28 June 2023 Overcoming Darkness

June 28, 2023 by saymber, posted in animals, Bipolar life, Health, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? I just had a good talk with my Aunt. She was concerned about what I wrote about yesterday regarding spirituality. She felt it was a little dark and that we need to be moving on from those memories. I reassured her the best I could. I had to remind her that in addition to writing for me I’m writing to help others like me or the family and friends of those like me. By sharing my experience, strength and hope I am hopefully helping someone else who might be going through similar circumstances and have no place to turn to.

What I learned through AA is the more we share our stories of recovery the less it hurts and the more people we help. Each day someone is diagnosed with Bipolar and it can be devastating and overwhelming. I still don’t completely understand it and I’ve been living with it for many years now. I just know Mania and crippling anxiety is what we want to prevent from happening! The Mal de Barque syndrome is also going on too and there is no cure for it or even real tests that can definitely identify it.

My family and friends, my church all encourage me to lean not on my understanding but to lean on God through all of this. I’m trying! I want to make it clear that I’m not seeking sympathy or attention by sharing. I am sharing to help understanding about a condition that doesn’t make sense! There are people who think mental illnesses are something you can just get over and it’s like diabetes or heart disease – you just can’t see it by looking at a person but it’s very real and needs special treatment with both medication and therapy. It’s an inside job until the bad stuff happens and can be seen in behavior!

My Aunt directed me to a great passage in the Bible that she wants to memorize:

Philippians 4:8
New International Version
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Took my phone along for a short walk last night

15 June 2023 Passion

June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 by saymber, posted in Food, Home, human rights, In the News, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What are you passionate about?

Hello there, how are you? I’m just back from our Thursday prayer meeting for our church, it was Pastor Jayson, Lois and me today. There may only be a couple of us but it matters! I walked over and back. I picked up a breakfast burrito on the way home from Tacos El Rancho – they are so filling. I was only able to eat half of it – eat the rest when I get hungry again!

Some lovely blooms from the walk this morning.

Todays prompt asks what am I passionate about and I have to say the controversial – gun control. I don’t like guns! I feel like being able to own a gun should be as tough if not tougher than being able to drive a car. I have always been passionate about this topic as I lost my birth mother and a cousin to guns. I don’t have a problem with responsible gun owners – I have several in my family. The main thing I focus on is keeping guns from those who would harm themselves or others. I don’t have all the answers but putting more guns in the world doesn’t make sense to me.

Matthew 18:20New International Version

²⁰For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

7 June 2023 Favorite Childhood Book

June 7, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Nature, photography, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

Hello to you. How are you? I’m doing ok. I decided to try out volunteer work next Tuesday. Our local food pantry asked for help so I gave it some thought and decided it was an answered prayer. I had asked God for an opportunity and this came up! I just hope I have the stamina for it – I get tired so easily and my lower back is still a problem.

Todays prompt calls to mind my favorite books from when I was growing up. I don’t remember my early favorites from when I was a little spud. The ones I do remember were the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew detective series books. My Mom encouraged me to read and bought the books for me. I tried to re-read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as an adult and just couldn’t get through them! I think it was how much detail she went into as she wrote them in such a way that her blind sister Mary could see through them. It’s sad that an award was taken away from Laura because of the way she wrote about First Peoples. She wrote about what she knew at the time. Being PC wasn’t part of her stories. She wrote about what she knew and experienced at the time. The Nancy Drew books were fun but I don’t remember much about them – it’s been so long ago that I read them!

These little flowers are just so cheerful!

1 Peter 4:8New International Version

⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

6 June 2023 Blooming Where Your Planted

June 6, 2023 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Food, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. Hope this finds you well as you visit me here today. I just finished an intake appt for behavioral health through the VA. Fun! Fun! So many questions!

Today my mind turns to thinking about finding happiness where you find yourself living. Blooming where your planted. This is something I’ve tried to do most of my life. Next week I’m going to see about a volunteer opportunity at the local Food Pantry here in town. I have been praying about an opportunity to serve my community that wasn’t politics and this showed up on Facebook. What’s pretty cool is the gal I talked to is medically disabled too . She said she really likes helping out at the pantry. Like her I need a purpose in life – a reason to get up in the morning!

Plants and Trees bloom where they are planted and so can we!

Hosea 14:5

⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;

5 June 3023 Fears

June 5, 2023 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, Home, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What fears have you overcome and how?

Hello to you. How are you today? Todays prompt is about fears I’ve overcome. The biggest one I have had to overcome is the fear of death. I think we all have a healthy fear of that! Ever since death took so many that I have loved – people and animals, I have had to accept that death is a part of life. At some point I too will have to let go of my clutch of this life and go and see what’s next.

Nature and animals have shown me a lot about life after death. I can remember after spreading Sam and Blondies ashes around our oak tree in the front yard millions of pale flying insects came forth. Seeing that happen was kind of like seeing proof of life after death. From ash comes life.

Delicious peonies – these smell so good!

Revelation 21:4. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. …
Psalm 34:18. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 147:3. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

3 June 2023 Saturday

June 3, 2023 by saymber, posted in animals, Home, Nature, photography

Some sights from last nights walk – I took a different route to see some new things.

Hello just a short post today. Link just got his nails ground for the first time and he was not loving it! There was flying pee and poop! The girls from Pampered Pets Manicure LLC were able to get it done. They were really nice. It was really nice that they came to the house.

1 June 2023 Job

June 1, 2023 by saymber, posted in animals, history, Leading Life by Example, Nature, photography, Politics and Government, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What jobs have you had?

Hello to you. How is your week going? Can you believe it’s June already? This year is flying by.

So todays question is what jobs have you had. The only job I had was for 16 years active duty in the United States Air Force. I was a Personnelist or a secretary. I worked in the MPF (Military Personnel Flight) at the bases I was stationed at. Personnelist were responsible for taking care of other military members on base – their careers, evaluation reports, retention contracts, training, retraining, assignments and more.

When I worked in Customer Service I would have to do Identification Cards for widows and widowers. It was such a sensitive thing I would cry after they left. I was a very sensitive person! My favorite job was Personnel Systems Management- working with computers and really fun guys was way better than Personnel. It was short-lived bliss though as they outsourced our jobs to civilians shortly after I retrained into the job! Being the highly sensitive person that I was, I just wasn’t cut out for military life; I didn’t make it to a full retirement. I got so attached to people, places and things that when it was time to say good-bye it was just so hard each time. The people you work with you grow to love like family! I hate good-byes!

My first duty assignment was a Travis AFB California and that’s were I met and married my first husband. Our second assignment was in Germany at Bitburg ABS I really loved being in Europe – didn’t want to leave! Our third assignment was in Colorado. I was stationed at Falcon AFB and my husband Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs. I was at Falcon then HQ Air Force Space Command and then the MPF at Peterson. I loved Colorado because I got to see my Grandma and my Uncle Bill more often, she lived in Ft. Collins and he was living in Golden and was a CEO at Coors. The natural beauty of Colorado was amazing. My first husband loved to fish and I would go with him. I loved falling asleep on the shore of a lake on Pikes Peak – the quaking Aspens would lull me to sleep. My last assignment was at Patrick AFB. I had my breakdown there and was medically retired. I was doing some really unhealthy things trying to cope with my failing marriage and too much work. I liked Florida but missed Colorado! Living in a beach type world is definitely a different lifestyle.

Link doesn’t make it far before we have to stop

Colossians 3:23-24 says: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

31 May 2023 Birthday and Religion

May 31, 2023 by saymber, posted in Home, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Do you practice religion?

Hello to you. How are you today? Today is my Dads birthday! I hope he has a good day. In birthdays past my Mom would make chocolate pudding dessert. We both love it and also chocolate cream pie. My Grandma Schmidt used to make that. Some of my favorite memories with my Dad are us dueling over the piece sizes of the dessert!

Todays prompt asks a question that has more than one answer. Yes I practice religion but I also practice spirituality which is more than just reading a Bible and following rules. For me the word religion kind of has a negative connotation associated with it. Religion has been at the root of many wars and continues to be so. That’s why I choose to think of religion more as having a personal relationship with God. There are so many interpretations of the Bible and so many different denominations of a religion with God at its center! Which ones are the right ones?! I was raised Catholic which is really different than the church I’m attending now. With the church I’m attending belief in Jesus is the focus to be saved whereas that’s not the case with Catholicism. It’s taken me some time to say Jesus is my savior; the only way. I’ve come a long way – I’ve tried a lot of different walks of faith to get to the point I’m at now. I still question things!

30 May 2023 Life Before The Internet

May 30, 2023 by saymber, posted in history, photography, Spirituality and Religion, technology, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Do you remember life before the internet?

Hello to you. How are you today? Todays prompt is a good one. Since I’m a Generation Xer I was born and lived much of my early life without computers or the Internet. We wrote letters and used the telephone to communicate to each other. When I was in the military I can remember computers being little bricks we sat in front of and all the data was put on cards. If you dropped the box of cards you lost a whole lot of work for that day. I remember DSN or dial up – using My Space and Newsvine for my blogs! Life before the internet was definitely different – slower I think. You could unplug more easily. Now the days and years seem to go so fast! Sometimes it’s overwhelming how much the internet puts before me.

A bunch of bees and wasps were tending to this peony bush

Proverbs 11:13New International Version

¹³A gossip betrays a confidence,
but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

23 May 2023 Cold Weather

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