Living-Deliberately.com

Full hearts, full tummies, full house.

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!

My attitude is kind of sucky this morning. I had some special plans, the kind that are one-of-a-kind and can’t replicate, that abruptly got changed for me today. Happens to everyone now and then, I know. But before coffee, caught off guard, was not a great time to hear the news and it sent me on a little pout fest for about an hour. I had this list on my list of things to do, together with a reminder that I’m still working on my posts for “What’s Right”, and have not wanted to break away from my self-pity party in order to do it. Cryin’ in my coffee cup, sniffling worse than any recent cold, and thinking dire thoughts about the future all were given some space ahead of thinking about what I’m thankful for. This is kind of rebellion on my part because I know as soon as I do this list I’m going to feel better and part of me DOES NOT WANT TO (dammit ). I deliberately did not want to feel better. If I had a day to it, I’d watch sad movies and eat junk food, and really wallow hard in it.

However, there is pie to make. And cleaning to get done. And that leads to the reason why…my little neice and nephew are on their way and I’m going to get baby luvin’ in a few hours. My awesome sister and her husband are coming (yes, they are more than just baby transportation…we miss them too!). The thought of little “Doris Day and Brother” are enough to push those pouty thoughts a little out of the way. And the sound of my happy birthday boy in the next room giggling with his new toys pushes them a little further. I can hardly believe my baby is turning 4! Being active in the preparations for Thankgiving Day makes it very hard to sulk and fret over what I don’t have that I wanted. So like dry sand through my fingers, my negativity is going to sift away, which is really a good thing.

And here are 5 other good things that are going to get it started. I”m thankful for:

• Ernesto, the old fishing bird I watch over a friend’s pond. He seems to know my voice and he sits like a sentinel on an old log watching me. He’s part of a nature scape that has come to mean a lot to me, part of a cherishing of Florida that was slow in coming as I let go of living in Tennessee this year. Ernesto reminds me of a line in a poem I read, “think of what the trees have seen”, and I gain perspective every time I think of it. Birds and trees sit constant through our passing tumults. We can learn from that.
• The contemplativeness of cooking. Of something slow and deliberate to put my hands to, that results in a product, that communicates effort and care, that doesn’t require language in order to succeed.  Many times the act of cooking and preparing food gives me time to work through a struggle or express a thought that I otherwise would leave stifled.
• An injury-less year, with running and training that could have very easily resulted in strains and pulls and aches and pains. Exercise is a huge stress-reliever for me and an injury would have had a ripple effect. In a year without medical insurance, it’s even more important to remain strong and healthy. Daily blessing.
• Water. If Tennessee’s strong point is those waves of blue and green mountains (now autumnal shades of brown and purple), Florida’s is water. Our massive river, the expanse of the ocean…I try to integrate as much of it into my life as possible. Often I’ll drive out of my way to take a bridge or be near the intercoastal waterway, just for the deep breath of air and openness I feel when I see the water and smell the salt air. It can easily be the boost needed to keep on keepin’ on.
• Life changes. Sometimes the other side of this coin is also my biggest grief. I’m hungry for settlement, consistency, and an end to certain processes. I get weary of no two days ever being the same. But there also is an openness that defies despair…life changes so much that it’s impossible to know for certain that “it will never get better”. Chances are high that it’s at least not going to stay the same and who knows the future? It very well could be better than anything I have dreamed.

Join me, comment, or Tweet…but leave a link! Happy Thankgiving everyone and here’s a toast to “Living Deliberately”…. in attitude, word, and deed.

As ever, comment, join me (and link), or tweet…just a week away from Turkey Day!

5 Things I’m Thankful for today:

• solutions to problems and inner strength
• my beautiful children and how in-arguably well they are doing
• imagination, dreams, hope, and art
• a roaring fire on a cold day
• buttery pastries made with macaroon coconut, apricots, 3 kinds of berries, and struessel topping, served with warm tea and friendship on a hideous day

And if anyone can spare a little prayer our way for our cat, my mother’s cat Jaasper is missing. He’s a pampered and spoiled housecat without claws or manly fighting skills, out on a night with a 6 hour hard freeze. My grandma moved north today and we’ve had some other intense family stuff present so it would be especially comforting to find our kitty safe and sound. A small thing in the universe I know but sometimes the Little Things matter quite a bit. Thanks, Tia

Come join me! Comment, Tweet (Follow me on Twitter.com), or blog it (but leave me a link so I can read yours too!).

• Fall weather, seeing it in 3 states, catching the “peak” in different places, and getting to show the beauty of it all to someone who had never seen it before
• friends who love me, who call me on “cryin’ and feelin’ sorry for myself” gently, with hugs and funnies, who are more of a connection to a place than sticks and stones will ever afford
• my growing family
• Magpies…cupcake nirvana, “All Butter All The Time”
• the sun setting on the Gypsie life, leaving peace, stability, consistency, and healing in it’s wake

Join me, tweet, or comment! I’d love to hear your 5 too!

• for our new President-Elect, for the history of that vote, and for the waves of hope and optimism flowing forth
• for the list I’m working on, “What is Right In My Life”. I am soooo blessed!
• journeys, progress, and scents on the air that can remind me of how far I’ve come this year
• a calendar full of happy dates to look forward to
• provision, health, hope, healing, wholeness, direction, safety…this was my prayer this year and I’ve seen so much fruition

Join me! Either in the comments or by posting a trackback link!

• Fall, cool nights, hoodies, and waning moons
• my kids’ schools and teachers, who made a major transition so easy
• hope and the restoration of it
• my Tri-goal…make it or not, the discipline of training has been good this year
• college football… a new interest with new friends and MUCH fun! Go ‘Noles!

This blog will be taking a vacation through Christmas. May all of you have a blessed and peaceful holiday season. I’m spending mine quietly with my family, thinking through  this major life change, and sifting through what needs to get done.  I’d like to bake some bread again, walk through the woods, and face a new year fresh.

~ See you on the other side!

5 Things I’m Thankful For, The Week Before Christmas:

• the magical fun of playing Santa Claus with children
• the holy reality of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
• for sustanence, in it’s many forms
• for snow, that covers ugliness, at least for a little while
• music, and how somewhere, there is a song for every mood and place

How about it readers? Got a list to share? post it in the comments.

My 5 things I’m thankful for this week:

• special one-on-one time with my daughter.
•  reliable transportation and the dad who made it that way; I can’t imagine the last few weeks without it
• irony. The “flip side” lends valuable perspective
• my confessor
• friends, friends, friends

It felt like a good habit I didn’t want to let go of…..so here are five things I’m thankful for this Wednesday:

• great friends who stick up for me but also don’t let me take myself toooooo seriously!
• Tennessee….I love it!
• smart lawyers who do their jobs well
• white sunshine in a  true blue sky
• the art of a well-made pb & j

One more, in honor of a very special day…. a little girl ’round these parts turns 10 today. She is living sunshine, a jolt of feminine in a household of brothers, and she adds beauty and creativity to everything she does. I can’t wait to see the fantastic woman she’s going to become and miss those sweet baby days of dolls and dress up all at the same time.  Once upon a time I had two daughters and I’m every day grateful that God let us keep at least one here with us. Life would never be the same without her. Happy Birthday baby!

Around here we’ve had the Macy’s parade, the turkey will be in the oven longer (power outage caused a delay), the chex mix is plenteous, and the kids are wondering what happened to lunch-being-at-lunchtime.

What’s going on at your house?

I usually love to talk about food, try new recipes, and enjoy old favorites like French Silk pie. This year, mom and sis did all of the cooking.  What new recipes are/were on your Thanksgiving table and what old favorites would it not be the same without? I’ve been thinking too, this year, of those who are in restuarants for the day…that’s foreign to my experieince but now I’m all curious as to what’s it’s like. What is like to work on Thanksgiving Day?

Share your story or your link…what’s Thanksgiving Day like in your family?

I was thinking today about the things I’m thankful for, the things other list that they’re thankful for, and what motivates us all to choose what we do. It’s just thinking out loud, and certainly not definitive, but I guess everything on our lists is something that, either through it’s presense or absense, has a positive impact on our lives or the lives of those we love. My next thought was how Living Deliberately, and that process of identification and analysis about each how each aspect of our lives contributes to our bigger picture, actually leads to a more thankful life because as a result, less is taken for granted. The slush is removed from life, things are taken down to their simplified and streamlined truth, and what’s left is truly wanted and valued.

It takes courage and bravery to look at something that may be damaging in our lives and then to do something about it. In the case of debt annhilation, it takes sacrifice. When striving to live more healthfully, it will often require more effort, as convenience products are often disregarded for their wastefullness or lack of nutritonal worth. What’s left at the end of this process though is honest reality; no more pretense, denial, or self-medication. “It is what it is” has become one of my favorite sayings because it looks at the truth of what something is at it’s core, and leaves me only with the task of dealing with my own response to it and not with the added option of trying to control or change what is not within my abilty to do so with.

That led me today to the Serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

May each of you have a wonderful day, whatever setting you may be within.

• that my sis will be here in a few hours, with my neice, and her pregnant belly containing my nephew! I can’t wait to see them!!!
• for my brother-in-law, who taught me to do what is going to support my family
• for the potential of optimism
• for awesome blog commenters….you guys all are such an encouragement!
• for guitar music, accoustic and tender. Sometimes it’s just as close to a hug as one can get.

List yours in the comments or post a link! Your lists are always great!

Next week is Thanksgiving, as the world remembers, and as I’ve been kind of ignoring. The holidays sure are going to be different this year. But Thankfulness always applies and I thought a little list would be a good idea today. As ever, if you join in, either leave a comment or your link so I can check ‘em out!

I’m Thankful For:

• Friends. They are having a profound effect on my life right now.
• Fall. Where I am now is peak color…. a little bonus because where I was it was all over and winter has set in.
• Really intense dark chocolate cheesecake
• Time and space to think. To breathe.
• Family.

• my healthy, homey, parish that daily demonstrates the fullness of Christ and the church
• my two fantastic and much-loved priests and our matushkas; may God bless them.
• vision, the non-ocular type
• milk chocolate, in the 40% cacoa range
• all the funny things my kids say

Those are mine this week;  I really enjoyed reading all of yours last week! If you name 5 things you are thankful for on the Countdown to Thanksgiving, make sure to leave your link in the comments!

Each Wednesday until Thanksgiving I’m going to list 5 things I’m thankful for. I invite you to do the same and leave your blog link in the comments.

• rooms that are defined by purpose and boundary
• a warm squeeze on the hand
• slowly falling leaves
• family (and after a week like last week, that’s no pat answer!)
• surprise chocolate bars