2020-04-24 — Your Graine or Mi Graine?

Hi peeps, 😊

It’s 7:15 p.m., and I’m home from work, sitting in my recliner with the keys making a clickity clack sound as I write this little journal entry for y’all.

And… I have a migraine. 🙁

It (the migraine) has sapped my energy, and I was dozing off in my recliner when I figured I’d better write something before I wake up and it’s morning and I missed a day.

On the bright side, I got up and ate something, and the migraine is easing up just a little bit. I’m not nauseous at the moment, which is better than it was a bit ago, and I’m not as exhausted as I was either.

That’s one of the hard things about this medical issue that I have: Once I get to this stage, my only choice to get out of it is to force feed and force drink myself (even if I want to throw up at the very mention of food) until my body recovers whatever it is that it’s missing.

Anyway, that’s not really important… This is, though! Guess what? Not only did I spend a good chunk of the morning working on my next autobiographical sketch (and actually making progress this time!), I also took some concrete steps toward building the organization I’ve been talking about!

Yee haw!!!

Progress!

One of the things that I’ve felt would be important to create is a questionnaire that people can take and then compare their responses to that of those who might seem very different from them, hopefully realizing that the things that are of greatest import to each of them are quite similar, if not the same, despite what the world might portray as their differences being too much to move past.

Anyway, I’m usually online much of the day (when I’m not working, that is), and I often have Facebook open. (I don’t really use it much for social things, but I am totally a Facebook Marketplace junky, frequently looking for all sorts of things to buy or invest in–land, cars, musical instruments, houses, etc).

Oh!!! Thunder!!!

Pardon me while I take a moment to admire the storm…

…

Okay, I’m back. The rain is pounding on my roof (my room is above the garage, sloped walls because, well… it’s the roof, so I hear the storm quite well.)

Anyway, back to the matter at hand… so I had Facebook open and saw that one of my sisters was on Facebook at the time, so I reached out to her, knowing that she feels very much like I do regarding humans on this earth being much more similar than different, especially in the values that are of greatest importance, and she feels the same as I do wanting people to come together focusing on the things we have in common instead of tearing each other down for the less-important things that happen to make us different.

Thinking she might be interested in joining my little project, I reached out to her, and…

She was!

So I created a little Google sheet, and we set about starting the work of creating a list of core values. Once we’ve given a worthy effort to that and have a solid base of core values (no need to go overboard and be exhaustive), then we’ll probably create maybe three scenario-based questions per value. For example, “You’re walking down the road, and you see a puppy starting to wander out into a busy street. What do you do? A. Go get the puppy out of the street. B. Lorem Ipsum. C Lorem ipsum. or D. Lorem ipsum.

That’s an off-the-cuff example I didn’t really think about before writing, but that gives you the basic idea of what I’m thinking about.

It might be better on a scale instead of multiple choice, “place these in order order of best action to worst action,” or… something. I’ll think about it more when we get to that point, but…

It’s started! More than just talk. It’s action! Movement! Progress!!!

Aaaaaaand…

The internet just went out.

Gotta love Arkansas storms. 🙃

Oh! It’s back!

Anyway, it’s good to get started. I got a bit excited by that. I know there’s a ton of work to do going forward, and I know it’s gonna be hard hard hard work. And I know that I’m gonna face some pretty challenging obstacles, but it’s worth it. No doubt about it.

We can make a difference for good. We can.

Well, folks. The head hurts. The brain doesn’t work. I’ve got right about zero ability for abstract thinking or complex thoughts of any kind. I’m in quite a mental fog right now, so I probably better throw in the keys and just enjoy the rainy thundery goodness that’s currently filling my auditory spectrum and will also soon be filling my visual one. 😁

Oh!

Gratitude first.

It’s only 8:20, so it’s dangerous to count any chickens right now, but chalk another day up to each of my daily totals so far. Coming up on a month of daily journal writing! Wahoo. 🙂

#1. I’m grateful that today wasn’t jammed with work that was already scheduled, so that I could be home taking it easy with this migraine instead of being even more miserable out working with it and in this weather.

#2. I’m grateful for this storm.

#3. I’m grateful to be making progress on this project, to actually be moving forward instead of just talking.

#4. I’m grateful to my sister for being who she is and wanting to participate.

#5. I’m grateful that I can rest right now. It’s only 8:23, but I’m seriously thinking about calling it a night very shortly. …after I enjoy this storm a little more.

Thank you, you wonderful people you. Thank you.

Loves, hugs, good will, and good night!

Let’s Lift the World.

~ Stephen