values – Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

Daily Food Diary – Day 75 of 365

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

Today, I am celebrating 75 Days since I began recording and posting my Daily Food Diary. 75 DAYS and I am 75 hits and 0 misses. 👍

Today, I am also celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. (Photo from my Jigsawscapes App. My daily jigsaw obsession).

**Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you and yours, especially to all of my Irish friends who are celebrating today!**

Today, I am ALSO celebrating what would have been my Father’s 116th birthday!

My Father passed away 32 years ago. That is inconceivable to me. For some reason, my Father and my Mother have been popping up in my dreams on a regular basis lately. To me, there is nothing odd or upsetting about their appearances. The dreams are not about them, they are just there, very normal, very natural, very familiar.

I was fortunate to have parents who worked hard to provide a stable, secure home for my siblings and I. I appreciate all that they both did for me, but to be honest, I was closer to my Father. Yes, I was a Daddy’s girl.

My Dad was everything I strive to be – kind, gentle, strong, happy, caring, determined, dignified (and determined to respect the dignity of others).

Last year, my sister Jeanne reminded me of something that I had forgotten about my Father. Something that seems so timely with all of belittling, dehumanizing, and hateful treatment towards people nowadays – based on their color, religion, nationality, sexuality or whatever!

My Father had a Grade Two education – French education. Despite this, he was a very intelligent man and accomplished in many ways. I knew that his Mother struggled with serious health issues and that when my Father left school, he went to work to help his father provide for his siblings. He sat in the basement of the general store, removing the eyes from potatoes, to keep them marketable.

Over the years, I came to believe that Dad quit school because his family needed his help at home taking care of little ones and bringing in what little money he could from his humble position at the general store.

What I forgot was that he was expelled from school. IN GRADE TWO! Why? Because his teachers, good Catholic Nuns that they were, decided that he was stupid and unteachable because he was left-handed and refused to change his wayward ways. He was deemed unworthy of an education.

Amazingly, they did not break him. He was who he was – caring, kind, strong, loving, respectful, patient, and more. Most important to me … He was my Dad.

Food Diary – Day 75

Breakfast:

(1) c coffee (2) (.3)

(2) potato patties (240) (2)

(2) eggs (160) (14)

(3) slices bacon (135) (7.5)

(1/2) medium tomato (11) (.5)

Snacks:

(36) oz water

(1) c Cinnamon Tea

(1) PC Matrimonial Cake (139) (1)

(25) Lay’s Classic Potato Chips (160) (2)

Supper:

(1) Large bowl Baked Onion Soup – beef broth, caramelized onions, (soda bread) croutons, shredded marble cheese (368) (19.5)

Total Calories: 1222

Total Protein: 48.3 grams

Daily protein goal: 46 to 58.5

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 😊❤️

February 17th – Meditation

February 17, 2022February 17, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Updates - February 2022

The blog post that I chose to review/update today is one from December of 2020. Meditation has been an ongoing part in my process of going from employment to retirement. This post is one of a number of posts that I have written on my experiences with meditation in the past couple of years.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2020/12/08/meditation/

My current thoughts on meditation are beautifully expressed by these words spoken by Thich Nhat Hanh…. “Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.”

That is all I have for today. Take care and have a great day!💞

August 1st – Gearing up for Gratitude!

August 1, 2021August 2, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

Of all the themes that I could choose to go with for August, I have decided to go with ‘GRATITUDE’.

I am relatively confident that two of the first words my parents taught me to say were “Thank You!”. It was not that they were looking for personal gratification. They were just very determined to teach us the true values in life. The values that enrich our lives. The values that make the best of times better and the worst of times tolerable. Respect, dignity, kindness, honesty, humility, and of course ‘gratitude’. Values that would make us strong enough to make the most of life, because my parents wanted us to have more than life – they wanted us to have great lives.

It did not take me long to understand that gratitude was more than words. Genuine gratitude was a feeling. A powerful, feel good feeling. I knew how important gratitude was.

That being said, there have been times in my life when I have definitely struggled to ‘feel’ grateful. Times when I was too busy, too tired, too angry, too sad, just too distracted to feel grateful. I knew it was important, I said the right words, but I could not feel them.

During my ungrateful periods, I would try to feel more grateful. I read books on gratitude. I followed the exercises in the books. I once tried to start each day by compiling a list of ten things that I was grateful for.

I am NOT a morning person. I struggle to like my dog first thing in the morning. But, this was important so I was determined to start each day (for a solid month!) by listing ten things that I was grateful for. By day three, I was thinking “Cool, I have ten toes, let’s go with that”.

**Being grateful for my toes – even that** ***wierd*** **long one. WTF! I don’t even have ten normal toes! So not feeling grateful for my toes.** 🥺

Throughout my life, it has definitely been a process, finding the means to be genuinely grateful on a regular basis. I am finally there. Retirement, and a year and a half of Covid, has given me the time and peace in my life to truly live a life of gratitude – even first thing in the morning. 🥳

So, this month, I am committed to writing one blog each day, to share that and those for which I am most grateful. 😁

I hope you will join me often and I hope that every post I share will be worthy of your time.

Have a great day and take care! See you tomorrow!