I don't know about you, but I sometimes have trouble slowing my pace. It's downright unhealthy to stay energized all the time, so I've found a few little habits that help me sloooooooooow down.
My very favorite: Sitting in the backyard with Kathy and quietly talking. We live in such a noisy world. It's so nice to take some time with someone you love and just listen to them. Watch their lips move. Admire their ideas. Celebrate with them. Hurt with them. And, just be silent with them.
Then, all is calm.
zzz-z-z-z-z-z-z-z---zzz
OK, folks. I didn't start this little thread to brag on me.
It's so YOU can tell what you do to slow YOUR pace.
Poor Diane ... looks like I "done" put her to sleep.
When I was working, I would get up half an hour earlier than needed and just sit in the quiet and dark. I guess you could call it meditating as I thought of the things I needed to do that day or the problems we might be having. Then the radio would turn on and it was time to get my husband up and get ready for the day. Now I have all the time in the world to sit and meditate. Do I? You betcha boots I don't. I take my cuppa and turn on the TVs and catch up on the news and weather. Then in about an hour I get dressed for the day. My time.
yawn,.... what, what... were you saying something? I got so calm and peaceful, I nodded right off. We do love to sit out on our deck and listen to the night sounds. If we can discourage those evil mosquitos.
If we ever manage to get off this one lonely planet and found a second world, I'm going to vote against taking the mosquitoes along.
Ever wonder why Noah let the mosquitoes on the ark?
I'll make that motion, Rudy can second it . Any discussion? Call the question! (gavel) All forum members present and voting Aye raise hands. Neigh? (one horse) The Ayes have it unanimously. (gavel) Mr. secretary, please draft a letter notifying all female blood sucking mosquitoes, that their presence will be denied on the next planet. There will be no appeal.
Maybe Noah was to buzzy...er, busy to notice.
There are a few other things I can think of to leave home, but mosquitoes are a definite. Thanks for making it sound official, Diane.
Oh, and that horse can go.
;)
Deep breaths and anti-anxiety medication...
That was really nice Rudy.
I too take special times and do special things once and awhile ( need to do it more)
to slow down and center and ground myself.
I always end up feeling renewed..
I understand exactly what you mean Rudy. Mine is my deck...preferrably warm weather 6'ish in the morning, first cup of coffee, listening to the birds wake up and watching the flowers stretch their petals to meet the morning sun. That's my balance.
At this point in life, I'm afraid to slow my pace down too much for fear I won't be able to speed it back up again later. And that's the truth.
Bless your heart, Kerm.
Wouldn't you just like to kick that MS out of your life for a single day?
LOL! Yessir, Rudy, I would. But it seems like that MS feller is pretty firmly entrenched in here. If I kick it, depending on where I kick it, it hurts me! Other places where I kick it, it doesn't matter because neither one of us can feel it, anyway.
It's funny, but when I dream, and if I'm in my dreams, I don't have MS and I'm still about 35. That must be why they call them dreams, huh? So in my dreams, I can still run five miles a day, and I usually still live in Moss Beach. I wonder if that is true of everyone with a serious disability, or if some people have to have the disability and dream of themselves with it, too? I don't think that I've ever heard anybody talk about that.
I ask the darnedest questions, huh?
I'm editing this in later. The other thing is that I don't really think about my MS that much. I sort of automatically know by now what I can and can't do, so it is all second nature. And, probably more importantly, I know a lot of people much worse off than I am, from MS or whatever it may be. So it seems silly to dwell on what I have when I can be trying to help those people deal with what they have.
Kermit: You're a living "Serenity Prayer:" Thanks for inspiring us.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
As Jim and I get on in years, we've added the Senility Prayer:
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,
the good fortune to run into the people I do like,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.
I may have picked that attitude up from a wonderful fellow named Russell Russell Russell. Russell was one of my best friends and the rock star of Alcoholics Anonymous in the San Francisco Bay Area. I didn't need his help in that area, but my long-time girl friend out there had divorced an alcoholic just before I met her, and Russell was the husband's sponsor for a while. Judy decided to get rid of the husband but keep Russell as a friend. It was a good choice.
Russell had been an alcoholic since he was a mere lad. He got his high school diploma in a reformatory; he acted badly when he was drinking, almost always ending up robbing somebody. Eventually he did a lot of hard time in the federal prison system (including places like Sing Sing and Folsom) before he finally sobered up. When I met him, he had been sober for six or seven years; he died sober about 10 years ago. And sober he was a very gentle man, the very definition of "gentleman," who was able to laugh at himself and his former life. He had some great stories.
The serenity prayer is a big part of AA and was a big part of Russell. It was always taped up in a prominent place in his motor home, where he lived when he wasn't bunking wherever I was living. Right under that was a sign that said, "If you're here and I am dead, call Michael to take care of the dogs, even if they have started to eat me.", followed by my cell phone number. So, I guess I picked up the words of Serenity from Russell. I have always tried to take that group of words to heart. I think probably everybody should.
Quote from: Kermit on August 04, 2007, 09:59:51 PM"If you're here and I am dead, call Michael to take care of the dogs, even if they have started to eat me
So Kermit ?... Well ? ... Did you end up with Russell's dogs? Just kidding. What a great story that was! Russell sounds like a really fun, interesting person, and must have had a great sense of humor.
When I need some serenity, if it's night time I get a bowl of popcorn & a pepsi, then snuggle down in my giant chair with a good science fiction book. If it's daytime, I love to go out & do yardwork. Mowing is my favorite - it drowns out all the other thoughts I have. I like to cut brush with my loppers too (there's plenty here and I never run out, you'd have to see it to believe it). I used to like to garden as well; but since we moved here we haven't got our gardening started yet. I'll save it for the future, when all this brush cutting is under control ::). Sometimes I just write l-o-n-g letters to old friends or family ~ That either reminds me of all the blessings in my life, or it shows me just how whiny I'm being so I have a chance to adjust my attitude AND my letter before it goes out. Hooray for word processing programs! Either way (even when I don't send a letter if it's especially whiny) it give me a chance to organize my thoughts and come to terms with any stumbling blocks I'm facing at the time. And I have to agree with others, it is peaceful & relaxing to set out in the quiet morning or evening and just enjoy nature ~ excluding mosquitoes that is ;)
I like that "senility" prayer. How perfect! :)
The dog that Russell credited with his sobriety died before Russell did. He was named Warden, so that Russell could finally boss around the warden, and he was the kindest, gentlest dog I have ever known. Warden had a heart attack while we were all playing in the park one evening. The vet came over saw his blue lips and gums, and said there was nothing she could do. Russell simply could not watch. He took the other dogs and went out to the ocean to spend the night.
I slept on the family room floor with Warden, very fitfully, while his breathing just got slower and slower. He finally gave a little shudder and he was gone. But you have to remember that Warden was a dog who could crack whole walnuts and pick them carefully apart with his teeth, getting out complete half nuts. He was also the dog that, when given a McDonald's hamburger, would carefully unwrap it on the ground, give the top bun to his glutton friend BJ (who had already wolfed down his burger practically whole), take the meat patty off the bun and lay it on the wrapper, then give the bottom bun to BJ. Finally, he would carefully eat his meat patty. There is a lot more, but this is undoubtedly getting boring for you.
The most important thing about Warden is that his love and devotion gave Russell reason not to drink.
Seems to me that Russell had some angel wings under that gentle spirit.
I loved the stories of what Russell did. If you have more..share them..please.
((To take each section of bun off and gently share with his buddy..... How awesome is that!))
I am never short of amazed at how smart our 4 legged friends are and what they "teach themselves"..
and in the process what they teach us.
Frawgie, why don't you put this on "Cute and Clever Pets" and give us more about Warden?
Kermit, I really didn't any more warming today, but darn it ... you warmed my heart again
with your story about Russell.
Russell was a walking heartwarming story in his own right. I was after him for years to write down the story of his life so that I could clean it up as a ghost writer. We already had a title: You Can't Blow Up Bing Crosby! But I can tell you, book or no book, that Russell had himself some adventures in those long, lost years.
He even had a great adventure when he died. He once got thrown out of a public park on the Bay in San Mateo County because he had his dog there, off the leash. He had Warden cremated after he died and took his ashes to that park little by little so what was left of Warden could spend eternity there. He made me promise that I would take him to join his dog. Anyone who has ever seen The Great Escape will know how I added Russell's ashes to Warden's in that park.
Speaking of warming in the other sense, the heat index here is 106.
Exactly the same here!
Rudy, the temperature or your ashes?
I didn't even know that Rudy knew Warden!
Quote from: Teresa on August 05, 2007, 11:28:31 AM
I am never short of amazed ...
Ain't that the truth????
Arf, arf, woof, woof, arrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooouuuuuuuuuufffffff!!!
(Well, folks, it's time for the ol' editor to hit the hay. Got a doggone big week ahead.)