Shh . . . My top tip for eating less sugar is something that I will never admit to doing!
But I will tell you what it is in the article published earlier this week HERE (I will never confess to doing this, though!).
AND two MORE (!) helpful tips for eating less sugar are coming soon! What is the definition of ‘Helpful’?” I can hear you asking. The definition is confidential, of course!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Join people in sixty-six countries who read this! (Look! I don’t know why people read this stuff, either! It must be because they’re cool, too!) Let’s journey together!
“Well, you can do crossword puzzles,” my friend offered helpfully. He was lucky I didn’t kill him right there. (I felt like strangling him).
Join people in sixty-five countries who read this! (Look! I don’t know why people read this stuff, either! It must be because they’re cool!) Let’s journey together!
If I had to do crossword puzzles for the rest of my life, I would probably just throw them all out the window and kill everyone who came near me.
Which reminds me of my dad’s first few weeks in the care home just after he had developed dementia. My dad hadn’t said anything that the caregivers could understand for three weeks. Then one day, my dad said, “Get me the ‘F’ out of here.”
“That was clear,” offered the head nurse.
So, doing crossword puzzles reminds me a bit of when they tried to give my dad crayons at that care home after his very clear words, above. My brother said, “I wouldn’t have liked to have been the one who handed him the crayons!” That’s exactly how I feel!
My dad is the only one who understands me, and he’s demented!
And anyway, how old am I1? But the point is that some think I’m at the end of my usefulness to society because my kids are old enough to have moved out? That’s not what the lesson of the dragonfly (and God!) taught me.
Read that article HERE because you probably didn’t bother to read it the first time, and you need to remember truths like this if you are floundering in your next season.
And remember, don’t do crossword puzzles for the rest of your life! Especially if that thought makes you feel like killing everyone around you! I hope that helps!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone . . . And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did.
As the song below sings, “nothing to gain, nothing to lose . . . nothing to prove . . . it’s right where I’m supposed to be,” should we consider pondering whether it COULD it be that the cultural gold medal of “early retirement,” or time “off” after 5:00 pm, could be another opportunity to step into the next phase of God’s plan for our lives?
Join people in sixty-five countries who read this! (Look! I don’t know why people read this stuff, either! It must be because they’re cool!) Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit: (Let God Show You How To) Use Your Gifts by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
I know that I can (sometimes!) come off as a bit neurotic and whiny in my online writing. (I’ll have to complain to my editor about that! THAT CAN’T be my TRUE voice – of course!). Anyway, it turns out that I am considering going back to Grad school again to prove myself to the world since all my kids moved out and I don’t have a purpose anymore (Or – I mean – to learn more stuff to help people). Whatever!
My writing reaches people in 65 countries, so join us by being uniquely you! (And by doing what everyone else does!)
Anyway, the point is that I’m not as much of a loser as I sometimes hint at because I drop words like “Grad School.” (Wait! My editor is right that our identity is not based on what we do, but on who we are as those whom God loves! I sometimes forget theological details- Whatever!)
What I wanted to say is that you should trick them when you’re young, so you have opportunities when you are older!
“What do you mean?” you ask, raptly attentive to my next sentence.
Well, a woman I was chatting with remarked offhandedly, “He is soo smart! I wasn’t lucky enough to get that!” she said. I think she meant, “Brains.”
But here’s the thing – some of the smartest people I know aren’t that smart.
For example, a PhD friend who knows more than anyone else in the world about fern frond spores (a real-life example!) said that he wasn’t the smartest person in his class, but he worked the hardest.
What if showing up is more important than whining about the fact that you THINK you missed the lineup where certain “gifts” were handed out?
We sell ourselves short in so many ways. We cancel ourselves. We say we can’t. Our vision is too small.
We CAN learn new stuff (My example – today’s article)
As long as we don’t give up.
For example:
One day many years ago, I DECIDED to try for straight A’s at school. I DIDN’T stand around waiting for my profs to give me an “A” – they didn’t. Instead, I spent every last second in the free physics tutoring center until they had to kick us out when it got dark every night, AND I READ BOOKS like this one about HOW to do well in school. (There are more “tricks to learn” than “awards for the right type of brain”, I learned).
What if I showed up and had a growth mindset that I COULD grow a bit better, even if I (supremely) annoyed those around me?
Anyway, I DID get excellent grades after that DECISION (Note: Key word!) to do well.
And one potential Grad Advisor wrote me back this week to say that he would consider me for Grad school again NOW, BECAUSE I was such a great Grad student back THEN.
So, look at the opportunities dropping in my lap because I tricked them back then into thinking I was brilliant (In reality, I just showed up a LOT and worked hard!) (See the title of this article to come full circle on the point of this article).
However, I hope that none of my prospective Grad Advisors read this article, or if they do, they’ll know that it’s NOT that I’m amazing but just that I THINK that I’m amazing.1
And so, I leave you today with this profound thought to mull over:
What would you start or stop or begin or continue if you were S.T.U.P.I.D.er.*
*Note: S.T.U.P.I.D. is an “acronym” – read more HERE to find the details of this “highly patented” – definition confidential- process! (It means that you kept walking in the same direction, and didn’t give up, even though many people may have wanted you to!)
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
If you haven’t read those Newsletters yet, I’ll summarize them for you: Whiny, whiny, boo-hoo, cry, send our kid away… boring, boring. But this is the thing that really bothers me, as I think about it a bit more.
If you wake up in a terrible mood, the best piece of advice I ever received is to ensure that day that you:
”Wear whatever you want!”
And then the second half of this advice is to:
”Keep wearing whatever you want every day for the rest of your life!”
So, when my husband took a random, impromptu picture of me today against a bright yellow background, holding my bright yellow coffee mug and my bright yellow backpack (You can’t see it in that picture, so here is the next picture!), I finally understand why people were staring at me so much today.
It must have been because I look so awesome!
Anyway, I hope that people know that you’re awesome, too, as you stroll through life!
Oh! And so how can you look super awesome like me, you ask? Well, the only trick I know is to wear what you want! I hope that helps!
And other helpful advice so you can soar like a bird!
So I was a bird, soaring in the clear blue sky, when someone down far below aimed their shotgun towards me (or towards something close to me?) and fired. I fell like a lead weightto the ground and landed with a painful “thud”. When I carefully examined myself, I couldn’t find a gunshot wound.
The shot must have just grazed my ear (Wait – Do birds have ears – WHATEVER!).
