Because today is the nineteen hundredth consecutive blogging day of The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally, I’d like to mark that milestone by asking an important question. Now, I could ask my usual question of “But who’s counting?” but I think the question “What is life?” is more important.
What is life, dear readers?
Luckily, I have a photo that may answer that important question.
Do you agree that life’s an event?
Looking at my other photos from yesterday, I would also say that life is eventful.
It’s been an eventful 1900 days here at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally, where our creative consciousness is not limited. Many thanks to all who have helped me create and sustain this daily blog and — OF COURSE! — to YOU.
I’m nervous but I won’t be afraid of pointing out that this is my second blog post in a row where I’m telling my readers how to be. Yesterday, I quoted the sign “Be Visible” and today I’m quoting this, by graphic designer and artist Sam Lee.
On this last day of 2017, I’m doing my best to be nervous but not afraid of 2018.
Be nervous but don’t be afraid of today’s other photos.
A Zen cat I know (my son Aaron) recently told me: “Don’t be afraid of using more words in your posts, instead of relying so much on your photos.” Every morning, I nervously resolve to write more words here but, somehow, my photos seem to say so much. For example, I am nervous but not afraid of
IDs,
traffic,
running,
being extraordinary,
being chicken,
unlikely friendships, and
cats peeing on things.
For five years, this daily blog has helped me be nervous but not afraid of many challenges of life, including getting a mechanical heart valve
and moving to a new home by the sea.
Be nervous but don’t be afraid of expressing your thoughts and feelings in a comment, if you choose.
As usual, I’m nervous but not afraid of expressing how grateful I am to all those who help me create this blog and — of course! — to YOU.
According to my “likes” on WordPress, I’m becoming less popular with the blogging populace.
How important is popular?
Here’s a popular definition of “popular”:
pop·u·lar
ˈpäpyələr
adjective
1. liked, admired, or enjoyed by many people or by a particular person or group.
“she was one of the most popular girls in the school”
synonyms: well liked, favored, sought-after, in demand, desired, wanted;
2. (of cultural activities or products) intended for or suited to the taste, understanding, or means of the general public rather than specialists or intellectuals.
“the popular press”
synonyms: nonspecialist, nontechnical, amateur, lay person’s, general, middle-of-the-road
Which of my photos from yesterday will be most popular with my readers?
Our newly cleaned couch and the refinished dining room table are very popular with the cats. I’m hoping that tolerance (discussed in yesterday’s therapy group) becomes more popular with the populace.
Here and here are two songs about being popular (and unpopular).
Popular thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.
Yesterday morning, I spent several hours on the phone talking to three different people from the Apple Help Desk, looking for solutions for my photo-loading and storage problems. I explained to all three that these solutions were imperative to support my daily blogging habit.
After all that time, I believe that solutions have been found. I’m about to test that out, here and now.
But before I do, what if solutions have NOT been found? How will I react? Will I feel
discouraged,
panicky,
angry,
disappointed,
hopeless,
put upon,
exhausted,
betrayed,
abandoned,
accepting, and/or
amused?
No matter what the facts are or how I feel about them, I believe there will be more solutions in the future.
Pardon me, while I attempt to load photos into this post, to test out the many solutions we tried yesterday.
Because this blog is personal medicine for me, I’ve been publishing daily posts since January 1, 2013. During that time, I’ve personally blogged twice before about personal medicine (here and here).
Yesterday, in a therapy group, it was personal medicine for all of us to share our personal medicine.
Notice that the first item on my list of personal medicine is my sister. That’s because Ellen had texted me during the group that she was in the building where I work. After the group, I had the personal medicine of hanging out with Ellen in the lobby of the hospital. She showed me a graph she had created about how Perceivers perform tasks.
Ellen showed me the personal medicine of that chart because, in Myers-Briggs lingo, I’m a perceiver and she’s a judger. I was initially interested and excited, then I got diverted by other priorities.
One of my other priorities yesterday was to go on a walk-through — with my boyfriend Michael, our realtor Jane, and the current owner — of our very-soon-to-be-new home near the ocean.
It’s personal medicine for me to look at that last photo. Imagine the personal medicine of living there, after the closing today.
When Michael and I got back to our soon-to-be-not home last night, we found a note from my son Aaron. Michael did his own personal medicine of writing back on the note.
Did you see that music is also on my list of personal medicine, above?
I hope you know your comments are also personal medicine for me. Please share your personal medicine, below.
Personal thanks to all who helped me create another personal-medicine post and — of course! — to YOU.
tan·trum
noun
an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a young child.
“he has temper tantrums if he can’t get his own way”
synonyms: fit of temper, fit of rage, fit, outburst, pet, paroxysm, frenzy, bad mood, mood, huff, scene; (informal) hissy fit
“how can you tolerate his tantrums?”
How can you tolerate his tantrums? Good question. How can we tolerate anybody’s tantrums, including our own?
For example, I sometimes have tantrums when somebody uses the word “pet” (as in the definition above) for anything other than this:
I’ve also been having tantrums because Oscar stepped on my computer this weekend and changed the way photos are displayed, making it harder for me to blog every morning.
Can anybody tell when I’m having tantrums? I’m not sure, but I told people at work yesterday that I woke up mad, mad, mad. Was I having a tantrum when I did that? Actually, I think sharing my feelings prevented me from having a tantrum.
Was I having tantrums when I took these photos?
Okay, now I’m having a tantrum because AS USUAL, I FORGOT TO RESTART MY COMPUTER BEFORE WRITING THIS POST AND THAT’S THE ONLY WAY I CAN ACCESS MY FRIGGIN’ PHOTOS FROM YESTERDAY! AND WORDPRESS ISN’T SAVING MY POSTS AS I’M WRITING THEM THESE DAYS SO THIS IS SUCH A !!&$##!!??!#^&!! PAIN!!!!
Excuse me. I’ll be right back.
Any tantrums here?
My boyfriend Michael (whose meals are good antidotes for tantrums) has lots of stories about tantrums he’s witnessed in restaurant and hotel kitchens.
Outbursts of gratitude and fits of frenzied thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to you. Without my readers, I’d be having tantrums every day.
See, the main reason I’m writing today’s “See” post is because yesterday I saw my friend Deb and we went to SEE in Harvard Square to seek new eyeglasses. See, Deb (who I’ve seen for about 50 years) and I see eye-to-eye about many things, including how great the frames are at SEE. Deb and I are a little concerned we won’t see each other as much when I move near the sea, but I see lots of fun times for us in the future.
Would you like to see the photos from SEE?
Do you see Christina in that last photo? She works at SEE and is also a counseling and psychology graduate student at Lesley University. I could see a lot of great qualities in Christina that will serve her well when she sees clients in the future.
Would you like to see my other photos from yesterday?
Can you see “Happy Father’s Day” in that sign above? I don’t get to see my late father any more, but it makes me happy to see him in this old photo of us.
I see that YouTube has this song, which I remember my father singing.
I’ll be seeing you in your comments, below.
See, I am very grateful to all who helped me see and share all the elements of this post and — of course! — to you, for seeing my blog, here and now.
I’m going to relieve some stress by confessing that I wrote another post titled “Stress Relief” last August, when I had a LOT of stress needing relief, including
my only child leaving for college in Scotland and
my first open heart surgery.
As always, it was a relief for me to describe and let go of my stress in that post. I can’t stress enough how writing this blog is stress relief for me, every day.
Yesterday, I definitely needed some stress relief.
I did end up happy yesterday, but that took some time and work because of all this stress:
My boyfriend Michael is away from home helping out his brother for three days.
We’re moving to a new place near the ocean this summer.
Scientific reports indicate that our new house will be under water soon.
Because of a ridiculous series of unfortunate events, I will be losing long-term disability payments for the rest of my part-time leave from work.
I was so stressed by all the urgent calls at work yesterday that I didn’t have time to take any more photos.
However, on June 10, I’ll have the stress of deciding whether to use my ticket and see him live in concert or attend an important dinner at a group therapy conference.
It relieves my stress to realize that some of these are good problems to have.
Gratitude is always great stress relief, so thanks to all who helped me create this stress-relief post and to you — of course! — for the relief of your presence, here and now.
Today is the 1600th day in a row of blog postings, here at the Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally. 1600 is a round number and a much bigger number than expected when I began this blogging journey back on January 1, 2013.
Do you have any reactions to round numbers? In therapy, people often describe negative reactions they have about reaching round numbers as they age. For example, somebody yesterday talked about turning 40 with a lot of self-judgment. For some reason, when people approach round numbers, they can roundly judge themselves about their accomplishments and life situations.
A round number is just a number, no more significant than any other number. And yet, here I am roundly noting it.
However, I am not going to get into a round of self-judgment about my posts. Instead, I’m going to post two musical round numbers (going round here and here on YouTube).
Here’s a round number of photos I took yesterday:
This is my blogging world, and I’ve tried to shape it as best I can.
A round of applause for the large number of people who’ve help me create these 1600 posts and — of course! — for you, on this round-number day.
