Gratitude: Day 1

I'm thankful for

... the aroma of pumpkin muffins baking in the oven

... the bright autumn sun beckoning me outdoors on a frost morning

Snapshots of This Day

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW it's dark and rainy. Autumn's days are numbered. It feels like snow will soon peek over the mountains. The Canadian geese call.

I AM THINKING that the more I try to simplify my life, the easier it is to add complications to it. In my heart, I want to downsize. New technologies jump in and demand attention.

I AM THANKFUL FOR my eldest daughter finding her path again. She took a difficult detour. All signs point to a clear (though bumpy) road ahead. No flat tires, please!

FROM THE KITCHEN the aroma of salmon cooking in our new stove-top smoker. Lovely new invention. One toy that didn't feel too complicated.

I AM WEARING slouching-around-the-house clothes. Stretchy pants. My big, baggy, dusty pink sweater. Good clothes for curling up and reading or slipping out the door for a 2-mile walk.

I AM CREATING a comfortable home. With Flylady's help, our house is peaceful. Daily and weekly tasks are accomplished with a minimum of fuss. There's more time for peace, more room to breathe. Visual and audio chaos levels are at an all-time low.

I AM GOING to Pittsburgh, PA before too long ... just another week! My middle daughter and I will learn our way around town, will explore her new school, and will visit the grave of my parents (first time in over 10 years!)

I AM READING a book about willpower and self discipline. Finished it yesterday, in fact. Didn't care for it. I don't think I am part of the audience this book was written for. Men might like this. I find a lot more practical help, from a woman's perspective, from Flylady.

I AM HOPING that I stop feeling overwhelmed soon! I'm hoping I can take things one step at a time and make progress on learning the new technologies that have recently been introduced to my life: Zune, GPS, Dell laptop, Droid phone.

I AM HEARING the quiet buzz from the brains of my husband and child as they play with and learn about their new phones.

AROUND THE HOUSE the wind has been howling. It's quiet for the moment.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS is stitching. I haven't been doing enough of it lately. I'd like to dig up a new project to work on.

A FEW PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK include going to the gym, starting a new book, baking some pumpkin muffins, moving data onto my new computer, learning to use a cell phone for the first time. I'd also like to do some writing for our family's educational trust. If all goes really well, I'll stitch, I'll blog more often and do some photo editing and posting. Don't hold your breath.


Many thanks to Maureen for this idea.

Sunday Secrets: November 08, 2009

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

These four cards had an impact on me today. The first is from PostSecret on Twitter. The other three are from Frank's blog today. In a way, these secrets connect to one another and to a part of my life story.


My dad had a terrible problem with rage. It embarrassed me when he yelled at unreasonable customers in his pizza shop. But it was downright terrifying when his rage turned on me. He literally slapped my first loose tooth out of my mouth.

I never found it.


Much much later, I learned that Dad's rage was very likely part of a mood disorder ... one that runs in families. One I have. My recovery is going well, but there are times when I dip into relapse.

I don't dip far.


The difference is that I know my relapses are not as much of a determining factor in my future as my recovery. I can be a victim of my mood disorder, but I'll be unpredictable and miserable. Instead, I've made a decision to live in a simpler, more centered way.

I have a charmed life.


One simple thing I do daily is check for mail at my local shipping store where I rent a post office box. Some days, the two young men working there are the only people I talk to in a day (outside my family). I look forward to those quick visits and our small chats.

Thanks, Kevin and Brad!

Book Review: An Unquiet Mind

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison

This is one of the very best books I’ve read on bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder. It’s power comes from three main thrusts:

1. It’s very readable. The language is neither too lofty, too personal, nor too technical
   
   
2. It is the author’s memoir of her personal experiences managing the disorder
   
   
3. The author is not only a patient, she is also a professional with years of teaching and clinical experience working in the medical field. Her specialty deals with the pharmacology that is associated with mood disorders.

Kay Redfield Jamison is a professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is the coauthor of one of the standard textbooks on manic-depressive disorder. Because she also has been managing the disorder for most of her adult life, she is able to bring a searing personal perspective to her writing that captures the essence of what it is like to deal with an unquiet mind for a lifetime. Being able to read the story of someone who is further along the road to recovery than I am brings both an awareness of the caution that must be exerted in moving forward, and a sense of exhilaration that this disorder can be a blessing as well as a curse.

That is the greatest gift of this book that I had not connected with in my other readings. Bipolar is a disorder, not an illness out of control, not an evil with the power to rule one’s life and make the patient a victim, but a disorder whose energy can be channeled to become an asset rather than simply a liability. It’s all about becoming aware of the symptoms, paying attention to the ebbs and flows of mood, resisting the temptations to stop taking medications, and learning to manage one’s energy through healthy choices.

Her many years of living with bipolar syndrome has given Kay a perspective and insight that are invaluable. As the book jacket states, “She has emerged with a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom, one of those rare books that have the power to transform lives – and even save them.”

I would not recommend this book to someone who has recently been diagnosed with the disorder. In that stage, there are other resources that will be much more valuable in getting a person stabilized.

I highly recommend this book for those patients (and their families) who have come a way down the road to understanding the disorder and stabilizing their lives. These patients will recognize a bit of their own journey and will get a glimpse into the kind of abundant life that is possible in spite of – and because of – the volatility of the disorder.

Buy An Unquiet Mind from Amazon.com

Sunday Secrets: November 01, 2009

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

Sometimes I wish I'd gone to library school
instead of volunteering for the Church for a year.
Roughly the same ...

My heart's for Dale.

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy your tricks and treats!

Sunday Secrets: October, 2009

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

I haven't posted in a while, so here are various finds from Frank's October blog posts:

Time for me to create some more happiness.

Love brownies. Will use this idea for enhancement.

Ditto for my husband. I consider it my laundry fee.
Mostly I find pennies or candy wrappers.

Now they can do their own laundry, among other amazing feats.

For years, I've told my daughters
they will learn the things I know
in the pages of the "Mommy Manual."

Oh, to be a Pig

If you yelled for eight years, seven months and six days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)

If you farted consistently for six years and nine months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that's more like it !)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.G.!)

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
(Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Don't try this at home, maybe at work.)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
(Honey, I'm home. What the...?!)

The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.
(30 minutes... Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still want to be a pig in my next life....quality over quantity.)

Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know.)

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm......)

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
(Okay, so that would be a good thing?)

A cat's urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)

Polar bears are left-handed.
(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer.)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig??)

[This little ditty was sent to me by Pam Young]