Tag: #Blogging

Feel the Music

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Last week I saw Rascal Flatts in an old episode of CSI Las Vegas and wondered, “Where’d he go?”

This morning a fellow Blogger popped into my mind. I hadn’t read anything from them in a while, so I went to their page just to make sure I hadn’t missed a post. No, but I saw it’s been a couple of months since they’ve posted, so I filled in the online form letting them know they’re missed.

Every Writer hears the inner critic telling us to lay down the pen, and we justify it with, “Nobody will notice.” Oh my darling, I notice.

This Blogger has a page of quotes, and I copied the quote below to share. After reading it, I was going to post only the quote and title the Blog, “My Wish”. That reminded me of a song by Rascal Flatts which I’d sing for my daughter, so I Googled the song. Then I realized tomorrow is Sunday, and I hadn’t written a feel the music in a couple of weeks, so here we are!

You can see how this post fell together with a start of two thoughts colliding. This wish is for the upcoming year.

“I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.” (Neil Gaiman)

And here’s another wish.

I hope you feel the love in both.

Self Care Sunday

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I texted my daughter, “When you walk out of Whole Foods with a French baguette, hearts of Romaine, and Stumptown Chocolate cold brew?” She replied, “Sounds like self-care to me!”

Sunday feels like an appropriate day for self care as it was planned to be. My work doesn’t offer much time off on Sunday, so I’ve been watching for windows of time on Monday or Wednesday. Have to admit though, Self Care Monday doesn’t sound the same! 

Writing is a form of self care because if I see an hour of sacred space opening up, I’m gonna write. I wait for it and start typing. For me, it’s not about finding the time to write, it’s about finding the sacred space. We will make time for what’s important, and writing is like breathing to me. It hasn’t always been that way, but it became that way after clicking publish 100’s of times.

A good gauge for selfcare is my neighbor. The more often I can walk over and spend time with him, the better. If I don’t see him all week, it’s time to look at my week. Sitting with him on his front porch, he took one look at his dog and said, “I’m taking an hour this week just for me.” He gives a lotta love to dogs and they are spoiled, but he knows he needs some time without them.

I was happy to hear him say that.

He knows taking time for himself, even for an hour, will make him a better person to be around. Maybe we can’t take a full day and call it Selfcare Sunday, but we can carve out some time for ourselves when it’s important, and I believe it’s vital.

There are seven days in the week to choose from, so pick one. Name it and claim it as your very own self care Sunday.

One More Time

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The most gratifying part of Blogging is the readers.

You never know who you’re gong to reach, or who your words will touch. The phrase, “I’m just gonna write in hopes that someone needs to read it”, has served me well. The good night’s sleep series was fun to write, but my reward was you reading it. You encouraged me with your comments to continue the path.

To just write about it one more time.

This wasn’t a planned series. What began as an experiment in August to find out why I wasn’t sleeping good was fun to share. So, I started with the main one being a good night’s sleep, and then you nudged me on toward the next one, until there were five!

A lot of you could relate to watching TV before bed, and there were a few that recalled those early days of the Twilight Zone. The original Twilight Zone, in black and white from the early 60’s, still haunts us. Maybe there was an episode entitled, ‘2020’ that never aired because it was too unbelievable. 🙂

Photo by Shelby Miller on Unsplash

What truly thrills my soul is when you become inspired. You read something and feel a spark, and then you fan it until it grows into a flame to light the page. That is what happened with one of my Reader’s, and here’s part of his comment, “I’ve always been blessed with good sleep. In fact, I now wonder why I haven’t ever written about it. One thing for sure, placing a “do not disturb” rule on you phone doesn’t hurt!”~ Des from Think Ahead.

I don’t know many people who sleep good, so I encouraged him to teach us his ways by writing about it, and he did.

You can read Des’ Blog post entitled, Thankful For Every Good Night’s Sleep, here. Our list of sleep snatchers are similar, but Des showed me it really comes down to being thankful for every good sleep. It won’t be perfect and it doesn’t happen every night, but by doing what’s best to ensure it, it happens one more time.

Love and Light

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Today is her birthday and she turned 21.

She’s not here though. She’s in England.

It’s an odd feeling for both of us. We were texting the other night about her turning 21, and she said, “I wish I were five.” Well, my darling. I remember five, and wondered if I’d do anything different? Then she said, “We have a beautiful life.”

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Here she is at 5 years old.

She is the reason I started this Blog.

Just because I’m  taking a break from Blogging, doesn’t mean I cannot celebrate this day with you. The meaningful work-To serve the people I care about by writing another chapter. Let’s write more chapters.

One of my favorite pictures of us was right after we moved into our first home together. It was a tiny house situated on 40 acres of land. I kept her hook baited, while she fished from the pier. That pier is where I stood with God every morning before dawn. That was also the house that taught us how to kill scorpions.

We were walking to the truck, and you grabbed me for a selfie. We weren’t wearing any makeup, and I had forgotten to use eye drops that morning, but it was a moment. Even blurry-eyed, we have that ‘deep in your heart’ happiness. Our life felt groundless, as the only thing we knew we had was God, and He has us.

2014
March 2014

We’ve had chickens, kittens, dogs, and a baby duck live with us. You think it’s normal to hang a disco ball in an old oak tree. When we decided to move, I had to leave it there because it was infested with ants, but you bought a new one for here.

The light from the disco ball dances across the kitchen table where you sit, but today even though your chair is empty, the light is still there. Our life is made of love and light.

I’m here to wish you a spectacular birthday! It’s a new chapter and you’re holding the pen. Touch it to the paper my darling, and make it what you want. Feel and see the love and light.

theworld

To Be Free

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The time has come for a WordPress hiatus.

I’ve felt it gnawing at me for a while, but this week it became crystal clear. I’m determined to keep the portions on my plate in balance, and there’s new opportunity just over the horizon.

It’s been challenging to keep my plate clean, because I’m a doer, but I want to give God plenty of room to move. There are times when we don’t see Him move in our lives, and wonder where He is. Even God needs room.

I’ve been thinking about the Taylor Swift documentary I watched earlier this year. There was this one thing she spoke about that jumped out at me, and it’s still on my mind.

In 2016, she took a year off.

Just disappeared from the public eye for one year.

To me, that sounds like freedom.

uncertainty

In a card for my birthday last October, my daughter wrote, ‘This is your year!’, and she’s right, but there’s so much more I want to experience, and accomplish. I hope she writes that in every birthday card from here on out.

After going through my archives, I thought I’d be rejuvenated about Blogging, but instead, there’s a relief in it. There’s no pressure to Blog everyday, or every week for that matter. Now I know, I went through them to be happily satisfied with what’s here, leading up to this day.

Thank you for walking alongside me on this path, but it’s time to step over to a new one. There’s so much freedom in letting go, especially with people, places and things you love. I wish for you to receive every bit of goodness God has in store. May you learn what it feels like in your bones, to be free.

A Level Life

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You can smell the coffee. Not that it’s being made, but that so much has been ground and brewed, it lingers. The coffee bar is in the middle of the house, so you could say, it’s at our core.

This morning as I was writing down my completed actions of the self trust cultivator, everything I did took place in the core of the house. Fed and watered the animals in the hallway. Brushed my teeth in the hall bath, and began a load of laundry in the hallway. Started the Chemex at the coffee bar.

What took place in the core, fed everyone’s core.

chemex

There’s a flow in life, and it starts at the core.

Our cat let me know his water bowl was empty by hopping in the kitchen sink trying to find water. He knows what a water spout looks like, and was hoping to find some in the sink. It took me a minute to figure out what he was doing, but when I put him on the floor, he went to the bathtub, another water source.

Then I saw his empty water bowl.

When the balance and flow of life coincide, it feels like everything is lined up and level. After I took this picture, it was reassuring to see how everything lined up. The level is sitting on the corner of my desk, and that wouldn’t be good to have a desk off center. It would effect the balance of every task at the desk.

alevellife

My first full-time job was working in a custom frame shoppe. I learned so many life skills with that job. Every cut of the frame, glass and mat was based on precision, and performed by hand. We relied on math for it to fit together perfectly.

When cutting the mat to go around the picture, we’d leave 1/2 an inch more mat at the bottom. Once in the frame, the mat looked equal on every side, but adding that 1/2 an inch at the bottom is what made it look even to the naked eye.

Thanks to that job, I have a keen sense of awareness in being centered. I lay that little level in the picture above on everything. After hanging a picture, it gets the level laid on it.

If you feel off centered, or unbalanced, start at the core and then take in your surroundings. The core craves balance, but our surroundings can have a negative effect on that. It could be something like a picture hanging crooked, or a piece of furniture that’s been knocked off center.

Our wood floor has a flow of the grain, so all the rectangular tables in our home are pointing in that direction. They are flowing with the grain in the wood floor, along with the center of the house which is like a long rectangular core.

Find a small level and lay it on all the areas of your life.

My hope for you is to live a level life.

Prioritize the Meaningful

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I just logged off of work, to come over here, and finish this post. This is my happy place, but I tend to make work my first priority. I’m Finding That Balance, to prioritize the meaningful.

Going through my archived posts, was one of the best things I’ve ever done. A year ago, I deleted photos from media to free up memory. That worked, but it also left broken links in the published posts. My God knew that would bother me just enough to have to go in and fix it.

I started at the beginning, (2014) and read almost 500 posts.

At first it seemed overwhelming, and a lot of work, but at the end of 2018, I was pleased with what’s here. In 2017, I caught the first glimpse of the voice I have today, but it took another year to relax into it. I didn’t have to read many posts from last year or this year, because I found my voice, and am using it.

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I saw how many times I almost quit Blogging.

I saw the struggles I’ve had with social media.

I saw so many moments within those archives, but I also saw gradual growth by prioritizing the meaningful.

Other Blogger’s posts I had shared were no longer active. Even if I decided not to Blog anymore, I’d leave this site here. The 30 day challenge took on a whole new meaning while reading 30 straight posts. Won’t do that again. 🙂

On another note, I’m two weeks into the self trust cultivator, and will stick with it two more weeks, and reassess after 30 days. I already see myself no longer putting things off for a more convenient time, or tomorrow.

My plate of life has open space which is new. As I ponder refilling it, it’s time to prioritize the meaningful.