Touched by his noodly appendage

I have truly been touched today. Last night I started reading His gospel on the way to knitting and I have hardly put it down or stopped thinking about it since. There is so much good stuff in there. I typed out the 8 "I'd really rather you didn'ts" at work this afternoon just so I could post them on here. Except I left them at work. That will just have to serve as a teaser for tomorrow. And isn't that just His way? Keeping us enthralled.

One of the "I'd really rather you didn'ts" is all about not preaching on at people so I'm not going to try and convert you or anything but I do want to share some of the ways His Noodliness gave my day meaning.

1. The morning began with me taking all the oldbyrne stickers off my monitor and replaced them with the simple "WWAPD?" which is really all one needs by the way of inspiration. (Stands for what would a pirate do)
   
2. I was given the opportunity to reflect on how sometimes a pirate just has to accept the "Arrrr" when it comes along when a colleague did something really stupid.
   
3. At lunch instead of automatically choosing a sandwich I had the delicious and nutritious homemade sweet potato soup because it is orange, which is as close to red as I get without ketchup and because red is His preferred colour.
4. My faith was tested on the way home when I read further into the gospel and discovered that penguins were cast out from FSM heaven and sent to antarctica which is the least preferred continent of His Noodliness. This is because it is so cold the beer volcano freezes. And also there is nothing to make pasta from. I have recently found myself to be tempted by penguins but I realise this was just the FSM putting temptation in my path. I can be strong.
   
5. My faith was further tested when I read that every pirate, as well as accepting the "Arrrr" needs a parrot to repeat his words back to him (or her) when you've been partaking too freely of the beer volcano. Now I normally repeat what Pooch says or even pre-empt what he says because I know what he's like when he's grumpy. Wouldn't that make me his parrot and so therefore I am not a pirate? But I felt his noodly appendage as my mind cleared and I saw how on the road to piracy you can assume many roles to gain a better understanding of the final role as a pukka pirate.
   

All this may sound a bit odd but I am really loving the whole FSM thing. I am actually looking forward to reading more of it later in the bath.

The end of another year...

The last year has brought many new experiences into my life but more importantly I feel now like more of a whole, better balanced person. The madness has continued up and down but with the help of my new therapist I can see ahead to a time without pills and even without therapists. As superficial as it may seem the new hair and new clothes make me feel more like I'm accepting the way I am and getting on with things as they are rather than wishing things were different.

When I was at the psychiatric hospital one of the big themes was 'irrational beliefs' where you want the world to be other than it is. For example you get a parking ticket. You are annoyed because it is unfair and yet you didn't pay the fee or parked illegally or whatever. So despite the fact that that is how things are you are annoyed because 'it' is unfair and 'it' shouldn't be like that. So deeply entrenched into me was this lesson that now whenever I start to think or feel something is unfair I fair nearly automatically remind myself that that is how things are and either get over it or do something differently. It has made such a huge difference to me although I still haven't rid myself of feeling that way and there are times when I forget to remind myself about it and other times when it takes an awful long time to calm down.

This brings me on to this evening and because I sometimes forget this I did end up ferociously angry and having a bit of a boo sometime after midnight. As unfair as something may seem there is a point where you have to either accept that it is like that and live with it or do something differently. Another big lesson from the hospital was that someone can only upset you if you allow them to - you have to give them that power. To take away that power you have to effectively no longer care what they say. And surely that begs the question - if you don't value their opinion or if their actions have no effect on you, what are you doing with them?

I know roughly what 2007 will bring in terms of work, the MBA, living, travelling, seeing people and so on but there are still some big questions to be answered. I was making an ATC earlier and came across a saved scrap with the words TAKE TIME printed on it. It seems fairly good advice really. Afterall despite all the neigh or nay or ney sayers I'm certain that 2008 will follow 2007 and then 2009 will come along and so on and so there really is no need to make decisions when I may later realise that I can't live with it and do want to do something differently.

I hope you all had a good new year and hope you all find things the way you want them during 2007.