A Good Day*

• This is a good day. I slept from midnight to 7 AM. I got up feeling good. {This means my back hurt minimally when I got up and that minimal pain went away after the back exercises.}
• I just pressed the "buy button" to get myself a pair of fleece-lined slippers through Amazon. I need something that will keep my feet warm AND that have a hard sole so that I feel safe walking around the apartment in them. I have several soft-sole ballet-type pairs but I do not feel safe walking in them even using a cane.
• One of my long-time readers suggested I allow my neighbors to help me bring groceries in when they offer because allowing people to help allows them feel good! This, I have come to realize, is an EXCELLENT idea {and I would have left her a thank-you note except that OD has been so flaky lately}. So, the next time I receive an offer, I will do this. Jake has also, in the last few weeks, talked to me about letting him help me, actually, about asking him for help. As I have mentioned before, I find asking for help very VERY difficult but the more I think about it. the more I realize that since I am at the time in my life where I NEED more help, it is rather silly not to ask for it! Especially since this is one reason I moved from VT to NC –to be able to get help from my son!
• And now, this seems like a time to say again that I have two excellent sons who after Fred died and without me having to say a word, both immediately made it clear that I was absolutely welcome to come and live near them so they could help me when I needed help. I appreciate them AND my daughter-in-law whom I am fortunate not only to love but also like very much!
• OK, now it is time to decide what I am going to do with the rest of this day. It is quite possible that I may decide to do nothing except read because now I am retired, if I want to do nothing constructive with my time, I can!  Of course, I can also tidy up the kitchen and then read, thus making me feel very virtuous!

An emotion is only an emotion.

It’s just a small part of your whole being.

You are much more than your emotion.

An emotion comes, stays for a while, and goes away, just like a storm.

If you’re aware of that, you won’t be afraid of your emotions.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. — Marcus Aurelius