Meditations and Wishes

Photo: by Robin

Meditation Experience-Day Three. I am gladdening my heart. Today I was asked what was one of the most wonderful, grateful times that I had with a loved one…..here goes. …….Going into surgery for breast cancer. Larry asked, Rob, where do you see yourself in 5 years? I replied, having tea at Kensington Palace, celebrating being cancer free. Five years later almost to the day, he took me to London where we celebrated my life with tea at Kensington Palace….I am beyond thankful for my health and for the amazing man in my life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was almost vanilla. I nursed a sore knee, worked on projects, had my car washed, walked 2 miles, made ravioli for dinner and watched the Netflix show, Someone Feed Phil and then a new series on Amazon. 800 Words.

I wish I had walked 4 miles, read for an hour, start a new painting, had something extraordinary for dinner and I wish that I had organized my painting area so I could be more productive.

One of my daughters went through a phase when she was a teen, saying almost daily: You can wish in one hand and crap in the other. See what hand fills faster. I refuse to tell which daughter.

Photo: Sweet surprise from our neighbors

Our sweet neighbors next door surprised is with a beautiful gift. It makes me smile just looking at it. There was a note with the plant….personal and kind. Some people inspire me to be better than I am. Debbie, Lew, you both are wonderful and your kindness means the world to Larry and I.

Love you.

Me

Mon Nouveau Chapeau

Photo: All good things bring gratitude

Meditation Experience~Day two. All Good Things Bring Gratitude. People and things that I am grateful for, reinforce the feelings of love and joy in my heart. It is good to focus on that and not the negative. The good outweighs the negative in our lives and why do we sometimes focus on the bad? I will focus on the good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bought a hat this week. It is the best hat I have ever owned. It is pack-able, reinforced with SPF and is comfortable, I found MY perfect hat!

I have had between 4-6 surgeries on my forehead and scalp for skin cancer. I have had many hats and hated them all and then, I do not wear them. Most hats feel like bee=keepers hats to me.

Photo: This is NOT my new hat!

I wore my new hat last night to Matilda’s softball game. {her team won ten to zero} We sat on the bleachers in the sun and my head was protected. The best thing of all, I did not feel stupid wearing it!

Photo: My new hat

Please remember to wear your hats in the sun. Having scalp surgery-excuse my French- sucks.

I found some fun facts about skin!

  • The average person’s skin covers an area of 2 square meters.
  • Skin accounts for about 15% of your body weight.
  • The average adult has approximately 21 square feet of skin, which weighs 9 lbs and contains more than 11 miles of blood vessels.
  • The average person has about 300 million skin cells. A single square inch of skin has about 19 million cells and up to 300 sweat glands.
  • Your skin is its thickest on your feet (1.4mm) and thinnest on your eyelids (0.2mm).
  • The skin renews itself every 28 days.
  • Your skin constantly sheds dead cells, about 30,000 to 40,000 cells every minute! That’s nearly 9 lbs. per year!
  • Some sources estimate that more than half of the dust in your home is actually dead skin.
  • Dead skin comprises about a billion tons of dust in the earth’s atmosphere.
  • Your skin is home to more than 1,000 species of bacteria.
  • Skin that is severely damaged may try to heal itself by forming scar tissue, which is different from normal skin tissue because it lacks hair and sweat glands.
  • Skin can form additional thickness and toughness — a callus — if exposed to repeated friction or pressure.

Do you have a perfect hat? Do you wear it in the sun? Please take care of your skin…

Love you.

Me

Her Name Was Grace

Photo: Under painting is the carved word “GRACE” this was my mothers.. Her name was GRACE.

DAY ONE~Journal for Meditation Experience- I am late in posting today. Being late makes me anxious and this reason should not make me anxious. You know that I have been struggling a bit and today I started a free 21 day meditation program online. (Why not? I take ART classes online) My good friend Anne-Marie is a friend of Deepak and I like Oprah, so here I go.

The web site will not let me post a link here but you can google: Oprah & Deepak 21 Day Meditation Experience to see what I am attempting. I have been looking for a meditation guide/class/experience and I found this. For the next 21 days, the beginning of my posts will be my thoughts. I hope to be candid and positive……

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had a good weekend. On Friday, Larry and I spent an hour at the archery range before dinner. I must admit that wearing a dress to shoot is not condusive to accuracy, but I did not have to go home to change before going into Dallas for dinner and that is a good thing. Our favorite waitress was not at the restaurant because her father in law had broken his hip.(Sandy Prayers are still being whispered) and we missed her very much. Dinner was as good as ever.

Saturday was a gloomy mess of a day. We headed out early driving one hour to Collinsville, TX. Matilda was playing softball at a field there. When we arrived, we saw Josh, Matilda’s dad….and Lauren texted, saying we were at the wrong field and the game was delayed. Larry and I had not eaten so we left in search of the sweet dinner we passed a few miles earlier. We found it, ate and decided to head home, so Lauren Matilda and Josh could have “family time”………..

Saturday evening found us in Town (Dallas) at a concert. Copland’s Appalachian Spring. It had become a lovely evening and the stroll in downtown was perfection not to mention the amazing music and friends we visited with.

Sunday. Sunday School and Church. After church, we went to Sherman Texas for the Highland Games. (Go Clan Stevenson!) We came home for Sunday dinner and movie. Dinner Rotisserie chicken, Mandarin orange salad and rice. Dessert was a cheese cake I made Mother when she was ill.

Photo: The pipes and drums
Photo: Chicken, salad & rice
Photo: Vanilla cheesecake
Photo: Sunday Movie

Here I am at Monday morning. I have meditated, washed two loads of laundry and will work on a painting after I post this.

I AM thankful for the joys in my life. So very thankful, that I sometimes find it offensive when people tell me that I should be more thankful or more grateful. But…..perhaps if I were more thankful or more grateful, I would not be anxious or blue sometimes?

Have a happy day. If anyone joins me in my meditation journey, I would love to hear from you. Perhaps we could compare notes.

Love you.

Me