From the left corner of my brain

It’s time for Peeved and Pleased, Part II:

Currently Peeved by:

1. My Palm E2

 a)Perhaps it was the fact that I couldn’t wait for the stupid thing to fully charge, but I had so many problems with the device, I wound up taking back to the store the next day and got a replacement. The replacement model worked better, but I still had a lot of problems with the software.

 b) The customer service people at Staples are making the peeved list. I wound up returning my Palm (the second one) and they did not make it the most pleasurable experience.  They were rude and acted like by asking them for a refund (within the allowed time frame noted on the receipt) that I had asked them to do something really difficult. After telling my the return was impossible, they did it anyway. I left frustrated, but relieved to be done with the whole thing.

Currently Pleased by:

1. Apple Ipod Touch

I now have several things I use everyday all together: Internet, calendar, and my ipod. I might be addicted. 

2. My awesome ninja house cleaning skills

Although I have been sick, I have managed to keep the house clean for two weeks straight!! I am very happy with myself.

3. Our Church!

I love going on Sundays. I’m growing and changing, expanding on the inside. It’s exciting! If you live in the area, feel free to drop in one Sunday. Come slip into the back row and check it out.

4. Medication with Codeine

I’ve had a bug for the past weeks I could not shake. I went to the doctor on Monday and get some antibiotics. By Friday I had finished the medicine and was getting sicker. Back to the Doctor I went. He appeared to be bumfuzzled the previous prescription did not work and appeared slightly offended that I managed to get sicker. He gave me new pills and cough medicine with codeine. Yea for modern medicine! It makes me a little loopy though. Earlier today,  I went out to the car to get something. 15 minutes later, Jeremy came into the house informed me I left the car door wide open with the keys laying on the chair.  Yep, gotta love that codeine!

 I love overcast and rainy Mondays. It’s like nature agrees- too bad the weekend is over.

I just bought a Palm E2  as seen below:

When I say I just bought it, I mean, I was in the store less than an hour ago, and currently waiting at home for it to charge. The instructions say to allow a full three hours of charging before hitting the power button.

I don’t think I will manage to wait that long. One little button. It is crying out for me to push it and play with my newest toy and get my life organized.  I accidentally tapped the screen and it turned on all by itself.  

Yep, patience is my middle name.

A few days ago, I wrote a blog recapping what I had learned during church. I made the commitment to take the ash/hurt off in my life and continuing to do so on a daily basis. I thought, “This is going to be great.”

That was before I actually had to do it – and we are talking in less than 48 hours.   

Perhaps when I talk about this with clients at work, it is the act of letting go on a regular basis that is most therapeutic.

A few more thoughts from Church today:

Jeremiah 8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”

It was a rhetorical question. The balm of Gilead was known throughout biblical times to be a healing agent. It would remove poison and heal the wound without scarring. The balm was made from a tree that only grew in Gilead ( Modern day Jordan- the rocky portion of land east of the Jordan river). The name Gilead means “Raw or rugged”. From the rawest places comes the best healing.

A therapist’s dream sermon.

I often tell clients during a session, “Sometimes the most therapeutic thing you can do is come to your time here and put it down. You carry it around all week, every day it affects you. Sometimes people find comfort in the fact that they can come here, and put it down for an hour. For one hour, you don’t have to deal with it alone. Or, you can ignore it. For one hour, this is a safe place where you are allowed to focus on something else. When you leave, you go back to your life and deal with it again for the week.”

 Today in church, Pastor Steve talked about getting off your ash. He talked about if you don’t remove the ash at the bottom of the fire, it builds up and eventually leaves no room for the fire. It goes out. He talked about how we let the ash from our lives build up- hurt, disappointment, lost dreams,  and lost hopes.  Eventually we are covered in ash.

During ministry time, I thought of the statement I say so often to clients. I though of my relationship with God. Do I do the same thing? I come to service every week, raise my hands and go into worship for my most intimate time with Him. When I am there, I present myself wholly and let Him take everything. But when worship is over, I pick everything up and take it back with me for the week. Why do I do that? It has been an unconscious move. It is ash- no longer useful. It really is okay for me to let it go. God is a big boy, He can probably handle my ash.

For me, this has been such a relief. Sometimes I feel like we walk around as if we have double sided tape on us and we carry around yesterday. I’ll bet we look rather silly. What a relief to know that I can be free to walk around in today, and tomorrow know that I can let today go.

You can download the podcast of the sermon from this morning here.

Sorry for the lack of blogs- to say that life has been crazy lately would be an understatement. What have I been up to you ask? Well…….

-Working every weekend (blah)

-Redecorating the office (and somehow managing to tear up the rest of the house in the process)

-Helping out at the church as we moved into a new building

-Made about 6 new friends through great events at our church

-Had a weekend 4 days of food poisoning

-Finished construction of a new playroom at work

-Had job duties change at work

-Job duties changed again. this time for the better.

-Celebrated birthdays and weddings- the good times in life

-Fighting off the sudden urge to spring clean the entire house- including the attic

-Feeling an overwhelming urgency to put more into our ministry at the church and wondering how on earth I am going to do it.

So there you have it. Not anything big or overly important, just stuff to make the day fly by.  I actually took a few days off work to get a little rest, but got food poising (or the flu) instead. Not sure which, it did not matter. I was sure I was going to die.

Life is looking as though it may start to calm down.  Actually, I can’t lie. I just scoffed, just now, as I wrote that. I don’t think life will ever be quite again. Not that I am complaining – at all. When my husband and I joined our church back in August, we intuitively knew that we would become busy with church  and social commitments. We are thrilled. Both of our families do not live in the city, so to have a such a great community is wonderful. However I am a homebody. If I could have a week where I did not have to leave my house, I probably would not. Social interactions wear me out, and solitude is how I refresh.

All that to say, life is busy, we love it, and I will start blogging again soon.