Being Vulnerable, Slow it All Down, and I love Candy!

Good Morning from Prince Edward Island,

Last week’s blog I touched on the topic of adoption, I wish to say thank you for your comments.

This week, I found an interesting article on adoption within the animal kingdom, reading it made me think of the scientists who do great work among us. I am convinced that those who do not believe in intelligent design will awaken at the end of their research lives to find theologians sitting, asking, “where have you been, we have been waiting for you.”

Speaking of mortality, have you ever wondered? Want to find out how long?

Try this simple mortality test here. It may give you an impetus to get moving. The article even has videos how to. Click here. Take the Simple Test That Can Predict Your Mortality.

Now, if after the test you start to worry, and find you can’t sleep or the fact the Santa is coming, you may find this story on CBD oil as a sleep agent interesting.

Hannah Rimm, 25, says with her psychiatrist’s support. “I’ve been on a million sleeping pills — Lunesta made me super exhausted all the time, Ambien gave me crazy dreams, Remeron made me gain 20 pounds in a month,” she tells me. With CBD, “I’ve been sleeping through the night much more and it feels less like a drugged sleep… My psychiatrist said she doesn’t actually know the science well enough to comment because there haven’t been enough studies, but she said if it works, keep taking it and keep her updated.”

Interesting read, you might enjoy the story, by Hannah. Why CBD Oil Is My Sleep Aid of Choice. Click Here to Read.

Fortunately for me, no sleeping aids are required, spend quality time with those you love, find purpose for the day, read lots, exercise and the power of prayer and letting it go works for me — the more anxious, the more worried, the more prayer. God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, makes the answers known to me through Jesus, the real reason for the season. The Christian worldview helps me make sense of all the nonsensical. 

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” Brene Brown

All that is asked of me is to love with all my heart. 

When I love; when I don’t judge; when I trust; when I give thanks; when I serve others, inner peace abounds when I am genuinely doing these from the heart.

When the lack of inner and outward peace is not present, it reminds me to question myself honestly if any of these virtues above are missing from my thinking and doing.

Most times, the discovery is I was not loving or perhaps I was judging; maybe I was not trusting, or most likely selfishly not serving others, or not being grateful, it could be a cacophony of reasons but these would be the top of the hit parade.

What might the three things you are most grateful for today?

Feeling and acting with respect and appreciation for others could be said to be the most gracious way of living, but also the most difficult to achieve at times.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” —Melody Beattie

Slow it all Down…

Tis the season for stress on many fronts, strained relationships, money issues, self-imposed expectations to name a few.

Some say the cure is being more productive.

Laura Mae Martin is Google’s in-house, self-taught productivity trainer, leading a team of 15 others and working as an advisor to executives in a role that she invented for herself using the 20% of the paid time that “Googlers” can dedicate to a personal project.

Laura states that productivity is about “knowing what you want to do, intending to do it, and doing what you wanted to do.”

Scott H. Martin, in his blog, states that energy, not time, is the basis for productivity. Having all the hours in the day won’t help you if you’re exhausted for most of it.

Your habits define your energy levels. If you have good habits, you’ll feel energized and be more resilient to burn out, both physically and mentally. If your habits are misaligned, you can get into a cycle where you feel worse and worse, until your it’s a struggle to keep up.

Read Scott's blog post The Nine Habits to Increase Your Energy here.

Before I go, I must take care of business…

Be sure to check out our offerings online. Best Sellers, Raspberry Pie (local ordering only), lots of Island food producers products now available onTastePEI, or our line of candy, including the new all natural candy.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and if you like music, I have been listening to a lot this week is Schubert: Die Nacht by Anja Lechner and Pablo Marquez.

From the editor's notes, “the rich baritone of the cello dovetails amazingly well with the guitar in this thoughtfully assembled program. The songs, mainly on the theme of the night, sit easily on both instruments, the intimacy seeming ever closer with this The night theme continues with three lovely nocturnes by Friedrich Burgmüller, evocatively done here. The recorded sound is wonderful too.”

Click to take a listen here. Hope you enjoy.

With love from Prince Edward Island,

Bruce

ps. 

Kenny, a city boy, moved to the country and purchased a car from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the car the following day. The next morning, the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, son, but I have some bad news. The car broke down."

"OK, well, just return my money to me," Kenny said.

"Sorry, can't do that," said the farmer. "I already spent it."

"OK then, just unload the car," said Kenny.

"Whatcha gonna do with it?" asked the farmer.

"I'm going to raffle it off," Kenny replied.

"You can't raffle off a broken-down car!" the farmer exclaimed.

"Of course I can," replied Kenny. "Watch me. I just won't tell anybody it doesn't work."

A few weeks later, the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, "So, what happened with the car?"

"I raffled it off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898.00," explained Kenny.

"Didn't anyone complain?" inquired the farmer.

Kenny proudly replied, "Just the guy who won. So, I gave him his two dollars back.”