Tag Archives: Energy

A Life Well Lived

My Day Runner is open on the desk. The days marked off neatly on my calendar.

Calendar

I’m already thinking ahead.

I am marking and highlighting the important events that will occur over the next several months.

I try to prepare for what lies ahead.

Hours. Days. Weeks. Months = TIME

I consider this…the value of it.

How I use it. How I abuse it. How I appreciate it and how I take it for granted.

We all do those things, don’t we?

We assume that we will always have enough, and that the calendar will always allow us yet another day.

That is the worst sort of cavalier attitude, for without appreciation, time, no matter how much, is wasted.

One of my favorite quotes…….

“Don’t be so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.”

Because, hasn’t God given us this one wild life, to appreciate? Doesn’t He give us the precious gift of time to enjoy?

Shouldn’t our days be full of Him?

Oh sure, we have to work, there are necessary appointments and mandatory assignments…

But, most of the calendar should be filled with moments of thankfulness. Days of gratitude.

A life well lived.

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”  James 4 –NASB

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One Of Those Days

Do you ever have days when you wake up and you believe it is going to be a good day…and it turns out it isn’t? Today is one of those days for me. The kind of day where all the little nerve wracking things just add up to one big pain? I wanted to write my Multitudes on Mondays post this morning, I really did. Then life happened and I wasn’t feeling very thankful. To be completely honest, I was irritated (and rightly so) but, it put a damper on things. Once I had let myself go there……it was all over……like a downhill slide on a sled with greased runners.

I’m not feeling thankful. There I said it. I actually feel guilty for saying that. I guess it is just my day to be human, be real, be imperfect, me.

Okay, I am thankful about one thing. I’m thankful that God loves me, even when I feel unlovable. On days when my mood is darker than the storm clouds rolling in, He is there. He doesn’t leave me, even when I’m frustrated, irritated, and wishing I was sedated!

There is tomorrow.

2 Timothy 1:7  for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Monday

Monday (Photo credit: Eric M Martin)

 

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First Day Of Spring

The first day of Spring is ushered in…

with a warm hug of sunshine.

Today it is to reach 82 degrees where I live. That is relatively unheard of. The highest recorded temperature was 78 degrees on this day, in 1921. Spring has arrived in all its glory. The grass is greener, the flowers are already blooming, and the days are longer.

Last night I was outside at twilight….just as the stars started to twinkle in the sky. I heard the geese honking across the road, the crickets chirping, and dogs barking. There is just something about Springtime.

I think it is the anticipation of what is to come.

What there is to look forward to…

Springtime at Kent's Green Dandelions in flowe...

New season. New life.

And it is good.

There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens… Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV

 

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Happy Sigh

OISHI Green Tea

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Friday. It has been a fun week.

My birthday. My son’s birthday.

Today is sunny, after all the rain.

Things are good. Happy sigh.

Some days I stare up into the heavens… I really see the beautiful sky and puffy, cotton clouds .I watch the stars sparkle.

I really look at my half made bed with the beautiful white quilt.

I really feel the arms encircling me in a hug.

I really taste the orange and jasmine green tea.

I really smell the lavender in the dryer sheets.

I really hear the laughter.

Some days my senses seem so alive. I wonder what I’m like on most days? Are my senses dulled to the world around me? Am I on autopilot that I can’t really appreciate what it is that I have?

I long to live this life…my life…with my eyes wide open. Open to all there is. All the things to be wildly thankful for.

As one of my favorite authors writes, “Life is not an emergency”. Yet, so many times I choose to live the opposite.

Why do I rush through my days? What am I racing headlong into? So busy, doing what? Don’t have time?

I need to live.

Now.

In this moment.

**********

Do you ever find yourself wanting to slow down? Do you ever take the time to just stop what you are doing, and give thanks?

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Basements Shouldn’t Be Swimming Pools!

rain down on window

Image by pennacook via Flickr

This morning I got up and went about my regular Saturday morning routine. I noticed, while in the kitchen, that the water pressure seemed sort of weak. I told my husband. He went down to the basement to check the pump.

Splash.

He found out that our basement had nearly six feet of water in it! Good grief.

It continues to rain. And the entire area is under a flood warning. The ground is saturated.

So is our basement.

What a mess.

Sigh.

I decided that I could worry and be upset about this whole occurrence…

It certainly would be easy to get angry…

But….I’ve been disciplining myself over the past several weeks.

Daily eucharisteo.

Giving thanks.

Is today’s mess frustrating? Yes.

A pain in the neck? Definitely.

It could have been worse.  But, it wasn’t.

Thanks on the good days. Thanks on the not as good days.

Each day there are things to be thankful for.

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Rest For The Soul

RELAX

Image by marc falardeau via Flickr

Rest.

Time slows.

I savor the moment.

Saturday morning.

Walking around bare footed.

Wearing sweat pants and an old tee shirt.

Coffee in a deep mug.

With extra creamer.

Quiet time.

Reflection.

A time to enjoy.

 

 

 

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Up To My Armpits In Mud

muddy_boots.JPG

Our yard is a muddy, mucky mess. This water line to the barn has become the bane of our existence. I’m working up my energy to go back out there again. I guess I need to go, since we are getting a storm (first rain/ then snow) tonight and deathly cold temps (16 degrees) with 40 mph gusting wind. Doesn’t that sound fun? So….on that note….I guess I should go back outside and help my (very muddy) husband.
Oh, by the way, I’m loving the ideas for my blog title. Some people have left comments on my blog, others, where I post on Facebook. Fun! Fun! Fun!

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Flash Freeze

Hat & Mittens

Today’s high is supposed to be 22 degrees. Last night the wind chill temp. was at 0 to -8. That is a bit nippy. Unless one is used to living in Siberia…than maybe not so much. Still. Cold.

1. The snow looks pretty on the ground.

2. Snow doesn’t feel so pretty when it gets in one’s boots.

3. The wind is blowing.

4. Blowing hard.

5. There is no chance of having a hairstyle in this wind.

6. If I go anywhere I usually look like cousin It, by the time I get to where I’m going.

7. Cousin It was not known for his beauty.

8. I need to dig out my scarf collection.

9. Maybe I can start a new trend.

10. Wearing all the scarves I own AT ONCE.

11. I’m all about being toasty.

12. Maybe a little weird, but a warm weird.

13. I hear that this winter is to have extremely low temps.

14. So much to look forward too!

15. I actually like winter.

16. When I don’t have to be outside.

17. It’s all in one’s perspective.

18. Right?

19. Time for some hot coffee.

20. How come in the movies ,or on commercials, the girls always look so cute in their hats, scarves and mittens?

22. They never look windblown or disheveled.

23. Or have a red nose, or chapped hands.

24. So not fair.

25. Now where did I stash my scarves?

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Spring Is Supposedly Just Around The Corner

http://anfepic.co.nr/

Image via Wikipedia

Spring is supposed to just be around the corner. I’ll believe it when I see it.  It’s true the past couple of days have been sunny….and some of our snow has finally melted but, now our driveway resembles something one would see in the swamp land of Louisiana. The other day I was in mud up to my armpits. Okay, so fine. That was a lie. BUT it is very muddy! I refuse to wear my nice (still brand new) tennis shoes I received from my mom as a Christmas present. I don’t want them to be muddy and cruddy the second I have to walk to the van in our driveway. I guess I will finally wear my Christmas present sometime in early May. In the meantime I’m wearing boots. Rugged boots. Boots that can survive the mud.

Speaking of boots and mud. A few days ago my husband and I were moving our (borrowed) refrigerator out of our kitchen and down our walkway to the trailer. The trailer that we were using to haul the refrigerator back to its original home. We got a new refrigerator to put in its place. So anyway, the husband and I were moving this refrigerator. If you’ve ever moved a refrigerator, you know it is awkward and bulky and well just plain hard. We got it through the laundry room door and down the steps. Then we had to maneuver it down the walking stone path to the driveway. Did I mention it is muddy here? The dolly wheels were sinking fast. I’m pulling, my husband is pushing. I kept having glimpses of ultimate refrigerator peril. My boot got stuck in the mud. As the refrigerator is bearing down on me….I went to move my foot and the boot stayed put….in the mud. Aggghhh!  So, now I am hopping around on one foot, trying to keep the refrigerator on track. (thinking what a sad thought my untimely “crushed under a heavy appliance” death would cause my family.)  My husband can’t really see me because he is on the other side of the refrigerator, trying to hold it steady. Such is the scenario. I manage to get my foot back in the boot without too much of a problem and yank it out of the mud with a big “gooosh” sound. Remember, I said to think of back country Louisiana swamp land.

After this fiasco we did manage to get the hulking monstrosity onto the trailer….but only after hubby is pushing up the incline ramp and I’m pulling and almost fell over backward off the side of the trailer. That would have been so pretty.

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