Thankful Thursday

Good morning, dear friends,

I am back with a day's delay :-(

I hope your week is running smoothly. There is nothing more beautiful than the ordinary little things. Some people find them boring. I like repetition. And order. Then when the little things happen, you don't really need the exceptional. Because the exceptional is right in front of you. Like when one morning I go to work, letting the husband and kids sleep a little longer...then when they wake up...they make croissants...frozen, but that's OK in my list. And they remember I refrane from chocolate during the Christmas fast...and they make some plain ones for me...which they bring wrapped in silver foil at work...where they are most needed and welcome.

My father-in-law stayed with us this past week. I'd be glad to have him stay on. He hasn't been with us on his own for more than two years. I've missed him so much.

Time spent with C's dad and uncle...travelling up to their ancestral village...Savoring the unspoiled Autumn countryside...Then a lazy lunch for ten...with lots of hugs and cheers! and nobody minding about plastic glasses...or making do...and enjoying the tightness of the place and the warmth of our hearts.

A friend calling...lost for advice...ha...been there, let me give you a hand...and pray for G...my dear friend. Being of service feels so right to me...

Doing business with people who appreciate us...and stay on until midnight to brainstorm...it's nice to know that people care...I want to care, to like and to love people. Loving people makes life easier, more easy going, the time flows, and nothing looks impossible.

Love and blessings for the weekend.

Thankful Thursday

 Hello dear friends,

A little bit late, I am puting up my Thankful Thursday post. 

Today I am thankful for the time I spent this afternoon with F and J in our garden, seeing the beautiful colours of the Autumn leaves, looking up at the sky, taking stock of what needs to be done in preparation for the cold months. 

 I am thankful for the girls' good marks at school, and the appreciation of their teachers. 

I am thankful to God for showing me that I need not believe what I hear about people, but I must make up my own mind.

I am thankful for laundry, and blogging, and our shop, and the little moments that make up our days. 

May God's name be blessed always.

This Sunday and the next one we have local and municipal elections. Please say a prayer for my country. 

I have put up a post that you may want to read over at The Happy Turtle. It's about school and a piece of history.

Thank you for stopping by and commenting. 

And thanks to Laurie for hosting Thankful Thursday in November. 

See you next week!

Thankful Thursday-Freedom

October 28, 1940

October 28, 1940: Italy invades Greece

The Leaders

The Women

The Art

Today, 70 years after the invasion of  Greece by Italy, followed by the Germans, 

I am thankful for

FREEDOM

 I am thankful for my late grand father and my husband's late grand father who fought in the war, in the Cavalry and the Artillery, and for my father in law who fought and was wounded in the war against the communist rebellion that followed (1945-1949).


October 28, 2010

70 years later, the government bans military parades...for financial reasons, they say...some say following orders to further attack our morale. But we march on...

...and say "OXI"~"NO!"

 "Protect our Nation, flag of the Cross"

And to you all, my dear friends, I say, protect your freedom, your Nations' freedom, your people's freedom. Believe that there is no one mighter than God, and to no one else do we owe our allegience.


With Thanks to all of you, and to Lynn for hosting and for your prayers.

Thankful Thursday-10 Things you don't know about me

Hello, dear friends,

I am glad to be posting on Thankful Thursday again.
Today
I am thankful for staying at home and being a housewife: doing the laundry and cooking, and taking care of my kids' clothes, and watching morning TV!
Today,
I am thankful for our work. We do our best to be cheerful and helpful with our customers, despite the gloom of the economic situation and the yoke of the IMF. 
I am thankful for our kids. Waiting for them for lunch, taking them in my arms, following their lives gives meaning and rythm to our lives.
I am thankful for my husband. Two people with common principles being together in life, is a God sent blessing.
I am thankful for our home. It is our shelter and refuge. Last night we used the fire place. Everyone, including our cat, joined.
I am thankful for my blogging friends.I so love our community, and each of you.
I am thankful for church, and all the transformations we have experienced (and with me, you, my Thankful Thursday friends, that have read along our story). My husband was going to be away on Saturday and Sunday. He managed to find another way to go around his trip, and he said we may go to church together on Sunday!
I am thankful for your prayers (you know who you are!). I am praying God's angels watch over you all.

Today we meet at Lynn's of Spiritually Unequal Marriage. She asks us to "Post ten things that make you uniquely you". This needs alot of thought, because I do not think I am that special, but I'll try.

1. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I like giving away smalll presents like lavender bags to our customers and I like offering them a tea or coffee or an orange juice when they visit.
2.On the other hand, my attention outside work switches off when people are rude or absorbed by their own self importance.
3.I like reading romantic books. I read one or two every year. I must tell you about them.
4.I also like magazines. Home and women's.
5. I love receiving mail. This is one reason I subscribe to some American, English and French magazines. The other reason is that it's cheaper than geting them at the newsstand.
6.Even if I don't do anything else by way of housework, I like making our bed. It feels homey and welcoming, and it gives me the feeling of well being that I need to recharge for the afternoon shift.
7.I have a weakness for marbled cake. When I was little most of my class mates were getting a nice fat slice at school. As my mom was constantly on a diet and my grand father was diabetic, I didn't get such treat. Thankfully, our best man's wife who knows this, makes one every time we visit them.
8. I didn't know it myself, but F told me today:
-Hmm! The house smells lovely. Did you stay at home, today?
-Yes, why?
-Every time we have chicken with potatoes in the oven, you have stayed at home".
 Probably true :-)
9. I blog whenever I can: from work on  a brake, from home late at night, from the dining table, right now!
10.I have a cerificate in Ballroom dancing. Fro my graduation I waltzed to Elvis' "Are you lonesome tonight".

Wow! I got to nr.10! Thank you for stoping by today and every day. I pray your heart will always be filled with gratefulness and God's joy.

P.S. I just saw that this is my 1500 post! I am very thankful for that, too!

Thankful Thursday

Trully, really, utterly thankful. Since Tuesday our family and our work has been facing a crisis unlike anything we have experienced before, that had me, the children, the in-laws, our Goddaughter and some people who proved to be real friends, on our knees. Today this issue is behind us and I am very, very thankful, and humbled. It will take us and especially C some time to recover, but I hope that God will use this occasion to teach us the lessons He wants us to learn.

In those difficult hours I thankfully managed to stay calm most of the time. I found great comfort and reassurance by reading (and occasionally singing a prayer that is meant for times of distress.

If your family or someone you love, and I know that there is a lot of Godly loving among us, needs a prayer, I wholeheartedly recommend reading this prayer. You can read it in English here where you can also find a audio file.

Below is a video that will give you a real-life idea of how it sounds. But by all means go ahead and read it in plain English remembering to insert the name of those you are praying for.



Thank You for stopping by today, and thank you Iris for hosting.

Thankful Thursday-Health update

Hello dear friends,
I know I have promised to tell you on Monday about our trip to the mountains. It is now Thursday and I haven't. I am getting there. Slowly. This had been a rather difficult time for me. I have given you a hint before about some health issues. I hoped they would go away by themselves. But they did not.

Today I got to see two doctors in a row. Both said "What took you so long?"
One said: "You must be in a lot of pain!". The other said "How did you do that?".
What can I answer?

Do you know how it is? I have all the good intensions. I know what I must do. I day dream about what I am going to do. I get stressed about what I know I have to do, but other, more pressing things come on the way and I don't.
Then one day comes pain and irritation. Things get worse but you don't have the time to look into this. But, Thank God for pain. Otherwise we would chop our body parts off and not quite notice. Now let us not go deeper into the chopping part, because the idea of having a part of my lower bottom chopped is not something I want to even think about.
So, Thank God for the strong pain killers that make my sitting a little more comfortable. It is numbing but in a comfortable way. Thank You for the bag full of drugs that give me some hope that this too will pass.
Thank God for kind, caring and prayerfully competent doctors who are giving me one week-two maximum before they put me on the table.
Thank God for you, my dear readers, bloggers, friends, who stop by this little corner, leave a comment, and say a prayer. I very much need your prayers, you know that. And I very, very much need you.
Let me also say Thank You for my husband, my life companion, who is also my brother, father and best friend, for his encouragement and strength.
Thank You for our children who put a smile on my face and give me a reason to let my higher self show and hopefully some good examples for their own lives. It would be a very lonely life without you.
I am also thankful for the time of prayer, in the evening and sometimes in the morning, too. Feeling the presence of the power that has created me and cradles me to this day and always, offers me a great moment of peace.

Please don't forget to say a prayer from the heart for my/our dearest friend, Denise and her husband (her button is on my sidebar on the left). And say 'hi' and "thank you" to Iris for coming up with Thankful Thursday, a day to count our blessings and be Thankful. God Bless.

Thankful Thursday-Dear 2010

Oh welcome 2010!

I hope you have all good things for us. Good health. Making shaping up a reality. Enthusiasm for work. Love to and from our loved ones. Patience with the others. Blossoming creativity. Perseverence in making our earthy dreams come true. Growing in Christ. And some really good times, too.

Yesterday I finished Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom.

I didn't like it at times. The carricature of the virtuous, spiritual rabbi and the brutal Christian priest was too biased, I find. But I am thankful I read on because it was a good book, a book I stayed up late to read, such satisfaction it gave me, and it has a nice message and some passages to keep for my heart's reference. Like this one that I am sharing here:

It is summer and we are sitting in his office. I ask him why he thinks he became a rabbi. 
He counts on his fingers.
"Number one, I always liked people.
"Number two, I love gentleness.
Number three, I have patience.
Number four, I love teaching.
Number five, I am determined in my faith.
Number six, it connects me to my past.
Number seven-and lastly-it allows me to fulfill the message of our tradition: to live good, to do good, and to be blessed."
I didn't hear God in there.
He smiles.
"God was there before number one".

As I read on, I even related to the term rabbi. Whenever my grandfather and I were travelling outside the parish, English people who were not used to seeing Greek Orthodox priests, would call my grandfather "rabbi". With his long white beard and his traditional long black cloack he didn't look like the other westernized Greek Orthodox priests : dark suit, white colar, short beard.When the new Archbishop of Great Britain was ordained, he'd told him a couple of times to consider changing into a more modern attire. By that time my grandfather was in his 70s, and quite a fixture. He never changed into trousers. Even when working in the garden, he would wear an old cloack and lift it up to the sides to help with movement.

Reading the book re-ignited my dream of becoming of service. There is hardly a community spirit in modern Greek society as we understand it in the States. There is a lot of snooping, which cooker did you get so that I get the same, where did you get those shoes, that sort of thing. But there could be.

I was surprised yesterday when C and I went to church. We usually go to the church in our old neighborhood on the other side of the city. The children like it, it is smaller and quieter and I am attached to it, because that is where I cried and prayed for me and my husband and our family, and God listened and felt mercy for my tears and lead us back to Him.

But yesterday I woke up late, so we rushed to the church nearest to home. It is new, big and barren and we generally like more intimate places. However, as I waited in line for the antidoron, a piece of blessed bread that is not Holy Communion but is distributed to all attendants in return for the gift of bread and wine that one is supposed to bring to church (I haven't in a long time), I heard the priest addressing everyone by their name, asking about their troubles and so on. I was quite surprised and moved.

Last night I wrote in my diary that I want to be of service, and that the thought of becoming a presbytera, litterally translated as an elder woman, which is the priest's wife, came back to my heart and mind. I don't know what God has in store for us. But I am so humbled by detecting a liking of C for the church. On Jan 5th, we went to church to get some agiasmos (Holy Water) that is traditionally blessed on the day before Epiphany and is kept for blessing the home all year round. That particular church apparently finishes later than usual, so C had to drive me to work and go back to church to wait for the end of the service and the Holy Water. He waited, and he even phoned me to let me hear a hymn that he liked.

So, there you are, dear 2010. I don't know what you will make of my heart's wish, or even if it is a good wish, or a lasting wish. But I hope that you will make the best of it! And I am very thankful for that and for you, and for my very first 2010 Thankful post.

Thankful Thursday and Heidi & me

Goodmorning , dear friends,

It's a rainy morning over here. C is driving to Athens as we speak. He will be back tomorrow. I feel so sad when he is away...let alone confused with all that needs to be done both at the shop and at home. I often wine that I have to do everything from cleaning the house to cleaning the shop to dealing with customers. Truth is, he does the techno stuff and he deals with the funny ones, so that's pretty much a big help to poor old complaining me...

We rented some DVDs last night to keep the kids' minds (and mine) busy, while he is away. After finishig his business in Athens and visiting his parents, he said he will be stopping on Saturday morning by Ikea for some Xmas shopping , namely frames for my newly aquired Heidi posters (by the great Jessie Wilcox-Smith, from Allposters). There are some things that bind me and Heidi together.

I read and watched her adventures since I was a child. When I have some spare cash again I shall look for a vintage Heidi in English with a worn, retro cover...and then I will show and tell lol! Here is what links my childhood soulmate and myself.

*Heidi and I both grew up with our somewhat distanced grand father. So did I.
*Heidi's grandpa used to wear funny clothes. So did mine, being a Greek-orthodox priest he did look wierd to anyone who a) was not Greek or Greek Orthodox and b) had never visited Greece, clad as he was in his black dresses.
*He used to teach her about nature. So did my grandfather. I stumbled upon a post about collecting eddible wild plants the other day, and I remembered how he knew the names of all plants and trees.
*Heidi went to the big city to take care of an invalid girl. I went to London and took care of my ailing grand father.
*Inspite of her nice surroundings in the big city, her heart remained in the somewhat idealised mountains. So did mine.
*And she kept loving her play pal. As I do...

Last night I discovered that the internet is down at home, so I could not post my TT post from home (where my photos reside). Here it is though a day late...Let me be thankful, then...

This week I am thankful for...

A beautiful Wednesday afternoon. We went into town en famille. We drove through the decorated town. We visited a new shop with books, CDs and electronics. I felt for the first time in many many years, like a child in Hamley's! I loved it!

My new mobile phone. I lost my mobile about a month ago and I had to use the line phone which is quite expensive. We had some bonus points from our work phone and our personal phones, so we all got new phones for free! Plus mine had a free wii thingy which will be with us in a couple of weeks. We shall have to ask Santa for the paraphernalia but I thought it was a good deal. We don't allow any electronics at home, but I admit I was the one who fell in love with virtual tennis and J with football over at the electronics cum book shop.

Growing up. This morning was fresh, but not rainy, so I walked to work. I was thinking of the difference a decade has produced for me. The year of my 30th birthday signaled my turn to searching and growing and exploring. Other religions, my potential, my hidden fears and inhibitions and misconceptions.
I am thankful for growing up and hearing at last the whisper of my own voice.

I am thankful for Christ's presence in our lives and the opportunity to enjoy a less fussy and more Christ centered Christmas season.

A special thanks to Laurie for hosting.

Thankful Thursday

Hi!
Thankful for
Lunch with our best couple friends
Good children
Nice customers
A new job in the making
My new faux-pearl necklace
The attic
Books
Free blogger templates
God's love
You
And Iris for hosting.

Happy Thankful Joyful Thanksgiving

Thankful Thursday-Life

Had you asked me at the beginning of the week, I would have written a completely different post. But since Thankful Thursday falls on a Thursday, I am going to tell you an altogether different story.

Old people here in Greece often say stoically that "we all carry our own cross". You know what that means, I think. The cross is our own burden of problems and issues that we are given to carry in this life. Have you ever thought of someone as luckier in life than you, only to find out later on, that they had been carrying a far heavier weight than yours, but they carried it with grace and faith, with charm and poise?

Life has taught me one more thing. We all need a little thorn on our side to keep us going, to spur us on. You know what I mean. That little something that even when everything seems to be going fine is keeping you from being perfectly happy? Then, when you are at ease again, you appreciate fully the simple pleasures of life, of being present at this very moment.

I am thankful for my issues and my thorns that keep me going.
I am thankful for our family and friends who love us, think of us, care about us and pray for us.
I am thankful for you, dear friends, your prayers and kind comments. You kept me going all week.

Sending love and prayers to all, and thanks to Iris for hosting. Have a beautiful weekend.

Thankful Thursday

Hello dear friends,
I am so glad to be here today to give thanks to God.
I am thankful for this little place on the world wide web that I can call my own, a place where I can come and meet friends and feel good and think good.
I am thankful for the wisdom your posts bring me.
Make sure you read this post by Denise, and re-read it if you have already. It is so good!
I am thankful for time spent with my family.
I am thankful for our children an their progress in life and school. They are the flowers of my life's garden.
I am thankful for my doctor. I went to see him today for what is likely the beginning of an asthma. We ran through a list of ailments physical and psychological, depression and phobias, that had been bugging me in the past and I am so thankful that God with His loving hand pulled me out of the abyss and into the light.
May His name be blessed till the end of times.
Let me now give you a glimpse of last Sunday's trip (of which I hope to post soon).

Aren't these like angel wings? (click to view larger)
May I also ask you to keep us in your prayer in the next few days. My in laws arrive tomorrow and will stay for a week or so. You know how hard this is on me, so please pray for God's grace, peace and wisdom in my heart and theirs.
Thank you so much for being here for me. And thank you, Iris, for hosting.
I love you all.

Thankful Thursday-Embracing change

Highly resistable at times. Highle recommended at others.
Change like the falling leaves of the season. The promises of comfort and hibernation. The expectation of a new Spring. The dream of a new Summertime.
Ever evolving, ever changing like all of God's creations.

We were watching last night a documentary about life on Earth. Imagine if all of those creatures past had resisted change. We might not be here today at all, just by refusing to follow on God's plan. Are we not God's most stubborn creature!
But in His unlimited kindness and love, God sees that we are left to our own devices until one day we come to our senses. Blessed awakenings of the human soul!
I am thankful for the changes God has  brought to my path and for the ones He is going to bring. He knows what is best for me and my family, and I (finally) trust in Him. Everything I have ever done, all the detours I have taken by my own free will, were meant to bring me where I am.
I am thankful for His bringing our family to His way. I am so saddened when I recall the blind wanderings of the past.  I am so thankful when a nice observation comes from my husband's lips when He hears a hymn he likes. I am so thankful for my children saying grace before lunch.
I am thankful for Life. A great big miracle seen everywhere we look, happening at this very moment.
I am thankful for the little everyday joys, the lows and the highs that make up our lives.
Blessed be Your name. Amen.
(With Thanks to Lynn for hosting)

Amended to add: Later tonight I surfed around a couple of my favorite creative people/blogs. I found the following at Soule Mama that I think fits very well with what I discussed above.
 Amanda writes: 

":::: I did a very sad/happy thing this week with a nearly finished Flair. It's been sitting since spring, when I had decided something just wasn't right. I still don't know what I didn't like about i, it wasn't the pattern. Maybe it's the sleeves - the length was off. Or the cotton - I really do love wool best for sweaters. Anyway, I let it sit all summer....and just last week decided it was time to move on. And so now that sweater (above), looks like this (below). [from cardi to yarn]

Moving on and letting go is scary and good all at the same time...even when we're just talking about yarn. But it does always feel very, very good. New beginnings are exciting. Now, what to make with 900 yards of Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton? Hmn...I think someone is happy with them just precisely as they are."

'night-'night!

Thankful Thursday-Nine Posts

Nine posts on the making. None published.
Nearly two weeks off posting about my every day.
Some beautiful vintage finds shipped from the States. Comfort and nostalgia.
Sharing them with my daughter. (Will show and tell...one day...)
Cooking every day of the week.
Church last Sunday. I got so desperate with homemaking. I really had no one to turn to for help. So I turned to God. I prayed to Virgin Mary to help me. Being honest, I must admit I haven't found my pace in homemaking. One of the last bastions of the signs of my depression. Looking back I believe that the advice I was given at the time to let go of the demanding tasks worked perhaps in part, allowing me some growing time, but on the other hand, as the Greek saying goes, being idle only breeds evil. Working with my hands, be it manual work, or painting by numbers, has always helped me overcome life's hurdles.
And praying. I made it a priority, even if it is 3 in the morning, to pray. Read the Paraklesis (see my sidebar). Spend time with God.
I hope your week(s) were good. I have you all in my heart.
With thanks to Lynn for hosting.

Thankful Thursday-Counting my blessings

Hello dear friends,
I have had a rather introvert week so far, so it is good to get to Thursday and remind myself of all the good things in life.
Autumn
My soft brown cardigan
Capuccino
Nice, good wishing customers
My husband
Our children
Being alive
The excitement of Greek politics
My dear bloggig friends
Lynn for hosting.
See you all next TT!

Thankful Thursday-The ordinary and the special

Hello dear friends,
Aren't you happy we are alive?Aren't you thankful?I am. Stressed.Without knowing exactlywhy. Can't get enough sleep.Miss home.Unfulfilled autumn nesting feelings. But thankful for having the opportunity to change what I don't like.
I am thankful for the shop celebration that went well.
I am thankful for all the people who honored us with their presence.
I am thankful for the company's owner who came and spoke so well of us.
I am thankful for all the love we felt and received.
I am thankful for planting chrysanthemums and pansies. I really trully love gardening.
I am thankful for wise words that resonate just when needed the most.
I am thankful for the talk D and I had this morning. She has a very intense internal life, and I don't have all the answers. But I pray that God will put the right words to my mouth and guide her thoughts and feelings.
I am thankful for the 4day brake my children will have due to the Sunday national election.
I am thankful for the attic that is getting done. We now expect the electricians and plumber to come, and we should be moving in on Saturday evening, Sunday and Monday afternoon.

I am thankful for your stopping by and saying hello, and to you for hosting and for all your wise support in Christ.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for...
Life
Blogging in the night
Watering my plants
Wet feet on the grass
Extreme Makeovers Home Edition
Customers/Friends
The Painters
The Workers
Creative people
Kindness
Good advice
Being Busy
Colors

Glory to God.
With thanks to Laurie for hosting. God bless you.

Thankful and skywatching

Hello, dear friends,
I hope you are all doing well. I missed posting my Thankful Thursday yesterday, or my Skywatch post, today! This does not meen I am not thankful or I don't have my head in the clouds!

I am thankful because my husband took me to the post-office in the {rainy} morning to send a card to Amy. Please send a card too.


I am thankful for the progress in our attic conversion. We spent all week laying tiles! Floors are done!

I am thankful for my father-in-law visiting me at the shop. We were on our own and chatted like we used to. I love him very much.

I am thankful for work. When I was suffering from depression I could not stand seeing customers entering the shop. I am thankful for honestly smiling to my customers.

I am thankful for my friend M stopping by today. She is a well read, uplifting and believing person.

As for skywatching, here is a moody sunset for you.

I hope you will all have a nice, relaxed weekend. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow. The son of one of C's cousins is getting married and the whole tribe will be there. Nice. Note to self: smile till your jaws hurt. (Thank You God for my jaws!)

Sending love!

Thankful Thursday-Kindness

Hello dear friends,
Today was a hectic day at work, demanding clear mind and swift action. And that was only half the day. In a while I must dress and go back to work for the afternoon. Sometimes I wish I could stay at home and look after my home and children. But then, the time when my children were little has passed, and I was working from morning till night. I am thankful God has granted my husband and myself a kind of work that allowes us to keep our children physically close to us. We first had them in a crib, next to our desk, then downstairs next to the storage area where we created a room for them to sleep and do their homework, and where we took a rest with them, all in one double bed at midday.

I am thankful that this morning's issues were solved withour conflict.
I am thankful for growing up and asserting myself more.
I am thankful for my husband who is travelling right now to make a delivery in another town. Please God guard him safe and help us provide for our family.
I am thankful for our loving friends, real life and blogging~I feel I no longer the need to make that distinction: I love you all dearly!

I am thankful for all the beauty and kindness you have filled Your world with.

I am thakful for beautiful books in the post, and lovely places on the web to stop by and fill my senses.

Please, dear friends, pray for this young lady I found out about today. Thank you God for your healing power in our bodies, minds and souls.

With thanks to Laurie for hosting. Have a beautiful rest of the week.

Thankful Thursday-Slow Down

I am glad to be joining Thankful Thursday again.

When Iris stopped hosting, some time ago, I stopped posting. God knows I need to stop today. There are days like this when the pressure of the big things and the small things and the little things is mounting and mounting and I have to remind myself of the simple act of breathing.

Breathing is a great form of meditation. It is fairly easy for any breathing person to do. You just stop the mind chatter and concentrate on your breath. Try it. It isn't that easy, is it? That is why Christ and the Church and Fathers provide us with some external means that encourage relaxation and connectedness.

Prayer that Jesus Himself showed us as a way of communication with the Father, means stopping physically but most importantly mentally, and taking stock of our feelings and sorrows. It implies acknowledging and sharing. It means acknowledging our limitations and delegating our issues to a force that is far bigger and wider than our minds and bodies, God Himself. Acknowledging my limitations is very humbling. I am not a kno- it-all, can-do-it-all, so-why-am I not-performing-as-I-should? That frees me from the expectations I have created in my own mind of how my day should be and how other people should be.

If time, attention span or simply tiredness is an issue, then while practicing conscious breathing, either at work, or in bed before drifting into sleep, recite: "Kyrie Eleison". A more lengthy version of this, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner" is called by monks the prayer of the mind.

Focusing on an item or an altar helps, too. Try holding on to your pendant cross. Or rest your eyes on your home altar, whether it is an icon or a cross. Then pray your short prayer. Rest, and feel the peace of God's omni-presence wash over you.

With thanks to Laurie for hosting.

In peace,

Irene/Peace

Thankful Thursday-Teachings

I thought I wouldn't blog again. Or look at this page in my life. But I have to stop by and thank you for thinking of me and stopping by to write down a kind, meaningful, reassuring word.
Although Taki the Cat's passing has left us all heartbroken, we have been taught so may lessons by him, in both his life and passing.

We are thankful for every moment of his short life, and very sorry for every moment we refused to share with him.

He tought us that humans are the most selfish and cruel beings on the planet.
He tought us patience, kindness and trust.
He tought us that we cannot, must not work outside of God's plan, and that nothing is to be taken for granted.

Not even for a moment do we regret having him at home, nor would I ever advocate that we shouldn't shelter animals in our homes for fear of being heartbroken. That is so selfish and so against God's plan for His creation! If it were, He would have placed us in a bubble, not inHis perfect Paradise, and we might as well not have parents and partners, children and friends. Not even plants would be allowed in our "perfect", sterilised world.

After all is said and done, all living beings' days "are like grass; as a flower of the field, so they flourish".

So on this Thursday, a week after Taki the Cat's passing, and although I cannot contain my tears as I type this, we are thankful to God for him and for the warmth he brought to our lives.

And I am thankful for you, my dear and loyal friends, old and new, for your kindness and support. God bless you all.

(Thankful Thursday hosted today by Laurel Wreath. Thank you Lori).

*Amended to add this from Melanie's TT post:

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Thank you Melanie*