Daily 5 - Day 309

The daily 5 started 309 days ago.  For those of you who are newer here, you can find my initial introduction to the concept here.  But the long and the short of it is this:  I was needing to find ways to truly choose joy in my life, and one of the ways I came up with was to make a list of 5 items (these days it can be any number as long as there at least 5) that I was either thankful for, or that had brought a smile to my face that day.  When I started, 5 was a huge number to attain.  Some days it still feels huge.  Other days it's no big deal to list 10 or more.

In any case, I've been doing this for what is now approaching a year, and it's made a difference.  I watch for things in my day that bring smiles.  I find myself making mental notes of simple, lovely things I notice as I traipse around the city on the trains and buses and on foot.  It's made a difference in reminding me to continually choose joy.  It's an ongoing journey.  I'm still not, by nature a hugely positive person.  But my heart is changing and being shaped and formed in this simple little daily discipline, and so I show up here each night and make a list.

And, without further ado, here's today's daily 5:

1. 309 days of making these lists. (I like numbers that end in nine!)
2. burgers for supper with dad from my favorite hamburger place (and on a 2 for 1 deal to boot!)
3. figuring out just the right way to wrap myself in a thick blanket in my basement study space so that I'm actually warm, but the blanket isn't impeding my movement and making the studying more of a pain.
4. getting through the chapter of the anatomy text book that seemed never-ending and moving into one that assured me that this process is going to move faster and be more interesting now that that one highly specific (and incredibly boring) chapter is out of the way.
5. a box of chocolates that was a sweet (literally and figuratively) thank you gift from a friend
6. actually managing to check some stuff off of my personal "to do" list (this week has been a bit consumed with studying, and the rest of my life was getting slightly neglected)
7. feeling good about the fact that I'm managing to really discipline myself to study at length.
8. chocolate
9. amazed at how I'm adapting to and enjoying really challenging my brain again... apparently all those jokes I've made about happily being a career student if there was only money for it are true!
10. interacting with blogging friends, new and old.  I love that I've made and am making some friends via this medium.  I love that I can show up here and share whatever is on my heart, and somebody somewhere stops in to see what I've been up to, and that I can stop in at their spaces and see what's going on in their minds and hearts as well.

A Slight Gripe

One of the two courses I'm taking this summer is statistics.

Let me say first that I have never particularly liked math.  In fact, I have mostly had a rather hateful relationship with said subject.

And statistics is reminding me why.  Words that make perfect sense in everyday life take on an extra head and a totally different meaning in math.

For example, one sort of graph that I was reading about in the stats textbook today instructed me that it was a curve.  Okay, got a mental image of a curve?  Well, think again.  Apparently, this is a "curve" which is drawn by connecting various points with straight lines.  There is no curvature whatsoever.

That said, having read and reacted to those ridiculous instructions, I'm probably not going to forget that you draw an ogive by connecting dots with straight lines, thus forming a "curve."

A Quote on Trust

A couple of nights ago in my daily 5, I linked to a few posts on trust.

A dear friend gave me a perpetual calendar a little over a year ago, with a different quote each day from a female saint.  I love the calendar, and it has often been timely in the words of wisdom it has offered.

Today's quote deals with trust, and struck me as I journey right now, with only a very few plans, but very uncertain outcomes.  It reads:

"Dear Lord, I do not ask to see the path.  In darkness, in anguish, and in fear, I will hang on tightly to your hand, and I will close my eyes, so that you know how much trust I place in you, Spouse of my soul." (Blessed Maria Elizabetta Hesselblad)