This and that

Well, I went to a New Members class at the latest church I've been attending. I'm definitely not ready for membership, but it was nice to get to know more about the church and the pastor. And he passed a couple more questions on my list. Maybe this will work out. That would be so nice. Not have to keep searching for a church "home." I still have a few more questions, but I really don't want to get the "wrong" answers, so I don't want to ask them too fast. I think it probably helps pastors give better answers when they know me a little better/over a little bit of time. Maybe it will help him give me the benefit of the doubt with mental illness if he's already seen me for several Sundays. I'm almost always late, but otherwise, I'm probably fairly normal, except I might ask more questions with specific answers in mind.

Actually, I asked him about Sanctification, and he gave me a great answer, that included not understanding it all. What I didn't want was some legalistic, guilt-incuding answer. Instead, I felt he kept a pretty good perspective.

My flu has transitioned to the cold part. My left ear has been under the weather for several days now, but it isn't keeping me awake as long as I sleep on my couch. It did make things a bit extra overwhelming at church between service and the new members class, because my balance seemed slightly off in addition to my one ear echoing sound.

Yesterday, I took a break from my grand plan to rest all weekend (aside from church and classes) to drive my mom and her friend over to do some sightseeing. We went on a tour of a mine. It was actually not as exciting as I thought it would be. We walked into the mountain, but we didn't go down deep. We basically walked in and walked out without much elevation change. I did, however, feel quite safe.

Then I read a whole book last night! I smiled in anticipation, enjoyed the book, and still almost smile at the rememberance. I plan to read another this afternoon. They are romantic suspence paperbacks. Sometimes those books scare me a little, so they aren't 100% "safe," but I still enjoy them. Hey, maybe I could even call them a very small exposure.

My dishes have fallen back into a dirty state. Multiple nights, I stopped to wash a few just so I could prove to myself that I hadn't fallen back into the don't wash all the dishes more than once a month problem. But I tried to remind myself, I'm sick. People in general very likely would not wash their dishes as much while they were sick. This doesn't make me a failure.

Nor does being late for church. Once again, the "I'm always late for church; I can't get to church on time; what kind of person am I?" thoughts visited. But in the book Learned Optimism, by Martin E. Seligman, I learned that that type of overgeneralization promotes depression. A better option, using the principles in the book, would be more alon the lines of, "Today I am late for church. I could be on time for church. I get to work on time, so I could get to church on time." In issues like this, I have found the Learned Optimism book to be helpful. I didn't actually read the whole thing, though, so I can't represent the whole book. And there was the normal promotion of his ideas as this great cure for depression. But he did have some good cognitive therapy type ideas.