Daily Reminder # 141

Well, lazy again, I'm afraid. I was going to do Ruby Tuesday but I don't think I'm quite up to it today, so just gratitude. I do have a couple of things on my mind for the future but they require more energy and thought than I have tonight, so....

This tree fascinates me.... it starts fall turning the
dark, dark red shown in the photo above and slowly
turns this wonderful orange. I wish I could really catch how
it glows in the sun. It's incredible.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• Angel and Tara Grace
• my home
• didn't have to run the furnace today
• electricity
• running water
• my therapist
• my SSD
• the right to vote
• orange pineapple smoothies
• my red chair
• my cane
• the internet
• my friends
• reiki
• eyes to see
• ears to hear
• taste buds
• my mattress
• Fall colors
• all colors

May Your Day Be Colored 

with Beautiful Moments!

Daily Reminder # 140

Mimi, from Mimi writes was kind enough to pay a visit today and then mention me on her blog, so I thought maybe I'd return the favor. Time is flying and this year's blog blast for peace is not that far away. I have been procrastinating making my globe so her visit was a good reminder to me to get myself going. She posted my 2009 globe when she mentioned me on her blog today, so maybe I'll share the one I made 2 years ago... The Blog Blast for Peace is a cyber gathering of bloggers from all over the world who share their thoughts and prayers to create and inspire peace in the world. It's a wonderful event.

I'm hoping inspiration will come to me soon for this year's globe. I hope you'll join me and hundreds - maybe thousands - of others on November 4th.  Click on the link in my gratitude list or on the globe above to find out more and pick up the template so you can make your own globe.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• ice cream
• apples
• bananas
• naps
• reiki
• life
• white sage
• indoor plumbing
• water
• Angel and Tara Grace
• my friends
• email
• my computer
• Blog Blast for Peace
• television

Live Peace

Have a Great Day

Daily Reminder # 139

Just gratitude again.... 


Some things I'm grateful for today:

• my furnace
• my home
• netflix
• life
• beauty
• reiki
• angels
• sweaters
• running water
• Angel and Tara Grace
• bananas and ice cream
• toothpaste and an electric toothbrush
• my teeth
• eyes to see
• ears to hear
• friends

Have a Lovely, Peaceful Day

Daily Reminder # 138

Just gratitude again today.  I just watched a lovely movie called BABIES....which consited of watching four babies from around the world during the first year of their lives. Wonderful to watch the process of birth and discovery. Life really is grand.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• babies
• my furnace
• my home
• Schwans
• fresh vegetables
• my microwave
• sweaters
• wordzzles
• Angel and Tara Grace
• Dr. Jim
• friends
• my computer
• email
• my sister's children
• reiki
• cat toys
• kitty hugs and head butts
• abundance
• life

I wish I could get a picture that does these justice.
They glow in the sun with a wonderful orange color that is just stunning.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 131

It's week 131 of the Weekly (formerly known as "Saturday") Wordzzle Challenge.  I had  a tough time with these this week.  And I can't seem to fix whatever the crazy space issue is with blogger. I suspect it's some kind of conflict between Google Chrome and Blogger, but I don't have the patience to try and fix it right now, so I just apologize for all the odd spaces and other visual peculiarities. Looking forward to seeing how others have managed these words.

Words for this week's 10-word challenge were: 

chilled to the bone, market, back to work, floating, lynx, glutted, shelter, garage sale, honey, marginal   

And for the mini: ink, cool whip, every cloud has a silver lining, static, platform  

My mega: 

  

Every cloud has a silver lining,

Honey Lynx whispered to herself, feeling a bit like she was floating on air. Honey was one of those marginal people for whom the local shelters no longer had enough room. This morning, shivering and chilled to the bone, she had found some change and had gotten onto a bus in hopes of getting out of the cold for at least a short time. She had fallen asleep and the driver had kicked her off deep in the suburbs. Panic had swept over her, but it had turned out to be one of those Angel-guided mishaps and  for the first time in weeks, she had a full stomach and something warm to wear. A block from where the driver had dumped her from his bus, she had come across a garage sale. It was run by one of the kindest women Honey had ever met. Margareta Martinson had taken one look at Honey and had handed her a coat, two or three sweaters, and had then taken her into the kitchen and fed her a hot meal, including pumpkin pie with Cool Whip whipped cream, Honey's favorite. More than that, she had sat a time with her and talked to her like she was a real person. It had been a while since anyone had done that. It had felt good to talk and even laugh. Then, best of all, in a static job market glutted with people looking for jobs, the real miracle had happened.  Honey was going back to work. Margaret, it turned out, ran a company called Platform Ink. It was some kind of graphics company and she said she needed someone to work the counters. She had a small guest cabin on her property where Honey could stay until she was on her feet. It was a miracle. No question about that. She smiled and felt a warmth deeper than any sweater could provide. A warmth in her heart.

My 10-word:

This month, Dan Silverton had decided that instead of a garage sale, he would try his luck at the local Floating Lynx Flea and Farmer's Market.  When he arrived, he had found the place glutted with small merchants selling a wide range of materials. He had arrived unfortunately late and so was located in a fairly marginal area of the grounds. The place seemed to be glutted with more sellers than buyers, so three hours into the morning, chilled to the bone, having seen only 5 customers and selling 2 jars of honey and an old baseball glove, he decided to look for a place more sheltered from the elements to warm up with a cup of coffee or cocoa for a bit before going back to work at his stand.  Arriving at the coffee stand, he looked into the eyes of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Customers or not, he knew he would be returning next week... and early enough to set his stand right next door to the woman he had recognized on sight as the girl of his dreams. 

My mini: 

Standing on the wind-swept railroad platform, listening to the unintelligible static-filled voice emanating from the loud speaker, Susie Johnson looked at the inky black storm clouds gathering overhead.  While she was a fan of the fluffy Cool-whip type clouds that often punctuated autumn days in the north east, these did not look like the "every cloud has a silver lining" vintage. She was raised from this cloud reverie by a break in the static and the loud words. " Please leave the platform quickly and take shelter inside. We have a tornado warning in effect."  Being an optimist, Susie thought to herself as she hustled into the station house - maybe there is a silver lining after all... sounds like I may get a day off from work.... assuming I don't get blown off to Oz, of course.

*************************

Words for next week's 10-word challenge are: cranes, bananas, red-headed woman, hunger, parachute, scratch, sanity, microphone, long-distance, you've got mail

And for the mini: popular, pregnant, turtle, basket, present

Thank you for playing! Newcomers can check here for some guidelines (and they are only guidelines, not rules) to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week!

Daily Reminder # 137

Just gratitude tonight.  Tired. 

Some things I'm grateful for today

• laughter
• music
• my home
• my cats
• life
• sweaters
• tea tree oil
• my computer
• hope

Have a Great Day!

Daily Reminder # 136

Just gratitude this evening... and a reminder for my friend E that "if nothing changes, nothing changes..." but you don't have to move a mountain in one day.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• leftovers from last night's company
• clean litter box
• garbage put out
• water
• cheese
• electricity
• laughter
• music
• reiki
• kitty toys in abundance
• my red chair
• the 5 senses
• words
• the rescue of the miners in Chile
• fall colors
• my camera
• my microwave oven
• my kitchen
• my house

Have a Wonderful Day

One Step at a Time

Daily Reminder # 135

If nothing changes, nothing changes.


My friend E is in the process of making a huge change in her life. She described it to me as walking up hill against the wind in a snow storm. That would probably be easier. I can't say much more about it without violating her privacy, but I would ask anyone who is so inclined to send some prayers her way or maybe post some words of encouragement here. Despite exhaustion and fear and terrible obstacles, she has been keeping on keeping. I'm really proud of her and hopeful that this ordeal will soon be behind her.


I was about to post this and I had one last thought looking at that turkey vulture in flight. They are pretty homely and awkward on the ground, but in flight they are pure magic. Sometimes these life journeys we find ourselves on are so ugly and cumbersome and exhausting.... but with each step forward... we come closer to that magic and freedom of flight.


Speaking of tough journeys - it's so thrilling to see the Chilean miners coming out of the mine after almost 4 months under ground. Their humor and spirit is so inspiring. As I write this - quite late - 4 have been brought to the surface and 29 remain to be brought out. Human beings are awesome... ore at least we can be.

Some things I'm grateful for today;

• a visit from friends (who brought)
• good company
• a good movie and
• free food - fresh veggies and home made stuff 
• the retrieval of lost cat toys (thanks Dan)
• water
• my home
• beauty
• birds in flight
• fall colors
• my camera
• the rescue of the Chilean miners
• human ingenuity and determination
• my friend E
• Redemption
• hope
• laughter
• progress

Have a Beautiful Day!

May Your Thoughts Fly Free and 

Take Your Spirit With Them

Daily Reminder # 134

If nothing changes, nothing changes.... part 3

Change is an intrinsic part of life.  Some changes - like the coming of Spring - we look forward to with eager anticipation. Others -for me winter is one of these - we don't anticipate with quite such enthusiasm.  Sometimes change is subtle like the creeping aches and pains of age. And sometimes those creeping aches and pains are not even slightly subtle. 

I don't always cope well with change. I like the IDEA of change sometimes more than the process of going through it. I loved the idea of my new kitchen. The months of chaos that created that change were kind exhausting and traumatic... and now there is my wonderful kitchen which a year old and now the norm.  It took me forever to accept that change of needing a cane. My recent purchase of a walker (aka the Frenemie) is one of those changes I haven't done well with. It's folded up in a corner of the ktichen right now and I'm back to pushing my little red kitchen chair around as more steady feeling "walker." I may try the other again but right now the chair feels safer and steadier and less... "fragile old lady."

I'm not sure what my point is. Maybe just that change - good or bad - is unsettling and traumatic. It raises fears. It raises expectations. It often asks us to redefine ourselves. We often expect ourselves to go through even the most profound changes as though they were a walk in the park. But they aren't. Change almost always taps into hope and fear in equal measure. And when it's dramatic, it's exhausting - even if it's movement towards the good. In times of change many of the most wounded among us tend to add to our own stress by condemning ourselves for struggling. Not doing that - instead being kind to ourselves - is a change we can work on. Being tender with ourselves no matter what is change worth working on. You would think that would be easy, a no brainer, but for someone like me and others I know - it's one of the most challenging changes there is. Self judgment comes easy; self love... not so much.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• laughter
• cats
• orange-pineapple smoothies
• my microwave
• my house
• thermal windows and a nice view
• friends
• fall colors
• music
• computer games
• my brain
• my red chair
• hope
• the telephone
• SKYPE
• remote controls
• reiki

Have a Glorious day

Be Kind to Yourself

Daily Reminder # 133

If nothing changes, nothing changes. 


Old habits are really hard to break, especially for those of us who carry deep wounds from abuse. Most of us - at least those I know tend to demand superhuman feats from ourselves and then when we can't accomplish them we beat ourselves up because we have failed.... even when we haven't. 


So for today consider being kind to yourself. Change doesn't mean you have to climb Mt. Everest in a single day or solve the world's problems or perform every act you do with extraordinary grace and ease. It just means trying. Maybe it means packing or unpacking one box.  Or half a box. Maybe it even means letting some things go and trusting them to God. 


Maybe one of the things we need to change in this life is how we treat ourselves. I know that's a big one for me. 

Tara is really difficult to photograph. She tends to sit by the computer but
mostly at night when the light isn't good enough for good photos.And of
course the solid gray fur and the glowy eyes don't make it easy either, but I'm
posting a few pictures of her anyway, even though they don't do her justice.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• Tara Grace & Angel
• TV
• reiki
• friends
• my home
• my red chair
• ice cream
• watermelon
• water
• my mattress
• the right to vote
• absentee ballots
• life
• fall colors
• birds in flight

Have a Great Day

Be Kind to Yourself

Daily Reminder # 132

"If nothing changes, nothing changes"  


My friend E asked me to remind her of this when I send her the daily reminders so I thought I'd use it for tonight's reminder. I decided to google it and see if I found any interesting thoughts and was surprised to see that it often is phrased with the "if" in the second half of the sentence. I thought this was interesting because I experience it very differently depending on where the "if" sits. In the first version, I heard it as a call to patience. It made me think that change is always in process even when we don't know it, even when we can't see it taking place. As I wrote to E - we don't see the seed growing beneath the ground until the first shoot pops out from beneath the soil, but change is happening anyway.

Of course that was me being a touch obtuse since I guess the message is supposed to be that if we keep doing the same thing over and over we get the same results. (That's what google said.)  That's sage counsel... to modify how we do what we do even in small ways if we want things to happen differently. But I do think with that, we need to remember that change sometimes needs to germinate. Women are pregnant for 9 months. Inside the womb the baby grows and evolves and matures, but it remains in the womb until it is ready for life in the world.

I think personal growth is often like that too. Sometimes we can feel so totally stuck, like we are trying and trying and nothing is taking and then one day we wake up and realize that we have just been changing so slowly that we didn't see it happening, didn't recognize the slow erosion of the rock of our past habits into new shapes. At the same time they feel like they aren't happening, these deep changes are often agonizingly painful and very frightening. New patters can feel confusing and unsafe and leave us doubting our truth, doubting our capacity to succeed.  That's the status quo trying to call us back to who we were. It's not the truth, though. Change is complex, often mysterious, often slower than we wish it to be. Sometimes it comes from unexpected quarters. We think we are opening a door for it, and it pops in through the window.  It always comes though. Always. Have faith... in life and in yourself.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• faith
• hope
• cheese
• Angel and Tara Grace
• my friend E
• my home
• Life
• beauty
• fall colors
• seasons
• change
• stability
• patience
• life's paradoxes
• friends
• blue skies
• this moment
• tomorrow

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

Nothing changes, if nothing changes.

and I add this quote from Leonardo DaVinci

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do

against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases,

it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must

grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they

will then be powerless to vex your mind.  

Some Politics

Please scroll down for the Weekly Wordzzle Challenge and the Daily Reminder

A couple of  political items I thought worth sharing this morning.  A well done reminder about how important it is to vote (especially if you are a liberal).



And a wonderful, inspiring speech by Bill Moyers that falls into the "must read" category. I wish I could find video for it, but I haven't been able to.

http://www.ourfuture.org/institute/blog-entry/2010104008/honoring-common-causes-john-gardner-now-its-citizens-turn

Daily Reminder # 131

Well, I'm borrowing today's Daily Reminder from Neale Donald Walsh again. Today's advice is something I'm aware of, something I try to live by. But I forget about it way too often.  I think it's particularly good advice in these days of the kind of deranged political stuff going on in the US right now. I'm so disturbed by people like Sarah Palin and all the things that the folks in the Tea Party want to do to my country (I know, it's their country too) and the people in it. I'm disturbed that there are towns out there that would let someone's home burn to the ground because of failure to pay a $75 fee. I'm troubled that people begrudge their fellow citizens in need help with food or health care. And I get really caught up in it.... which is REALLY bad use of my brain and my thoughts. It makes me miserable and it gives power to the negative. Not to brag, but I recognized that to a degree when I was very young and I listened to people in church talk more about the Devil than about God. I thought... they think they worship God, but they don't actually trust God. Their faith - where they put their energy is into the Devil. But I digress.... I'll let Neale Walsh speak for himself.

On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know...

....that the mere apprehension of a coming evil has
put many into a situation of the utmost danger.

F.L. Lucan said that, and it is right. There is no faster way to bring about misfortune than to think it is coming. Thought is a powerful force, and it is a creative tool that many people give little energy to -- or abandon in the face of any real threat to safety or stability.

What are you worried about today? Why? Rather than worry about it, would it not be a better use of your mental time to visualize a positive outcome? Use your mind in this way today and you will have tapped one of the most extraordinary tools God has placed in your hand for the creation of your tomorrows.

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• fall colors
• water
• beauty
• music
• wordzzles
• words
• Angel and Tara Grace
• Neale Donald Walsh
• the power of thought
• mail
• movies
• the complexity of the human spirit
• hope

Have a Great Day!

Think Positive!