Winged wonder

When you click your heels...

It's very good to be home.  It's a transition and a half, but I'm grateful not to be in a cast.  And I am so very fortunate to have what I have for support.  My heart hurt for the ones who didn't.
In my home, in my bed, on my couch....
I have six weeks of nothingness,  maybe he'll change that when I see him on the 10th.  He changed his plans multiple times during that 5 1/2 hour surgery, and seemed pleased with the results when he stopped in to check on me.  I'm still hoping he used Gorilla glue...cuz his work needs to stay stuck.

So, here I am again.  This time with a 12" incision down that left side...leastwise that's what he-who-walks-behind-with-his-hands-on-my-waist tells me.  Bit medicated, I am.  It was a tough go of getting the pain managed.  Apparently shaving bone and drilling and doing everything he did...pain is inevitable.  So is stupidity on my part while I'm taking this crud.  Which would explain how I ended up on the couch at 4am.  And yes, that was without himself supervising.
I did get coffee at 7:30am.  Which he didn't understand because he set it up so all I had to do was push the button.  LOL. We both have to readjust our thinking...the cup of coffee wasn't going to magically float its way to me (dagnabbit all!!).  We have, at least, 6 weeks of this.  One of us should be able to solve the coffee issue....when all else fails go back to what worked the last time.  OR order a separate pot for the study/livingroom!  New solutions could be fun!

Love Fairy

Love feels good, but don’t just feel it. Live your love.

Don’t keep your love trapped inside you. Put it into action in every moment of your life.

There are people you love, values you love, and beautiful, lovely things you love. Today, and every day, do something good and supportive and loving for them.

Love that is not truly lived and acted upon can end up as painful regret. But you do not have to let that happen, because you are here to manifest your love in countless ways.

There is much love in your heart. Let it flow into your life.

TFTD

Sometimes, in situations of immediate danger, it pays to react immediately and automatically. Most of the time, though, a thoughtful, measured response is by far the most advantageous response.

Feel the powerful, adrenaline-laced emotions of the moment, and take them into consideration. But don’t let those emotions control you.

Take a deep, calming breath, and put the situation in perspective. Remind yourself of who you are, and remember not to do something rash that you’ll quickly regret.

Instead of letting the situation control you, let your highest values point the way forward. Instead of merely trying to prove something, find a way to truly improve things.

Before you act, give yourself a minute. And give life your very best, most positive and effective response.

Done!!

Doc is quite pleased with himself, dontchaknow.   It was a whole . 5 1/2 hour surgery and he was able to trim back ezisting callus, make paste and glue me together witk one long plate and assorted screws.  Bit of a hairline fracture was discoverred higher on the femur when he put me together, but that'll heal and help the bloodfloq to the area.  We'll cross fingers and hope.
And then....I went to recovery.....for another 5 1/2 hours cuz there were issues with (holymoly NO kidding) pain management, nausea, bottoming out blood pressure and other assorted fun stuff.  12 hours later I got to my room.  Thankfully the girl showed up and remained to keep he-who-was-trying-to-be-calm entertained.  I'd talked him into leaving while in surgery...but notsomuch while I was in recovery cuz that's souupose to be s short stin.
Good news...no cast, but some uber-fancy brace with two times as many dials.  A scar a goog 12 inches long, AND I'll get off security alarms!!
I also get to stay here a day or some.
They don't muchly like the blood pressure being so low...I tried to tell 'em meditation and relaxation will do that, but they've added it to the list of things for today just the same.

Daily Reading

Though you may occasionally be enticed into thinking that there’s a shortcut to a life of fulfillment, there is no shortcut. Because what you truly desire are not the empty tokens of achievement, but the experience of creating achievement.

Instead of wasting your time looking for the easy way out, put your energy into giving your very best efforts. Recommit yourself to making a real, satisfying, positive difference in your own life and in the lives of others.

Rather than avoiding it or complaining about it, choose to enjoy and treasure the effort. For it is through your effort that your true purpose is fulfilled.

Today's Reading

When life doesn’t give you much encouragement, make your own encouragement. If you can’t find anything to be positive about, create something on your own to be positive about.

Even when all the news seems to be negative, there are still plenty of positive possibilities. Choose to live your life based not on what has happened, but on the good things you can now do.

There’s nothing to be gained by being upset, so let the disappointments quickly pass. There’s everything to be gained by being creative and productive, so get yourself busy making a difference.

Yes, life is difficult and complicated and frustrating. Yet it is also miraculous in its beauty and wonder, and filled endlessly with opportunities for joy.

Go ahead, accept that the negative stuff will come, and decide not to let it get to you. Get in the habit of looking beyond the little problems and seeing the big opportunities.

If you catch yourself sulking about how unfair it all is, remind yourself that you’ve got much better things to do. Lift your eyes, lift your spirit, lift your feet off the ground and go make something good.

Arnie Hummer

oyoyoy.......

Yup, he-who-was-being-helpful brought the overnight bags up.......yup, they're on the floor, empty. (I only need one......c'mon......what's the pack!?)  Yup--on the floor.....empty....  But I dusted the bookshelves and rearranged!  I smooshed all the bears n' stuff on to one shelf, smooshed all the US stuff on to one shelf, and smooshed all the sister sent stuff on to one shelf.  And I moved the 'read books' to a pile on the floor (so I can lug them off to work this morning).  And I moved the books around and put 'stuff' in different places around the books, creating yet another empty shelf.
It's awesome to have empty shelves.  Ohhhhhhh.... I could take photos of those shelves and play 'find the item'--that's how smooshed and fun they are!

Right.......

Oh yes....

The bag.......

Yeah--notsomuch packed.  After the two meetings I scheduled for this morning maybe?

Maybe I'll get some more of the yard trimmed first?  I weeded the flower bed and trimmed around the patio and driveway..scootching myself around on my handy dandy cart last night......before the bookshelves happened AFTER the bags got brought up.....    Definitely could use some trimming along the sidewalk and front flowerbed......

And I need to get a load of laundry started before I head off to work--AND stop at the post office.
And somewhere in there I have a visit with the dentist and a phone call from the surgeon's office who'll give me the surgery time.

Right.

BAG.
PACK THE FREAKING BAG.....

Fairy Wisdom

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.

Scattered

Two days of adventures--  I'm thinking it's been AS about getting himself out and about as it was about me.
Go, do, be busy while you can go and do has been a good plan.

But we're down to the wire here.
And I don't even know what I have 'left' to do, besides show up.
Pack a bag?  Not sure what's goin' in that--but I'll make it up as I go.

Oh yes--find out the scheduled time.  That'd be handy.

In the meantime--dot the i's and cross the t's at work.
And get things moved around/straightened in the bedroom for easy access.  And.........
Who knows!

I did read the instructions on the folder they gave me!
But since there are two instructions on 'shaving the area you'll be having surgery on', I picked the one I liked better.

:-/  Just sayin'....

Lost Mill

Fairy Diddy

The real voyage of discovery consists not

 in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Let's hear it for the little guys!

Daily Reading

Limited expectations yield only limited results.

- Susan Laurson Willig 

Our thoughts determine our actions, and when our thoughts are negative, our successes are few. What we hold in our mind is certain to be reflected in the day's activities. And we are capable of fueling our thoughts positively, if we choose to.

Positive self-assessment and uplifting pep talks can become habitual if our desire to live up to our potential is great enough. The expectations we privately harbor, be they small or far-reaching, will set the pace for the progress we make today, and every day.

We can greet a challenge with eager anticipation when we've grown accustomed to believing in our capability for success. First, we must expect to handle, with poise, whatever confronts us.

Balloons on Parade

Quilt Barn #60

Daily Reminder

Sometimes, the way is not clear.

Our minds get clouded, confused. We aren't certain what our next step should be, what it will look like, what direction we are headed.

This is the time to stop, ask for guidance, and rest. That is the time to let go of fear. Wait. Feel the confusion and chaos, and then let it go. The path will show itself. The next step shall be revealed. We don't have to know now. We will know in time. Trust that. Let go and trust.

Flutter

Today's Thought

Good feelings can become a habitual part of our life. There is absolutely no virtue in the unnecessary suffering many of us have felt for much of our life. We don't have to allow others to make us miserable, and we don't have to make ourselves miserable.

A good day does not have to be the "calm before the storm." That's an old way of thinking we learned in dysfunctional systems. In recovery, a good day or a good feeling doesn't mean we're in denial. We don't have to wreck our good times by obsessively searching for or creating a problem.

Enjoying our good days doesn't mean we're being disloyal to loved ones who are having problems. We don't have to make ourselves feel guilty because other people aren't having a good day. We don't have to make ourselves miserable to be like them. They can have their day and their feelings; we can have ours.

A good feeling is to be enjoyed. More than we can imagine, good days are ours for the asking.

Oh bother....

I slove my kindle.  But aiI do. Nokt love the ti.e it takes to touh the screen and make the words appdar and do what I want them ro do.

Case in point.  That was my attempt with two handed typing on the Kindle touch screen.
Notsomuch working....maybe it ain't suppose to?

There's the swipe method which seems to work quite effectively but it is not as fast as one would think it would be....pretty darn accurate though...not one misspelled word in that lot!  Except I take issue with it altering "misspelt", go figure.  I'm not so certain it's faster or helpful in translating thoughts into words on the screen....it is fun to watch happen!  LOL

I do think the best option is fingers to keyboard for me.  And that's probably best done with the desktop or laptop.  There's something that happens during that process that clears my brain a bit.  But I gotta confess that the swipey thingy does make me forget what was ailing me....and just what in the heck I was wanting to put into black and white to begin with.

Soooooo.....
*laughing*
Zackly what was the point?!

..a girls best friend...

Yup--  "There's only one secret you've successfully kept from me."  That's mostly cuz he's too neurotic, too excitable and gets so happy, he just HAS to tell.  *laughing*

And the one secret?  Was on the wedding day almost 10 years back.  That oughta speak volumes about how un-secretive he-who-can't-keep-one truly is.
So yesterday I had to get in the Jeep when I returned from work.  He wasn't going to tell me where the destination was.  I didn't even pressure him--I simply said 'okay' and got in the Jeep.

Yup--all of maybe 2 minutes.....  I have to look at diamond somethings--10 years is a diamond anniversary apparently.
Seriously?  We buy a train for US on each anniversary--one that we can watch go 'round and 'round...LOL  Something to enjoy in our oldness!  We already bought our train for the anniversary cuz we knew what was heading our direction....
Diamond, huh.....righttttt.....

Yup...looked at diamond necklaces, pins, rings and earrings......and smiled alot.
I suggested a painted diamond quilt plaque and we put it on the garage and have a quilt garage!  :-)
........Notsomuch sold on that one......thinking he's gonna go with one of the 'set in gold' things.

I was gonna argue.
I didn't.
Smile, pat his little bald head and smile some more.  LOL

Waiting on Harvest

Fairy Reminder

Saying thank you from the heart makes us feel full. Perhaps we don't really know we have something until we express our thanks for it.

There are different levels of gratitude. There is the polite, automatic response when someone opens a door for us or the bank teller tells us to have a nice day. Simple, almost perfunctory, these acts of courtesy nevertheless add an element of grace to our daily transactions.

On a more personal level, saying thank you often and sincerely to those we love keeps us from taking each other for granted. We all like to feel appreciated - how many relationships dry up because the people involved don't realize what they have?

Then there is the gratitude we feel toward the God of our understanding, the source of all the blessings we enjoy but do not create for ourselves. This thankfulness can be a part of every breath we take. As often as we remember the many gifts of every day, our emptiness is filled.

Mrs. Skippy *laughing!!*

*grumbling!*

Everything.... (And I mean everything!) is somehow connected to the brokenness and the upcoming surgery.  Seriously, it's making me snarky.
Today there's the pot luck the staff are having (now being referred to as 'the last supper' by one or two of the mouthier, more sardonically humoured ones).  I have a bowl of chicken wings all ready for the taking.
Thursday I have three meetings with three different teams with three different plans that flow together--all for while I'm out doing the healing biz.
Friday--*sigh*  Oh yes......the pre-op physical.
Saturday the girl wants me to go over with her 'zackly which are weeds and which are flowers before you can't come see me'.  I just wanna have coffee at the new house--but I can do coffee AND weeds!
Sunday there are folks coming to the house.  (Or is that the other way around--I'm sure he-who-keeps-track-of-events has it straight.... )  Monday I have two meetings--all centered around the activity while I'll be absent.....oh and a teleconference with the boss and HR folks.  And then Tuesday.......
Ah yes......Tuesday....

Himself wants me to take a half day and leave early.
Why?  Oh yes--it's the anniversary.  We've had nine BEFORE this one that haven't required leaving the worksite early.  I'm not so certain why number 10 does, but there you have it--he's asked so I made the arrangements.  Given that I have to be available for the phone calls (and we're talking multiples....cuz apparently that's how they do it nowadays!), I'm hoping he's not got some plan etched in his brain that simply can't/won't happen.
See!  Everything is somehow connected to the brokenness and surgery.
*sigh*

So......either I cease recognizing it OR, I exacerbate it and make it a ridiculously laughable ordeal.

Well........there's a no-brainer!
:-D

Daily Reading

We have all suffered humiliation. Perhaps a spouse ridiculed us in public or a parent's disorderly conduct shamed us in front of our friends. Perhaps a boss criticized us in front of co-workers.

However, we could have refused to let our egos be injured. Had we then the tools we have now, we could have felt compassion for the perpetrator. No healthy person heaps injury of any kind on another struggling soul. 

We have learned about true humility. To be humble is to surrender, to give up trying to change people or circumstances, to give up trying to force our will upon others. Humility is being quiet, being at rest, and being confident that God is present in every situation. Humility is being at peace, always.

Pink noise

TFTD

My parents believed in honesty and hard work and they passed that on to me.

--Monty Cralley

Most of us can think of a number of things we can credit our parents with. For some of us there may not be as many good legacies as bad, however. But time has marched on and we can't redo a bad past. Nor does it help to continue rehashing it in our minds. Our parents simply passed on to us what they had learned. If it wasn't all good, let's hope we learned enough from it to break the pattern before we passed it on to our children.

Let's focus on the blessings and the positive experiences in our lives. While it's true that we learned something from every experience, even the ones that seemed vile at the time, the more pleasant ones helped us interact in a more hopeful manner with others. The more hope we had, the more hope we inspired in our friends, too. There was no better quality to pass on to others.

We are still passing on ideas and impressions to others. Every opinion we share, every favor we perform, every moment we intently listen to someone talk about themselves is our opportunity to pass along something positive to a person who needs us. Our work isn't done.

What a day for a daydream......

*deep breath*

I think we landed at home for mealtime and bed.  And I don't think I'll complain--two state parks and a few county parks--, dam #10 on the BIG river, country roads and a stop here and there.  The scenery was awesome...
Oh, but I think it's always that way.  It's just a matter of 'when am I going to notice'.  Couldn't help  but notice this weekend.

And the apples are turning....so I'm excited and ready!

The good news is: there were plenty of adventures this weekend.  NOT that he-who-made-note needed to make note.....I'm aware there'll be limited activities in the near future.  And I'm now aware that he-who's-stressing is officially stressing.  Dunno know why he's waited so long to let me know....explains a whole lotta things, frankly.
But there ya have it--he's nervous and not feeling very confident about the upcoming surgery.

Since I can chime in with 'join the crowd', I have to look at how I shaped that one...and watered it into growing some more, no doubt.
Pretty sure I'm not where I need to be to calm some of that fear of his.
Best I work at getting my own in order and maybe his will follow suit?
One can hope.

Oh, but there were adventures--and it was good to just get in and go.  Granted we pushed the time limit in a moving vehicle......LOL  Like it matters at this point?  (well--matters in degrees of comfort, but......)
We went.
Thinking we'll go again.

Thinking the more busy we are.........the better......

Fairy Reminder

We have the capacity to bring only joy to those around us, What's the key? Perspective.

The eyes with which we view our circumstances take charge of the day. What may look scary to someone else, such as giving a talk at the book club or playing bridge with a new partner, may actually excite us. Or the reverse may be true. The important lesson is, if others can look ahead with glad anticipation, so can we. They have not been endowed with any qualities that we can't acquire.

Most of us were too busy in our youth to pursue all the activities that interested us. Now is our time. We'll discover we have enough time to journey in any direction that calls to us if we have cultivated an eager attitude.

Reflecting Dawn

Reading from the Fairy

Sacrificing our rights often results in other people mistreating us. We deny our own importance if we say yes when we mean no. Saying no doesn't mean we reject the other person. It simply means we are refusing a request. Some of us become people pleasers and say yes to everyone and everything. We let other people, places, and things control our lives. We allow our personal freedom to be trampled on. We actually become numb to our own needs.

Learning to say no is an act of love and honesty. When we speak up and are true to our feelings, people know who we are and where we stand.

"Is this heaven?"

TFTD

It does make a difference what you call things.

--Kate Douglas Wiggin

Most of us think of dandelions as weeds. We buy special tools and poisons when they crop up and complain about them as surely as we welcome the spring that brings them.

Yet is there anything more lovely than a sea of yellow dandelions by the side of the road in June? Or as remarkable in transformation as the filaments of the mature dandelion blowing on the wind?

Sometimes we let someone else define for us what are weeds and what are flowers. We don't have to. Much of the beauty of the world is that we ourselves decide what is beautiful according to our own feelings. How lucky we are that, when we choose to, we can open our eyes and see!

Embracing Glory

TFTD

Being willing to change is often easier than doing it. One of the biggest changes most of us need to make is learning to let others be who they are, regardless of who we want them to be. Most of us think our lives would be far smoother and more productive if only other people lived up to our standards. How wrong we are!

If we could change others as we wish, we would live far less enlightened lives. In fact, we discover opportunities for personal development in our interactions with the men and women who frustrate us so. The irony is that we wish they'd change, but if they did, we wouldn't experience the growth we deserve.

The Shy Guy in the Back

Cheeky Fairy Reading

Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.

--Eric Hoffer

As adults, we accept responsibility for our feelings and our circumstances. We haven't chosen our own troubles, but we have the job of dealing with them. If a man falls and breaks a leg, he might say to someone, "It's your fault, and I'll make you pay for this!" But that won't fix his leg. The healing still has to come from within.

Our impulse to blame others is an attempt to escape our responsibilities. We become overcritical. We want someone else to take the rap for our pain and our misdeeds, but this only delays our wholeness. There is no point in blaming ourselves either. When we first confront our discomfort directly and accept responsibility for dealing with it, we feel an inner urge to escape again. If we stay with the discomfort a while, a new stage begins -- the healing and acceptance stage. A feeling of wholeness comes, a feeling of being a real person, of having reached our full size.

Up on the Farm

Just breathe.....

I think I'm now witchy AND twitchy.
Which would explain the need to vacate the work site on a daily basis, turn right and head down the old bridge road. This is the place I go to when I wanna take people's faces off and spit down their throat.  Only, I'm not so much feeling like I wanna do that......I just find myself vacating and ending up on the old bridge road.
The wild flowers are amazing right now, the fields are bursting and the creek is just peaceful.
Undoubtedly I'll go again today.

Yesterday I went after talking with the nurse about where to send the pre-op physical.
Today I'll go cuz I have to contend with meeting...after meeting....after meeting....after meeting...  I adore Wednesday cuz every one of the staff are present.  I despise Wednesday cuz every one of them wants to talk and talk.......and talk......
I'm a 'get in, decide, get out' kinda gal.  Talking things to death is what I do with MY stuff, not other people's..LOLOLOL  OHmygosh, how true is that?!

I'll end up on the old bridge road.  And it'll help me just breathe and BE.
I know it's about this surgical stuff and all the 'out of control' circumstances that are piling up.  (like I was in control of ANY circumstance?!)  I know I've got a good two weeks (to the day!) to get through without creating too many messes.
I'll work on setting the plan into motion (which it already is!) and getting people into a habit before I wander out the door to 'get 'er done'!
And I'll go to the old bridge road as many times as I need to.........

 

Daily Reading

We often think that if a little is good, more will be better, or that if we are not happy, it must be because we don't have enough of something.

Wanting and craving. The desire for what we don't have prevents us from appreciating and enjoying what we do have - right now, this moment. We often sell ourselves continual dissatisfaction by focusing on what we appear to lack. 

So how much is enough? Can we learn to savor the blessings we have now, today? Do we really need more, or do we need to fully experience the gifts of the present?

Freshly Rolled

Fairy Material

The people who are most successful at living and loving are those who can learn to wait successfully. Not many people enjoy waiting or learning patience. Yet, waiting can be a powerful tool that will help us accomplish much good.

We cannot always have what we want when we want it. For different reasons, what we want to do, have, be, or accomplish is not available to us now. But there are things we could not do or have today, no matter what, that we can have in the future. Today, we would make ourselves crazy trying to accomplish what will come naturally and with ease later.

We can trust that all is on schedule. Waiting time is not wasted time. Something is being worked out - in us, in someone else, in the Universe.

We don't have to put our life on hold while we wait. We can direct our attention elsewhere; we can practice acceptance and gratitude in the interim; we can trust that we do have a life to live while we are waiting - then we go about living it.

Deal with your frustration and impatience, but learn how to wait. The old saying, "You can't always get what you want" isn't entirely true. Often, in life, we can get what we want - especially the desires of our heart - if we can learn to wait.

Sun Break

Yikes.....

300 photos--that's how convinced I was that I wasn't capturing the flutterby's that were visiting the patio.
Now, mind you, those were hurriedly snapped 'inbetween'.

• Cleaning out the garage--how that becomes such a disaster during the summer, I have no clue--
• Scrubbing down the bathroom.  It's all ready, 'cept for the floor--I was a tad preoccupied with the garage.
• Scrubbing down the stove and refrigerator.  More for the kitchen later--cuz....
• Laundry--of course..mostly the towels that somehow end up in the strangest places.( k....that'd be me from deciding I'm going to comb tangled messes on the patio....)
• Tossing out and filing away.  Apparently I'm getting ready for 'round two' and all the medical 'stuff' that comes with it.  Yippee.
• Making a run to Walmart for cleaning supplies that I ran out of.
• Oh, and taking 300 photos of the flutterby's here and there.
• AND I topped it off by planting myself in the middle of the patio to watch the meteor shower before it peaked (thank goodness, cuz it was raining last night....)

I have plans to use more cleaning products (prior to hanging a few Halloween things inside)--there's something about buying more cleaning products and wanting to use them.  I have a brand new bottle of window cleaner, a new bottle of floor wax AND some smelly cleaner stuff to use in the kitchen that cuts grease like you wouldn't believe!  Yeah, well, I'll believe it when I use it and it works.  LOL

In the mean time--there's 300 photos to sort through.  I glanced at 'em as I put them on the computer. *laughing*  I think the flutterby's weren't as wiggly as I feared.

Reading Fairy Invasion

If we try to hide our problems, we cannot get help for them. 

To get help we must tell people where we're really at. 

No one can read a closed book.

Fairy Words for Today

Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.

--Dr. Karl Menninger

Love is no mystery, but its results are magical in many ways. It's generally accepted that many illnesses are psychosomatic. Because we often feel anxiously alone, lonely, fearful, and unloved, we express our need through our bodies. How sad so many of us are so hindered. But we can each be willing participants in a solution. The action called for is simple. All it requires is the decision to act with favor toward one another.

A look through loving eyes on a struggling person offers him or her the strength to try and try again and thus succeed. Lovingly moving the barriers to another's achieving spirit will benefit all who share this journey.

You've got mail

Light Reading

Everyone got one--the clinicians, the therapists, the psychologist and psychiatrist....  k...that's not 'everyone', but it's not ME either....

*ahem*

I mighta whined a bit.

Seriously--I didn't whine THAT much--just....some....

But--tada!!!  Got one!  :-D

Ummm.....my lovely secretary 'stole' it.

Yup--right from the central office!

That gal is far more skilled than I give her credit.......

Daily Reminder

We can only live now, this moment. We cannot erase the mistakes we made yesterday or bring back the good times we had. We cannot know what tomorrow will require of us, nor can we ensure future security and happiness. Now is what we have, and now is everything.

Flutter In, Flutter Out

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Carl Jung

TFTD

All my yesterdays run together. -- Clara Glenn  

Age doesn't demand that our memories become fuzzy, but they commonly are. We often fret over this. We could, instead, make light of it and simply appreciate that we worked our memories overtime for many years. There is no requirement that we have long memories anymore. Our age gives us this freedom.  

There are some plusses to having the past run together in our minds. For one, it prevents past tragedies from gaining too much focus. Also, we are able to see how really insignificant many of our trials were. That's a good reminder that our current worries will barely be remembered, even a month from now.  

Only today deserves our attention; this gives us an easier set of circumstances to handle. Being caught in the past can hinder our present decisions. The past may offer something to inform our present, but this moment is unique, not like the past at all.  

My past is over. My future is irrelevant. My present is all that matters. And it is designed especially for me. 

Yesterday's Bridge

Fairy Wisdom

 Sometimes, we act in a manner with which we are less than comfortable. That's human. That's why we have the words: "I'm sorry." They heal and bridge the gap. But we don't have to say, "I'm sorry" if we didn't do anything wrong. 

A sense of shame can keep us apologizing for everything we do, every word we say, for being alive and being who we are.  

We don't have to apologize for taking care of ourselves, dealing with feelings, seeking boundaries, having fun, or getting healthy.  We never have to change our course, if it is in our best interest, but sometimes a general apology acknowledges other feelings and can be useful when the issues of a circumstance or relationship are not clear. 

We might say, "I'm sorry for the fuss we had. I'm sorry if what I needed to do to take care of myself hurt you; it was not intended that way."  Once we make an apology, we don't have to keep repeating it. If someone wants to keep on extricating an apology from us for the same incident, that is the person's issue, and we don't have to get hooked.  

We can learn to take our apologies seriously and not hand them out when they're not valid. When we feel good about ourselves, we know when it's time to say we're sorry and when it's not. 

TFTD

With a quickened step we hurry toward a challenge when empowered by love. 

Conversely, even the simplest of experiences have the power to fill us with dread when love is absent.  

Expressed to a friend, a lover, even a stranger, love promises us unanticipated gifts. 

We're openly appreciated, the glow of warmth enfolds us, and we find even our courage is magically bolstered when we've shared ourselves in a loving way with someone.  

With ease we may express love to children, touched by their vulnerability, certain we'll not be bruised by rejection.

 If only we'd continue our free expression of love to all the child adults on our paths, we'd discover both exhilaration and the courage to face any event life passes our way.

The Wild One

Notthatitmatters.....

'We're old farts'.

I'm not sure I like he-who-IS-an-old-fart's answer.
Seriously--I've been doing the broken leg gig for 8 months now.  E.I.G.H.T. months.  And I'll be going back for more!  (k.....NOT the point, move on.....)
So that's eight months worth of someone else doing the 'stuff' that I normally do.
Or...it's eight months of stuff that I normally do, not getting done?  Face it--some of it just isn't getting done.
He-who-is-an-old-fart is doing everything.
I act like I do some things, like dusting and weeding and scrubbing the bathtub--but he tosses a bit of a fit if he discovers me contorting to reach, balancing on one foot, and generally trying to move things that weigh more than 5 pounds.

I tried to move a potted plant around yesterday--I thought he was going to faint.  Granted, I'll give that it probably looked worse than it was with one crutch on the ground, one being held on to and me reaching under a huge bush to try to pull/push the pot.
His answer and mine--two different answers.  "Leave it" is NOT my answer.

There's dust under the television thingy.  There's dust under the end tables.  There's dust on everything, frankly--and cards from March are still littered on the top of tables.  There's crates in the study, papers everywhere, crafting supplies and magazine and.....STUFF just kinda hangin' around.
I suppose some of that's cuz we know there's another round coming up--so why bother to put it away to drag it all out again.  Some of it's cuz I'm not hangin' around inside TO see the stuff.  Patio sitting, dontchaknow.

I look at half of this STUFF and think--hand me the garbage bag cuz it's STUFF.
So when I ask he-who-doesn't-seem-to-feel-the-need-to-toss-stuff WHY we have all this STUFF still hangin' around and he tells me cuz we're OLD......I blink and consider fainting.  LOL

Seriously?
If hanging on to STUFF and letting it collect here and there is a sign of aging, HAND ME THE GARBAGE BAG.
I'm figuring I can take 10 years off of BOTH of us in a matter of a couple hours and a few garbage bags.
:-/

And yet another....

Be yourself. Who else is better qualified? --Frank J. Giblin, II  

Almost every magazine devotes its cover to movie stars and famous personalities. We are taught that we need to look like the most attractive and glamorous people. We need to wear what they wear, eat what they eat, and fix our hair like theirs. The message we are given is: Don't be yourself, be like someone else.  
There will always be someone who looks better than we do, has more money, scores better on tests, or has more creative skills. If we're always trying to mimic other people, we won't be looking at ourselves. 
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it keeps us from being ourselves.  We need to stop focusing on what others have that we don't have. We need to look inward at our good qualities as well as our imperfections. 
We need to see who we are by being ourselves. Life is not made up of people who are good and bad, happy and sad, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly. Life is made up of people being themselves. 

Little Light