Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 164

Today's Daily 5:

1. sleeping in a bit this morning
2. mostly peaceful dreams
3. starting my day with a shower - this is a rarity because of my weird living situation, I usually have to get up and dressed and leave grandma's house and go to mom and dad's before I can take a shower.  so, mornings like this, when I've spent the previous night at mom and dad's and I can start the morning with a shower are a rare treat.
4. friends who understand the crazy challenges life is throwing at me right now
5. marking an item off my to do list that had been there for months
6. studying in a bubble bath
7. a fairly productive day
8. "winning" a bet over something completely random with a friend - totally made me laugh
9. finding reasons to laugh (that's been harder again lately, so I'm glad when it happens)
10. chocolate

I am...

• sitting in the basement at mom and dad's house at the desk where I spent most of the summer, pretending to be productive
• freezing cold - it's worse down here in the winter than the summer, and I was cold most of the time then
• wearing a t-shirt and two hoodies (with both hoods up) to keep warm.  A regular hoodie, and a borrowed "sherpa hoodie" (which is basically a hoodie with a thick, furry, warm lining).
• having both a productive and completely procrastination laden morning
• needing to buckle down and study for a medical terminology quiz tomorrow morning
• cleaning up the bedroom I stay in at mom and dad's because someone else is coming to stay in it tonight
• looking forward to house church tonight, and a discussion of another chapter of the book we've been studying together
• also looking forward (I think, since I haven't confirmed this) to watching new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice tomorrow, online
• slightly unwilling to admit that a friend has gotten me a little bit hooked on watching the Bachelor for the sole purpose of being entirely snarky about it
• excited to see my dad tomorrow (he gets back from West Africa tonight, after being away for several weeks)
• thankful that we have been having a bit warmer weather lately
• writing this blog post to empty my brain and hopefully spur an attack on the list of things I'm procrastinating about
• faithfully using the lamp I was given that mimics sunlight and treats Seasonal Affective Disorder.  I think it's helping with the usual winter blues.
• off to do some cleaning, some studying, some reading and a whole variety of the other things on my list!

Find Your Voice

How could I not share this great find, especially since earlier in the week I wrote this post about my one word for 2011 (heal) and about finding my own voice as a part of that process of healing.

Found here, on this fabulous blog that you should all subscribe to.  Such a fun concept - messages on post it notes, left in random public places.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 163

Today's Daily 5:

1. Clean drinking water
2. Getting my favorite seat on the bus
3. A tea biscuit from Tim Horton's, consumed in class
4. A sunny day
5. Starting to read a new book on prayer, and feeling the deep smile that comes from "hearing" a beloved author's voice again
6. A grilled chicken pita from Extreme Pita
7. Yoga class - the first 20 minutes are rough, and then my body settles in and I feel SO good afterwards
8. cookies
9. finishing an audio book today (it's on my reading list if you're curious)
10. getting this week and next week's reading for a class I'm taking finished while on the bus to and from school today

Layers

"It gets better in layers."

Two different people in the space of ten minutes said that to me last night.

I sort of smiled bemusedly at them, and rolled my eyes, but inside, I wanted to scream and yell.

We were talking about the various natural health treatments that I've been getting over the last year or so, and they were pointing out that healing and relief comes in layers - that it happens slowly, and kind of intangibly.

(This, by the way, is my biggest beef with natural health stuff.  I'm a proponent of it because it has worked for me.  I haven't needed antibiotics in years - a good thing for someone who is allergic to all major antibiotics.  I'm a proponent of it because it works, but it drives me crazy that I can't tell you why or how it works, and that the success of it is very intangible - it's not quantifiable or measurable.)

I do not do intangible well in a lot of arenas, but I'm getting lots and lots of practice at living with it these days.

Layers of healing it is.

It's going to make for an interesting year with this one word of "heal".