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]?
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.”
I would have to say I complain the most about my health. Within the past couple of years my health has taken a down turn. Today my doctor said my blood work and thyroid are fine. I’ve been scheduled for an EKG next month to make sure my heart is ok as I’m getting winded so easily. He is also sending me a topical treatment for my back and prescribing vitamin D as I was showing a low there. Getting older sucks! I remember a time when nothing bothered me physically! It seems like the fall I had a couple winters ago really has taken a toll on me – especially my back. It makes it hard to lose weight and be more active with a hurt back. The other thing is the tightness in my ears and rolling sensation when I walk. I worry sometimes that I’m going to trip and fall. Anyhew, my health is definitely what I complain about the most these days.
Psalm 41:2-3New International Version
2 The Lord protects and preserves them— they are counted among the blessed in the land— he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. 3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.
Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
Hello to you. I’m trying to get help with my medication. I’ve been taking more than I have been prescribed and am almost out again. I have just been so anxious and the olanzapine is the only thing that works to help calm me. I might have to go back in to the walk in clinic which sucks as I have to get someone to take me.
The most famous person I have had contact with is Jonathan Rhys Meyers and his wife Mara Lane. I sent him a fan letter and they responded. Which is very rare. The other famous person I saw at an airport was Lyle Alzado of the Oakland Raiders. The team came and sat in the restaurant my ex and I were sitting in. They were so big! Lyle was at his best – before he was sick from steroids. I knew as soon as he was walking by that “he was somebody!”
I need to get better about this!
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Hello to you. I’m still feeling under the weather. I went this morning for a pharmacy run at Ridleys. Got me some more Vicks vapor rub and cold and cough medicine. I didn’t sleep very well.
When I’m able to do it my favorite form of exercise is walking. Ever since my fall last winter my back has made it harder to do. My right hip usually starts hurting and I just seize up. Getting older hasn’t been easy for me! I try to remind myself it’s not what I can’t do but what I can.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” —2 Corinthians 5:7.
2 Timothy 1:7New International Version
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline
Hello to you. How are you? I’m dealing with a cold and cough I picked up somewhere. Probably from stress from stuff I’ve been dealing with lately. No changes on the Dad front – appreciate your prayers and positive messages.
I don’t think I would pay to go to the moon. I have not been in a plane for several years much less contemplating going in a spaceship leaving the planet! I don’t think I could do it. There are so many places on the earth I haven’t been much less paying to go to the moon!
Genesis 1:16New International Version
16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?
The daily habit that improves my quality of life is walking. Each day I try to walk around the block even if I don’t want to. Taking a walk each each day is the one thing I have tried to consistently do. It’s not easy for me to do with the swaying issues I have going on in my head. Sometimes I feel like a shambling zombie I’m so stiff but I’m not giving up!
1 John 2:3-6
3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Hello to you. Just back from church – it was good as always. Got to see and talk to the sweet people there. We discussed psalm 34 and “Mr E.” gave a great testimony about his path to following Jesus. He had his Bible with him when he first got saved – inside he wrote the name and date and signed his name and this was back when he was six years old! It’s really neat to hear what happens to people when they make a path within themselves for God to use them. I have had fleeting glimpses of this in my own life. Those experiences of being in the right place at the right time like a mission from God. I am currently hoping for an opportunity for God to use me- just need to get the physical stuff that limits me out of my way! May be having physical limitations is a way for there to be balance and not overwhelming myself. Only God knows! My many thanks for your continued prayers and support!
Something nice happened too after service my friend Mark gave me a bag of cherries from their tree! They taste really good! He notices when I’m not there and kind of helps me stay accountable.
A thoughtful gift through fellowship and natures bounty – cherries
Todays prompt makes me think of my life this far. I think I have chosen security over adventure as I’ve gotten older. When I was young and had all the world in front of me I think I took more chances – sought out adventure because nothing was really stopping me. I was healthy physically up until when my mental health issues really started mushrooming and that was in my late twenties and early thirties. My forties and up until now have been clouded by the struggle of achieving balance – safety and security versus adventure. There is a part of me that kind of thirsts for adventure but I hold myself back – a lot of times it’s because I don’t want to leave Link. He has become an anchor of what home and security is. When I come home from being gone – seeing him reach up and scratching on the window in excitement makes me feel so loved. Somebody cares that I have returned!
Deuteronomy 4:29New International Version
29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Hello there! How are you today? It’s a bright and sunny day here. I haven’t been taking pictures lately as I haven’t been on my usual walks in the afternoon. My back is feeling better so I need to get back to it! There is beauty happening!
Todays prompt is a great one. Just last night before trying to fall asleep I talked out loud to Jesus. I haven’t done that in a very long time. Spirituality, relationship with God is very important to me and is a favorite subject to discuss. Ever since what happened last August, I have felt kind of distant from God. I felt like God had abandoned me but that’s probably to the contrary of reality. If I had kept going on the path I was on I probably would have ended up in jail! God intervened in the most extreme way. I was convinced, once again, the world was ending and Jesus was coming back. I felt like he was taking too long so I was going to initiate things on my own! Not a good idea! I never want to be in the situation to be tased again! It was very traumatic. I just wasn’t in control of myself anymore.
When I get overcome by the spirit world, which is what has happened prior to me being hospitalized every time, I become very reckless and sometimes even angry and violent – not entirely in charge of “driving my car.” The car being my body. It’s like being possessed by forces beyond my control. This last time I took a meat cleaver to the inside of my house and broke a bunch of momentos and other things that were glass. I got rid of all my identification. I was convinced that my Link had been left to die in the house. There are a lot of things I don’t remember happening – they are blacked out. Thank God for my family! They came and restored order to my little house and they all are the extensions of the living God in my life.
When I have talked to most Christians, especially women, they have said loving Jesus is about relationship not religion. From my own experience, I agree! I have to be careful to not get too religious. I have been neglecting and struggling with my relationship because of my health lately. This swaying motion in my head , fullness in my ears and playing with the cocktail to get my mental health right has affected my relationship with Jesus AND myself. Everything is such an effort and I get so tired so easily so I want to sleep a lot. My patterns for sleep and being awake are all wonky. My doctors think it’s the medication and we will be trying something new, Abilify, to see if things get better.
I just want my spiritual/creative juices back! The kicker is with the medication to control mania, whatever it ends up being, I will probably never be as creative as I once was. With Bipolar 1, which is my primary diagnosis, mania is to be avoided and is the primary target of the medication I take. It’s either risk being overcome by mania and be creative or not be manic and have little to no creativity. I want peace of mind for myself and those who love and care about me. So who I once was is forever on the chopping block! I used to feel so close to God as I understood him. The ways of that connection, my creativity, spirituality, have been stifled ever since I started taking heavier medications. I haven’t drawn a picture or written a poem, crocheted, made jewelry or done something that I used to do in almost a year! Anything I have done has felt forced – not just flowing with usual ease it used to. It’s like writers block. I try to just take a pen to paper and nothing comes.
I have to remind myself that I need to focus on what I can do – not on what I can’t! Taking pictures on walks has become one of the new ways to share my eyes for Gods beautiful creation but even that is limited by my physical health!
One of the last drawings I’ve done. This was about going to Grace House, a home Grace Bible Church has leased within walking distance for me.
Matthew 8:28-34New American Standard Bible
Jesus Sends Demons into Pigs
28 And when He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men confronted Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. 29 And they cried out, saying, “[a]What business do You have with us, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before [b]the time?” 30 Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding at a distance from them. 31 And the demons begged Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”32 And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the pigs; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and [c]drowned in the waters. 33 And the herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, [d]including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region.
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 seeI was surprised to see this rose already in bloom! Like I said yesterday- it’s like everything in nature is in fast forward mode
Jeremiah 17:14New International Version
14 Heal 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!
To be 