I am blessed with more than one role model for contentment, each in their own way. Each one is an honest soul, so perhaps their deepest lesson is that contentment and peace are attained only through practice.

Thus even their struggles are submitted again to the practices they have used all these years, a wonderful reminder than life and the attainment of such virtues as contentment and peace are part of a pathway, a journey, rather than being a now-I’m-done destination. This helps me be more forgiving of struggles, more patient with the process, and thus more content along the way. Though I am nowhere near their level yet, knowing I am on the right path with such role models to follow is a comfort.

Welcome, THenry! I am freezing here in the midwest. Such a cold snap!

We had sofa and soup last night as well. We have been spending much of our time in the vicinity of the pellet stove.

I am sorry for your loss of Pepper. You will find understanding here, as many of us are animal lovers. Manda and I both lost dear old four footed friends the latter part of this past year, a couple months apart, her Violet and my Lily. It is hard. One of our dogs loved Lily more than I realized and grieved deeply, only recently coming back to being her old self though we lost Lily the end of August.

I hope you enjoy this sacred space. There are such wonderful people here!

Oh, how vast and lovely is that sky!

Dates? Cool! Some lucky person is about to find the Aladdin’s cave treasure of a lifetime and doesn’t even realize it yet!

Something must be in the air — I had some very active Spleen points last Friday myself. I am so thankful for acupuncture that it views and treats us as a whole rather than as fragments and symptoms.

It is still drastically cold here, too. The thirties coming next week will seem like a heat wave!

That sounds magical, Ursula! I am so glad Sunny is settling in well. Rescuing an animal is always very dear to my heart. They are so grateful and give so much more than we do, I think. Such unconditional love!

As for me, I am better than I was. A number of things requiring acceptance and a period of adjustment have been coming my way over the past couple months, and I am tired but grateful.

Our plans for my husband to make great headway on the house while he was not working over the holidays did not go as planned, though some things are getting done. Yesterday, he replaced a storm door that needed it and was pleased with the result. It has been so cold here with single digits and minus temps at times that we have limited outside time a good bit. The storm door could be replaced from inside the deck greenhouse/mudroom, so we had only to wait for a sunny enough day for warmth. With such cold weather and snow, I think maybe we are caught in Narnia under the White Witch!

I am not familiar with St. Anthony. Is he the one who helps you find lost things? I was baptized Catholic at age one to please my very Catholic Oma, but I was not raised Catholic. Oddly enough, though, I first met God through learning the Our Father and Hail Mary prayers in my father’s first communion book, which he ran acrosss and no longer wanted. So while I do not know the saints well, I am partial to Mother Mary and St. Joseph as images of the ideal loving parents. I talk to St. Joseph especially about my needs surrounding the move, and I feel heard.

Not far from us is the Sorrowful Mother Shrine. I walked through it one fall. There are paths with little grottoes (I think that is the right term) that you can spend time in, some even with seats. A beautiful place.

How are you doing since your treatment?

Many blessings for your 2018!

Thank you, Diane. Your encouragement means so much because I know you do know how it feels. I have not yet gotten Manda’s facility with changing or accepting pain, and I find myself easily discouraged by yet another bout. I find that the everyday constant level of pain is much easier for me to handle with meditation, gratitude, etc. It is the sudden bouts of surge pain that stop life in its tracks and are harder to cope with effectively. I am hoping the hypnotherapy will be able to rewire the damaged areas or maby neurofeedback. Been finding positive info on both!

My husband is a wizard troubleshooter, too, and he has an engineer brain. He, too, struggles with his incredible ability to see the negative so he can “fix” it, but he is learning that he can train the same skills to see what is positive that he uses to pinpoint the negative. Troubleshooting ability is like a telescope — what you focus it on is entirely up to the person holding the telescope! ????

It is also a brain adaptation for survival of the species since he who saw the tiger FIRST tended to live long enough to pass on the gene pool! That is part of why it is so hard to overcome.

Oh, Bree, I am sorry. That must have been so hard.

Check out the work of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. He works with how trauma in various forms causes the brain to stop functioning normally. It might be a horrific wreck, like you had, or ongoing painful illness, developmental trauma causing CPTSD, life in a war zone, etc. One of the things I know I saw mentioned was TBI. I am about to buy his book called, The Body Keeps The Score.

I don’t know if you are near New Mexico, but there is also a scalp acupuncturist doctor there who can also help TBI and other conditions.

Wishing you a full recovery!