both health and well-being are states of being on a continuum; I think they can have different continuums (or is that continuui? oy -- this question makes my head hurt) anyway . . . I prefer to think of my well-being on a scale of being higher or lower and if on the down side, what I might be able to do to bring it higher and if that is even appropriate; sometimes, having my well-being on the lower side of well is a signal, an indicator for me to pay attention to something in my life that may or may not have anything to do with my health; the same holds true with my health; whatever is going on with my health may or may not be in my control and may or may not be an indicator of my well being; regardless, both require that I pay attention because they are me

cheerleader

I am already working on a second Master of Science degree (in counseling; I already have a Master of Public Health) and then I will work on the doctorate, but this is just the formal schooling with the degree. Like everyone else here on Gaia, I am forever enrolled in the school of life -- I wish I had learned how to be a better mother, I wish I could learn to love better; I wish I could learn to accept others, be wiser, make better use of my 20/20 hindsight; I would ask for life to teach me patience, insight, when to keep my mouth shut, when to speak up, and how to know that everything is okay just the way it is.

I cannot begin to know what true empathy is . . . I have failed at it so many times and let so many people down in my life for my lack of it. I think Mike (mikesjournal) has a good idea of it and Laurie and Just Me know it clearly for themselves, but even if I have lived through similar experiences as others, I cannot claim to know that I have experienced the same emotions, the same pain or joy, the same learning, the same unfolding. But I can claim the same human experience, because I am human. I can claim the same Oneness that I know we all belong to and have the right to be here the same as any other person. You cannot tell me what my experience is any more than I can tell you what your experience is, but it is inside this unknowing that we can find common ground and create our empathy.

just a couple of minutes ago, responding on sandi's post

Okay. I'll play along. Besides right here, right now, (and I have no desire to be any place else), and only if round-trip time travel is included, then I wanna see the dinosaurs . . . no stupid bones stuck in the museums (been there, done that). I want the real thing. Oh, and a box lunch to take along, too.

my granddaughter

reading . . . sometimes I would even cheat and read ahead in the book we were assigned so I would know more than the other kids . . . I still do . . . I have already read all the books that haven't been written yet.

As a recovering Catholic, God has taken on different meanings in my life; I had the good fortune when I was very young of being introduced to the Roman Catholic mass in its original Latin and I remember often begging my mother to take me to church so I could sit and listen. I had a pretty good relationship with God, Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit. We all spoke Latin. I didn't have a clue what anyone said and didn't need to. I felt loved. I felt as if I belonged. I knew I was home. Then Vatican II came along and I met a very different God. Things got so bad I had to make up sins so I would have something to confess on Saturday nights just so I could go to communion on Sundays, else, according to those nuns, I was going to hell. It has taken a lifetime to rediscover the Latin God who I loved, the one who lived in me and talked with in a language that required no words to be understood.

My favorite Christmas toy ever . . .