Day 2321: Responsibilities

My responsibilities today include

• letting you know I’ve never written a “Responsibilities” post before,
• facilitating two Coping and Healing groups at work, and
• sharing my photos from yesterday (which has recently become more difficult, for some unknown reason, and I don’t know if WordPress or my laptop are responsible).

 

My responsibilities, here and now, include telling you that “Responsibilities” was the topic chosen by yesterday’s Coping and Healing group, and that this is what I wrote in response to the question “What is your personal experience of responsibilities?”

I can be over responsible, which can get in the way of enjoying the present moment. “What do I have to do right now?”  “Nothing except be here, now, as best I can.” I am going to ask myself that question, with that answer, more often.

What is your personal experience of responsibilities?

I have a few more blogging responsibilities right now:  inviting you to be kind,

sharing this photo of Michael’s delicious chicken parmesan from last night,

… posting a song about responsibilities,

asking for comments, and expressing my thanks to all who helped me meet my responsibilities with today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

 

Day 2290: Love Letters

Today’s blogging love letter is inspired by a lovely conversation with loving WordPress blogger Debra, whom I loved meeting in Los Angeles on Friday. I told Debra that my son, Aaron, whom I love, does not read my blog and how he has told me that he will read all the letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs in my blog after I die.

I told Debra that I love that, because after I’m gone Aaron will discover that this blog is “a love letter to him, as well as to many others.”

In this daily blog, over the past six years, I have written love letters to

• my son Aaron,
• my boyfriend Michael,
• my sister Ellen,
• my parents,
• my therapy groups,
• group therapy,
• my readers,
• my ex-sister-in-law Deborah,
• my ex-sister-in-law Diane,
• my other ex-in-laws (including my nieces Laura, Julie, and Victoria)
• my sister-in-law Linda,
• my cousin Lani,
• my friend Barbara,
• my friend Deb,
• my friend Carol,
• my friend Jeanette,
• friends and ex-college-roommates Marcia and Maria,
• my friends Janet and Ray,
• my friend Megan,
• my friend Janis,
• my friend Dave,
• my friend Lawry,
• my friend Eleanor,
• my friend Arnie,
• my friend Peggy,
• My friend Kathy,
• My friend Jenn and her family,
• My Scottish heart sisters Vicki and Andrena,
• my son Aaron’s friends,
• my co-worker Alice,
• other co-workers (past and present),
• my ex-neighbor Karen,
• my dentist,
• healers,
• school friends,
• childhood friends,
• children of all ages,
• fellow bloggers I’ve met including Mark Bialczak, Lisa from Daily Musings,  Val Boyko from Find Your Middle Ground,  and the aforementioned Debra from breathelighter,
• fellow bloggers I haven’t met (yet),
• blogging,
• my high school classmates including Jean and Beth,
• my old schools,
• my old business partner Jonathan,
• Ron Lynch,
• Dr. Neil Portenza/Josh Ladgrove,
• Irv Yalom,
• Pat Metheny,
• Lyle Mays,
• Michael Brecker,
• Jean-Luc Ponty,
• Jaco Pastorius,
• Miles Davis,
• Stephen Sondheim,
• Gene Kelly and other dancers,
• Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, and other singer-songwriters,
• Mel Brooks and other film-makers,
• Jackie Chan,
• Walt Disney,
• Jane Austen and other writers,
• other celebrities,
• people with unusual hearts,
• musicals,
• movies,
• television shows,
• jazz,
• strangers I’ve met who have immediately become less strange,
• Boston, Massachusetts,
• the North Shore of Boston,
• the South Shore of Boston,
• South Carolina,
• Panama,
• Iceland,
• Edinburgh,
• the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
• the ocean,
• my hair artiste MiAlisa,
• my car mechanics,
• my car,
• my medical doctors and other treaters,
• group therapy professional organizations,
• comedy,
• comedians,
• music,
• musicians,
• writers,
• other creative types,
• our cats,
• dogs,
• animals,
• nature,
• happy people,
• people in pain,
• all the different human emotions,
• languages,
• words and definitions,
• signs,
• certain letters of the alphabet, and
• many other inspiring and/or ordinary subjects and objects.

I sometimes love linking to past blog posts and sometimes I don’t, especially when my love letter list is so long! I also don’t love leaving people off of loving lists, so I may be adding more love letters to this post, later.

What love letters are you writing these days?

I should write love letters to Ron Lynch for inviting me to warm up the crowd last night at his Tomorrow! show in L.A. and also to Don for sending me the video, as promised.

I look forward to all the letters in the comments section, below.

Love letters to all  who helped me create today’s blogging love letter and — of course! — to YOU, my lovely and loving readers.

Day 2222: OMG!

OMG! It’s my first post with “OMG!” in the title!

OMG! It’s about time, because it’s my two thousand, two hundred, and twenty-second consecutive post!

OMG! Here’s the inspiration for today’s post title!

OMG! It was Christmas yesterday and here are the rest of my OMG! It’s Christmas photos!

OMG! Did you get a good look at that cat ornament on Michael’s sister’s Christmas tree?

OMG!  Michael’s sister Lydia …

… loves to skate and loves Snoopy, so it makes sense that her husband Bob (who’s OMG! at the stove in that picture) gave her this OMG! Christmas present last year:

OMG!  Bob gave Lydia another skating Snoopy this year!

OMG!  I didn’t take a video of that one in motion.

OMG!  I’m looking forward to your comments.

OMG! I am so grateful to those who help me create all my OMG! blog posts and to you — OMG! — for reading them. And — OMG!  — I hope you had a Merry Christmas,  Catmas,

or whatever day you celebrated. OMG!

Day 2186: Animals

In two thousand, one hundred, and eighty-six days of daily blogging, I’ve never written a post with “animals” in the title. That seems strange to this blogging animal, since there are so many animals in my blog posts.

What animals will be inside my post today?

 

 

 

Here are some musical animals …

… and more here.

 

Feel free to make animal noises in the comments section, below.

I wonder what animals feel gratitude? I know I do, so thanks to all the animals who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU!

 

 

Day 2056: Into the Unknown

As we enter into the unknown of another day and another blog post, I will tell you that the theme of the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe is “Into the Unknown.”

I especially like that cover photo for “Into the Unknown” because many of my known photographs include my feet, like this one:

That reminds me that I went into the unknown yesterday with my son Aaron and his friends to try a highly recommended macaroni and cheese sandwich in Edinburgh, wearing my macaroni and cheese socks. Photos of that sandwich and other Edinburgh meals will remain unknown to my readers because my son extracted a known promise from me that I do NOT take pictures of food when I’m with him and his friends.

Before this visit, my son Aaron’s Edinburgh friends were unknown to me. They are unknown no longer.

That drawing of Aaron’s friend Jago was done by his known and long-time friend Cameron, who is known to my readers.

The known Cameron is on the right and the previously unknown Jago and Michael are on the left. When we went into that unknown grocery store to get spinach, which I’m known to need because of my known heart condition and medication, it was unknown to us that no photos were allowed there. The security guard told us that unknown rule so we would know not to take more photos there.

I hope it’s known to you that I’m known for taking photos everywhere I go as I venture into the unknown.

Those last few previously unknown photos show us going into the unknown of the amazing Neal Portenza’s latest and (I hope!) NOT final Edinburgh show, despite his poster.

I plan to be going into the unknown of more Fringe shows today.

Do you know what helps you find the courage to go into the unknown? For me, it’s known that blogging helps a lot.

Now let’s go into the unknown of today’s blog post ending.

Day 2018: 2018

What kind of number is 2018? The website Numbermatics tells us that

2018 is an even composite number. It is composed of two distinct prime numbers multiplied together. It has a total of four divisors.

2018 squared (20182) is 4072324
2018 cubed (20183) is 8217949832
The square root of 2018 is 44.9221548905
The cube root of 2018 is 12.6368953011

To count from 1 to 2018 would take you about thirty-three minutes.

It takes me about thirty-three minutes to create my daily blog posts, including one where the number of the post equals the number of the year.

2018 is also approximately the number of thoughts I had about how to mark this special number today. I spent about 2018 seconds searching for “mathematical puns” and I found Yan’s One Minute Math Blog, which included these mathematical puns from Stewart Francis:

I’m the youngest of three, my parents are both older.

Of the twenty-seven
students in my maths class,
I was the only one who failed.
What are the odds of that, one
in a million?

What are the odds of my blogging consecutively for 2018 days?  What are the odds of 2018 being the kind of year it’s been?

The number of photos I’m sharing today is approximately the cube root of 2018:

 

After spending approximately 2018 seconds creating this blog, I can see glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel.  Can you?

Here‘s what comes up for “2018” on YouTube:

One more mathematical fact: that has 6.5K likes and 6.7K dislikes on YouTube.

I wonder what number of comments I’ll get on this 2018 post?

I’ve been grateful 2018 times to those who help me create this blog and — of course! — to YOU.

 

 

Day 2015: There are two sides to every adventure

Yesterday, when I was having adventures, I saw this:

Last night, there were two sides to my adventures with my non-responsive laptop at the Apple Store. On one side of the store, we met the multi-sided Apple Genius Niko (who writes children’s adventure books on the side).

Niko is showing us his smiling side there. When he looked at my well-worn laptop (which has been by my side for years of blogging adventures), he showed his concerned and worried side. When I told him that my son and I had likely accidentally switched our look-alike chargers, he said the higher wattage of my son’s charger might have been too adventurous and powerful for the charging side of my little laptop.

Here’s the side of my son’s charger:

Here’s the side of my laptop’s charger:

Watt a difference 15 watts can make. The adventures of my little laptop are over. On the one side, I’m going to miss that little adventurous laptop. On the other side, I’m getting a new, faster blogging machine on the other side of two days.

When I was having adventures on two sides of Boston’s Downtown Crossing yesterday, I recorded two musical performances with my adventurous iPhone:

There are at least two sides to every photo I share here:

I’m always having a nice day when I can express thanks to all who help me create this blog and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2000: Two thousand days of blogging

When I wrote my first blog post on January 1, 2013,  I never thought I’d still be here,  now, blogging away.

Two thousand thanks to all who helped me blog daily, including Michael who took over for two posts (here and here ) after my open heart surgery on September 21, 2016. Michael’s two posts had the most likes and the most comments in the last two thousand days, but who’s counting?

Actually, over the last two thousand days, I’ve asked “Who’s counting?” many, many times, and I think today is a great day to reveal the answer to that question.

Who’s counting? Me.  I’m counting.  And I’ve been counting on this blog and on all of you to help me learn, grow, and get through every day.

Let’s see if the latest photos on my iPhone are relevant for today.

They were taking off the roof of this house yesterday on the South Shore of Boston.  Later that day, I saw and heard somebody in a Chicago subway station tap dancing to “Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.” (A song that helped me get through pneumonia, as described in this April 18, 2016 post.)

One of my quests over the last two thousand days was to move near the water, and I made it! Here’s a link to one of the many posts from that quest.

Over the last two thousand days, I’ve collected hundreds if not thousands of thank you’s.

There’s Boston, my home town.

This blog has given me an exit to hopelessness, worry, and judgment.

With readers like mine and my apparently endless commitment to blogging, the sky’s the limit!

When we were walking around Chicago yesterday, I asked my son Aaron if he thought that photo was interesting or funny.  We couldn’t decide.

As usual, I’m going to throw in the rest of my photos from yesterday and hope they fit the post.

 

 

I got this great video for today’s post!

As always, thanks to all who help me create this daily blog and — of course! — to YOU.

 

Day 1900: What is life?

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.

Day 1826: Be nervous but don’t be afraid.

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.