I read a sentence the other day I really liked. “Being ready to learn and reluctant to correct.”
I think it is probably reasonable to wonder why that impacted me.  It is just that not doing that seems to be the major hinderance to closeness I know of.
I have seen it time and again (and battle with it myself) so often people love dearly and try to tell others what is best for them.  All the while a person needs to know they are loved first before something is received and sometimes acted upon.
I really learned this being close to someone who was as closed as anyone I knew.  I do not take credit for seeing things as clearly as I did, but I needed to endure years of being ignored until it was final accepted that no matter if this person accepted my thoughts regarding them I accepted them.  Honestly when the penny dropped the change in behaviour was remarkable.
It seems to me that so often people are well meaning and often right in what they say and believe, but the method of conveying the truth is floored.  What I meant to change for the better, so often drives away because the object of love does not feel loved.  They feel judged.  That may not be the motive, but it is what is received.
That can be due to innumerable reasons.  I honestly feel that prayer is a key.  The power is not in prayer, but in the one being prayed to.  That has made the difference for me anyway.
Time being misunderstood need not be wasted time.  So often another has something to say.  Sometimes even with words.  When I am willing to dismount from my high horse, I have much to learn.  So often it is the ones who I would prefer to “teach” that have lessons for me to learn.
I saw a movie one time and a guy was with someone in the work environment and his thought was that he was there for the other person.  Things were not going as planned and his attitude suffered.  His wife said to him something like maybe he was there for you rather than you there for him.
The upshot for me is that it is not necessarily about who is there for who, but being willing to love and learn.  The quickest way to acceptance is to obviously love and humbly learn.

I may be kidding myself, but I think I am getting about the same sleep as I always have but at different times.
As I have often said I am up really early.  Between 4 and 4.30 normally.  It would be a waste of time lying in after that as I generally do not sleep and if I do, it is really not good for me.  Instead I have a sleep in the arvo.  I am best for about an hour.  Beyond that I tend to be really groggy.  So I reckon in all I have 7 or 8 hours sleep a day.
In the awake time there are always things to be done.  Most things we enjoy while some are just “have to” things.  I do insist on a day off though.  I reckon that is good for my wellbeing.
But it is a fact of life that as I have gotten older I find some things more of a challenge.
That is why it has been great to have someone come in and do some things we want done.  The necessity of doing them precluded our getting to what we knew was needed as well.  So lately there has been someone coming and doing stuff that we have found really inspirational.  We actually feel like we are getting on top of the yard, whereas before it seemed to be getting the best of us.  I call the front a “bush garden”   I saw a snake in one area, so I call that area the “wildlife sanctuary” these days.
A friend of ours gave me the idea of calling outside areas “rooms.”  I think that is great.  There are five rooms at the front and each is tamed to the point where we can take it further.
I have been doing that.  On Friday I went and got 85 paver bricks (someone we know has a heap and said get them any time.  Win win really.)  I am using them for edging.  To both Merril and I it is looking great.
So yesterday I spent time in the yard in the morning.  Then we went to a community free lunch.  After the place was reorganized for church on Sunday we went home and had a sleep.  After that I did some more stuff in the yard.
We are happy campers.  It feels like we have gotten the balance right between work and rest.  Today is a day off from the yard.  I will, God willing, get into it again tomorrow while Merril helps and also does very necessary study.

Man do I take a chance when it is dictionary day.  I never know what I am going to have to look into.
Like today.  The word my finger fell on was “Azilian.”  The dictionary definition of the word is “the transitional period between the palacolithic and neolithicages in Europe.”
I had never heard of the word so I thought I would look up the net to see what it said.  That was when the cat was among the pigeons.  But I was looking up the wrong word.  It was missing a letter.
I did find a site that talked about the Azilian culture.  It said “This Southern European Epi-Palaeolithic (Late Palaeolithic) culture succeeded the Magdalenian in Spain and southern France, flanked to the east by the Epigravettian.  The Azilian was a much simplified form of the Magdalenian with nowhere near the richness of Magdalenian culture (especially its art). The latter's success seems to have been built on an abundance of food, allowing time for leisure…The Azilian existed in a region…in which resources seem to have been tougher to access. The more time which had to be spent on hunting and gathering, the less there was to spend on creating art.
Discovered by French archaeologist E Piette in 1887-1889, the culture was named after the Mas-d'Azil cave in the department of Ariège in southern France. It was found primarily on the territory of France and the then-'Federal Republic of Germany' (West Germany).” https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/CulturesAzilian.htm
I find all that stuff interesting though I am a bit sceptical of the conclusions reached.
Still I did find out about an obscure people group that seem to me to have been in a hard place.  It is no wonder to me they were absorbed into other cultures.  I reckon if I had the chance I would want to leave where they were too.
It may only be just after 6am but it is light outside and I feel the garden calling.