Category: Bipolar life

26 August 2024 Fall Feeling

by saymber, posted in Art and Poetry, Bipolar life, Health, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. It’s been awhile since I’ve written to you. Not much new has been going on here with me. I just got back from a walk around the block and it was cooler. It’s starting to feel like fall already! The sunset is earlier and the temperatures are dropping. I’m not complaining! The only thing I haven’t liked about fall is cleaning up the leaves from my neighbors trees. Since I had one of them cutback it shouldn’t be as bad this year.

Leaves crinkling and curling

Breezes cooling sending them swirling

The skies are filled with birds traveling south

The beauty of the sight evokes awe from my mouth

Ever since I’ve gotten back on Depakote my creativity has gone away. It’s the sacrifice I’ve had to make for sanity! I miss the good parts of the highs or mania. It seemed like I had endless energy, thoughts and ideas. I don’t miss not being able to sleep and the endless chatter of inhabiting spirits. I have been stabile for over a year now and I’m grateful. Now if I could just lose the weight I’ve gained and stop feeling like a weeble wobble in my head I’d be all set!

Psalm 92

It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,

to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.

For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

How great are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts! (verses 1-5)

22 July 2024 Change

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Food, Health, Home, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? It’s 104 degrees here in Idaho! Thank God for air conditioning! I have been waiting til later in the evening to walk and it’s still quite warm and the air quality is poor. I have to do something to tackle my weight problem and making myself get out and walk is one way of doing that. Change is not just my activity level but what I’m eating. My Aunt and I got together last Wednesday and cooked some meat together for meals. I have been really grateful to have them. What happened is I was told my blood sugar levels were headed into pre-diabetic levels and I weighed in 40 lbs heavier than just a few months ago! A side effect of the medication I take for my mental health is feeling hungry all the time. So I’m having to change my snacking habits in addition to what I’m eating for meals.

Just a brief word about President Biden stepping down I think that was a good move. I don’t know much about Vice President Harris. Hopefully she will choose a good running mate. I personally wish it was Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Do Not Worry Matthew 6:25-27

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

22 June 2024 Outside

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Home, Nature, photography, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. I’m writing to you as I sit outside today. It feels nice! It’s 94 degrees but you can’t tell sitting on the shaded porch. I haven’t sat outside in awhile. It’s Saturday and the neighborhood is quiet except for a dog barking nonstop inside their home. They resealed our road so the tar is hot and black in the full sunshine. I can smell and feel it from my porch.

View from my porch

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. psalm 96:10-13

25 April 2024 Risk

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Home, Money, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?

I would say the last big risk I took was buying a house versus renting an apartment. When I first moved to Idaho we looked at rentals and they just wanted too much money. First and second months rent plus a hefty pet deposit. I decided why not talk to a realtor and see if I could find a house. God answered our prayers and I found a realtor who found me my current home. I had enough money to put down a decent down payment from the sale of the Texas house. I’m glad I took the chance.

Ecclesiastes 9:11New International Version

11 I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

2 April 2024 Switch

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. I’m experiencing a little frustration about my experience with the VA. I just found out I’m losing my counselor in a couple months- same thing happened with my psychiatrist! It keeps happening! They are interns that graduate and move on and then a new doctor switches in. It’s frustrating because I have to keep starting over! The positive thing is may be a new perspective will be helpful – I will just have to see.

2 Corinthians 5:17New International Version

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

29 March 2024 Laugh

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What makes me laugh? I laugh at comedians like Gabriel Iglesias – he is my favorite! It doesn’t matter how many times I watch his shows I always laugh. Another one is Sebastian Maniscalco. I’m the type of person who goes to a comedy show and laugh embarrassing loud! Live comedy is a lot of fun. I laugh at potty humor pretty easily!

I went to physical therapy today and I am really weak in my glutes and core. She gave me some exercises to do to regain some strength. I see her again in May so I will have some time to work on things between now and then. She was really informative.

Today is Good Friday, it’s always been hard to understand what was so good about such a solemn chain of events. Our church is having a service this evening at 6 pm.

Mark 10:33-34New International Version

33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

27 March 2024 Understand

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What is hard for people to understand? I would say mental illness. When someone has a broken bone you see a cast and know what’s going on that isn’t the case with a broken mind. A person can look and seem perfectly “normal” and then out of the blue due something erratic and out of character. This is the way of suicides and murder. The “why” question is so prevalent in these cases.

Proverbs 2:3-6New International Version

3 indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

25 March 2024 Saying No

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?

Something that has gotten easier as I’ve gotten older is saying no. I used to say yes all the time and would get a resentment as a result. I felt like I had to say yes or I was a bad person. Now I realize that it doesn’t make me a bad person to say no sometimes especially if it’s not in my best interest. Sometimes no is the right answer – a catalyst for something else better to happen. An example is my ex brother in law asked my ex and I to come to Florida to a Ozz fest and I said I didn’t want to go. Well we didn’t go and he ended up meeting his future wife! Spending too much time making a decision means usually the answer is no for now – “too many mind.”

Matthew 5:37New International Version

37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’;anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

22 March 2024 Teacher

by saymber, posted in animals, Bipolar life, books, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

The teacher I remember and have fond memories of is a grade school teacher at Harvey Dunn her name was Mrs. Maxwell. She encouraged my writing. She gave me a certificate stating that I was the most likely to be an author. She was right. After we lost Sam our cocker spaniel we wrote a book. The title was The Gospel According to Sam an e-book.

Matthew 12:30-32 Niv

30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

21 March 2024 More

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What do you wish you could do more every day?

I wish I had more stamina and energy to do more exercise each day. I need to lose weight!

Ephesians 3:20-21New International Version

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen