Random Acts of "Kindness"

Archive for August, 2015

RUFFUS

The Mind, Body, Spirit Exp. comes to our area three times a year. I try to attend at least two of the events. I’ll admit that this summer I wasn’t looking forward to attending. I had low energy, just plain TIRED. My husband knows how much I enjoy going — it is one place where I’m comfortable — the participants are more talented than I am — he convinced me to go.

This weekend, I felt like I was walking under a dark cloud that I couldn’t escape. Tired, no energy, no workshops that called my name — “Why am I here?” — that describes the situation. Since I go to the event so often, I know many of the vendors. When I stopped to talk to one, she suggested that I spend some time with crystals. I had already spent time looking for a new crystal pendulum without success. Each one I tried didn’t want to come home with me. I wandered to the booths that sell crystals. On the way, I stopped to chat and shared my quest. Doing so, I received help. A brother of one of the vendors suggested I follow him and he would help me find a pendulum. We wandered to the first booth I had stopped at that morning, but instead of pendulums, he stopped at pendants. “Choose one.” he said. There were more than a hundred pendants on the table — many emblems, many different colors — too many to choose from. I put my hand out and touched three — one for healing, a mermaid and a dragon. I almost chose the pendant for healing but both the creator of the pendant and the brother thought I should get the dragon — I’m fiery and have good energy. (Not Saturday but they’ve known me for many years.) I knew I needed a name for the dragon, but the brother told me that the dragon would tell me his name. I almost laughed, I have a hard time with names, titles. I stopped in the bathroom and thankfully the name Ruffus popped into my mind. The dragon had shared his name! And that is not all he shared.

I remembered the direction to spend time with crystals so I revisited the artist and asked what crystals comprised the pendant. Although I could list them, I have tried three times and each time something has occurred to stop my writing. Therefore I will take the direction that the knowledge of the dragon’s properties is for my use only, and just say that the various crystals in my dragon seems to be working for my good.

Sunday morning, I arrived in time to listen to a shaman who uses song for healing. Preparing for meditations, I always close my eyes — I closed my eyes to listen to his song and not be distracted by the outside. I was very surprised. I don’t have control over my talents — they are gifts that come and go at their will, not mine. With closed eyes, I saw a lion, a dog, a wolf, and an eagle. I knew I wouldn’t remember so I opened my eyes and wrote them down. Closed eyes again, I saw a buffalo, a deer, many winged species, then recognizable — a crow and a hawk. When his song was over, I asked the shaman if his song was meant to call in the animals and told what I had experienced.

Many of the crystals in Ruffus are for clarity and channeling. If Ruffus can chase the dark clouds and help with my other issues, he and I will be VERY good friends!

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BATTERED

I’ve often thought of myself as a ship, sailing the open seas, at the mercy of the wind and the tides, directed by a Supreme Being. I have to confess that this ship feels battered. Since the beginning of summer, my life has been anything but smooth water. Thankfully nothing extremely serious, my family is well, we have shelter and food on the table BUT many, many strong waves have tried to drown me.

I thought I was coping well when the tornado struck. Thankfully we were at home, not in the path of destruction. I don’t try to remember stuff that surfaces that unsettles me. I have NOT taken photos of the damage caused by the storm, except on our own property. It is too sad to see the sunny roads that were once sheltered by trees. I don’t need to remember the effects of the strong winds. If I were to try to list all of the challenges and problems I would have to think, and write them down. I don’t need to remember them, you don’t need to read about them. I will admit that I was happy when June ended. I mistakenly thought that waters would be calmer, smooth sailing. I WAS WRONG. More rough seas ahead. More challenges, more obstacles — even our trip to Florida for our granddaughter’s wedding had huge waves.

Then thankfully came August — but NOT smooth seas. A favorite restaurant announced it was closing, as did the garage that works on our car. Health concerns for members of my husband’s family surfaced. Now I’m sure that “my friend’s in high places” have been busy — “helping.” I’m also sure that I didn’t write down the many times I received their help and said “thank you!”

I looked at the thought rambles that I’ve written and realized that nothing was scheduled to publish. I’ve been so busy trying to keep my head above water that I haven’t taken the time to write, to share. When I had so many ideas for thought rambles, I wondered if that meant my life would be busy. That I wouldn’t have time to write. I guess that is true. Day by day, week by week, month by month — time passes. I’ll leave the passing of time in the hands of the Supreme Being and keep trying to do the best I can!

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SPEED BUMPS

I’ll admit that I’m not bored when my life doesn’t have a bunch of problems surfacing. Sadly ever since the end of June, I feel like I’m going over speed bumps — if not every day, a couple of times a week. Thankfully they are not mountains, just high enough to make me pause, reflect, reconsider, and PRAY.

It all started when I fell and hurt my shoulder — although it is getting better, I still have not regained normal movement. Therefore, I don’t exercise every day, or every week. Little things like writing or peeling potatoes aggravate my arm. I suppose I could stick to a food plan but I’m not doing that either. Of course, the tornado didn’t help!

I’ve already written about the tornado, work is still in progress to reclaim our space. It is VERY sunny, we miss the trees, the shade. A friend of ours planted an apple tree many years ago. We talked to a person to remove the tree stumps when I noticed the apple tree is sending up shoots. Since Muscles planted it, we are going to see if it becomes a tree again. We lost 11 trees but are only having 9 stumps removed at this time.

If there is a silver lining to our loss of trees, we now have better television reception. Before the tornado, we had 4 channels plus the religious stations. Now we have more than twelve. The trees aren’t blocking the signal anymore.

Returning from the camper, we learned that my husband’s company is canceling our health insurance. They feel we can do better on the open market. They have provided a company to help us choose new plans. Since my husband is diabetic along with a few other health problems — a new plan will be more expensive.

June ended, I hoped the bumps would even out. NOPE Our favorite restaurant is closing on Labor Day. Since my husband is particular — finding places to eat that fit his tastes and that we can afford is not easy.
We headed to Florida for our granddaughter’s wedding. My seat companion needed someone to talk too — I fit the bill. She shared her life story and current romantic interest. Our plane was diverted to Orlando because of thunder storms — thankfully the storms ended and we were able to safely return to Jacksonville — two hours late. Our granddaughter planned to wed on the beach. Thankfully they had a beautiful blue sky, dry wedding.

Just to keep life interesting — the alarm system at our daughter’s house sounded an alert at 2:00 AM — a French door shook in the wind. Returning home, — we had a good flight, calm skies, gentle landing. We learned our broken motor home had been removed from our property. Most of the debris was gone. Before we left the campground, I spent some time in the pool. Spotting a friend, I took advantage of the opportunity to talk or listen. She told me that the time we spent together really helped her, she felt better. I also learned that an old friend had passed, we had just been talking about him. Many years ago, he taught my youngest daughter how to dive.

July had finally ended. First of August, we learned that the garage we have taken our cars to for over thirty years was closing, they were retiring. They sold the building but not the business. More challenges — more new opportunities.

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HOMER LAKE

Rain finally ended, sun came out, temperature warmed enough to be pleasant — no reason to stay indoors. Our daughter suggested we take the family and go to Homer Lake. The men of the family had other things they wanted to do — just the girls were up for the adventure. We also took the two female DOGS.
Maggie, a golden retriever who is heavier, walked up the ramp to get into the SUV. Robin DID NOT want to walk up the ramp — neither did she want me to pick her up. I wanted to pick her up from her hind quarters, she kept turning her face to me. I thought we would have to leave her home. She is my husband’s dog. If he went there would be no problem. Finally she put her paws on the deck and I lifted her in for the short ride.

We went to a part of the park we hadn’t visited before. Robin was happy to jump out. She was happy to LEAD all of us on the walk — she had to be first. Birds were singing, some flowers were already blooming. I had my camera ready. Some of the path was still muddy from the rain so we had to be careful.

My granddaughter wanted to go to the play place. I didn’t want to try to get Robin into the car for the short ride so we walked EXCEPT Robin DIDN’T WANT to walk with me. Part of her family was going in a different direction and she wanted to lead them. Robin and I finally made it to a path that I thought would take us to the play place. It branched into two paths. I took the one to the right but after walking a bit decide to turn around and take the path to the left. Robin was VERY HAPPY to turn around, she thought we were going to join our family — she wasn’t happy when I took the path to the left.

I saw a small bird sitting on a branch. My camera has a good zoom so I zoomed in and took a photo. After I did the bird flew away. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, no binoculars so I hoped my photo would let me know whose picture I took. (It was a blue bird.) In the distance I heard a bird call peter, peter. I remembered hearing that call years ago but didn’t remember the name of the bird. (Back home GOOGLE helped — tufted tit mouse.)

We finally reached our group. Robin was HAPPY. In fact, when the back was let down of the car, she jumped right onto the bed, she didn’t want to be left behind again.

This ramble was written in May, scheduled to publish in June but the Tornado caused it to be rescheduled.

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DID IT AGAIN

DID IT AGAIN

It would be VERY nice if I would learn from my mistakes and NOT REPEAT THEM! Maybe that is why I get so much help from the other side. I NEED IT!

I have written that I was trying to lose weight and was exercising. I have admitted that I STOPPED exercising and wasn’t careful about the amount of sodium in my diet. I haven’t only taken a break for a week, if I’m honest, it has been at least SIX.

I was reasonably good food wise in Hawaii. Except for sodium, my weight had only gone up a pound or two. But life continued and I seemed to be chasing my tail without time to exercise. Before vacation, I exercised three to four times a week. I tried to do strength training two or three times a week to build up the strength in my arms. I did tai chi to help the pain in my knee and hip. I GOT LAZY — I STOPPED EXERCISING and I’m now paying the price. My weight isn’t up that much — but my knees and hip are yelling. Did I do something to my sciatica — I don’t know. I continued to walk in shoes that were hurting for a couple of blocks. The shoes hadn’t given any indication that there was something wrong. Looking at them at home, they seemed hardly worn. Friday my right leg hurt from my toe to my hip. My husband was leaving on Sunday, I would have two dogs to keep me company. Then my son had to fly for business on Monday — I would have two dogs to keep me company. (I offered to watch our daughter’s dog while they were gone.)

We have survived. Because of the pain in my right leg, I haven’t accomplished as much work as I wanted. Maybe I wasn’t supposed too. The girls missed the men — but we survived. Robin still will not do her business in the back yard, she gets her three to four walks a day. Maggie is happy doing her business in the back yard, she is a heavy weight Golden and too strong for me. I have gone back to my exercise — strength training, stretches and tai chi. My leg is slowly improving. I haven’t been stressing it. I’m walking around the house in socks, over my sexy socks — no shoes.

If I thought I would eat healthy while I was by myself — I was WRONG — no energy. After our damp, snowy winter, we are having a rainy spring which is supposed to continue for three to four more weeks.
Hopefully this time I won’t get lazy — or forgetful. Hopefully I will put exercise back on the to do list — DAILY. Hopefully I have learned a lesson this time that I won’t forget.

This was scheduled to publish in July, but because I wrote an update on the tornado damage, I’ve rescheduled it until August.

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