Affirmations To Instill Positive Values In Your Life

While recovering from a gum infection and then oral surgery, spring marched right into every-one's life without me. But I was not absent from you hearts and your prayers. Your emails and phone calls witness to that fact. And I am so grateful!

I could not wait to get out into the yard to take pictures of the first blooms. I wanted to share the beauty I saw from my windows. But, until today, all I could do was recover and watch from afar. I was in what we who are chronically ill refer to as the dreaded "down time."

Down time is when we are suffering with an illness and our chronic fatigue kicks in. It is almost impossible to do anything other than what is required to live. You know like breathing, eating, going to the bath room. As much as you might want to visit us, and sometimes we want to see you more than you want to visit, it is not a time for company. It is a time for rest and rejuvenation.

Down time can be hard on friends and family. It is impossible for anyone who is not suffering with a chronic illness to understand how important it is to use down time wisely. It means that the person suffering will miss family functions and may have to miss scheduled social affairs. It means that you will not be able to socialize on the phone or the computer. It is self induced isolation. It may be the difference between a short recovery period and not recovering at all.

Those of us who have been ill for a number of years all ready know that during down time, we are really unable to form a thought worthy of conversation. We should be quite and we need to be still. We realize that a lot of feeling are hurt during down time. What the outside love one witness is raw unbound nerves. The words come out cold and uncaring. They are words that are better left unsaid. So when your chronically ill friend or love one says that they will have to bow out of an engagement, count it as a blessing. Then go and enjoy your event.

When they are up again, they will contact you. We always do. We love you!

OK, enough of catching up. Lingering too long on some-one's illness can certainly bring illness to you. One blog that teaches the "Law of Attraction" in every day terms and situations is Carol King at "Law of Attraction Help and "Missing Ingredient Coaching."

Coach Carol's "Missing Ingredient Coaching" site offer individual in depth personalized programs to succeed in attracting your life desires to you. And that includes good health. I have promised to be a better student. The insightful knowledge that Coach Carole offer is priceless.

I am so excited about this "Values Video." As I recovered form my surgery, I formed it in my mind. I could not wait to share the finished product with you. Spring is the perfect time to reinforce your positive values. What better tools than springs blossoms to help demonstrate them.

A special THANK YOU to Carl T at Healing Music Emporium for composing and offering the free mp3 of "In the Sunset." I am sure you will agree that the music is perfect for this video.

Carl offers free music with each post. So, please visit Healing Music Emporium and thank him for this wonderful music.

PLEASE TURN OFF THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE BEFORE STARTING THE VIDEO!

For Everything There Is a Season

Last summer in 98 degree temperatures this yellow Canna flourished.

This morning in 37 degree temperatures, this Forsythia flourished.

Nature does remind us that for everything there is a season. Today's Affirmation; I am grateful for every experience in my life.

Living

AWARD for participation

dedication and affection to
TODAY'S FLOWERS

It is hard not to smile when you look out your window and see this pink verbena being visited by a beautiful Swallowtail butterfly.


The white flowers are mums that returned from previous years. The verbena are teturns aswell.


On this bright summer day it is not hard to be grateful for just being alive. And, deeply and profoundly accepting yourself-just the way you are.


Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling. With the mistaken belief that we cannot bear the pain. But we have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain. Kahlil Gibran

Together, the blogging community is feeding the hungry and funding mammograms. FREE! No money required. We CLICK through to the Breast Cancer site and the Hungry site. That is it. Just click the BLUE and PINK buttons to the right of this blog post. You have done your part. Thank you for caring!

Today's Flowers #14 What Do They Have To Do With Your Chronic Illness?

Visit Today's Flowers Community and view nature at its best, while opening up a whole new world of friends. There are two hobbies that the chronically ill seem to venture toward. They are photography and flower gardning. This community combines both. So you are very likely to find people, with whom, you have something in common.

This is our first offering to the Today's Flowers community. I love this beautiful plant because it was given to me by an elderly neighbor. It is the bloom of a Hosta plant. I have an ever increasing variety of the texture-rich leafy green Hosta plants. But, I had never seen one with blooms this big. When I saw her's, I just had to have one.

It was the middle of summer when I saw her beautiful Hosta garden. It was full and lush. Too pretty and too late in the season to be disturbed. So, she promised, if I came over in early spring of the next year, she would give me one. Well, it was worth the wait. She gave me several rhizomes. If you know Hostas, you know that simply cutting the rhizomes into smaller pices and planting thoes rhizomes in the spring, gives you a whole new flower bed. That is just what happened. As you can see, theye were beautiful.

Sometimes when we see seemingly health people going on with their lives, we want what they have-a healthy body and a productive life. Like my neighbors healthy and productive Hosta bed. However, it is not our time, yet. We must first rejuvinate our mind and then our body will follow.

If we are willing to eat the proper foods, go to rehabilitation therpy, take our medication correctly, perform meditation techniques and/or pray, etc... In short, delegently do what you know will help you to get to a fuller life. Instead of wanting and waiting, you will have YOUR own healthy and productive life.

Like I made up my mind that I wanted one of those beautiful Hosta plants, you must make up your mind what you want concerning your health.

Chronically Ill and Needing A Stress Release, Bag or Key Hole Gardening Maybe Your Answer

It is the first week of August! With the publication of my Spring video, I had stated that with the onset of each season, I would share my yard. Suffering with a chronic illness, the heat can be just as dangerous to venture out in, as the cold. This week you don't have to. You can enjoy the beauty of the outside right from the (sort of) comfort of your computer chair.

Oddly enough, gardening is one of the few outlets that those of us in chronic pain still enjoy. Gardening does not require world shaping decisions, life threatening concentration, or even great coordination. If you plant something in one area and it does not grow well, move it. If you forget where you put your gardening tools, use a kitchen knife or screwdriver instead. When weeding or watering, If your coordination is less than desirable, keep your cane with you and use it to lean on.

Now, I cannot say that I have dug one (1) hole in my yard. I am fortunate enough to have help. But I do, when my health allows, keep the weeds pulled out and the plants watered. It is my version of exercise. It is definately my way to relieve stress.

While viewing the video and you notice the weeds, look over them and assume my health did not allow it. Constantly escalating prices have created a desire to have my own vegetable garden next year. I found just the help for all of us. They are called Bag Gardens and Key Hole Gardens. Both gardens require full sun. Never the less, they require very little space, very little strength to build, and their up keep is minimal.

Key Hole Gardens , so named because when you look down at it from the top, it resembles a key hole, were originally created by HIV patients in Africa. These gardens allowed the patient to grow their own nutritional food. Thus, staying healthier and living longer.

The opening allows the person working the garden to reach it from all sides. As a result of the high rate of HIV deaths most of the gardens in Africa are built and taken care of by children or the elderly. The Key hole garden can be as tall or as short as you desire.
CLICK to view the video instructing the construction of the Key Hole garden.

The Bag Garden can even be purchased and constructed at your own speed. These bags are now sold as starter kits for school children. However, in Africa and cost conscious families around the world, the bags is much larger.

Some cost conscious gardeners are creating multiple bag gardens containing a variety of fruit and vegetables.

CLICK to view instructional video.

If each gardener would make one of these gardens, we could not only feed our family, we could help those less fortunate who do not have a place to put a garden.

Just out of curiosity, I called our local Food Bank. I asked if they took fresh fruit and vegetables from local gardeners. She said "Yes! We do it all the time. The need is so great that the fresh vegetables and fruit go quickly". She also stated that they gave receipts for the gardener to receive tax credit from the IRS.

So, here is my challenge to my fellow gardeners or soon to be gardeners;

Be proactive about your own nutrition. At this moment, we have no idea where our fresh food is from

Plant enough seeds or seedlings to support your family

Share any excess harvest with your local Food Bank.

Pass this information on to someone you know can benefit from it

Ask help from someone who does not have a place for a garden. Ask if they would like to share with building, caring for and harvesting the new garden