Social Media

I'll write this and then Twitter a link to it. Short items get twitter, a little longer items get Facebook, and long stuff goes on the blog. To a Yahoo Group (I think those things used to be called, or are called, "loops"), I post my daily meal plans and a list of gratitudes to God.

I got the urge to describe where I'm at today in more detail than usual. So that's a job for my blog, TMI. I'm drinking iced chamomile/ginger tea. Just had lunch of lettuce, mayo, cottage cheese, cucumber with salt and lime-pepper.

I'm feeling very grateful for cows today. From them I get cottage cheese and swiss cheese and cold milk and Stonyfield Farms yogurt, iced and regular. Cows appear regularly in travel stories and novels.

I'm rereading Henderson the Rain King. I read it when I was about 20. I'd forgotten what a wonderful writer Saul Bellow was and I'm rather pleased with my younger self for having discovered him.

Another rediscovery is spirulina. I mix it into a small applesauce container and feel like I'm getting my nutrients when I haven't had enough vegetables. My cousin turned me on to it years ago. Thanks cuz.

I'm looking forward to my year at work. I'll be doing stuff I haven't done before ... and if indicators are correct I will not be doing some things I have done (no lunch duty, locker duty, recess duty assigned as yet). New things are math tutoring after school which will increase my income a little, and being a "one on one" with a seventh grader during the work days.

The picture is a nice one of my son who is a graffiti artist at our local "Third Friday" events.

Waiting

One of my favorite bloggers remarked on the events of a few days ago, black Friday, as an instance of the need for waiting, and specifically, waiting on God.  I've never understood Black Friday, maybe because I'm an INTJ which classifies me as highly independent and an introvert. "Hey let's go join a huge crowd and buy what everyone else wants." No thanks. But the importance of waiting applies to me as well. I would like to be relieved of pain yesterday. I feel I have a right to eat sweets every day.  I want my friends and family to be immediately enthused about my ideas.  I want my students to follow my directions the first time -- actually that's one of my classroom rules which I would find hard to give up ... it prevents me from doing the broken record thing.

Psalm 37:

7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8.Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

Today I have gratitude for the music teacher who taught me to sing that psalm in a song, O Rest in the Lord from Mendelssohn's Elijah. And thanks as well, to Mendelssohn who also wrote the melody for "Hark the Herald". Which takes me around the circle to the words of the great satirist Tom Lehrer

Hark the herald tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry, merchants,
May you make the yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and buy!

As with many of Lehrer's topics, over the years they have worsened into tragedy.

Thank you President Carter

An email friend tells me about her day of giving - items for a needy family and quilts for young mothers. And I'm thinking about the wonderful paradox that one's generosity increases one's own gratitude.

I have a quilt made by my great grandmother. It's pretty raggedy and perhaps I should find a way to get it mended, but it's so very comfortable and reminds me to be grateful for the family line that passed it to me.

I'm watching an old Charlie Rose interview with President Carter in 1999 - Carter unswerving in his love for the Bible teachings and his efforts for peace. He sees no difference between peace between individuals and peace between nations. A truly great man I am grateful for.

So there's my gratitude list for this evening- three people who I never met but who have had a wonderful impact on my life.

Lest we forget

Lest we forget.

I remember when I heard this live on WBAI before it had been recorded. Yeah, I'm old.

Morning gratitude

I really don't feel all that grateful this morning.  I had even forgotten that I intended to. I'm just feeling the general confusion of the morning of an unstructured day. I thought I do just one thing on the computer this morning before going back to sleep, but found myself again wandering around in cyberspace until I didn't feel like sleeping anymore. 

Fortunately my email had a blog comment to moderate and that reminded me of what I wrote yesterday. So that's gratitude number one. And having an unstructured day is gratitude number two. Which leads to me a thought of house cleaning so I won't be embarrassed when Ed comes to pick up my exercise bike to add to the school gym - so I'm grateful to have a coworker as pleasant and quietly witty as Ed ("I don't think anyone can describe me as 'rousing'"). And grateful that Bob hauled up my laundry bags yesterday and played my piano while he waited for his wife and didn't even look at the mess. And glad I can go swimming instead of using the exercise bike which I use as a clothes rack to dry my swim clothes. I'm starting to lose count now.

Grateful

I went to help out with the free Thanksgiving dinner that was offered by the three denominations on our block - Church of the Brethren, Lutheran, and Seventh Day Adventists. There were more helpers than there were eaters! Folks are saying that next year they should publicize more.

I did get in some friendly conversations and saw a guy from 12 step programs I haven't seen in a few years. He has some sort of mental disability that I can't identify ... seems to show very little affect and it's hard to understand his talking ... but he's sharp and thoughtful and once one can get through the talk problem, he's very pleasant to talk with.
He's not homeless, but certainly hard up and hits every free meal in town. He was telling me that the reason most people get kicked out of Christian Shelter was because they didn't want to sit through devotionals. He said "if that's the rule, I don't see why they can't do at least that little bit." I feel like that's the problem some of my high school students have ... it seems like they almost go out of their way to break some of the rules ... and some will be the homeless of the future.
Here's an article that encourages me to write a daily gratitude list. So what better day to start than today?
I'm grateful that I was taught to read.
I'm grateful to have drinkable water.
I'm grateful to live in a temperate climate.
I'm grateful that heat is included in my rent.
I'm grateful to have a childhood friend living nearby.

The picture above is of Kirk Douglas, I liked the picture before I knew it was of him. Now I like it even more.

a letter to my coworkers

Dear co-workers, Dear teachers that I am assistant for,

       Today I've been appreciating how great it is that you have so much diversity in your little team. You are each so different and yet so strong as teachers. Our students are really fortunate to have you for a year (or two). You show them how to love the disciplines you present and you show them with kindness - the kindness that teachers show that is so rare in other parts of our world.

        I also appreciate how you use your human resources ... the assistants and aides and interns that come your way. What a three ring circus you face every day. You are truly gifted with your patience and the ability to think of several things at once. Sometimes, like today, I just have to reflect in awe.

         Finally I marvel at how well you work as a team, without losing your individuality. It's great to be working with you.

Washing the stairs

With our recent cooler weather and my last week before going back to full time work, I've been doing some cleaning that I haven't done in years. I have been cleaning the common areas of my building. 

Someone else is paid to do this, but my landlord is a softie and won't "retire" the lady who is definitely too old and probably too infirm for the job, so if it gets done at all, it gets done poorly. I don't complain because my landlord hasn't raised my rent since I moved here and so I'm grateful my landlord is a softie. And I'm pretty old and infirm myself.

So back to the cleaning. I've scrubbed the landing and have scrubbed half of the stairs. Today I hope to finish the stairs. Four years ago I scrubbed all but the bottom four stairs (They remained for contrast). Since then I've had two knee replacements and my kneeling days are over. And until my surgery, I was a hands and knees sort of cleaner. It's the only way I can do a good job. So now I'm a stand and bend or sit and bend cleaner.

Nobody has done the stairs since four years ago, so you can imagine what they're like. A bucket of cleaning water does no more than four steps. Yesterday I did nine steps (stretched one bucket to five). 

I'm feeling so grateful that I am feeling well enough to do this. Did my apartment floors too this week. And the thing is that I'm feeling better and better as I go along.

Update - done with the stairs! Recommended music for cleaning.

Great weather

All my cells are happy. The temperature is reasonable and they are in homeostasis. I'm afraid I'm like the person in the Bible who is tossed to and fro on waves ... I don't sustain moods or resolve very well. Is it all dependent on the temperature and air pressure? Well, I'm glad I live in a temperate climate area. I'd be mighty grumpy in some other biomes. But here I'm so grateful for the beauty of deciduous trees, plentiful clean water, and comfortable nights.

I survived five short VBS sessions of working with preschoolers without killing anyone or even making someone cry. I didn't do well at it ... my memory was completely shot because I was so nervous and that's the first thing to go. Note to self: don't go into acting. 

bloggishness of gratitude

I'm just so pleased with my son, DIL, and grandson. Saturday was a
weirdly snowy and cold day and the scouts were having a bbq chicken
fundraiser at the Moose Lodge. My DIL picked up two chicken halves
for me, but saw a man holding a sign saying "I'm starving" so she
gave him one of the halves. Later, there was a lot of left over
chicken, so my son and grandson went out looking for homeless folks
to give it to. They also ran into some people who wanted to buy some,
so they made some more money for scouts and still had chicken to give
away.

I'm remembering when my son was little and his grandparents overdid
it in the candy department. We decorated real hardboiled eggs, so
there would be something healthy included in what we were giving
away. We loaded up a red wagon and took "Easter" to a nearby family
recommended to us by a friend in Social Services (this was in pre-
HIPPA days).

I am so blessed to have a family - however small it may be - to share
and pass on such wonderful experiences.