Friday, December 31, 2021

The Last Post of the Year, Part 3: A Cold Bottle of Water

 

2021 is coming to an end. 

And I have been just freestyle writing on my physical, mental, and spiritual states. 

I know it is all a bit jumbled, but it all comes together in my head, lol. 

When I think about spiritual matters, though, that's a little complex. 

As I said in the last post, I will pray about things then I will look out for paths to the solution to open up. 

That is the way things work out for me spiritually. 

However, here is what's really going on: 

I have to muster up the faith and courage to follow that path. 

And I think about this when I am out walking, or whenever I am silent. 

Something interesting happen the other day. I woke up one morning and I heard in my spirit that I have a tendency to feel like I am a bother not only to people, but to God Himself. And He let me know I am never a bother. He is always here to listen. He understands what I can't even articulate. He answers questions I do not know how to ask. 

Lately in the ATL, this past week or so, it has a bit warm out. So warm that I don't need a jacket. In the middle of December, I can go for a walk in shorts and a t-shirt. In the middle of winter, no less!

I remember one afternoon, I was a bit upset with myself because when I come in the house all parched and sweaty wanting a COLD bottle of water. I just know that in the summer, nothing felt better than coming in the house and guzzling a cold bottle of water. 

Not so much in the winter, though. I just wanted some lukewarm water. Good enough. 

Except for when it is hot outside in the winter. 

My best friend LadyTee bought me some nice 18 ounce glass bottles with tops earlier this year that I would place in the fridge every day. There were four of them, and I knew if I drank them all that day, I had approached my water requirements for the day. 

I should've kept doing it, but I didn't. 

So earlier this week, when I was out walking at a time I don't usually walk right now (in the morning because it was so cold), I walked up a slightly challenging hill I walk up occasionally... I was a bit emotional, a bit down because it was so gloomy and cloudy out. I had been thinking about all kinds of thing, even did a little praying, even got a little teary-eyed too.

I walked up a hill that takes me some three minutes to climb. 

Halfway up my hard Sophia-like walk up the hill, an old man came out of his house. His house was close to the street, as he barely has a front yard. 

And he had a cold bottle of water in his hand. 

He ambled out and said, "Young lady, I want to give you a cold bottle of water."

I don't usually take nothing from strangers, but he was an old man... reminded me of my old relatives. I took it from his outstretched hand and said thank you. 

"The Spirt told me to give it to you," he said. 

"What's that?"

"The Spirit told me to give it to you," he said again with a smile.

"Thank you so much," I said. 

He went back into the house. 

When I tell you I was in shock, and had to blink back tears? 

Ugh. 

I made it up the street and around the corner and cried a little. If I could have laid out in the grass and had a good cry, I would have.

But I continued to walk, clutching my ice cold bottle of water tightly in my hand. 

And I heard in my spirit, I am listening to you, even when you aren't praying. I am keenly aware of what you need. I am always listening and preparing a way for you. I am with you. It is okay. 

And it made my day. In the midst of a gloomy day, I kept walking with my cold bottle of water. 

I placed it in my car when I passed by it. (I was parked at the neighborhood track and field). 

And about half an hour later, I finished my walk. I got in my car, wiped down my bottle of water (because we still in a pandemic). . . 

. . . and enjoyed my cold bottle of spring water. 

I kept the empty bottle of water. It meant so much to me on a spiritual level. 

And I have recorded in this post.

Just so I can come back even after the year 2021 has gone by... and remember. 

The Last Post of the Year, Part 2: Fear and Anxiety (A Tale of My Mental)

 2021 is coming to an end. 

And I have had the opportunity to look back over my state of mind... my mentality over the past year. 

You know, I have had to admit to myself that I fall short. I fall short of people's expectations, and even my own expectations. 

Constantly. 

And I have had to come to accept that and be okay with that. I am still a good person. And most of all, I am still breathing. And that means I still have ample opportunity to change. Not for other people, because I believe you can't please everybody all the time. I will never be the party person, the hip friend that everyone wants to hang out with. I have never been that and I hope I never will. I am living in a time that I can't tell people apart, and I want to always stand out from the crowd if possible. 

I must admit that over the years, maybe over the past five years or so, I have changed a lot when it comes to people. I have found that I experience a good amount of social anxiety, so it is rare for me to hang out with people. Plus, I don't do well with working out my problems and disagreements with folks. Part of that is that I really do not care. And I hate to admit it, I have come to a point where I am willing to be a bit superficial with people. It is just so much easier than being myself. I am finding that people expect "surface". Nothing fake, but wonderful pleasantries, blah-zay-blah. I don't like this at all, but it is easy. And most likely, it is with people who I use to talk to often, but I don't now. Much of that hurts. But it's okay. Just make the best of it, and be superficial. Do what, on some level, is expected of me. Do what is easy.

And keep it moving. 

That was a lot, but that was just something off the top of my head, some things I have been thinking about. 

Mental. Like most people, I am a bit anxious about the pandemic. I myself am glued to the television, listening to what is being said and hoping that I will wake up one morning and find out that it is all a dream.

But I know that will not happen. 

So I have a good amount of fear and anxiety. I would never admit that to people, but I am admitting it here. I rarely express my feelings to people, because I have been blown off so much. But you know what has happened to set me on the road to being free from that? 

There are close to 8 billion people on this earth. 

And that means there are close to 8 billion different perspectives.

And that is alright. 

And it has helped me embrace my perspectives about things, no matter if they are blown off. If they are, then they are. But this is how I feel about what I am dealing with. And from that point, I feel a bit more comfortable praying about it, praying for solutions. No, not to be perfect or acceptable in anyone's eyes, but to simply be able to examine my perspectives and follow the road to improvement or change. 

Does that make sense? 

Yes I know I am all over the place, but I am going somewhere with this. 

I have been praying about fear and anxiety. Just for some help. I rarely talk about this with people, because you know, it is just easy to do what is expected: be superficial. But shadows of how I feel have come out with those who are close to me. And it is like a huge weight off my shoulders and mind. I am so thankful for that. 

What has been particularly interesting is that I will pray about something, and then be on the lookout for some type of answer, some pathway to open up.

And I tell you what: it never fails that this happens. 

Back in November, I took a workshop entitled "Fear, Anxiety and Overwhelm". I took a ton of notes and got a lot out of it. It was just an hour give or take per evening for five days. We even had homework. It was a pretty good deep dive into the "why" behind being earful, anxious and overwhelmed. Just looking for the root to it all. I learned a lot during this workshop.

But you know the one thing that stuck with me?

I found out that most of my fear is imagined. All just a figment of my imagination. 

I would be so bold as to say that some 99% of my fears are imagined. That is hard for me to admit. But I learned during that class to really sit down with my fears and examine them. 

This revelation did a lot for me. I was able to get a few things that I had been afraid to do, done. 

And you know what? 

When all was done and said, it all wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. 

Then on top of that, my Pastor said soon after that, that he was starting a series on fear. A real deep dive on it. And of course, that made me happy because it was an answer to a prayer. And over the past month, there has been much confirmation of some of the answers I have been getting to some of my prayers. And as a result, I have made more progress dealing with my fear and anxiety. And I have been bold enough to set some goals for myself that I have been afraid of setting.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I am a bit exasperated when it comes to this pandemic. Much of this is coming from being fearful of the unknown. I am immunocompromised and have had to do quite a bit to stay out of the way of exposure to the virus. I do my best to stay masked up and stay sanitized. I do my best to be careful. I have worked from home since March 2020. Coworkers talk trash, and I am proud of myself for not dialing anyone up and opening up the good book of cuss on them. I let it go. God bless them. Keep it moving.

I, like everyone, want this to be over. It sure does a hit job on my mentality. I don't have much family as it is, but it is painful at times to spend all this time alone day after day after day. Many of my friends were in the workplace. As I get older, I find that I like face-to-face interaction with people who know the real me and accept the real me: quiet, funny, serious, nonconfrontational, non-messy, deep thinking. I want to enjoy being around people who allow me to be myself. And I am missing that during this pandemic. 

Also during this pandemic, I am coming to a place that I am not aghast when someone contracts the virus. There is always that question of Where did you pick it up from? What were you doing? But we see the real problem is that this mess is just in the air. It is a bit scary. So I am more compassionate now. That's a good thing. 

So this was my last post of the year concerning my mental state of mind. 

I am doing alright. I am improving. I don't cry as much. I have just decided to just keep moving forward... 

... day after day after day. 

On purpose.

The Last Post of the Year, Part I: I will be Happy for ME

Well, in a few hours, it will be the year 2022. 

I must admit, with all that is going on in the world, I had no idea what my world would look like on December 31, 2021.  But no matter how it went down, my baseline goal is to be alive. . . 

. . .And to be thankful for being alive to see the dawning of a New Year.

So I spent time this week thinking about three different parts of myself, starting from outward and going inward: the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. This post may just be one lonnng post. Or it may be in three parts as three different posts.

The Physical. I have been thinking about this all day. This has been a pretty transformative year for me from a physical point of view. I managed to lose approximately 65-70 pounds this year. I would have never imagined it. I took a chance on a weight loss life coach back in early January, and it worked out pretty well. I dropped off some this past year, so one of my new years goals is to get back on track, and lose more weight. I have managed to keep the weight off, with little fluctuations. But I have a better plan for the new year, and I am always in touch with my problem spots. So that will be the work for the next few months. And I am equipped with the tools to monitor and take care of that. 

I know at the beginning of the year, I made a goal to walk 10 minutes a day. Just 10 minutes a day. I cannot tell you how elated I was to walk that 10 minutes, then surpass it by walking 15 minutes. I mean that was half a mile. A whole half a mile! 

And soon after, I made a goal to just walk a mile a day. This took me a little longer to accomplish. By this time, it was the late winter, and I didn't know if I could make it. Plus, I walk slow, and it was so hard having to watch people walk past me. I felt so slow. I had to get to a point where I pushed past that.

And today, I thought about all of this and how far I have come. Some 11 months later, I am able to walk an average of 3 miles a day. I had a goal of walking at least five days a week, but I easily walk six to seven days a week, especially if the weather is nice (or at least bearable). It is a little harder when it is cloudy. And I have only walked once in the rain, with my umbrella of course. I will have to take the L on that, because I refuse to do that again. But I have always gotten my five days in. And when it's gloomy, I will walk for at least half an hour around my private island, i.e., my kitchen island. 

But that has been good for me, the weight loss and the exercise. A couple times a week, I will walk 4 to 5 miles at a time. It all depends on how my joints are feeling. I have osteoarthritis, so I listen to how I am feeling. If a knee or a hip threatens to start hurting, I head in the direction of my car or my house. The pain is nothing excruciating, but just annoying. The exercise seems to help that. And I challenge myself and walk hills. I wasn't able to do that early on. I make sure there are a few inclines along my walking route on purpose now.  

I was diabetic according to my HA1C numbers, but I have knocked a couple of points off that, so I am not even in the prediabetic range now. That's a good thing. My cholesterol is high, so I am trying to work on that. My primary care doctor whines about this, so much so that I canceled my last appointment. I will continue to work on it and see her again when I figure it out. 

Until then, like I told her... I am going to be happy for ME, even if I am the only one happy for me and my progress. 

I can happy for me... and at the same time, face and work on my challenges. I WILL continue to make progress.  

But nevertheless, I have made a promise to myself:

I will be happy for ME. 

Thursday, December 30, 2021

My Favorite Gift...

One gift I received really stands out.

Look at these headphones.
They are not regular headphones.  They are bone conduction headphones.

Why come nobody told me about them?

In a nutshell, these headphones allow the user to bypass their eardrums. You listen through vibration through the bone near your ear. 

How cool is that? Who knew such a technology was available. I didn't.

Like I said, my brother sent them to me. He uses them himself. I have come to prefer them when I am walking, as I can listen to my music and leave my eardrums free to hear everything going on arrive me. 

And that's a good thing!

I hope they are using this technology to rid the world of deadness. I am sure they are or have been working on that.

Monday, December 27, 2021

Christmas Decorations

My one and only Christmas Decoration.

And I put it up on Christmas day. How lazy is that? 

LOL.