Sharika Roland

If you spent even one minute a day focusing on what you don’t have then you will never have enough. If you look at what you do have you will always have enough.
There is a radio show on NPR that is about making something good to eat out of whatever is currently in your fridge. People call up and say oh I have peanut butter and squash and soy milk. what can I make. The woman on the show makes up something hilarious and that is the show.
But it is a good exercise to do.
Most of our waking life is bombarded with ads implying that we are in need of something or other. The result is you feel deprived.
Here we are living in the lap of luxury and we feel deprived.
If you have dirt you can grow food. If you have legs you can walk and go get a job. If you have one friend you are rich.
You just need that attitude.
I have been writing my Dads story of his life and many times he told me of how he used what he had to make something. Even though his parents were immigrants and had to overcome all sorts of obstacles they managed to focus on what they had. They had dirt so they grew things and fed themselves and sold the rest.
We become lazy and uncreative when we are too comfortable.
It is better to be poor and creativie than rich and lazy.
And we are all too rich for our own good.

Nothing in life has any meaning whatsoever unless you have good relationships.
I don’t care what you have accomplished, in the end you take nothing with you but all the relationships you had.
How can you take them with you after you die you might wonder. Well you have to give an account for your life and do you think God will want to know how big your house was or how creative you were and all the buildings you built or the books you wrote. Do you think He cares about that.
All that stuff is perishable. He will however want to know if you had great relationships with the people he gave you. He will also want to have had a relationship with Him too.
You don’t want to meet God for the first time after you are dead. Then it is too late. If He doesn’t know you then, you will spend the rest of your eternity alone.
They say solitary confinement is horrible in jail. That you do tend to go crazy with loneliness.
And that is only for a little while. that is only a taste.
I was thinking how the first commandment is Love the Lord with your whole heart soul and mind.
Just like when you love anybody really. You love to know all about them and what they think, you are loyal and trustworthy and committed. They are never boring to be around.
Well God is like that too.
This might sound very simplistic but it is so profound that you could swim in this one thought for a few hours. And that one thought changes everything.

We hired Lesley Pollack to do a design for our yard quite a few months ago. We stared at the plans for months before we just started today. Sometimes you have to think and ponder a but about even what you want for a yard design. There were so many questions we had to ask ourselves about what we wanted long term. Things had to unfold and unfold.
My husband is a workhorse. He works so hard once he gets going.
So we had this Italian formal garden idea with a lot of rounded elements in it. Rounded deck
round lawn . Raised beds were a must but I did not want wood ones or concrete ones . I wanted willow beds like they have in England. I do not know how I stumbeled upon this site but I found a company close by me that actually makes just that. You know how you find something you like on the internet and it turns out that it is in England not here. Well I thought it would be like that but it was only a half hour away from my house.
Cool Then my husband found 500 bricks and bought them so now we are going to do a patio too. Then my Dad got us a greenhouse unexpectedly. . So all these things happened this week so now we have to start.
Jim is out there with a backhoe making the food garden super level. then we are going to dig out the patio area eight inches so we can lay gravel and sand and the bricks.
The green house is not the prettiest one but it is wonderful. It has diffused light so it won’t burn the plants. I have a lemon tree in there now with 9 lemons on it. The lemons are green now but it seems like they are turning yellowish day by day.
This garden project will be just like every painting I have ever done. Start with one idea and walk toward the light and if the plan changes so be it. This yard will create itself and we will watch it happen.

It is funny that the last post I did had a picture of being in water as this is the topic of this one.
I go to the pool three times a week for water aerobics class.. I really do not enjoy swimming as a sport and so I was not expecting to like this class.
However what I found out is it is nothing like what I imagined.
There are not that many in the group so we have a lot of personal space in the water.
We move through the water in such a way that it is almost like being on another planet. we run and ski and push against the water as though it is jelly air. Thick air that supports you weightlessly. I noticed that I am in the zone the second I get in the water. It is so comfortable to be weightless and free that it is hard to think about anything else but the feeling of floating . We are pushing weights against the water to be sure but it is not the same feeling as when you are lifting weights on land. It feels better than that. It feels like euphoria. everyone in the pool is in the same giddy delight . We have this shared experience of floating in space that is wonderful too.
I have done many different kinds of workouts and they all had loud music in the background. Water exercise is quiet. WE listen to the slapping of our hands against the water and splashing of our legs kicking away. It is a different kind of noise that is more real. Music would be a distraction.
We have floatation things around our middles sometimes and that is a great feeling too. And we have the whole pool.
The entire time from my feet hitting the floor to changing into a suit and the walk down to the pool it is all done in perfect bliss knowing the experience I am about to enjoy. I would say that it is my favorite time of day now by far and to have that be the first thing is amazing. IT makes me feel like the richest person in the world. My husband and I love it so much together and I would recommend it to anyone. And getting to do with with a friend who lives nearby is icing on the cake. more on that part tomorrow.

Starting a new thing is always full of fear. If you have started things in the past and they have not worked out it makes you a little bit more reluctant to try again/ Even if you have been successful in the past it still can make you nervous.
What are we afraid of ??? what others will think of us or pain.
Those are the only two possiblilities. Pain because we lose our money invested and time and who knows what . The other one is even worse. We love it when people think we are great and smart and trusted.
I think the fear of people one is the worst one of the two.
I am writing this today to encourage anyone out there that I for one am thrilled with someone trys a new thing. I applaud them for taking a bold step. I rally emotionally and am cheering for them to be successful. It enriches everyone when you are stretching the boundaries with new ideas. Everyone benefits when you are forging new territory. It helps the whole world really. Even if it does not work out at least you got the earth plowed a little and it will be easier to plant again for someone else. The end result is you have overcome enertia and that is the hardest thing to get out of.