#nbad

[thedailycourtney]

November 16: Regrettable Hairstyle

[quickwitter]

A time you were a recipient of an act of kindness

This whole year has been a discovery of the kindness of those who surround me. My immediate family not so much, but in friends and neighbors, kindness abounded. From my neighbor Renee coming to shave my head, to friends and neighbors offering rides to chemo and surgery, food brought to the house, my friend Jon coming with me to my biopsy surgery, Steve coming to stay not only when I had my mastectomy surgery but also between my last two chemo infusions. Tess came daily, fed the chickens for me and made me food, the Morelli family came and gathered eggs, Susie came and delivered eggs to the bakery and cleaned the house. I’ve been spoiled I’ve been so blessed. I would never have expected it and will always be so grateful.

[theotherstephencobert]

November 17 - Blog Challenge Day 17

What have you done recently to improve someone else’s life?

I'll start out by saying I hope everyone in the United States taking part in this challenge can say they helped improve the lives of everyone by VOTING last week.

Having said that... I know I sometimes gripe about some of the downsides of being a manager in a hotel. But the good thing about the service business is that I get to help other people in a very hands-on way, seeing to it they have a place to stay and the accomodations they need or want while they are away from home. I consioder myself a "people person" at this job, the one who tries to accomodate guests with special needs, offering advice on a variety of topics such as places to eat, local shops and services (this morning a guest needed to know the closest place to get jumper cables), local events and places of interest, and other matters a person from out of town might need help with.

This is an interesting way my current fitness journey has helped me give better service at the hotel. Certainly because I know where the nearest bike and running paths are and the gyms in the area. But getting out on the bike and actually SEEING the area I'd worked at for fourteen years made me know (as in know) where the attractions are and how to get there. Someone has to go to Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, I can tell them, "Yeah, I bike past it all the time, here's how you get there..." Telling my guests how to find local parks, businesses, schools, wooded areas, campsites or whatever is that much easier once you've biked by them. (And it helps to be able to tell a guest they can get to Sedgwick County Zoo without getting on the Interstate, forget what their GPS says.)

[stephiehell]

one word describing me (nbad)

hard to pick a single word that describes me right now, because i’m currently in a dynamic place characterized by big internal shifts and unfoldments, and it feels like constant flow, not a discrete series of events or stages. it’s an experience akin to the idea that you cannot step in the same river twice. and it’s not unsettling, i’m excited and curious with a sense of discovery.

so...

evolving

[likesplatterpaint]

November Blog a Day: 7 (Late)

7. Photos of Happiness.

I had to cheat a little to fit everything I wanted to.

But all in all, an impressive distillation of what’s most important to me in life.

[redcloud]

NBAD 1: Gratitude

Today I am grateful for:

The blue of the Arizona sky

The biggest great-tailed grackle I have ever seen, just strutting around in the grass, doing birb things

The refreshing chill in the air

One really good game of Warframe that I played on Xbox tonight, with a double XP booster

Having a relatively low fatigue day. Felt like a normal human being for hours.

[mistavybe]

Gratitude

I’m grateful for life, my mom and my kids.

I’m also grateful for the special ppl on here who help make daily life less frustrating.

Oh and for all the tv shows and movies and comics and books that distract me from that batshit crazy world i’m currently forced to live in.

Amen. 🙏🏾

[iowahorde]

November Blog a Day: Forgiveness

Years ago, I learned the hard way  the best course of action is to freely forgive and move on. The only one who suffers from a lack of forgiveness is the one who refuses to forgive. I also learned that forgiveness is not just freeing for the one who commits the wrong, but for the person wronged as well.

Above my left eye I carry a scar from when I got kicked in the face as a 16 year-old. I, and two friends, got cornered by about a dozen guys one night at a church dance. I hadn’t helped the situation with my flippant mouth, but I was smart enough to know that if I threw a single punch or fought back in anyway, the fight would escalate. So I kept my hands jammed in my pockets and took two blows to the head before the adult chaperones finally intervened (it was proven later they knew about the potential for the altercation but did nothing to prevent it).

For about 5 years I stewed over that wrong, and every time I looked in the mirror I was reminded of it. My blood would boil and I would rage. How could a “bad” thing happen to a “good guy”?

Then I was in a CS Lewis class in college. One of the books we read was “The Problem of Pain.” As part of the project for that book, I shared some of the pain I was carrying around from that event. A few days later, the teacher handed me a letter he wrote from the perspective of Screwtape in in the form of Screwtape letters. Between the professors words and CS Lewis, I realized that the only one who was suffering was me, and the only way to find peace again was for me to forgive.

Freely forgiving is what helped me move through 5 years of my marriage breaking down: her lies, her infidelity, the numerous other wrongs she committed. While not pleasant to experience, I was not shackled to those activities. Outside of the marital relationship, I have 5 years of great memories of special vacations with kids, job changes and events and just other life experiences. Had I not forgiven her during that time, that would have been 5 years of unending morass and darkness. Life is too short to be bound up in darkness.