Faith
Restoring Ourselves When Running on Empty
Restoring ourselves when running on empty can be as easy as filling your car with fuel. Here are a few ways to do it.
If you have ever had someone close you die, there is an empty feeling that wells up inside. You may end of with their material possessions, but there is a loss beyond words. The ending is so permanent and the feelings of emptiness so overwhelming. I have had this experience on 3 different occasions. After many years, the wholesome and beautiful memories do flood back. The lovely thoughts have filled the void.
When one finally goes through their possessions, the experience can lend you insight. I have a lovely 3 tier corner shelf that my grandmother gave to me when she was ill. She was in the hospital and we were conversing. She said, “I know you have always loved my corner piece, so be sure you keep it as a wedding gift.” I did not know that she was about to pass from this world. She was not there for my wedding, as a matter of fact, she never returned home to her small apartment. I still treasure that piece, because I see it daily and think of all her qualities that I need to replicate in some manner. I don’t feel empty, but still very close to her.
After my parents died, I gathered their daily silverware out of the kitchen drawer. It was the same silverware I had polished as a teenager; the same pattern I had seen everyday of my life. The memories came flooding back of shared dinners we had experienced together. There was comfort in the memories that helped carry me through the last 36 years. Loneliness can be replaced by a small token or repeating a habit someone has taught you.
My mother was a prayerful lady who silently worked. When I packed up their home, I found a prayer card here and there. So many of them that I ended up with a handful. Some were cards from wakes with people’s names on them; others were with special prayers. They were tucked in drawers, cabinets, and purses. It dawned on me that Mother had been praying throughout here day at every turn. What a beautiful habit.
Emotionally we can be running on empty. It would be the same as if we had forgotten to fill our cars with gas. Learning to keep our cars fueled, our bodies nourished, and minds mentally focused calls for balancing our lives well. We’d all like to think that we have those things covered most of the time, but it is really hard to stay balanced. So eat well, move often, stay connected to a variety of people, and develop new hobbies.
Emotional baggage can cause depression and a sense of worthlessness. It can keep us from getting out of bed, from making important phone calls, or living the life we want to enjoy. Remember to dump all of these thoughts in the garbage. How do you do that? Well you simply change the tempo of the day by dumping the wastebasket and say “with this I dump all the bad thoughts.” Replicate physically what you want to emotionally control. Get out of the house. Call a friend. Just move ahead.
Create the person you want to be by taking the first step. It will put you on the escalator of success.
Consulting with A Friend?
Consulting with a friend is always a good idea. It gives us a quick perspective that isn’t necessarily our own. It lends us support and can be a moral support when we can confer or talk with someone we trust.
On a deeper level, many of us are believers in a higher power. We talk and pray with God and feel secure in that relationship. When we are threatened or confused, we seek out help from people and professionals around us. We feel supported all the time and understand that our lives have a design and plan that can’t be seen for now.
Here we have a young adult who is conferring with her trusted friend, Zoey. Our pets have a way of understanding that people do not offer. They give us reassurance, but not necessarily advice. Sometimes we already have knowledge, but lack the confidence. Our loyal companions fill the voids in our lives. Zoey can’t make a decision for her, but he is able to be a reassurance and sparks a moment of levity during an UNO game. Then again, maybe they have a secret formula to winning, who knows?
Consulting with someone who keeps things private!
God has given us people and a way of understanding. That is why we gather together to celebrate our Birthdays, Graduations, Anniversaries, and other significant religious holidays. We share one another’s joys and walk with one another during times of sorrow. We witness for each other the way to emerge through challenges. Being alone can become a dangerous habit. We are meant to team up and be in community.
United in service and with ideas helps everyone involved. Together we are stronger and able to help one another. It helps to have someone at the other end of a seesaw to fully enjoy being on the playground. The same holds true in balancing our lives. We enjoy the company of a spouse, the time in sports with our children, and the playing time with our pets. It’s the time sitting with a friend and enjoying lemonade that makes a hot summer day more pleasant and relaxing.
As the years pass, it is the siblings that are able to laugh and share funny childhood stories about mom and dad. It is the cousins laughing about falling out of the tree house or the hide-and-seek games of youth. So remember that consulting with a friend, a counselor, or a family member will restore joy. It can bring resilience to an ailing person. Loneliness is monster that robs us of emotional support, mental energy, and fun.
Enjoy your weekend. Pick up the phone and call someone who is alone. Reach out and wave to a neighbor as you pass bye. Smile at the young mom struggling with small children as a sign of encouragement.
Monday Mornings Are Great
Monday mornings can be your friend if you decide to let it be! A long time ago, I decided to take Monday off as my formal day to catch up. I find it really refreshing to make a list of all the emergency type projects and things I want to do. I put something I want to do like getting to an early Mass in the first slot of the day and after things seem to flow.
Well Saturday of this past week was Holy Saturday. I worked the morning seeing patients in the office. After leaving for the day, I got in the car and was about a mile away when I reached for my cell phone. It wasn’t there, so I turned around to go back to the office. When I got there I began to check my desk, the kitchen near the coffee pot, and decided to check the mechanical room. I had put an empty water jug in there earlier and thought perhaps I laid it on the furnace.
As I opened the door I heard running water and to my surprise saw it running down the side of the wall. Opps, looks like the hot water heater was overflowing. I ran for a chair; it was over my head. I had to shut off the electric and turn the water valve off.
Opps, the bottom rusted out!
With a little sponge and some rags, I cleaned up the residual mess and left the rest. It was a good thing I came into the office to look for the phone. I also made 2 calls to make sure I did the right thing to keep any further damage from happening. With that accomplished, I thought this whole project could hold until Monday morning.
Thankfully, it was able to sit until today when I called for a repair service to fix it. So this Monday wasn’t a disaster waiting to happen. As a matter of fact, it is early afternoon and I have only a few more things to accomplish. I guess we need to look for all the things that go right when we think they will go wrong. It is important to keep a positive and thankful viewpoint.
So how does this help you? Faulty thinking and the feeling of doom doesn’t have to happen. Whether it is a Monday Morning or any other modern day thought that is contrary to being joyful, we can decide to make things happy. Flip your thinking around to serve you better. Try new things and you’ll find solutions start popping up for you. Hope your Monday mornings are forever beautiful adventures.
The funny thing was I had my phone with me in my brief case all along. I think there was some divine intervention there. A mini miracle from a minor moment last Saturday saved me!
The Circle of the Seasons
It is the circle and changing of the seasons that keeps me located in the upper Midwest. The brilliant greens and coming alive of all the flowers each spring are so refreshing. They call us outside to hear the returning birds and see the budding vegetation. It is truly a time of awakening for birds, rabbits, and people. Add in, the liturgical changes with the season of Lent and Easter time; these increase the lively desires to improve our health. Spring adds great joy to our lives!
Then comes the awesomeness of summer and fall. No extra foot coverings like boots to wear or coats to lug around when the temperatures rise to the 70’s. The plants and fresh vegetables call us to eat better and more wholesome foods. Our gardens thrive on the rains and warm sunny days. We tend to gather with one another. We walk more and have outside picnics. We share our vegetables and come out of the cocoons we have tucked ourselves in!
By Fall, the colors are so rich in warm golden tones, oranges, and crisp brown leaves. The crunchiness under our feet and the falling acorns send squirrels fetching food for the long season ahead. The days may be warm, but the afternoons call us to put on coats and head gear! The circle of change is becoming apparent as we bring in the plantings that are too tend to embrace the cold nights.
Which takes us to this time of year. Yes, we are now in the season of Winter. Winter officially started yesterday. The chilly damp air, the bouts of snow, sleet, and fog dominate the news. We are rearranging our schedules to accommodate safety issues like traveling and/or avoiding to slip outside. We add moisture to our homes to protect ourselves from bloody noses and dry throats. We celebrate many holidays with one another. That means gatherings, where we share traditional foods, cultural kindnesses, and colorful decorations. We listen to each others stories and give one another meaningful gifts. Often they are gifts of love and time. We listen to musical sounds. There are bells from the local churches, songs on the radio, and hymns sung around the house. We decorate our homes and offices, bake, call one another, and shop till we drop!
It all comes full circle like this outdoor wreath. May you enjoy this time with loved ones and later enjoy the new books you may have received. Relish in the quiet moments after the long days and the year comes to an end. Don’t forget to call your friends and stay in touch. Those are the moments that make life worthwhile. May these minor moments grace you with Mini Miracles. May the one phone call or visit put you on the escalator of a new friendship. Relationships are the cornerstones of life.
The Circles of Health, Wealth, Kindness, & Color brings us to completion.
Bring Color to Your Life
Bring Color to Your Life.
The colors in nature are often the best to ignite us with hope and joy. The dress designers look to the greens, blues, reds, violets, and earth colors for rich palettes. We look to the horizon for life giving and often calming blues. Our senses take in the warm tones from the sun and elevate our spirits so we can soar and grow.
It has always enriched me when the leaves of trees begin to fall. Suddenly they call my name. As a child, I would gather the leaves and press them in the pages of our telephone books. Weeks later they would be flattened and ready to use for cards or to press between wax paper for temporary place mats. To this day, the falling leaves open up the opportunity to dress in flannels and warm cottons as we usher in the winter days.
Bring Joy to Your Life
As a designers helper, the rainbow of colors upon the earth, help us decorate our homes. We are very lucky to have a variegated pattern of many textures from nature as well. The smoothness from bark or the clay earth. We get the gritty look from the dirt and ferns. There is the rippled effect from water or slippery look from ice. How fortunate we are to collect these hues from our environment and to duplicate them into our lives.
So bring for the colors of your world and put them into practice. They will elevate your spirit and help those who look at you to feel elevated too. Blessings for your day. Be passionate this week and dress in red. You’ll be glad you did!
Be Thankful for Minor Moments
Thankful for Minor Moments
I am truly thankful for minor moments of grace and I am going to share them with you now. Today I tried a new gas station because the ‘price was right.’ The man in charge greeted me and answered a few questions. I was in and out in minutes. I saved money and the car is set for the week.
I ran into Sam’s Club for fruits and vegetables. Used the self check and a clerk volunteered to help me. Bingo, I was done in a few minutes, rolled the cart across the parking lot, loaded the car and took off.
Next I stopped at the local Post Office. The parking lot was empty. Only one other car with mine. What? I walked in and saw the other person at the mail drop so I walked in and asked the clerk if they were open. He answered, “Oh yes, just no one if here.” Wow, usually the line is out the door, so I was able to mail two out-of-town packages! Even bought some stamps.
A Picture that adorned the wall of our office foyer!
Praise God, these seemingly unusual gifts of ease in getting chores done were such a blessing to me. I got to the office and since time was on my side, I pulled out the Christmas decorations and set up the tree. I felt an excitement to get it all completely finished. It was only 9:45 am and I was able to proceed with the scheduled appointments.
I made a call to check on an order of CD’s I had placed 3 weeks ago. The man saw the order on his side and said they had a glitch. He apologized refunded the payment and then gave me a lesser price on the cost of the items. Wow, now that’s service!
In addition to being thankful for family and friends, I treasure having a home and business, and times like this morning! I don’t think these things are random, rather a gift from God. I hope you have some of these random moments of joy that pop up for you. I think they exist and often we don’t recognize them!
Blessings to all as you go into the Holiday Season. May you have many good times peppered into your days!
A Field Trip to a Cemetery?
Will it may sound rather odd to enjoy visiting a cemetery, there can be great peace there. I guess for me it began as a child. We often would go to visit the graves of family members and place flowers at the sites. I always thought it was neat to see my mom and dad lug the flowers from the car along with their garden tools. We’d walk along and read the inscriptions on the tombs and notice the decorations. There was a sense of pride in taking of the graves and a time for silent prayer. We’d learn funny or kindnesses about the people buried there. I think it gave us an identity of sorts.
When it came to learning to drive, Dad would take us to the Cemetery where my grandparents are buried. We’d practice making turns, backing up between garbage barrels, and driving around. I don’t live in that area anymore, but I still recall the layout of the cemetery in my head. 
When we have a physical death in our families, it is a time of loss for sure. The person we are parting from has moved on and we are left alone. There is an emptiness and unrest for those of us who have to carry on all the business and decisions alone. We are often surrounded by our family or friends, but the person who has died can no longer share in decisions, conversations, or memories. That is the hardest part.
The finality and loss of the person influencing our life becomes so real as time goes forward. Knowing we will all die at some point keeps us kind, open, and sympathetic to one another. We offer our respects, we remember those who pass in prayer, and hopefully we reach out to those grieving with invitations and kindness.
As we approach the Holidays, think about those who are alone and how you can reach out to them. How can you be a source of comfort? How can a simple gesture or action bring out the best in you and the joy in another person?
One simple step can put you on the escalator of success in helping others go forward and heal from a loss. Please take that step forward. You will be glad you did and the person who receives the kindness will have a good day.
Picking Up the Pieces After a Loss
Losses leave us broken and feeling detached from everything. We grabble to make sense of it all, as our minds are invaded from memories, songs we once held dear, and guilty feelings of what we did or didn’t say. We try picking up the pieces and they seem to crumble in our attempt to do so.
When my mother died two days after Thanksgiving, I was consumed with sadness. Not only was I feeling empty inside, but desperately looking for the right words to tell my dad. He was at home, but unable to do very much on his own. He had suffered a stroke a few years before and it didn’t take much to bring him down. 
Here I am some 35 years later and still I can feel the grief. Little did I know how close I was to losing my father too. 90 days later I was arranging for his funeral. He was literally broken hearted and wanted to be with her.
If you have lost a loved one, you know how suddenly your clarity and vision are clouded. So I share these ideas as we move into the Holiday Season. Grief traps us now more than at any time, because the holidays are meant to be happy. Somehow the grief consumes us and locks out the permission to be joyful. Even after one gets past the “it isn’t fair” syndrome, our emotional balance is unsteady. Picking up the pieces is like a puzzle that takes time.
Over the years, I began to focus on the beautiful loving things my mother did for us. She patiently wrapped each Christmas gift with tissue paper and added holly to the curling ribbon bows. I only wish I had someone to walk through this journey with me to help me recognize these better times. I wanted so to relish in the beauty and show my respect to her, but I didn’t know how.
For all our loved ones who have died, maybe this is the ideal time–“the holiday season, that is,” to pass on some of their characteristics, their stories, and their attitudes to the next generation. Feeling the feelings and moving them aside in their honor is a good thing.
Listen in the coming week to our podcast, as Kate and I share our ideas to “Self Care during the Holidays.” Enjoy the week and have a Blessed day!
A Podcast on How to Live Fully
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Welcome to a short, but “jam-packed” episode on How to Live Life Fully. To bring anything into your life, Richard Bach says that we need to imagine that’s it is already there! Every step of our lives is a journey and keeps on changing. In this episode of Mini Miracles from Minor Moments, Linda discusses a few ideas that you might want to journal on this week. Maybe these are things that you want to imagine are already there.
“If you’re like me, you have a pretty busy schedule. It is a schedule that has a time frame revolving around work, appointments, deliveries, and sleeping.” Linda shares about how sleep is the first thing to be sacrificed when she has a lot on her plate for the day! Sleep is that important commodity to be removed and replaced by other priorities.
Our daily obligations and commitments to others can be a great source of enjoyment. Today’s short story is tucked into a 3 hour window. Linda spends time with an older Granddaughter that she realizes couldn’t have been spent in any better way. It is the unexpected visit in this daily moment that one feels so invigorating. She was thankful to encounter this brief time in her day. This spontaneous visit was indeed one of those remarkable times. It was nothing special, but yet it was so important in being close to those we love.
Hope you enjoy the Podcast. These photographic sites are from Oregon and taken by Debbie Smakal Davidson who shares her photography with us. 
Resilience Comes with the Support of Other People
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Welcome to this weeks Podcasts on Resilience and being encouraged to heal. We all need support from one another. Often it is the trying times that come out of nowhere, like natural disasters, that remind us of that. Healing and trying to move forward is hard. Daily issues are hard enough, but the major things put fear into us and paralyze us. Those moments of being frozen and unable to progress calls for the reinforcements of other people.
God has given us all so many wonderful talents and opportunities to use our gifts. We need to share them. Linda quotes Mel Robbins from one of her recent talks. “If you have a problem that can be solved with action, you don’t have a problem!”
So this weeks Podcast “Resilience” hopefully will help you to take action and resolve your current problem. Our yard was in complete chaos this week as we had word done to break down and remove a waterfall that was in place for over 40 years. It was built with rebars, mesh, and concrete. Along with many boulders, the pond was dismantled and removed. Today you would not recognize the spot or the gardens around it.
As it progressed, I kept thinking of all the rebuilding that goes on constantly around the world. We all contribute to enhancing our world or making it a better place. Enjoy this short podcast and blessings for resilience!
Peace for you day and have a great one.
