{The Most Selfish ONE-Letter Word... "I" - Avoid it}

We just start a period of the year where our Moral Compass could use some cleaning and attention...

Here a very inspirational quote:

The Most Selfish ONE-Letter Word... "I" - Avoid it

So very true in many ways!

We better let go of being Selfish!

Instead, we try for becoming a little more 'angelic' when clinging to the "I"...

Like seen here on this Italian silver Giovanni Raspini Charm, with alphabet letter "I" and Angel

Buy this 925/1000 silver 'I' alphabet angel for only USD 33.25 and FREE shipping within the USA:

Look for other available charms at Spectrenoir ←just click.

{Happy Birthday with a Pain Free Back}

Good news is that I was able to celebrate my Birthday with a Pain Free Back!

That in itself was the BEST gift one could wish for after more than a week of excruciating pain.

Because of my chronic kidney disease I cannot take any over the counter medication and neither did I want to start again on opiates, prescribed by my doctor. 

That's what I took in the end of 2009 when I was diagnosed with severe mid back arthritis...(?)

It resulted in being completely paralyzed, due to a rare auto immune disease and only with  Prednisone I was able to move again. But after taking that for about two years, my kidneys paid a price for curing this Polymialgia rheumatica.

So I'd rather tough it out and take nothing, except my daily supplement from Costco Wholesale the Youtheory Turmeric capsules that come with 180 in a pot.

Will show more below...

First a few Birthday dinner pictures...

Sorry for the poor quality... snapshots taken by husband Pieter with my iPhone, he even left out a friend...

I wore two layers of cashmere, a sleeveless mock neck and the very thin sweater with poetry that I showed in a previous post: {Cashmere Words of Wisdom & Update} 

Feeling doubly warm with this score from Last Call by Neiman Marcus that I also wore when I did FaceTime with Mom, two days before her death...

Since we had to arrange things last minute, due to my condition and not knowing if I would be able to sit through such a 5-course dinner, we were in a cozy group of four friends. Very special evening though!

At Ristorante da Maria from Dublin Farm "Come Home To The Country" I always do eat the dessert as well. Even being diabetes type 2... 
Here they just served mine with the birthday candle on top.

This was the choice of dinner and Pieter and I opted for the salmon.

Turmeric by Youtheory from Costco. Just click the hyperlink to go to my Pinterest board for further info after clicking on the photo!

This is what I have been taking during the time of my excruciating back pain and it sure did give me some relief! Usually I take one tablet per day but I went to two.

Turmeric seems to be an excellent anti-inflammatory support and also is good for your kidneys. Just click the hyperlink.

We might indeed be able to learn a great deal from countries where this has been used for centuries, such as India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and as part of Ayurveda and other branches of traditional medicine.

Youtheory® Turmeric Advanced Formula features Curcumin C3 Complex® - a patented turmeric extract that contains minimum 95% curcuminoids.

Costco just had as discount on these and I did stock up and will also mail some to my youngest sister in The Netherlands who suffers from Fibromyalgia. 

{Madison Square Park and 1909 Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in New York City}

In my previous post about the Steel Framed Flatiron Building in New York City, I wrote that I will take you just across the street to see what is there...

Beautiful Madison Square Park and also the tall 1909 Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower!

Considering that those tall buildings are over a Century old, it is even more incredible.
This tall tower and building is located on Madison Ave and 24th Street.
The Flatiron Building is not visible but it is to the right of it...

Using the New York Public Library Digital Collection (see link below post) we can see the Flatiron Building (to the right of the center bare tree) and also the Madison Square Park with its Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in the 1911 photo at the top. 

In the 2015 photo below, you can see the Flatiron all the way to the right but the tower is being partly blocked out by the sun...

Another Library of Congress photo below, shows the entire building.

Metropolitan Life InsuranceBuilding, Madison Square, New York, N.Y. when it was the world's tallest building!

Madison Square Park is on the corner of Fifth Ave and E 26th Street.

Here a beautiful Oakleaf Hydrangea or Hydrangea Quercifolia. These flowers do turn from white into pink as they age.

New York City is full of beautiful parks; the lungs of the city!

Related link:

Street View, Then & Now: New York City's Fifth Avenue just click the hyperlink and than on Take me to 1911! and go 10 clicks to the south for finding the Flatiron image. Now click on cross the street to see image from above... via NYPL Digital Collections