Live your life - NOW

Never allow waiting to become a habit. 

Live your life NOW. 

Take risks, dream and imagine, 

follow your heart!

Go and climb that mountain, 

Swim in that sea,

And be the life that you want!

My view from the train after crossing the Brenner Pass and heading back to Innsbruck, Austria

LEAPing into Monday

Happy Leap Year / Day folks! I'm currently not this energetic or excited about it, but here's my Bitmoji looking all excited :-) I'll get there. In fact, the whole weekend was sort of a transition to my being back to my normally excited and happy self!

                 

My weekend included a choral workshop at a Catholic HS in Baton Rouge, a meeting for the St. Paul's (and Diocesan) pilgrimage to The Holy Land, a funeral, almost no sleep Saturday night (stress), and a Sunday full of grading and paperwork plus cleaning my apartment, wheeeeee! 

                     

Still, I had some serious moments of re-realization of how short life is. Looking at how fast time passes for us on Earth, it just blows my mind again and again. I found myself thinking of all the things I want to do in life and all the adventures to be had. There just isn't any time compared to the massive amount of life that's possible. I thought "I'd better be thankful for what I've done, then......and I'd better be thankful right now"!  You know, I AM very thankful, but I feel the need to practice that gratitude more overtly and more often, like every day! "Every day is a gift" - I used to have that sticker on my car. I need to buy it again.
The past two weeks have been rather crazy health-wise. I've come off of some medicine (Medroxyprogesterone) because of some scary side effects and have been worried about that. I'm already taking an iron prescription and this medicine is, among other things, to shrink my endometrial lining, and also to help prepare me for a scheduled and necessary hysterectomy in May. The medicine can cause strokes (of the eye and more) and lesions, serious depression (to which I am already susceptible) and all sorts of things, but it's pretty rare. I did suffer a depressive episode and full on weepiness. I also had numbness in my hands, debilitating headaches, insane ocular pressure and pinpoint pupils. It scared me a LOT and that in itself wasn't helping the situation for this already-anxious person! ESPECIALLY since it happened in the midst of exciting and happy visits to seminaries. All the travel of the past few weeks combined with not feeling so well was hard.
After getting off of the medicine, I've been taking it somewhat easy and have been miserable with the withdrawal. Last night I used an ice pack for my headache and it is the ONLY thing that has worked. This morning, it's my first time in three weeks that I have only a minor headache, but still have ocular and temple pressure. 

Still, THIS IS GOOD PROGRESS!

Back to that being thankful part....I am TRULY thankful for no more serious side effects and for feeling a bit better. We never know what we have in the way of time left. This whole incident provided me with yet another layer of being thankful for my overall good health, for opportunities that lie ahead, and for life itself. Today, it SEEMS like we get an extra day, a leap day in a leap year! Aside from the real reason we have Leap Year, I'm treating today like a day "out of time" - a day to remind myself to look at everything with hope and gratitude and to be thankful for what God has already given me and what the Holy Spirit has in store for me.

                  

So, this post is pretty much for myself and to get all that off my chest, but if it helps anyone think about being thankful for every day, then good! :-) Sometimes, I just need to ramble on.

#AdventWord #GIVE

December 1, 2015 - Today's #AdventWord is #GIVE
Give someone joy! Smile, jump, hug, listen, love, ask, blow bubbles! In all of the giving OF yourself, remember to give TO yourself: health, time, love. BE the goodness of God to all.I believe that one of the most precious things one can give is his/her time. As for me, I am forever grateful to my friends, especially my closest, who have given me their time and taken moments to catch up with me, to laugh, to share an adventure, to listen, or to share their own lives. One of my goals each day is to see how I can be more giving and more loving. Think of how valuable time is. Think of how short our lives are and how we occasionally seem to have so little time. I think of all that God continues to give to us and my mind is blown! This Advent, I hope you will join me in an effort to occasionally slow down and reflect and to give of yourself and to yourself.
- Blow big bubbles......more JOY!

JOY in San Francisco, photo by Caroline Carson

AdventWord was created by SSJE (The Society of St. John the Evangelist) and is the Anglican Communion's Global Advent Calendar. I'm using it as a daily meditation, prayer, and a way to connect in spirit to millions during this season of light and hope. You can join me in creating your own. Click HERE for their website and for their daily AdventWords. Also, HERE is a link to the entire calendar of words. #SSJE 

A Hymn for Daylight Saving Time

DON'T FORGET! Change your clocks! ‪#‎SpringFORWARD‬ Here's a little hymn (to the tune of 'God of Grace & God of Glory') to help you remember! ‪#‎DaylightSavingTime‬
(Thanks to The Choir Project & Marian Dolan for sharing on FB!)