Considering the speeches we’re hearing this month, I would prefer stillness.
Therefore, I am not going to make any speeches this month. I’m just going to share all the photos I’ve been taking, looking for better stable geniuses around me. I hope these pictures help you feel better, hear and now.
I will share this: I’ve been hearing better speeches about my Coping and Healing groups during Better Speech and Hearing Month, which makes it easier to share groups I love.
How might you celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month?
Personally, I’m looking forward to hearing better speeches (and maybe new comedy monologues) from my son, Aaron, who arrives from Edinburgh today!
I look forward to hearing my readers’ speeches in the comments section, below.
It’s better, during any month, to share gratitude, so thanks to all who helped me create all of my blog posts during Better Speech and Hearing Month, and — of course! — thanks to YOU, as always, for hearing me out.
Yesterday, in the stillness of the night, I facilitated a Coping and Healing group where we focused on the topic of “stillness.”
After everybody had shared their thoughts on stillness and we had finished wrap-up with three minutes remaining until the end of the group, I suggested we spend that time in stillness.
Do you see stillness in any of my other new photos?
During the stillness of the latest software update for my laptop, I started writing this post on my phone.
I am going to break the stillness here with the songs I mentioned in my written thoughts on stillness, shown above.
I’m still ending every blog post with gratitude, so please accept the stillness of my thanks for all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — for YOU.
After I published this post, I discovered that my only other post about “stillness” was published exactly four years ago, to the day. What are the odds of that?
All my blog posts are based on a true story, so it’s true that I love starting today’s blog post with a true image from my true friend Barbara’s truly lovely home.
Yesterday, Barbara
went with me to see guitarist Pat Metheny for Barbara’s first time,
had the best fish dish of her entire life,
took selfies of herself and her friend of sixty-three years (me),
swapped amazing stories with her friend,
admired the gorgeous concert venue in Rockport Massachusetts,
We have proof that these stories are true, because of all these true photographs:
Barbara and I both agreed that we truly enjoyed Pat last night especially when he involved more instruments than just one solo guitar. I told her the true story of his development of his own incredible Orchestrion, of which he had a small sample on stage with him last night. I also told her the true story of how I saw Pat play at the Orpheum theater in Boston a decade ago when his Orchestrion album came out, and how truly amazing that was. She wished she could have seen more of that, so this is truly for you, Barbara:
I’m looking forward to all your true stories, below.
My gratitude is always based on true stories, so thanks to Barbara, to true friendship, to Pat Metheny, to all who helped me create today’s true post and — truly! — to YOU.
On the two thousandth, three hundredth, and sixty-ninth consecutive day of this blog, I am celebrating the first use of the word “Celebrating” in a post title.
I am also celebrating
the rich availability of relevant imagery all around me,
Five hundred and seventy-eight little days ago (but who’s counting these little things?), little ol’ me wrote a little blog post, Day 1790: Thankful for the little things.Yesterday, I was a little perturbed by many little things when I was writing yesterday’s little post, so I sent Michael this little email:
Hello my darling,
I would say we have an infestation of ants . This is based on many of them crawling on me this morning while I was blogging, which is a new experience for me here at Squanticello. Let us research kind ways to invite them to leave.
Much love,
Ann
When I got home from work, Michael was more than a little freaked out at the not-so-little size of the invaders, which turned out to be carpenter ants. He said, “Usually I don’t think of insects as animals, but these enormous winged things are definitely animals.” Michael spent many little moments yesterday identifying the big ants’ little points of entry and applying spray that is kind to little things like children and pets.
I didn’t take any pictures of those little things, but I invite you to spot the little things in today’s little photos.
I don’t see any little or large ants as I’m creating this little post, so I’d say that Michael’s efforts paid off, in a big way.
Here‘s “The Little Things You Do Together” from a little musical called Company:
Here are the great lyrics to “The Little Things You Do Together” by that musical giant, Stephen Sondheim:
It’s the little things you do together
Do together
Do together
That make perfect relationships.
The hobbies you pursue together
Savings you accrue together
Looks you misconstrue together
That make marriage a joy.
It’s the little things you share together
Swear together
Wear together
That make perfect relationships.
The concerts you enjoy together
Neighbors you annoy together
Children you destroy together
That keep marriage intact.
It’s not so hard to be married
When two maneuver as one
It’s not so hard to be married
And Jesus Christ, is it fun.
It’s sharing little winks together
Drinks together
Kinks together
That make marriage a joy.
The bargains that you shop together
Cigarettes you stop together
Clothing that you swap together
That make perfect relationships.
It’s not talk of God and the decade ahead that
Allows you to get through the worst.
It’s “I do,” and, “You don’t,” and, “Nobody said that,”
And, “Who brought the subject up first?”
It’s the little things…
The little things, the little things, the little things
The little ways you try together
Cry together
Lie together
That make perfect relationships.
Becoming a cliche together
Growing old and gray together
Withering away together
That make marriage a joy.
It’s not so hard to be married,
It’s much the simplest of crimes.
It’s not so hard to be married,
I’ve done it three or four times.
It’s people that you hate together
Bait together
Date together
That make marriage a joy.
It’s things like using force together
Shouting till you’re hoarse together
Getting a divorce together
That make perfect relationships.
Uh uh
Kiss kiss
Mmmm mmmmm.
I’m greatly looking forward to all your little comments, below.
Gratitude for the little things helps me deal with all the little and big things every day, so big thanks to those who help me create this little blog and — of course! — to YOU.
Soon after publishing this post, I made up some new little lyrics for that song, more relevant for tall Michael and little me:
It’s battling ants together
Making sure you dance together
Keeping the romance together
That make perfect relationships.
Yesterday, when I was catching a glance of millions of things, I noticed this sign:
It was not a summer’s day, but I’m always looking to catch a glance of snowy egrets, as you shall see at a glance.
I also caught a glance of this t-shirt but not the glance of the owner.
That t-shirt says “Lonely Forever Club,” which caused me to catch a glance of other people on their own, at least for the moment.
While I was taking those photos alone, I caught a glance of an inadvertent change of filter, which I changed back.
Sometimes I feel like a visitor and sometimes I feel like I belong. The difference often depends on how I’m filtering what I’m glancing.
Visitors may catch a glance of ellipses, memorials, flowering trees, numbers, waves, stones, pets, weirdness, whimsey, money, health, kindness, a kite, a robot, resting places, the past, sweets, gardens, groups, a pug imitating Napoleon, connections, and different perspectives.
Did you catch that glance of Oscar almost making a break for it, last night? Here’s another glance of that.
I’m curious what my visitors are catching a glance of, here and now.
Today I’m going to catch a glance of a fund-raiser for group psychotherapy, spanakopita (which Michael is making for the fund-raiser), and the ending of Game of Thrones (even though I’ve just recently started catching glances of that series).
Here‘s what comes up on YouTube for “Game of Thrones at a glance.”
Whenever I read my past blog posts, it’s like traveling in a time machine. For example, when I was reading all those posts about Megan, I definitely traveled through time …. all the way back to 2013, my first year of blogging, and beyond!
This week, I’ve spent some time traveling in the time machine of memory to my May vacation week of exactly one year ago, during which somebody made me lunch and then travelled in a time machine to recount years of resentments. Personally, when I travel in my time machine, I prefer to visit moments of love, not times of resentment (even though my time machine goes everywhere, to moments of pleasure and pain).
My time with Megan and her daughter, yesterday, was truly a reparative experience, which I hope you can see, as you take the time to travel through my latest photos:
Throughout time, I’ve been sending photos of pugs to my friend Jenn, because she loves them. Yesterday, I sent Jenn that photo of Megan’s neighbor’s dog, Ruby.
If you had a time machine, where would you go? One place I would (and do) revisit is the first time I heard Pat Metheny play, at the Paradise Theater in Boston in 1979. On that day, I heard and saw Pat and his group play music from the album American Garage and I was never the same again. Here and now, I’m traveling in my personal time machine to the FUTURE — next week, when I’ll be seeing Pat live, again, playing solo guitar.
Here’s a comment about that video of the Pat Metheny Group circa 1979, in which nctomatoman is time traveling:
nctomatoman
1 year ago
My first Pat Metheny concert was in 1980 at the chapel on the UVermont campus in Burlington. He played this, Unity Village, Phase Dance, San Lorenzo – and an early version of As Fall Witchita, among other songs. Breathtaking – changed my musical life for good and I’ve seen Pat nearly 20 times in concert – Waltham, Philadelphia, Seattle, Raleigh….The Way Up, to me, is the peak of his art. I so hope that the PMG reunites, though the Unity Group is wonderful as well.
The last line of that comment and the word “wonderful” takes me back to yesterday, when I took this photo …
…. assuming, at the time, that the title for today’s blog post would be “Wonderful.”
So, my wonderful readers, where would you go in a time machine?
Now I’m going to travel through time to recall years of gratitude, here at the Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally, for all those who help me create these daily posts and — of course! — for YOU.
