Intentions Review for March 2024

My Star Word for this year is PRESENCE – the state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing. Maybe this means just showing up – and most of the time, I can do that!

It took me some time to set my Intentions for 2024. I’m going to try to quit obsessing about things I can’t change. I’m leaving the same general categories that I had last year. This worked well as a diary.

Health and Fitness

• Exercise
  • I continue to meet with my personal trainer at least twice a week
    • We’re doing more work on balance since I will be traveling alone
    • We are trying to include a long walk – either indoors in the hallways or outdoors if it warms up and quits raining
  • I use the NuStep regularly in the Wellness Center
• Diet – After my heart attack in December 2023, I started to follow a Mediterranean Diet – 3 fruits and 2 vegetables a day
  • In January, I continued, but I’ve cut the fruit back to only one a day
  • In February, I continued, but I increased the number of eggs I eat (occasional 3-egg omelet) – no adverse affects to my blood work at my annual physical
  • In March, I basically held my own, weight wise – at least I didn’t gain anything
• Weight
  • I’ve lost 8.6 pounds since May 2022, an average of .4 pounds a month – my weight seems to be stubbornly static for the past month – I hate plateaus

Friends and Community

• Gazebo Group
  • We continue to meet regularly – once a month on Zoom, and other weeks in person
  • After over 7 years of keeping the email list for this group, I have passed the baton to a couple of other people to send the reminder messages – I’ll continue to keep the list but not send messages every week
• Greisser Girls Gab
  • I wouldn’t miss this for the world
• Other Friends

Travel and Culture

• Visit Betty for the Eclipse in April
  • January – trying to book travel and having a hard time with AMTRAK
  • February – purchased my train tickets and made my reservations in Chicago for the trip
  • March – I’m currently sitting in Betty’s living room waiting for the Eclipse

Hobbies and Creativity

• Reading
  • The Glass Room (Vera #4) – Ann Cleeves – Finished
  • On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder – Finished
  • Harbour Street (Vera #5) – Ann Cleeves – Finished
  • The Moth Catcher (Vera #6) – Ann Cleeves – Finished
  • The Seagull (Vera #7) – Ann Cleeves – Reading
• Blogging
  • I’m keeping up with my blog – 5 Things That Made Me Happy Today

Learning and Knowledge

• Creative Writing
  • 100 Word Stories – daily – I have faithfully published one of these every day this year – I took Holy Week off since I was traveling
  • Course in January and February – Finding, Telling, and Sharing Life Stories
    • How I Finally Grew Up
    • Summers in Westfield
    • Daisy
    • Fishing
• Great Decisions – I decided not to participate this year

Spirituality

• Support the work and worship of 1st Presbyterian Church, Texarkana, Arkansas – Check
• Move my Letter of Membership to 1st Presbyterian Church, Texarkana, Arkansas – I’ll (hopefully) get this done when I’m in Texarkana for the Eclipse – Will send my letter in April

Money and Finances

• Taxes
  • It looks like we’re going to have to pay in April – I’ll try to plan better this year
  • Taxes are filed and the payment will be sucked out of our account by the IRS on April 15
• Budget
  • We’re doing pretty well since Al’s VA has been increased
• Savings
  • We still haven’t gotten the Lump Sum from VA
  • We have appealed to our Congressman to help, since the VA has not voluntarily communicated with us since January
  • In mid-March we received a lump sum of $14k of the additional amount we were due since Al applied

Five things that made me happy today – 3/31/24

Some believe it is only GREAT POWER that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. 

Gandalf

1. The train pulled in to Texarkana at 6:10 am only 15 minutes late. My long suffering sister was waiting for me. We collected the baggage and went to her house, where I unpacked, we started a load of laundry and I washed my face and brushed my teeth. I fixed breakfast for myself and we got dressed for church.

2. We got to church early because Betty had to practice with the choir. It was my ancestral church that we attended for Easter service. I was baptized in this church as the third generation. My younger sister’s children were also baptized here and today my great-niece became the fifth generation to be a member here.

3. We went to my niece’s in-laws for dinner after church. The two girls had an Easter Egg hunt for candy filled eggs that the in-laws had hidden before church. While they played outside, the adults warmed up ham, potato casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, macaroni and cheese, broccoli-rice casserole, and rolls from Cracker Barrel.

4. Betty and I came home to a well deserved nap. I didn’t sleep well during the night on the train, because I kept worrying I wouldn’t wake up in time to put the last few things in my pack and get off the train. Betty said she also kept dosing and waking up – checking “Find My” for the train’s expected arrival.

5. I still need to complete my Intentions Review, but I think I’ll do that later (after the nap.)

How about you? What made you happy today?

On Sunday

It was on the Sunday

that he pulled the wheat.

They arrived with flowers,

shuffling through the dawn

as the dawn snuffed out

the last candles of night.

Their faces betrayed their belief

that yesterday would always be better

than tomorrow,

despite what he said.

He would not say it again,

so why bother to believe him on that score?

And the flowers,

they too were silent witnesses to disbelief.

He was the flower they cherished,

Like the grass,

they were cut off from the root,

the bulb, the source of life.

the flower now perished

whose fate the lilies of the field,

now tight in hand,

would re-enact.

So when they passed the crouched figure

at the edge of the road,

they thought little of him,

scarcely seeing his form through their tears.

Had they looked even a little,

they would have seen a man

letting grain fall through his fingers,

dropping to the earth

to die and yet to rise again.

It was on the Sunday

that he pulled the wheat.

From: Stages on the Way, Iona Community Wild Goose Resource Group

Five things that made me happy today – 3/30/24

Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful, moral force on the side of justice.​  

Bernice King

1. Really good night in a real bed. Nice weather for Chicago. Sun is out and mid 50s. The further south we went, the warmer it got. I’m glad I’ve got t-shirts with me. It was in the 70s in Southern Illinois.

2. Ray and Kathy met me at the hotel for breakfast. We enjoyed the typical Residence Inn buffet. It was a little picked over by the time we got there. Then they came up to my room while I talked to Amtrak and got my return reservation changed so my room is on the lower level. Success! AND they gave me the Handicapped room with the private toilet in the room and food brought to me without having to beg. Not only that – the handicapped room is cheaper than a roomette.

3. Ray and Kathy got me situated in the First Class lounge and left me with Amtrak. I didn’t have very long to wait. Long enough to swallow a bottle of water and some free cookies. Then the Red Cap came and took me and my backpack to the train where I got into my downstairs roomette.

4. Riding through Southern Illinois on the train brought back lots of fond memories of this trip taken usually by car. The fields are greening and the Wind Farms are replacing the electricity generated by nuclear plants. The train runs right by the highway so the views are the same. Farms look prosperous and well cared for. It’s definitely Spring.

5. I had one of Amtrak’s Flexible Meals that so many people have been com about. I had Chicken Enchiladas, with refried beans and street corn. There was a little salad with dressing (that I didn’t get on the Builder) and a little “Butter Cake” that I didn’t eat, except to just taste. It was obviously microwaved, but well prepared and very tasty. I know there’s really no way to mess up an enchilada, but I was very happy with it.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 3/29/24

There is nothing more difficult yet more gratifying in our society than living with sincere, active, constructive hope for the human spirit. 

Maria Popova

1. On the final stretch from Minneapolis into Chicago. Lots of snow still on the ground, but blue skies with scattered clouds. 30 deg this morning. I slept really well last night. Breakfast brought to my cabin by my long-suffering steward. Scrambled eggs, bacon, a croissant, orange juice and hot tea.

2. We travelled along the mighty Mississippi for a while after we left Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Much better scenery than Montana now, in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

3. I had a hamburger for lunch. Note to self: eat the hamburger the first day out. By the second day, it’s been under the heat lamp too long. Dried out and pretty tasteless. And right on time, all the toilets in this car are stopped up. Sigh. It’s been a virtually problem-free trip until now. We can use the facilities in the next car until we get to Chicago – 3 hours or so, unless somebody stops them up, too.

4. Weatherbug says it’s in the lower 50s in Chicago. Just what I’m used to. I’m looking forward to seeing #1 son. He promises I can take a shower before we go out to dinner.

5. According to this blog we first met as the Greisser Girls Gab 4years ago today. This was one of the perks of COVID – reconnecting with the sisters.

How about you? What made you happy today?

On Friday

It was on the Friday that they ended it all.

Of course, they didn’t do it one by one.

They weren’t brave enough.

All the stones at the one time

or no stones thrown at all.

They did it in crowds…

in crowds where you can feel safe

and lose yourself, and shout things

you would never shout on your own,

and do things you would never do

if you felt that someone was watching you.

It was a crowd in the church that did it,

and a crowd in the civil service that did it,

and a crowd in the street that did it,

and a crowd on the hill that did it.

And he said nothing.

He took the insults, the bruises,

the spit on the face,

the thongs on the back,

the curses in the ears.

He took the sight of his friends turning away,

running away.

And he said nothing.

He let them do their worst

until their worst was done,

as on Friday they ended it all…

and would have finished themselves

had he not cried, “Father, forgive them…”

And began the revolution.

From: Stages on the Way, Iona Community Wild Goose Resource Group

On Thursday

It was on the Thursday

that he became valuable.

He hadn’t anything to sell…

not since leaving his hammer and saw

three years earlier.

Needless to say,

he could knock together a set of trestles

or hang a couple of shelves at the drop of a hat,

no bother at all.

But he wasn’t into making things,

Not now.

He was into…

well…talking, I suppose,

and listening

and healing

and forgiving

and encouraging…

all the things for which there’s no pay

and the job center has no advertisements.

So his work wasn’t worth much.

Nor, indeed, was he.

For, not being well-dressed

or well-heeled or well-connected,

he wouldn’t have attracted many ticket holders

had he been put up for raffle.

But he had a novelty value…

like the elephant man or the fat lady

or the little person at the circus.

Put him on a stage and he might be interesting to look

at.

Sell him to the circus

with the promise of some tricks

and there could be a silver penny or two

or thirty in it.

It was on the Thursday

that he became valuable.

From: Stages on the Way, Iona Community Wild Goose Resource Group

Five things that made me happy today – 3/27/24

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight. 

Joan Chitttister

1. Mid 40s and raining when I got up. The rain slacked off before we had to leave for the train station. Now in Seattle it’s in the low 50s. It’s pretty cold in the station.

2. Al dropped me off at the Tacoma station and the station fellow went out to the car and carried my backpack inside.

3. They don’t have Red Caps in Tacoma, but they pulled their little people mover out and gave me a ride to the platform. Then he carried my backpack onto the train and got me settled. A Red Cap met the train in Seattle and drove me and my stuff to the waiting room.

King Street Station

4. We were all loaded and moving exactly on time. My only problem was the last step going upstairs, but I made it. I’m all settled in in my little home for the next couple of days.

5. Dinner is mixed green salad, chicken breast with mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, with mushroom sauce, and chocolate cake for dessert. With a complementary glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ll sleep well tonight.

How about you? What made you happy today?

On Wednesday

It was on the Wednesday

that they called him a wasteful person.

The place smelled like

the perfume department of a big store.

It was as if

somebody had bumped an elbow against a bottle

and sent it crashing to the floor,

setting off the most expensive stink bomb on earth.

But it happened in a house, not a shop.

And the woman who broke the bottle

was no casual afternoon shopper.

She was the poorest of the poor,

giving away the only precious thing she had.

And he sat still

while she poured the liquid all over his head…

as unnecessary as aftershave

on a full crop of hair and a bearded chin.

And those who smelled it, and those who saw it,

and those who remembered

that he was against extravagance,

called him a wasteful person.

They forgot that he also was the poorest of the poor.

And they who had much

and who had given him nothing,

objected to a pauper giving him everything.

Jealousy was in the air when a poor woman’s generosity

became an embarrassment to their tight-fistedness…

That was on the Wednesday,

when they called him a wasteful person.

From: Stages on the Way, Iona Community Wild Goose Resource Group

Five things that made me happy today – 3/26/24

We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced. 

Malala Yousafzai

1. It was in the mid 40s and clearing early this morning. The sun came out before breakfast. It got up to the mid-50s this afternoon with variable skies.

2. I spent the morning re-packing my suitcase and backpack so I’m ready to leave tomorrow morning. I’m still not TOTALLY sure I’ve got everything, but I can always buy new, if whatever I’ve left behind is necessary, Really the only things irreplaceable are my meds and my glasses, and I’ve got mental reminders for that.

3. The housekeeper came today so the house is clean and there are clean sheets on the beds. She’ll be back once while I’m gone so we’ll see whether Al can keep it decent for a week.

4. I fetched Whoppers for lunch today. Al needed to eat and leave quickly because he is having his Medicare Annual medical appointment this afternoon. I hope he’s okay out in the world by himself.

5. Greisser Girls Gab is kicking off in just a few minutes.

How about you? What made you happy today?