I am grateful for a few goofy things today!

I am grateful for finding the old show I Dream of Jeannie on dvd for not much at a local home improvement store.
I am grateful for the comedy channel on I Heart Radio.
I am grateful for the work of writers like P. G. Wodehouse, James Thurber, Leslie Charteris, and Neil Simon, among others.
I am grateful for Gilligan’s Island, for both the antics that make me smile and the thread of banding together despite differences that had a message under the madcap gags.
I am grateful for some of the wonderful old BBC comedy shows like Bless Me, Father, Good Neighbors, A Fine Romance, As Time Goes By, To The Manor Born, and The Irish R.M.
And I am grateful for all those wonderful comedic actors who have put the energy of laughter into the world as their gift.

Yes, there is a theme. I am grateful for the gift of Laughter and its healing power in our hearts and bodies!

Some time ago, I decided that I needed to add Laughter more intentionally to my healing journey, a la Norman Cousins. I started making it a point to spend at least half an hour each day watching, listening to, or reading something that makes me laugh. Often, I watch a Jeannie episode over lunch.

I find that I look forward to my laughter sessions and sometimes consider them a reward for what I have done that day. I think they are gradually helping!

And hey, laughter is good medicine — even Solomon said so in Proverbs way back when! “A merry heart does good like a medicine!”

And did you know that the muscles around the mouth somehow help the stomach meridian, as I recall? (I think that was the right meridian. Maybe an acupuncturist can clarify!)

I am always open to new sources for laughter therapy. What are your favorites? What makes your mouth split wide or gives you a belly laugh? What gives you the gift of laughter?

How lovely, Ose. I can picture your walk.

I have wondered at times if perhaps God is actually a bit ADD, too. Everything is constantly changing, not done exactly the same way twice. Even each moment that passes is forever different from any that came before or will come.

Funny how our world holds up conformity as a good thing but we tend to marvel most at things that are special and not the same.

We will gleefully twist a kaleidoscope in the sun to watch the ever changing patterns of beauty, or spend hours in awe over the myriad wonders of the natural world, but no one picks up a notebook and says, “Wouldja just LOOK at that?? So identical to every other notebook!”

Labs are just such sweethearts! This one is much calmer than our last one. She is energetic and goofy, but she has a very calming energy, too.

Wilbur is fine, thank you for asking. He is snuggled down in front of the pellet stove as usual. We need to test his sugar with a glucometer then call the vet. They wanted us to bring him back in to test, but he gets so stressed by vet trips (I think it is because we refuse to let him drive) that it could affect the reading. So we shall test here, and if it is still high take him back to assess for diabetes. It will be much easier to distract him with a bribe while he is already mellow so one of us can stab his ear for the test than if we take him back so soon.

I have loved Great Danes ever since one knocked me flat at age three. I was a weird kid. No tears or fear, just happy the giant dog liked me!

Our one non-black dog is the one in my icon, but even he has a black muzzle and some black hair mixed in.

Did you know there is a word called Catalepsy? It is aptly named because it is basically a description of how the body is when it is at rest like a sleeping cat. ????????????????????????

Thank you, Pilgrim!

I believe the I-am-everyone approach is Jungian? I remember a pastoral counselor friend of mine mentioning that to me years ago when we were discussing dreams and their meanings. Fascinating stuff. Hmmm. I wonder how that would apply to dreams like those of OT Joseph and NT Joseph? Ah, well, those were direct messages from God, and Carl Jung wasn’t around then. ????

We are still inching towards being ready to list. One hiccup is that I have had a very strong urging not to set up with a realtor here, only on the other end. This was strong enough that I am heeding it. I have NO idea what God is up to with that wrinkle, but it was too clear to ignore. When I questioned recently if this was still the case, I was answered with a dream that clearly said, “Pack.” As it mirrored the inner feeling I already was becoming aware of, I’m packing, I’m packing!

I feel a bit like Noah must have felt, only on a lesser scale, in being nudged to prepare for something without any clear idea of how or when. “An Ark. Really, God? Okay, sure thing! Um, I have a question. What’s an Ark? Oh. So that’s an Ark. Why do I need an Ark? To protect from lots of rain. Okay. Um, what’s rain exactly?”

Thank you, dear Grateful, for your encouragement. I think perhaps we may all have blind spots when looking at our own healing, that perhaps we have a tendency not to see our own beauty in handling it, our own navigating. I know I do.

That is part of why souls like those in here are so essential in our lives! We can mirror back to each other the beauty and positive qualities we can sometimes fail to see in ourselves. When we can let that sink in as real and good and true, then we are encouraged to see ourselves with more compassion. And that is a very very good thing. ❤️

Thank you, Manda. I think it was a processing day. I welcome the new wrinkle that has emerged.

Have you read The Untethered Soul yet? In it, Michael Singer talks about how we each have “thorns.” He says that we can either spend our lives trying to arrange everything so no one touches our thorns, or we can let the thorns emerge and become free of them.

Yesterday, I got the distinct feeling of a thorn emerging, like a splinter that is finally ready to come out. It is a pretty amazing feeling, actually! It is funny, too, because this is a pain I never knew I even had, it was just buried. What a grace to have it come out!

So, yes, the day was as you wished for me…only a different expression of it. ????

You remind me of the work of an artist ( I want to say John Sloan??) who often includes his dogs in his paintings. He has one of an older gentleman on a porch that sounds like the vingnette you describe. So sweet.

Is your black dog a Lab, or something else? I love black animals, and three of our four animals, aside from chickens, are black. I was so surprised to find that many Great Danes get put down or wind up in rescue because breeders cannot get people to take black ones. It made me want to adopt them all!

Here is a picture of two of them.