What keeps you going EVERY day? Not all of us are homebound because of this virus. Some of us live like this because it’s just our lives – chronic pain, disabilities, old age… Where do you find your JOY and how do you release your stress? You are going to find these two questions very important going forward.
Our shared issue of being careful and guarding our health is something we can maintain by bringing our focus closer to home. Our bodies get used to our own environments. What we bring inside our space matters. Germs not exclusive… but what ‘influences’ (think NOUN) do we let come in that are harmful? That’s really the point to all of the distancing and cleaning.
I used to raise budgies – parakeets. They could get worked up over the environment very quickly (5 small kids in a house will make any creature crazy lol). The only way to quiet them from the shrill noise they made was to either cover them (isolate) or turn off the loudness that they were reacting to. We’d be quiet so THEY’d be quiet. I’m trying to give you an example that relates to today’s issues.
Now all this information we are bombarded with gets incredibly loud in my opinion. Finding the TRUTH in it is difficult. I don’t trust everything I hear coming at me. There was an old saying that went “trust nothing that you hear and only half of what you see.”
I don’t think something NEW cancels out what we already know. Take this frantic cleaning for instance… inside our homes, we should be maintaining our space. If we start going nuts over every little germ and wiping them out, we lower our immunity to those we already live with. When WE lower our immunity with chemicals and stress and bad diet – we will get sick. That is a life FACT. I am not saying don’t be careful. I’m saying certain things are freaking us out for no reason. That doesn’t include the new germ/virus. That just includes what is already existing. What exists is already in the MIX.
Now here’s the other thing – and please don’t misunderstand me. I will be wearing a mask because I am my ‘brothers’ keeper. It’s always been how I live my life. I am responsible for myself so I don’t endanger anyone INSIDE my space. I will wear a mask to keep you safe. I hope it will keep me safe, but keeping a mask against my own face, where it stays damp from my breath, gives germs a place to flourish and theoretically makes me sick faster. This way that germs have of growing in stale areas is being talked about quite a bit. Solution – personal space needs fresh air and sunshine. OPEN THE DOORS and let the air circulate. Again, it’s not as perfect a solution as not having to deal with this virus, but it will help.
We do have to live our lives. Some, like me and Steve, will continue to stay in our home and not go out much because it’s what we do because of his stroke. He’s miserable because he only sees himself. I can be miserable if I focus OUT too much. There is another saying I’ve always embraced that I learned many yrs ago. CALL YOUR ENERGY HOME. Stop making your focus so broad. Let’s shop local, grow what we can, help those closest to us, network in our neighborhoods and churches, and with friends. Our kids won’t suffer if they aren’t making their future lives BIG. Teach them skills. Teach them to thread a needle, sew on a button, hand-stitch a seam. Boys and girls need to know these things. Teach them to make an omelet, or cut the peel off an apple safely then eat the peels together. Grow beans in a cup and plant them in the yard. Who is gonna say anything about a bean plant – and who cares if someone does? There are just things that are small that are HAPPY things to fill your time with.
No one has more time than TODAY. If we stay mired in the news, we will waste what we have. So I ask you again – what keeps you going? What are your priorities? When you call your energy home and see your life smaller, what does it look like? What do you REALLY need? What do you need first? Second? Third? Do you have a list of TEN things? More? For those who say put God first, is He really FIRST? If you prioritize family – scrutinize that. Is your list really in order?
Relationships come to the front, especially in close quarters. I’d like to say God is first but I’m being honest. He’s only first when I decide AGAIN each day to put him first. Most of us use text or social media for contact regardless of this pandemic – my kids are spread out across the country and G still wants to live his life in Japan. I learned a couple days ago that the emoji he sends me isn’t a face with a sideways handlebar mustache. It’s a kissy face! That boy wouldn’t kiss me in person to save ANYBODY’s life! He’s so much nicer to me through a text than he ever is in person. Asperger’s makes our relationship better from a distance.
I know people think I talk too much and put too much online – but writing is a release for me. I write, I read. I knit. I strive to be as healthy as I can be and I protect my mental health. Some days I learn more about herbs, some days I focus on gardening (usually reading about it) – health has been a work in progress for a long time. It’s certainly better today than a yr ago. I listen to the Bible. Even when knitting, I stretch myself so I am practicing new things – take this sock… I usually knit them from the cuff down. This one is from the toe, UP. Perfection is something I’m learning to let go of. It’s not something I need to be. The sock is still really nice and made with love 
and there will be another chance to do it again, soon. This item only works as a pair… relationship… there are things we can plan and things we work for and things outside our control. There are also things we choose to live with… and not fix.
and there will be another chance to do it again, soon. This item only works as a pair… relationship… there are things we can plan and things we work for and things outside our control. There are also things we choose to live with… and not fix.One last thing I’ve noticed about the information coming at us from media sources – if you’ve read this far I think you will understand this last observation… James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. That whole chapter in James as context is a great place to both begin and end.
Green Jean Granny 