Spring Cleaning My Soul

I got this idea from this site:
http://www.soulpancake.com/post/1359/spring-cleaning-your-soul.html

Hmmm....Spring seems finally to be here! Hip Hip Hooray! I think I will try to keep this in a positive direction rather than focusing in the negative. Spring is a great time to try new things. And my newest thing is an electric bike. I have seen a few movies about stepping lighter on the earth and while walking is perhaps the "lightest steps" (pun intended) we can take transportation-wise, an electric bike still beats the heck out of a 5 passenger SUV carrying one person. So, I get to be outdoors, using my legs to power my bike (with the battery power assisting me as I need it, sigh of relief) and it is just darn fun! Having not really ridden a bike since I was a kid (maybe a few times as an adult that were not long or not pleasant) riding makes me feel young again! AND I don't feel AS guilty when I eat extra dessert now. ^^giggle^^

Let's see...I'm really trying to practice what I read about love and patience and understanding. It's one thing to read something, another thing to know something and an even greater thing to practice something. I pat myself on the back for finally going to visit an old friend in the nursing facility in which he dwells. (I will not berate myself for it taking me almost 2 years because I am keeping positive!)

I am restructuring my life to include time for me! This means not working for every person who "needs me to help them because they really need help." Because guess what?! I REALLY NEED HELP! Don't get me wrong. I LOVE helping people, but I have not evolved to the point where I can cope well if I don't save enough time to take care of my own business and health.

We all need help and I can sacrifice some, in fact I do quite often, but I cannot sacrifice continually. I will sink.

So here is to staying afloat! Ahoy!

childhood is the best!

While I was walking one of the dogs this afternoon, I was noticing the shrubbery around the edge of the complex. Not the manicured shrubbery, but the wild stuff on the fringes. I had a flashback to my youth when I would spend lots of time outdoors under some bush or trees pretending. Pretending I lived there. Oftentimes my next youngest sister would be with me and/or some of our friends. We probably raided the kitchen to take food there pretending we hunted or scavenged for it ourselves. Perhaps our dolls would be there with us. I don't remember what exactly we played, just that we seemed to spend a lot of time outside playing. A LOT of time compared to how much I get to spend today. But I didn't have a job back then.

I wasn't bringing home the bacon, frying it up in the pan and then cleaning up afterwards. I wasn't serving in an elected position that required me to attend meetings twice a month and take notes. I wasn't preparing lessons or devotional meetings or Feasts. I was just playing. Boy, I miss those times in a way.
So so so so carefree!

I had the whole summer to pretend, to swim, to ride bikes, to play with friends and as I got older I did do chores like cut the grass, weed the garden, cook meals, clean up afterwards....I began to work more and play less, whether that meant schoolwork or babysitting or planning Feast readings...till now, I hardly play at all and don't even have vacation time to relax.

Now I reheat the collard greens I cooked yesterday and scorch them while I type this blog. ooops! mmm, not bad...pretty good actually...

Ok, I had leftover broccoli and scorched greens for dinner all by myself at 8pm. Sure is different from how I grew up and the first twenty years of married life. But again, it's not so bad...pretty good actually.