June 27 2015

June 27 2015 Greetings My Friend We are getting ready to go to Michigan for a week to visit friends and family. As we prepare I realize this is the 3rd trip in as many months. Part of me is ready to slow down and I am sure it will be a bit before we undertake another trip. This year warm weather has hit us early with the usual rain and I am feeling congested more so. In this thinking I see that as we make plans there may be more opportune times for us to go away. April and May were fairly easy on me as far as my lungs are concerned so it occurred to me that spring and fall may be the best for me. This self reflecting is helpful in the aspect that I am able to be more active and less sickly. Learning to work my body out not necessarily at a gym but in day to day activities is allowing me to move about more freely too. I do see that this has helped me to have a good quality of life. Then there are medications, supplements, essential oils that are helping me as well. Finally I am getting our diets in decent shape as far as eating less processed, less sweets and less fat. All of this thinking has helped me to get my cognitive abilities back to a comfortable level as well. Along with all the thinking about ways to stay healthy I have had to rethink housework again. As I retired I felt that I had learned how to get things done in short segments of time and keep up with all my other activities. I liked this idea and thought it would do me well in retirement giving me a lot of time to volunteer, work part time and travel. As my health declined I have had to learn new ways to do things. The chaos of moving and renovating put me in a stupor for a few years but now I see how it has made me come to a complete stop and then work back into what my body and mind can handle. I had to learn to be content with a much less active lifestyle and how to stay home more. My heart wanted to go out and do all I could for God. I saw this as volunteering, short term mission trips and heading up things like workshops and such. God has taught me that I can do a lot for Him in the quiet of our home. By being home more we have been available to reach out to our community and be friends with people. Sometimes we are available to take someone to the doctor’s, help with giving them a job we need done and such. Social media is a way to reach other people also. God has given me a talent for writing and He has helped me learn enough to get around on social media. I find that I have made many good friends and they are such a comfort at times as I believe I am to them. My active mind gets to engage with others throughout the day and my disabled body doesn’t have to keep moving in order to reach out and help people. God shows me that there is always work if I am willing. He teaches me to “be still and know that He is God” and in the process do the work He wants not what I want to do. In the end I am not wore out from doing all the “good works” I deem is right. It is a hard lesson but a valuable one. I find that I am as involved in God’s work today as I have ever been. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet