09/29/12 It’s My 53rd Birthday and G.L.A.D. Chronicles Preview

 

 

Hello everyone. I just brewed a pot of coffee, if you’d care to share a cuppa with me. Fifty-three today, how is this possible? Where have the years gone, flying like geese to warmer climates! Ooh, going south, now there’s a theme. My picture’s been taken a few times this week… I love me, but I don’t care for the evidence in the photos of how I’ve been taking care of myself.

Does anyone else have faulty memory when looking at your photos? In the ones from your youth, where you’re possibly supporting a few less chins, rolls of bodacious girl and what-have-you. In our minds, THAT’S still us. Then we look in the mirror and see this sassy imposter who’s definitely been enjoying the processed carbs a bit too much, we want to call 911 and demand this sort-of-looks-like-me be taken away! Alas, she IS me. Deal with it!

Starting Monday, October 1st, this blog will start recording an experiment to find a balance in life, minimize my defeating behaviors and maximize my good ones. I’ll call it The G.L.A.D. Chronicles and hope to report on it for 365 days.

I’ve already began the first experiment. Last Saturday, I emptied out my clothes closet. Twenty years of clutter hauled out and left naked on the floor. The floor, chairs, hallway, and bed in another room. HOW did I stuff this much crap into one closet? I did, and my task is to not put a single thing back in that’s outlived its usefulness. I’m approaching it with a “Terminator“-like viewpoint when the guilts try to creep in about saving utter tripe for sentimental reasons. It’s been exhilarating so far, and slow. I’d like to get it right the first time, and only work on it for a short period each day. If I go beyond that, those blasted sentimental gremlins try to sneak back in and get me to save stuff I have no use for, but someone else might; into the donation container it goes!

I hope you’ll cheer me on, especially when I get weak. Everybody gets weak occasionally. Hopefully they’ll have friends to boost them back up!

09/22/12 Birthday Week! Celebrations Have Started!!

Good morning lovely friends! My 53rd birthday is coming up on September 29th. Life is short, so I began celebrating yesterday. Don’t get jealous at my extravagant purchases, but I bought two puzzle books and a few candles! A Garfield Sudoku and a Logic Lovers. I realized that asking someone else to buy you puzzle books is entirely insane, as puzzle lovers tend to be very specific about what types we like to solve. I’m also hoping to get “The Avengers” on DVD and have given copious hints to my husband! “Sherlock Holmes Two” would be equally welcome. Do I detect a Robert Downey Jr. theme here?

I’m celebrating all week-long with family and friends, which is quite dizzying to this normally reclusive girl. Well, maybe not reclusive, but I certainly don’t have to worry about the National Enquirer snapping pictures of me doing anything illegal…. unladylike, maybe, but not illegal!

So, Let Them Eat Cake And Drink White Zinfadel this week, as come October 1st, I’ll be back to healthy endeavors and reshaping my rather zaftig, menopausal sculpture of a self. Ooh, that makes me sound like a beautiful exhibit in an art museum. Me thinks I’ve been hitting that Zinfadel already!

I’ll post pictures next week. Cheers!

09/14/12 Depression Sucks, But It Doesn’t Have To Be The End

Cat, with its mouth open (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello everyone. The summer brought a lawn that I nicknamed Tumbleweed Connection and a drought in my blog. My writing vibe was dry and dead. Inspiration seemed as elusive as fitting into size 12 jeans… just not happening!

I wondered what it would feel like if I were to write a meaninful blog sharing insights into a life pursuing a relationship with God and then I realized I don’t even know what that looks like. Who can define such a relationship? Isn’t it rather relative, a matter of perspective? For some, it could be the ‘twice-a-year-letting-your-backside-hit-a-church-pew’ (Christmas and Easter). For others, it’s prayer 24/7. For a few, it’s talking to God throughout the day about all matters great and small.

I fall into the third category. It doesn’t make my way any better or worse than the rest of the world. It just makes it my way.

What if I measure it by how happy I am? I don’t think that would work either. I’ve had the summer from hell. A very bad bout of depression that isn’t quite over yet. Something about a dark night of the soul comes to mind.

Depression is so hard to explain to a person who’s never had it. It’s having every blessing you could ever hope for, yet you still feel on the verge of tears and ready to walk away from everything, crawl into a cave and hope there’s a landslide, so that the opening to said cave would be covered up and you could hide endlessly from humanity.

It’s looking in the mirror and wondering about God’s sense of humor in making a mutt like you, while looking at others and feeling sure they have all the answers. You’re the only one who could possibly be this stupid. You trudge along and try to get through the episode. Part of you wouldn’t care if you didn’t.

Then something happens, it can be miniscule or gargantuan, the happening is different everytime. Maybe it’s hearing a dear friend is really sick or an acquaintance has lost a longtime job and may lose their house. Or maybe it’s when you’re delivering the newspaper with your son and you make the acquaintance of a cat, an adorable feline who wants… DEMANDS your attention… you give her fifteen minutes of cuddles and then when you try to leave, she proceeds to put her teeth in your leg. For whatever reason, this doesn’t even phase you. You patiently have a conversation with this feline, explaining that this behavior isn’t cool, that if you’re going to hang out together, she must keep her teeth in her mouth and not on your leg… and you guess you’ll just have to come back next week and give her some etiquette lessons. The whole time, she sits there gazing at you like she’s actually listening! You walk away feeling a little bit lighter and smiling, not really sure why, but life seems a little better, suddenly.

In that moment, I talk to God; laughing about the absurdity of speaking to a cat as if it understands me, wondering how many people saw this daffy woman …. being who she is… and suddenly life doesn’t seem so bad.

I bet the prayers of friends might have had something to do with it. Maybe God knows better than anyone what the best way is to reach your hurting heart. It might be crazy as heck to everyone else, but it works for you. 

Maybe you can pass the blessing on and pray for someone else having a bad day/month/year/life. Maybe, just for today, the depression doesn’t win, God seems a little closer and you have a smidgen of insight into why you’re here.

To straighten out cats with wayward teeth!

Abundant blessings to you. 🙂