Shadow Shot Sunday Plant

This is from a tall plant in a small atrium...

Wednesday Weigh-In 20100922

Last week I hit the upper limit of my weight range. So now I'm trying harder to resist the temptation of high-carb foods. It helps that after a traditional Polish supper of kielbasa and pierogi, I felt so fatigued that I needed to go to bed at 7:30pm. So when I feel myself reaching for something unhealthy, I remind myself of the severe effect it can have. And I reach for a tall glass of cold water or tea, instead.

And I'm pretty sure that my craving for high carbs is related to the dwindling amount of sunlight we're experiencing in the Northern Hemisphere. I wonder if I can give myself light therapy?

Waist = 38.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Forgiveness

I came across two great texts on forgiveness last week. They impressed me so much that I want to share them with you. Besides, folks are already making plans for Thanksgiving, even here in the USA where it will take place on Thursday, November 25. So now's a good time to go about forgiving people so that we can get on with what's important -- food and drink. Haha, no, of course, I mean, friends and family. So without further dodo:

The Potato Story...

One day, our teacher asked us to bring to school some bitter potatoes and a bag of plastic. He told us to put in the bag a potato for every single person for which we have hard feelings and write the name on it. And we had to carry the bag with us everywhere we'd go for a week. Some of the potatoes were really heavy and, of course, some started to deteriorate. The weight of the bag proved to me how big was the burden that I used to carry with me everyday in my heart because of all the hard feelings and rancor. I was being cautious not to forget the bag and so I started to neglect things that were more important for me.

This exercise made me think about the price we pay just because we can't forgive something that already has happened and that we couldn't change.

Many times we think that forgiveness is a gift for the other, without really realizing that we are the first who benefit from it. We all wear potatoes that turn rotten in our sentimental "bag". The incapability to forgive is like a venom that we take everyday, drop by drop, and in the end it poisons us. Forgiveness liberates us from the burden that bitters our soul and makes our body sick.

To forgive doesn't mean that you agree with what happened or that you approve it. To forgive doesn't mean that what happened isn't important anymore or that you give right to the one who's hurt you. It simply means to let go all of those negative thoughts that only cause pain and anger. Ghandi said: Forgiveness is the quality of the brave ones. Only he who is strong enough to forgive an insult knows to love.

Stone

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand, “Today my best friend slapped me in the face.”

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone, “Today my best friend saved my life.”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone. Why?”

The friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then, an entire life to forget them.

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

Let go of any grudges and reconnect with those who are important to you or those to whom you are important. Make plans to be with them this holiday season.

Shadow Shot Sunday on the Horse Trail

Took these while hiking on a horse trail near my home....

Wednesday Weigh-In 20100915

The effects of nightly ice cream are really piling up!

Waist = 38.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Dream: Spy Plane

I'm in my living room. I hear a low-flying airplane circling my home. I look for it through the windows, which offer a panoramic view. Finally, by crouching, I can see the airplane -- a large, slow-moving, 4-engine, propeller-driven plane.

I sense that it is spying on me, so I try to hide behind furniture. But I still sense that it can see me, even though I've pressed myself into the space between the couch and the coffee table. It's as if there is no ceiling / roof on the house. So I slide myself under the coffee table. Finally the sound of the plane diminishes, and then I emerge.

I go outside into my home's courtyard. White stone walls surround my home, like a Mexican "abuela"¹. Before closing the front door, I check that I have my key.

In some areas of this courtyard, there are sheltered corner-nooks that are formed because part of the outer wall connects to the wall of the house, forming a low roof. It strikes me as a more desirable place to be if that plane were to return. So I decide to settle in / under one for a while with a book.

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¹ The word "abuela" is offered to me by the dream, even though it translates from Spanish to "grandmother."

Shadow Shot Sunday at the Festival

These shots come from the Polish Festival...