Daily 5 - Day 365

It started here, a year ago.  A year ago.  Wow.  A year ago I'd had a very hard birthday weekend, it seemed like any kind of progress towards healing and wholeness had been taken out in a massive landslide of crap, and I needed to find a way to refocus.  To choose to see life differently.  The daily 5 was born out of that.  And now, it's a year later, and it's become habit to go through my day making mental note of the things that bring a smile, or the things I'm thankful for - big or little.  A few others have even made these lists from time to time.

In 365 days, I've recorded at least 1825 items.  I was too lazy to go back and total up all of those lists, but 365 times 5 is 1825.  The reality is that there were lots of days where I recorded 10, or even 15 or 20 things that had made me smile, so 1825 is probably a low estimate.

I can't quite believe that tomorrow I start counting again.  That tomorrow year two starts.  I'm not even sure I ever intended for this to become a long term thing.  But, a year in, it's a habit I value, one that is still helping me to shape my thought patterns, to look for more positive things in life than negative.  To celebrate even the tiny moments.  And while I don't know how long I'll keep this up, for now, it's a pattern that I plan to continue to maintain.

So, here's today's daily 5:

1. reaching the one year milestone for making these lists.
2. finished the 5th of 6 stats assignments today
3. taking a bubble bath with a new book
4. leftover Thai take out
5. iphone games
6. finishing (in the wee hours of this morning) a book I quite enjoyed
7. not setting an alarm this morning
8. having over half of the day (and all of tomorrow!) with no school commitments.
9. puttering around the house with my ipod playing
10. walking, a little, in the sunshine and wind
11. triplus fineliner pens in multiple colors
12. clean drinking water
13. dreaming of traveling
14. laughing at coincidence
15. catching up on blog reading
16. taking a break to stay at mom and dad's house tonight
17. popcorn with lots of butter
18. a quiet day, spent mostly alone, at a place where I feel safe and able to rest
19. hugs from friends/family
20. laughing at funny television commercials

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (with Lynn Vincent)

“Same Kind of Different As Me” tells the story of Denver, a homeless black man, and Ron, a rich, white, international art dealer, and their unlikely friendship prayed into existence by Ron’s wife.

Memoirs of this sort are generally among my favorite books, but as I began to read this one, I feared it would disappoint.  I was wrong.  The story started slowly, and it took me a great number of chapters to sort out the two voices, and get used to shifting back and forth between the two authors.  Once I got the hang of it, though, the story was one I couldn’t put down.  The perspective of reciprocity in relationship between these two men, of how much they learned from each other moved me deeply, and tears collected as I reached the end of the story late last night.  I was particularly challenged by the unique metaphor of catch and release relationships that was woven through much of the book, and paused to reflect on some of my own relationships to consider whether I was valuing them in that way.  While I wasn’t initially sure that this would be a book I could recommend, I’m pleased to say that it is a story well worth the read.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Well-Rounded?

To be honest, these results are only kind of "me".  But, I couldn't resist a shell quiz, and I picked my favorite, and these are the results.

You Are Well Rounded

It's hard for you to stay focused in your life. There's just so much to be excited about. You never get too obsessed with anything. You just don't have it in you to be a workaholic. You don't seek balance - balance just seems to find you. You can let go and relax. Normal life is pretty amazing to you. You are content with where you are.

A Seashell Test

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!