Thursday, April 26, 2012

Randomness - Spring Edition

I joined the Wild Elephant Project over at Life Unity a while back.  Each week, we work on a mindfulness exercise.  A couple weeks ago we worked on a media fast.  And while I couldn't totally "fast" since
  • my job requires that I am available via email, and
  • I've been working on some genealogy with a couple of cousins so I needed to keep up with their findings, and
  • my inbox would have been overwhelming when I returned so I would have felt all kinds of stress and that would have somewhat defeated the purpose of the mindfulness exercise,
I did do a good job of staying away from most of my personal emails and spent minimal time on other time-wasting sites.   What I realized was that I have way, way too much junk email.  So I spent a part of the Saturday morning after the fast going thru and unsubscribing to all the junk.  What a liberating feeling!

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I had my taxes completed since about the middle of February.  Yet on April 15th I filed my federal and the morning of April 17th I fled my state.  'Nuf said. 

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I went to a seminar a couple weeks ago.  Angels 101.  Very interesting!!  I learned some things.  That's always a good day when you can say you learned something, don't you think? 

Do you believe that angels are around us?  I learned about archangels and guardian angels and who to ask for help depending on the need.  And then I heard real life stories from a trusted friend who confirmed what we had learned.  And I said a prayer on the way home to the angel I didn't even know was with me when I was dealing with cancer.  And I realized that those I called angels on earth are probably more my "signs" or "guides" sent by one of my angels. 

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My heart turns to mush when it comes to my grandkids!  (Yeah, I know that it's no surprise to you.  I guess it's just my way of expressing gratitude for them).  Little Miss and Mommy called Grandpa PG on his birthday to sing "Happy Birthday".  She was very proud of herself, according to Mommy.

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Had a great conversation with a friend recently about attitudes and how we can choose to let go of some that are destructive to our psyche and hold on to the thoughts that will propel our lives into a better place.  I always walk away from those conversations feeling more enlightened.  Even if nothing new came from the conversation, it's more a reaffirmation of what I want my life to be.

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Just got over my super busy, crash-when-I-finally-get-home weeks at work.  It's all good, but long hours and a lot less sleep because it's always on my mind.  I find that it's like that a lot with people who work for schools.  And my only answer to why is because it's an ever-changing environment when you work with kids.

I think it's probably a good time to visit my classes at 21 Secrets! 

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At school this week, we experienced a tragedy.  One of our kids passed away.  We have around 1700 kids at our school yet when this happens, it is felt by all.  It's not just "one of our students", it's "one of our kids".  Because I work with people who realize why we are there and embrace the fact that each of our students are one of us.  My heart is heavy thinking about the loss to this student's family.  And my prayers are with them that they get thru this sorrowful time. 


At the risk of this ending up being another "draft" in my long list of posts, I'm posting this now, sans pics.  If I find some I want to use, I'll spice it up a bit. 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Happy Easter! - Happy Spring!!

  


I was raised Catholic.  We celebrated Easter big time.  Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, coloring eggs on Saturday, church and a big family dinner on Sunday.  But for various reasons, I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore.  Christian, but not Catholic.  That's as far as I'll go with blogging about religion.

These days, I celebrate spring.  I celebrate new beginnings.  The anticipation of things to come.  Last year, I took part in Big Picture Classes "Picture Spring" class.  And right now, I can't remember the photo prompts we had, but I just reviewed the pictures I took.  And they give me the same hope that spring always gives me. 

The promise of things to come.



The realization that there will be some pesty issues that will need to be addressed.



The reminder that I might be looking plump now, but if I stay busy with all the things I need to do to take care of myself and my family, I'll trim down quickly.



The thought that I'm starting with a clean slate in my garden and that it's up to me to provide it with enough care and nurturing to allow it to become its most beautiful.



The attitude that with a little perserverance, I can push thru anything
and the beauty of my efforts will come through. 



The comfort to realize that sometimes things take time to show us their
ultimate gift, and that patience is required on my part. 



I wish you PEACE on this Easter weekend. And always.