Tag: love

Alone with the dog

This weekend, the dog and I are hanging out together. I miss my man, of course, but I’m also okay. More so than usual, even. The dog, however, is a different story. She rushed out to look for my man’s car when I got home, and was clearly stumped when she couldn’t find it. Ever since then, she has been pacing or lying down right by the back door, quite obviously waiting for him to get here. She even went off and on breathing heavily through both doors that he normally would use to come inside… it’s her odd way of showing impatience while also trying to smell if someone is on the other side of the door.

She misses him. 😛

It’s funny how she always knows when he’s getting ready to leave town. She picks up on the shift of packing and putting things in the car, even if she isn’t out by the car to see any of the loading up happening. As son as she notices he’ll be leaving, she keeps a wary eye on the car, and often tries to get inside of it the first time one of the back doors is opened at all. I imagine this morning was no different. She likely knew he was leaving, especially since he doesn’t normally go anywhere in the middle of the morning like today, and he certainly was scrambling to pack his clothes and all, likely strewn about in various places in the house (since he hasn’t fully unpacked yet from the previous two trips that just happened, and laundry was only just begun). But, whether she knew or not, it is definitely clear that she knows he’s not here and that she wants him back here. 😛

Good dog.

Dear God, please, keep us and my man safe. Help him to have a wonderful and wholesome and safe weekend this weekend. Thank you for this life. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. Did you know that today was Friday, the thirteenth of October? I totally missed it. 😛

Post-a-day 2023

Just be

Tonight, instead of going straight to bed, I watched a terrible show with great dancing and waited for my man to finish exercising. After I shower in the evening, I don’t like touching anything dirty, so I purposely waited so that I could hug him when he arrived.

What was really awesome, though, was that he sat down with me to watch this terrible show with good dancing, and we just got to lie there together, half snuggling, half just lying on top of each other. It was lovely just being physically against one another, especially after having been apart for so long.

Thank you, God, for this man and his love. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

My man

My man is home, and I am beyond grateful. I am relieved, excited, delighted, and filled with joy. And yet it also feels completely normal. I am not bouncing off the ceiling or anything. But, when he first hugged me, held me, I just started to cry – not only was it that my man was home, but also that I have a man who loves me and whom I love… as he said to me this morning when we were just sitting together as he held me, he loves me “immensely”. And I him.

And I am so grateful for it.

Thank you, God, for this man and this love that we have been blessed to share with and through you. Help us always to honor you with our relationship, and thereby honor one another always. Help us to be the best we can be and to pursue and fulfill your will. Thank you for the many blessings we have and share. Thank you for your love. Help me gently, please, to release my fears and to trust in you. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Oh, my head…

It hurts. And it has been hurting since late this morning. It got loads worse tonight, though. It could be tied to menstruation and it could be tied to not enough food or water for the day. Frankly, I think it’s all three, the food and sleep especially. So, I shall sleep now… in hour and a half increments, because of the menstruation… and see how it goes.

God, grant me restful and healing sleep tonight especially, please. Bring my man and the dog and all their luggage stuff home safely tonight while I sleep. Heal my grandma and my brothers’ dad, please. Heal us all. Help us to pursue and to fulfill your will always and in all ways. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Did we grow up?

My cousin is staying with me the next few nights. My alarm is set for just after 4am tomorrow. I usually aim to go to bed no later than 9pm on such nights. Yet, she and I stayed up until after one o’clock just talking and hanging out together. Frankly, the disregard for a need to sleep and for the responsibility of sleeping enough reminds me of any sleepover we had as kids. The only thing missing was being yelled at by my aunt for being too loud and up so late. It all calls to kind the question of, “Did we actually grow up? Or are we still totally kids?” At least when we’re together, it seems to be the latter idea that is more true… 😛

And I am grateful for that. Though tomorrow might be more than a little tough at school. (See? School. Totally still a kid. 😛 )

God, thank you for this friendship and family tie. Thank you for the time we now get to spend together. Help us both to sleep well tonight and the next few nights, that we be energized during the waking hours and ready and able to take on the days and to pursue and fulfill your will. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

An abundance of bishops

This morning, the auxiliary bishop led Mass in a special celebration of and for police and all law enforcement who wear blue (like border protection, etc.) at the Blue Mass. It was an unexpected surprise for me, the bishop, not the Blue Mass. It was all really cool.

Tonight, I attended a donor event (not as a financial donor, but a time donor, an employee), and guess who also was there. The auxiliary bishop! A fun and entirely unexpected surprise, indeed.

When I sent the second round of photos to my mom and man, to let them notice his presence at both events in my day today, my mom replied with photos of her own from dinner, though having not yet figured out that the bishop had been in the photos I’d sent. In her photos, I am reminded that she was at a celebration for a family member, and I see that she, too, was at a dinner attended by another local bishop… but she had dinner at the same table as that bishop. Swanky and fun and the same time.

So, in a way, today, we had an abundance of bishops in our immediate lives. How fun!

Thank you, God, for the love and offerings of your devoted servants and family who so clearly love your children and devote themselves to sharing your love and your word in all that they do and in all that they are and in all that they represent and for which they stand. Thank you for the priesthood and those who choose it so lovingly and freely. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

P.S. Have you seen Mark Wahlberg in Father Stu, yet?? If not, definitely go watch it! 🙂

Prayer

Some nights, when I’m getting ready for bed, after I’ve already prayed the rosary with Mark Wahlberg, I listen to a chanting-sung version by a German-born, Ecuadorian-raised sibling-group called “Harpa Dei”. Their prayer-song-chant is called “Rosary of the Nations”. It is sung with what I call a Latin base, and accents in Hebrew, English, Spanish, German, and French, with each decade having a different focus language. It is lovely and it is calming. Every night I play it before bed, I go to bed calm and feeling easy and somewhat light. Perhaps it releases the yoke, somehow…

Whatever the case, it is lovely. I actually donated to have the real version of it – high quality audio for the win – instead of the YouTube one, but here is the YouTube one, in case you’d like to give it a listen. I love it and I love how it improves my life each night.

Thank you, God, for sharing these prayers and this version with me. Please, bless Harpa Dei for these gifts they share so wonderfully with the world. Thank you for the love. Please, heal my grandma and my brothers’ dad. Thank you for this life and all of its love and opportunity. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. If you would like to learn more about the group and consider purchasing any of their albums, via donation, click here to see their website.

Post-a-day 2023

Breathing room

My man got real with me today about my current stress levels. I have been making an effort to see my grandma, who recently moved to town and is struggling with her physical body a lot at present, most days since she moved to town. He pointed out that I have been living as though my grandma were going to die within the next month… and that it is incapacitating me.

You see, I haven’t been able to get almost anything done at home. There is loads of tidying that I actually want to do, but I haven’t been able to do any of it. And I haven’t even been getting enough sleep at night as it is. I have so much work to do right now, that that, combined with visiting my grandma so often, has left me with no available time and still getting to bed later than I need to be getting to bed each night. What’s more, living on a lack of sleep means that everything with work takes longer and is a lot harder for me. So, basically, I’ve felt like I’ve been drowning for a few weeks now, and it really sucks. I normally get loads done at home whenever he’s out of town, and it currently feels worse than ever at home, though he’s been out of town for two weeks.

And I think he’s right. I can still love my grandma and not drain myself entirely. Even going every other day would be better for me and my physical body, as well as my mental state.

Plus, I need to honor not only my bedtime but my ‘be-home’ time, the time each day I need to be home in order to settle down and get ready for bed on time. I learned years ago that I cannot just slide into bed as soon as I get home. On a super fast night, it still takes me half an hour, which is usually rather stressful having to hurry everything along. A typical night makes my bedtime routine an hour to an hour and a half. If I’ve had a tough day, add an extra half hour of wind-down time. So, when my family thinks it’s no big deal for me to be hanging out for dinner at a quarter to seven, I need to speak up and leave, so I can actually be home by seven. Otherwise, I’m already getting to bed late. Just like tonight. I was just stopping by for 15 minutes. Over an hour later, after having been roped into helping with something, I was finally leaving, stressed and knowing I’d be starting the week off lacking sleep.

However, I did tell my grandma that I wouldn’t be back until Tuesday, the day after tomorrow, which was good for me. And she also seemed totally okay with it. I hope she is. As my mom mentioned today, my grandma hasn’t had so much company and so much visit time in who knows how long. She hasn’t had anything like it the past year and a half. And, even when she and my Opa still lived in their house the past decade or so, they didn’t typically have visits more than once a week from family or friends.

I just hope she will heal and will get to enjoy living here.

God, help us all to pursue and to fulfill your will. Heal my grandma, please. Heal, also, my brothers’ dad, please. Lots of healing and love over here would be awesome, of course. Help us all to be filled with your love and your grace. Thank you for this life. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Only at rodeo

Only at a rodeo meeting can I casually mention that I discovered that Willie Nelson is 90 years old now, and have someone respond, and absolutely unpretentiously, “Oh, yeah… He is. He’s a long-time personal friend of mine, you know.”

These people. What a beautiful mix we all are. I love it and I am grateful to be part of it.

God, please, continue to bless us all at the rodeo. Thank you for the blessings you have granted us thus far. Thank you for the love and the learning and the countless opportunities to make a positive difference for others and to share your love with the world around us. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023