Choose Happiness!

I have lifted the entire post of  Joshua Becker from the blog Becoming Minimalist because it is such good advice. Let's choose one of these actions TODAY!

Consider this list of 12 Intentional Actions to Choose Happiness Today. Embrace one new action item… practice all of them… or simply use them as inspiration to discover your own.

1. Count your blessings. Happy people choose to focus on the positive aspects of life rather than the negative. They set their minds on specific reasons to be grateful. They express it when possible. And they quickly discover there is always, always, something to be grateful for.

2. Carry a smile. A smile is a wonderful beautifier. But more than that, studies indicate that making an emotion-filled face carries influence over the feelings processed by the brain. Our facial expression can influence our brain in just the same way our brains influence our face. In other words, you can actually program yourself to experience happiness by choosing to smile. Not to mention, all the pretty smiles you’ll receive in return for flashing yours is also guaranteed to increase your happiness level

3. Speak daily affirmation into your life. Affirmations are positive thoughts accompanied with affirmative beliefs and personal statements of truth. They are recited in the first person, present tense (“I am…”). Affirmations used daily can release stress, build confidence, and improve outlook. For maximum effectiveness, affirmations should be chosen carefully, be based in truth, and address current needs. Here is a list of 100 daily affirmations to help you get started.

4.Wake up on your terms. Most of us have alarm clocks programmed because of the expectations of others: a workplace, a school, or a waking child. That’s probably not going to change. But that doesn’t mean we have to lose control over our mornings in the process. Wake up just a little bit early and establish an empowering, meaningful, morning routine. Start each day on your terms. The next 23 hours will thank you for it.

5. Hold back a complaint. The next time you want to lash out in verbal complaint towards a person, a situation, or yourself, don’t. Instead, humbly keep it to yourself. You’ll likely diffuse an unhealthy, unhappy environment. But more than that, you’ll experience joy by choosing peace in a difficult situation.

6. Practice one life-improving discipline. There is happiness and fulfillment to be found in personal growth. To know that you have intentionally devoted time and energy to personal improvement is one of the most satisfying feelings you’ll ever experience. Embrace and practice at least one act of self-discipline each day. This could be exercise, budgeting, or guided-learning… whatever your life needs today to continue growing. Find it. Practice it. Celebrate it.

7. Use your strengths. Each of us have natural talents, strengths, and abilities. And when we use them effectively, we feel alive and comfortable in our skin. They help us find joy in our being and happiness in our design. So embrace your strengths and choose to operate within your giftedness each day. If you need to find this outlet outside your employment, by all means, find this outlet.

8. Accomplish one important task. Because happy people choose happiness, they take control over their lives. They don’t make decisions based on a need to pursue joy. Instead, they operate out of the satisfaction they have already chosen. They realize there are demands on their time, helpful pursuits to accomplish, and important contributions to make to the world around them. Choose one important task that you can accomplish each day. And find joy in your contribution.

9. Eat a healthy meal/snack. We are spiritual, emotional, and mental beings. We are also physical bodies. Our lives cannot be wholly separated into its parts. As a result, one aspect always influences the others. For example, our physical bodies will always have impact over our spiritual and emotional well-being. Therefore, caring for our physical well-being can have significant benefit for our emotional standing. One simple action to choose happiness today is to eat healthy foods. Your physical body will thank you… and so will your emotional well-being.

10. Treat others well. Everyone wants to be treated kindly. But more than that, deep down, we also want to treat others with the same respect that we would like given to us. Treat everyone you meet with kindness, patience, and grace. The Golden Rule is a powerful standard. It benefits the receiver. But also brings growing satisfaction in yourself as you seek to treat others as you would like to be treated.

11. Meditate. Find time alone in solitude. As our world increases in speed and noise, the ability to withdraw becomes even more essential. Studies confirm the importance and life-giving benefits of meditation. So take time to make time. And use meditation to search inward, connect spiritually, and improve your happiness today.

12. Search for benefit in your pain. This life can be difficult. Nobody escapes without pain. At some point—in some way—we all encounter it. When you do, remind yourself again that the trials may be difficult, but they will pass. And search deep to find meaning in the pain. Choose to look for the benefits that can be found in your trial. At the very least, perseverance is being built. And most likely, an ability to comfort others in their pain is also being developed.

Go today. Choose joy and be happy. That will make two of us.

From here.http://www.becomingminimalist.com/choose-happy/

Appreciate Someone!

My daughter AE in Seattle sent me a link to an article by a mom about six important words to say to a child:

"I love to watch you ________________."

The author describes the feeling of love for another that is underneath our regard of others and how we should share that:

"When simply watching someone makes your heart feel as if it could explode right out of your chest, you really should let that person know."

This essay is about all people, not only children and their parents. I think this is important to read, so please go and read:

Six Words You Should Say Today!

I am glad I read this. It is from the blog Hands Free Mama.

Live Gratitude

From Ellie at The Anchorhold.

For the New Year!

My blogging friend Ellie posted this on Facebook from Suzy's Daily Quotes, and I think it's a good idea. In fact, I wish I could do this for 2012 on New Year's Eve this year.

Start on January 1st with an empty jar. Throughout the year write the good things that happened to you on little pieces of paper. On December 31st, open the jar and read all the amazing things that happened to you that year.~pinterest

Dear Friends

Fan and Joe, dear friends who now live in Colorado, sent me these beautiful tulips this week. They arrived on Wednesday, the second day of my "pitiful me" time, a perfect gift at the time I needed it most. They still look bright and cheery on our kitchen table.

I am lucky to have such dear friends like Joe and Fan, who continue to send me cards and emails, give me rides, and even bring me food. Just today my longest-enduring-friend of Corpus Christi, Lisa, brought us dinner and stayed and visited awhile. Bringing along memories with her, she made us a pasta casserole from the old La Leche League cookbook that was published in 1982.

Another friend stopped by my house on her way to get her hair cut. Since she comes a long distance, I appreciate her taking the time so that we could sit together outside for a short chat.

And always on call is my dear husband, without whom I would not get dressed every day!

I am rich in friends and loved ones. How can I feel sorry for myself when I am so fortunate? (Plus, I am feeling better!)

Gratitude

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity;
it must be produced and discharged and used up
in order to exist at all."

~~William Faulkner

With thanks to my friend Pam who gave the Sunday School class on "gratitude." This is where she also recommended looking at your least-favorite event in your life and trying to turn it around to discern what in it brings forth gratitude.

My Pity Party

Today a friend presented the word "gratefulness" in our Sunday School class time. She recommended looking at your least-favorite event in your life and trying to turn it around to discern what in it brings forth gratitude.

Instead, I am going to list all the things that are bothering me right now, most of which pertain to my shoulder surgery. Maybe this will get it out of my system. So skip my whining, if you'd like.

• I am right-handed, so it is hard to do almost everything with my left hand.
• I cannot dress myself, so I am lucky that I have a husband around to help.
• I cannot even put on my bra by myself. In fact, it is often painful to get it on and off with my right arm being manipulated.
• I cannot drive the car yet, but I have a willing husband and friends who offer to help.
• The only pair of pants I have to wear is a pair of black pull-ons. I tried to wear jeans yesterday, but couldn't zip and button them on my own.
• It is difficult to be dressed for cold weather, because my arm in a jacket does not fit comfortably in the sling. So I have my left arm in the sweater/jacket, with it draped over my right shoulder. It is a good thing I live in TX, so it is not as cold as elsewhere.
• I have to wear the sling to bed and all day long--ALL THE TIME and will have to wear it for SIX weeks! (1 1/2 weeks down. . . .)
• I cannot raise my arm and let it hang down. In fact, I am supposed to support it all the time it is not in the sling, which is seldom.
  
• It is very difficult and slow to brush and floss my teeth, and it doesn't seem like I am doing it well enough.
  
• I cannot blow dry my hair, so my husband partially dries it and then we let it air dry.
• It is really hard to put mascara on with my left hand, especially onto my right eye!
• I cannot hang clothes on the clothesline.
• Going to bed is the worst time of the day, because it is hard to get comfortable, especially because the incision is on the back of my shoulder, which is also where the torn muscle is.
• I cannot go to my aerobic swimming classes.
• Being so much stiller than usual gets me wanting to eat and munch. I'm better when husband CB cuts an apple up for me to eat.
  

Surgery to repair the infraspinatus muscle was done on Jan. 4 by an excellent orthopedic surgeon, who removed the staples from the three incisions three days ago. He and the physical therapist have both stressed that I must keep my right elbow close to my body and not raise my arm or let it hang down. Pam, the physical therapist, told me to think of the injury as a fracture, because when the muscle was ripped from the bone, it took some of the bone with it. I guess I can understand the importance of keeping the shoulder still if I think of it as a fractured bone.

I am fortunate to have a good surgeon and that I already had the surgery. The pain is lessening. I know I am getting better; it just seems SLOW!

Living Gratefully

There are many things to be grateful "for" but,
as I ripen with the seasons of life,
the many reasons blend into a sacred mystery.
And, most deeply, I realize that living gratefully is its own blessing.

Michael Mahoney

To receive such quotations every day, subscribe to Word for the Day at Gratefulness.org.

Thursday Thank You's

I believe what Meister Eckhart wrote: if the only prayer you ever say is "THANK YOU," that is enough! So here is a gratitude list of "thank you's" for today:

• Avery's baptism this past Sunday with family and friends joining us for the celebration!

• The thank you note I received from one of Avery's parents' friends, thanking us for inviting them to a luncheon, which they were even unable to attend! This reminds me of my long-time friend Nancy, who told me when we were teenagers that her mother sometimes said she needed to thank me for my thank you note! I have felt that way ever since I found this card in my mailbox!

• The return of pain and swelling in my hands and wrists are reminding me that I am grateful that I am starting the next stage of RA medication on Monday, when I take my first shot of Humira. Every other week injections will be my life for awhile (forever?). I am also grateful that my insurance company will pay for these extremely expensive drugs--also the determining factor of my continued usage of Humira and other such medicines.

• I am trying off-and-on to appreciate the inner turmoil I am experiencing about criticism and feeling-like-rejection from someone who used to live here. Intellectually, I can be removed, but within, I am hurt.

• Mail--Not only that thank you note but notes from a friend visiting in Maine and from my oldest daughter AE in Seattle!

Pray "Thank You"

Every time you express gratitude or compassion for any aspect of yourself or someone else, you breathe life in.

Mariah Fenton Gladis
Tales of a Wounded Healer

To receive such quotations every day, subscribe to Word for the Day at Gratefulness.org.

This reminds me of Meister Eckhart's admonition
that the only prayer necessary is
"THANK YOU."

My Kick in the Butt

I don't know that I "really needed" to get a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, but I can see that it has pushed me to get more exercise. The heat and humidity deter me from walking here, but that is not all-year-round--just now (until October). After walking in the mall this morning and then going to Splash Aerobics at the YWCA, I appreciate the physical activity for today.

So on this last Saturday in May, I am going to list what I am grateful for, some of which is due to my illness:

• Joining the YWCA and attending water exercise classes.

• Having a walking friend on Saturday mornings at the mall. Even when she doesn't join me, I walk! I also appreciate my walking friend for Sunday nights.

• Getting in to see the rheumatologist, Dr. P, so quickly. I have already had two appointments with him, while the other physician scheduled me for my first appointment on August 8, which I cancelled.

• Being diagnosed with RA now, rather than 15-30 years ago, when the only analgesic to relieve pain was aspirin. Lots of research has been done, especially in the last decade.
  

• Husband CB reading How to Eat Away Arthritis, even though it is unscientific, which usually stops him in his tracks. In a week or so, we will both try the fasting diet, which sounds strenuously healthy and should helps us lose weight, if nothing else.

• Getting an excellent book about arthritis in the mail yesterday: A Resilient Life: Learning to Thrive, Not just Survive Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is written by an occupational therapist who has had RA since she was a child; I am grateful that I have not had to suffer like she did growing up.

• RA keeps motivating me to meditate more frequently. This is really from God's nudges. The old adage that the more you pray, the more you want to, is true. I look forward to sitting at least twice a day for 20 minutes, but have been doing that more often, too.

• I really like meditating with the Equanimity app on my Ipod Touch. It is lovely to be invited into the silence with a gentle gonging bell, which also ends the time I have chosen.
  

• MJ flying home from her semester in Spain on TUESDAY!

• Seeing son BJ for about 15 minutes yesterday, as he dropped off his hyper Springer Spaniel Troy to spend the weekend with us. BJ and friends are renting a house on the beach in Port Aransas for this Memorial Day weekend.

• Troy is a loving dog, who is keeping Maisie more active than usual.
  

• Yesterday (May 27) was the 42nd anniversary of our first date! (Really, the anniversary of our "second" date, because the result of our initial dating period the year before was dislike.)
  

Thankful Thursday

After reading two thankful posts by blogging friends (Anne and The Bug), I feel impelled to express my gratitude, too.

When my husband visited our family doctor for a routine appointment, he used his cell phone so the doctor could immediately talk to me! That was much better than waiting around for Dr. S. to return my phone call, which is understandable but time-consuming. He wrote an additional prescription for Prednisone, while telling me how much I can safely take in Spain. (Yay!) But the really good news is that I can increase my daily dose up to an entire pill (10 mg.), since the pain, swelling, etc. are not totally eliminated by the half-dose.

I am hoping this will improve my life, as the worst part of the "non-specific arthritic" pain has been in my right hand and wrist lately, so much that it has been difficult to write with a pen and even limits my time typing on the computer. That has greatly diminished my blogging time, both posting and reading (or commenting) other blogs.

I am thankful for this today and for the future better-well-being.

Thanksgiving

Sanctuary, All Saints Episcopal Church
Corpus Christi, TX

I am grateful that I rejoined the Episcopal Church some years ago; though I didn't really "rejoin" because I "re-activated" my membership. The Methodist Church was a good beginning for my faith renewal in the 1990's; it is also where I learned what a community meant. It was the first place I knew people prayed for me and wanted me around.

However, yesterday I attended a funeral there for an elderly lady (Annelle) in the Conley-Wesley class, which no longer exists. The Conley-Wesley class started out in the early 20th Century as a large group (100+) of women. By the time I started teaching Sunday School classes there in the mid-90's, there could be 20 older women attending. As time went on ladies died, moved away, or were too ill to come. When the class closed about seven years ago, there were only two elderly women left, one of whom died this past week. I still taught every two months of each year until the demise of the class, which occurred about a year before I moved back to the Episcopal Church.

After the funeral, someone asked me if I was still going to "that" Episcopal Church. When I affirmed that, telling her that three of our four children had been baptized there in the 1980's, she then asked disapprovingly, "Isn't that church liberal?" Yes, it is!

I am grateful for the accepting, open-minded, and friendly people at All Saints Episcopal Church. The choir and liturgy on Sundays create a holy atmosphere. Today we are having one service, followed by a pot-luck. There is macaroni and cheese baking in my oven as I write this. (I wonder if people will like homemade macaroni and cheese, instead of the boxed variety.) Just as I once found a home at First United Methodist Church, I am grateful to be in the All Saints family now.

December 21, 2010

Today is CB's and my 39th wedding anniversary! Somehow "39" sounds worse than next year's 40. It is amazing to have been married so long. Tonight at dinner, CB told me that it took us 39 years to get a grandchild! (That doesn't make sense in some ways; it took us that long to have a child who is 31 years old.)

AE and KA flew from Seattle with their cocker spaniel Morgan today. MJ went to Austin to pick them up; they are driving here right now. They should all arrive sometime after 11 pm. YAY! It's too bad it is so warm and humid right now.

The other children, one grandchild, and two dogs will arrive tomorrow. What a full house we will have, and how happy we are!

I am very grateful for my life, family and friends.

Blessings Abound

Photo: Keith Syvinski, Autumn Colors
Design: Patricia Carlson
www.gratefulness.org

Blessing 2

These two quotes, from yesterday and today, speak of receiving God's blessing and returning the blessing, creating a continuous circle or world of blessing, love. (However, the following words were written by an Orthodox theologian in patristic language. The italics in parentheses are my way of trying to be inclusive.)

"Man is a hungry being. But he is hungry for God. Behind all the hunger of our life is God. All desire is finally a desire for God. To be sure, man (humanity) is not the only hungry being. All that exists lives by 'eating.' The whole creation depends on food. But the unique position of man (humankind) in the universe is the he (she) alone is to BLESS God for the food and the life he (she) receives from God. He (A human) alone is to respond to God's blessing with his (her) blessing. . .

"To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it. And in the Bible to bless God is not a 'religious' or a 'cultic' act, but the very WAY OF LIFE. God blessed the world, blessed men (humanity), blessed the seventh day (that is, time), and this means that God filled all that exists with God's love and goodness, made all this 'very good.' So the only NATURAL (and not 'supernatural') reaction of man (humankind), to whom God gave this blessed and sanctified world, is to bless God in return, to thank God, to SEE the world as God sees it and--in this act of gratitude and adoration--to know, name, and possess the world. . . The first, the basic definition of man (humanity) is that he (she) is THE PRIEST. He (Humanity) stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his (her) act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God--and by filling the world with this eucharist, he (she) transforms his (her) life, the one that he (she) receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with God."

~~Alexander Schemann in For the Life of the World

Blessing 1

"Blessing involves relationship: one does not bless without investing something of oneself into the receiver of one's blessing. And one does not receive blessing oblivious of its gracious giver. A blessing spirituality is a relating spirituality. And if it is true that all of creation flows from a single, loving source, then all of creation is blessed and is a blessing, atom to atom, molecule to molecule, organism to organism, land to plants, plants to animals, animals to other people, people to people, and back to atoms, molecules, plants, fishes."

~~Matthew Fox in Original Blessing

Splat!

I needed a sign like this on Thursday when I fell flat on my face, not being aware of "the present moment" at all. While CB was flying back to TX from Seattle, AE, MJ and I were wandering around downtown Ballard. When it was time to return to our parked car, we were rushing along and suddenly I fell SPLAT! My sandal had caught on the uneven sidewalk by a construction site.

I remember AE asking me if I could get up; as I lay there, I said "I don't know." Blood was flowing out of my mouth, but I was more concerned with my knee hurting. A nice lady gave me many tissues from her purse as I tried to stand.

AE drove me back to her house where the girls gave me sacks of ice to put on my mouth and on my knee. (As I write this on Monday, I can say that ice really helps a body to recover. I have a huge bruise on my left knee, but hardly any on the right which I kept ice on for hours.) AE called friend Terry and the local hospital to see where I should go with a hole gaping open from below my lower lip.

She and MJ got me to the Ballard Swedish Medical Center Emergency Room. Luckily, it was in the mid-afternoon and not in a major Seattle hospital. AE filled out all the paperwork for me, and I was surprised that I was shaking so much when I tried to sign my name. I was well taken care of and ended up with two stitches below my lip. The shots to prepare for the stitches were the worst part of all that!

Even with the ice, my mouth and chin were very swollen. It looked like someone punched me in the mouth! (Today is the first day there seems to be little swelling; tomorrow my own doctor will take out the stitches.)

Daughters AE, MJ, and KA were wonderful at taking care of me and later brought me Thai soup while I lay on Terry and Dennis' basement guest bed. It was so comforting to have family and friends caring for me. I feel very fortunate that I did not hurt myself more or break something.

Friday Five: Home Is Where the Heart Is

Today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five post is brought by Kathrynzj. Since we got off the Alaska Ferry in Bellingham this morning, I can finally participate in a Friday Five again!

The plan is to list five things I like about where I live now, Corpus Christi, Texas:

1. I've lived there longer than I have ever lived anywhere else in my life, since I grew up moving around with my dad in the Marine Corps. Counting three successive periods, I have lived there for 29 years.

2. I have many good friends who live in Corpus Christi.

3. I can hang clothes out on my clothesline almost every day.

4. The sun frequently shines; I am not sure I could manage to happily live during all the gray, drizzly days of the Pacific Northwest, especially in the colder times of the year.

5. We have various physicians who know and care about us; this is something that gets more important as we age.

I DO NOT LIKE the LONG period of heat and humidity that goes from April/May to the end of October! This almost negates all the good things listed above!

(In an ideal world, we would live in Bellingham, WA in the summer and in Corpus Christi in the winter. Often during the winter months, it feels like a "Bellingham summer" in Corpus Christi!)

Grateful for Friends

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force.
The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward.
When we are listened to,
it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.

~~Karl Menninger

I am grateful for my friends, near and faraway, as well as blogging friends.