Nov27/2025 Thanksgiving 25

         Today is the day we give thanks for the good we have received throughout the year. Each week we should reflect on this gratitude because it sets us up to receive even more. Not only to be thankful to God for the stuff we got but the stuff we don't get. We pray for stuff but sometimes we don't get it because we weren't ready for it. Find that distinction. It is an important one. When stresses come it shows us who we are. How do we deal with it. Do we lash out in exasperation. It is at that time  that we take a back seat and see what would be our best course of action. Our reactions is what matters. Whether we are wrong or right it doesn't matter but how we respond does matter. I fail on this scenario, quite a bit. Got to learn to bite my tongue before making things worse. Learn to put that pause into your interactions with others. Will the action promote healing or not. Use this in every aspect of your life. There is allot of discord out there, let's see if we can do our part in healing it. We want to keep our equanimity in tact. Our life will be more peaceful for our future days. 

        This day more than any other is of great importance in bettering our lives. But only if we live it every day and not just the last Thursday of every November. Be thankful and embrace it everyday.

Nov 22/2025 Rolling Pepercorns

         One day  I'm in  St Vincent Depaul thrift store and I see a glass pepper grinder with black and silver overlays. I snap it up for  $2.50. At the Dollar Tree, I buy $1.25 pepper grinders and take these corns and transfer them into the new pepper mill. On the plastic pepper mills the grinder part does not screw off. So, I take it outside and rest it on concrete and give a medium hit with the hammer to the side of grinder. I finish it off by prying it off with screw driver. Takes 1 minute. I put some corns in the new grinder then add red pepper in then the peppor corns again. Then the red pepper. I fill the grinder to top this way.

       This day I didn't want to go outside. So, I used a heavy duty steak knife to cut the plastic cap. Then switched to a butter knife to finish it off. It popped off in a couple minutes. But not in a controlled matter. Corns on the floor , in the sink and under the microwave. Lost about 1/8th of a cup of corns. Aa I picked up the microwave it was stuck to the hard formica. Got 3 feet loose after some effort but the 4th didn't budge. I worked the microwave from left to right while still lifting it up. It finally let go.

       So this negative event turned into a positive. The floor got a good sweeping in which it needed. The sink got a good scrubbing and that microwave problem. Now when the first of every month comes. I will lift the microwave so it doesn't become a problem. The seal is good to prevent the microwave from slipping around. 

         So when negative things happen in life, don't get mad or try to get even' look deep and find the gift. It is there. Is it always easy,  NO.

         This year I have been trying to be mindful. Yesterday I walk out the door and check for my stuff. No wallet. Back to the house. Well at least I didn't get to the store and buy stuff and then find no wallet which I've been known to do. So a 2 min mistake instead of a 40 min one. This mindfulness has been working out for me. Happy about that.

         I read where a lot of nutrients are located in the skin area of veggies. So I decided to try putting a grapefruit peel in a blender,  an added lime and lemon juice. It blended into a pink juice. Looked good but tasted lousy. Bleech! Good thing I had pineapple juice in the fridge. It doesn't always work out.

Nov 12/2025 Stairs Can Bring You Up or Bring You Down

        Last week, I waa looking for my other slipper. I always had 2 , now I'm down to one. The one I found was in my bedroom. Been a week and I still can't find it. So I was wearing my heavy duty sandals and I'm near the basement steps and the door is open. For some reason I'm looking to my left away from the steps. I turn to my right and the sandal catches the tile sideways causing me to tilt to the open staircase. I put out my hand to catch myself on the door jamb. Saved myself. It waa a lack of focus on my part. A family member in their 80s took a misstep on the stairs recently and put themselves in major pain. Waited 2 weeks for the operation on his shoulder. In pain for 2 weeks before operation and now after. Pain meds weren 't cutting it.  I am very greatfull that I didn't go down those stairs the wrong way.

        What did I learn, to be more focused and having gratitude. A small thing could've become a very major disruption to my life. Spirituality plays the long game. No need to hurry anything. It is the accumulation of many, many small events over the course of a life time. Recognizing it as truth will definitely make your journey a lot smoother. If you are obsessing about anything, you can change it by changing your attitude about it. You can say what am I missing here. There is a lesson here for me. So these little potential problems could of turned into something major and unpleasant big time. That little thing gets mega gratitude from me. See how these little occurences in life have saved you from major harm. This is real contemplation. Learning from other's misfortune will also help in developing gratitude in you. This way their lesson becomes your lesson as well. Take 1 day a week and look for the lessons you experienced small and big and write them down in your journal.

Nov 07/2025 Pancake

         I wake up around 5:30 am. everyday and pick up the phone and scroll the apps. Around 6 take care of the cat. Then exercise with the 20 pound dumbell and various body stretches. After 21/2 years I have muscle tone in the arms. Which was my goal. I took the slow road. It worked out really good. Last month I got a free flu shot without insurance. Lucked into that one. The last 4 months I was hearing about the shingle shot. Each year I would hear about it. But now it is even more so, for me to take notice. I take that as a nudge from DS to get it done. This one will not be free.  300 from a drug store 200 from the county. My mother once had the shingles and it was not fun one bit.

        Now, for the pancake. I would alternate between eggs one day to cereal and to something new a pancake, around the first of the year. Got a mix and used water. It didn"t go to well. But I kept trying every 3rd day. Making them too thin, over done and not too tasty. Then I decided to add, buttermilk. The results were not that good as well. In April I found a mix with Bluberries im it at Wallmart. I pour the mix into a small square bowl. Just a little shy of half a bowl gives me 3 small 4 inch diameter pancakes. Now, these blueberries if you can call them that were little blue micro  balls that could pass through a fork's tines. In truth you can't really call them Blueberry pancakes. By June my abilities were 4 out of 10. One day I saw blueberries at the store and got them. Added them to the mix, big improvement. I stopped with the buttermilk. I take a non- stick pan and strike it with a butter stick unsalted butter. Then drop a loose batter into the pan. Another improvement I made was adding a little more water. I was always making it too stiff. Another hard part was staying focused in not over cooking the pancake. If it got overdone , I would scrape it with a serated knife. I use a wooden spatula to limit my use of plastics with food. Today I made the best pancakes ever, looks and taste. All in all it was worth the effort. This endeavor helped me in perseverance as well as keeping focused.

        When I eat breakfast I like to listen to chants I find on You Tube. One of the chants is HU. I keep the volume low, it's a nice pleasing effect. It starts my day off with a positive spin.

       Have a great day!