The perfect way to slow your pace

[dandymomma]

Deep breaths and anti-anxiety medication...

[Teresa]

That was really nice Rudy.
I too take special times and do special things once and awhile ( need to do it more)
to slow down and center and ground myself.
I always end up feeling renewed..

[LShortt]

I understand exactly what you mean Rudy.  Mine is my deck...preferrably warm weather 6'ish in the morning, first cup of coffee, listening to the birds wake up and watching the flowers stretch their petals to meet the morning sun.  That's my balance.

[kdfrawg]

At this point in life, I'm afraid to slow my pace down too much for fear I won't be able to speed it back up again later. And that's the truth.

[Rudy Taylor]

Bless your heart, Kerm.

Wouldn't you just like to kick that MS out of your life for a single day?

[kdfrawg]

LOL! Yessir, Rudy, I would. But it seems like that MS feller is pretty firmly entrenched in here. If I kick it, depending on where I kick it, it hurts me! Other places where I kick it, it doesn't matter because neither one of us can feel it, anyway.

It's funny, but when I dream, and if I'm in my dreams, I don't have MS and I'm still about 35. That must be why they call them dreams, huh? So in my dreams, I can still run five miles a day, and I usually still live in Moss Beach. I wonder if that is true of everyone with a serious disability, or if some people have to have the disability and dream of themselves with it, too? I don't think that I've ever heard anybody talk about that.

I ask the darnedest questions, huh?

I'm editing this in later. The other thing is that I don't really think about my MS that much. I sort of automatically know by now what I can and can't do, so it is all second nature. And, probably more importantly, I know a lot of people much worse off than I am, from MS or whatever it may be. So it seems silly to dwell on what I have when I can be trying to help those people deal with what they have.

[Rudy Taylor]

Kermit:  You're a living "Serenity Prayer:" Thanks for inspiring us.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

[Mom70x7]

As Jim and I get on in years, we've added the Senility Prayer:

Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,
the good fortune to run into the people I do like,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.

[kdfrawg]

I may have picked that attitude up from a wonderful fellow named Russell Russell Russell. Russell was one of my best friends and the rock star of Alcoholics Anonymous in the San Francisco Bay Area. I didn't need his help in that area, but my long-time girl friend out there had divorced an alcoholic just before I met her, and Russell was the husband's sponsor for a while. Judy decided to get rid of the husband but keep Russell as a friend. It was a good choice.

Russell had been an alcoholic since he was a mere lad. He got his high school diploma in a reformatory; he acted badly when he was drinking, almost always ending up robbing somebody. Eventually he did a lot of hard time in the federal prison system (including places like Sing Sing and Folsom) before he finally sobered up. When I met him, he had been sober for six or seven years; he died sober about 10 years ago. And sober he was a very gentle man, the very definition of "gentleman," who was able to laugh at himself and his former life. He had some great stories.

The serenity prayer is a big part of AA and was a big part of Russell. It was always taped up in a prominent place in his motor home, where he lived when he wasn't bunking wherever I was living. Right under that was a sign that said, "If you're here and I am dead, call Michael to take care of the dogs, even if they have started to eat me.", followed by my cell phone number. So, I guess I picked up the words of Serenity from Russell. I have always tried to take that group of words to heart. I think probably everybody should.

[Joanna]

"If you're here and I am dead, call Michael to take care of the dogs, even if they have started to eat me

So Kermit ?...  Well ? ...  Did you end up with Russell's dogs? Just kidding.  What a great story that was!  Russell sounds like a really fun, interesting person, and must have had a great sense of humor. 

When I need some serenity, if it's night time I get a bowl of popcorn & a pepsi, then snuggle down in my giant chair with a good science fiction book.  If it's daytime, I love to go out & do yardwork.  Mowing is my favorite - it drowns out all the other thoughts I have.  I like to cut brush with my loppers too (there's plenty here and I never run out, you'd have to see it to believe it).  I used to like to garden as well; but since we moved here we haven't got our gardening started yet.  I'll save it for the future, when all this brush cutting is under control  .  Sometimes I just write l-o-n-g letters to old friends or family ~ That either reminds me of all the blessings in my life, or it shows me just how whiny I'm being so I have a chance to adjust my attitude AND my letter before it goes out. Hooray for word processing programs!  Either way (even when I don't send a letter if it's especially whiny) it give me a chance to organize my thoughts and come to terms with any stumbling blocks I'm facing at the time.  And I have to agree with others, it is peaceful & relaxing to set out in the quiet morning or evening and just enjoy nature ~ excluding mosquitoes that is