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Good morning! And thank God it’s Friday!!! It’s been a long week with pulling all the loose ends together for our deck project, and a flooded basement! We’ve had virtually NO rain all summer. Then Wednesday we got as much as we get in a year. It backed all the sewer drains up and our basement smells like it! His nibs was ripping carpet out at 9:00 last night. Now we have to have a crew come in and power wash and sanitize everything. Doesn’t that sound like fun??? 😦

But that’s not why I’m blogging today. A few weeks ago I stopped by my friend Janet’s blog at Elixir: Footnotes from the Third Age. Janet had recently spent five weeks house sitting for one of her kids in Perth, Australia. She had planned on this being a sort of retreat time for her writing, but she found out that was easier said than done.

She did, however come away with some lessons to ponder from her time there, and some questions for others.  I really appreciated what she had to say and thought I’d give answering those questions a shot. (My answers are in green.) Please do stop by and read her full blog at Lessons Learned in Perth.

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It is easy for me to be alone. Sometimes too easy. (How easy or difficult is it for you to be alone for a long period of time?)
I have to be in just the right mood to be alone and enjoy it. I’m pretty comfortable with my own company and you would generally find me scribbling in my journal if I have some quality “me” time. BUT! When the being alone goes on and  on and on, I begin to miss the stimulation of interacting with other folks. That happens a lot these days since I’m home alone nearly every day of the week now. One day has started blurring into the next. And I find myself asking with Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?” I thought my life would be very different than this. Before the MG thing happened 18 months ago I was ALWAYS on the go. I’ve found it’s been really unnatural for me to slow down…

I am braver than I think but not always, and that is okay. (When was the last time you felt brave?)
That depends on who I’m around! I’m always brave in the neurologist’s office. (Or it may be that I’m just plain stubborn!) It’s very unnerving to sit and discuss life-saving methods in case of a Myasthenia crisis. But I refuse to give into the fear that creeps up the back of my neck…till I get out to the car!

I can be stressed, unhappy and exhausted but I can still examine, analyse, reflect, plan and problem solve … though exhaustion slows the process. (How do you work through the hard times?)
Well, there’s where that bull-headed streak comes in handy again. I just force myself to keep going. I know instinctively that if I sit down even to rest for too long, I will fizzle out on whatever I’m doing. So I put my head down and charge at tasks just like that bull!

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My family and friends have a unique knack of saying and doing the right thing at the right time. (When was the last time a friend or loved one came through for you just at the right moment?)
Last weekend. I was sitting with my brother-in-law (who is paralyzed) so my sister could get some much needed time away. I was stressing because I try to do laundry on the weekends when the guys are home to carry the clean clothes up stairs for me, and I had four loads sorted out to do. But Lo and Behold! when I got home, his nibs had done them all! Yeah, I’d say he came through for me. What a relief!

Relative strangers are a felicitous blessing. (How has a stranger helped you?)
This is an easy one. It just happened! We had gone out to dinner at the Sizzler Steak House and were waiting in line when the gal in front of us turned and asked us if we knew the Steak and Malibu Chicken were on sale for $6.99 instead of the normal $12. We didn’t! You can be sure I thanked her. It was very sweet of her to tell us. I like to think I don’t know many strangers.

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There! I told Janet I would do that WEEKS ago. I think I’m finally getting caught up with myself!

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Picture Sources:
Deck — moi
Frog — The BridgeMaker
Girl — Wake Up World
Bull– Flickr
Clothes — Yummy Mummy Club
Helping Stranger — The Situationist – WordPress.com