I thought of that quote yesterday when I wanted to inspect some new graffiti on a tower structure near where we live, but was stymied by high tide. While time and tide wait for no man, this woman waited for the time where she could explore and find what she was looking for.
No need to wait for me to share my images from yesterday, including the ones I snapped during high tide.
I thought I had spotted a heart on that tower and waited until tide and time allowed me to explore.
Time (and perhaps man) has changed a “TRUMP” and added a big heart to that tower.
Here are the other images I captured during the time of lower tide:
I don’t know what the tide was like during the times I captured the rest of these images because I was indoors at the time.
Time and tide wait for no man and Harley can’t wait for his breakfast.
Yesterday, on Twitter and Facebook, I got this out of my system:
Responses included
worrying,
anxiety,
guilt,
perfectionism,
panicking,
urgency,
uncertainty,
repression,
resentment,
too much busyness, and
my own prejudices.
Every day, I clear those from my system by blogging first thing in the morning.
Now I’m going to clear images from my iPhone system by sharing them with you.
Decades ago, when I was dealing with upsetting medical news about my very unusual heart, I went to a percussion class and cleared fear, anger, resentment, panicking, uncertainty, and worry from my system by wildly drumming along to “The Dancer” by Stanley Clarke.
If you want to clear unexpressed thoughts or feelings from your system, you can do so in the comments section, below.
As always, I’ve got a lot of gratitude in my system.
I wasn’t sure what positive words I wanted to add to this post this morning until I saw this on Twitter:
Even (or especially) during difficult, uncertain, and anxiety-provoking times, it helps to add a positive word.
What positive word would you add to the jar? You can add that positive word to the comments section, below.
Now it’s time for me to add positive images to this post.
I considered adding the positive word “awareness” instead, but I want to put in a positive word for acceptance. In therapy, I often say that acceptance is the first step to change — you need to recognize and accept where you are, even if you don’t like it — before you can take the next step forward.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “add a positive word”:
That reminds me of an exercise I did with my family decades ago when we all added positive words about each other on paper. After our move to our home by the ocean, I’ve lost track my piece of paper, but the positive words are where they belong — in my heart — even if some family members are gone.
I also think I added those positive words to this blog, somewhere.
I’m positively giddy that I found some of them by searching for “family exercise,” here.
Positive words are out there. Strangely, those are often hard to accept.
As always, I add a positive word to the end of each post.
It’s incredible how many incredible life moments I’ve been able to share and experience here.
Over the years, there have been so many incredible life moments where the incredible support of my blogging community has nourished and sustained me.
Here are some incredible life moments from yesterday:
Some of my incredible life moments yesterday included:
getting our taxes done early,
dreading the moment of e-filing because of the way the IRS rejected our return last year because someone in the social security office had made the incredible mistake in the past of entering Michael’s birthday incorrectly, which was a bitch to correct during a pandemic, which I won’t take any more incredible life moments to describe,
talking myself out of my fear of another IRS rejection by reminding myself that the birthday problem had been solved,
hitting the e-file button,
the IRS incredibly rejecting my e-file twice, claiming that the 2019 Adjusted Gross Income I entered didn’t match their records, even though it DID,
listening to incredibly annoying music and recorded people babbling on hold for many incredible life moments, waiting to talk to an H&R Block customer service person,
listening to incredibly annoying babbling thoughts in my head about how the customer service person would not be able to help me and I’d have to mail in our return just like last year and our refunds would be months late again and why do these things always happen to me blah blah blah,
reaching an incredibly helpful and empathic customer service person who suggested we try a non-intuitive (to me) workaround solution,
asking the customer service person to stay on the line with me as I tried to e-file for the third time, and
SUCCESS!
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “incredible life moments”:
It would be an incredible life moment if you left a comment, below.
I am grateful for every incredible life moment, including this one I’m sharing now with you.
Yesterday, I mentioned safe enough spaces at the end of my post. I deliberately did not write “safe spaces” because no spaces are completely safe. In every space, we take risks if we expose our vulnerability and humanity. The more we do that, the more we make the space safe enough for others.
I try to make my Coping and Healing groups safe enough spaces, and yesterday people felt safe enough to share conflicting opinions about getting the COVID vaccines. We all survived our differences and people felt safe enough to stay connected with each other.
Later in the day, I felt safe enough to finally make it to the safe enough sand bar I can see from my home (and which I felt safe enough to write about earlier this week in this post).
Many times, I have tried to get to that safe enough sand bar by unsuccessfully trying to locate its starting point across the safe-enough bay. Yesterday, I had the brilliant and long-overdue idea to walk through some water during low tide and access the sand bar from its end point near me.
Instead of telling myself, “WHY DIDN’T YOU THINK OF THIS BEFORE?”, I made my mind a safe enough space by enjoying the experience, moment by moment.
I hope you feel safe enough to accompany me on this adventure through safe enough spaces.
I discovered that I had been SO CLOSE to discovering the beginning point of the sand bar on a previous exploration, but had turned back when I saw that “no trespassing sign, which made the space not safe enough.
If I had felt safe enough to keep exploring past that scary sign (which referred to something else), I would have discovered the beginning of the sand bar months ago. I feel safe enough to share, here and now, that I trust my process and am happy it happened exactly the way it did.
Do you see safe enough spaces in the rest of my images today?
I assume that this is a safe enough space to share that I am Jewish and that I will start celebrating Passover in an unconventional way starting at sundown tonight.
What is wrong with people asking the question, “What is wrong with people?”
What is wrong with hundreds of people answering that question, including me?
Yet when people ask “What is wrong with me?” in therapy, I answer very differently, with “Is that a helpful question?”
What is wrong with people answering the question “What is wrong with me?” with “Nothing!”
What is wrong with people making a distinction between people as a species and individuals? What is wrong with people letting go of shame (the belief that something is wrong with them) in order to heal?
What is wrong with people sharing their images with other people?
The secret, for me, includes a good-enough night’s sleep.
Is there a secret in any of my other images today?
There is at least one secret in those photos. After years of living here and trying many times, I cannot figure out how to get to this intriguing location:
I have faith that the secret will be revealed some day, just not yet.
Here’s what comes up on YouTube when I search for “the secret”:
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 