Whelp, here I am at day 5 of 68 of this little experiment. I missed one thing on my list that I’ll work to make up tomorrow but overall it was a good day. It’s late, I’m tired, so I’ll keep this short.
Physical
I completed my apex Fit Father Workout to level 5 with 5lb dumbbells this morning. One thing I’ve noticed about working out first thing in the morning, around 5:05 AM, is that it really wakes me up and fills me with more energy. In addition, I put off having coffee until I’m ready to leave for work. This makes me feel less jittery. I think the combination of an early morning workout and delayed coffee gives me more sustained energy at least until mid-day. Speaking of coffee, I stopped using coffee pods for the Keurig and have begun hand grinding my own coffee each morning. I appreciate the little bit of work that goes into it and the coffee has less of a bite than the ground coffee.
Spiritual
I’m really starting to enjoy keeping my commitment to praying Morning, Evening, and Night prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours as well as the Office of Readings. There’s always a unique, thought provoking passage or Psalm. Today I was excited to read/pray through my favorite Psalm, Psalm 19:1-7. Interestingly, it was also the Psalm for the Mass readings. If you are interested in my take on the Gospel passage from today, you can read that here.
N.B. I don’t use the Liturgy of the Hours app linked above but it is a really good app if you’re interested. I use the 4 Volume Set because I like the feel of a book and don’t want to be distracted by notifications while I’m praying.
Intellectual
Today’s reading of the Summa of the Summa dove into the nature and essence of God. I found a couple of things in this reading to be very interesting. First, St. Thomas mentions things that are “…like a property that necessarily accompanies the species…“. He uses laughter as an example. I found this to be fascinating; humans are the only known animals to have a real sense of humor ( at least some of us! ). As I thought about this, I realized that we are also the only animals that create art for art’s sake. We are the only animals that compose music and are not what we would call musical, simply due to nature. These things, in my mind, are “ways” that we are created in God’s image and likeness. We are certainly different from all the other creatures in this world in these and like respects. Anyway, it’s something to contemplate further. Second, he talks of God’s anger and shows that what we attribute to God as anger is in reality His love. God can be nothing other than pure love, if He were anything else, He would experience types of passion. If He “experienced” passions, like anger, He would not be God. This is something I’ve been contemplating for a long time. St. Thomas Aquinas beat me to it, surprise, surprise. God is love. That is His very essence. The things we attribute to Him like anger, wrath, purgatory, or even Hell are manifestations of His eternal love. If you are interested in more regarding this idea, I’ve written about it some here.
I worked a bit on my Spanish today using the Duolingo App. I also found a very helpful podcast/website that I’m diving into. Whereas the App does a great job of teaching new words and phrases in a fun gaming sort of way, the podcast digs into the differences between Spanish and English grammar and focuses on how Spanish is actually spoken and understood by native speakers.
I didn’t work on any left-handed cursive today. I hope to double-up tomorrow. Why does “left-handed cursive” sound like an illegal activity?…
Emotional
My emotional state was good today all through work, meetings, and at home. We played Sky-jo again with the kids. Our daughter lost and her emotional state was not so good. I had to give her a little talk about losing gracefully. Wait until she plays Monopoly!!
Our dialogue question tonight was “How do I feel when I know that my behavior has hurt you?” Ouch, what a question to discuss with your spouse before bed! It was a good conversation where we described what it physically and emotionally feels like to us when we know we have somehow hurt the other. Needless to say, it’s not a good feeling and certainly one to avoid. We also talked about how some couples hurt one another with little complaints rather than overlooking minor faults and flaws. This is not a good thing and it often says more about the one doing the complaining! This type of behavior too should be avoided because of its corrosive and erosive effects.
Okay, enough about me. How was your day? Did you make any progress? Are you just now getting a plan together? It’s never too late to start and you’re never too old. Pro Tip: Don’t wait for a special day like New Year’s Day or your birthday. Start today, your future self will be glad you did. Let me know how things are going and if there is any way I can help – in the comment section. Thanks for reading!
Special thanks to A.I for the Title and Featured Image. The title is short, sweet, and to the point. Man, this A.I. stuff is both amazing and creepy. If you read this post, you’ll know that A.I. did too, hence the coffee grinder and coffee, exercise, etc. The dude in the picture isn’t bad but wow does he have some finger issues, mainly too many! Is that a smoke detector right by the window? What is that round thing?
James M. Hahn, Author 