The Gypsy on Adventure

T.I.M.E. and other concerns of the day

This Summer has been rough...I read an email from ToniandKim.com today and this was near the end of it, and I thought it was thought provoking and needed today.

As humans, we are all a work in progress. Life right now is extremely complicated. There is no manual for it.

1. Examine your daily life right now. What brings you joy? How can you add a little bit more of that feeling into your day?
2. What is one thing that you can remove from your day that will make it even just 1% more enjoyable? (For me, it was Facebook!)
3. Put your hand on your heart and close your eyes. Breathe in and out, slowly, 5 times. Ask your heart: What part of you needs tenderness right now? What exactly does it need? What is one thing you can do to nurture it?

1. Ah, what brings me joy? That would be my partner! He is amazing and loving, and adores me. And looking out my window to see all the wild life at our home. And what brings me joy is feeding the birds. We both make sure that there is enough water for the foxes, rabbits, wild turkey's and deer that come through our yard every day. That brings us both such joy.

2. What is the one thing I can remove from my day? Several. Remove the Doom-scrolling, not listen to the news every single day, and minimize time on Facebook, literally shut the window of Facebook down so I don't get any notifications. 

3. What needs tenderness?  I need to exercise, and my choice of exercise is usually walking, in Covid isolation I stopped walking, and a month ago when all the wildfire smoke invaded our ridge, I stopped walking...so now I seriously have to fix this part of my life. Movement. 

I was listening to Jay Shetty today on Amanpour and Company, how to cultivate a monk mindset. How he was speaking today was simple, using the word TIME to remember what you need to do every day.

Thankfulness:  Not just journal about it, but follow through and tell someone that you are grateful for them in your life. Express it to a person. Share that thankfulness.

Inspiration/Insight:  Read something that you are learning from, or that favorite quote out of a book. For me recently it has been Mary Oliver poems, and Rumi.

Meditation:  Be present in the body and mind. Communicate with your body and mind at the same time, centering yourself.

Exercise:  Sex, Yoga, Dance, Tai Chi, Walk...bedrock of the practice is movement.

(Today I walked more than I have in weeks, so I am starting the journey again)

Practice my breathe. Breathe is with us from the moment we are born until the second we die. Breathe and our emotions are interconnected. When we have something good happen to us it takes our breathe away. When something bad is happening we stop breathing for a moment. Connect to your body and breathe, hand to heart and breathe in for 5 seconds.

Then Jay said to ask yourself every day, "Have I made Time?" 

So simple, right? Then you would think more of us would be doing this. Today I am starting my simple practice. I think this sounds profound and life opening. I think it will help me not to be so judge-y in my life and focus on the things that expand my life. In this anxiety ridden political climate smack dab in the middle of Covid isolation, civil unrest, and the passing of RBG is too much. I have to stop doom-scrolling...I have to let it flow through me like water and not let it all stick to me. I catch myself breathing shallow or holding my breathe. I need to work on this.

The beautiful Sphynx cat that we found on our property yesterday, update. We got up, and brought the cage into the kitchen, fed her again, talked to her, played with her. At 10:30 we went to our appointment at Mother Lode to see if she had a chip. No chip. I was getting worried...we were going to take her to Sammies no kill shelter 5 minutes but the owner saw our flyer and called WGB!!! The family two doors down from us, SO happy he contacted us!! And his little girl was happy to have Mousey back! So stinkin cute! I tried not to be judge-y when he told us they let her outside every day, since she could be a nice snack for those big turkey vultures or the coyotes, foxes and big cats we have around. I hope this scared them enough to keep her inside. Mousey is a sweet, sweet soul.

 

 

 

 

 

And the bad air quality came back today. I was SO joyful yesterday with blue skies nad no smoke smell. I feel a little more sad today, I cannot take days of the gloom again! But the injured Jay bird is still getting stronger, she lays down funny on my deck though. But she is so pretty. I have fallen in love with her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally took photos of my recent Hobonichi pages before I journal in them:

Finally change

THIS was so needed! We had not seen a blue or clear sky since August 17th! This was late in the afternoon, and I am hoping that tomorrow when we wake up it will remain blue skies. We SO needed a change!

 

WGB and I wish you joy flying among the stars! Now you can explore all of the universe!

Exhausted and anxious

I have been cranky all day...feeling pushed...and prickly. WGB insisted I go get my certified birth certificate in San Jose, which only took an hour, but I just didn't want to do it. He wants to get my passport done and ready.

My heart has not caught up with my head. I KNOW we can't stay here, but this has been  my home all of my life. But in retirement we cannot afford to live here, and then the final blow, our owners called, they are coming with a Realtor on March 18th, so we REALLY have to have most of our stuff out since that means less than a month once they put it on the market! Fuck we have a lot to do, think of and try to get a plan which WGB likes to fly by the seat of his ass...I am a planner... it creates anxiety.  

So most of the night was spent packing...this will be my life for the next few months...

Oof - panic has set in.

My first POD came this morning at 9:30 am. With all of the rain that has been happening we decided to take a drive to The Lexington Reservoir, near Los Gatos, Calif., in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, nearly dried up during the drought, but recent rains have seen the 450-acre reservoir fill up and spill over. The reservoir feeds Los Gatos Creek, which merges with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. From there, the river flows to Alviso and out to the San Francisco Bay via the Alviso Slough.  The photos before are in October and after now.

     

Aw!

This morning WGB woke me up so sweet! Apparently it is the 32nd anniversary of when we MET!  I was working in the City Clerks office (for a brief time), and I was the one who gave him the Oath of Office when he was hired! How funny is that! 

So my best friend has been in my life for 32 years! Crazy! There is nothing better than being in love with your best friend.

We have to speak up for every woman no matter the side

Part of a blog post, please read her entire post here.

 

You don’t have to identify as a victim to recognize your victimization. You don’t have to be public about your victimization, but what you should consider is how you re-victimize millions of girls and women when you deny theirs.

Believe this: when you claim that we are crazy, stupid, overly emotional, and overly sensitive to distance yourself from us, you bolster misogynistic stereotypes that are then applied to you. No matter how you try to distinguish yourselves, you will continue to be categorized as sexual objects and second-class citizens only useful for reproduction.

Because we understand the toll heterosexist white supremacist patriarchal oppression takes, we recognize that being “woke” is an emotional commitment many of you reject. So you don’t want to fight for your own freedoms…fine. But please, if you’re not going to join us or build us up the least you can do is refrain from tearing us down.

Happy New Year 2016 glad to see 2015 go!!!

 

2015 sucked! I am SO glad we are going into 2016!!! 

It is the year of HUGE change for me....

Retiring...moving...change change change! eep!

Oh come on! You know you are! Shout out to all the creepers trying to get up in all my business...mind your own Bat Shit Crazy you have enough on your plate!

Happy Birthday Poe!