Talents and hobbies

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Today I went to a facility to interpret and the question came up of what this persons talents were or what they were known for. Some people are known for being great cooks like my neighbor Mercedes Nieto who makes incredible panvasos. Others are known for how well they sing or play an instrument. Others have a talent for making people laugh, being able to decorate or just being a friend or listener. This person's life is at the point where they could not think of anything of this at all, not one thing. Their life is made up solely of work and sleeping which is very sad. Now on the other hand I have filled my life with too much in some respects and I need to learn to say no. I love some of these things so it is hard to say no and here is an example of some of the things I like to do or participate in.

I love to sing however I am not the best at it but I consider it fun so I sing in a couple of choirs, a Tongan religious choir and now a quartet as well. I got to direct 2 choirs recently and to me this is fun although it did take me away from my family a bit. I also love to play my clarinet and the piano. Once again I taught myself to play the piano so I don't play the notes as written although it is fun.

I am on a boy scout committee and that is hard for me because it is a bit of work and it also takes me away from my family a bit. I do other things in my church as well and recently my wife and I organized a party at the church and we purchased ICE CREAM for everyone and we had games ready and drinks and we went over to the church and set up early and when the time came for the party that had been on the program for over a month, no one came, not one person showed up so that was a bit of a downer and needless to day we are not really excited about trying it again. I do however have allot of Ice Cream at my house right now in the freezer.

I love to cook so if you see this as a talent great, for me I like to eat and so I have learned to make food that tastes good. I have been trying to make the food choices more healthy as of late by not putting butter or as much butter and using more fruit and Veggies and using less fatty foods. I learned quite a bit from my mother in law who used to have a restaurant. So the kids like my cooking and that is what counts. I do have a harder time cooking for less people now that I have children living out of the house.

I need to learn to say no to different things more often but it is hard to say no. I am currently teaching a womens/girls karate class every SAT at 8AM at the Church nearby and I don't charge for those classes and I am about ready to wrap it up and possibly start a mixed class in it's place or a Karate class in Spanish. I get students that like the class but don't want to practice or don't take the time to practice. I remember being 15 and spending a couple of hours every day practicing and I have to realize that expecting that from someone is not realistic so I ask them to practice at least once a week and I don't even get that out of them. I suppose if I were charging them to take the class they may have more of an incentive to practice. I do it because those in my area cannot afford to pay for the classes.

I consider myself an artist and I also appreciate art in all of it's forms. I love going to plays, musicals and I love to read. So I end up singing at some weddings and funerals and I love doing it. I have been teaching the CERT classes in English and Spanish and I enjoy that as well although that also takes me away from my family so I need to learn to draw the line somewhere to keep a balance because I really love doing the choir, CERT, Karate, Scouts (not so much) and going to my children's school activities but you can only put so much in your life. Now I suppose if everyone watched less TV we could all put more activities into our lives fairly easily. Any thoughts on the matter?