Caring for Myself Body and Soul 16:Walking with a friend

Exercise.  Exercise.  I know, I know.  You know, too, don't you?  We all know how much we need to exercise.  So we do it--not necessarily because we want to do it, but because it's good for us.

For me, there's one kind of exercise that's good for me in every way--good for my body and my soul.  And that's walking with a friend.

So today I made a date to walk with one of my best friends, Libby Acuff.  (Now for a little shameless name-dropping: Libby is the mom of New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff.)  Isn't she the cutest thing?

Brené Brown speaks about the need to have the kind of friend "who would help you move a body."  Libby is that kind of friend for me.  Fortunately I've never needed that particular kind of help, but Libby has talked and prayed and loved me through some really tough times over the years.

Libby and I walked and talked today for an hour and a half.  Honestly, it seemed like 15 minutes.  When I exercise by myself, I have to find something to occupy my mind or else the time drags oh-so-slowly.  When I walk with a friend like Libby, the time whizzes by.

If you're in need of some encouragement, I highly recommend walking with a friend.  It'll raise your heart rate and your spirits at the same time!

Do you have a friend "who would help you move a body"?  When was the last time you walked with her (or him)?

This post is the sixteenth entry in a 31-day series: Caring for Myself Body and Soul.  

Click here for a list of all the posts in this series.

Caring for Myself Body and Soul 15:Organizing my purse

I'm so proud of my Autumn handbag.  Just look:

It's a glorious pumpkin color with brown trim.  Nearly every day someone compliments me on it.

But that's because they can only see the outside of it.  Inside, it's a mess!

I've decided that enough is enough.  I spend a good bit of time trying to organize things for my family--papers, appointments, records of all kinds, calendars, etc.  I'll bet you do, too.  During this month of focusing on caring for myself, I've realized that I need to spend some time organizing my own stuff.

Luckily there are organizing experts to help me.  In fact, my friend Becky from Organizing Made Fun just published a guide to organizing your purse.   Here's what the inside of Becky's purse looks like:



On her blog, Becky shares her secrets to keeping her purse looking like this.  I'm going to take her up on her challenge to get my purse organized.

You know, the only person who will benefit directly from this exercise will be me, but that's okay.  What I'm realizing this month is that taking care of myself in big ways and small is worth the effort.  And there will be indirect benefit for everyone around me: getting my own spaces organized will contribute to my being happy and healthy, which will help me to care for everyone else!

How are you at keeping your personal spaces organized?  Do you need help in this area as well?  Or do you have any ideas to share?

This post is the fifteenth entry in a 31-day series: Caring for Myself Body and Soul.  

Click here for a list of all the posts in this series.

Caring for Myself Body and Soul 14:Sending a package

There are very few things that make me happier than getting a package in the mail.

I can trace my love of packages to my childhood.  We lived in Tennessee, but my mother was from Kansas, and all her family lived there.  Every so often our mailman would deliver a package from my Kansas grandmother.  What joy erupted when the mailman approached with a box!

Those packages offered such delight for us.  They seemed like treasure chests.  When I stop now to think about their contents, though, I realize that they were pretty humble.  My grandmother was a school cook, not a woman of great means.  She would send tiny treats--perhaps a dish towel for my mother's kitchen, a box of note cards, maybe some scented soap.  She usually tucked in a little plaything for each child.  And she always included some candy.

But you know what was in every package?  In every single box?  Empty bread bags.  From Rainbo bread.  I can picture those bread bags so clearly!  Instead of using bubble wrap or some other kind of filler, my grandmother would save the plastic bags from the loaves of sandwich bread she served in the school cafeteria.  Those bread bags wrapped fragile items and provided padding for everything in those packages, and in our house my mother used them for a thousand and one things.  Seemingly worthless plastic bags, otherwise destined for the trash, became the filling for those magical packages--packages that would bring pleasure and encouragement and memories that would last much longer than the trinkets they held.

I decided to resurrect the fun of those packages.  Last week I collected a few trinkets for a friend who's living far from home and family.  Alas, I had no bread bags, so I used styrofoam peanuts for packaging.  As I placed each little item into the box and wrote a note of encouragement to my friend, I was filled with a rush of good memories.  Even the chore of taking the box to the post office was an errand of happy thoughts for me.

My hope is that receiving the package was a day-brightener for my friend.  I know for sure that sending it was good for my soul.  Turns out that sending a package is as much fun as receiving one!

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens,

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,

Brown paper packages tied up with strings--

These are a few of my favorite things.