Day 2597: Fabulous people

Even though I’ve met so many fabulous people in my life (and please see every one of my previous blog posts for fabulous proof of this), I’ve never written a post with the title “Fabulous people” before.

Why that fabulous title on this fabulous day?

Last night, I met a fabulous person at a fabulous The Great Gatsby/Roaring Twenties-themed birthday party planned by my fabulous niece Laura for her fabulous daughter, Victoria. I told that fabulous person  that my blog featured fabulous people and that “Fabulous people” would probably be the name of today’s post.

Here’s that fabulous person, pictured with fabulous host Laura and then with her  fabulous husband:

She told me that she thought that “The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally” was a fabulous name for a blog. It would be so fabulous if she reads this!

Another fabulous person in today’s blog is Widad, who is my fabulous son Aaron’s fabulous girlfriend and who is also a fabulous artist.

Also pictured above is my long-time, fabulous friend Ada. She and her fabulous husband Johnny brought over a fabulous wedding cake for me and my fabulous husband Michael yesterday.

Johnny, who did not want his picture taken, kept telling me that he thought my hair looked fabulous.

I’ve got more fabulous fotos of fabulous people from yesterday. Are you ready, my fabulous readers?

My fabulous niece Laura made the fabulous food in the foto directly above.  And doesn’t fabulous birthday girl Victoria ….

… look FABULOUS?!!

Last night, I kept asking people where they got their fabulous outfits and I kept hearing this fabulous answer: “Amazon!”

I think it’s fabulous that one fabulous person was dressed as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in The Great Gatsby .

I also think that fabulous blogger (and fabulous reader of this blog) Christopher Waldrop will especially appreciate that fabulous Great Gatsby reference, which brings me to my last fabulous new foto for today:

Fabulous Christopher has a fabulous story in that fabulous book, which I think is soooo fabulous (and so fabulously deserved).

Is there any fabulous moral for today’s fabulous story?  Maybe just this: Spend as much time with fabulous people as you can in your fabulous life, because life is short (no matter how fabulously long it seems).

Here‘s “Young and Beautiful” by the fabulous Lana Del Rey, from the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby:

I can’t say whether that film is fabulous or not, because I haven’t seen it.

Fabulous thanks to all who help me create all my “fabulous people” posts, including YOU!

Day 2592: New Year’s Eve

For a long time, my New Year’s Eve tradition has been to compile  a list of my personal ten best and worst of the year.

This year’s best includes

• my son Aaron (top of the list for the 22nd year in a row!),
• my 12/27 wedding to Michael,
• my friends,
• my therapy groups (which include sharing and mindfulness exercises),
• blogging,
• the cats, and
• Michael’s cooking.

This year’s worst includes

• the death of close friends,
• how divided my country is and
• all the time I spent on worry and dread.

Do you see any evidence of  my best and worst in these new end-of-year photos?

 

 

 

I also put musician Jacob Collier on my personal best list for 2019 and it’s the best that I’ll be seeing him perform live in 2020!

It’s best to start planning for the best of 2020 and not to worry about a thing.

What’s your personal best and worst of 2019?

The best way for me to end this post is to express gratitude to all  who have supported me through another year of daily blogging, including YOU!

Happy New Year!

Love,

Ann

Day 2591: What is this place?

What is this place?  It’s The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally on WordPress, a place where I started blogging daily seven years ago. It’s a place I try to make special and safe.

It’s a place where I share stories and photos of places I’ve been.

What is this place? It’s a place where

• all creatures are welcome (no matter what they do or say),
• I create things (including  songs about Ferrero Rocher), and
• I share my thoughts and feelings, hoping that also helps you in some way.

This is the place for me to say this: before you step into 2020, be sure to cancel  your subscriptions to other people’s drama and negativity, but please do not cancel your subscription to The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally.

I found “What Is This Place” playing in place on YouTube.

As always, there’s a place for you and your comments here.

What is this place?  It’s a place for gratitude, every day.

Day 2588: We

Over the past seven years, I have written many blog posts with “We” in the title, including:

• Day 26: What we can and cannot change
• Day 103: We don’t have feelings until we’re ready for them
• Day 118: We really don’t know how we affect other people
• Day 130: The more we let go of fear, the better we can connect with each other
• Day 140: We cannot control other people
• Day 284: We never know how we affect other people (The Ta-Da Pose)
• Day 311: Shall we dance?
• Day 349: How We Are Doing
• Day 374: We’re doing the best we can
• Day 622: What we keep
• Day 651: What have we got?
• Day 759: We go on *
• Day 833: We’re all just trying to figure it out
• Day 917: How we touch the ground
• Day 1200: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
• Day 1220: We Live Here
• Day 1240: Things we don’t know
• Day 1245: What we choose to see
• Day 1314: We decide
• Day 1351: Things We Love
• Day 1458: We’re still alive
• Day 1489: When we wake up in the middle of the night
• Day 1545: We’re exactly where we’re supposed to be
• Day 1620: Why do we exist?
• Day 1638: We accept
• Day 1673: Are we there yet?
• Day 1697: Merrily we roll along
• Day 1734: How do we work together?
• Day 1753: When we die
• Day 1794: Where we will end up
• Day 1801: What’s bothering us? What do we do about it?
• Day 1906: We fear what we can’t control
• Day 1952: We Are One.
• Day 1975: How we make each other feel
• Day 2060: We are in search of greatness
• Day 2097: Will we ever agree on anything again?
• Day 2280: Are we having fun yet?
• Day 2286: What we are trying to tell each other
• Day 2304: What do we value?
• Day 2358: We want to know what you think!
• Day 2444: How many lives do we have?
• Day 2461: Here we go again!!
• Day 2472: What do we want to remember?
• Day 2479: Why should we care?
• Day 2519: What we’re holding
• Day 2524: Who are we?
• Day 2552: That’s the way we roll

Do we agree that I’ve written lots of posts about “We”?

Here’s a short poem titled “We.”

We

by Ann Koplow

“We” is my favorite pronoun.

It’s much better than “I.”

We are taking vows today

Which will last until we die.

Are we ready for my photos from yesterday?

We (Michael and I) love Jane, the realtor who helped us find the home where we are so happy and who sent us a card, flowers,  gingerbread cookies, and cookie-decorating materials yesterday to celebrate our wedding, which is today!

We wish you could all be there to celebrate with us, but we’re told that we can bring only twelve people with us to the civil ceremony.

Here‘s the “We” song I choose for today’s “We” post.

 

We belong together and I am so grateful for you and for us!

---

* We** are particularly proud of Day 759: We go on.

** We are comfortable, sometimes, using the royal we.

Day 2582: Celebrating with you!

For the past seven years, I’ve celebrated many things with you, including

• birthdays,
• anniversaries,
• my son Aaron,
• my successful heart valve replacement,
• writing and performing original songs,
• serving as President of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy,
• my therapy groups,
• appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
• speaking at my 45th college reunion, and
• the gifts of being present and alive, every day.

Now, I’m celebrating my upcoming marriage to Michael with you!

That celebratory card is from my thoughtful and celebrated co-workers, who celebrated with me yesterday by giving me these cupcakes.

I am celebrating with you that cupcake ring, which I might need on Friday since one of the his-and-hers wedding rings we ordered online IS the wrong size, just as I feared.  I like celebrating  mistakes, but some mistakes can be a shock to the system. If I get the wedding ring resized quickly, I’ll certainly be celebrating that with you!

As usual, I’m celebrating with you many moments from yesterday:

Celebrate good times …come on!

Thousands of people are celebrating with each other on YouTube in the comments for that video, including:

• celebrating because my mother has now been declared as cancer free
• When your crush asks you out
• Passing my exams that I didn’t study for brought me here
• When you write one word for your 200 letter essay
• When the weekend comes along
• IM NOT PREGNANT HELL YEAH!!
• I was inspired to listen to this song because I saved my neighbor’s cat
• Celebrating because my brother got accepted into college
• When they are giving out free food
• When you successfully make up a “when” joke
• I finished the dishes. I freakin finished the DISHES!!
• I WON THE LOTTERY!

Please share what YOU are celebrating with us, in a comment below.

As always, grateful to be celebrating with you,

Ann

 

Day 2573: “I don’t know what to do.”

I just woke up from a nightmare where I was lost, wandering around an unfamiliar city with two cell phones that did not belong to me and somebody else’s water bottle which looked like mine, unable to remember anything I needed to get to some place safe, and I kept saying out loud, “I don’t know what to do.”

I did know what to do.  I woke up from the nightmare.

I just now got a message on this laptop that says, “Your disk is almost full.”  I don’t know what to do.

I did know what to do. I deleted some stuff.

Sometimes I don’t know what to do when desperate people tell me that they don’t know what to do.

I do know what to do.  I listen and let them know they are not alone.

I don’t know what to do when I’m

• angry,
• disappointed,
• lost,
• frustrated,
• hopeless,
• confused,
• desperate,
• depleted,
• alone,
• purposeless,
• mistaken, or
• in pain.

I do know what to do. I write a blog post every morning.

I don’t know what to do if none of my photos from another ordinary/extraordinary yesterday relate to today’s topic.

I don’t know what to do about finding the right video for this post.

I do know what to do.  I recorded this last night:

And I do know what to do about freeing up more disk space.  Now that I’ve shared that video of Oscar, Michael, me, and a musical snow globe here, I know I can delete it from my laptop.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

I don’t know what to do to tell you all how much you have meant to me and how much you have helped me over my almost seven full years of daily blogging. Wait, I do know what to do.

Day 2560: Look what I made!

Look what I made!

I made a life filled with

• creativity,
• curiosity,
• puzzles,
• welcomes,
• friends,
• wonderful connections,
• sweet things,
• hopeful signs,
• love,
• cats,
• joy,
• purpose,
• appreciation,
• wonder, and
• images like these:

 

Look what my future in-laws’ cats are doing — making out the smell of our cats on my boots (which I didn’t make).

Here‘s “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” by Panic! At the Disco.

 

Look what I made!  Another blog post!

Thanks to all who help me make it through every day, including YOU.

 

Day 2524: Who are we?

In previous posts, I’ve posed the bloggy questions “Who am I?,” “What am I?” and “Where am I?”

Today, I’m going more global with “Who are we?” because

• every new story and news story I read these days implies, to me, this question about the current state of humanity and
• I took this photo yesterday.

Who are we?  Are we

• factions of humans who never agree?
• a species who can bond together over a common goal?
• violent?
• kind?
• selfish?
• empathic?
• hating?
• loving?
• capable of change?
• doomed?
• serious?
• ridiculous?
• leaders?
• followers?
• thinkers?
• feelers?
• wise?
• stupid?
• enemies?
• friends?
• hopeless?
• hopeful?
• memorable?
• capable of remembering?

Are we ready for my other photos from yesterday?

I don’t know if I’ll remember the Alamo, but I’ll always remember Deb Carmichael.

Here’s Who are We? by The Dixie Hummingbirds.

 

How would you answer today’s bloggy question?  Who are we?

Are we grateful?  I am, for all those who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.

 

 

Day 2500: What are the words that you live by?

Yesterday, at a Boston performance of the wonderful musical Choir Boy, I saw this:

Audience members (including me) responded to that invitation to share the words that we live by, by posting  sticky notes:

Can you spot the words I live by among all those words?

 

Do you see any words to live by in my other photos from yesterday?

 

 

What are the words that YOU live by?

 

Here  is a Rosh Hashana song ….

… and here’s “Rockin’ Jerusalem” from  Choir Boys.

 

Two of the words I live by, every day, are “Thank You,.” Thank you for helping me create two thousand and five hundred daily blog posts with (I hope) some words to live by.

 

 

Day 2491: What helps?

What helps you?

What helps me is blogging every morning.  What helps me is sharing my experience.

Today, I’ll be sharing my experience at my college reunion in a five-minute speech about living with my very unusual heart. It’ll help if I can record it, so I’ll do my best. If I can’t record it, I’ll help you experience the speech by sharing the full text here, tomorrow.

Yesterday, it helped for me to facilitate a Coping and Healing group at work and then to spend the day at my reunion with my long-time friend Lawry.

It helps to have friends. Here’s part of today’s speech:

So as I tell my story to you today, I wonder, perhaps along with you, what has allowed me to survive, so intact, through all this? What has helped me pick up the pieces, over and over again? As when I was a child — the love of my family and friends sustain me. Also, seven years ago I expanded my network of friends by starting a daily blog. Every morning, including today, I’ve written about my heart, my son, my passion for the healing power of groups, my song-writing, my cats, my hopes, my fears, this speech — whatever helps gird me and prepare me for the day ahead. The day after my heart valve surgery was the only day I needed a substitute blogger — my boyfriend Michael let my thousands of followers know I had survived the complicated procedure. Their comments included “Fantastic news! I’m in public but I’m dancing all the same,” and “’She’s going to be alright guys’ is the best line ever!”

In other words, I get by with a little help from my friends, including YOU!