there is a nunnery up the hill from me. once in a while when i'm walking the dog, i can hear them, singing. tonight from my open window, they are singing the halleluiah chorus from handel's messiah. it's. so. beautiful. it's a little gift.
this week is thanksgiving and the little things are worth noticing. like the abbey music. like the light pulling out the colors- of the bougainvillea, the sky, a mango tree. but today i want to be thankful for me, in my life. i don't do this very often and i bet you don't either. i'm really quite good at being annoyed with myself, frustrated and impatient with myself, tired of myself and giving up on myself. and i'm pretty bad at appreciating myself- so i'm writing this for the most- of- the- times, when i forget that i'm okay. i'm just going to look at today- this day- what i did and didn't do- and i bet if you do this, you will find that actually you are okay too. maybe you can be thankful for you too.
i got up at 6 (after only 6 hours of sleep) made breakfast for 5 people, packed lunches and snacks for 4 people, got 4 people to get themselves dressed, brushed, book-bagged, shoed and in the car, and put dinner in the slow-cooker.
i remembered to mobile money to someone for transport to clinic; contacted the hospital where he'd stayed to get the receipts, so he can bring them to court tomorrow am- to try and get payment from the guy who hit him with his car. orchestrated how all this would happen with the police man from his slum.
spent time meeting with God, reading the bible and in prayer. meditated on forgiveness. prayed for help with forgiveness.
took a shower, got dressed. emailed work about our weeks schedule. sent mike a good morning message (as he's 8 hours behind). made a todo list. reviewed our community questionnaire for work. finished reading a book on development and community health. discussed with team changing our strategy. took a call about patient with a brain tumor. made several follow up calls about the mobile money, transport and receipt collection- half in broken luganda. ate lunch. researched successful development stories. went to bank where there was no money. photo copied the receipts. spoke with mike on the phone. picked up the kids at school. straightened out the after school sports/ clubs dilemma. when home. gave 4 people snacks. more phone calls about the receipts. replied to messages from employee about forgotten charger left at house.
left with bryn to get football boots, via the slum where i could drop off the receipts. needed to get gas. stuck in traffic, helped him with spelling and sentence structure while in traffic. wondered if / when i will run out of cooking gas. found person in slum to give receipts, went with bryn down to check on patient and leg. attempted to communicate with them about plans for tomorrow's court and next return to clinic. failed to get football boots b/c the used shoe bin didn't have his size. stopped in to check the balance on the modem before skype meeting tomorrow. drove home. walked the dog with jude. got in a fight with random dog walker whose dog attacked mine- ending with me shouting "you are fake!" while walking away and jude saying "mom he's laughing at you." (awesome- like i care?). strongly encouraged zoe to finish her table setting chore. confirmed rose's homework was done. asked someone to feed the dog. got everyone to wash their hands and sit down. replied to message from former patient. ate dinner. evening prayer. got ice cream for rose and bryn, did long division with jude, got zoe in the shower, sent christmas wish list to mike for jude, learned about the 40 new tech inventions by reading a post from a cool friend on fb. quickly reviewed the news and shared with the kids the ending of the northern white rhino- learned from jude that there are both northern and southern white rhinos - with some snow leopard facts thrown in. helped bryn find swim bag, videoed rose doing her version of tae kwando. tucked 4 kids in bed. locked up the house. refilled the water purifier. turned off lights. was handed a freshly fallen out tooth, with the request for money tomorrow (some people do not believe in the tooth fairy). spoke with best friend who lives in california. messaged with employee about plan for tomorrow. replied to request for a loan. lost power intermittently for an hour. read embassy alerts about pope's visit to kampala this week. messaged with my brother. replied to emails. wrote down the expenses for the day. brushed my teeth. put down the mosquito net. started to write.
while i'm sure that was incredibly boring and unhelpful- if you write out your day- you will see that you should be thankful for you. we. do. a. lot. and that is to be appreciated- if by no one else, by yourself! you are amazing!! look at what you do! and what you don't do. i only yelled at zoe once! none of my kids hurt each other or cried today. everyone ate three meals. (which is better than yesterday :). it's the little things.
so today. be amazed by you! be thankful for you! you are keeping things afloat and you probably don't even consider that important. but it is. you are doing your life. even when it's boring and un-exotic, even when you wish you weren't. you are showing up and you matter. we are to love ourselves- it's actually a command- so be thankful for you! and if today felt like a flail- that's fine, because in 6 hours, you get to do it again :)
good night.
this week is thanksgiving and the little things are worth noticing. like the abbey music. like the light pulling out the colors- of the bougainvillea, the sky, a mango tree. but today i want to be thankful for me, in my life. i don't do this very often and i bet you don't either. i'm really quite good at being annoyed with myself, frustrated and impatient with myself, tired of myself and giving up on myself. and i'm pretty bad at appreciating myself- so i'm writing this for the most- of- the- times, when i forget that i'm okay. i'm just going to look at today- this day- what i did and didn't do- and i bet if you do this, you will find that actually you are okay too. maybe you can be thankful for you too.
i got up at 6 (after only 6 hours of sleep) made breakfast for 5 people, packed lunches and snacks for 4 people, got 4 people to get themselves dressed, brushed, book-bagged, shoed and in the car, and put dinner in the slow-cooker.
i remembered to mobile money to someone for transport to clinic; contacted the hospital where he'd stayed to get the receipts, so he can bring them to court tomorrow am- to try and get payment from the guy who hit him with his car. orchestrated how all this would happen with the police man from his slum.
spent time meeting with God, reading the bible and in prayer. meditated on forgiveness. prayed for help with forgiveness.
took a shower, got dressed. emailed work about our weeks schedule. sent mike a good morning message (as he's 8 hours behind). made a todo list. reviewed our community questionnaire for work. finished reading a book on development and community health. discussed with team changing our strategy. took a call about patient with a brain tumor. made several follow up calls about the mobile money, transport and receipt collection- half in broken luganda. ate lunch. researched successful development stories. went to bank where there was no money. photo copied the receipts. spoke with mike on the phone. picked up the kids at school. straightened out the after school sports/ clubs dilemma. when home. gave 4 people snacks. more phone calls about the receipts. replied to messages from employee about forgotten charger left at house.
left with bryn to get football boots, via the slum where i could drop off the receipts. needed to get gas. stuck in traffic, helped him with spelling and sentence structure while in traffic. wondered if / when i will run out of cooking gas. found person in slum to give receipts, went with bryn down to check on patient and leg. attempted to communicate with them about plans for tomorrow's court and next return to clinic. failed to get football boots b/c the used shoe bin didn't have his size. stopped in to check the balance on the modem before skype meeting tomorrow. drove home. walked the dog with jude. got in a fight with random dog walker whose dog attacked mine- ending with me shouting "you are fake!" while walking away and jude saying "mom he's laughing at you." (awesome- like i care?). strongly encouraged zoe to finish her table setting chore. confirmed rose's homework was done. asked someone to feed the dog. got everyone to wash their hands and sit down. replied to message from former patient. ate dinner. evening prayer. got ice cream for rose and bryn, did long division with jude, got zoe in the shower, sent christmas wish list to mike for jude, learned about the 40 new tech inventions by reading a post from a cool friend on fb. quickly reviewed the news and shared with the kids the ending of the northern white rhino- learned from jude that there are both northern and southern white rhinos - with some snow leopard facts thrown in. helped bryn find swim bag, videoed rose doing her version of tae kwando. tucked 4 kids in bed. locked up the house. refilled the water purifier. turned off lights. was handed a freshly fallen out tooth, with the request for money tomorrow (some people do not believe in the tooth fairy). spoke with best friend who lives in california. messaged with employee about plan for tomorrow. replied to request for a loan. lost power intermittently for an hour. read embassy alerts about pope's visit to kampala this week. messaged with my brother. replied to emails. wrote down the expenses for the day. brushed my teeth. put down the mosquito net. started to write.
while i'm sure that was incredibly boring and unhelpful- if you write out your day- you will see that you should be thankful for you. we. do. a. lot. and that is to be appreciated- if by no one else, by yourself! you are amazing!! look at what you do! and what you don't do. i only yelled at zoe once! none of my kids hurt each other or cried today. everyone ate three meals. (which is better than yesterday :). it's the little things.
so today. be amazed by you! be thankful for you! you are keeping things afloat and you probably don't even consider that important. but it is. you are doing your life. even when it's boring and un-exotic, even when you wish you weren't. you are showing up and you matter. we are to love ourselves- it's actually a command- so be thankful for you! and if today felt like a flail- that's fine, because in 6 hours, you get to do it again :)
good night.
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