Empty!

by MonkiFenn

That's how I feel but am trying to remember:

"Ignore your inner nagging thoughts. They are seldom accurate perceptions of what you are actually achieving. It is deeply unfair to criticize your navigation skills when taking a journey into unknown territory. Try not to demoralize yourself. I call my first draft “the Lewis and Clark.” Any freaking way to the coast is the correct way! Do not criticize yourself for the odd wrong turn, the weather slowing you down, having to stop for supplies. There is no bad route when you are on a voyage of discovery. Just keep going!"
PEN DENSHAM

Watch and Smile!

Post by Bhaskar Rao.

Crazy Texas Weather

By Dave Granlund

All the hype leading up to the latest Arctic cold front that reached us last night resulted in near-panic for many Texans. Here in Corpus Christi today the low temperature was 31 degrees F. and the high temperature was 36 degrees F. That is in great contrast to just yesterday when it was 40 degrees warmer!

And tomorrow it is projected to be 30 degrees warmer, with a high temperature of 64 degrees F.

So in three days, the high temperatures have fluctuated widely:

Thursday 74  ---->   Friday 36 ---->   Saturday  64

It can be crazy around here!

Friday Five: Too Late!!

Many apologies for this very late Friday Five. Going out of town all day and not paying attention to the calendar, I mistakenly thought I was bringing next week’s FF. So here goes:

Have you ever been late? List five ways you have been late, remembering it is “Never Too Late To Love!”

1. Late with today's Friday Five AND yesterday's Thursday Prayer
I seem to be forgetting dates lately, as I am overwhelmed with the possibility of writing (or not) the three scholarly papers for the Master's Degree in Theology from Oblate School of Theology.

I have lots of excuses but no papers, not even the topics chosen. How will I ever get this done by the end of this semester? Panic.

So with embarrassment and apologies, I commit to pay more attention. (This is especially ironic considering the weekly book study group I lead, The Wisdom Class, is reading and discussing Awareness by Anthony de Mello.)

2. Late with piano practicing.
As I posted on Facebook yesterday, I sometimes forget such daily (so-called) disciplines as practicing the piano and centering prayer. If I just get started each time, I recognize how much I love doing these activities. . . .

That is a perfect image to go along with today's mishap. It's a Bitstrip cartoon, which I discovered through several other RevGals on Facebook.

3. Forgotten appointment
Forgetting an appointment for a massage, my massage therapist called me up to remind me. I've seen her since 1995, and I appreciate our connection. This year she began to text me to remind me ahead of time!

4. Late with papers
This is the biggest laxity on my part that is plaguing me. Having grown up in a family where denial of alcoholism was major, I easily fall back into denial. That's the only way I can describe my lack of participation last semester--I blocked it out of my consciousness. During this time I celebrated the birth of our second granddaughter and visited her a lot. However, excuses don't help.

Another preoccupation was the gift of an Ipad for my birthday, and that is so much fun to play on.

My daughter AE gave me a funny book about the over-use of technology for Christmas (when all four children and their spouses were home!)--Good Night, Ipad! It is authored by "Ann Droyd."

5. Just late
As I have been writing this FF, I keep thinking of Saint Augustine:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

from The Confessions of Saint Augustine

Do Your Little Bit

Found on Facebook from Kissing Fish

And I just learned about and ordered the book Kissing Fish: Christianity for People Who Don't Like Christianity by the same person, Roger Woolsey. The Kindle edition only costs $3.03!

Friday Five: Random

Today's Friday Five is brought to us by Revjkarla:

I am feeling all in the moment, or at least the past few days moment, so our random FF is focused on the last couple of days (or week, or however you want to interpret this….)

So, without further ado….

1.  What is the best thing you have had to eat in the last couple of days?

Mint M % M's, which if indulged in yesterday despite my commitment to health-full eating.

2.  What is the topic/subject of the best thing you have read in the last couple of days?

Decluttering, as I am reading The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Living Guide by Francine Jay on my Kindle.

3.  Who would you like to give a shout out to that has been in your life the last couple of days?

My cousin Margaret, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She called to ask if she and her grown daughter Kathy could bring Kathy's two small children (the same ages as my granddaughters Emma and Avery) to visit in February! I am thrilled that they would like to make this big trip!

4.  How have you practiced self-care in the last couple of days?

Walking at the mall each day and having a massage yesterday.

5.   Use the following words in a sentence:    couple, shutter, smile, pillow, groan, skip, baby elephant, red shoes.

No groaning for the baby elephant in her red shoes, because she smiled as she skipped over the pillow to the couple of friends sitting nearby.

For A New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

          where your thoughts never think to wander,

          this beginning has been quietly forming,

                    waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

          feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

          noticing how you willed yourself on,

                    still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

          and the gray promises that sameness whispered,

          heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

                    wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

          and out you stepped onto new ground,

          your eyes young again with energy and dream,

                    a path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

          you can trust the promise of this opening;

          unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

                    that is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

          hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

          soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

                    for your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Begin!

O, Begin!

Fix some part of every day for private exercises. . . . 

Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily.

It is for your life; there is no other way:

else you will be trifler all your days. . . .

Do justice to your own soul;

give it time and means to grow.

Do not starve yourself any longer.

~John Wesley

2014 Books

With this being the third of January of 2014, I have decided to keep track of the books I read this year. I did this for a few years when I first began my blog eight years ago and would like to do it again. You can see the list to the right of this post.

I read about Crossing for Safety by Wallace Earle Stegner somewhere on the internet and bought a used copy. It was published in 1988, when I had three children and was not reading much except quick mysteries. Its description as a quiet book about two couples intrigued me, as well as the date of its publication.

The narrator of the book is the male member of one of the couples, who is about 64. That is almost my age, so his reflections seemed relevant as to our age perspectives. These couples met while they were in graduate school. The book chronicles with flashbacks their relationships and challenges as they grow and change. It is an interesting book.

It evidently was the last book that Wallace Stegner wrote before his death in 1993. It was so well-written that I plan to read more of his books, but will get them from the public library if possible.

Friday Five: Turn the Page!

3DogMom brings today's Friday Five to RevGalBlogPals:

Whether or not we make resolutions with the new year, we all transition to a new, physical calendar. In recent years my favorite wall calendar is called Pooped Puppies, a monthly collection of sleepy, or sleeping, pups that can’t help but evoke an “awwwww.” for many years my godmother gave me a flat, weekly desk calendar that featured National Geographic photos. One of the great things about calendars is that for each of us they fulfill the “form and function” requirement–a place to indulge an interest while serving a purpose.
 For today’s FF, tell us about five calendar themes that you like to see hanging on your walls or going with you to appointments, or that you WISH existed to adorn and accompany your life.



I have not been blogging much lately, but this Friday Five clicks with me because I love calendars and always write friends' birthdays on my new calendar on New Year's Day. I have done that since I was in college, which was more than four decades ago.

1. Kitchen calendar: I take time on my trips to look for calendars and tend to choose ones that are of nature, especially trees. This is the one that has everyone's birthday listed.


2. Birthday calendar: When I was younger, I had a book calendar that listed everybody's birthdays, but that was always mislaid. I just got a birthday calendar for the wall from Etsy.com. It also had pictures of trees, but are the creator's renditions. It may be a more permanent choice in the future, though the tradition of writing on the calendar on New Year's Day may be one I am not ready to surrender. I still need to record the birthdays on this one though.
 
3. Google calendar: This online calendar on both my iphone and ipad helps me to keep track of regular commitments, especially my RA medications--once weekly of Methotextrate pills and bi-weekly injections of Humira. The latter one can be confusing in the rush of life (holidays most recently).

4. Check-off calendar: For the new year, I resurrected a form I created about five years ago with weekly check-off squares for daily disciplines of meditation, piano practice, walking, etc. Some habits are in place, but not all of them. Physically marking off a box and seeing the monthly results on the bathroom wall will (hopefully) give me positive reinforcement to continue.

5. Mental calendar: This may not be as dependable as it has been in past years--remembering appointments, regular events. I've missed the last TWO Thursdays for posting prayers at RevGalBlogPals, and so I need to depend less on my brain's remembering and write more things down! My awareness of this not working as well as it used to makes me realize that I need to put more reminders somewhere.