My New Project: Day One

 Greetings and salutations my faithful follower(s)! My absence has been due to what all of you face every day-life's unexpected and expected challenges, distractions, interruptions, frustrations, and well, the not-so-easy stuff of life. But I'm here today, and hopefully I will be back again soon, because I have some new things to share! 

I've had a project on my mind for awhile-maybe for about 6 months or so, and it's been nagging at me to get on here to share. I wasn't sure what format I was going to share it in, whether it would be a vlog, a blog, a book, or a podcast, but as it unfolds, it will tell me itself. Maybe it will just be shared here and go no further, who knows. 

The Lord keeps giving me the word "alphabet", and as these life challenges arise, I keep getting key words, phrases, and life lessons along with them. This has been going on for quite some time, so I started writing them down. This has been life-changing and very freeing for me in many ways. 

Secondly, I started a new way of eating, which is new to me anyway. I started Intermittent Fasting, or IF, and have found that my mind has become much clearer, a lot of my physical symptoms are starting to lessen, and I am becoming more self-disciplined. I never thought I would be able to pull this off, but here I am, a month later, free of the old "diet brain" I used to put myself through for years. My eyes are brighter, I'm sleeping better, (and that's saying a lot for this menopausal chick!) and even though the tests are pretty rough and close together, my moods aren't too shabby these days! 

So, on to the project! 

I've been thinking a lot about what makes a person "happy". What constitutes a life filled with contentment, satisfaction, and an ability to rise above circumstances, and still be a pleasant person to be around. I'm always conflicted on whether I should use the word "happy" or "joy" because they are similar emotions with different meanings. Happiness is an external emotion generally dependent on temporary circumstances, while joy has a spiritual nature, based on a selfless gain, and it chooses to see the good in things, even if that doesn't necessarily "feel" good, because it leads to Who is good. Joy is also deep contentment, much like happiness, as some people who have gone through great sorrow have also experienced great joy. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5  I take notice of people who have been through tragic or life-altering situations and I pay attention. What are they doing to make it through each day? How do they cope? What are they doing differently and if they are thriving, how can I be more like them? As a chronic illness warrior, and a person who struggles with other things, I don't want my problems to become my labels. I don't want those things to be how others see me or know me. As I googled one of the authors of a favorite devotional series, I learned she has struggled her whole adult life with chronic illnesses and has had many challenges. Who would know it by the incredible writing she has done? She has not made that her platform. One mistake I make and others make is assumptions. While I don't want my illnesses to define me, it is also difficult to hear someone "expect" me to be 100% functional because they see my house clean on a Saturday, or heard I went shopping on a Tuesday. We don't know the daily details of anyone's lives. Assumptions are not wise. Anyway, I digress. 

For the sake of my project, I will attempt to produce 26 traits beginning with each letter of the alphabet.  Today's Word for a "happy" life is ACCEPTANCE, though there are so many great "A" words from which to choose. While I will try to keep future posts shorter, I won't promise anything! I'm hoping this will be a weekly post, but it could be daily, if the pen strikes. 

Acceptance. People aren't always going to accept who we are, what we do, what we've chosen, who we've chosen, or even what we wear, say, eat, believe, think, or look like. That's a given in life. One of the biggest things people want is to be accepted by others, and to me, if we can get past always wanting and needing that to be happy, we can truly be free to be who we are meant to be. The kind of acceptance I'm referring to here is accepting that some things will never be the way we envisioned them, some people will never be who we thought they were going to be. Life isn't going to turn out the way we had it on our vision boards, and all of that is okay. We don't have the body we always wanted, the hair we thought we had to have, the money we always thought was important, the person we had our eye on, that house on the hill, and the car with all the trimmings. Acceptance can be that the person we depended on is now ill and unable to be who we need, or they've passed on and we have to do it all now. But we are doing it all, making necessary changes, and it's going to be okay. Acceptance is that we didn't get the promotion, or even the job, but we shifted our thinking, rerouted, and found a different path to take. Accepting that who we are, what we have, what we've been given, and what has happened in our lives is all for a very specific purpose is very freeing, and it's one step closer to being able to be happy and content, even if things don't turn out the way we want. When we know that God accepts us in exactly the condition we come to Him in, we can better accept the mess we are and the flawed beings around us. Doesn't it feel better to accept people where they are rather than try to change them into what you think they should be? Yikes. That's God's job, and so are we, full of flaws and mistakes, yet He sees as beautiful. We could take a cue from Him in acceptance!

Oh God and Heavenly Father, grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

                                                                                                                                                                                     The Serenity Prayer