Thursday Things
October 29, 2009.

Ordinarily, Thursdays are days on which I would try to focus extra on being thankful. However, I have had an exceptionally rough couple of days this week, and I'm afraid I'm feeling more than a tad on the ornery side. Hence, my self-imposed and possibly going to be long-term absence from Facebook. Facebook is wearing extremely thin with me. The only reason I'm there is to relax and have fun. If people are going to politicize it to the hilt, then I'm picking up my toys and going home - and am likely to STAY home. I am interested in the things which are good, pure, noble, honorable, true, and lovely - the real things which bring people together rather than divide them by turning them into humorless jackals. Some people claim to be interested in peace, but all they're doing is blowing a lot of stinky, hot air around which divides one person/group from another. Peace comes from within and requires that we lay down our lives for one another; it does not come from a heart filled with contention, arrogance, and selfish pride. And blowing hot and stinky air around is not conducive to the unity of the brotherhood/sisterhood of humankind.

I have a devotion to St. Anthony of Padua - a great, great Franciscan Saint. In one of my little prayer books to do with St. Anthony, on a certain day each week, we are called upon to do something nice for the person we like least. Oy gevalt! Holy crap! Talk about Miss Chris fussing and fretting!  As Father Larry Richards put it recently: "We only love Jesus as much as we love the person we like the least." Ouch. Make that DOUBLE ouch. No - make that TRIPLE ouch. I have a particular person whom I am more than a little inclined to wish to see strangled (figuratively speaking, of course!) and it has been extremely humbling to me to realize that I love Jesus only as little as I love this one person. I am trying to work hard on cooperating with God's grace in this matter. For me, it is impossible. With Him, ALL things are possible.

Now that I've vented some spleen, I can go on with the cheerful inanities which seem to draw the highest number of visits to my lowly little vanity blog!

* Miss Maggie McGee, the Wild Celtic Kitty has been exceptionally kitten-like as of late. The (much) cooler than normal October weather certainly agrees with her. She is running in full tilt "Bouncy Tigger" and "Road Runner" Modes these past few weeks. She just turned eight years old in early September. Maggie is eating us out of house and home, and has especially enjoyed entertaining herself by playing The Door Game™.

* On the sad side, Maggie has been missing her brother, one Mister Kiki Thomas McFierceson, Esquire. It's been over a year and a half since he died, and Maggie eventually became accustomed to being an only cat, but lately she has been fussing again. I know she wants another kitty to play with, but WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO GET ANOTHER CAT. Maggie has turned into a full time job; with my low energy level, I simply cannot deal with a second kitty at this time. It actually used to be easier when we had two cats - even though Mr. McFierceson required insulin shots twice daily. The two "kids" kept each other amused. So, those of you who are cat lovers and/or are of a praying purrsuasion, please offer up a little two second prayer for my little girl to settle down and be happy without another critter in the house.

* Funny thing, I just had an amazingly vivid dream a week or so ago that we got a second cat, but that he bit. Thankfully, dreams don't mean anything. I really don't want another cat! Or dog! Or bunny! Maggie is a handful in and of herself! She's a delightful handful, but it wouldn't be fair to her or to the other cat (or to my dad and me) to bring in Kitty Number Two.

* My bedroom is bedecked with Christmas decorations already. Furthermore, I plan on putting up the Christmas tree this weekend in the living room. Perhaps I'll spend my few higher energy moments later today dusting Christmas ornaments.

* Oowee! I just recently renewed my magazine subscriptions to Better Homes and Gardens and to Taste of Home Holiday. BHG just arrived in the mail on Tuesday with pies on the cover. I can't wait to dig into some homemade pumpkin pie! BHG also had a fantabulous sounding new recipe for Cranberry & Walnut Muffins. Yum, yum, YUM!

* I don't plan on spending any of the holidays in person with family members other than my dad (and my mom, if she comes up to get a puppy from the breeder). It's not only that I don't want to CATCH flus and colds at family get togethers; I also don't want to TRANSMIT them. And now with the latest research on CFS including the hypothesis that CFS is caused by the retrovirus XMRV, I am guessing that my family would just as soon have me keep my distance at least until more is known. It's okay. I'm so tired from CFS, fibromyalgia, and migraines a lot of the time that being something of a hermit actually agrees with me. Plus, my parents and I are extremely close, and I am blessed to have two such fine and wonderful human beings for my dad and mom.

* I need to get back in the habit of knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, and learning how to tat. My hands need to keep busy! I'm still not finished with Maggie's little red wool kitty coat that I started knitting last winter. And I have fisherman's wool yarn for making cable knit ear bands to go with my fisherman mittens and scarf which has been waiting for a long, long time. It's almost payday... what I wouldn't do to have a day to go to Herrschner's Yarn Shoppe in Stevens Point and simply fondle all the nice woolly wool yarns and come home with a truckload of yarn to knit and crochet with. I haven't made an afghan for myself in twenty years, and I would like to make one.

* Four a.m. marks five hours without a migraine! WOOT! Time for me to get downstairs in the basement and work out on the Air-Dyne for awhile. Daddy and I are apparently coming down with a cold (it's harder for him because he's not accustomed to being ill most of the time like I am) and I need to get some exercise before I enter the realm of fever again.

*I will be blogging more, as I really have sworn off Facebook. Private emails will be happening a bit more, too!

So sorry this was a bit strident in tone and not as cheerful as usual. For cripes sake, please let me have an opinion once in awhile! I tire of being so nice all the time! I'll try to make up for my crankiness with my Fall Into Reading book/CD/movies list (still working on composing that) being nice.

Each of you are in my prayers! As ornery as I sound tonight, I really do care about people! May God bless each one of you and wrap His arms around you to comfort you for what you are going through.

Much love in Jesus,

- Miss Chris

Thursday Thanksgivings and a Blog Challenge
September 17, 2009.

Note: I am in need of exercising my gratitude muscles, so I thought I would begin blogging things I'm thankful for... before Thanksgiving Day in November!  God has truly blessed me in so many, many, MANY ways in body, mind, and spirit; truly He has been extra, gloriously good and kind and merciful to me. Thanksgiving happens to be my favorite holiday, so... why not begin celebrating it early?! Of course, EVERY day should be Thanksgiving! Seeing as how so many people's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, I thought I would begin a blog challenge to each of you to blog your thankfulness as well. If I can get my eyes open after coffee this morning, maybe I'll even begin a Xanga blog ring for Thanksgiving/Gratitude; we shall see. Those of you who know me know that I can often tend to be enthusiastic about new things and then run out of energy. If I do start a Gratitude Blog Ring at Xanga, I'll post the link to it here later. In the meantime, please consider yourselves warmly, humbly, and cordially invited to blow the dust off your blogs and to begin thinking of things for which you are grateful. And, if you're a rabid Facebooker, note the handy tool which Xanga has on your blog editor page which enables you to post your Xanga blog entries at Facebook. :) And for those of you from the Ragamuffin and Tatterdemalion groups who use blogger or livejournal or wordpress... please start the Thanksgiving "bug" there as well!

What I am going to do today is begin my list in brief this morning, and then add to it at the end of the day, or during the course of the day. Being thankful helps me get my mind off of things that otherwise bring me down. There truly IS a silver lining to every cloud, and after nearly twenty-nine years of a chronic and often acute battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Migraines, I will testify unceasingly to the fact that for every cross there is in life, there is also a built-in consolation - actually consolationS plural - if we will but take our eyes off of the problem and focus them on the God Who loves us.

***
I am thankful today...

- for clean drinking water. Do I realize how many people in the world do not even have clean drinking water? What a gift! I don't ever want to take this for granted.

- for the shade of stately and lush old maple trees lining my quiet little street.

- for the cool peacefulness and slowly coming-aliveness of the late night going into early morning hours; for the calm at the beginning of the day.

- that even though I suffer great physical pain on a constant basis, at least the illnesses I have aren't going to kill me (leastwise not directly, leastwise not anytime soon!). I don't enjoy my illnesses, but I am glad that if I must have crosses then at least I have the crosses that I have and not someone else's. Call me crazy, but I would rather have my crosses than breast cancer or alcoholism.

- for my parents, and for the fact that both of my parents love me enough to pray for me. Many people are not so blessed these days as to have their parents pray for them. There is tremendous power in the prayers of parents for their children; fathers and mothers have amazing God-given power to call down graces and blessings from God's throne to rain upon their children (and grandchildren).

- that my Grammy was so enamored of things Jewish and Yiddish. Somehow I have a suspicion that somewhere in the family tree is a good branch or two of Hebrew blood, and I'm proud of it. With Rosh Hashanah coming up (or is it upon us already?), I find myself reflecting on and remembering Jewish jokes which Grammy's (good Jewish) doctor shared with her, and which she in turn shared with our family. I find myself going out of my way to spend time in the iTunes store looking for Yiddish and Hebrew podcasts, and also digging out the Itzhak Perlman CDs, which leads me to being thankful for...

- the precious and wondersome gift of hearing, for this morning I am going to listen to Israeli klezmer music. I want to be especially grateful for the gift (and that's what it is - A GIFT!, not a "right") of hearing, while my ears are still basically good, because hearing loss runs on both my mom's and dad's side of the family. I get a taste of hearing loss with migraines, during some of which I go partially deaf. On the other hand, with fibromyalgia and migraines, I also (most of the time) have "bionic" ears. I have super ears. The gift of hearing music, and hearing bird songs, and hearing English and other languages spoken lovingly and/or beautifully, is among my top ten favorite things to be thankful for. May I never, ever, EVER take these things for granted!

And that's all for this morning until later. Time for some French Roast coffee!

May the dear Lord bless each of you! I do truly pray for everyone who stops by here. Even though I don't know everyone's name, GOD does, and He knows you, and He knows and cares about every facet of your lives. May this day and the days to come be an oasis of sweet and refreshing joy and thankfulness for each of us!

Love in Jesus,

- Miss Chris