Two things

One: I cannot seem to stop thinking about and feeling those feelings from my dream this morning, those of having met and been with my partner in life, my man. Even when I am not thinking about it, the feelings are there, in the background, ever-present. I am nervous now to sleep, for fear of no longer having the still-strong memories of being with him at last.

But then I also wonder what I need to do to go ahead and step forward in real life, so that I can make happen for real what manifested in my dream this morning…

……….

Two: I am back at the house in Houston now, about to go to sleep. Tomorrow, I am thinking I will go to Mass in the morning – though I usually prefer the evening Mass – while I am still all clean from having showered tonight. Then I can pack and lug boxes and such downstairs all fay after that, and not worry about getting dirty and sweaty while at all of that, as well as not have to keep track of the time, which tends to give me a certain level of added stress whenever I am waiting for something happening later in a day.

I am still nervous. That’s okay. I’ll go pick up the boxes from the store after Mass, and then come back and hop to it. I’m thinking I’ll start with my art stuff and my hanging clothes. Then I can just move down all the already-packed tubs and boxes of kimono, books, blankets, scarves, shirts, jackets, etc. I also will fold and pack up the laundry on my floor. That I will keep with me for the next six weeks. I think I had probably better pack my six-weeks bag first, actually. Set all of that somewhere particular, and then start to pack up all the rest. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Well, then, I have a plan that feels good for tomorrow’s goals. Mass, box-pickup, pack for the six weeks, take down to first floor all that is already boxed, start boxing art/desk stuff and hanging clothes, and breathe calmly and fully all day long. It’ll be easier to pack all the other stuff once the already-organized and -boxes stuff is out of the way. Then, Monday morning, I can go start sticking it all into the storage unit before packing all the other stuff, art and shoes and toiletries and rocks included.

God, grant me, please, the grace to handle this all effectively and beautifully and safely and lovingly tomorrow and this week. Help me to be your love in the world through this necessary shift. And, please, help this shift to be the source of my being your love more fully and more powerfully than ever, both presently and going forward throughout life.

P.S. Please give those green eyes some extra love and fulfillment tonight and this week. I hurt for their bearer and all that that one bears so heavily right now. Allow me to lift that weight and fill that individual with such love as frees – the love that You are.

In Your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2021

Is it only Tuesday??

Alas, the saga continues (as does life, most of the time!). However, things are looking better already… in a way, anyway.

I have found and reserved a storage unit just down the road from where I currently have all of my belongings. I intend to return this weekend and pack up everything into boxes and such, then move it all into the storage unit on Monday, with a bit of rollover into Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. I intend to stay elsewhere Tuesday night already. I hope my mom can help me pack and move bulky (but light) things. My aunt might also be able to help pack. We shall see after this weekend.

I have found, I believe, the right kind of hole to join for six weeks, starting on Tuesday. My gym partner has stepped up beautifully to support me with her spare bedroom in her home. We will talk tomorrow afternoon to get into details of it all.

Tomorrow morning, I must make it look like no one lives here. So, I’ll be managing shoving all of my food goods into my bedroom – ugh! But I am limited on time tomorrow, so I’ll be doing it super fast and then heading out the door. I have to go drop off something at the shop and then meet someone for lunch in the other direction at 11:30am. From there, I will be dropping off that friend on my way out of town, as I head back to be with my family for the rest of the week.

I have a major impulse to pack now. But that really doesn’t work. I need to go to bed, so I can get up and exercise in the morning, so I can get all the food stuff handled asap in the morning, then shower, then go run two errands, and then head off for lunch. (Yes, I had already forgotten about the second errand, I know. That’s why I have reminders pop up on my phone in the mornings!)

So, still loads and still not settled entirely, but I’m chugging through rather effectively so far. God, give me the strength and grace to keep it up and to continue to be your love in this life. Amen.

P.S. Happy Solstice on this shortest day of the year!

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Tea and honey(quartz)

I really hope I remember to make the tea with the protein powder before I leave in the morning… and pack my salad in the ice chest, and the ice cubes, which are actually whisky stones, which are actually honeycomb quartz… it will be the first time for me to use them. I’m still unsure as to what I am putting in the container to drink with them… maybe just water, since it likely will be hot where I will be working all daytime tomorrow.

I am in charge of wiping down just about everything before it gets put in the moving truck tomorrow. My grandmother has spent 91 years in residence of Port Arthur, Texas. Monday afternoon, she will arrive to her new home in a community in Wimberley. Talk about change… but we are thrilled for her, and she seems to be quite delighted about her decision, too.

Alas, I must sleep these four and a half hours granted to me now, before my alarm sounds in the morning. Goodnight!

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Ugh

I feel somewhat depressive tonight. I don’t feel like I did anything very valuable today, and I didn’t accomplish much that can be seen. I probably just need to go to bed already, and actually get stuff done tomorrow. I went to bed at almost three in the morning last night, so much sleep was had today. I did research and purchase an important present for someone this morning – need it for this weekend – and I went to the special night prayer service at church tonight after Mass. I also rested and movie-d today, which I energetically and emotionally needed, I think. The party last night, which followed three other events filled with people throughout the day, which started at 7am after only five hours of sleep, left me quite drained in all accounts. I need people interactions in my life, but that was a lot to manage yesterday, especially being already physically tired to start off the day.

So, today was necessary and valuable exactly as it was. By it just felt lame and unproductive. Plus, I’m about to start menstruating, which isn’t helping this feeling improve. I feel like there is an innate part of us that always knows that we are here to reproduce effectively, and it lets us know when we are not doing our jobs. For me, I end up stressed and feeling like I’m sucking at life – even when things are great – just about every menstrual period. Bizarre, I know, but real.

Anyway, I’m off to sleep. Exercise in the morning will help with the feelings, too, and I’m hoping it will kickstart my tidying up my bedroom at last. Fingers crossed!

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Grading

I have much to do tomorrow. I think it is the only day we can be on campus this week, so I must get all the paperwork stuff finished… although, now that I think about it, I see that I could take them home, if needed. However, I don’t take work home with me. Though, I suppose it isn’t exactly work anymore, when the position has technically ended, time wise… hmm…. Hahaha

For some reason, I find that whole last bit hilarious. I’m such a dope sometimes, and I love it.

Anyway, I want to get all the paper grading finished tomorrow, anyway. It’s just a decent amount, so I will need to be rather on for much of the day, I expect. I will know for sure once I’m there and can see exactly what still needs to be graded. It might be less than I am expecting, but I know it is, nonetheless, a decent amount and will take at least a couple hours of working straight. So, I can expect easily to be at school until midday, even though I’ll be going straight from the gym. I’ll be showering at the gym, and heading over calmly, but I suspect I will be st school by around 7:15am, 7:30 at the latest.

And, you know what? I’m excited about it. I actually want to do this work. God has blessed me with this work; truly he has. And I am extremely grateful. May He find me more of it for these wonderful kids, because I want to give my life to the world through them right now and stepping forward into what’s next.

In His name we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2021

Way too cold in the bathroom*

One of the greatest experiences of my life is still, on those cold nights in Japan, snuggling into my bed on the floor, the lamp on beside me, next to my book of the moment, and curling into my comforter and wool sheets (sheets, of course, brought from the US for my Ikea full-sized mattress) and fancy, cool-warm pillow (due to the memory foam and the intentionally not-wool pillowcase), after touching the tatami floor with my fingers and through my socks when rushing to the mattress, and shivering that initial full-body shiver as it begins its efforts newly to warm itself. Those moments of first relaxation, cuddled up like that in my bed, so lovingly and cozily held, those are some of my absolute favorite and most fulfilling moments of experience. It is as though, despite all the struggles and pains and aches of the day, as well as those yet to come, those warm and loving arms of my bed were there for me, ready and willing and able to hug and to hold me exactly as I needed, and whether I’d known it or not beforehand.

So, the cold and bitter winter bring back some of the best of memories.

*Which is why they sell the toilet seat stick-ons everywhere for wintertime use. And, of course, they are all different patterns on the fabrics, so they are included in the ridiculously cute nonsense known by all in Japan.

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Ce soir…

L’opéra, l’opéra, l’opéra at last. After nearly a two-year delay, Houston Grand Opera has returned to the stage officially, and we attended our first show tonight. It was lovely. Also, it was Carmen, and I love the music from Carmen. Sure, the story and lyrics are still totally typical dramatic and repetitive opera, but, goodness, that music is especially spectacular. I’m a big fan. (And I had a fan that I used during the performance, when it was a tad too warm early on. Then Carmen kept pulling out fans and using them herself. However, hers were used very much in a sultry, seductive way, and mine was merely used to cool my face and neck.)

Thank you, Georges Bizet, for this wonderful opera whose success you never got to see or know (He died only three months after its debut, and the reviews were not so great at the time.).

And thank you, God, for this opportunity in my life, and this gift to the world.

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One call (and a thousand miles*) away

19:21, I get on the phone.

Four hours, three minutes later, I hang up.

We were friends in middle school, and our lives have overlapped ever so slightly, like tiny tangents on a Venn diagram, since we parted ways for different high schools. However, those touches have proven always powerful and impactful.

This time, I didn’t wait for coincidence to bring us to the same place at the same time. I set up a phone call, both to ask a specific question and to hang out and chat. And it was well worth it. We only hung up because I kept yawning so much, and had to be up really early the next morning. Otherwise, we likely would have kept going much longer.

Thank you, God and Universe, for this so unexpected gift. This has been a wonderful blessing to end this day. I didn’t want to be alone today. And so, now, I wasn’t. Thank you.

*Siri said it is actually about 1,639 miles away by car.

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Pet me to sleep

I lie in my bed,
rubbing fingers gently up my head,

Comforting, pressing, calming…

They are putting me to sleep,

Just as they always seem to do

On the forehead of a dog.

Sometimes, I really do envy them,
Dogs…
I’ll take a back rub, belly rub, head rub,
Walk or run or roll in thr park
On any day
With the one(s) I lov
And who love me.

Perhaps all we really need on bad days

Really is a good pet

Post-a-day 2021
P.S. Happy Day One to Year Six! ❤ <3=""

Trusting

Today, I trusted my feelings, how my body and energy responded, and it was spectacular. Yes, I turned down an amazing opportunity – sailing – and opted to go to school, and get some work done. I didn’t leave until after eight pm to come home, and I had arrived to school around noon-thirty or so. But I got a tremendous amount accomplished, and it feels so freeing right now, I can hardly grasp it fully. I finished everything I had to do and wanted to do this weekend for school, and then some. I also accomplished several things I had hoped to do this past week, but hadn’t managed.

See, I had intended to go in on Monday to get some work done. But, as soon as I trusted my feeling that I didn’t want to do the sailing today, and communicated that, the easing of that allowed me to ask myself what I would like to do today. And the almost immediate response was: Go to school. So, after getting some nourishment for later and some gasoline, I headed there. My morning had been wonderful, spent with my dad (thanks to the last-minute removal of my part-time job’s shift to a coworker when I offered it last night), though even that was spontaneous when I was first considering what to do with my morning that I had free before the afternoon sailing. So, my dad and I walked and talked, and then ate and talked, and then stood around and talked some more. It was great.

I was fully ready to take on the schoolwork after that, and with joy and delight. I thoroughly enjoyed going in and getting things done… which has me thinking that I must really, truly love this work. What person loves going to work on a Saturday, loves grading nearly a hundred tests, loves creating documents and lesson plans, and loves doing it all for over seven hours on that Saturday, not getting home until close to nine pm?

And then still considers – and with delight – going back to get more done on Monday, just to stay ahead?

I am trusting that God and the Universe are helping me to see things newly in my life, and that they are preparing me for the wonderful opportunities that will continue to arise. I am trusting that my odd foot and leg pain was intentional, and that I needed not to attend the gym workouts this week, that I needed to ask for help from others, and that I needed to take a few tiny but real stands for myself.

I am trusting that I am exactly where I need to be, and that this buzzing of a feeling is exactly what it feels to be: a positive change approaching – a beautiful and powerful transformation of circumstance.

I am finally trusting.

Post-a-day 2021