We rode 16 miles today. I want to say that again, in case you thought your eyes viewed the number wrong. We rode SIXTEEN miles today. On our bikes. Me and Dan. 16 miles. On bikes.
Okay. Now I can move on. I hope. I’m very tired, so maybe there won’t be much more moving this evening. We pedaled home, changed clothes, and went out for grocery shopping (plus a few other items in the same complex).
Did I mention how tired I am?
Keep in mind that Max is the size of a cat.
(And those are standard 8 1/2 by 11 pieces of paper.)
A few days ago I woke up to those chairs* in my living room. With the FREE signs taped just like that. I love them. Just not sure where I’m going to put them. (They were on the side of the road in Mayberry, along with a very large, very faded, red table umbrella.)
*I will take another shot with better perspective, so you can see how small they really are. They fit me great!
On our card altar today it appears as though we have Toni’s version of Kwan Yin. With a bit of the Virgin of Guadalupe thrown in for good measure.
“Goddess Of Compassion ~
Self-criticism is diminishing your sense of self-worth.
The Goddess Of Compassion has shown up in your reading today to ask you to be more compassionate towards yourself.
At the core of every living thing only love exists. Your personality and the role you play in this life is only transitory and ultimately, an illusion. All that you perceive to be good or bad are necessary aspects of who you are; positive and negative qualities exist in everyone and in everything.
A more accurate description of positive and negative is Yin and Yang, for in reality there is neither positive nor negative, only opposite qualities which together make us whole.
Self-criticism is diminishing your sense of self-worth and keeping you in the illusion that you need to improve in order to be worthy of success, happiness, and fulfillment. Have compassion; love and accept all of who you are, as you are, and stop striving for something that is impossible to attain. Through love your life magically transforms.”
Again, I was guided to go with this choice. Which, coming from who I know these messages are coming from, is pretty damn amazing and spot on.
Today’s Deck:
Angels, Gods, and Goddesses Oracle Cards by Toni Carmine Salerno
We found out today when and where the upcoming Celebration Of Life (funeral) will be for my friend. I don’t know if I can attend it. I couldn’t go to my sister’s, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to show up for this one. It is more probable that some combination of my children will represent us.
LateNight Goodness:
Kewl Kate came through with some news recently, she got the PayPal to work! I don’t know how, but I think she just typed in my e-mail address into their site, and I popped up. So, if anyone needs a card reading or something stitched, you can try this payment option as well.
I won’t be including a “pay this way” button yet, but I’ll rewrite the info on my Services page soon, to reflect this. Be aware that they do charge me a percentage for this convenience, though.
16 miles. Wow. Free chairs are good.
This is so funny: “Self-criticism is diminishing your sense of self-worth.” It’s funny because I’ve had the house to myself today and I haven’t been doing a damn thing. Well, that’s not true. I’ve been trying to see just how many episodes of Dead Like Me a person can watch before going crazy. Quite a few, btw.
And as I’m doing nothing, periodically something comes over me and I give myself a talking to about how I’m uselessly wasting time.
Truth is everyone, including me, deserves an off day now and then. So I should just shut the hell up with the self-criticism and enjoy the free time.
~
“… just shut the hell up with the self-criticism and enjoy the free time.”
Exactly.
J
9:38 p.m.
8-1-12
Judy, we are experiencing the same sluggishness! I finally got all my extended family out of the house and I’ve been wandering around basically accomplishing zilch. Then I get angry that I haven’t focused and wander away to watch daytime Olympic coverage. Yeesh.
Now I feel guilty, and will have to resume cleaning my room. I’m thinking explosives might get the job done faster. Anyone have a small grenade? JD?
~
He might not have any of those, but not because he doesn’t WANT one.
J
9:40 p.m.
8-1-12
Noooo, a fire hose! If you explode it, there will be bits all over the place. If you use a fire hose, you can blast it in one direction. Like, say, your neighbors place! Or over the hill, if you have one!
~
You are SO helpful!
J
9:42 p.m.
8-1-12
OMFG. 16 miles! Wow, you must be tired!
Those free chairs are adorable! (Not nearly as adorable as Max, of course!)
Oh my, the irony! When I first read “Self-criticism is diminishing your sense of self-worth.” I was a bit offended… 1. I don’t like the cards telling me what I’m doing in such a factual manner, and 2. I wasn’t doing that! And then right afterward some shit happened that did bring on a big bout of self-criticism! (Thanks Universe! Sometimes, really, all we can do is laugh!) I blame the card… it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, dammit! LOL! So, now I am reminding myself that everything happens for a reason, and practicing “Have compassion; love and accept all of who you are.” OK, working on it.
~
Yeah, that sense of humour is way scary sometimes. But true, face it with love, and it all drops in to place.
J
9:44 p.m.
8-1-12
Free Will Astrology horoscope for Virgo seconds Toni’s card, in quite an amusing way… http://freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/virgo.html .
~
HA!!!
(Thanks, Rob is really good.)
J
9:46 p.m.
8-1-12
16 miles is great. And you ended up with yogurt. Yum. Nice find in Mayberry, too.
You’ll do what’s right for you for Karen’s memorial service. You already are.
~
Thanks. The physical and the mental and the emotional lessons have been so freaking massive lately. Interesting, but sort of exhausting too.
J
9:51 p.m.
8-1-12
Funerals are dreadfully hard and I don’t blame you if you don’t go. It’s hard to maintain self-control when you are highly sensitive, too.
Sixteen miles ROCKS! Good for you.
Are you going to paint the chairs or leave them white? You could paint them in outdoor spray paint and leave them outdoors to sit on at odd hours.
I have a book on Self-Compassion. One of the ways to learn to be compassionate to yourself is to show compassion to others. There are many psychologists studying self-compassion as being necessary to our well-being. The Self-Compassion book (by Kristin Neff) is pretty good so far, but I’ve only read a few bits so far. But it was enough to compel me to buy it.
~
I hadn’t thought about leaving them outside, but once Emma takes her awesome Adirondack chairs (which we have been enjoying greatly) on to her new place (wherever that might end up being) we maybe could seal these and leave them on the deck. They would look adorable out there! And yeah, handy too.
J
9:54 p.m.
8-1-12
***THUD*** That was me hitting the floor when I read ‘sixteen miles’. WOW. You are all kinds of awesome.
I’m not a big funeral person myself, so I am sending you extra {{{HUGS}}} to help with your day.
As for the card, yep, still got work to do here. I’ve been known to call myself names out loud at times and you know that needs to stop. Not real into that drawing on the card though. The colors are nice.
~
It’s four miles to downtown, so I’ve been doing 8 now on a regular basis. But DOUBLE that just seemed so damn huge! I felt it in some odd places today, but otherwise, it was not as bad as I would have imagined.
I’m still in shock that I did it at all.
J
10:01 p.m.
8-1-12
Sixteen miles!!! You are amazing. Love the chairs. Don’t do funerals well and prefer to grieve alone so have to psych myself up and try to remember that the support is for those who have lost a family member.
Today’s card is great and an excellent reminder to love ourself as much as we love others. I’m so forgiving of others and so hard on myself. Need to work on that. : )
~
“… prefer to grieve alone so have to psych myself up ...”
That. Exactly. Thank you. For saying this.
I’ll figure it out. I hope.
J
10:10 p.m.
8-1-12
And once again, Sixteen Miles!! Wow. Nice work there, lady. Those chairs are cute, too. Isn’t it nice to find chairs that fit?
~
It is WONDERFUL when we find chairs that fit us!
J
10:12 p.m.
8-1-12
(Thanks for repeating that, again. If we keep typing it out, maybe I will start to really believe it.)
yay for 16 miles! funerals are hard, but it means so much to the family if you’re there. That’s not to say you have to go, just keep it in mind. I used to run the soundboard at our church for funerals, so have been to many of them, often for people I’d never met. you could see how much it meant to the family that people cared enough to come. But they (funerals) are hard– on more than one occasion I sat back there in the sound booth crying, even when I didn’t know the person. which is possibly why they don’t ask me to do it anymore.
so do what you need to do. You know the family well enough in this case that they will understand, whatever you decide.
~
Thank you. Your story and your opinion were very helpful (as your words so often are).
J
10:15 p.m.
8-1-12
(if that was not what you needed to hear, just ignore me)
~
(I’m only ignoring the “ignore” part of that message.)
J
10:27 p.m.
8-1-12
16 miles!!!! Whooop!!!! Awesome, girl!!
Nice chairs – you could paint them all kinds of cool ways.
~
This time I didn’t get a chance to see the map on his phone program after we got back (I was so tired I forgot to ask). But I really want to SEE what it all looked liked. You know, like those cartoon dotted lines across the neighborhood? I’m so visual that it means more when I can look at it.
J
10:18 p.m.
8-1-12
A Fee? They charged you a fee? Well that sucks. Email me. I’d like to cover the fee for my payment!
~
I’d forgotten that might happen. Jen DID warn me originally. But it fell out of my head.
J
10:21 p.m.
8-1-12
Oh and I love the chairs! Lucky you.
~
Thanks. I am still wandering the house, about every other time I walk through the living room, I sit in one. It confuses Max, but it’s nicely calming for me.
J
10:23 p.m.
8-1-12
And 16 miles? you put my couch potato butt to shame!
~
I surprised my own couch potato self elf with it!
J
10:25 p.m.
8-1-12
I’m a day late and probably a dollar behind too. I LOVE the chairs. Love, love, love them. And SIXTEEN miles, How great is that and I hope the sun was shining, not too, too hot and there was a cool breeze to speed you on your way too. Very proud of you, my friend.
~
The weather has been IDEAL!
But we’ve got a high temp/extreme heat warning kicking in for tomorrow.
J
9:23 p.m.
8-2-12