Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Quotes about love

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Mother Teresa

I have always admired Mother Teresa for her devotion to God and service to the poor. Judging others will close us off to learning their struggles and past experiences. So, I do the best that I can to hear the person’s story and struggle before I start drawing value judgements or conclusions.

I believe forgiveness is the best form of love in any relationship. It takes a strong person to say they’re sorry and an even stronger person to forgive. Yolanda Hadid

Hadid is an actress. I know that I struggle to apologize. I either have trouble saying the words or I put the word “but” after them. So, I say the words and then destroy the meaning. “I’m sorry but…” I am working on using the words without the “but” word.

On forgiveness, it is important to forgive others but be careful if the person has shown you that they won’t change. Abusers tend to apologize afterwards but do it again.

Love is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Love beats the crap out of fear, hate, jealousy, worry, insecurity, irritation, grouchiness-it’s stronger than all of ’em.You are a Badass calendar 2023.

This quote made me think of a sign in someone’s yard that I saw in my city.

Love wins

If you love someone, you say it, right then, out loud. Otherwise, the moment just passes you by. Julia Roberts

Happy Valentine’s day to my readers- all 4 or 5 of you.

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.      Ann Landers

This is a wonderful definition of love.

Here is a song about how much God loves us.

Posted on

2024 goals: monthly check-in

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

When someone is working on making a change in their behavior, it is important for the goals to be measurable. I have some of my goals listed on my monthly goals chart.

Monthly goals chart

I am tracking if I do a Spanish lesson on Duolingo (a free language learning app), 15 minutes or longer walks, healthy eating and 1/2 hour of chores. I am struggling with eating too many sweets, chips and popcorn. So, I only counted four days of eating healthy. I also recorded four days of spending a half hour or more on chores. I have been refusing to count grocery shopping and wondering how much time I should count for walking to the bank to get quarters for doing laundry. I did pretty good on Duo (at least 9 days) and the walking (at least 12 days).

The one that I am most happy about is that I managed to spend less than I earn. I moved into a nicer apartment in fall last year. So, the increase in rent is forcing me to tighten my spending at the grocery store and on my credit card. I doubt that I can do it in February because I am planning to buy a new mattress. My celebratory meal for meeting my budget was today.

Taco salad

I made myself a taco salad.

What are your new year’s resolutions?

How are you doing on them?

I hope to hear from you. I want to encourage you to get back up and dust yourself off and try again.

Posted on

Wilma mankiller

Wilma Mankiller (11/18/1945-04/06/2010) was the first woman to be elected principal chief of the Cherokee nation. She worked as a social worker for five years in the 70s. In the early 1980s, she directed the newly created Community Development Department of the Cherokee nation. In 1983, she became the deputy chief and was chief from 1985 to 1995.

The happiest people I’ve ever met, regardless of their profession, their social standing, or their economic status, are people that are fully engaged in the world around them. The most fulfilled people are the ones who get up every morning and stand for something larger than themselves. They are the people who care about others, who will extend a helping hand to someone in need or will speak up about an injustice when they see it.

This is such a good quote that I have nothing to add to it.

The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.

Posted on

Future books

What books do you want to read?

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.

Posted on

Enjoy the small things

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.

Posted on

Dr Sally Ride

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.

Posted on

Dream job

What’s your dream job?

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.

Posted on

Snowy troubles

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.

Posted on

Maya Angelou quotes

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.”

Posted on

Mission: encourage others

What is your mission?

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.