Back in the Big Apple.....

Well, we are back in NYC again for another round of doctor visits and tests. The energy here is amazing, and really uplifting to us both. Tests are now behind us (today), and two office visits are set for tomorrow, so we are hoping for some promising news and for the doctors to have some wisdom in the treatment protocols.

On a lighter note, I am loving eating at the Chinese restaurant here across the street, as well as the Deli and some other favorite haunts here. The Times Square area is my favorite area to stay and to walk around...

Tomorrow after the appointment, we will pickup some takeout from Rosie O'Grady's (another favorite), and then pack up to leave for LaGuardia on Wednesday morning...

If you are a praying person, we would appreciate your prayers - for wisdom for our doctors, healing for K, safe travel home, continued provision and blessings for all who have helped us in so very many ways...

J/

Need I say more??? But seriously...

Seriously, being able to love the people in our lives - all of them, and all of the time - is an amazing and uncommon thing. I'd love to say I always do, but there's already enough BS in the world... so I will say I try to... and the result is that I often succeed, but sometimes not so much... Thoughts of judgement and harsh responses when my goals are blocked, or when I am tired, irritable or just being plain petty... sometimes, they come out and dance around my brain and out of my mouth before I can obliterate them. Sometimes, loving someone also means loving them enough to gently speak truth in love. Sometimes, loving them is refusing to enable them in destructive behaviors...

I think the older I get, the more compassionate and easy going I become. After years of impatience, frustration and venting, hurting others with careless words as a young man, something has died... and I am glad... funeral is over on that raging, silly person... so now, it's more working on the internal part - the one nobody much sees but me... and a very few who are really close to me. Working out those little nagging thoughts and attitudes that are not loving... so that I can truly pour myself out, selflessly, for those I love, and to let them know that nothing is more important to me than they are...

and that - would be complete success...
at least, as I define it...

J/

Is "W" is for "wind"?

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Red Wines Make Meat Healthier? No kidding?

And all this time, I just thought they tasted good together...

(Click title to see the article)...

Gotta run... my Merlot and Filet Mignon are calling out to me, begging me to be healthier...

=)

J/

Waiting for My Real Life to Begin... and Resting...

Waiting for My Real Life to Begin, by Colin Hay

Any minute now my ship is coming in

I'll keep checking the horizon

And I'll stand on the bow

And feel the waves come crashing

Come crashing down, down, down on me

And you said,"Be still, my love

Open up your heart

Let the light shine in

"Don't you understand?

I already have a plan

I'm waiting for my real life to begin

When I awoke today suddenly nothing happened

But in my dreams I slew the dragon
And down this beaten path

And up this cobbled lane

I'm walking in my own footsteps once again

And you say,"Just be here now

Forget about the past

Your mask is wearing thin

"Let me throw one more dice

I know that I can win

I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Any minute now my ship is coming in

I'll keep checking the horizon

And I'll check my machine

There's sure to be that call

It's gonna happen soon, soon, oh so very soon

It's just that times are lean

And you say,"Be still, my love

Open up your heart

Let the light shine in

"Don't you understand?

I already have a plan

I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Hey heyeyeyeyey

Hey yeeeeeee

Hey heyeyeyeyey

Eeh eeh eeh eeh eh x5

On a clear day

I can see, see for a long way

On a clear day

I can see, see a very long way

In many ways, this song has expressed my heart through the difficult times over the past few years. A very dear friend also shared a prayer with me tonight that has expressed where I WANT to be, and sometimes where I am...

The Welcome Prayer, by Father Thomas Keating:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment
because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings,
emotions, persons,
situations and conclusions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any situation,
condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God
and to the healing action and grace within.

AMEN

My desire is to live in the perfect balance of hope and peace - the hope of the plans and paths Daddy has for us, tempered by the peace of finding contentment in accepting and coming to terms with the circumstances and situations of the current moments... to live within each moment. When we are trapped in the yesterdays (of regret) or the tomorrows (of deferred hope or of worry and dread), we are paralyzed and miss the NOW. It is only in the peace of the current moment where we can actually live, love and move.

Please share insights and reflections from your own heart, if you are so moved.... I believe each of us may benefit from each others' experiences and hearts...

J/

Man, What a Good Lookin' Baby...

See!!! I was a good lookin' baby... not sure what happened along the way... but hey, at least I had a run there... King of the playpen... I was digging through the old albums and ran across it, so I thought I'd share...

J/

It ain't what you don't know....

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain

Words to live by. Ain't it the truth? We often thinks we knows so much, and soon find out what we know is just - well - WRONG.

The longer I live, the more I realize just how much I don't know. In the last 10 years, so many of the things I was so sure of have changed. I am still sure of a few things:

- Daddy God loves me, and even better - He LIKES me...

- I am defined by who He says I am, not by roles I fulfill...

- Relationship is better than being RIGHT, or following RULES...

- People are more important than THINGS...

Other than that, pretty much everything else is up for grabs...

=) J/

Lactose Intolerance, Anyone? Dairy-rrhea for Dummies who don't exercise self-control...

Well, perhaps the picture says it all.... at least that's the way I feel anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours after a healthy dose of DAIRY... resulting in several hours or even a few fun-filled days to follow enhanced by projectile DAIRY-rrhea...

Forget nuclear weapons - just figure out a way to deliver this tormenting affliction to terrorists across the globe! Sure to stop 'em cold!

Ok, so like I never drink milk outright (moo cow milk, goat milk, etc.)... know better than that, so now it's Vanilla Rice Drink (don't even think about calling that milk) or Chocolate Soy Milk (really - I mean, are there teets on soybeans that allow for "milking"? I studied Biology, and don't recall soybeans being MAMMALS). Even stopped nibbling the smallest bits of all cheeses, and shop regularly on the "non-cheese cheese" aisle, where there are untold delicacies of cheese-like substances made from soybeans, rice, almonds, and "vegetable protein" (whatever that is - maybe like the veggie equivalent of "mystery meat" we used to get in the high-school lunchroom??). And to top it all off, these non-milk milks and non-cheese cheeses cost about 3x what their mammalian counterparts do... you can't keep a straight face and tell me that rice or soybeans cost more to produce than moo cow freaking milk. I mean, you don't have to feed the soybeans, give them shots, milk them or shovel up their... well, I digress...

I stumbled on a "new" trigger this week - MILK chocolate... Who would have guessed it was real milk??? Duh! Well, let me tell you - truth in advertising, because my "you ate milk"-O-Meter registered a 7.9... and ALL IS NOT WELL...

And the Lacto-Free stuff don't work for me... Guess maybe it's more of an allergy to the cow's mammory juice... so if I want calcium, now I have to look for it where it don't belong... like in my orange juice... who thought that up? But, I have to maintain my strong bones and teeth - hard to do without those, so off I go to buy my naturally non-natural array of non-dairy dairy items and juice with added calcium (which, by the way, a beloved relative used to refer to as "cal-suh-mum" to "keep your bones suple" (pronounced "sue'-puhl", in the most wonderful southern south-carolinian drawl)). We miss ya, Ruby... anyway... back to my tyraid...

Not only is this non-dairy, non-lactose spread/slice/hunk/block of stuff expensive, it's also only to be found in the veggie aisle, or sometimes only in specialty stores altogether. Plus, I wonder if this might be affecting my ability to focus, be decisive and to remember things... but I am not really sure. What was I talking about?

Oh, well... nuf said...

Dairy Free in Tennessee

J/