“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” Sally Koch
I have always wanted to make a difference by helping others. I dreamed of being a missionary doctor or joining the Peace Corps. I wanted to be like a super hero and save the world. Maybe, I’d fly below a crashing plane and guide it in for a safe landing.
But, I am very ordinary. So, I am only able to make a difference in small ways.
On Sunday, I gave a neighbor a ride home from the laundromat. Tomorrow, I will working the polls for our primary elections.
What have you done to help someone in your family? Work place?
I love to do creative things. So, I have made two vision boards in my past.
The first one was made before 2008. My church had a visioning retreat for creating my Church’s mission statement. So, I created a mission statement and cut images from magazines to portray that statement.
I will seek a closer relationship with God through prayer, Bible Study and service to my fellowman.
My vision board portraying my desire to get closer to God.
There is a drawing of my church from one of our church flyers near the center top. Near the bottom is a drawing that a child drew me while I was volunteering at my local homeless shelter. I still have strong memories from that place even though I spent most of my time straightening the toy closet, donations in the basement or pots and pans in the kitchen cabinets.
I will seek to improve my relationships with others by listening to and spending time with my family, friends and others.
I am not going to share a picture of this part because I want to keep my family and friends private.
I will improve myself by continually seeking opportunities to learn from others and life situations.
My portrayal of my goal to continually learn new things.
The WCTC and my therapist on this part is how I know that this was before 2008. I graduated from WCTC in 2008.
I have kept the mission statement but selected more focused goals as the years went by. Here is another vision board focusing on yearly goals from before 2019.
My yearly goals from before 2019.
That year, I wanted to learn Spanish, eat healthy, be able to climb a tree, write for money, God and fun, study the Bible, go on more mission trips with my new church and take lots of walks.
In 2020, I wrote some work goals but Covid-19 destroyed them. I didn’t even write any work goals for 2021.
What is your mission statement? My church at the time did a formula. The beginning of the statement starts with who we are. I dropped this part when I created my mission statement. The next part was the goal followed by how we will achieve the goal.
Have you created a vision board? If so, please share a picture or any thoughts about the experience.
I will do a review of how I am doing on these goals and share a more current vision board.
Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny. William James (1842-1910)
Sow a thought, an action, habit, character…
Hands planting seeds
Working hard can produce these great rewards. I like the above quote because it reminds me to keep working on building good habits. It also reminds me that good habits and character takes time just like growing crops.
I have been failing to build good habits in 2022. Yet, every month and day is a new chance to try again.
What new habit are you working on building into your days and months? How have you been doing on them?
I have been working in a factory for two years. In November, we had a team meeting. I was expecting the meeting to be an update on the vaccine mandate. But, they announced that they will be closing our plant letter this year. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. I obsessed about the shocking news for days afterwards. They told us that we would receive a sixty days notice in advance of the lay offs.
When I researched lay offs online, I read that Wisconsin requires a sixty notice for mass lay offs and plant closures.
So, I am thankful that I have a job and that my state is looking out for me.
“Leave the broken, irreversible past in God’s hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” Oswald Chambers
We can heal from our past with time, therapy, close friends and God’s help. Then, we can walk with God into our future. While we can’t see the future like in the path, we know God is at our side.
Happy belated Thanksgiving Thursday. I made two mistakes at work yesterday and was too tired mentally to write this post.
My cat sitting beside my radiator
This week, the temperatures in Wisconsin have been extremely cold. So, I found myself thinking about how nice it is to have heat in my apartment and car. As you can see, my cat is thankful for heat too.
I don’t ever want to be homeless, not have heat in my apartment or a broken heater in my car. A co-worker told me about her car that she calls a death trap that doesn’t have a working heater. So, she drives with her arm sticking out the window wiping the window since she can’t defrost her wind shield.
It is a good idea to keep a gratitude journal which is what I am using Thanksgiving Thursdays to do.
Do you write in a gratitude journal? How frequently? What are you thankful for?
“Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton
Karle Wilson Baker (1878-1960) was an American poet. This quote is from one of her poems.
Jesus prayed before His crucifixion and before selecting His disciples. God wants us to pray to Him when we fear or feel anxious. He promises to walk by our sides.
While I have many questions why He allows evil things to happen in our world such as the Holocaust, 9/11 or our Waukesha parade tragedy, I know that God loves me and is with me.
I woke up with a itchy throat and cough yesterday morning (1/18/2022). I called in sick to work because my employer wants us to stay out if we have any coronavirus like symptoms. So, my employer emailed me the Covid-19 questions and told me to quarantine for five days. They lumped people who had symptoms together with those who tested positive. I can test out on day five with an antigen test, if I can FIND one.
Person looking out window
I am listening to corona parody songs to remind myself that I am not the only person stuck at home due to a cold or allergies. They are on YouTube and coming into my room through the internet.
Today, I have no cough left but my nose is a snot factory. So my nose says thank you for nose tissues.
I can’t stop blowing my nose today but feel better than this lady.
Emotions come and go. Hence, no matter how bad I feel, I know that it will pass. I was caring for a client by sitting with him. He was part of a group home and required 24/7 supervision. He had a very strong anxiety due to past mistreatment. I just reassured him regularly and stayed very calm. Like my emotions, it passed for him too.
Emotions come and go like waves.
My brain lies to me by exaggerating the importance of events or mistakes that I have made. The negative thinking part of my brain has repeatedly told me that I always break the items that I am assembling at work. My brain takes a single incident and then it claims that it happens everyday. My CBT monkey (the part of my brain that is trained to use cognitive behavioral training) catches these thinking errors and works to correct them.
Everyone perceives the world differently based on their past experiences. As a child, I discovered that I interpreted the world different than those around me. My thinking is so negative that I have trouble getting some people to understand me. It makes people want to run away. Others argue with me until I start defending a belief that only the depressed part of my brain believes. Sometimes this makes me feel like no one understands me. Yet, it helps me to understand that a person can love the US but disagree on how to run the country. I believe that both Republicans and Democrats care deeply about the US. We just disagree on what is best for the country.
While everybody’s experience is different, there are similarities in our emotional experiences. I remember attending a support group. Another member was describing a symptom of his/her mental health issue. I started fidgeting in my chair because I recognized my experience in it. Over the years, I have learned that others have experienced symptoms similar to mine.
It was strange for me to think about depression in this way. I would love to never have depression ever again. What have you learned from your depression, anxiety or tough times?
