25 May 2023 Collections

May 25, 2023 by saymber, posted in Home, In the News, Leading Life by Example, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Do you have any collections?

Hello to you. How are you? I hope we’ll. Today would have been my birth mothers 80th birthday. Hard to believe how much time has gone by. She passed when she was 26 and I was barely a year old. Also a shout out about the death of the musical legend Tina Turner. She was a big part of my musical life growing up in the 80’s.

Todays prompt is asking about collections and I really only have a couple. I have collected some crystals and when I was married we collected My Little Pony ponies and dragons. When the divorce happened he got most of the dragons as they were his when we married and I got the ponies (they are in my storage room) . In my little place there really isn’t space for displaying collections. I have my crystals in a couple different places – by my bedside and in the kitchen. One nice thing about living in a small house is it doesn’t leave a lot of space for clutter. I am not encouraged to buy more stuff to collect. Just no place to put it!

A good psalm for today:

Psalm 23New International Version

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³    he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

24 May 2023 Legacy

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

Hello there! How are you? Todays prompt is a good one to contemplate about. When I think of the word legacy I think of a tombstone with a birth date, a dash and a death date. There is so much that little dash represents for most people. It comprises all the little things, the small moments that make up a life. From all the mornings with coffee on the porch, weddings, going to church, days spent at work, walks, getting a hair cut, playing with pets and or children. So many little things we take for granted are in that little dash.

I hope my dash, my legacy is a positive one and will be recalled by those I leave behind with love. These past couple of years I have been kind of dormant. My health condition has made it harder to be who I want to be. I have had to adjust and change – focus on what I can do not what I can’t. I’ve come a long way from even my first year living here in Idaho. There were so many things I was convinced I couldn’t do. I was shell shocked in my body. Everything I used to be able to do with ease I had to work to be able to do again. Stuff like even taking a shower by myself!

I hope the legacy I leave behind will be one of ultimate inspiration – never give up on yourself or others. Always look for the beauty in life around you and you will be rewarded to find it.

Song of Songs 2New International Version

She^[a]

2 I am a rose^[b] of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

23 May 2023 Cold Weather

May 23, 2023 by saymber, posted in Spirituality and Religion, Mental Health, Veteran Affairs, Home, photography, Writing and blogging

How do you feel about cold weather?

Hello to you. How are you today? As I write to you it’s about 63 degrees which is cooler than it’s been the past couple of days. I like it! As a woman I have always preferred cooler weather because you can put on more clothes to get warm- you can only take off so many and be decent when it gets real warm! I used to like winter until I got older and have to drive in it! I used to like fall until I had a home and have to clean up leaves.

My neighbors peonies will bloom soon. They smell so wonderful when they are in full bloom!

I miss the Texas weather as it rarely got cold when I lived there. Living in a place that didn’t have winter really for 12 years spoiled me! I would have to say spring has been my favorite season since moving here to Idaho.

I was looking for a nice verse about the seasons and this one stood out:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

22 May 2023 Broken Bone

May 22, 2023 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, history, Home, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Have you ever broken a bone?

Hello to you. How are you today? Todays prompt calls to mind a story. It was the early morning of my husbands 35th birthday and I was awake. My spirit was moving faster than my body. I went in the garage looking for something and found a huge black cockroach on the wall. This startled me! Then it suddenly flew at me and I grabbed an old purse and threw it to try and stop it from flying on me. In doing this I lost my balance and fell. All the weight of the fall went to my left wrist. Thank God Kyle was home to take me to the emergency room! The people that helped me were kind of scary and I didn’t trust them, they put my wrist in a cast. All the while this was going on, I felt so bad to have ruined Kyles birthday!

The healing process was frustrating – I rebelled against wearing an immobilizing cast. I liked a Velcro brace best. You can tell my wrist has been broken but it healed pretty good.

Jeremiah 17:14 NIV

14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

20 May 2023 Ladies Tea

May 20, 2023 by saymber, posted in Home, Leading Life by Example, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Writing and blogging

Hello to you! How are you today? I’m just home from a wonderful event with our Women’s Group – a Ladies Tea. Our leader Emily did a great job of planning and setting up the event. What was really sweet is we had a lot of little ladies present. I love going to Grace House for gatherings. The house was built in the 1900’s and was a hair salon prior to being leased to our church. I miss the trees that use to be outside. The landlord cut them down and I guess s parking lot is going in their place.

Emily had a wonderful devotional for us. She spoke of a family members office she recently visited that was filled with random things and when she asked him about it he said each thing was a token to remember scripture. So Emily chose as the party favors little jam jars as tokens to remember spreading hope. I can’t remember the scripture she chose but this is a good one too:

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Something happened afterwards when Emily was talking with my Aunt , Maryann and myself . I felt that feeling in my chest of being filled up with positive energy. A glowing. For a few moments I didn’t feel my ears bothering me or my body aching. I felt the glow of fellowship and what comes from sharing time with fellow believers. We have such wonderful ladies in our church! They really give their all to God and what they do for God’s people in our church.

19 May 2023 Choosing Joy

May 19, 2023 by saymber, posted in Art and Poetry, Bipolar life, Health, history, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

This was a birthday gift from my Auntie. She likes to find things with my middle name!

Hello to you. How are you? Today my thoughts turn to Joy. Not only because it’s my middle name but because it is indeed a choice we can make in this life. I have to remind myself! I get so set in my ways – grumpy even. I feel like as I get older I have developed an armor to try and shield myself from getting hurt. Dr. Wilhelm Reich talked about such an armor in his work. Our bodies get rigid and we get almost frozen. When I was in love I was my least rigid. When I chose to approach life with joy my body was fluid and free.

https://orgonomictherapy.com/2013/07/29/concept-of-armoring/ – if your interested to read more about Dr Reich’s theory

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

18 May 2023 Early

May 18, 2023 by saymber, posted in Health, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? I’m doing alright. Just home from a prayer meeting. I was going to stop and get a breakfast burrito but changed my mind. I am glad as I ran into three dogs on the way back. Their owner lets them out unattended.

My neighbor has his flowers out – so cheerful to see

Jeremiah 17:14New International Version

¹⁴Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise.

A lot of people around me are struggling with health issues to include myself. I think part of it is age related but I am starting to wonder if some of it is from so many having Covid. We don’t really know to what extent our health and immune systems have been compromised by having it and also side effects from the vaccines. We did become sort of Guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical industry with everything that happened!

17 May 2023 To be Seen

May 17, 2023 by saymber, posted in animals, Bipolar life, Health, history, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, technology, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. I hope this finds you well. My thoughts turn to being seen by God. There have been times in my life that I have felt so close to God – that we were connected. These past couple of years- since my medication change by getting off Lithium, my creativity and spirituality doors have been almost completely shut. Thank goodness for my cell phone camera! I have an eye for beauty and just because I’m no longer creative in the ways I used to be, I can capture images of God and Mother Earths creativity. I have to practice what I preach “it’s not what you can’t do in this life! What can you do – focus on that!” Seeing and being seen by God is a two way street.

Genesis 16:13New International Version

¹³She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^[a] the One who sees me.”

16 May 2023 Iris

May 16, 2023 by saymber, posted in Home, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

My neighbors yard is a constant delight as I walk by. Always something new and purple is blooming!

A lovely Iris – these beautiful flowers come in as a variety of colors much like roses.

Hello to you. How are you today? I went on a walk without Link yesterday and remembered to take my phone so I could grab a couple pictures. The Iris’s are blooming and it looks like Peonies are not far behind. The flowers and trees seem to be doing their thing faster this year. Probably due to the heat and intense sunlight. This earth is the finest florist!

Matthew 6:28-29New International Version

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

15 May 2023 Natural Beauty

May 15, 2023 by saymber, posted in Home, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

I was looking through my pictures from last year and found this natural beauty. I’m looking forward to the time of roses blooming again.

Hello to you. How are you? My thoughts today turn to natural beauty. A beauty that exists without artificial enhancements. I find a lot of this kind of beauty in nature. Especially in the flowers like roses! I hope to capture some new pictures this summer of the roses and flowers around here.

Isaiah 35:1-2King James Version

35 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

²It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.