I am currently working on a blog entry about Max Lucato. I find his books to be very easy reads that are full of good stories and encouragement. I am also listening to Maya Angelou’s I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It amazes me how she has lived through a hard childhood but ended up writing autobiographies and poetry.
I am planning on starting a YouTube channel. I want to read some Christian classics, self-help classics, share encouraging quotes and discuss some of my own struggles with depression and life. The books in this picture are Pilgrim‘s Progress and a folk tale about three trees.
I have a small book shelf full of books that I have not read yet. I mostly have non-fiction Christian and self-help.
The highlight of this week is my Amarylis plant that is now blooming.
Amarylis blooming
I bought it at Walmart before Christmas. It looked like a bulb with a dead sprout that was hardly covered by dirt. I thought it was going to do nothing when I saw no change for weeks. Then a single reddish stem grew.
I watered it periodically. This month, I saw that it was getting ready to bloom. I began checking it everyday when Igot home from work.
While driving home from work today, I started wondering if today was going to be the day. It was! One of the flowers is now blooming while the other one on the opposite side of the stem is not open yet.
The day after I posted this, the second bloom opened up.
What was your day brightener today? Did your pet or a family member meet you at the door? Maybe your spouse cooked a delicious meal. If you seek, you just might find that enjoyable moment in your day.
In 1983, Dr Sally Ride (05/26/1951-07/23/2012) became the first American woman to fly in space. She was the third woman in space. After leaving NASA, she was a professor of physics at University of California, San Diego. After retiring from her professorship in 2007, she co-founded O’Shaughnessy. They made entertaining science programs and wrote some books on science for children.
Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way.
All adventures, especially into new territory are scary.
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It’s posing questions and coming up with a method. It’s delving in.
Each one of us has the potential to be a history-maker.
Young girls need to see role models in whatever career they may choose just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday.
Learning to handle both success and failure is a part of life. There will always be moments of disappointment, but it is how you deal with them that defines you.
The path from dreams to success doesn’t always run straight, and that’s okay. Keep believing. Keep going. Keep working.
Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life.
We should not be afraid of dreaming big, of reaching for the stars. We are capable of achieving extraordinary things.
The unknown is terrifying, but it is also exhilarating. Embrace the fear and use it as a motivation to discover the incredible possibilities that lie ahead.
Success is not about being the best. It’s about finding the joy in what you do and making a positive impact on others.
Failure is not the opposite of success. It is a part of the journey toward success.
To truly make a difference in this world, we must be willing to step outside our comfort zones and take risks.
Dare to dream big, and then work relentlessly to turn those dreams into reality.
When I read these quotes, I thought of my love of science. I remember curiously touching some slime on my stirring rod during my biology lab class. It was the first time and only time that I touched DNA. A few tears dropped from my eyes. I was happy. I don’t know if I will ever work in the sciences but I know that I will continue to read articles and books about science.
As a child, I wanted to become a doctor and go overseas as a missionary. I believed that God had called me to this dream job. I took biology with some side courses for pre-med. Then, the med students came by my lab class and talked about never studying before medical school. I think I had to study in every grade. I know that I studied in middle school and high school. Years before my step-father yelled “You’re too stupid to be a doctor.” I tried to argue back because I knew that I’d never forget him saying that. Sometimes, I thought about becoming a child psychologist in order to help other children who struggle like I did.
I never went to medical school because I discovered that I freeze up when in a crisis. A neighbor in my dorm building was in the bathroom sounding sick. I suggested that she take some medication and went down stairs in order to do laundry. When I passed back by, a man was standing outside of the restroom asking for help getting her unconscious body out of the restroom. Did I help? No. I stood frozen and had a bunch of negative thoughts. I couldn’t be a doctor or nurse. Someone tried to tell me that I could train enough to be able to function under high stress. I doubted it then and still doubt it.
While this dream died, I realized that the main part of the dream is the desire to help others. This desire is still very strong in my heart. Now, I hope I can use this blog to encourage others. I have read many encouraging books and quotes. Many of us have so much potential but we need a little encouragement in our darkest moments to keep from giving up. This is what I want to do for my readers.
Sometimes, a dream dies. But, the driving desire behind the dream lives on. So, I suggest that you ask yourself why a certain job is a dream job. You may find something else that fulfills that aching desire.
On Friday, we had 10 inches of snow fall on us here in Waukesha. The city looks like a winter wonderland but some people are still waiting on restoration of their electricity.
Bushes in downtown Waukesha that are covered in snow. A snow covered bench near South Street parking rampOld post office with flagTree hanging down due to heavy snow on it
In honor of our snow and extreme cold temperatures, I painted a group of winter rocks. I will be putting them out for the next few days.
Thank you to the very kind gentlemen who helped me today. One had to rock my car back and forth in order to get it off the stop sign that I scraped and bent while another was pushing. I ended up making it to work a half hour late. Then, my employer decided to shut down due to snow a few hours later. So, I began the drive home. I drove off the side of the road into a big pile of snow. Again, a kind gentleman stopped and pulled me free with his truck and a strap.
I pray that all who need road side assistance can get it today. If not, then please be safe.
Angelou (4/4/1928-5/28/2014) was born as Marguerite Annie Johnson according to Wikipedia. She wrote memoirs and poetry. Her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, describes her childhood experiences of racism, poverty and a rape when she was only eight. She stopped talking for five years after the rape. Then, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son at 16 years old. “Yet despite the tragedy and tumult of her own life, she came to embody unconquerable resilience. (The Book of Gutsy Women, Hillary Clinton Chelsea Clinton). ” I am looking forward to listening to Angelou read her own book through Audible. Here is a video of her speaking on YouTube.
She is on my mind because I just got my set of US American Women quarters. She was the first to be featured in the 2022 set.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” I painted this quote on two of my rocks.
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
“Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.”
I have had this blog since 2018. I started this blog because I wanted to encourage others especially Christians who struggle with mental health issues.
Since I am a Christian who lives with depression, I think I have an interesting perspective in this area.
So my mission for this blog is to offer encouragement to my fellow Christians. I plan to do this by sharing my struggles and successes at times, discussing quotes from famous people, Bible study discussions, listing local resources and educational writing.
I called it Listeninghearts because I want to support and encourage my readers.
Since I have already blogged about my goals for 2024, I will share one that I didn’t mention in my previous post.
I moved into a nicer apartment last year. So, I pay more in rent now. So, I am going back to living on a budget.
I will try to reduce how much that I spend at Walmart. I will try to avoid buying more books or clothes. It is hard to say no when I see a cute short for a cheap price.
I will also be more careful about purchasing stuff on Amazon. Success in this goal will be seeing that I am spending less than I am earning. Then, my checking account will return to growing slowly until I transfer money into savings. I want my money to earn some interest or dividends too.
