Goals

Yesterday was a big day.  I didn’t do my Friday Counseling post, just wasn’t in the mood for it.  However,  may this post will take its place.

Two things.  Yesterday I did 30 laps in the pool.  Three more, and I’ll be doing a mile.  That’s a very big deal for his not-so-young non-athlete!

(This isn’t me 🙂  She’s got my by almost 20 years, and she’s still swimming. Awesome!)

The second goal I’m happy about is that I’ve now gone over 100,000 hits on this blog!  I’m amazed, thankful, very happy.  I’d continue writing even if there were no hits, because it’s important to me and I believe it honors God.  But it’s very gratifying to know that others are reading and, I hope, being blessed.

So while I was swimming yesterday (it took me 75 minutes!)  I had a lot of time to think. I thought about how wonderful water is.  We would die without it. Our bodies are largely water. We need it to drink, to cook, to clean ourselves and our possessions; we need it to grow food and flowers, and often we use it for transport and sports and just for fun.

I thought about the therapy I use for trauma.  EMDR is something I’ve written about before. One of the things we do is to establish a “safe place” in the client’s mind.  He can use his safe place any time, but in session we use it as a place for him to calm down, relax, and regather himself when the therapy becomes too difficult.  The safe place is anywhere that, when you go there, you feel calm, safe, at peace.  People choose a variety of places, but the most popular by far is the ocean.  The rhythm of the surf, the beauty, the water.  Water is in almost everyone’s safe place, whether it is a lake, river, stream, pond, or waterfall.  Water is relaxing.

Jesus gave living water to the woman at the well.  He told her that if she would drink of the water He gave her, she would never thirst again.  He is the Living Water.  In Him there is peace, safety, calm, and healing for the soul.

Water of Life.  And those are some of the things I was thinking about as I swam yesterday.

Sunday Solitude

So.  I’m home alone this morning, because of a nasty little infection.  It’s already responding well to the medication, but I’m just not feeling quite the thing.

And I’m trying to be positive about this, so here are some of the things for which I’m thankful:

1. A doctor who knows me well enough to listen to my symptoms and be willing to prescribe over the phone
2. A pharmacy that filled the script quickly.
3. Insurance that pays for most of the meds
4. My comfortable bed
5. General good health, so my body is responding well to the meds
6. Being alone in my house.  It’s unusual since Terry retired.
7. Being able to read my Bible without interruption
8. Being able to go back to bed when/if I feel like it
9. Getting this taken care of before I have to start prepping for Thanksgiving
10. Knowing that God made me; that He knows what’s wrong, and that there is a way to fix it.
11. A husband who is frustrated that he can’t really do a thing to help. Not thankful he’s frustrated, but that he wishes there was something he could do. Terry’s a fixer.  Bugs him to death when he can’t fix something 🙂
12. I got all my groceries yesterday, so tomorrow I think I’ll feel good enough to start on some things ahead of time.
13. I’m an independent contractor, so I can take off whenever I choose to do so.  I always take off on Thanksgiving week.  Very nice.

I love Thanksgiving.  I think it’s a shame that so many stores are planning to be open all day, taking people away from family and friends on this very special holiday. I will not be doing any shopping on Thursday.  Nor Friday.  Black Friday and the Black Plague are about the same in my opinion. Most of my gifts are already purchased, and the online sales carry Black Friday prices for two or three weeks prior to and following Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful to be able to look forward to a calm, restful day.  No one who will be here is an avid football fan, so that won’t be a focus.  We’ll probably play some games, maybe do some Christmas decorating, enjoy the food, and think about why we have this holiday.

It will be a good day.

 

 

Hoo Boy!

On my present journey to better health, I need to get more exercise.  What I really mean is that I need to GET some EXERCISE!

Walking hurts my back after a very short time. I detest calisthenics.  Don’t think I’m up to lifting just yet.  Maybe later.Of course, the son who could help me with that has gone and moved to California. . . .

Anyway, my doctor and I agreed that swimming would be an excellent choice, since it’s non-weightbearing and I have always loved to swim.  So I joined the local YMCA, and this afternoon I dipped my toe into the water for the first time in maybe 25 years.

The pool looked excessivley long from my perch at the shallow end.  Does anyone have binoculars?

A woman on my right was happily knifing back and forth. A gentleman on my left was doing a very comfortable-looking backstroke.  I kind of felt as if the lifeguard was waiting for me to DO something–besides standing in water up to my shoulders watching other swimmers.  So here we go.  Deep breath, push off, get the rhythm going. Stoke, stroke, breathe. Hey!  I still remember how to do this!  Made it all the way to the other end pretty comfortably.

But then I had to go back, and I knew I wasn’t going to make it doing the crawl, so I turned around and employed  my backstroke.  That went well.  Stop and rest.  Go again, side stroke.  Stop an rest, other side back. Crawl again, gulped water about halfway down the lane, flipped over and backstroked the rest of the way. Stopping after each lap to catch my breath was a good choice.  I think I did a total of 10-12 laps, which actually makes me feel pretty proud of myself. I’d been afraid that one lap would do me in.

Okay, so I figure I’ll have the time and opportunity to swim two, maybe three days each week.  I can feel it in my shoulders, legs, arms right now, and a little in my back. Not bad.  Right now I’m sitting in my living room easy chair, using my laptop, enjoying a small Granny Smith apple with some low fat string cheese.

Really living the life these days.