September 19, 2017

Greetings My Friend,

Keeping things straight, following instructions and absorbing information is difficult for me lately. I am trying to listen although I still hear things wrong. The Vet called after Roscoe's surgery recently and wanted to know if we wanted them give him a shot for pain that will last for 3 weeks....or so I thought. What they did was give him a shot for antibiotics and sent us home with liquid medication to give him pain medication. I was so sure I even asked the receptionist when she called to check on Roscoe only to find out I had it backwards. I have been doing this more in the past year since starting my Parkinson's medication, it bothers me. I want to get upset with myself, to berate myself and then I remember that I can't change what has happened or what may be a part of my disease. God is teaching me to roll with it, Junior is patient with me mixing up things. He often points out his flaws which helps. He finds himself getting distracted walking away from what he is working on only to discover he left the water running in the sink, the pan on the burner turned on. He even has implemented my way of reminding myself, like turning the light on above the stove so he remembers to check the pot on the stove. When I look at my moments of mixing up things in light of Junior's mishaps I tell myself that we are getting older and this is one of the things we reteach ourselves how to manage. I sense God is alongside of me because I remember to do things when I am in a quiet conversation with God. Often times the conversation goes something like, " Father, don't let me forget to....", when I am moving about I will all of a sudden remember what I did not want to forget. I believe it is God putting that reminder in my thoughts. I remember when I started my faith journey I thought it was hard to pray without ceasing. I remembered to pray in the mornings before work, in the evenings after work and at lunch time while I was walking. While I worked though I found it difficult to pray because I was caught up in the work I was doing. Today though I am able to talk to God all day long, I find great comfort in my conversations with God anymore. I am able to begin a conversation with Him as easily as I  am able to talk to Junior throughout the day. I find I need time alone with God where I focus my thoughts on Him, which I am able to do during my morning Bible study time, when I wake up many mornings and as I fall off to sleep. During the day I have popcorn prayers with God. I started my popcorn prayers by praying for accidents as we passed them, praying for others as I was asked to pray in a conversation with someone and praying for people as I go through my news feed Facebook. The popcorn requests seemed to be an outflow of these prayers, I am grateful to have learned to pray all day long. I was listening to an audio book called "Switch on Your Brain" by Caroline Leaf, she was teaching how multi tasking is not good for our brain. I have been a multi task oriented person for most of my adult life. I am training myself to only do one thing at a time now, like if I am writing I don't watch TV. When I messed up the information about Roscoe's medication I was trying to find Junior as the woman was telling me about the medications. If I need to find Junior I will need to have him call back or write the information down, then read it to Junior. My days of trying to do multiple things all at the same time are gone and that is okay. God continues to guide me, correct me and then sends me back into day to day life. At this point I am not sure how I would handle life without God's guiding hand on my life. May God bless you and keep you, make His face shine on you. Love Janet