Thursday September 10, 2015  I DID NOT ACCOMPLISH WHAT I PLANNED TO DO

I did not accomplish what I planned to do today.  Too much interference with phone calls, repair men, and other obligations that were time sensitive and had to be taken care of today.  So, I have nothing to brag about tonight.  Dave said it sounded like I was bragging yesterday so I definitely do not want to brag two days in a row.  I truly hope I didn’t sound that way.  When I make my food and say I like it and it is good, to me it is and I am just simply stating a fact.  Not everyone likes it, but that is okay because I doubt if I would like to eat some of what they eat.  It is not that what they eat is wrong, but rather just different.  Dave constantly tells me that what I like is not what most people would eat.  I figure there must be someone else out there who likes what I eat or it wouldn’t be on the shelves being sold.  Things like goat cheese made with figs, quinoa with lots of little veggies cut up in it with craisins, and sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, winter squash bisque dill soup, and zucchini pepper pie.  Are there any out there that would like to come over for dinner?

Today I planned to make two lasagnas.  Sounds simple to me.  I have all the ingredients so what is the hold up? I just didn’t have time to get it started where I would have a block of uninterrupted time to get it to completion.  One of these days I am going to hibernate for an entire week, turn off the phones, put my iPhone away so I won’t rely on Siri to help me find facts, turn the T.V. off (if Dave will go for it), and just go to town on all the little tasks I would like to get done, and that might include making my lasagnas!  And maybe I won’t even get dressed.  That sounds like paradise!

I had an interesting insight today when the Charter man was here.  He looked at all the mess under my desk and started investigating.  I had so many wires going to so many places that I could not make heads or tails of what went where.   Well, he too was perplexed and started asking questions.  Come to find out we had a lot of things connected to modems and splitters and other boxes that no longer were even in use.  Since we now have Direct TV some of the cords were no longer needed as they no longer had a job to do.  I was so used to them being there that I never thought to investigate what they were for.  I had just become oblivious to the mess, and went about my business not even paying attention to all the extra baggage my electronic center had become burdened with.  It reminded me a bit of real life. 

In real life we take on responsibilities, and when we are no longer involved with the tasks related to our commitments, we just carry a lot of the baggage around with us instead of letting it go.  We become burdened with stress and emotional burdens and perhaps physical problems that need attention.  We fail to stop and take a good look at what needs to be taken care of and discarded.  It just becomes part of our “normal day”.  Perhaps we need to take a look at what we have in excess, perhaps it is unforgiveness toward another, or hurt feelings from the past, or anger that we quell in hopes that no one notices it.  We get used to it and allow it to clutter our space.  Our space that could and should be cleaned out by forgiving another, getting over what someone may have said or done to us, and give up the anger that only damages the container it is carried in.  We need to step back and take a look at all those unneeded “wires sticking out going nowhere” and unplug them and get rid of them. 

It is easy to ignore what is right in front of us.  For instance, I ignored my own health for years.  Food was important to me and I liked to eat.  And, so I did just that.  I ate and I ate and I ate.  Good things and bad things and too much things.  And one day after one more diagnosis of what was happening to my body I actually stepped back from myself and asked myself the question, “was the amount of food that I ate and the sweets that I consumed worth my health and in essence, my very life?”  I realized I had to start “unplugging” all those unnecessary connections.  And, so I started unplugging and slowly ridding myself of the unneeded baggage that I had been carrying around.  I chose to change my mindset.  I spoke to myself in positive words, believing that they would come true.  I encouraged myself by standing in front of the bathroom mirror and telling myself daily, “Today I choose to eat healthy”.  I would then say to my body “Body you want to lose weight”.  And then I would say, “This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it”.   And I did eat healthy (and still do), and I did lose weight (ever so slowly), and I still say that “This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it” because I still believe it and I still rejoice, and I am still glad.  I CHOSE to change the course of my life.  I chose to do it one day at a time.  I did not concern myself about next week or next year.  It was only about today.  And that is what I still do. 

Do I think about tomorrow, next week and next year?  Yes I do.  There are things that must be done to prepare for upcoming events, such as sending out the invitations for the party coming up.  There are dates that must be taken into consideration, and other plans that must be carried out.  When there is a time factor involved, timely they must be dealt with, not worried about, but dealt with.  Living in the moment is how next week and next year are handled.  What decisions we make today, from every bite we take, to how we save or spend, will affect next week and next year.  I found with this attitude that when I take care of today in a wise manner, then next year did not need to be worried about.  Every decision we make today in some way affects our tomorrows.  Perhaps it is time to unplug the unnecessary.

So, I did not make my lasagna today.  Even though I didn’t plan for it, I ended up accomplishing a lot of small tasks that needed immediate attention that will definitely affect my tomorrow.  Having all the loose ends unplugged today will make my tomorrow easier to navigate.   Tomorrow I will make my lasagnas.  After all, they won’t even be eaten until our trip in October.  I guess one more day doesn’t really make a difference.

UNPLUG AND LET IT GO

By Kathleen Martens

September 10, 2015

I’m like a little modem

Hooked up to lots of wires.

Some doing their jobs

Without getting tired.

Yellow and blue cords

Hanging all around.

Some are black or white,

Some hanging on the ground.

And then I notice,

Some have no cause.

They do absolutely nothing,

Which creates great big flaws.

When anything is dangling,

No purpose does it serve.

So I started investigating,

Which took a lot of nerve.

Were they really useless

Hanging there in space?

I needed to find out

If this was their rightful place.

So I started  unplugging,

Unburdening my load.

And this little modem

Traveled a lighter road.

I looked very carefully

As to what decision to make,

Realizing the useless wires

Were leftover mistakes.

Unplugged and uncluttered,

Everything worked so much better

For I was no longer tangled

By cords that were like a fetter.

So, if your modem is too messy,

Take stock of what to rid.

If it has no purpose,

No longer keep it hid.

Unplug, and let it go.

It will free your tomorrow.

It may be your pain you unplug

And that will take away your sorrow.

Just be aware of the baggage

That no longer belongs,

And allow your heart to be filled

With a new and joyful song.

Well, I guess if one can sing of being “a little teapot, short and stout”, I can surely be “a modem with dangling wires”.  I just don’t have a tune to go with it.

I hope you are smiling.  I am.

Good night and God bless and keep you.