makes me Unique.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t Judge, Don’t Limit Us Incredible People!

The Christianville Spirit: My 31st Birthday in Sweden

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience 

August 22nd, 2018-TCS # 603

Welcome Back, My Readers! Yes, My Readers, Welcome Back! Thank You for Staying with Me! So, Wow! It has been 3 Weeks since The Last Time I wrote to You. The First Week Reason was not so Fun but, The Other Two Weeks were Much More Fun! The First Week, I had to take off because The Air Conditioning in My House went out and We basically had to wait Several Days before It could be Fixed Completely. They pretty much had to Replace The Whole Unit. Such a First World Problem! But, Such a Necessary Thing Here in Texas with The Heat!

So, on to Much More Exciting Things! I went to Sweden again! Yes, I went to Sweden for The Second Time and This Time, was so Beyond Awesome! It was Another Part “PTLS Business Trip/Speaking Tour” and Part Fun Adventure. This Time was a Little Different as well because We took My Brother with Us. Now, This Trip did not start in The Way I Planned like a Lot of Things in My Life This Year, but I digress. It was a Hard Lesson in Terms of Choosing not only How to get there but, What Airline to Fly. We took IcelandAir. Now, Don’t get me Wrong, It was not a Terrible Experience. There was a Baby crying the Whole Way, Several Seats Back. Thank God for Headphones! But, The Thing is, I wanted to go to Iceland! even if I just landed there, Spent a Few Hours, and Flew on to Stockholm. I did not realize Two Things, One is that is VERY Expensive in Iceland and Two, Codeshare Agreements (or Airline Alliances) really matter. The Blue Lagoon, The Most Famous Place in Iceland is 6,000 Local Currency (Icelandic Kronour), that is 60 US Dollars for Basic Entry. The Codeshare Agreement thing, that basically means that If You have Miles or Loyalty toward American Airlines, Delta, or United Airlines, You can use them on Airlines within Their Codeshare. like with American, You get points on Iberia, British Airways, and Many Others; Delta with KLM, Air France, and Alitalia; and, United with Lufthansa. Now, IcelandAir is an Independent Airline (Non-Codeshared). Now, That is Fine, You do not always need Codeshares until You consider something like Frills. Codeshares, I feel, police The Frills where as Independents can do what They will with Frills or No Frills. In This Case, IcelandAir was a No Frills. Easy with No Frills going 3 Hours, but 8 Hours, Nope! Anyway, Moving On. So, The First Day, My Mom, Michael, and I were in Stockholm, We spent getting The Lay of The Land. We were staying closer to The City Center so that Michael could be within Close Distance of Places to See. He was Scheduled to hang out and See the Sites with 

a Friend of Ours. We took Michael to One of The Local Grocery Stores and afterwords, We could not get out because They had Security and You could not get out unless you had a Receipt. The Next Day, Thursday. It was rather Warm by Sweden Standards! It was 85 Degrees Warm. That is Fine, but Remember that Up North, It rarely gets that Hot and Therefore, Not needing Air Conditioning. I Mean, there were a Few Places like Our Hotels and Restaurants that had It. But, Regardless of The Heat, I wanted to Show My Brother, The Places that I have seen before and My Favourite Parts of Stockholm including Gamla Stan (The Old Town). Having PTLS causes us to have a Problem with Our Body Temperatures and I do not tolerate The Heat very well.

I will Tell You, We pretty much walked a Large Portion of Gamla Stan. We did not make it to The Changing of The Guard but, We did get to see Something Cooler, We got to see The Swedish Royal Band do a Parade through the Old Town. My Brother really enjoyed it there. After Walking around Gamla Stan, We stopped for Ice Cream. Funny Story, I was wearing a The Christianville Spirit Shirt, but The Owner of The Ice Cream Place read it as “Christian Spirit”. Her Arms went up in The Air saying “Hallelujah!” and was telling The Rest of The People working there that We were going to have “Praise Jesus” Time! So, Praise Jesus, We did, She put on Christian Music while We ate Our Ice Cream. After That, I wanted to Take Michael to The City Hall where We went Last Time (Refer to The First Stockholm Newsletter) But, It was Hot with No A/C so We decided not to. We did get to See The Courtyard and a Prettier Scene this time around because It was a Beautiful Day. The Next Day, Friday, Lovely PTLS Family Member, Josefine of Sweden was Nice Enough to drive us to and from Sundsvall, about 4 Hour North of Stockholm because that is Where We were having Our PTLS Mini-Conference. Now, What was Really Cool about this Drive was that We got to see a Whole lot more of Sweden outside of Stockholm. It was Seriously Stunning Nature and We have not even seen The Basics before that! Josefine showed us a Place where She likes to Stop for a Break between Stockholm and Sundsvall. Now, To Most People, They would not get This Excited about a Travel Center along The Road, but This One was Really Cool. It is called Rasta Tönnebro (I had to research The Name!). If You drive from Stockholm to Sundsvall or Vice Versa, I would recommend stopping here. I just call it a Travel Center with a Lake. Yes, Really a Lake. In The Summer, People actually stop there to go Swimming. Heck, In Sweden, If It is Fika Time, People literally stop on The Side of The Road to have Fika! Oh Swedish Life, I tell ya! While We were There, We sat on a Patio-Gazebo on The Lake and Overlooking it and We had Swedish Meatballs. This is as Swedish as It gets, I thought at The Time. Oh No, Christian and My Readers, It gets MORE Swedish later! After that, We continued on Our Way to Sundsvall. Once We arrived in Sundsvall, We got a Little Tour of The City while trying to Find Our Hotel. Little did I know that Our Hotel for The Weekend and My Birthday was on a Mountain! Yes, A Mountain overlooking The City of Sundsvall, Two Islands in The Distance, and Even The Baltic Sea in The Distance. In Sundsvall, I would think that You are either Team North City Mountain (N. Stad Berget) or South City Mountain (S. Stad Berget). The Mountain that We were on was South Stad Berget. Team South City Mountain all the way! Our Hotel on This Mountain was called Hotell Södra Berget. It is Ski Resort in The Winter and a Biking-down-The-Mountain Resort in The Summer. The Coolest Part and Most Addicting Part for Me at This Hotel was The View. I took Every Chance I could to sit facing toward The View. On Saturday, My Birthday (which in all Honesty did not feel like It was My Birthday, probably because of The Disbelief of Having My Birthday in Another Country) was The Day of Our PTLS Mini-Conference/Speaking Tour. It was The Business Side of This Trip. After That, The Swedish Speaker spoke, It was My Turn to Speak. Yes, I spoke at a PTLS Event for The 3rd Time so Far. I spoke Very Well. Funny Thing, I even spoke before My Mom did! Whereas I spoke after The First Fika (Yes, Remember that Swedes have Two Fikas a Day!) My Mom spoke after Lunch and The Second Fika. After The Mini-Conference was Over, Everyone sung Happy Birthday to Me and Josefine even got me a Shirt from Sundsvall! Sweet Josefine! That Evening, The Sun was still up, but It was Evening (For Reference, The Sun rose at 4:30 AM and Set at like 9:30 PM). After That, We got to The Hotel just in Time for The Sunset over The Mountains. What a Great Ending to My Birthday! On Sunday, We drove back to Stockholm, Got to See My Brother again, and Hang Out with Him and Our Friend who toured him around. The Next Day, Monday, We will call The Full Swedish Day! Josefine, Sweet Josefine drove us out to The Stockholm Archipelago and Showed us The Most Swedishly Nature Island called Ljusterö (pronounced Loose-TRah). Josefine’s Parents had us at Their House for a Home-Cooked Swedish Meal. It was Really Good! After that, We went out for Ice Cream, Josefine’s Parents were Such Amazing People! They got me a Shirt from Ljusterö for My Birthday! Then, It was Time to finish the Trip and Head back Home to Texas. All in all, It was Brilliant Trip, We learned about PTLS in Different Countries, Heard how They treat them, and My Mom had Great Meetings to help provide better understanding of PTLS All Week.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Travel around The World to Embrace Differences!

The Christianville Spirit: My Friend, Jennifer-Samantha

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

July 25th, 2018-TCS # 602

Ahoj, My Readers! Although I may sound like a Pirate, that is actually how They say Hello in The Czech Republic. I have to say, before I start My Newsletter that The Czech Republic (Czechia, as it is now referred to in English) is Quite an Interesting Country and Language. Czech is most definitely not an Easy Language but, An Interesting One. I have been Very Fascinated lately with The Czech Republic as well as It’s Language. So Many “Funky” Letters in their Alphabet! The One that is The Most “Funky” and Unique Letter in The Czech Alphabet is The Letter R with a Mark over It. To Me, It looks like The Letter R with a Small V over it. Anyway, It looks like This (Ř) It is said that It is Impossible to Pronounce but, It is Pronounced “Aerch” and That is in The Single Form and The Ř is Pronounced Very Differently from The Single. Anyway, onto This Week’s Newsletter! So, I got to Hang Out with One of The People that is part of The Changes I mentioned last week, Jennifer-Samantha. So, I’m not sure if I explained the Back Story behind that Name. The First Time I wrote about Her, I said, She was the Vice President of The College that My Mom teaches at, but, I am not really sure what Her Job actually was, It was not the Vice President but, I guess We can call it an “Ambassador of The Work Place”, I think that fits her perfectly! Anyway, When I met her the First Time, I commented that although Her Name is Jennifer, If You saw Her, She looks like a Samantha. Sometimes, People with One Name look like Their Name is something else. After That, Came a Nickname of sorts to Name her both Jennifer and Samantha and morphed it into Jennifer-Samantha. As I wrote in a Newsletter that I am going to Rerun, She is Very Busy Woman but, Very Interesting Woman as well. She is One that in a Conversation, She will not only brag about You but, Also let you brag about Yourself in The Most Humble Way. Come On! You might be Extremely Humble but, It is Okay to Brag Every once and while. What I like about Her is that She will ask Questions to Learn about You and Show that She is Interested in Learning about Me. Honestly, That sounds a bit like a One-Sided Conversation but, at the Same Time, She feeds from That and Finds a Good Story that related to that. Those are The Kind of Conversations I like, Where The Person is Genuinely Interested in what You have to say, No Matter how Mundane it may be. Now, then again, That is a Good Way to Make Friends as well as Business Partners because You are Interested in That Person’s Point of View. Honestly, I have not seen her for a Couple Months so, It was Good to Hang out, Talk, and have Dinner with Her. I would be lying if I did not say that I would miss her and All of The Interesting and Intelligent Things that We talk about. But, Ya Know, Life Changes a lot and Although, You may not think so at The Moment, It is Always for The Good. Where She is going is what She is meant to do. I always tell People, It is Destiny! So, This Rerun Newsletter is a Newsletter that explains about The Previous Time that I saw Her. Enjoy and We will miss you a lot ‘round here, Jennifer-Samantha! By The Way, in Case You noticed, You are about learn How to say Hello in 3 Slavic Languages! Ahoj in both Czech and Slovak and, In Polish too!

This Newsletter was Written on October 11th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 565)

Cześć, My Readers! Wow! This is a New and Very Challenging-Appearing Greeting. It is actually means Hello in Polish! Now, Contrary to what looks hard to say, It is pronounced “Chest” like the Chest Part of Your Body or in other words, the part of your body that covers Your Heart. So, You learned something new! Way to go, My Readers! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, If You may recall in My Newsletter in 2016 that I have picture of Myself and A Woman who I mention at the End of My Newsletter. Refer to “The Untold Story of Mrs. Bachman and Mrs. James” (Newsletter 509). I mention her like This,

“One Last Note here, I met the Vice President of The College that My Mom works at and told her about My Mom (Who is a Brilliant Teacher as well!) about How Awesome The College is too. I hope that Someday soon They will have Work Programs for People like Me at The College. I know The VP is working on it. So, A Shoutout to VP Jennifer, who I will admit looks more like Her Name should be Samantha, therefore referring to her as Jennifer-Samantha. Shout Out!” 

Well, Jennifer-Samantha, as I refer to Her as, is to say the least is a Very Successful and Busy Woman! That is a Very Good Thing! So, A Couple Weeks ago, She said that She wanted to go to Dinner with us because She is Very Interested about My Fascination with Geography/History/Politics as well as The PTLS Story as well, and All the Places I have been so far. So, She invited us to Dinner last night and in True Jennifer-Samantha Fashion, It happened to be “Volunteer Night” at a Local Restaurant, Texas Roadhouse. So, On top of The Greatness of Going to Dinner, We also helped The Community of McKinney because 20% of Your Bill was Donated to a Group called “Volunteer McKinney.” Well, as Destiny would have it, Grandma Honey-Style, We ran into The Owners of a Place called “Hug’s Cafe”. Yes, that “Hug’s Cafe”, The one who for the First Time in Our Area, Hires those with Special Needs in the Food Industry. Now, Okay, There are Places that Hire those with Special Needs including Grocery Stores and The Baseball Stadium that I once worked at,( It might have been Hot to stand Outside in The Summer but, It was a Fun Job!) But, Hiring those with Special Needs are far in between. It really was an Honor to meet them! What was Funny though, is that When they walked up to us, It was as if They had felt like They had seen us before and Perhaps They did! or it might have been The Right Place at The Right Time type of Destiny. After We talked to them, We sat down and Hung out with Jennifer-Samantha as People wanted to see her and talk to her. Jennifer-Samantha is of and is in High Demand, She is a Hot Commodity, Ya Know! Actually, A Couple that wanted to see her was going to sit somewhere else and Sweet J-S invited them to eat Dinner with us and They did. Doing It Grandma Honey-Style! More Friends! The More, The Merrier! Dani and Claude Day were Their Names. They were Interesting People to talk to, We talked about Fascinating Things and Yes, including Airplanes and Airports. It was Very Interesting, The People that I talked to or were Introduced to. I Thank Jennifer-Samantha in a Big Way because of The Way that She Introduced me with such Pride, “This is Christian, You got to Meet Him! Hear His Story!”. I felt loved and accepted by Everyone! I look forward to Spending Time with Them and Jennifer-Samantha herself, again. Finally, Speaking of The Right Place at The Right Time, I felt a bit frustrated about An Event earlier in the day and so was Jennifer-Samantha, but Our Time hanging out, brought Talking and Laughing.  It reminds me of a Few Weeks Ago when I was Frustrated about Workers taking down a Part of My Fence to cut out a Part of One Our Trees and as I walking, My Neighbor’s Child, “Dom” ran across The Street to Hug Me and I thought to myself, “You have No Idea how much that helped me!”. All in all, Sometimes, Destiny has a Funny Way of working itself through. Gratis Destino! (Thank You Destiny in Italian). Of All Words in Italian, That is My Favorite Phrase!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. It is Good to feel loved and accepted.  

The Christianville Spirit: Summer of Changes

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

July 18th, 2018-TCS # 601

Yow, My Readers! It is Hotter than Hades here in Plano, Texas! It is well over 100 Degrees Fahrenheit here! In International Speak, That is basically 38 Degrees Celsius. I only remember that because that is Usually as High as The Shower Settings go in Sweden and Other Places. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, I laugh at Myself now, looking back something I said a Couple Years Ago when both My Brother’s Friend, Zack was moving to Colorado Before My Brother even thought of going there! and, My Mom’s Friend, Former-Student, and Gal Pal Expat, Monica was moving to Stockholm, Sweden, I called it “The Summer of Transition”. I thought it was a Sort-of Big Deal but, In a Positive Way. I still see what I am about to tell you as Positive but, It is Different This Time. A lot of Important People to Me are Moving or are Getting Ready to Move. Yes, It is that “Summer of Transition” thought, quite Literally. In Life, You sometimes find that When Things are going Okay in Your Life, is when People start Moving and Things start Changing. In Two Calendar Weeks, We got a New Car and New Refrigerator! That is a lot for a Short Time Span! But, My Important Friends like Spencer, He is moving to Austin. He has been My Brother, Michael and I’s Friend for a Long Time; Another Friend of Mine that I got to know through My Mom is moving to Florida; My Brother’s Friend is Moving; and, My Cousin, Anna is moving to Chicago for College. This is Happening within The Next Month or so! That is a lot of Change for Me to deal with! Now, I know, with Life comes Changes both Big and Small. The Changes We had are Much Smaller than a Great Friend moving, or Your Cousin moving. To Be Fair, I am happy about My Brother’s Friend moving as well as My Cousin, Anna moving, It is all for Their Good. With Respect to Colorado, It is a Beautiful Place, Don’t get me Wrong. But, There are Places in This Country as well as Around The World that are Better to Visit or Vacation than to actually Live there. For Whatever Reason, Be it Culture (or Lack of Culture); Expensive to Live there, or The Type of People that Live in That Part of The Country. I always like to recite The Line from the Movie, Star Wars, “It’s a Trap!”. I tell My Brother and his Friend that as well. Michael’s Friend agrees with that laughing because He knows It’s True. Spencer, He is moving to Austin for Better Scenery. Texas People are Loving but, Our Scenery here is not always The Greatest. Anna, as I mentioned, is moving for college. My other friend is moving for work. And Michael’s other friend is moving for better opportunities. Oh, and my other cousin, Gram, is moving for college Also. I struggle with Too Many Changes at One Time, Having PTLS makes that Happen. When that happens, It brings about Anxiety in both Excitement for The Person as well as Worry, not to mention It is also a Bit Overwhelming. Now, I know that Some Friends are only a Phone Call, Skype Call, or FaceTime Call away but I struggle sometimes, remembering to keep in Contact with that Person other than Watching their Posts on Facebook, If I am Friends with Them on Facebook. I do know that with People like Spencer, I can go down to Austin to visit them because It is only a 3 Hour Drive. Most of The Time, You tell Yourself that and Realize that 3 Hour Drive is a Bigger Deal to do when Life keeps going, You get Busy and Continue on. Unless that is, I set up a Time to catch up with them like I did while Monica was in Stockholm. I would call her Every 2 Weeks to catch up with Her at a Time that was Good for both Her and I. Whether It is a Person, A Car that I grew attached to, or A Broken Down Refrigerator that needed to be replaced, They all cause a bit of Anxiety for Me and can lead to Emotions for Me as well. All in all, Respect Our Anxiety about Whatever It might be that We PTLSers are Anxious about.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Sometimes, Change is Good. But, It is not always Easy!

The Christianville Spirit: My 600th Newsletter

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

July 11th, 2018-TCS # 600

Well, My Readers, It is The Moment that We have been waiting for, My 600th Newsletter! Yes, Ladies and Gents, 600 Newsletters that I have written! So, I am just as surprised as You are! I am amazed that It is My 600th Newsletter! Historically speaking, When I started Writing This Newsletter, It was not Every Wednesday, it was more like Every Other Week and then, on Odd Days like Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday to name a few. I finally chose Wednesday to make it a routine and It stuck. I figured also that Nothing was going on that day and It was a Perfect Time of The Week.  I have been Writing Every Wednesday Faithfully with a Few Breaks or Vacations since then. So, Before We get to the Subject of The 600th Newsletter, Let’s see what I wrote about in Past, what I now call “Milestone Newsletters”. The Following are references and Newsletter Titles. 

• 100th Newsletter: “Playlist of Your Life” Series; Popi (April 2008)
• 200th Newsletter: “All Thanks to You” Series; My Readers (May 2010)
• 300th Newsletter: Launch of My “I Believe In Love” Campaign (May 2012)
• 400th Newsletter: “Happiness....Simplified” Series: What is Happiness to Me (May 2014)
• 500th Newsletter: My Dreamscape- Now (June 2016)

and, That brings us to Now! So, Something Amazing happened a Couple Weeks ago that I have been meaning to tell you about! So, as My Veterans know, I spent most of My Childhood living in a Cool House that had 4 Inter-Connected Yards, a Creek, a Trampoline, and a Cul-de-Sac. It was a rather Great Childhood! 

My Mom and Mr. Jeff were Trying blend Families, which made it really cool because We were all around The Same Age and All of The Kids in The Neighborhood were The Same Age. Sadly, Things did not work out. We now call it “The Mr. Jeff Era”. It came with Great Memories, Great Childhood Friends, Great Lessons, and Great Times. Sometimes in Life, People get Busy with Other Things and The Next Thing You know it, Years have gone by that You have seen them.

The Truth is that I have not seen Him in Person in about 8 to 10 Years. So, It has been a Long Time! Funny Thing though, I never got a Chance to really Thank Him for How He helped raise My Brother and I as well as His Own Kids. You See, I did not have much of a Father Figure in My own Father so, Mr. Jeff was a Brilliant Substitute for a Father Figure. He taught us a lot of Things including Taking Your Shoes off when Entering Someone’s House, which I still do Today. He taught me a lot! He helped push through My PTLS Stubborn Streak like teaching me how to Tie My Shoes, Even Mow the lawn, and Drive a Go-Cart. He believed in Me and I found out recently, just how much He learned about Me and Understood about My PTLS before There was a Such Thing as PTLS, more than I even realized. I never got a Chance to thank him, that is until A Couple Weeks Ago. Due to Unforeseen Circumstances, Our Car needed His Expertise and Later, We ended up having to get a New Car. But, Through This Stressful Time, It brought us a Rare Opportunity to Thank Him. It just came out of Nowhere like “Thank You for The Amazing Childhood that You gave us!”. At The Time that I last saw Him, I probably was not Mature Enough to think about Thanking Him for All that We did Together as a Blended Family. We got to do a lot of Things like Many Times going to Our Lake House out in The Country, Times on Our Boat (And, believe me, It took Time to warm up to The Idea of riding on a Boat), The Cul-De-Sac and Halloween Parties on The Block (even though I did not like Halloween), the Path I paved in His Yard from Pacing Back and Forth, The 4 Inter-Connecting Yards to Run around, Great Neighbours and Friends, and Of Course, All The Fun Times that We had jumping on The Trampoline doing What I called “Butt Busters”; On Top of Many, Many other Things and Opportunities that We had. In a Way, The Thank You was not Enough for Such an Awesome Time as What We had. But, I am glad that I could given him The Recognition that I felt that He deserved. It is Important to Me because It is Difficult to find a Father Figure who Loves You and Understands All of Yourself and Your Special Needs. So, Mr. Jeff means a lot to Me and No Matter where He is, He will always be My Mr. Jeff. I Love You, Mr. Jeff!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Thank Someone who has been a Big Part of My Life.

The Christianville Spirit: Your Soul Place

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 27th, 2018-TCS # 599

Happy Early National Holidays of Canada Day and USA’s Fourth of July, My Readers! A Longer Greeting This Time. It is funny that Two Neighbour’s National Holidays are within Days of Each Other. Yes, It is seems kind of Early, but This is to cover My Bases because I will be taking off The Week of Fourth of July, I actually would have written on The Fourth of July and being that I am a Newsletter away from My 600th Newsletter, It might be a Good Idea to Take off before The Big 600th Newsletter. So, Just to let you know.

 So, 600 Newsletters! Can You Believe It?! It is Milestone that each time I hit The 100 Series Mark, I can not believe that I have made it that Far.

That must take a lot of Writing along with All The Times that I have taken off, Subjects Written about, and Life Events happening. 

So, Let’s Celebrate! So, What shall I write about for My Pre-Lead into My 600th Newsletter? hmm...Lots of Choices! I have done some good lead ins. Among them, Here they are, along with References...

• Pre-100th Newsletter: “Playlist of Your Life Series” (April 2008)
• Pre-200th Newsletter: “All Thanks to You Series”: PTLS Families (May 2010)
• Pre-300th Newsletter: “About The Girl of My Dreams” (May 2012)
• Pre-400th Newsletter: “Happiness...Simplified Series” (April 2014)
• Pre-500th Newsletter: “My Dreamscape-Before” (June 2016)

Which brings us to Now. So, How do I top This? Well, I am going to Talk about Something that has been Whirling in My Head. So, What or Actually Where is “My Soul Place”? Heaven, Christians might say. Well, Yeah. But, I mean, a Soul Place on Earth, while You are Living until You go to Heaven at The End of Your Life. Okay, so There is No such Thing or So I thought, until A Friend of Mine visited Hers and Discovered It! Who Knew?! So, A Soul Place as a Word I made up that actually means Something, Defines as a Place You feel like You have been to Before. In Other Words, Not a Place that You have Literally been more than One Time but, A Place where Your Soul feels both like an Odd Sense of Deja Vu, a Supernatural Feeling beyond Rationality, and Most of All, A Place that You feel You just Belong. It is a like The feeling of Being in Love with Your Long-Lost Soulmate, but instead of a Person, It is a Place. Weird, Huh? That is what I thought. You could think of it as The Thing that The HGTV Show House Hunters International is made out of. You know, those times, Where they explain that These Parents move off to Let’s just say, Europe and The Perfectly Independent Adult Children stay back here in The United States. You talk to The TV as if They can hear you saying “Why Would You Do That?!” to which if You knew them, They would say either “Because I fell in Love” or “Because It Make me Happy”, using One or Both of Those Answers. Now, The Friend I speaking of, Part of Me seeing what She is doing and wonders The Same Question I would as if watching House Hunters International and Part of Me knows what kind of a Person I am seeing doing this, thinking “The Heart wants what The Heart wants” or in this case, “The Soul wants what The Soul wants”. Now, barring in Mind that My Friend is one that is a “Gypsy Soul”, in Other Words, a Soul that always wants to Wander and Never stay in The Same Place. However, My Friend, We will call her, “Gypsy January” for Writing Purposes, She has lived everywhere from Hawaii, The East Coast, and Her Present Home in The Midwest. But, I feel that Her Gypsy Soul has just been wandering Her Whole Life thirsting for Where The Heck It’s Soul Place Is and Finally, I believe It has found it. Now, I have only been Her Friend for a Couple Years, so I did not see her Level of Happiness in either East Coast or Hawaii, but It does not seem like Her Gypsy Soul was Happy in either of Those Places, which leaves her wanting to go to Her Soul Place as soon as Possible. She believes that Her Soul Place is Oregon. It is sort of like The Soulmate Theory, after Meeting Your Soulmate, You wished you would have found them sooner, like Several Days, Months, or Years Sooner. But, Ya Know, Destiny has funny ways of Working Out. That is both Relieving and Frustrating at The Same Time. “It’s in God’s Time” I am told and led to believe. Now, The Problem with that, is that, You hope to God that Your Family lives near Said Soul Place, in which Gypsy January’s does not. Now, In Wondering about Mine, it makes me worry because I am a Family Man, I want to live pretty close to My Family like My Mom, Michael, and Smith Family. I mean, What if, Mine is out in Europe like Sweden, Switzerland, or Czechia. That is Very Far from Family! I have noticed in My Woman of My Dreams Projections as to Where They are from, both “Dream Girl”, Carol Holiday (Refer to That Story) and My Woman of My Dreams that I believe is named, Bridgett, both used to live in The Same Area, The Northeast, like New England. Now, I have to consider a lot of Things when thinking about both My Soul Place and Living somewhere in The Future. This includes Things like Like-Mindedness (like Politics, Condition and so on), Natural Beauty, Closeness to either of My Three Families, Mom and Michael; Smith Family; and, of Course, PTLS Family Members, and then The Last Thing, Natural Disasters. Morbid, I Know. But, I Think of which one I would not mind living with. Choices (at Least in The US) are Hurricanes (South and Southeast US), Tornadoes (Texas, South, and Lower Midwest), Earthquakes (Pacific Northwest/California and near Memphis), and of Course Blizzards (Northeast and Upper Midwest). So, There is a lot to Consider. The Nearest I can think of is Maine where My Mom grew up or North Carolina with Mountains one way and Beach the other way. Now, The Last Thing that makes me think and It applies to “Gypsy January” as well is that, Sometimes You are told where You should live or even where Your Soul Place is. Funny Thing is that, You never know where Your Soul Place is until You land there or drive there and You fall Head over Heals for that place.  I mean, My Friend did not know that Oregon was Her Soul Place until She stepped outside to seeing The Coastline of Oregon. All in all, Your Soul Place is out there, There is  Such a Place as That. In My Friend, “Gypsy January’s” Advice is to Follow Your Heart and Of Course, Follow Your Dreams because, really You never know... That and Follow Your Dreams even if They are a bit Scary and Who Know’s You might Laugh about It in a Few Years if It is True, If It is not, then You’ll still Laugh because You tried.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Follow Your Dreams and Heart! You will find that Soul Place.

The Christianville Spirit: The History of The Christianville Spirit- A Christianville Classic

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 20th, 2018-TCS # 598

Howdy, My Readers! That is how We Texans say Hello. I have been confused with Counting My Newsletters, both on My Website and on My Calendar, mostly My Calendar. It only turned out that My Newsletter Numbers on My Website were Right but, The Ones on My Calendar were not. You See, as I count Every One of My Newsletters, I schedule The Newsletter Numbers ahead of Time on My Calendar in My Room so that I know what Newsletter Number comes what Week. Unfortunately, I don’t think about Those Times when Life has other Plans and I take a Week (or More) off.  In This Year’s Case, I had planned My Newsletter Numbers and accidentally skipped a Number on The Same Day. It is confusing when I put a Number at The End of The Month and on The Next Month Page I put a Number higher. Include The Two Weeks Off due to The Family Emergency We had in Atlanta and It is Very Confusing. So, I guess that shows How Loyal I am to My Readers that I make sure My Numbers are Correct. I am Big about that! I realized though that At My Current Rate, My 600th Newsletter is coming sooner than I had thought. So, with that In Mind, I figured that I would give you an Excellent Newsletter that I feel should make The Christianville Classic List! It explains about How I keep My Newsletters straight as well as It explains about The Great History of My Newsletter. It is Important to Me that I write about Topics that Important to PTLS Family Members and Others trying to understand The Way I see Life. I appreciate All of My Readers! You mean a lot to Me! You will see in This Newsletter, that I wrote Differently than I do now as well as that I only mention The Taglines that I used up until This Newsletter. Each Year, I ask My Readers for Input for New Taglines, so in Other Words, You, My Readers, Help me with Making This Newsletter a success. So, Without further a due, This is The Christianville Classic, The History of The Christianville Spirit

This Newsletter was written on April 1st of 2009 (Refer to Newsletter 142)

For those of you who have been reading The Christianville Spirit for a while have seen all the changes of this newsletter. But, however there are people who have been reading this since the beginning. So, I thought I would give you a view of the history of a newsletter called The Christianville Spirit. The Christianville Spirit or TCS for short started in Christianville, TN in November of 2005 as an email to My Mom and my friend Karleen about the 1st Christian’s Best Friends’ Festival. My Mom told me I should start writing a newsletter about my view on life because my view on life and the world is a unique view. One time I was writing stuff about The City of Christianville and I wanted a newspaper name for The Metro Area so, the word “Spirit” seamed like a good name to symbolize the Christianville Area. On Wednesday, October 4, 2006 was the first official “Christianville Spirit” and it was about my best friend Steven’s “10 Weeks of Awesome Behavior” back when he was in The Group Home. The Christianville Spirit has been known for its slogans. The slogans have changed over the years so, Here are a list of slogans and how long they lasted.

· The first slogan was “Serving The Christianville Metro Area” that lasted from the first Christianville Spirit to December 29, 2006.

· The 2nd slogan was “Christianville Metro Area’s Delight” which lasted one newsletter in January 2007

· The 3rd slogan was “Christianville’s #1 Newspaper” which lasted one newsletter on January 4, 2007

· The 4th slogan was “The Spirit of Christianville” which lasted January 9, 2007-December 27, 2007

· The 5th slogan was “The Spirit that touches Lives” which lasted January 3, 2008-December 29, 2008

· The 6th and current slogan is “The Spirit that touches Your Life” which lasts January 2009-the end of the year

Also, The Christianville Spirit has it’s share of websites it was posted on. The first website was 360.yahoo.com/mapkid2 which was my own personal Yahoo 360 site and after that it moved to it’s current site, thechristianvillespirit.blogspot.com. another The Christianville Spirit has been known for is it’s inspirational lines at the end of the newsletter, the first inspirational line was “ Have a Spiritful Day” in the 14th newsletter. The next thing my newsletter has been known for is its series. The first TCS Series was “Christianville Metro Highlight” which about my friends and family. In the series, I got the biggest reaction to my newsletter is the “Julie Smith-Centeno Edition” of that series. Before I started writing full articles I wrote about what was going on in my life and what was going on in Christianville, those sections of the newsletter were known the “Personal News” and Christianville News” section and Another section change was the addition of the “C. Metro Commentary”. Finally, In case your wondering what the “TCS # 143” heading means, that shows how many newsletters I’ve written since the 1st in October of 2006. all in all, it’s a lot of fun to write these newsletters each week.

Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. People’s good attitude depends on a good thought and good input. So, feed them good stuff!

The Christianville Spirit: A PTLS Dog's Routine

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 13th, 2018-TCS # 597

Wah’ Gwaan, My Readers! This is a New Greeting. It meaning What’s going on or What’s Up in Jamaican Patois. It is pronounced “Wa-Goo-Ahn”. Jamaican Patois or Jamaican Creole basically sounds like Slang Words and English Words, mashed together. You learn something new Everyday! Anyway, so onto This Week’s Newsletter. So, I have explained about My Routine and How it works (Refer to “My Schedule and Welcome to It” Newsletter). But, It has been brought to My Attention that My Routine has Changed a little bit but Is Showing More now that I have My Little Boy Dog, Paco around. By The Way, We found out what Kind of Dog He is! He is a Part Spanish Greyhound, Part Boxer, and Part Feist. I like to think that My 2 Year Old Boy Dog, Paco is like a Little PTLS Dog in his Behavior. I mean, He has a VERY High Energy Output where There are Times when He runs really fast. On Top of That, When He has a Purpose or thinks He does, He runs and Hops across The Yard “Like a Gazelle” as My Mom says. But, at The Same Time, He likes to have a Calm Environment which is part of His Breed as well as Liking to have a Routine, again Just like Me! PTLS Young Adult meets a PTLS Dog! I don’t think Dogs have it but, They sure can Act like It. I have been told that Dogs often adapt to Their Owners (or Pack Leaders) Behavior. So, After My Mom leaves for Work, I get up for a Second to Check to Make Sure that The Back Door in The House in Locked. My Brother, when He was living here always left it Unlocked. It would Drive Me Crazy! Now, It has become a Habit of just Touching The Lock even though I already know It is locked. I then grab Paco’s Favourite Toy and The Hardest Toy for Him to chew on if He needs it while I sleep. I usually drop it on The Rug outside My Room. I have done that Since He was Younger to keep him busy. He has calmed a lot since then. After That, I sleep until My Normal Time, 2:45PM. If It is not that Time, I wake up on Times ending in 5. The Other Dogs, Sadie and Zoe lay around while I sleep and sometimes, Sadie likes to sleep on The Curve of My Leg. I taught Her that to prevent her from going off too far when She was a Puppy. After I get up, if My Mom is not Home yet, I feed All The Dogs and Paco has his Bowl that He knows to Eat from. After that, I let Paco out first and I keep an Eye on Him until He Pees. Sometimes, He gets so Excited about The Sights and Sounds outside that He forgets to Pee (He is a little PTLS-ADD) So, I make sure I don’t do anything until He is done Peeing. After that, Then I can let Zoe and Sadie out. I have to watch Paco again because He will try to Nip at Sadie to get her to Run. Both My Mom and I are trying hard for Him not to do that. I am thinking that It is part of His Breed, probably The Boxer in Him. Then, Once I have gotten all The Dogs in, Given them a Treat, One Dog at a Time, then, I can start My own Routine of Eating My Lunch and Watching The News. I have changed a lot in that regard. I used to like CNN International for World News but, because We don’t get CNN International anymore, so I watch a Variety of Other News Channels. Anyway, after My Mom comes Home and I ask her How Her Day was and We hang out and Talk, then It is Time to watch The Local News, which We watch until 6:30. In The Middle of that, I let The Dogs out and let them hang out in The Yard. Anytime between 5:30 and 6:30 is Dinner Time, now with Mine and Paco’s Routine, Dinner Time really matters now. The Reason is because I have to get Paco’s Energy out. Because otherwise He drives Zoe and Sadie crazy by either running around The Coffee Table and to The Couch or Barking at Them. Believe Me, Paco is a Very Vocal Dog! He is Literally The Most Vocal Dog that We have had. He makes a Noise when He yawns; When He is like “All Right, I’ll lay down”; Then He stretches; and, of course, His Barking that He learned from Sadie and Believe Me, He has a Loud Bark. Anyway, I have to sit outside with Him No Later than 6:45 to get Him to Run and Get His Energy Out. And, Yes, He does Nip and Bark at Sadie and I try to get him to Stop but, Keep Running. Some Days all it takes a little Clap of My Hand and “Go Paco!” to get him excited for Him to Run around The Yard. He often has such a Fierce Run that He pushes too hard and ends up getting a Bit Overwhelmed. If He starts, Hacking then, I stop Him and be like “Okay, Paco, Control” I bring My IPad outside with Me to watch The Time because at 6:55 I have to be inside and Ready to Watch My Favourite Reporter on CNN, Jeanne Moos. Jeanne Moos does The Goofy or Odd Story of The News. She is Really The Only Reason I watch CNN anymore. Besides, Anderson Cooper’s The RidcuList, which is sort of like Jeanne Moos about The Goofy Story of The News. After I have done that, then My Mom and I watch several different Shows, Whatever is on that Evening. If It is Regular Season, Then We watch things like The Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family and So On. Of Course, I let The Dogs out several more Times throughout The Evening when Paco starts to Whine about Wanting to Go Outside and Play, or One of The Dogs has taken his Spot to lay down on. His Favourite Spot which is Everyone Else’s The Recliner. So, then, nearing 9:00 I start watching Paco, The Clock, and My Mom. Now, My Mom is little more Unpredictable when It comes to When She goes to Bed. Of Course, When She is doing Work for The PTLS Foundation She can stay up pretty late. Again It depends. Now, Because Paco has a Sensitive Stomach, He would not be Feeling Good anytime after Midnight so I would give him a little bit of Food to help and usually It Did. I guess It stuck and He wanted to have a Little Food at Night. According to Our Research of His Breeds, The Greyhound is recommended to have Three Small Meals a Day where as We give Our Dogs Two Meals a Day. But, Anyway, Paco and I have started what I call “His Night-Night Routine”. Again, nearing 9:00, 9:30 if My Mom is Lucky, Paco will start staring at My Mom, giving her a Look like “When are You going to Bed tonight? Now, Perhaps?”. So, My Mom gets up and I tell Paco, “Are You Ready to start Your Night-Night Routine?”, His Ears perk up if He is laying down and If He is Staring at My Mom, He will look at Me. So, I have a lot to do in Starting His “Night-Night” Routine and I only have a Few Minutes. So, I let Paco and Sadie out a Final Time. Unless It is an “Emergency” then, I will let him out later. While, I have Paco and Sadie outside, I have to Change My Glasses, Flip My Day Markers, and Get My Computer set and Ready all before I let Paco back In. My Theory is That I have to Settle Myself down before I can Settle Him down. If I don’t, He will follow me around until I sit down. The Reason of such Short Time is that I would rather Him not be Outside for too Long whether It is Daytime or Nighttime because The Dogs can get into Trouble along with Other Risks like Wild Life Critters. So, then I get Paco and Sadie back in, then Sometime after All This, 

I go say My 1st Good Night to My Mom and I tell her a Few Finals thought of The Day and always end with a Positive Story of The Day. Paco whines at Me until I am done talking to My Mom. After That, I give Him a Little Food and Feed Him. I believe that is His Favourite Part of The Day because He can eat slower than He would normally Eat with The Other Two, Sadie and Zoe. He gets to Eat at His Pace. After that, I settle Myself and Him, I have Him lay in His Favourite Spot, The Recliner and We are both Happy. If I have to leave for a Second, I know He will be Fine. Of Course, I kiss Him on The Head most of The Times I see him. And, Finally, My Day ends at 2 AM where I say Good Night to My Mom (Tell Her the Things I did, Learned, and Positive Story), Make Sure My Nose is clean (A Stuffy Nose at Night is Bad for Me), Take Allergy Medicine, Tums for Acid Reflux, Door Check again, and Finally Kiss Paco Good Night (Tell Him I Love Him and Anything Else). Then, I head to Bed, Pray, and Off to Sleep I Go! So, that is a Very Detailed Routine of My Day. But, This Routine is Very Strict and Important to Me. When I have to wander away from My Routine like for Family Visits, Out-Of-Town Trips, It takes me a Couple Days to a Week to get back into My Routine and Comfort, Sometimes It includes a “Coming Down” Time which in Little Kids, You may call it a “Meltdown”,”Crying Spell”, or A Need for Hugs, Cuddles, and Reassurance, and It makes me feel Calm. So, Routine is Very Important!

 If Anything changes in Mine or Paco’s Routine, I let Him know. Yes, I do tell Paco of Any Changes that are Coming Up because It is Important to Him as well. All in All, that is How I live My Life.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Always Remember Your Child’s Routine, as Silly as It may seem!

The Christianville Spirit: Fun in Learning Geography

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience 

June 6th, 2018-TCS # 596

Happy Summer, My Readers! Yes, Folks! It is that Time of The Year, No, not Christmas or Halloween but, Summer Vacation Time! Time to Go on a Summer Vacation. Well, like Teachers often recommend, There could be a Lesson or Two during The Summer to Keep Our Minds Snappy and Ready for School again Next Year! Ha! I never thought that I would say that in My Life! Okay, so Lessons should be a bit less Labor or Homework-Intensive and More about Fun. In Other Words, Learning while having Fun. Just pick a Subject You want to Learn and do something Fun while Learning It! So, for Example, I have a Lesson for You! You See, I have Trouble with How Schools teach things like Geography. Now, I am of course of a Geography/History/Politics-mixed together Mind set kind of guy, so I understand. At The Time, In School, I understood Geography (or Social Studies as They called it) but, History was more difficult, only because History, The Way I was taught in School was Boring. Only because History, if It is not taught well is about The “When of It all”. As In, The Battle of 1812 was...Well, in 1812 and A brief explanation of What Happened at That Time. By The Way, The Battle of 1812 was what inspired Francis Scott Key to The Mention that “The Flag was still there” in Our National Anthem. Because amongst all of The Fighting at Night, Our National Flag, The Star-Spangled Banner at still flying at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. See! Now, That is what I will call “Action History”. In Other Words, History that taught like an Action Movie. Now, We may have Our Own Favourite Genres of Movies but, You can’t resist a little Action in There. So, Same Thing, with Geography. To Often, Geography is where a Place is. For Example, a Country that I have recently interested in The Czech Republic or Known in English as “Czechia”, It is in what We Americans think is East Europe. So, We end up going to “Czechia” and commenting about How Beautiful Prague is for a City in Eastern Europe. You would have One Upset (or Triggered) Czech Person! First of The Czech Republic or “Czechia” (I like to refer to it as both) is actually in Central Europe NOT Eastern Europe. But, Beyond that, It makes you question more than Answers like What is Their Currency? Their Language? Anything Unique about This Country, in other words, What makes This Country special? I can answer that. Currency is The Czech Crown and Their Language is Czech. Now, It is that Last One that has recently interested me. It was Interested Me about How Many “Funky Letters” can be in a Czech Person’s Name and How do You pronounce those Letters? I had My Mom sit watching a Woman pronounce those while Eating Dinner the Other Night. She found it interesting!

Here is The Link to That Video because I know that You are Curious! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dot3LVAeABc) It also includes How to Pronounce and Say The Most “Funky” and Unique Letter in The Czech Alphabet, The Letter R with a Mark over It. It looks like This (Ř) It is said that It is Impossible to Pronounce but, It is Pronounced “Aerch” and That is in The Single Form and The Ř is Pronounced Very Differently from The Single Letter. Crazy, right? Also, “Czechia”, Which was formerly Czechoslovakia divorced with Slovakia and The Czech Republic’s Local Name was Hard to resound with English as did The Name, The Czech Republic. So, Last Year, The Leaders of The Country changed The English Name to Czechia. and, One Final Note before I move on, Czechia is also referred as Bohemia, but NOT all of Czechia is called Bohemia. There are like 4 Regions of Czechia but, The Most Important Ones are Bohemia in Northern Czechia (like Prague) and Southern Czechia (like Brno) is called Moravia. So, to Another Country, We go! Iceland! It is Locally pronounced Is (like “Niece”) Land, ìsland. Currency is The Icelandic Krona (or Crown), Capitol is Reykjavik (Try and Pronounce that City!). Iceland is known very well for It’s Natural Beauty and Of Course, Beautiful People. Now, the Iceland Letters are even more “Funky” like a “O” that looks like it has a Cross on Top. Icelandic is Very Hard Language to Learn or Pronounce! From My Research, I learned that Iceland is Very Expensive. As In 6,000 Icelandic Króna (or Close to 60 US Dollars) to go to The Blue Lagoon! Yes, Really! 60 Dollars and that is only for The Entrance and a Mud Mask, Not including a Towel, Changing Rooms, or a Drink (which they offer). That was a Blow to My Heart because I wanted to see it! But, I am told that There are Smaller and Less Tourists Hot Springs to go to in Iceland. The Weather in Iceland, which You have to be watchful of can be Very Unpredictable. and, Finally, The Last Country I will talk about, Jamaica. Jamaica is Very Interesting Country once You get past all The Tourist Points of View on This. Some Tourists say You should not Visit Jamaica because of Poverty and Crime, Just be a Little more Careful, that is All. Jamaica, I feel is a Country that Less about The Beach (I mean, It can be!) and More about The Food. Namely, The Jamaican Jerk Chicken, I am told is Spicy but, Worth It. and, Of Course, Jamaican Meat Patties. Think of It like a Jamaican Hamburger, only Better. I feel that This is One of Those Foods that You have to try at a Local Place or with a Local Person. In My Research I found that Jamaican Patties are not Very Expensive in both Jamaican Dollars or US Dollars. By The Way, Speaking of Locals, Do Ask them what kind of Music that They listen to. Sure, They listen to Bob Marley and The Like, but Believe Me, It is Much More than that. Now, Wasn’t that Fun to Learn that Stuff?! See, You can have fun learning about Something! All in All, There is a lot of Fun in Learning and A lot of Learning in Fun.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Have Fun in Learning Geography!

The Christianville Spirit: People and Animals is Distress Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

May 30th, 2018-TCS # 595

Bonjour, My Readers! That is One of My Favourite Greetings. So, Every Once in a While, A Question or Concern comes up from One of Our Lovely PTLS Family Members. At First, It always makes me think, “Hey, That’s a Good Question! Something that has not been talked about or asked in a while!” Usually, It is Something that Hits Home as well as The Fact that I realize that It is Something that is not discussed as commonly as Other Things like The Common Things of PTLS like Walking, Talking, Potty Training, Special Needs Meeting (ARD Meeting in The United States), Routine, and of course, Eating. This Topic is not a common topic in The PTLS Realm as much as It should be. The “It” I am referring to is People and Animals in Distress and How It bothers us. I briefly mentioned it in a Newsletter that I wrote Earlier This Year called “My Three Biggest Triggers” (Refer to That Newsletter) but, I did not go into that much detail about it. I actually wrote a Newsletter in My History that details it a lot more. I hope that You enjoy it and Learn more from It. 

This Newsletter was written on September 21st of 2011 (Refer to Newsletter 267)

So, This Week I’m going to tell you something that is Personal to me, Something that bothers me. I think I need to write about this because it’ll help you greater understand me. The thing that bothers me is called Humans and Animals in Distress; For Example, People screaming because they’re in danger, about to die, or stuck in something like a capsule or anything. Another Example would be Animals making noises because they’re hurt or being taken. It’s why I don’t see Action or Horror Movies because that stuff just doesn’t interest me. Most of My Life, I’ve felt this way about it; As I describe it now I “feel what Other People are feeling”. If I see Adults, Children, or  a Baby that is crying I feel what they’re feeling and it upsets me. Feeling what Others feel at times to me can become an annoyance. However, it is a blessing because if someone who is Sad talks to me about how they feel, I can relate to them. I think the first time I saw a person in distress I think was watching a show on Nickelodeon called Are You Afraid of The Dark? And this kid had a dream of walking in a graveyard and he fell into a wooden coffin and the coffin closed, he banged on the wood while being buried alive and then, the dream ended. By the way, this show in My Day (being the 90’s) was Rated TV-Y7 and I must have been around that age when I saw it. Another Time was watching the Movie, Hook (Again, a Movie that was in my day) in the beginning when the guy is shoved into the treasure chest and then, he is saying,“Help” and medal things are being dropped in. I should mention that at the time, it was a kids movie. As far as Animals in distress go; I hate watching them be stolen from the owner, or just hearing Animals whine and being killed for food. The worst example was on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Puerto Rico episode where they have a Roast in the forest and Anthony is seen carrying The Animal in a bag, while squirming and making the noise that the animal makes then, later he shoves a spear in it. All in All, Having PTLS makes me very sensitive to how People and Animals feel. 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Be more Sensitive to how People feel and They’ll appreciate You.    

The Christianville Spirit: 10th Lynee Day Lesson

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

May 23rd, 2018-TCS # 594

Happy Lynee Remembrance Day, My Readers! Okay, so Lynee Remembrance Day was Yesterday but, also continues Today. So, In Case You did not know, Lynee Remembrance Day is a Day that I remember a Great Childhood Friend named Lynee who past away (Refer to “The Untold Story of Lynee” Newsletter in My Christianville Classics List). Anyway, Each Lynee Remembrance Day (or LRD, as I call it) simply known as “Lynee Day”, I post a “In Memory of Lynee Watson” Lesson. What Lesson I learned each Year on Lynee Day because It seems that Every Year I learn a Lesson. So, This is going to be The Lesson of This Year’s Lynee Day. The 10th Lynee Day. You Know, those Times when Things don’t seems to be going Your Way or What You thought something would be, is not. 2018 has not started The Way I wanted it too. On Top of The Plumbing Issue We had and All associated, The Grandma Honey Thing, I have not actually seen Lynee’s Mom since The Beginning of The Year (Christmas Actually), and My Laser Process is still on Pause. In Times of Annoyance or Frustration, I start voicing toward God, My Heavenly Father. I wonder and try to Understand The Ways of God. Low Points lead to Really High Points later. I remember a Sermon that I listened to while Watching The Royal Wedding. Yes, THAT Royal Wedding. Congrats to The American Princess-who’s-not-really-Technically-A-Princess-But, Kind of Is, Meghan Markle. I Loved The Second Party Dress! Anyway, The Person who did The Sermon said Something about God that I understand but, Most People don’t understand. And,  Believe Me, I feel ya, There are Parts of God I don’t Understand. Now, to be Clear, The Word, “God” I feel applies to The Three Abrahamic Religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I actually Learned that from a TV Show on National Geographic called The Story of God with Morgan Freeman. It Explains Perfectly about God, Heaven, Hell, or of Course, All Religions from Christianity to Buddhism. Now, As I write this, I am trying not to Offend Anyone with What I am going to Say But, I am going to tell you how It processes in My Mind which is Very Literal Mind. So, It may not make so much sense in What I am about to Say because My Mind sees things differently. Symbolism does not always make sense. So, Hang in There with Me!

Now, Some Sections of Christianity see God, The Heavenly Father, in different Ways. Catholicism says that God is Pretty UnMerciful and He will Strike You if He sees You doing ANYTHING UnPure, Even If It is a Little Thing. Baptists see God as Very Judgmental. He Judges You all the Time. Episcopalians, or at Least The Pastor at The Royal Wedding sees God in The Purest Form, Love, which I am going to highlight in a Second and Finally, Non-Denominational believe that God is Cool and You should Serve God. and, Sometimes, They take it Very Literally. Now, That is Something that between Me and God, Heaven and Earth, I really don’t understand. You See, When Us PTLSers are taught about Something, We see it at Face Value. Basically, It means that Everything is Literal to Us. We basically have to be told Told whether It is Literal or Not. Unfortunately, God, Nor The Bible itself is at all, Literal. God is Very Much Symbolic when It comes to His Word or Actions. Now, In My Literal Mind, even though It is Symbolic, I have a Strange Satisfaction in The Part of Revelations where Satan dies in a Fiery Lake. When A Friend of Mine told me that God was Symbolic, It stung a little but, I also knew to be True. Now, Of Course, We can not forget that God is also Very Humorous about Things. So, Humor and Symbolism, does not work well with Someone like Me who is Very Literal. I mean, Okay, I Appreciate His Humor and Sometimes, I know when He is Joking, but Other Times, I don’t know when He is not, if that makes Sense. The Symbolism is probably The Part that Frustrates Me The Most. Because, What I think is a Clear Message about This, is really a Symbolic Message for That. It is just how My Mind is because It is The Way I see It. Now, Back to the Love Thing and This is probably Most Literal Part of God that is so Simple. God is Love and Love is God. Wow, Right? So Simple! Basically, It means that Without God, There is No Love in Any Form, and Without Love, There is No God. Simple as that. That Means as Long as You are Kind and Loving Toward Other People (Yourself included I Am Sure) then, You are Worshipping God, without Even Knowing It. Isn’t that Amazing?! Very Simple. I honestly, can not Imagine a World without Love. I mean, I know Love can be Painful and Complicated, and It really should not be. But, The Most Important Part is that Love is a Wonderful Feeling. Without It, We might as well be Dead.

 All in all, That is This Year’s 10th Lynee Remembrance Day Lesson. Remember to Love Everyone, even if They are a Little Different than You.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Thank You, Lynee for Inspiring Me and Showing Me what Real Love is!