How Often Do You Come To JWD During A Day, Week or Month??? Hours or Mins?

by minimus 559 Replies latest jw friends

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Diary,

    I guess I could call the agency and see what's holding up "Nurse Jane" this time. Patience is a virtue I've never had. A reversal of fortune doesn't necessarily bring along with it a new and improved outlook on life. You know, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, or some such ... Au contraire, bitterness and anger got in the way of every decent emotion and positive thought I had troubled deliberately to cultivate. Mind over matter ... someone told me it doesn't matter.

    Looking out the window - it's to the left of my bed and affords quite a nice view of the bay - I imagine myself the character Johnsy in "The Last Leaf," waiting to succumb to the inevitable. One by one the leaves drop to the snow-covered lane below. My life and my fate are bound up with the last remaining leaf ... See what I mean? I get caught up in the story, becoming the central character and booting the real heroine off the stage. What effrontery!

    It was getting dark and I could tell from the swaying of the eucalyptus trees outside my window that a stiff wind was coming in off the bay. The two-story house next door does not block my view of the sea as it is set back a bit and what I can see is partially obscured by that little stand of trees. The gentle back-and-forth motion of those graceful eucalyptus caused the light in the second-story window to cut in and out. Hypnotic. Comfortable. Warm.

    Coming to, after a brief snooze, I threw a casual glance out the window and, even as I write this, a shiver goes down my spine. I was unable to catch my breath for what I saw on my neighbor's roof. Dark though the sky had become, there was no mistaking what was there. I froze when its unearthly stare fixed on me.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    RAF - 12 February 2007:

    too often anyway ... Since I've a got a minute to check itI'm not sure I like this addiction ... I'm just sure that it is an addiction and that I like JWD (I've lurked other forums - they are not that intresting to me)

    It's like I have to stay totally away from JWD to put this time on something else, but I guess since something else will attract my attention as potentially interesting to get in it whenever I want for 5 minutes to hours (like its possible with a forum) it might be addictive too. But nothing like this at the moment ... just before I went recently back to JWD for about 5 months it's the Bible who got my entire attention whenever I've had a few minutes to hours, sometimes I couldn't sleep to go farest on my thinking about it. till I've got enough ...

    **********************************************************************************************************

    RAF - where are you?

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Diary,

    I just returned from the market. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the shelves are completely empty, but since the big bust last week, people seem to be panicking. I'm trying to keep a clear head on all this. One older lady whom I recognized (I don't really know her, however) rushed ahead of me and grabbed the last loaf of sourdough French bread on the nearly barren metal shelf. I normally go for the buck 89 whole-grain that's always on sale. It was sold out.

    Bottled water is not something I go in for. Too high-toned for the likes of moi. But just an observation: sold out. The choice cuts of meat - normally out of reach for me - looked pretty inviting at this point. Put it on the credit card. Yet there wasn't much to choose from as the cellophane-covered packages were all pretty much rifled through.

    People lose their manners and political correctness when push comes to shove - there was a lot of that too - literally. Shopping carts [trolleys] were violently crashing into each other and their pushers let loose many a scolding tongue. Ordinarily nice folk.

    I left empty-handed. Those 6-month old turkey bones that I decided to store in the freezer against a "rainy day" look pretty darn good right now.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Diary,

    It's only a matter of time. He's been holding out for as long as he possibly can, but Johnny says there are chinks in his armor. Everyone has taken the view that J. is a tower of strength. They depend on him for sage advice, for money when they're in dire financial straits (some never escape those "straits") and a shoulder to cry on. There's always someone crying.

    He tells me everything, DD, just as I pour out it all out to you. His friends speak of him with admiration, and I wouldn't hesitate to add, with unabashed affection. Some guys think they're God's gift to the world. Johnny's too humble (actually, way too critical of himself) to play the role, much less think it. Hardly a complainer, yet he says things in such a way that I know he's the loneliest man on planet Earth.

    How can a guy be lonely with such a devoted following? He'd hate it if he heard me say that he had a following. An unassuming guy - the kind who looks at his shoes when he talks to you - who'd turn both angry and beet red to hear such nonsense. I'm not a very good friend. Oh, we hang out and talk, and he knows I'm true-blue. It's just ... it's just I can't figure what's eatin' at the guy. Everyone loves him but I firmly suspicion he doesn't like himself much.

    If I was I religious man I'd pray for him.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    From lovelylil, 26 November 2006

    During the week when hubby is at work and kids at school - I check in daily and often leave the JWD on my desktop so I can pop on and off to read the threads. I don't post every day but almost every day. If I am having a really hectic week, I may go a few days without posting even though I am lurking and reading and checking my pms.

    On the weekends - I rarely post. If I do, it is usually late at night. We do lots of family things during the weekend.

    Overall - I would say I am pretty chatty and have racked up quite a few posts in the last 6 months. Lilly

    *********************************************

    We'd love to hear from you more often, lil!

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Everyday and helping newbies get on board ...

    CoCo

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Diary,

    Libby, Johnny's little sister, called around 1:30 this morning. She was beside herself with worry because her normally punctual big brother didn't show for dinner. It's not that missing a meal would ordinarily be such a big deal. She was going on a mile-a-minute about the plans they had made to talk after dinner and how the dog had gotten out of its outdoor pen and ran away and why would Johnny not call? ... I was gentle as I tried to shush her and get some idea what was really going on. Can't imagine now that I'm wide awake how I was able to come up with a single cogent and meaningful question after the telephone's jangle woke me so rudely.

    I threw on whatever duds I could find at the foot of my bed and slammed out the back door. I hoped the old crate would start - 'it made cold like a dog' (old creole lady's expression). I was lucky to get it to start on a blisteringly hot "dog day" in August! After too many tries and no few muttered threats of promised autocide, she coughed one last time and sputtered, thankfully, to life. In gear and my nerves frayed with worry and frustration, the beast and I headed tentatively to the other side of town.

    I pulled up alongside the curb at 28 Oceanview and braked one last time before cutting the engine. My hands were gripping the wheel at ten and two o'clock and I could only stare ahead as I made a vain attempt at collecting my thoughts. I knew Johnny was in a bad way and I already told you that, DD. It's just that I saw lots of signs in my friend's behavior lately, unmistakeable signs that, when I gave them too much conscious thought, terrified me.

    I said if I was a religious man I'd pray for Johnny.

    Guess I'm a new convert then. I bowed my head, not so much in reverence, but in grief. I couldn't hold it in any longer.

    I was praying for me and my best friend.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    I'm rereading this incredible book, DD, entitled NECESSARY LOSSES, by Judith Viorst. Its statement of purpose - on the cover jacket - is:

    The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies and
    Impossible Expectations That All of Us
    Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

    In the intro Ms. Viorst explains that, while our primary idea of loss may be that of death claiming people we love, there is so much more to it: we leave and are left; we let go and move on. There are separations and departures of loved ones. Romantic dreams are lost, and we expect what is perhaps never attainable: freedom and power and safety. We learn that we are mortal. And in every connection with other people there are flaws. We grow by letting go and by losing. By leaving.
    Talking openly about our personal losses - once we are ready to do so - is how I believe, DD, we begin the process of recovery and healing. We proceed at our own pace; it is a journey that zigs and zags, never actually traveling in straightforward fashion. We eventually reach a plateau where we may possibly catch our breath - momentarily - and then a gut-wrenching blow levels us, and at worst, sends us careening in a downward tumble. Back in a heap, looking up in a daze, wondering if we dare arise and, yet again, start anew that torturous upward climb. Not to forget, however - a hand reaches down to assist, a kindly voice says, "Don't give up."
    I continue to climb. I gather courage with each step.

    From 14 February 2007

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    Oh dear -and I am here now

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Diary,

    No one has to tell me what it's like to have a kid brother or sister and the pressure that puts on a guy. After I recovered from my brief religious experience in the car, and before I got up the nerve to walk to Libby's front door (it was getting close to 2:30 now), I was thinking about Johnny and me having the same situation, you know, him a kid sister, me a baby bro. This thing about hero worship may look adorable to outsiders who observe the little scamps trailing us big guys everywhere - never any peace, and privacy? Give me a break! It's a real pain when you're a teenage guy and Dad says, "Take Stan with you." Chaperone? I don't think so ...

    It was the same for Johnny, Libby being permanently attached to his hip. Well, in a manner of speaking. Of course, now, so many years later, Johnny and I are grown up and supposed to be like adults and responsible and caring. Johnny has always been the caring one and available to Libby. I was the one who had to escape. I was suffocating and needed time away to breathe some fresh air and to think. That's what was so tough on Stan. He just couldn't grasp my abandoning him. I never had a clue how he'd take my "defection," not just from the faith, but also from him. I told you, I was his hero. Johnny is Libby's hero, but I think he's really different from me because he's so unselfish. He never thinks of himself. But I know he's exhausted and empty - really empty - inside his heart and soul.

    I really have to get up there and see how Libby's doing and if she's gotten any word yet from J.

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