Day 1946: Have you got all day?

Yesterday, when I had all day to

• walk over 16,000 steps,
• attend  a presentation about working with trauma in group therapy, and
• go food shopping with Michael,

I saw this:

I AM curious about that person’s hedgehog, but I haven’t got all day to hear about it.  I actually haven’t got all day to do any one thing. Every day, I like to mix it up, leaving room for

• listening,
• talking,
• walking,
• animals,
• people,
• working,
• playing,
• thinking,
• feeling,
• breathing,
• music,
• eating,  and
• balancing my needs with other people’s needs (like talking about their hedgehogs or whatever else is important to them).

I also don’t have all day to write these posts and I assume you don’t have all day to read them.  But I do have all day, every day, to notice what’s around me.

We have got only so many days in this lifetime, so how do we want to spend our days?

It won’t take all day to listen to “The Hedgehog’s Song” by The Incredible String Band.

I’ve got all day to experience gratitude, so thanks to all who helped me create this post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1945: Adventure Awaits

Yesterday, when I was on an adventure awaiting the end of a wonderful day, I saw this.

I love seeing life as an adventure, even when things happen that I don’t like. It’s good to know that wherever I am, adventure awaits.

Exactly a year ago, after awaiting a long time, I first saw the house where we now live.  Thus began our by-the-sea adventure.

New photos await, from yesterday’s adventure.

 

 

An explanation awaits for that last photo — it’s a memorial at a high school for a beloved teacher. The complete works of William Shakespeare include this quote about adventure:

The day shall not be up so soon as I

To try the fair adventure of tomorrow.

SgtPepper1200’s original song “Adventure Awaits!” awaits you on YouTube.

 

The comments section awaits you, below.

No need to await my gratitude for all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — for YOU.

Day 1944: I don’t like …

I usually don’t like focusing on things I don’t like, but I like today’s title because I started writing a song this week with these lyrics:

I love a lot of people,

My friends know this is true,

Human beings are my favorite things

But I don’t like you.

I don’t like the melody I’ve written but I think I can make it better. I do like that every person I’ve sung that for has laughed at “But I don’t like you.”

Also, I woke up this morning thinking “I don’t like small talk. I like big talk.”

I don’t like being pushy, but how would you finish “I don’t like …”?

I don’t like that I took only three photos yesterday.

Are there any of those photos you don’t like?

There are several “I Don’t Like …” songs on YouTube (here, here, and here):

I don’t like when I forget to thank people, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1943: Celebrate National _______ Day!

Obviously, I think we should celebrate every day, no matter where we live, for our own reasons.  However, there’s a website (see here) that tells people from the United States what they should be celebrating each day of the year.

For example, today is

April 27th
National Devil Dog Day
National Babe Ruth Day
National Prime Rib Day
National Tell a Story Day
National Arbor Day – Last Friday in April
National Hairball Awareness Day – Last Friday in April
National Day of Silence – Changes Annually

Because today is National Tell a Story Day, I’d like to tell a story about yesterday.

Yesterday, I noticed hearts,

 

celebrated National Hairball Awareness Day a day early,

 

took pictures of other people’s pictures,

 

facilitated groups  where people expressed lots of different feelings about many different topics,

 

 

 

 

dropped and broke my mindfulness chime,

realized that I had a spare  mindfulness chime (not pictured),

encouraged people to share thoughts and feelings about  significant relationships,

 

and did NOT celebrate National Pretzel Day.

What might you celebrate today?

Even though today is National Day of Silence (because it’s the last Friday in April),  please feel free to make noise and tell a story in the comment section, below.

Rod Stewart and Ron Wood are celebrating and making noise here with “Every Picture Tells a Story.”

Every day at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally is Gratitude Day, so thanks to all who helped me celebrate today, including you!

Day 1942: Obviously

Obviously, sometimes people are going to say things you obviously don’t want to hear.

Yesterday, somebody in therapy was obviously perturbed about people expressing unsolicited and often indirect opinions about what they obviously thought she should do.

Obviously, we  made a list of how she could reply.

Obviously,  having a list of possible replies to upsetting comments can help reduce stress.

Obviously, I like to take photos and share them with my readers.

What’s obvious about those photos, to you?

Obviously,  my handwriting is difficult to read, so it might not be obvious that we talked, wrote, and drew about dreams in a therapy group yesterday.  Obviously, it would be helpful if I typed what I wrote.

DREAMS

When I was a child, I had a dream I didn’t want to wake up from. It was so beautiful and soothing and cool.  Magical land with lots of colors — pastels.  (I was) walking or riding down a road. Not like nature, not “normal” but safe and sweet and lovely. Trees and structures …

I was never able to dream that again.

However, many years later I was at Disney World on a ride about imagination and one of the parts of the ride looked like my dream.

Obviously, I enjoyed that ride at Disney World.

Obviously, “The Obvious Child” by Paul Simon is a great song to include here.

Obviously,  I’d like to know your reactions to this post

Obviously, I gather and share gratitude in this blog, even if the words aren’t always completely obvious.

Day 1941: Threads

Three days ago, I facilitated a retreat for the board of directors of a professional group psychotherapy association. During that retreat, I invited people to identify “threads,” defined as the important issues that

• run through the history of the association,
• keep coming up during retreats and other discussions about the association, and
• connect people to the association.

As I was thinking about threads in preparation for that retreat, I noticed threads everywhere, including on this pair of gloves.

Here are some threads from the retreat:

At the end of the retreat, everybody there had taken ownership of some threads that were important to them. The threads I chose  included resolving conflict and making the organization more accessible to current and future members.  As I become President of the organization on July 1, I hope to help people develop  the threads that are important to them and weave them together into a strong and healthy tapestry.

Today, I’m thinking about the threads that run through this blog. Five of the strongest threads are love, group work,  hearts, food, and cats.

Another thread is photography.

Another strong thread in this blog is music, but I need to leave now to get to physical therapy on time.  Perhaps I’ll add that thread later.

What threads are important to you?

Gratitude is another strong thread in this blog, so …

Day 1940: It’s all coming together

Even though this blog has been coming together daily for several years,  I’ve never before quoted something my boyfriend Michael says all the time.  Whenever I express relief or another positive reaction to some development, minor or major, Michael says, “It’s all coming together.”

I think Michael says that so often because

• things seem to fall apart as often as they come together,
• we discuss many falling-apart and coming-together developments, and
• he wants to help me keep it together.

For example, yesterday I left the refrigerator door open when I left early in the morning, the refrigerator heated up to the extent that Michael had to throw away lots of food, I left my Fitbit at home, many people were falling apart at work, and whenever I looked at the news, it seemed like the whole world was falling apart. However, when I did a blood test last night and found my INR was in range (during a period where it’s often been out of range), Michael immediately declared, “It’s all coming together.”  It all came together for me and I said, “That’s the title of my blog post tomorrow.”

All my photos that weren’t loading to this site are now coming together, including several photos of ducks coming together.

It’s all coming together for me to share #8 on this top 30 list of awesome rock.

It’s all right now and it’s all coming together for me to express my thanks to all who help me write these posts and — of course! — to YOU, for coming together to this blog.

Day 1939: First AND last

The first thing I want to do in this post is let you know that my walking team at work is in first place  at this point in the six-week competition.  The six people on my team have walked more steps than any other team at the hospital where we all work: 1,162,290 combined steps in two weeks.

However, with 163,275 steps, I’m in last place on my team.

Despite being first AND last, I’m meeting the competition goal of 10,000 steps per day. The last thing I just saw on the challenge website was this:

Congratulations! You’re right on track!

So how do I feel about being first AND last?

Well,  I know I’ve been doing my best.  That’s paramount. And the team leader, Barbara, just messaged me

We are all part of the team….Go Ann!!!

Barbara makes you feel like you’re first, no matter where you are.  That — and the exercise benefits of walking in this competition — are going to last, for me.

Yesterday, I facilitated a retreat for group therapists — neither my first such retreat nor  my last.  It was the first warm and sunny day of Spring around here but (I hope) not the last. Even though I had to spend most of  that beautiful Sunday inside, my good feelings about the day are going to last.

I shall now share  my photos from yesterday’s retreat, from first to last.

 

 

What’s the first and last thing you notice in those photos?

The first thing I have to do today is get to work on time, so I’ll quickly go to the last blogging business of the day.  I hope that you

… and — last but not least — thanks to all who helped me create today’s first-AND-last post and  (of course!)  YOU.

 

Day 1938: Paramount

Yesterday, I was near the Paramount Theater in downtown Boston.

Today, it is paramount that I facilitate an all-day retreat for group therapists, where we’ll be talking about paramount issues.

Therefore, I am going to post all my photos of the Paramount  and let you decide which of the photos is paramount for you.

But first, an accurate definition of “paramount” might be paramount at this point.

par·a·mount
ˈperəˌmount
adjective
more important than anything else; supreme.
“the interests of the child are of paramount importance”
synonyms: most important, of greatest/prime importance

Finding one’s purpose is often paramount, no matter how difficult or funny it is.

Because some people think it’s paramount for me to include a video in these blog posts, here’s the result of my search on YouTube for “paramount song”:

It’s not paramount that you leave a comment, but it is paramount for me to thank Boston’s Paramount Theater, the Paramount School of Excellence, and — of course! — YOU.

Day 1937: What could go right?

In therapy lately, several people have decided to ask themselves “What could go right?” instead of consistently focusing on what could go wrong.

I’m pulling for everyone to have success in this valiant effort to change habitually negative thinking.  Would you like to follow us and redirect your thoughts from what could go wrong to what could go right?

What could go right, here and now?

These photos could go right.

 

For those of us who think about what could go wrong when we can’t fall asleep, it’s a relief to focus on what could go right.

There are endless YouTube videos about what could go wrong and this one about what could go right:

 

Gratitude for those who help me create these daily blog posts and  for you — of course! — always goes right.