Yesterday, in my Coping and Healing group, people spoke about doing things for the first time, like taking a trip alone.
Then, I noticed that my tweet about being blocked for the first time on Twitter got a kashmillion responses and hundreds of new followers, also for the first time.
Well, as my mother used to say, there’s a first time for everything.
What helps us deal with things we are encountering for the first time? Things that are new to us, even those things we might want, invariably cause some stress.
I hope you enjoy seeing these images for the first time.
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It’s not the first time I’ve shared “Ain’t That Peculiar” here and it’s probably not the last either!
Actually, it IS the first time I’ve seen and shared that fabulous video.
What are your thoughts and feelings about this first-time post?
For neither the first nor the last time, thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.
Tell me something I don’t know, preferably about you.
I’ll tell you something YOU don’t know: I’ve been serving on the Board of Directors of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy for eight years, which is ALL of my 60s, and tomorrow is my last day!
I’ll tell you something else you don’t know — I’ve been listening to the original cast album of In the Heightsand I love this song:
Am I telling you something you don’t know in the images I captured yesterday?
Tell me something I don’t (or do) know in the comments section below.
I am grateful for what I know, for what I might know in the future, and for YOU.
Who are the people who are grabbing your attention now, besides me?
I often grab people’s attention by pointing out that the people who are grabbing our attention are often the difficult ones. They grab our attention because we experience them as a problem, even a danger, and our mind wants to find a “solution” to make our environment safer.
Last night, when I thought I might lose sleep because of people who were grabbing my attention, I tweeted this:
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This response to that tweet grabbed my attention:
Thank goodness, one person who was grabbing my attention yesterday was my old student, Chris Delyani, writer extraordinaire, who wishes me well and who has previously appeared in this blog (here, here, and here). I hope the word “old” doesn’t grab Chris’s attention in a negative way, because he looks great!
Chris and I grabbed each other’s attention yesterday by reminiscing about when he was a student in my writing section at Boston University in the 1980s. Now he is grabbing people’s attention with his wonderful books.
Chris and I grabbed my husband Michael’s attention when we told the story of how Chris and my other students had graded the printed directions I had given them to find my place for a celebratory party at the end of the semester. Mimicking the way I had graded and commented on their papers, they wrote (among other things):
“These directions were okay — they got us there, but we couldn’t tell how you FELT about it.”
“You show unspeakable talent… C+“
Chris and my other students also grabbed my attention back then by correcting my one spelling mistake on the directions — I wrote “wonderous” instead of “wondrous.” That grabbed my attention so much that I’ve never misspelled that word since.
What grabs your attention in my other images from yesterday and why?
My husband Michael, who exceeds my expectations, often says “It’s never what you expect.”
It’s never what you expect on Twitter.
It’s never what you expect, and based on that last tweet, you wouldn’t expect that one of my most important posts of the last eight-and-a-half years (and I never expected I would blog for more than a year) is titled “Very Unique.”
Is it never what you expect when I share my photos from the day before?
It’s never what you expect, and I expected to see a photo of the amazing meal Michael prepared last night — delicious vegetarian meat loaf with mushroom sauce, couscous, and vegetables — but apparently I fucked that up.
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “it’s never what you expect”:
If you were expecting some music here today, it’s never what you expect.
When I taught at Boston University over thirty years ago, I never expected that one of my students from back then would ask to have lunch with me today. Just a few months ago, I never expected that I would be dining out in a restaurant again.
It’s never what you expect and who knows what comments I’ll find when I check back later?
It’s never what you expect and how do people expect me to end my posts?
Guess what! I’m a person who loves to say, “Guess what!”
Guess what? I’m never sure how to punctuate “guess what”! It’s often written as a question (“guess what?”) but, to me, it sounds like an exclamation and a request, if not a demand (“guess what!”).
Guess what! My son Aaron and I had a conversation recently about punctuation and not caring so much about the rules.
Guess what I did on Fathers Day, 2021!
Did you guess that I tweeted, went for a walk, bought a gift for Aaron’s father Leon (who is a very talented photographer), saw a movie in a theatre for the first time since the pandemic started, ate some delicious food prepared by Aaron’s stepfather Michael, hung out with Aaron, Leon, and Michael, and took lots of photos?
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 