I came to a realization today. I had just written a large check to have 2 trees in my yard cut down. It was not done for me, but for a neighbor warning me of legal action if I did not take them down. She was pleasant but firm; the trees were dead and if they fell, it might harm her property.
After the tree men left, I realized that they had not cleaned up the yard very well. So off I went, pulling vines, picking up dead limbs, etc. I worked up a sweat and my heart rate was elevated. (This is good exercise, I thought.)
I enlisted Rob to help me when I got too tired to go any further. He cheerfully went out and worked 3 times as hard as I did. He removed vines from trees, a task that really needed doing in order to save the trees.
I had put a cut of meat in the crockpot earlier in the day and found myself eating at 3:30. The meat was flavorless, but the potatoes and sautéed spinach were wonderful. No complaints from me yet!
Earlier in the day, I had heard something hit the window and looked to see if a bird was on the deck. No, nothing there. But in the evening, I went outside and saw a dead bird under one of our front windows. It was brown, with a white breast speckled with brown. I didn’t know what kind it was. Just knew it was dead and there was nothing left to do but dispose of it. I went in the house and found a cardboard carton. Took it outside and put the bird into it and the carton into the trash. I was still balanced and aware.
This, you see, was a day that could have depressed me and it didn’t. It just didn’t. My realization is sinking in. I am capable of more than I can possibly know until I try. Staying positive is huge. Gratitude for change. Gratitude for acceptance. Gratitude equals grace.
Vicki Woodyard
This post is almost identical to the previous one except I now see that I have undergone a sea change. I am not the same person I was when the day began. I cannot explain it, but I know it. So forgive the duplication of the posts. Maybe some of you have had days like this when a shift happened that you had nothing to do with. I call it grace.
I looked up the bird and it was a Thrasher. Very symbolic.
The last few days, birds have been hitting my windows. I don’t know if it’s the changed angle of the sun causing the reflection or what. But today I heard 4 thumps at different times. Nobody dead except one two days ago…
I think you are right; the changed angle of the sun.
This is something that I’ve been working on, staying positive in the face of, what could be, despair. As things go ‘wrong’, I’m looking at them instead as just a something that needs to be attended to. My door handle broke on drivers door of my car a couple days ago. Instead of me letting it get me down, I just came inside to my computer and ordered a new one. Then, I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to replace it and now, I’m ready to install it. It just came today. I see it as a neat challenge for me to be able to do it correctly. I like challenges. Taking things in stride or, as Abraham Hicks would say, “going downstream with the flow”, is the only way I want to be. It’s a process but, practice makes perfect. Thanks, Vicki.
You said it well, Phyllis.