Last year finished up very nicely. Everything was pretty laid back, both at work and at home. I decided to jump fully into selling Essante Organics, which means that I created a Facebook page to talk about all the wonderful products they are making; my page is called Quintessential Organic Living. They are a small company with a big heart who donates to their local charities in Phoenix. The more I learn about them, the more I love them. I am anxiously waiting for my business cards to arrive.
I spent some time during this last week to work on my new website for Your Total Health Experience. It has been a mixture of joy and frustration. I really like the home page I created, but it is not displaying right on tablets. The program is supposed to automatically adjust the page based on which device the person is using. Some pages look better than others. I was on the program designer’s website looking for help when I saw them advertising that some big changes were coming. I hope that those changes will solve my problems; in the meantime, I guess I just wait.
My husband and I had decided that I needed a new computer because the laptop he had bought a few years ago for my business was not quite powerful enough for all the things I need to do with it. So I got a new laptop for Christmas! I was super excited, but didn’t really have time to work with it until all of the family went back home. The laptop came with Windows 10, which is considerable different than Windows 7, which I am used to. It has been a bit of a challenge finding my way around all the apps, and finding things like where you go to uninstall programs.
Fairly early on in the day yesterday I was using my new computer to search for an owner’s manual on the internet. I somehow ended up at a site that attacked my computer with at least one virus. My internet security software stopped 16 Trojans but programs kept getting installed on my computer. I finally had to unplug the internet connection to stop the downloads. I worked for hours trying to remove all the unwanted programs and to remove files that didn’t belong on my computer. Some of the files I could not delete. I was pretty distraught about the whole thing. Finally, I was able to return my computer to normal by using the restore point that had been established the day I turned it on for the first time. After that, it took me a while to set things back up the way I had them.
By the time we went to bed, both my husband and I were feeling a little under the weather. He had been sneezing for days and suffering with a constantly runny nose; his voice was also getting rough. Last night we were both feeling tired and run down. Pressure was starting to build in my sinuses. I did not sleep well that night, last night.
I felt better once I got up this morning. I had planned to take it easy today, but since I was feeling so much better than I expected, I went to visit my daughter. She lives an hour and a half away so I was out and about for several hours. It was after I go home that things started going downhill. The sinus pressure returned with a vengeance. Suddenly I was feeling very tired. After dinner I grabbed my computer and went to sit on the bed to write this post. As soon I it is finished I will have a nice hot cup of herbal tea and go to bed for the night.
But, through reviewing all that happened over the last week, I have come to some important conclusions (journaling is helpful for this sort of epiphany). It seems that the theme of the last week was one of needing more patience and slowing down. It seemed that all of my endeavors took way longer than I thought that they should have. What seemed to be simple tasks ended up as a series of tasks to get to the end result; and some of them are still not resolved, like making my website work flawlessly on all devices.
So I am thinking that 2016 is going to be about tuning in to hear the messages telling me what is important at the time, where to focus my attention, and when to simply just wait and be patient. This has been a reoccurring theme for me from time to time, but I get the impression that I better learn this lesson well if 2016 is going to be all that I hope it to be. I think this next year will be amazing and liberating in many ways. I really feel that good things are coming, not just for me, but for others as well. I am ready.
I bought a little dish today that has writing inside of it that says, “LIVE every moment, LAUGH every day, LOVE beyond words.” I think I will make that my motto for 2016. I put that dish on my desk so that I would see it and remind myself that those are words to live by every day, starting today. You can make my motto yours, too. Here’s to a fabulous new year!
Isaiah 55:8-11 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts”, says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace…”
