Day 676, I Walk In Beauty

Photo by xiyaan maldives on Unsplash

 

Wow!  It is July first.  I woke up from the living room floor to the sound of blowers drying out the water in our carpets from our hot water flood yesterday.   I have fasted almost 16:24 hours of the 17 I planned.  Unfortunately, I did not lose weight.  However, I did gain self-control.

 

The bathroom tub is a mess from what the servicemen did in reaction to the flood.  I could insist on their cleaning it or I could clean it myself.  After everything those men went through yesterday, I hate to put one more thing on them.  Let today bring me wisdom on what to do.

 

Yesterday, I did not eat much dietary fiber.  I am starting today with a high-fiber breakfast.  I added a single, frozen cherry into the blueberries as a reward for being good with my Top 5.

 

I ate two Brazil nuts since I missed eating them yesterday.

 

 

I am now looking at my Achieve 50 kg mindmap.  That is the last part of my Top 5 for the day.  I have come to the part about doing my chiropractic exercises.  I always do them in the living room.  You have probably guessed that my husband is sleeping peacefully on the living room floor.  Is there room to do them?  Would I wake him up?  Is there anywhere else I could do my exercises?  I think not.

 

There was enough room.  No.  I did not wake up my husband.  I am now logging my reps for each of the four exercises in Google Sheets.   I may not have done those exercises today except that I knew I had you watching.  Do whatever it takes to do your routine, especially what will preserve your bodily functions.  This is harder as you increase in years, yet all the more important.  I let myself go too long while I was depressed, but now that my mood is healthy, I am motivated to turn around.

 

Here is a JV Life Tracker (Vibrancy) report of my exercises.  I did them 19 of 22 days from June 7-28.

 

 

 

As usual this morning, I walked to the park by the library.   The park’s maintenance crew has now turned on a beautiful, multi-layered waterfall at the entrance.  The sparkling cascades reminded me of the meaning of my name.  KaeLyn:  Kae means pure and Lyn water below the fall or “pure water below the fall.”  In the interior of the park, water jets are now available for the children to play.  However, none were amusing themselves there as I passed by.  I stopped at the library next to the park and checked out a book.  I said to the gardener who was cleaning the brook by the bridge, “You’re making the park pretty.”  Seemingly pleased to have his work appreciated, he struck up a conversation, mentioning the newly-activated waterfall and children’s water playground.  He said there would soon be children there too.

 

I came home, read the new book for a while, and ate a huge lunch.  Now I am composing again, reflecting on the beauty of my walk.  When I was a youngster living on the Navajo Indian Reservation, we sang a song, “I Walk in Beauty.  Yes, I Do.”  Let me see if I can find it on YouTube.  I found it!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

That brings back a lot of memories.

 

 

Speaking of beauty, I want to revisit my Values To Actions table.

 

	VALUES TO ACTION
	Date:
	Value	Action(s)	Comments
	Beauty

 

We can enter the value of beauty into this table and attach our diet, exercise, and grooming routines.  Sure, we want good health, but we want to exude it on the outside as beauty.  That is appealing, not only to ourselves but also to our mates.   No matter how old we are, we can be beautiful.  Beauty is not just physical appearance.  It is also a spiritual attitude.  I once conversed with a young woman who was by Hollywood’s standards overweight.  However, she had a well-fitting, beautiful, formal dress and accented her lovely features with beautiful jewelry.  I remarked on her appearance, which she accepted gracefully.

 

Accept the type of beauty you are endowed with through genetics, ethnicity, or experience.  What you have is always unique.  You can shape it, but you cannot make yourself look exactly like another person.  You will always look like you.  Be the beautiful you.

 

 

I have eaten my entire calorie budget, and it is not even 1:00 PM.  I could start a fast now.  However, maybe I need more food.  I do not seem to be doing well on the scant amount of food I have been eating lately.  I am glad I can abstain from food for a while.  There is a time to do that.  Maybe not so early this afternoon, however.

 

Our condo is still in disarray after yesterday’s events.  Blowers remove moisture from the carpet, but ever so slowly, and their sound blocks my husband and me from conversing, not that it is that easy anyway.  We have both lost some of our hearing.

 

It is now past 3:30 PM.  I started a fast.  You guessed it.  I called it Beauty Fast.  My husband wants me to order some groceries.  While going over the calendar this afternoon, I pointed out that maids from Castle Fresh are coming on the ninth.  My husband said okay and did not seem to remember his reluctance to have them over again.  Whew!  I need a break!

 

 

EVENING PRAYER

Dear Lord,   I think sleeping on the living room floor last night left me feeling tired today.  Nevertheless, it has been a beautiful day.   I remember the song, “I Walk In Beauty” from my childhood. The Navajo’s are beautiful people.  I have fond recollections of living on the reservation for five years, including my first four years of grade school.   Lord, help me to work toward my values, including beauty.  Now that I am 58, beauty takes some work.  I am glad my husband is pleased with me.  I would not do well without him nor him without me.  He pays for a beautician to come over every two weeks to give me a manicure.  I have the most beautiful nails.  Our beautician also cares for our hair and my husband’s toenails and fingernails.   Additionally, she shaves my husband’s beard.  It is a luxurious treatment I would never have afforded on my own, yet it is one of my marriage perks.  I think I have it okay.   Lord, I am grateful I have it so good.  In less than two weeks, we have maid service as well, so our condo can be as beautiful as we are personally.  I am still on the road to reach my beauty goals.  Let me find beauty along the way.   Bless my readers to “walk in beauty” themselves.   Amen.

 

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