Thank you

Thank you for your words of calm and encouragement yesterday - so many of you.

I feel more positive today.

So many people have been so kind and helpful over little things that have meant the world today.

I am in less pain - well from the ankle .... the shoulders and knee are suffering crutch strain LOL

The ankle is turning a fabulous shade of black and green which I think is a good thing as the bruising inside is now coming out so must mean it is healing.

It is less swollen today - though as soon as I walked in 'THE BOSS' aka Nij made me sit down with it elevated.

So a more positive day all round.

I also took more care of myself and accepted I probably didn't need to walk as much as I usually do and some things could be covered by others to save extra steps.

I have another scrap page to share today which was made a while ago.

It is another page for the Austria album and was a magical memorable night. For my 40th birthday we made a special trip - to see the Passion Play in Oberamergau. I had been planning to go see it for my 30th birthday with my Mom but she was taken from us earlier that year so it never happened. Partly in tribute to her Nigel and I went 10 years later as, as you know, it is only staged every 10 years.

This is the restuarant we ate at on my birthday night. It was just gorgeous - so pretty and all lit with fairy lights.

The picture is on a flap which lifts up to explain all about the evening and why it was so special.

Today I am thankful for

feeling more positive
kindness of others
healing

The cats tried to make me feel better last night too.

I rarely have double cat (in truth they are really too big for one knee) but they knew their Mommy needed those extra hugs yesterday.

Me looking wan last night!

This made me laugh today!

And I have something cousin Joyce sent me which is lovely

“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”

James Allen

We have the gift of reason in our mind and we can use it to cultivate our mind and let if grow good things that will bring joy and happiness to us.

Cultivate your mind by filling it with knowledge and information that will allow it to grow and give you all the confidence, strength and ability you need to live the life you aspire to. It is your choice, there is always a choice, if you want to live your life through someone else, letting others direct you thinking, then you can get that from TV, magazines and other media or you can think for yourself and develop your own mental muscles to create the life you want for yourself.

You live in a world that is dominated by the media; remember when you read an article in a newspaper or magazine it is not an absolute truth but it is the opinion of the person who wrote it. The facts may be there but they will be coloured by the values and beliefs of the person who wrote it, just as this thought is coloured by my beliefs. You do not have to take my opinion of that but you can reason it out for yourself, and make your own decision as to what you will believe and not believe.

Your mind is the window of your life that you are looking out of every day, your reasoning power can be what you use to clean that window. Not everything that is thrown at that window has to stay on it; you can use your reasoning muscle to clean some of it off. Let’s say someone says something to you that does not lift and inspire you, in fact it makes you feel really bad. You now have a choice to let it stay on your window or obliterate it, you can think about it and let it play on your mind and continue to make you feel bad, or you can clean it off your window, let it go and reject it completely as an untruth or something you can learn from.

Build your own life upon your own values and beliefs and use your reasoning power to stay strong to those values and beliefs.

Have the greatest day cleaning the window of your life by choosing what will stay on your window and what you will clean off by using the gift of reason.