March 12, 2023 a thought for today, Don't use oiled paper to wrap up fire. Chinese Proverb

I was thinking we had bible study before the service this morning so I arrived at church an hour early this morning. Well, actually it wasn’t a whole hour early it was half hour early because we had a choir rehearsal at ten. I have been “forgetting” things more than usual the last few days.  Along with the bible study this morning, forgetting to put the anthem in the bulletin for this morning. I know it comes with age but I think in this case I have been concentrating on getting my diabetes back in balance and letting other things take a back seat. After all, I spend time every day specifically in “brain exercise games” purposely to keep my memory as good as I can.😊

The first upload I made for March 11 was for the assignment “contents of your junk drawer”. This particular drawer is very narrow and handy for the smaller items belonging in a “junk drawer”. 

The message at church this morning was given by a long time member. He usually gives a very good presentation. For me, this morning it was a little slow but then it could be my frame of mind right now. There was a donut fellowship this morning but I took a pass for this time. I didn’t want to be tempted until I am back to being a little more sure of my food choices. But I do miss the “bonding” that takes place during fellowships. 

My second upload for yesterday was titled “soap”. I decided to use the Dial hand soap dispenser on the kitchen sink for my “prop” for this photo. 

We had a bit of snow this morning. This has been a very mild winter to snow has been on the rare side for the usual Ohio winters. There wasn’t much and it was gone quickly. I let Sweet Pea stay out a little longer than usual for her first-thing-in-the-morning-outing. Her hairs were covered with snow flakes. 

As I am writing this missive, I am downloading (multitasking) a memory card to the church facebook page.....our streaming system is having some difficulties but the camera is still recording so to make up for the breaks in the streaming I am asked to download so members can still see the service albeit not ‘live’. 

One of the uploads for today was titled “repeat”. I had some time this morning when I arrived at church so I was adding some photos to my assignment and archives at the same time. This is one of the images I generated, several arches In the architecture in the sanctuary. 

The word for today is dream.  Dreams are the hushing of the bodily senses, that the eyes of the Spirit may open, Harriet  Beecher Stowe.  A dream itself is but a shadow. William Shakespeare.   Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Dreams are the touchstones of our character. Henry David Thoreau.  Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake? Leonardo da Vinci. When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness, Tecumseh.  I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind, Emily Bronte.  God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The interpretation of dreams is a great art, Paracelsus. It is a happiness to wonder, it is a happiness to dream, Edgar Allan Poe. Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man, Pliny The Elder. There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams.  You're something between a dream and a miracle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. Abraham Lincoln. 

The second image upload for today is “pens”. I was able to take this photo this morning while I was able to capture several photos for today’s photos and the archives. 

The article  title sounded interesting so I thought I would peruse, disseminate and share. It touches on the subject that mental health can benefit from doing good deeds. A professor at the OSU did a study on this subject and concluded that “kind acts can improve social connections, which appears to help those suffering from anxiety and depression”. This study started as a dissertation. There were studies of other researchers across the country included in this project. One incident that was sighted was a “paying it forward” event at a Starbucks drive thru. This happening apparently helped improve social connection which is “one of the most important ingredients for well-being in life”. The study apparently further proved that kind acts can “reduce the extent that people fixate on other people’s perceptions of them”. There were one hundred and twenty-two participants in Columbus involved in this study. They were given tasks that could be assigned without psychological training or therapy sessions. The individuals conducting the tests  wanted to noted “that acts of kindness are not necessarily a substitute for more traditional treatments and urge people experiencing distress to contact a mental health professional for an evaluation”. The project lasted for a five-week period and resulted with some impact. Some of the good acts were as simple as baking cookies for friends or strangers. One of the participants was a senior at OSU and a “socially anxious person”. She reported that she was given the assignment in a psychology class in 2022. She did three kind acts a day for a week. Some of her assignments were holding open doors, complimenting people, and “leaving sticky notes bearing positive affirmations in bathrooms across campus”. She said from her part in the study she learned that “even small things made a difference” in the other people as well as in her own life. 

I think it will be Taco Bell for dinner tonight (I have to check some sugar and carb content first).

Joy

                             this abandoned cart was in a rather “scenic” spot