Showering is Sometimes Overrated!

I worked out this morning with my usual gang.  There was a lot of heavy breathing and sweating going on (maybe even with some of the other girls as well!) so it was a good one.  I judge all exercise by how sweaty my clothes and hair are afterward!  I saw a quote once that said "If you look good after working out than you didn't work hard enough."  I've so got that covered!  After a workout I go straight home, up the stairs and into the shower.  I don't check my email, I don't ask anyone anything; I shout "Hello, I'm home" and head straight upstairs !

But not today.  No, today I sit at my computer breathing in my own stink and even getting a chill from the sweaty clothes still on my back.  I have, at current count, five things on my calendar that MUST be done by the time I pick the kids up at school for their piano lessons and taking a shower isn't even included in the count.  Yet I sit here.  I'm actually starting to prioritize them so just in case they don't get done...!  I know I'm going to feel like a million bucks after I'm cleaned up, but still... There are so many stairs to go up and my chair is so comfortable!

And so I go, I really must.  I will tear myself away from my faithful PC and my cushy chair and be the responsible adult I think I am...or strive to be...most of the time...!  I will take my shower, dry my hair, put on some make-up (a requirement!), and face the 19 degree day and accomplish most, if not all, of my tasks!  (I think I hear the National Anthem playing in the distance).

So farewell, dear friends, until the next time I plant my butt in this here comfy chair!!  May your day's accomplishments outweigh your excuses not to do them!

~Eileen Cassidy Bishop

Merry Holidays Are Over To You!

I know, I know, I sound like Scrooge.  I actually feel a bit like Scrooge.  Not the Grinch; he didn't want Christmas to come at all.  I wanted Christmas to come, I just wanted it to take the hint and move along, let New Year's Eve sit down for a while before he was handed his hat as well.  Not that I don't love Christmas morning, Christmas Mass, Christmas Carols, Christmas cookies (realize these likes are not in order of importance!)  I do!  What I'm not a fan of is decorating, getting the Christmas cards done (and mailed BEFORE Christmas Eve), shopping, wrapping (HATE wrapping!!), DE-decorating; you know, the stuff your mom always did when you were young and oblivious.  Yeah, that stuff!!

Well, now it's January 2nd.  My house looks like Elves Gone Wild Episode 1.  All I need are some tipped over eggnog cups and curly-toed shoes peeking out from under the couch to complete the picture.  Yes, before you wonder, there ARE elf hats strewn under the tree!  There's a Liv Doll sitting on a Baking Soda Rocket, a Jerry Garcia tie leaning against a chin-up bar, and a Hexbug dangerously close to my box of chocolates!

So many people use the New Year weekend to dismantle all the Christmas decorations and wait patiently for Valentine's Day to come.  I'm usually one of those people.  This year, however, our Annual Saturday-After-Christmas Family Get-together, thanks to the 25th falling on a Sunday with the following Saturday being New Year's Eve, will take place on the second Saturday-After-Christmas.  It's actually kind of nice being forced not to DE-decorate so soon, but still.....   Needless to say, this year was an artificial pine since the kids insisted we put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving and if it were the real thing, we would be looking at a tree resembling a giant toothpick and be in violation of at least a few fire codes!  It's actually very very nice and very easy to water!

But I'm drifting.  I sit here disappointed in myself for being happy it's just about time to file away another Christmas season.  First is was my birthday; used to absolutely love my birthdays!  Would tell anyone who'd listen (or not listen, I didn't care!) that it was my birthday!! Yeh me!!!  Now?  Hmmm...don't get me wrong; it's not that I don't love getting birthday greetings nor do I turn down presents.  It's just not the hoopla it used to be and I'm letting the same thing happen to Christmas!  So to that end...

My New Year's Resolution is as follows:  I will try, for the sake of my young children and inevitably for my own sake, to strive to look forward to every holiday with the same enthusiasm as my kids.  I will do my best to decorate for Valentine's Day, St. Pat's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas willingly and happily.  

However, since my resolution technically starts for the Valentine Holiday, I'm giving myself six more weeks of moaning and groaning.  

Happy New Year everyone!  May God grant peace on Earth, good health to you and your loved ones, many tears of joy and few, if any, of sorrow, and happiness, happiness, happiness!!

Now I have to go fix the candle that went out in the window throwing off my outside Christmas light Feng Shui!

~Eileen Cassidy Bishop

A Peace For My Mind

Where do you find peace?  Where do you find comfort?  Is it looking at old pictures or movies?  Is it from watching your young children (or anyone's young children)?  Is it remembering past vacations or outings?  Can you find peace by just sitting on your couch?  I have a friend who says you can...if you try.  So I'm going to try!

Peace isn't going to come up and hit me over the head; that would probably be more like War anyway.  It's not going to come gently tapping at the door or call me on the phone.  It will only come if I call it and will only be with me if I allow it to stay.  So how do I call it?  Or more importantly perhaps, how do I get it to stay?  How do I maintain inner peace once I achieve it?  I think I'm stressing myself out even more just trying to figure this out!

Maybe, just maybe, I'm over-thinking it.  Maybe my friend is right.  My friend, by the way, is a professional trainer and physical fitness coach so he may actually know what he's talking about.  Maybe I do need to just sit on the couch, breathe, clear my mind, and let peace in.  The sitting on the couch part will be easy; I do that a LOT!  Breathing?  No-brainer!!  Letting peace in sounds pretty doable too.  It's the clearing of my mind that I think will be the tricky part...but I'm not going to over-think it.  I'm going to try.  If it doesn't work the first time, or doesn't last (good things never do without effort, right?), then I'll try it again...and again...and again.

In a perfect world, once we climb the mountain and meet the Dalai Lama, we are rewarded with knowledge and inner peace...we will understand the meaning of life and be forever at peace because of that knowledge.  Now, in the real world, our mountain peek is always just out of reach or our Dali is balanced precariously on a bed of gravel and each time he starts to tell us the secret, we slip on the gravel, falling just out of hearing range.  Or maybe, even if we make it to the summit and we hear with perfect clarity what the Dali has to say, by the time we travel back down the mountain and back to our everyday lives, the meaning of life...of our individual lives, has changed and we have to turn around and start the climb again.

I ask God often for peace and although I know He's listening, and I know He does and will help me, I'm thinking He may help me more if I help myself more. He'll see me making an effort and hopefully make it less and less of an effort as time goes by.  So no more thinking about it and planning to start tomorrow!!  I'm off to the couch to breathe!

~ Eileen Cassidy Bishop