I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.
by Robert Browning Hamilton
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”
by Oscar Wilde
I have to ask myself – do I really love myself? Isn’t loving myself selfish, or at best, weird? Jesus says, “No, it is not.” In fact, he commands that we “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and sets this as the second most important commandment. The first is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:28-31)
How many times do I dismiss my own personal needs of exercise and fresh air, proper healthy eating habits, or getting enough sleep? I reason with myself that there’s not enough time in the day to study God’s word or to pray. I’m too busy, or too tired. Excuses, excuses—always plenty of time for excuses.
If I really want to fulfill what God desires for me, which is for good and not evil, I must take time for exercise, establish healthy eating habits, and time alone with God.
When I commit to those tasks of nurturing my mind, body, and soul, I’ll be aptly equipped to nurture the souls of others. Then, I can experience the beginning of a true life-long romance.
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Another rule…
No Straws allowed!
Liquid diet for a day or so; then soft foods only to promote healing after the tooth extraction.
Life was going along fine until hunger pains hit. I seem to remember way back in the refrigerator a tiny box with soy chocolate milk. Yum!!! That would taste mighty good, be refreshing, and provide nutrition. So I shook up the box and inserted the tiny straw that was affixed to the box.
I thought nothing of it until Steve comes up the stairs, took one look at me, and shouted,
“Why are you drinking from a straw? The instructions say no straws because it might break up the clotted area.”
Oops again!
I honestly thought following the rules would be a piece of cake (no pun intended.)
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When I first read those words in my list of instructions after my tooth was removed, I thought—weird—well, I won’t have a problem with that don’t do.
Later, as I was brushing my teeth, I automatically spit into the sink. Oops…I wasn’t supposed to do that.
Then, as I whished my mouthwash around to cleanse my palate, I spit again. Oops…I wasn’t supposed to do that either. Maybe this rule will be a problem after all!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU…HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU….HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ANDREW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
Wow, it hardly seems possible, but ’tis true. Being in labor a good share of the weekend, I could not soon forget the birth of our eldest son, Andrew. Feels somewhat surreal at this point…like it was just yesterday and like it was a long, long time ago.
Like any family…
Experienced our share of ups and downs
Times of great joy
And times of great sorrow
Yet, through it all
I somehow knew
God was in control
Even when I didn’t see him
Love won out
Over doubt, rage, and fear
He watched over us all
Kept us together as one family
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Up this morning, but moving rather slowly! Downed a cup of applesauce to take with my meds. On a liquid, then soft food diet for a few days. This should help me shed the extra pounds I gained last week on vacation.
Glad the extraction process is over and looking forward to pain free days ahead! In the olden days, I can recall a loose tooth. My dad would tie a string around it and shut the door. Is that true or was it a dream?
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I met w/an endodontic dentist today referred by my regular dentist.
Good news: no root canal in my near future.
Bad news: cannot save the cracked tooth (which had no fillings in it whatsoever!) go figure.
2:00 pm today – app’t w/oral surgeon to extract the tooth – we’ll discuss options re: implant or bridgework to fill in the gap. joy!
Thanks for your continued prayers – I really do not like dentist’s office one little bit!
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“Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” – 2 Chronicles 20:21b
“God’s unchangeable nature, his consistency, prompts trust. He has been there for us mightily in the past; and since he never changes, he can be trusted with the future.’ – (Furgusons and Thurman)
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Paul states in Philippians 3:13, 14, “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (italics mine)
Shine like stars,
Teresa
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“It’s the birthday of the man who wrote, “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’” That’s the children’s writer A.A. Milne, (books by this author) born in London (1882)…
Milne got married and had a son, a boy named Christopher Robin. And one day in 1923, he was feeling bored at a party, and he wrote a poem for kids, which he published in Punch with a few others…
A couple of years later, Milne wrote a book about Christopher Robin’s stuffed animals, and E.H. Shepard did the illustrations again. And that book was Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), which was immediately successful. In the next two years, he published another book of children’s poems, Now We Are Six (1927), and then The House at Pooh Corner (1928). And after that, most people didn’t take him seriously as a writer for adults anymore.
He said: “Ideas may drift into other minds, but they do not drift my way. I have to go and fetch them. I know no work manual or mental to equal the appalling heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.”
Taken from the Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor
https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
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