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I am Liebster’d and It’s Grand

The last award I received was the Stylish Blogger award.  It’s only happened a couple of times but it has always been a fun surprise.

Our friend, Carl D’Agostino, awarded FriendtoYourself.com the Liebster Blog Award.  Why?  He says it’s to bring additional recognition to this site.  I now understand that FriendtoYourself.com qualifies because it has less than 200 followers.  This is the one time I am glad to have less than 200 followers because being honored by Carl is huge for me.  If you check out his comments here at FriendtoYourself.com, his cartoons and comics on his own blog, i know i made you smile, and start interacting with him through his comment section, it won’t take you long to understand why.

Carl has over the past year+ become my friend and mentor.  He never asked for it.  You know that in the presence of a generous spirit, we naturally give without expecting more in return than that person is who they are.  His intuition and sometimes edge, inspire and instruct.  I’d be a fool not to listen.  He doesn’t ask for it.  But you know how it goes.  In the presence of a generous spirit….  (Liebster means ‘beloved’ in German.  Is that right Thysleroux?  I think it’s real sweet.  Thanks Carl.)

The rules roll that if you receive the award, not only do you have the, “less than 200 followers,” but you should have more.  Those are the rules :).  That, and, you should link back to the blogger that nominated you (yours truly) and nominate five more blogs.  Let them know that you nominated them, or it may be that your tree grows in a forest of Internet Web and jungle but never seen.

Here are five blogs I am honored to share space with…. Five out of almost a google more out there that I admire – all for their own reasons.  (You know who you are.)  People doing what they love to do and working hard at it are a delight in life.  Keep on.

1.  Absurd Old Bird ~ aka Val Erde… who plays with words and images.

2.  The Duck of Indeed The Duck of Indeed  Art, writing, and one person’s journey to do it all, – with, well… Duck.

3.  KANSAS MEDIOCRITY, – with Tracy Phillips.

4.  ocdbloggergirl.com LIVING WITH OCD…WITH HUMOR, – with Lisa

5.  Living Victoriously Hope, Life, Inspiration, and Realities, – with Marie.

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Lost But Now Found

A three-year-old labradoodle.

Image via Wikipedia

What a night.  Mr. Rick C. was right.  Sometimes I do sit home and medicate.  It is not self-medicating, though, as I have my own prescriber.  And last night I was using my self-care tools to survive:  0.25mg of alprazolam got me through the first half of the night crisis, and then 2.5mg of zolpidem got me through the rest.  Despite these helpful medications, I dreamed of Timothy and Jack in the worst of circumstances.  I was amazed at how many positions a coyote could hold my Labradoodle in his mouth.  My eyes are still swollen red cherries and my complexion is bad.

Earl and I were not connecting.  Who does when they are afraid and grieving?  I simply told him,

Sorry honey.  I’m no good.  Can’t connect.

Earl is gentle.  He responds easily to words.  He doesn’t react easily to negative emotions.  He is a wait-and-see kind of guy most of the time.  His eyes are not red this morning.  He did not medicate.  He did not make this about him.

We made forty flyers describing our Great Pyrenees Jack and Labradoodle Timothy with our phone numbers and including a lucent plea for anyone to call if they saw them.

Our three kids in the mom-van, I planned to go door-to-door and harass people – I mean ask people – if they knew anything about our dogs.  We first targeted our neighborhood mailboxes where there is a bulletin board for community announcements.  I lifted my flyer to staple in front and center position and, “Darn-it!”  My kids had broken my stapler.

Pyrenean Mountain Dog

Image via Wikipedia

While banging my stapler on the wall, I noticed another white sheet flyer.

2 White dogs found!

More tears.  I called the number and blubbered.  The woman was comforting me, suggesting more alprazolam and a good psychiatrist she knew.  Our dogs were happily frolicking in her back yard with her two German Shepherds.

Timothy and Jack are home now figuratively and literally in the dog house.  We have a dog trainer, at much expense, coming tomorrow to help us.  We will also be placing an electric wire around our fence before the rest of our neighbors cement a reactive opinion about us.  Although our dogs are important, we hope to live here a long long time and don’t want to be picketed out of the neighborhood.

Thank you so much everyone for your kindness, for your empathic responses and patience with your own Dr Q.  It was a large blessing for my fragile self last night to know you were all there.  I hope that blessing comes back to you.

Keep on!

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Connect With Others to Get Friendly With Yourself

Self-Care Tip #81 – Connect with others.  Be a friend to yourself.

So you have bought into the famous, “You are not alone” stock.  After 2 months on psychotropics (medications for emotional illness,) you finally have an interest in people.  You are at least a little motivated and less afraid of things that move.  You don’t feel like you are the reason for original sin and more often than not, you think happiness might be more than what shopping can offer.  What is this strange and unfamiliar sensation?  And what to do with it?

It is time to connect.  Many of us get to the point where we no longer want to hide, we don’t hate ourselves, and we don’t hate others.  We get to the place of showing our under-belly just a little to the big wide world and are shocked that the only thing we feel is the wind as everyone is rushing by!  Just when we start wanting what we spent so much time hiding from, we seem to have forgotten how to connect with others.

It is no secret.  America is culturally impoverished.  We have little of cobblestone streets to meander down, dressed in clean clothes after a days work, checking up on neighbors and gossip.  We have few degrees of activity between full throttle and dead/no heart beat.   Come now!  How to connect in a world where our parents expected us to pay rent when we turned 18years old?

If you find yourself in something of this situation try on one of these basic tools and see what fits.  You can’t expect them all to.  So if you strike out a few times, keep on!

1.  Volunteer – for example, and in no particular order…

2.  Meetup.com – an awesome site to find people interested in what you are interested in.  e.g. book clubs, skiing, small business, Italian

3.  Support groups

4.  Write!  Although this at first thought may appear isolating, it is not necessarily.

  • Blog!  🙂
  • Journal

5.  Toastmasters

There is so much more.  Please let me know your thoughts and I’ll keep adding to this list!

Self-Care Tip #81 – Connect with others.  Be a friend to yourself.