FEB FAST ~ Week Four

[dill]

Greetings!

Week four already!
From last week's thread: Sky, I hope you mend quickly! Congrats on 50 days!
Sooty, I hope your ears are better. Congrats on your daughter's team's win!
Lav, I had never even thought about making home-made mozarella. Did it taste llike store bought? I won't ask you to tell me how, because I doubt I would do it. It sounds like you had fun with it though!

"I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of
my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most
precious gift I have - life itself."
--Walter Anderson

I was thinking of you Lode, when I read this. Peace and strength to you. It also applied to me in a lesser way. I still struggle with the loss of my constant companion, alcohol. I have to start to make a conscious effort to fill the void in my life that it used to occupy. Alcohol used to cover up my lack of feeling connected with others. Or maybe it caused the connection to weaken. (Which came first , the chicken or the egg?) I am feeling adrift these days.

Peace and strength to all.

[spedteach]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Morning Dill and all to come,
Bet Lav is posting as I write.
Thinking about my week. This morning having to deal with my smashed up car. The woman who hit me does not want to bring insurance companies into it. Have to get estimates this morning. Pain in ze arse.

Lode, sending sweet thoughts your way. I've been in therapy now for a year and a half trying to reconcile old stuff. It's not like you can decide to confront it and then you're over it. Hang in there, be patient, be nice to yourself.

Sky, congrats on your af time. Hope you heal quickly. I ran, literally, into a thigh high cable last week and now have bruises to prove it. To me it's a relief to see those bruises and know exactly when and where they happened. I remember finding horrible enormous bruises on my body and having no recollection of their origin. The bad old days.

Later.

[Lavande]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Morning Feb friends,

Week 4 - SWEET! (I hate this friggin month - sorry).

Sky, CONGRATS on your 50 days, Woo Hoo!!!!
Take care of those scrapes. My daughter accidently ran into me while we were ridings bikes years ago. I scraped the entire right side of my body, ouch! Needless to say I haven't been on a bike since

Shelley, I'm just a bit behind you today! Hope you can get your car's boo boos straightened out!

Lode, hope you have a good day, better week, etc.
Here's a little something I shared with my daughter yesterday (because she needed a little boost). My Mom used to remind me of this too:

This Too Shall Pass

If I can endure for this minute
Whatever is happening to me,
No matter how heavy my heart is
Or how dark the moment may be-

If I can remain calm and quiet
With all the world crashing about me,
Secure in the knowledge God loves me
When everyone else seems to doubt me-

If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too-

Then nothing in life can defeat me
For as long as this knowledge remains
I can suffer whatever is happening
For I know God will break all of the chains

That are binding me tight in the darkness
And trying to fill me with fear-
For there is no night without dawning
And I know that my morning is near.

...Helen Steiner Rice


Make it a good Monday everyone
Lav

[sooty]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Afternoon all, I've been aerobicking this morning and then did some shopping - so exhausted now!
Thanks for the quote Dill and the poem Lav - they were both spot on!
Got a few household type things to catch up on so catch you all later - have a good one
love Sooty

[Raven.joy]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

words create worlds and this talk is good. (jedi mind trick)

[Raven.joy]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

have you seen star trek generations?

[ladybirdheart]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Beautiful, beautiful quote, Dill. After two days of a flirtation with spring, it is cold and gloomy here. I am back in the long undies under my clothes along with a fleece jacket and hat (in the house...). With all these layers I feel like an encased sausage. I am in here somewhere. Will be making our Lav’s Kennett Square soup this morning while my thoughts are far away. Love, Ladybird.

[lodestar]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Thanks for all the lovely wishes, friends. The quote and the poem were absolutely perfect. Dawn is most certainly here today. I slept well and woke up refreshed and inspired to keep on keepin' on. Today can be a good day. It is the only February 22, 2010 we've got, after all. I'm going to make it a good one. Small, quiet steps leading to better things.

:l

[lilmea]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Hello all my FF friends,

I am back from my wanderings. I had a lovely visit with my youngest daughter and am all ready home sick for her.

Floridia was nice and sunny. I was able to take a long walk every day. Now it's back to the snow and the dreadmill for this old girl.

Hi to Sped, Dill, Lav, Sooty, LHB and Lodes. I haven't had time to catch up but hope everyone's doing well. Hello Raven, looking forward to getting to know you better.

Have a peaceful evening all.

[Miss Behaving]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Week 4 - gosh the month is going past quickly!

I thought I had been away from this thread for at least a week, but it was only Friday!! After a great start to the weekend (making tomato chutney, tomato soup, frozen tomato mush ..... they are incredibly cheap at the moment as season is about to finish) I crashed and fell into a black hole, and spent Sunday feeling really depressed. Lode, I could really empathise with what you were saying about old family hurts! They are right on top for me at the moment as my family is seeing rather more of each other than we are accustomed to as a result of my brother's cancer, and my Mum's need for more care. Plus I've been seeing an addiction counsellor every week, and that is bringing some stuff up .... although on the positive side of that I think it is quite helpful in helping me deal with it. And I'm trying to sit with it and let the memories be remembered actually deal with it instead of numbing the feelings of hurt with alcohol.

I haven't had a totally AF month, but I have been MUCH better and also have been eating really well and getting to the gym more frequently. Have managed to lose 3 kilos since the beginning of the month, and am feeling like I am back into my gym routine to the point where I am enjoying it again (rather than having to push myself to go). For me, success breeds success - when I achieve my goals I start to believe that I can develop such "stretch" targets. So I'm gradually working myself out of this depression that has had me in its grip for the last 6 months and that had me feeling like a total failure and without hope and a generally pathetic excuse for a human being!

Dill - I have taken note of the Power of Now and A New Earth references. I'm really big on audio books, so when Mr B comes back from his contract in Australia (this Friday - yay!!) I'll get him to download them. (I suppose I could try and do them myself, but he usually finds free versions and I usually find the horribly expensive ones!!)

And LBH - that recipe for orange and almond soup sounds just yummy. And it looked like smaller proportions which is nce for when I am at home on my own!

Sky - hope you are on the mend!!

[redhibiscus]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Week four in February and we are still on our journey. I wonder how peanut, mandalay, mm, and some others are? Any word?

Dill, wondered what you meant by feeling adrift? I thank you for your lovely quote. Being AF for me means dealing with and accepting feelings of lonliness, anxiety, and stress. Not all of the time, but this weekend was tough.

Lav, appreciated the poem. This to shall pass. Even February.

Hey to sky. lodes, sooty, missbehaving, lilmea, raven and lbh.

[sooty]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Morning everybody. Cold and miserable here - snow and sleet yuk! I'm staying in and keeping warm. Going to try and bead a daffodil for St David's Day!
See you later
Keep safe and warm my lovlies
Sooty

[dill]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Greetings!
Welcome home, Lil! Loved the poem, Lav. Red, "adrift" means just as you said, dealing with feelings of loneliness, anxiety and stress. Sigh. I am ready for Spring, already! Sped, when does your son start his new job? I don't live in Indiana, but I am only about an hour from the border here in Ohio. Sooty, LBH (sausage lady), Miss B, Lode, Cyn, Sky, Raven, all, peace and strength!

[Lavande]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Good morning all,

Dark & dreary here too this morning, oh well! I'm going to turn all the lights on & brighten this place up a bit!!!! I'll deal with the electric bill later!

Welcome back Lil, your vacation sounded nice!

Hope everyone has a terrific AF Tuesday, I'll be back later

Lav

[spedteach]

FEB FAST ~ Week Four

Morning,
Sooty, all the way from New Mexico that rain and sleet must have flown over night. Stay warm.

Dill, my son graduates in June, moves in July. I will be nearby!

Had a very rough day yesterday. Hadn't slept well, was tired from lots of exercise on Sunday. Had a substitute's nightmare of a class yesterday. The kind that throw things at you when your back is turned. Tutored right after school. Got home to find a message from the woman who crashed into me saying my estimates for car repairs were way too high. I felt overwhelmed, like I was going to crack or something. I dealt with it by putting on my pj's, crawling into bed, channel surfing, and eating too many fruit roll ups. Feeling like antabuse and/or accumulating af time has totally eliminated alcohol from my stress reduction tool box.
Feeling so much better this morning. I cancelled the job I had for today. Have tutoring later this afternoon. Feel like I'm slowly learning how to take care of myself.

Will check in later.