Life out of control

It's not that my life is out of control, but I am unable to control other people's lives. In fact, I shouldn't even try since I have no power to control what other's do. It seems like a simple concept and yet many of us and when I say that I mean most of us try on a daily basis to change other people's lives. We would all do well to make sure our own lives were in order before trying to change others. I of course include myself. It must be part of our makeup to see other's problem's and solutions more clearly than our own.
I know, I will set the goal for tomorrow to let people be themselves for 24 hours. It's a start. I pledge to not tell anyone what to do tomorrow. Sounds easy. But the phrase "you know what you should do..." is so tempting. It's like the chocolate of the phrase world.
I hope I don't forget.
SR

Grapeful

Today's grateful list
1. Went to Redondo to have our taxes done, always a treat
2. skyped with two sisters and a father
3. slept in
4. enjoyed the beautiful clouds as we drove home, maybe snowing in the mountains
5. Mike may be home for Easter at Berardelli's
SR

Greatful

Here is today's list of things I am grateful for.
1. Bonding with Jen
2. the hawk (sharpshin?) sitting in the tree outside my kitchen with it's kill ( a black bird) in it's tallons
3. I continue to get a lot of enjoyment out of my first portrait painting even though I didn't touch it today
4. Getting Mike's critique of said portrait
5. arranging the plants on my deck now that I have my new table.
SR

Gratefulness

My gratefullness list for today
1. Watching the Greatest Story ever Told
2. Making breakfast for the boys
3. Watching "Simon Birch" with Natalie in my lap
4. Attempting my first portrait with acrylics ( I haven't laughed this hard in a long time)
5. Walking on the beach at sunset with a full moon rising

Wow, It is ridiculously easy to make my list. I am so fortunate!
SR

Grateful

I am reading Simple Abundance. the author recommends writing five things you are grateful for every night before you go to bed.
1. My kids
2. My parents
3. My siblings
4. My friends
She suggests pointing out specific things each day, such as noticing a beautiful flower
Finding things to be grateful for:
There is a dove nesting in my potted plant.
I watered the dust off my garden plants.
I skyped with my mom.
I had coffee on the beach this morning.
I did some painting today, abstract.
SR

In a drought

So I am having trouble with motivation. Don't seem to have much. I find myself watching tv and playing solitaire on the computer. Not all the time of course, however, enough to be a concern or noteworthy.
With my nest relatively empty, my down time has increased. My down time is up as it were.
I see myself in transition. I'm in my crysallis (use a speech impediment) and should be coming out as a moth or butterfly anytime now. Actually I'm not expecting to emerge for some time. I'm not going anywhere, just hanging upside down but changing never the less. Of course that means I was a worm/caterpiller before. How do you spell caterpiller? This blogging is a lot of pressure to know how to spell things. Maybe I should have stuck with worm. That's ridiculous, worms don't even change into anything. They are stuck as worms, which may or may not be a good thing.
I lost my train of thought. Stopped to make enchiladas. That's the way life is. You are on a roll and you have to take a turn and make enchiladas.
SR

Stress

It's so hard to decide how to deal with my stress. Should I eat more, drink more, tense up my muscles???Yes that sounds right. I will tie my back muscles in knots to relieve my stress. Wait a minute, I have the knots and my stress is still here. It's funny how stress sneaks up on you. I didn't think I was feeling stress...the crying at a moments notice should have been a dead give away. The trick is to not let it get the upper hand. I was laying around, resting my back yesterday and it occurred to me I was letting the stress win. so today I got up and loaded my dog in the car and we went off to work. I feel much better today however I'll never know if I would have felt better anyway, no matter what I did.

You know that is the amazing thing about life. We make our daily decisions and that is our lives. We will never know what course I life would have taken if we had not gone to work or left the dog home or skipped rope all day: all of these being potential choices.

I chose to drop in on Adler's mom today who was cleaning out her dead son's house. We had a great visit. I said Hi I am Sandy and she hugged me. Say what you want about death, it really brings the living together. I've noticed this over and over again. for the most part it doesn't last: that is why I go to as many funerals as possible, to make that connection and drop on dead people's mothers'. My back is definitely feeling better. In fact, I believe my stress level has dropped precipitously.

Well, back to decluttering my house.

SR