This hangs in our family room, and almost every morning, I read from it. I don’t necessarily succeed in living all these rules on a daily basis, but given so many of my life experiences and memories, I do try to live in a way that I practice the following as often as possible:
Be Bold
Be Legendary
As much as I love April because it is my birth month and because another academic year transitions to summer, it is also often the cruelest month as we reflect on all that still needs to be done and the short amount of time we have to do it.
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Some real, do-able, every-day habits here in the following article. I excerpted the 5 habits below, and I especially like the section on service. Being of service is about action, and I like that all of these habits are about purposeful action.
The 5 Habits of Purposeful People
Our ultimate purpose is to serve others, for it is in the act of service that we find the greatest potential for fulfillment. Rather than live from a place of fear and selfishness, we live from a place of connection and inclusivity. Because it creates lightness and a sense of loving kindness toward others, serving simply reinforces our reason for being here.
A couple of things this week caught my attention this, but I haven’t had a chance to follow up or watch yet, so I store them here to come back to.
This is a documentary called “All of Me” which “shines light on our attitudes and prejudices about obesity — its causes, challenges, and the intense psychological struggle so many have with food that no surgery or diet can cure. The Girls take us through their food addiction and emotional eating with a searing honesty. For a group so often vilified, joked about, or ignored, All of Me provides a platform for their stories and encourages viewers to take a fresh look at our own prejudices and complicated relationships with food, fat, and our bodies.”
I also came across these article, which report on the STAMPEDE (Surgical Therapy and Medications Potentially Eradicate Diabetes Efficiently) trial. A colleague and I are very intrigued with the use of “efficiently” and “eradicate” in the title and also the acronym.
Gastric Bypass Surgery Highly Effective in Treating Type 2 Diabetes | TIME.com.
Obesity surgery proves effective for treating diabetes.
Calm you shall keep and carry on you must.
This is much, much, easier said than done, but deliberate breathing always helps. 🙂
“You don’t always need a plan sometimes you just need to breath, trust, let go, and see what happens”
I’ve never been a huge April Fool’s Day fan. It seems kinda cruel, and when a friend’s partner texted to let usr know he had broken his ankle, it was just believable enough that he had us for second. We kinda got him back…by making up something about his favorite sushi restaurant.
Most importantly, today marks the first day of my birthday month! Let the celebrations begin!
This image reminded me of all of the benefits of exercise. All of the following are true for me. I was telling a friend just today that it’s a busy, stressful next couple of weeks, and I was beginning to worry about how everything would get done. Without even thinking, I said I will make sure to work-out more and that will help me cope with all that is going on around me. Later, I thought, whoa!, I really have internalized exercise as a stress reducer. Well, go me!
I’m pretty sure I might have posted something like this before, but it’s a good one. 🙂
I was telling some friends tonight that I thought it had been about one year since we came and looked at the house that has become our home. I went to my facebook and sure enough, we first came to see the house on March 29, 2013, which was Good Friday last year. We weren’t necessarily looking to move, but I had been keeping my eye on a couple of neighborhoods near campus when this one popped up. We liked it the first time we saw it, but when we saw it the second time, we fell in love. The wall coming down the stairs that Shane could hit his head on went from being a deal-breaker to something he could live with. (I don’t think he’s hit his head yet, so that’s good.) This is the first picture (left) I took of the house when we came to see it. I don’t remember saying it, but Shane swears I looked around and said, “this is a great house for parties.” And I was absolutely right.
We’ve already created many memories in our new home. We’ve celebrated back to school, football, baseball, basketball, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, anniversaries, Fridays, movies, tv shows, and friends. We need very little reason to get together, drink, eat, and laugh. 
We realized early on there’s wasn’t enough sitting in our family room, so Shane and I moved an extra sofa in to watch the World Series last fall (even though it looked ridiculous). By Thanksgiving, I had my Dad and brother moving things all around to have more sitting, and it looks great. I am reminded of how you might think you will use a space, but until you live in it, you don’t really know. I’m really glad we’ve waited on furniture for some of the rooms because I think we will make different choices now.
I really love when friends and others refer to our home as E2 (pronounced e-squared), which for those who don’t know stands for Eble-Ernst (since I kept my name). A very funny, close friend started calling us that and addressing cards to us as E2. We loved it and the manor part is a reference to Batman (although it’s not quite Wayne Manor (not even close), Shane does have a man cave.)
Thanks to all who have helped us make cherished memories at E2, and a special shout-out to Andygator, who’s been helping me making the outside of E2 manor beautiful as we move into spring.