Random Acts of "Kindness"

Archive for August, 2014

STUCK

I hate to admit it but I’m STUCK! It is not a pleasant place to be in. I really don’t know the reason for this feeling — but I’m guessing its a combination of things. First my weight — which is up — stress, depression, the winter, the summer(?). This has been an interesting summer — cooler temperatures, less sunshine, and FALL seems to be arriving earlier. Trees are already losing their leaves — I guess they don’t like the weather either.

I love the Fall but I tend to get depressed. My birthday is in October — I’m a year older and I do a life review — What have I accomplished, etc. This year I’m feeling my age or more than my age. If I’m successful in losing some of the extra weight, I might feel younger. It would be lovely. Normally I don’t feel my age — 10 or 100, varies from day to day. Messages keep coming through that my life expectancy is long. In order to age gracefully, I need to be able to have a good quality of life.

Some how I need to break out of the mud — start a food plan to lose weight, exercise regularly. Etc. It doesn’t matter how often I tell myself these things. I resolve to start tomorrow. But someone said that tomorrow never comes. I planned to start today! But someone laughed and my plans changed.

We planned to be in the country last weekend. Plans changed, rain was predicted. We decided to stay in the city. I was able to go to the Mind, Body, Spirit Expo which I totally enjoyed. Finances are low right now so although I visited the vendors and the readers, I exchanged ideas and saved my money.

A new deck of cards revolving around trees has been created. I chose one, but didn’t write down the message. The face of the deck are trees: rendered in shades of lavender. I like trees. I was very upset when we lost our elm. It had sheltered our house for many years. It escaped the Dutch elm disease but was attacked by the Asian beetle. We kept the tree company as the city cut it down. We learned that it had the largest circumference of any elm tree in the city. We missed the tree and the shade it provided. When the city offered to replace it, we chose a locust tree — because it was fast growing.

Many years ago a Native American Indian counseled to hug a tree and I must admit that I have, many times. So when I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on the sprites that live in trees I did. The presenter has developed a technique to capture the image on film and has written several books on the subject. She passed around a box of rocks and told us to pick one. I close my eyes when given this opportunity and was amazed when I chose a quartz crystal. At the end of the presentation, we were told the best way to ask the spirits to appear and learned the power the rock we chose had. I discovered I had the king of the crystals and it has the power to communicate with all of the sprites.

To end the day, I attended the workshop of the designer of the Soul Trees. She encouraged each member of the audience to choose a card — the words on my card is Inner Power. As a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother plus author and painter, I’m sure that I have an Inner Power. I looked through her deck for the card I picked the day before without any success. At the end of the presentation, there was a meditation, with questions. I have trouble meditating — my mind is too active. But I closed my eyes and was given a gift. I “saw” a rock shelf, similar to a waterfall, in lavender with streams of silver, or white on the rocks. (??) Does that mean the blocks are lifting? I won’t mind.

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DROWNING

Notice the big “I”! I thought I was dealing with the stress of my life. I thought I was exercising enough to lose weight. I thought I was doing enough to stay out of the “BIG D” — in my case depression. I was WRONG! Like a thief in the night, all of a sudden I’m underwater AGAIN. I don’t know what caused it. I know that I didn’t lose a pound, might have gained one or two — which of course doesn’t help. Even though I was walking in the country — up and down the hills for at least an hour each day. It also doesn’t help that I’m finding things at our camper and in our house that I don’t remember. Keep in mind that my father had Alzheimer’s disease. Now I don’t think that is my problem at the moment. I’m hoping that the revolving door of my life has lead to much of the forgetfulness. Automatic pilot — trying to do what needs to be done now — not worrying about the rest. I’ll admit that the years of pain from the ulcer on my leg probably didn’t help. I’ll admit that facing the big 70 this year is not helping. I’ll admit that I’m grousing BIG TIME.

And then I get a nudge. First I opened the daily paper to an article celebrating Ella Jenkins, turning 90, releasing her 40th CD — children’s music of the world. I’ll admit that I didn’t read anything else in the paper. Didn’t read her article at the moment either. Decided that I needed to exercise and turned on Jane Fonda’s Strength Training. Before I switched the TV to VCR, Rachael Ray announced her guest — Tony Bennet — still performing in his 80’s. I’ll admit I had to watch the show — he exercises 3 times a week, warms up his vocal cords before each performance, still loves to entertain. I’m sure if I had a job that I loved, I would still be working. As it was, I had a job from hell that would have been the end of my life if I would have stayed. Beginning of Lent, I quit, and gave up money.

Okay, OKAY, I get the message. I’m not that old. I still have work of some kind to do. And once again I will try.

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REFLECTIONS

A friend asked me the other day if I was on my list. Did I think of the things that I wanted to do or did I put everyone else first. I laughed because I realized that once again I have slipped off my list. Too much coming and going — too much trying to catch up — never succeeding — too much just doing what was necessary.

We were at our youngest daughter’s home. Seven o’clock in the morning, I had already taken our dog for a walk, made a pot of coffee, unloaded the dish washer and made breakfast for my grandchildren, plus fed the dogs — hers and ours. I opened my daughter’s Mom’s Devotional bible to Isaiah 40:11. “Tends his flock like a shepherd, gather’s his lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart and gently leads those that have young.” I thought it rather described my morning.

Sunday morning, I opened to a reflection titled Sitting on the Bench. I didn’t write down the passage it referred to, but I remember it concerned watching the proceedings without actually taking an active part. At our daughter’s church that morning, the minister asked the congregation if our life reflected our values — even on Facebook. Was our life God centered? Afterwards, reflecting on the question in my mind, a church member told me that I was a light in his life. I guess I was given an answer.

Sunday night, I didn’t sleep well. I was EXTREMEMLY WORRIED! I don’t want to share the reason right now, it really isn’t important. I opened the Bible to God Answers Prayers. The question: Does God answer yours? Do you keep a journal? Soon after reading that piece, I had a conversation that eased my worries. There is still cause for concern and they are still in my prayers, but not in immediate danger. YES, GOD ANSWERS MY PRAYERS. Not always as quickly, nor do I get the answer that I want, but my prayers are definitely answered.

Back home again, the planes are practicing for the air and water show. Soon after my father passed to the other side, I had a dream in which I was a pilot of a Blue Angel plane. The story WINGS is in Journey With Me. Neither of the books I have written have become best sellers but I’m confident that they have helped many people. Why am I bring this up NOW? I love to try to find the planes as they are practicing. They fly over our house much to the distress of our dogs. At 11:00 I heard the planes — rather early for a practice and a day earlier than usual. I wondered what planes were in the sky. Standing in the alley to have a better view without the trees, I saw two planes in the distance. I wondered which ones they were. I soon had my answer, two planes flew so low I saw the writing on their wings — BLUE ANGELS. They usually close the show. Around 3:00, I was shopping at a store and heard planes flying overhead — I wondered which ones they were and watched the skies when I exited the store. Smaller, with gold on their wings, six planes, performing maneuvers. A person collecting carts used to work on them when he was in the service — I learned they were from the navy.

The Mind, Body, Spirit Expo is this weekend. Although I love going, I planned to be in the country with my daughter’s family — swimming, fishing —. God had other plans. This has been a wet, cool summer. This weekend is more of the same. Wet, rainy — not a good weekend for outdoor activities. Our daughter is staying home, so are we. Hello Expo!

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THE STORM

It was a wild night. Thankfully we were home, not in the country. It didn’t sound like it would be a bad storm. I didn’t prepare for water in the basement — take up the throw rugs, check for cartons of pop on the floor. The rain came down so fast, it overpowered the city’s drainage system and water backed up into our basement. The rain didn’t last long, neither did the water — it came in, deposited a lot of dirt and left. I was surprised when I went down into the basement, I saw ripples of black dirt everywhere– but no water. I was puzzled by the dirt but it didn’t take long before I understood what had happened. It took longer to clean up the basement — dry out the throw rugs — dry out the floor. Thankfully most things stored are not right on the floor. But it would have been much worse if we had been gone for a few days.

We had been in the country until Friday. We were in the city because our youngest daughter had asked us to watch our grandchildren for the weekend. Our part of the country had many storms that night and some tornadoes. A severe storm hit our campground in the country. If it wasn’t for watching our grandchildren we would have been in the country to experience it. I’m so thankful we missed it. The entrance to the camp ground winds through a patch of evergreens. 35 trees were down in the entrance way. The number of trees felled by the storm is estimated to be between 2 – 3 hundred. Considering the severity of the damage, no person was injured. Quite a few trailers were destroyed, a couple of cars were damaged as well as porches and sheds. Many roads were blocked, as well as the trails. The swings and climbing tower of a playground vanished.

So much storm damage occurred in our region, the storm hitting our campground didn’t make the news. They think it was a micro-burst. In a neighboring town it took three weeks to remove all the downed trees. We learned that security phoned everyone who had major damage. We didn’t receive any phone calls — from security or any of our friends. Our summer has been very busy. We were expecting family from Florida, our granddaughter, mate and great grand daughter were coming for a two week visit. We were preparing for a crawling child in the house again. We didn’t have a chance to go to the country before they arrived. We weren’t aware that the storm had hit the campground until we pulled into the entrance and saw piles of cut trees everywhere. The storm pruned some of the dead branches but we had no severe damage on our lots. The work to remove the downed trees from the campground will continue into the Fall.

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I WONDER

My granddaughter, her mate and my great grand are in for a visit. Taking advantage of a spare afternoon, I planned that we would go to the Garfield Conservatory. They have a children’s garden that is just right for a crawling, investigating child. They have a slide that is big enough for a mom and her child.

We were prepared for take off. Child fed, diaper bag packed, stroller at the ready when I took a bowl of cooked potatoes out of the microwave oven and the vent covering almost hit me in the head. ?? What was that for? It delayed our journey. First I called my husband for help when I couldn’t put the piece back on. Sadly he wasn’t able to either, although he tried many times. One of the ears that holds the cover in place had broken off. I called the company for service only to learn that since it was cosmetic, it wasn’t covered on the service contract. I called the manufacturer for a part. we were finally able to go — again.

Arriving at the conservatory, I met a seeing eye dog rushing down the stairs, his person running down the stairs behind him. I was concerned that I had caused this behavior. I have an affinity for many different animals, dogs in particular.

Four rooms of the conservatory were closed off. They are still replacing the glass roof after the hail storm destroyed 3/4 of the conservatory in 2010. My favorite place — the fern room — was under construction but the children’s garden had not been affected by the hail and was open. Miss Lilly had a lovely time crawling around in places that my younger grandchildren have visited. She enjoyed the slide with her mom.

Before we left, we visited the outside gardens and I saw the vision challenged person sitting on a bench. I stopped to talk to her. I learned that her dog was in desperate need of a bathroom break — hence the run down the stairs. He was resting at her feet, but when I sat down, my feet became his pillow.

I wonder — did the vent falling off the microwave delay our trip so I could meet her?

The next day, we drove out to our camper, stopping at the oasis for a rest break. I met a 14 week old Yorkshire puppy. He was in training to be a service dog. ?? So tiny to be a service dog. He decided that resting at my feet was a good option. He was in training to be a mental service dog. My curiosity woke. I had many questions but my first one stopped most of the rest. I learned the person he was with was his designated companion. I didn’t know how to politely ask the rest of my questions.

I wonder — too many questions. No answers. I’ll have to do some research.

Leaving the building I saw two more dogs with service coats on — one green, one blue. ?? The black lab with the green coat was in training to work with the vision impaired. The golden retriever with the blue coat was in training to be a comfort dog for the Lutheran church.

I wonder — I don’t often meet so many service animals. Four in two days — is there a message that I’m not receiving?

Good question — of course no answer. If I was psychic I might be given the answer. As it is, I try to connect the dots. Four dogs, of different breeds, three in training.

I wonder — is Robin our service dog in training? If she is, I won’t speculate on what area of our life that might be.

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