Simple Pleasures

Isaiah 30:21, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.'" (NIV)

I am snuggling up with The Devine today,  thanking the angels for giving me time with 2 people who could very easily be gone.  My cousin...and then my grandmother before I drove home.

I am back.  I had a wonderful time with 2 people special to me.  At a critical time in my cousins precious life.  But I am depleted and tired.  So I will enjoy hugs from my baby, cuddles from my chihuahuas and walks with the pup.  Eat some nutritious food, have my hot mint tea, my turmeric coffee in the morning,  my kombucha, do yoga and watch some Netflix.  I can pay bills and balance the checkbook tomorrow. 

Here is a picture of part of my hike I took in Arizona this past weekend. 

Enjoy your Thursday!

Out of the Dark 

From "As Bill Sees It"

"Self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. With it comes the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further. We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun."

Still Moving

DH brought trailer home from his brother's land yesterday.  We will load bikes and put extension ladder on it, fill the SUV and get as much as we can in back of my small truck.  This is first but not the last time we will take 2 vehicles.  It is a 4 hour drive from city house to retirement house.  We brought everything upstairs from storage room in basement last night to load, but we held off loading since it rained last night.  So, the CH is a mess.  I am so glad it looks like clear weather today to drive with the trailer.  DH will drive SUV with trailer.  I will drive truck and prob have the dogs ride with me.  I am tired already!  The weather is warming up fast here!  Looks like upper 80's today and then this weekend and all next week 90's.  I hope we don't get bad storms.
Have a happy memorial weekend.  I heard about Slabinski of Seal Team 6 getting a medal of honor.  I think it is sad the media is focusing on the controversy.  I wish our country could be more united.  Period.  I will just say a prayer for it and move on. 

How to Purge Stress

Nature
Ask
Meditation
Action
Sleep
Think
Exercise
Sorry this is so long.  But i guess i needed it.  Have been pretty stressed lately.  Situational stress I think.  But, stress is stress and many around me are stressed, so it has been on my mind...
I just had to google how to spell exercise.  It was because I hesitated on it.  If I just did it quick, I would have remembered, ha!  I cannot overthink or multi task anymore.  I think it is a product of age and overload.  I have this a lot, plus more and more senior moments!  Instead of letting this get me down, the past year or so since I almost lost my Granny - I include the thought that even though I am feeling my age more and more I am privileged to reach late middle age.
I read a post recently on one of my FB groups I like and the person was asking how to purge stress.  So I thought about it.  I have found myself thinking out this before I read this particular post.  I have thought about my own personal needs to try and figure out why I feel stress.  I use a coping skill.  I went through above and put some of my coping skills into an acronym.  These are not in order of importance. 
Nature - is what my mother used to tell me I needed.  When I was a young woman away from her in the city working on my career, she would sense on the phone if I was tired and say you need to go outside.  When is the last time you got out of the city.  Now you will even hear people put a label on this called "grounding".  My mother was ahead of her time.  I think the thing about nature is that it makes me aware the universe is much bigger than I - and that immediately changes my perspective.  Whatever problem or discomfort I have, I am not alone and I am not the center of the universe.  It will pass even if I do nothing.
Action - can I do something about the cause of the stress?  Can I make a list.  Can I figure out the worst case scenario and figure out a way to deal with that?  Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.  Maybe nothing even close to the worst will happen, but if I have planned for it JIC, then I am more ready.  I wonder if I should give up this philosophy, but old habits die hard.  The best action I can take is to just plan sometimes.  Planning helps steer me toward thinking before I take action and planning is an action in itself.  Can I plan a reward now or later to get me through something hard?
Meditation is sort of the exact opposite of Action, although the better I get at harnessing my thoughts, the closer it resembles action to me.  Focus on my breath, my heartbeat, my place in the universe, being still and present and I am automatically calmer.  Google the vagus nerve and how important it is.  It is truly amazing how much this nerve impacts our wellbeing.  And it is amazing how just some deep breathing will affect the vagus nerve.  I mentioned this to my cousin who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and she laughed and said "Vegas?!".  Well, it does sound the same.  I do think humor is important and it an integral part of my demeanor - but if I am too stressed, I cannot find the humor at first. 
Ask for help.  Either from a person or from the universe.  To me, asking the universe is prayer.  I give thanks for my blessings and ask for God to help me.  Even if you don't believe in God, by being a living creature we can look to the universe and to science.  Energy is undeniable.  If you need to feel better, harness energy.  Energy from art, music, laughter, beauty, nature, love.  Read an inspiring poem, book, etc.  I swear just the power of classical music can reduce my stress.  I often listen to celestial space music to help me sleep.
Sleep.  I have a chronic health condition and I have been trying to learn how to deal with it for most of my adult life.  My condition affects my digestion, my skin, my joints and my eyes.  It also gives me brain fog.  I get very depressed about my condition sometimes.  I have learned that stress and lack of sleep affect me very quickly when I have stress and lack of rest.  I have learned that by resting, I feel better.  This was a very hard adaptation for me.  I have never been one to get 8 hours of sleep.  Most of my education and professional life I got 4 -  6.  Well, not anymore I regularly get 8 and sometimes I even get 10.  And it is ok, my arse did not fall off!  Isn't that something I deserve without anything more?  Certainly something I have earned after working so hard so many years.  I plan to really experiment with this, maybe even take a nap once in a while (gasp).
Think.  Think of what is causing the stress.  Not the cause of the feeling of stress, but why whatever trigger created a reaction in me.  Is it something real?  Am I in danger?  Am I doing something that is inconsistent with my values?  Am i in fear?  Am I angry?  Am I tired?  Do i have a need that is not being met?  I took a nutrition course through my temp employer about 5 years ago.  It had to do with making good food and eating choices.  Many of our food choices are made out of emotion.  It taught me that we all have essential needs and if we can tune into what these
needs are, then we will be better able to find ways to meet these needs without food or other harmful substances and behaviors.  My vital needs are:  spirituality, order/closure, financial security, give/do for others, personal time, being with people, movement.
Exercise.  For me, this has been such a part of my personal hygiene that it is as normal as bathing and eating.  If i do not move, i pay for it.  I have had an active program of movement since i graduated from high school.  When i was in public school, we had PE.  PE lead to some sports and dance in high school and that caused me to think about how exercise benefits us.  I have done it regularly every since - 30+ years.  Not only does it cause neurotransmitters to be produced in our bodies - but it causes strength and tolerance, confidence and helps me clear my head.  I can't live without it.  I plan to be doing yoga and walking as long as I am literally able to move.
I hope someone reads this.  I get so much inspiration and connection from the things i read, especially blogs because they are so personal and not agenda driven.  I hope someone can connect with me on this entry.  What have i left out?  What do you do to combat stress?

Perspective

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/?m=1
I am struggling a little with some personal stuff in my life with family.  Aren't we all?  I am worried about my niece and her getting married.  I project my own mistakes and choices and have a hard time talking to my sister.  She is VERY quiet and private and deals with things much differently than I.  So, I have a cousin I am close too also dealing with mid life, worry about our family older and younger family.  The sandwich years.  Hahaha.  But she and I deal with stuff by talking about it.  We have emailed back and forth a lot lately.  It really helps.  What I come away with essentially is that all these things that feel overwhelming.  I take then to God.  I believe in something bigger than me.  If I have a friend of loved one that does not believe in God, then I can talk to the nature/universe/harmony type of thing.  I don't have a problem couching it like that.  If someone thinks that is wrong, then that is a religion I would not be comfortable with.  Wow, religion...how did I get here?  Talk about a blog bomb!  Boom.  But, I know that opinions come from people with life experience.  Complicated, multilayered, unique and sometimes messy lives.  I just know what works for me is perspective.  I am learning later in life to sit back and be quiet and listen, likely my perspective will be seasoned if I let it.
Hope your Wednesday speaks to your heart today.

D for Debt

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/?m=1
I realized I am a letter behind.  I will catch up Monday.
Debt is a symptom.  Maybe people go into debt because they don't know anything else.  Maybe people go into debt to avoid dealing with something.  At the basic level, debt is spending more than you make.  Or, at least choosing to pay later instead of sooner. 
Speaking of debt, now my girl Chihuahua is sick.  In the last 2 months, between getting cat all her shots so she could live safely with my friend's cats for a few months and my 2 dogs being sick, I think we have spent over $1300.  All of it charged...then the usual expenses confronted in the first part of a year...taxes, continuing education, professional licenses, HOA...then the bathroom tile...I am on a strict no spending plan now.  Which means I have to work to earn...so after being up most of the night with my sick female dog, I sure did want to stay home today.  But I managed to get up and in on time.  I am glad DH has a work from home day, he can keep an eye on her.  All she did was whimper last night.  We took her to emergency vet, they ruled out anything obvious/life threatening, so we brought her home.  She has been increasingly uncomfortable last 3 days, culminating in extreme discomfort and vomiting last night. 
Also speaking of debt, the opposite of it.  Before I got home to find my little girl sick, I spent time with my dear grandmother.  She and I went through a coin collection of hers and counted it all out and catalogued it so that DH and I can liquidate it for her.  it was $70 and some change face value but included some old coins, steel pennies, some Mercury and Liberty dimes and other silver coins, like some old quarters.  She will be happy to get that done, she said she might as well do it now and enjoy a treat - I wholeheartedly agree.
How will you treat yourselves today?  I am going to say some prayers and breathe deep and go to 2nd hot yoga this week, tonight and bed at 8:30pm!  I do have a man that saw my "coming soon" house listing.  He wants to see it when we are ready to show it.  That is a little treat, even if nothing comes of it.  I realized a certain number of people going to have to see our listing before we find "the one".  Have a great Thursday!
Psalm 50:10-11 “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.”

Blogging for a month

10/25/17
Blogging for a month

So, while I am a little quieter this week, I still want to continue blogging.  I am not sure these are even published because when I google, I can't locate.  I can just access it via Blogger on my cell phone.

Oh, well.  Not even sure if I care, but I would like to connect with someone else out there. 

I guess I am quiet this week because I am all talked out from this weekend!  There are a few people in my family that I worry about for various reasons.  Sometimes that worry gets overwhelming, not because of the worry itself, but because I know I could help if I were asked, but I cannot help unless the people want me to help.  So, it feels frustrating being helpless.  Then I remember the best way I probably can help is to work on myself and pray for those people.

The weather is turning a little cooler.  Getting darker.  I am going to run home after work and walk, no matter what!  When my husband and I walked Sunday afternoon we saw a new to us bird - a cormorant.  It was cool.  We also found the 5 gal bucket of brand new paint.  My sister has decided this will be good for the well house/storage they are building.  I am happy to save her $100 on paint!  I am happy it is just in my garage temporarily!

My stomach is feeling good this week which is amazing considering I ate too much and most of it junk this past weekend.  But I am doing pretty well.  It helped that I backed way off Sunday and I have not been eating anything except fruit in the evenings.  Tonight I might have a smoothie. 

This is the last weekend before Halloween.  I think Sat my husband and I are going to go out and see my Brother in Law (BIL2) play with his band.  We never go out, we are home bodies.  We especially never go to bars or clubs.  We usu eat out and relax and make an evening out of it, so it will be fun.  I am glad we don't do it often, I can't stay up too late, I am early to bed kind of person.  Have a great Wednesday!

blogging anniversary, quiet, cooler fall weather, family worry, how I can help, prayer, work on myself, feeling pretty good, walking, listening to brother in law, BIL band, light eating