Hello to you. How are you today? I’m feeling better than yesterday or the day before. Today is a new day and I’m grateful for it. Something happened this morning that hasn’t happened for quite awhile – I cried. I was listening to the song I shared with you, Pray for Me by The Weeknd and I just felt the song really deep inside. There is a part of the song that made me think of Black Panther’s Wakanda – tribal. It made me think of sitting with Kyle and our friend Billy who had brought over the Black Panther movie so we could watch it together. I remember getting goosebumps watching it! Finally a new story being told with people of color starring in it! It’s one of my favorite Marvel movies. My thoughts touched on how sad it is Chadwick is not going to be in the next Black Panther movie….I suspect there will be a new king.
After all these thoughts and tears I found I felt less pain everywhere. I’ve been noticing how the pains in my body keep moving around. I’ll get relief in one part of my body only for a new part to start hurting! When I was doing Quantum Touch energy healing that phenomenon happened a lot. We would have to chase the pain around the body like it was a actual entity – a ghost needing to be sent to the light. Pain is a stubborn energy that like a bad renter can be difficult to evict! One of the ways to expel pain is through tears. Sometimes I think pain is a way for our body to seek attention from us. In our busy lives it’s really easy to take our bodies and the amazing….sometimes extremely complex things we ask of them for granted! I have been guilty of this at many points in my life.
Researchers have established that crying releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, also known as endorphins.These feel-good chemicals help ease both physical and emotional pain.Mar 1, 2021
It doesn’t make you any less or weak when you let yourself feel things and shed tears
The walks yesterday:
I made myself go to church yesterday even though it hurt. There was an elderly woman there in a wheelchair…how then can I complain when I can walk? I was imagining my Aunt and Uncle filling these chairs. They are going through their own body stuff too! Leaving church….next it was going to get groceries! When you live alone everything is up to you. It won’t get done if you don’t do it. People offer to help but ultimately it ends up being your responsibility. Everybody has “stuff” going on! I love you This tree just captivated me every time I see it! Such a vibrant personality! One of the yard ornaments in a neighbors yard – it’s a spinning one Hello sun My eyes turned to the various wild grasses growing in the neighborhood. I had to touch them, so soft! Spring isn’t just about blooms! Yet another tree in the neighborhood being cut down. It always makes me sad as so many lives depend on just one tree. But I understand sometimes trees die or are causing a homeowner trouble like with the foundation. Some day….right now there are a lot of little Eden’s
This morning as I’m still having back pain my thoughts turned to that special state you can get into where your body, time and existence are all synchronized….nothing hurts, there is no clock and your just completely absorbed in doing something what pleases every part of you. They call it the flow state:
Flow is a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity. Positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes flow as a state of complete immersion in an activity. Being immersed can be defined as a state of focus in which a person is completely absorbed and engrossed in their work.
While in this mental flow state, people are highly involved and focused on what they are doing.
“The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost,” Csíkszentmihályi said in an interview with Wired magazine.1
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I find lately that I’m able to get into this state when I’m out exploring with Link and noticing the world around me. Taking pictures with my phone. What comes to mind again is Kairos time – for a moment operating in God’s time. I’m a car going on the best Sunday drives ever. I’m learning to cherish those moments when it feels like God makes the clock and pain disappear. Last night I found this song playing in my head again and so I decided to listen to it. I got goose bumps all over me. What a perfect song to play walking in the garden:
Each morning when I open my eyes is another day to be more in love with the one who made me. “I see you seeing me seeing you” This isn’t the greatest picture as cell phone cameras do have limits but I wanted to take a moment with this young tree as it begins to wake up. My neighbors up the street have been working so hard and this is some fruits of their labors. I think they did a great job! Do you remember the picture I took of Smokey all pooped out?! Link is tired but still smiles! I just love seeing what God is doing with the canvas of sky – ever changing as he stands stillThese tulips keep catching my eye. The owner of the yard has been doing some digging but these beauties remain in the seeming chaos around them. Can’t you almost hear Clair De Lune standing here? There is such glory in seeing a tree in the sunlight
The lyrics to this song speak of generations coming up behind me. Where is God in all this chaos every day? Do all I have is myself? From my own experience I know God is everywhere in my life but I can understand how young people can lose hope – think they have to get through all by themselves. This song also speaks of the fight Chadwick put up with his battle with colon cancer. Such a light extinguished way too soon:
I’m always ready for a war again (a war again) Go down that road again (that road again) It’s all the same (it’s all the same) I’m always ready to take a life again You know I’ll ride again It’s all the same (ooh, ooh, ooh)
Tell me who’s gon’ save me from myself When this life is all I know Tell me who’s gon’ save me from this hell Without you, I’m all alone
Who gon’ pray for me? (Who gon’ pray for me?) Take my pain for me? (Take my pain for me?) Save my soul for me? (Save my soul for me?) ‘Cause I’m alone, you see (I’m alone, you see) If I’m gon’ die for you (if I’m gon’ die for you ) If I’m gon’ kill for you (if I’m gon’ kill for you) Then I’ll spill this blood for you, hey
I fight the world, I fight you, I fight myself I fight God, just tell me how many burdens left I fight pain and hurricanes, today I wept I’m tryna fight back tears, flood on my doorsteps Life a livin’ hell, puddles of blood in the streets Shooters on top of the building, government aid ain’t relief Earthquake, the body drop, the ground breaks The poor run with smoke lungs and Scarface Who need a hero? (Hero) You need a hero, look in the mirror, there go your hero Who on the front lines at ground zero? (Hero) My heart don’t skip a beat, even when hard times bumps the needle Mass destruction and mass corruption The souls are sufferin’ men Clutchin’ on deaf ears again, rapture is comin’ It’s all prophecy and if I gotta be sacrificed for the greater good Then that’s what it gotta be
Who gon’ pray for me? (Who gon’ pray for me?) Take my pain for me? (Take my pain for me?) Save my soul for me? (Save my soul for me?) ‘Cause I’m alone, you see (I’m alone, you see) If I’m gon’ die for you (if I’m gon’ die for you ) If I’m gon’ kill for you (if I’m gon’ kill for you) Then I’ll spill this blood for you, hey
Hey, hey Hey, hey Hey, hey Hey, hey
Who gon’ pray for me? (Who gon’ pray for me?) Take my pain for me? (Take my pain for me?) Save my soul for me? (Save my soul for me?) ‘Cause I’m alone, you see (I’m alone, you see) If I’m gon’ die for you (if I’m gon’ die for you ) If I’m gon’ kill for you (if I’m gon’ kill for you) Then I’ll spill this blood for you, hey
Just in case my faith go I live by my own law I live by my own law I live by my own Just in case my faith go I live by my own law I live by my own law I live by my own
Hello to you. How are you? Another late start for me. Last night I actually fell asleep but then Link and Smokey needed to go out…at 2 in the morning! Ugh!! I was able to get back to sleep off and on and actually have interesting dreams. I was with a lot of different people!
Yesterday morning I had the blessing of meeting a new friend for breakfast at the Sunrise. We got the chance to hear more of each other’s stories and talk about the goodness of God in our lives. She and I are both relatively new to Grace Bible Church in Middleton. We talked about a lot. She reminded me that if I truly believe who God is, I am not the labels this world has given me….my sin…my mistakes. I am his child and I am forgiven. With a loving God we don’t have to be defined by the world. She mentioned a very convicting question she was asked recently, “When is the last time you fed your soul? Or have you just been feeding the flesh?” Life in our modern world can seem overwhelming and chaotic. Especially with my friend trying to be a wife, mother to three rambunctious boys and so much more….. and still in all that “noise” of life take care of yourself…. feed your soul. I walked there and walked home and I was so sore lol but I made sure to write down that question so I could share it with you today. The other thing I wrote down feeling the pain of my body was, “my body is not a prison. My body is a temple.” The pain will pass…it always does.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20New International Version
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples(A) of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;(B)20 you were bought at a price.(C)Therefore honor God with your bodies.(D)
Yesterdays time really meant a lot to me. Meeting in person! Seeing her eyes change depending on what she was talking about – watching a little bit of the tired she carry’s in those eyes lift. Seeing her smile as she talked about what was on her heart. There is something about actual tangible moments like we had that no digital medium can ever replace. We fed our souls and our belly’s were contented by yet another wonderful Sunrise breakfast.
Here are some pictures. May be they will give you a moment of rest today. May be they will help you feed your soul. I encourage you to take that camera phone of yours on a walk…what miracle of creation will God show you?
The sun looking like a moon! These giants reaching to the heavensOne of a whole group of these. I think it’s a succulent. Eye in the sky I found these two little beauties hiding under a bush When I got up from photographing the blooms I almost stepped on this little being. Jumping spiders are amazing to me. I’ve had some actually interact with me. Where the lost puzzle pieces go….I had to smile when I found this. Thinking of people I love who enjoy puzzles. Putting together puzzles with my Mom on snow days when I was a kid. Couldn’t zoom in closer but wanted you to see the ducks enjoying the canals. Hello sun I was looking for scripture about light and darkness and found this in John “Hold on…take another one”“Ok much better! I’m tired from our walk but so happy! If you have to choose between being happy and sad I hope you will choose happy! Teeth aren’t just for chewing! Even we dogs know teeth are for smiling! ““Hi I’m Smokey —-what Link said! “
To be 