Stress affects, infects and reflects

I woke up today with the ‘noise’ inside my head elevated. I’ve had ‘brain fog’ since a fall on my bike last year in August. There was no reason for it to be that way this morning, though. I went to bed last night with a very low level of it. I had a great day yesterday but I’ve been narrowing it down to stress, or eating sugar, or even overeating, makes it elevate. If stress is low and I feel good about things, it lessens. Stress also elevates my blood sugars, and then everything goes awry.

Lately my two kitties, who are sisters, have not been getting along. They were always so close. They slept together, ate together, used the same litter box (which gets cleaned out about 6 times a day), played together and seemed to be so close. Then one day Patchy wasn’t feeling well and we couldn’t determine the problem, so we took her to the vet. After that… they never got back to ‘normal’. They exist, but Fluffy has taken to finding our bedroom her sanctuary. She was hissing at Patchy every time she saw her. But with the ‘sock therapy’, we saw improvements. But she was still not willing to ‘get back to normal’. I started looking for a home for her. If she leaves, Patchy will definitely get depressed. She needs to be in her company, altho that’s done gingerly right now, but she never gives up trying.  

Patch has the water fountain to drink from in the kitchen but keeps coming into the bedroom to drink out of Fluffy’s water dish or eat her food too.

I’ve watched, prayed about and over them and see similarities in their behavior that reflects our behavior many times. I wonder if they are reacting to our moods, anxieties, and other issues in our lives?

Patch is George’s cat mainly, and Fluffy is mine. Patch isn’t a lap cat anymore, mostly a loner, and seems to have to de-stress every time she’s picked up and hugged. Fluffy thrives on contact and has remained a lap cat. She’ll make herself comfy on my lap or George’s, whoever is currently available. But Patch will go chill in a box in our middle living room. Even when she was a kitten, she never slept with the other three kittens, but went off into a separate part of the basement, where they were born. She’s also the explorer. She has to investigate everything.

George’s behavior and habits, while recuperating from open heart surgery, have drastically changed and they both sense something’s wrong. The anxiety that I experience with all that’s going on in this world comes and goes with me, but I know they sense it when I’m not doing too well. It’s so amazing what stress affects, infects, and reflects in our lives and the people and creatures around us.

I praise God for His incredible gift of salvation through the cross and His presence in my life. I couldn’t live without it. I’ve been turning to prayer for this country and praising God for His goodness, mercy, grace, favor and ever present help in times of trouble, more and more each day. I find solace in the solitude of my back bedroom in the Word, in prayer, in praise, in sleep, in meditation, in reading, and practicing my guitar and guitalele. I’m even able to play praise songs now, lol. These are the things that settle me and bring me back to a calm center in the Lord. But just one night’s sleep can wake me up stressed. Why’s that? I wish I knew. 

God gives us enough for each day. Just like the Israelites who wandered in the desert and had to gather manna daily, I need the Word, prayer and God’s presence daily. One day’s worth doesn’t extend to the next day. It always has to be fresh. 

The Israelites could only gather enough for that day, unless the next day was the sabbath. If they collected too much, it rotted. We need God’s manna daily. I believe that’s on purpose so we ‘have’ to seek Him daily and not put it off. It’s so easy to stray out into all the things that call for our attention in this world. God wants us to see that like food, we need His Word, time alone with Him, and constant prayer and praise to handle all that the enemy tries to throw at us.

But like Corrie Ten Boom said:  

     Look around and be distressed; 

     Look within and be depressed; 

     Look at Jesus and be at rest.

Links to check out:  www.lindelltv.com;  jdfarag.org