Category: Thanks

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Moving, Nature, Thanks

Drought and Worms

When there has been a weeks long drought, little rain, followed by weeks long drought. Does that mean when it finally rains it is moving day for the worms? They were all over the drenched sidewalks when I walked Lucky this morning. Itty bitty short ones and longer adults.

Then when we crossed the street in front of our house in the road was the longest, largest night crawler I have ever seen! At least ten inches long!! I was soaking wet and could not get my iPhone out of my pocket, but really, this surpassed Two Men and a Truck! More like a freight train!

Gloomy gray day, but the retention pond is getting more water, the dog poop scooper was easier the rinse (in the down spout). Lucky and I are indoors and getting dry as I work in the office on the blog.

Grateful for the much needed rain! 🙂 Yes, I am tempted to run out there with the camera now and see if I can show you that GIANT night crawler!! Naw! the rain is still coming down.

Also grateful that I no longer need to put bait on hooks. One year our son fractured his arm and had to wear a plaster cast most of the summer. One of the ways to amuse him was to go fishing. His cast went down to his fingers, so me, Mom, got to bait the hook each time he drowned a worm. Oh yippee! It was a gooey summer for me! He has a son of his own now, and so far, no broken arms!

Matthew 5:45
Posted on in Art, Beagle, Book quotes, Faith, Family, Humor, Just do it, medical treatment, Memories, Nature, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Yield

Mahalo, A Word We Learned in Hawaii

  • Mahalo – Thank You – (even on the garbage can flaps)
  • Bird feeders full and busy with bird traffic
  • Cake to bake and pies to create
  • Sweet potatoes 25 cents a pound and bound to cost less after Thursday!!
  • Lucky responding well to Glucosamine Chondroitin, though she still limps
  • turkey!
  • then turkey sandwich spread will follow
  • cranberry sauce
  • lately more sunny days than gloomy
  • Our Lord and Savior
  • Advent begins
  • books of our faith, including prayer books and hymnals
  • online Christian music I can search and play
  • shopping online makes some this so much easier
  • Baby Francesca continues to improve
  • white bread, mayonnaise and left over turkey slices sandwich!
  • fragrant candles
  • those who read my blog and comment
  • those who read my blog and are encouraged but do not comment
  • Betty continues to improve
  • Margie making great strides in her recovery
  • Outdoor Christmas lights
  • the wonders on our walk at Ten Mile Creek park
  • The joy of taking Lucky for a ride
  • wind moving the pinwheels reminds me of the movement of the Holy Spirit
  • those willing to help the less fortunate
  • landscaper who sweeps up leaves off the lawn
  • my friend Lori who absolutely loves all things Christmas
  • banyan tree sending out new leaves on Maui
  • Bob selected cookies for us
  • Willing contributors to Empower Youth toy drive
  • Zoom study of Franciscan book, meeting 10 people there weekly
  • union Township crochet and knit group
  • Crochet and knit monthly meeting at Convent
  • Bi-weekly group with church folks
  • Our family
  • Grandchildren!
  • Mint Chapstick
  • good medical care without too much waiting
  • dental care
  • safe walking area
  • my spiritual director
  • But wait! There’s more!! As Kathy says “There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for!”

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5: 18 KJV


Posted on in Faith, medical treatment, Prayer, Thanks

Keep Praying!

Great good news! Infant born recently is now off the ventilator. And the doctors have determined her leg will not need to be amputated. Grandfather is so delighted. Please keep praying for Baby Francesca.

Your prayer for the parents, grandparents and siblings are SO appreciated. I cannot thank you enough!!

Posted on in Collection of Quotes, Faith, Illness and Health, Just do it, medical treatment, Special Event, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

How Many Days?

Is November 23, 2023 the only day this year you will be giving thanks? Day 327 of the year.

Traditionally it is a time to give thanks for all the sacrifice and hard work done for the harvest. In modern times people take time off work (4 day weekend starting Thursday) and spend time with family and friends over a large feast held on Thanksgiving Day.

https://www.calendardate.com/thanksgiving_2023.htm

Few if any of us have participated in bringing in the harvest of food! Feasting, football and family we have a better understanding about.

I am asking though about giving thanks to the Lord of the Harvest. To God, “from whom all blessing flow.” Being grateful, giving thanks as a way of life can change us from the inside out. Forming the habit of thanksgiving we can change how our eyes see, how our brains interpret.

So how many days this year have you given thanks? There is rarely an easy way to answer that. Perhaps you have set aside a day per month to list things you are grateful about? Likely, more than one thing made that list?

This could be a good time to decide to change and make it a daily habit to give thanks. Not just a rote prayer at meal time, but an actual listing of things.

In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

People feel and express gratitude in multiple ways. They can apply it to the past (retrieving positive memories and being thankful for elements of childhood or past blessings), the present (not taking good fortune for granted as it comes), and the future (maintaining a hopeful and optimistic attitude). Regardless of the inherent or current level of someone’s gratitude, it’s a quality that individuals can successfully cultivate further.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier

Then this comment from New York Presbyterian Hospital staffer

The holidays are about more than presents and being together with family and friends — they’re also about being thankful. Turns out, being thankful can have many positive health effects. Studies show practicing gratitude can lead to more intimate and connected relationships, less depression, more motivation and engagement, and better overall mental well-being.

https://healthmatters.nyp.org/is-gratitude-good-for-your-health/

I like the clarification above about past, present and future. This truly is a quality we can cultivate. Here in Ohio, this is not the time of year to cultivate the land, The soil of your heart, however, is waiting for you to sow the seeds of gratitude and gratefulness. Imagine the harvest you will reap in body, mind and spirit from this minimal conscious effort!

The research shows that 3 a day – three moments or events that you are grateful for – every day – every single day – can have a huge impact on your health and well-being. What do you have to lose? Why not begin now if you are not already doing this?

We can set our watches to remind us to stand or get a certain number of steps daily. Why not set your watch to remind you to pause and write out 3? Not so difficult when you think about it.

We do not have a record of how often Jesus was grateful and gave thanks, but there is this quote:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Matthew 11:25 NIV
Posted on in Aging, Cooking, Faith, Family, Just do it, Memories, Music, Thanks

My 37th, I Mean 73rd Birthday Celebration

Here is a photo tour of parts of my birthday celebration. Bob made my favorite cake, coconut!

Oh yum. We HAD to taste it the night before!

He also took me to Andy’s Mediterranean Grill. It has gotten mixed reviews lately. We had not eaten there for a long time. It was going to be one of those experiments. If it had gone down hill substantially, it would be our last visit. It was as delicious as I remembered. They make chicken shwarma like no one else I know.

For appetizer I chose spanakopeta – filo dough wrapped around spinach and cheese

I have only had spanakopeta oven baked. Theirs was deep fried. Oilier but still delicious.

Bob ordered Hummus for his meal. He did let me share. I also shared with him! And there were still leftovers to take home.

And then for my entree!

I gave Bob the raw onions and olives off the plate. Oh my! So very good and had left overs for a second meal.

We chose to skip dessert as we had coconut cake awaiting us at home! Yes, their prices were quite a bit higher than in times past, but that is true of every restaurant we have been to this year. We will return in 2024.

I had phone calls, snail mail cards, electronic cards, text messages and many folks celebrating with me. A great celebration all around! My sister sent a flower arrangement. She is out of town and we will go to lunch at a later date.

Since Bob and I celebrate birthdays with only 3 weeks between us, our daughter bought us tickets to the theater to see “Girl from the North Country.” Great fun seeing it with Emily and Lizzie!

Thank you O Holy One for another year of living and loving!

Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 46:4 NIV
Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Illness and Health, Listen, Memories, Moving, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Good Thought

Have you read books by Rachel Remen, MD? I first found one in Albuquerque one the shelf of a coffee shop where you could take a book or leave a book. I have only read these two so far:

When we down-sized to moved I disposed of them. Recently I got one back. Now I will purchase the other one once I have finished the first again. The stories are short and great for those who might not have the attention span or stamina for long reads. Everything I have read from her though has been powerful. When this quote came in daily email from Gratefulness I wanted to share it and her writings with you.

Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Isn’t that a wonderful thought. Years ago I thought I might have the answer to some things. As I turned older and older I realized I not only did not have the answers, I wasn’t even certain what the questions were! However, pursuing unanswerable questions with my husband and other other good friends has made for a good life.

I wish the same for you!

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD is Clinical Professor Emeritus of Family and Community Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Ohio. In 1991 she founded the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI) a national training institute for physicians, nurses, medical students, nursing students, veterinarians and other health professionals who wish to practice a health care of compassion, meaning, service and community. She is an internationally recognized medical educator whose innovative discovery model course in professionalism, resiliency and relationship-centered care for medical students, THE HEALER’S ART is taught at more than 90 American medical schools and schools in seven countries abroad. Her bestselling books Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings have been published in 23 languages and have millions of copies in print.

In recognition of her contribution to medicine and medical education, she has received numerous awards including three honorary degrees, the prestigious Bravewell Award as one of the earliest pioneers of Integrative Medicine and Relationship Centered Care. In 2013, she was voted the Gold-Headed Cane award by UCSF School of Medicine for excellence in embodying and teaching the qualities and values of the true physician. Dr. Remen has a 70-year personal history of chronic illness, and her work is a potent blend of the perspectives and wisdom of physician and patient.

https://www.rachelremen.com/

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Illness and Health, Just do it, Listen, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Writing Life, Yield

So Very True

Here is a wonderful thought to ponder.

No amount of regret changes the past. No amount of anxiety changes the future. Any amount of gratitude changes the present.

Ann Voskamp

Many times I begin my prayer thanking the Father for another day of living and loving. Reflecting upon my recent birthday I thank the Holy One for another year of living and loving.

Best birthday card ever!
From my sister
My sister, Paula
Me

“At our age there are not lots of new friendships, but the ones we experience we hold dear.” Our neighbor, Kathy, has only been known to us a couple of years. Through her first year of struggling to get her brain around what it takes to live with a chronic illness and that illness being also a rare one, we became close. It is difficult to communicate with people who have never suffered from chronic illness. As Kathy says, “They just don’t get it.” Her diagnosis, antisynthetase syndrome, is rare and causes much misery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisynthetase_syndrome Fewer than 50,000 people in the US are thought to have this. Together we have re-affirmed Ann Voskamp’s wisdom that ‘any amount of gratitude changes the present.‘ This year when she returned to Florida, as snowbirds have a tendency to do, it was harder than ever to let her go. We have been married the same length of time, we are the same age, we each have a son and a daughter. Both of us have 3 grandchildren! Her wisdom and friendship bless me deeply. We share our faith freely. When I developed scalp psoriasis I told her I was getting tired of being like her! We don’t speak about dandruff, we refer to blizzards of skin cells falling from our heads after we scratch. We both need to vacuum our beds, our chairs and our cars. It is almost impossible to NOT scratch this sort of itching.

As I unwrap this gift of a new year of life I will try to remain present to all that is given. Life is truly a gift.

With another year of aging, I cling more and more to this verse in Corinthians

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV

Less energy, true that. Less flexibility, true that. Undiagnosed hand and foot itching, yep. More renewal, thank the LORD for that! The Scriptures declare He will never leave me or forsake me. And it is true. There are times when I move away from God, but He is ever near and holds me in His nail-scarred hands.

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are ever before me.“

Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV

I truly live a varied and pleasing life, rich in adventure and blessings. There is no way I can account for it. One friend tells me I see things others do not when I take a walk. I am blessed to be married to the best man in the world. This year I have continued to work on finding some of the best recipes to cook. (I already miss fresh Ohio tomatoes!) My desk remains stacked about 6 inches deep. If I ever get ‘caught up’ I suppose it will be time to die? Let’s not even discuss how deep the sewing table is with projects.

I have out lived both of my parents. Bob calls it the ‘miracle of modern chemistry.” This year I promise to continue to write this blog as long as I am enabled to come up with new thoughts and inspirations.

May you cling to the One who has you engraved on the palms of His hands. May you rest in the knowledge that the same Holy One is able to renew you day by day. Peace and all blessings to each of you, my dear readers.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Nature, Thanks

Beauty by Sister Joan

Joan Chittister is a well known Benedictine nun and author of a tremendous amount of books. Over many years she has inspired me to grow deeper with Christ. I get a weekly newsletter from her ministry. Here is a quote from a recent newsletter and a link should you want to read the entire article for yourself. Much of what they put in the newsletter is taken from her books.

Because of beauty

Confucius may have said it best: “Everything has beauty,” he taught, “but not everyone sees it.” Seeing it, the spiritual person knows, is the task of a lifetime. It is also the reward of a lifetime well-lived, lived in balance, lived from the inside out as well as from the outside in.

CONTINUE READING AT https://mailchi.mp/benetvision.org/doubt-is-the-mother-of-conviction-751773?e=b2069f7462

Open your eyes to the beauty around you today. This morning was my turn to walk the dog. It was the coldest morning this season. Just meant time to get out my winter coat, and gloves, etc. Had to stop to capture this leaf for you.

After the many days of glorious yellow, red and gold leaves raining down upon us this frosted outline was too lovely to not admire!

Watch for treasures in plain sight. They truly are all around you!

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Faith, Poetry, Thanks

Delight Must Be Permitted

We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world.

Jack Gilbert , a Brief for the Defense

When I read the above I wanted to know more about where it came from. I found it online at https://poetrysociety.org/poems/a-brief-for-the-defense 

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.



From Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert. Copyright © 2012 by Jack Gilbert.

“Ruthless furnace of the world” certainly describes the daily worldwide news. May you risk delight today and give the LORD all the glory.

I have now turned 73 years old, or as one friend quipped, “37, until I can no longer reverse the numbers!” Anyway you look at it, aging has been galloping down the road towards me. The trouble with seeing all those specialists and the dentist a week or two before a birthday is they all bring it to your attention! “Oh, I see you are about to have another birthday!” My Dentist says I need all these filings because of “TMB”, Too-many-birthdays, i.e., my gums have receded and there is now new enamel to decay!

Ha! But we must risk delight! We must continue to seek treasures in plain sight! If our eyes fail then we must seek humor in every place that we go. If we cannot go then we must remember humor from past experiences. Hold to that “stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world” and the ruthless march of decay our body experiences.

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16 NRSV
Posted on in Aging, Cooking, Faith, Family, Illness and Health, Marriage and Memories, Special Event, Thanks

Miss me?

If you might be wondering where I went or why I quit posting here are a few reasons.

We traveled to Holmes County Ohio last week. Took a break for a couple of days. The last day there I had to stop taking all antihistamines as I will have allergy testing this week. The stoppage brought the symptoms of itching back like a herd of wild horses running in a stampede from a predator. I have been a basket case of misery.

We celebrated Bob’s 75th birthday with dinner out and then homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. (His favorite.)

Someone gave me this recipe years ago. It is such a favorite that Bob will drive miles to share a piece with two co-workers who have now also retired. This is one carrot cake that does NOT sink to your tummy like lead.

CARROT CAKE				serves 10-12
MIX 1-1/2 T. oil	        4 large eggs
           -2 c. sugar	        2 c. grated carrot
WITH 2-1/2 c. flour	2 t. cinnamon
          1 t. soda	               ½ t. salt
         ½ t. vanilla
ADD 1 c. chopped walnuts	¾ c. currants or raisins
      1 c. crushed pineapple in its own juice

POUR into large greased pan  13 x 9, or Bundt or large bread pan
BAKE 1 hour Bundt  or  40 min. 9 x 13
ICING Blend ½ lb. 10x sugar 	4 oz. Cream cheese
    ¼ lb. Butter	1 t. vanilla

I always bake it 9 x 13. The cup of crushed pineapple in its own juice can sometimes be found in a can in just the right measurement.

I see the allergist tomorrow. They just told me to go ahead and take the antihistamines. Doctor will decide a treatment plan and when/how to test me. Geesh. Lots of misery for nothin’.

Yet, He is always with me.