So, What Have You Been Up To?

My regularly scheduled social life has officially returned from the holiday break.  Last night our home-based, small group, Bible study group started getting together again.  This morning, I got together with other ladies from our church to knit and crochet prayer shawls.  One question that gets asked a lot in these situations (mine no different) and during holiday parties, too, is "What have you been up to?"  That question has often been troublesome for me in some situations.  Admittedly, those situations are often holiday parties with people who only have a passing acquaintance with me.  The question brings up evaluations of transparency.  How well do I know the asker?  Do they seem truly interested in what interests me or are they making superficial small talk?

Like I said about visibility back on December 26th, I want to be as transparent and authentic as I can.  Some situations, regrettably, almost require that I am not.  Despite all the work to counter it, there still is a big stigma about mental illness and the people who suffer from it.  Unfortunately, some do not understand that the human brain is just like any other organ and can suffer chemical imbalances or deterioration.  Just because there is no cast or brace on my body, it doesn't mean I don't also have to deal with big struggles to get to some place.  I won't get into it now, though.  I have kind of wandered off the trail a little.  If you'd like to read more about it, you are welcome to go through my back postings with the links to the right side there.

The people asking me about my activities these past holidays are the ones that are truly interested in what I have been doing and aren't completely unaware of what it sometimes takes for me to make it out to do things.  This is particularly true of my Friday night LifeGroup gathering.  For two years now, these people have prayed for and with me.  I have talked about some of the struggles I have with my Bipolar I and particularly the Major Clinical Depression associated with it.  Like I said, some places I should have felt safe enough to talk about my depression have been closed off with prejudices and total disinterest in understanding.

I have been all over the place yet no place so I am going to cut the chaos and head to bed.  Today has been International Hot and Spicy Food Day!  See you tomorrow!  Maybe then I can make sense!

Happy Obscure Holidays!

I have been very bad about writing here lately.  I was noticing that the last blog post I did was back at Christmas.  I'm sorry.  I have hopefully found an inspiration to post every day.  At the end of that post at Christmas I was saying that I have a "Word of the Year" project to actively seek out and express joy this year.

The search engine Google does something for some little-known anniversaries and birthdays of historic proportions.  They will redesign their site logo for the day in honor of it.  So, a week ago I decided one way I could actively seek and express joy was to find something fun to celebrate every day myself.  I came across a website that lists some of the lesser known holidays some people celebrate.  I knew of some already.  My son (who is left-handed) was born on International Left-Handers Day.  Star Wars fans have Star Wars Day on May 4th -- a spoof on one of the movie's most famous lines.  August has National Black Cat Day.  It turns out this site has something to celebrate every day.  In fact, most days have several to choose from!   I rolled out this onto my Facebook timeline the next day, on January 8th.  The timing was perfect in fact.  January 8th is, among a few other things, Joy Germ Day.  To celebrate, I used my Office skills and created my first meme. Also on the 8th is Bubble Bath Day.   


I posted my meme and changed my profile picture to some bubble bath bubbles.  I have only missed one day this week.  I figure if I'm doing ok about doing these holidays on Facebook, I can write a post for my blog every day, too.

The two obscure holidays I chose for today  are Strawberry Ice Cream Day and Hat Day.  I posted a ten year old picture of me in one of my baseball hats and changed my profile picture to a bowl of strawberry ice cream.  To celebrate in the real world, I am wearing another of my (many) ball caps.  I have a small group study gathering tonight and I was thinking of getting some individual-serving strawberry ice cream bowls to take with us if they make them.  I'll share the joy by explaining to them what I'm doing and why I thought to bring ice cream to a group meeting in the middle of January in Western New York!  Granted the weather for my little spot in it isn't bad (yet), but ice cream really isn't on most of our minds right now.

I will end this for today.  I look forward to sharing insights from tonight's group and another holiday to celebrate tomorrow.  See you then!