Day 3386: Important messages

In all of my careers — including marketing communications and psychotherapy — I’ve thought a lot about communcating important messages.

In order to effectively deliver important messages, you need to

• know your audience and
• choose clear, strong, passionate, and honest ideas to reach your audience and inspire them to action.

I believe that many important messages are getting lost in all the noise out there and I fear we are running out of time to communicate them effectively.

Do you see important messages in any of my images for today?

Important messages I received from being born with a very unusual heart is that life is short and every day counts.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “important messages.”

I look forward to the important messages that will appear in the comments section, below.

Gratitude is an important message I deliver at the end of every post, so thanks to all who help me deliver the daily messages in this blog, including YOU!

Day 2967: Anti-Stress Word Searches

Every morning, for me, includes searching for words for my daily blog post that are anti-stress. These searches help me face each new day, because it’s so difficult to find anti-stress words anywhere else.

Before I join my training group this morning on Developing Resilient Group Leadership (which will probably include some anti-stress word searches), let’s search for anti-stress words and images together.

Every day, I search for words, images, and also music that are anti-stress. If you search the words in this post, you’ll find this …

…and this:

My word searches for gratitude are also anti-stress, so thanks to all who help me create these anti-stress posts, including YOU!

Day 2966: Motivation

In therapy yesterday, several people discussed motivation as a problem, which did not surprise me.

Somehow, I have the motivation today to (1) find a definition of “motivation” online …

… (2) attend the first day of a two-day remote Zoom group on developing resilient group leadership, and (3) share my latest images with you.

That quote from Hillary McBride, sent to me by a patient, helps fuel my motivation to be a resilient group therapist.

Transformative music can also fuel motivation, so here is “Spain” by the late, great Chick Corea.

Here is a live, acoustic version of “Spain”:

If you have the motivation to leave a comment, please do so.

I always have the motivation to express gratitude, so thanks to all who help me find the motivation to create a blog post every day, including YOU.

Day 2965: Not Freaking Out

In my Coping and Healing groups yesterday, we talked about not freaking out.

I wrote and shared a poem:

I am also not freaking out by capturing and sharing images.

As I asked on Twitter this morning, who’s freaking out? And if you’re not freaking out, how are you doing that?

I’m not freaking out by blogging and expressing gratitude here, every day.

Day 2964: What you imagine and what you expect

What I imagine, here and now, is you thinking about the difference between what you imagine and what you expect. I don’t expect that you will do that, but I am still imagining it.

No matter what you imagine and what you expect, two images provided the inspiration for today’s title. Here’s the first image …

… and here’s the second image:

Here are six quotes about what you imagine:

Imagination was given to man to compensate for what he is not; a sense of humour to console him for what he is.

Francis Bacon

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Mark Twain

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

George Bernard Shaw

Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.

Albert Einstein

Everything you can imagine is real.

Pablo Picasso

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

Thomas Sowell

Here are six quotes about what you expect:

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

Jane Austen

Peace begins when expectations end.

Sri Chimnoy

If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.

Sylvia Plath

My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.

Stephen Hawking

A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.

Jonathan Lockwood Huie

That was the thing about the world: it wasn’t that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways you didn’t expect.

Lev Grossman

Do you imagine or expect more images from me today?

.

What do you imagine and/or expect today’s song will be?

I am neither imagining nor expecting comments from you today. Imagine acceptance from me for anything you might express.

As you might imagine and expect, I’m ending with gratitude for all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.

Day 2941: Comebacks

I always appreciate it when you come back to this blog, which today will start out with a definition of “comeback.”

come·back /ˈkəmˌbak/

noun
1. a return by a well-known person, especially an entertainer or sports player, to the activity in which they have formerly been successful.
“the heavyweight champion is set to make his comeback”
Similar: resurgence, recovery, return, rally, upturn, revival, rebound, fightback
2. INFORMAL
a quick reply to a critical remark.
“some of my best comebacks just go right over people’s heads”

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s comeback of many well-known politicians to the activities in which they have formerly been successful. I’m also looking forward to the comeback of my country to the world stage.

Also, since I was very young, I’ve been known for my comebacks. Once, when a young man was telling me how wonderful he was and said, “You can call me God, for short,” I had this comeback: “Short for what — Godawful?”

Now it’s time to come back to my most recent images. Do you see any comebacks in them?

• 

• 

.

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire have had many comebacks, as you can see here:

I look forward to your comebacks in the comment section, below.

Thanks to all who come back to this blog, including YOU.

Day 2937: What is helping people fall asleep this week?

Last night, when I couldn’t fall asleep, I tweeted the question in today’s title. Much to my surprise, I got lots of answers, which helped me fall asleep.

How would you answer that question? What is helping you fall asleep this week?

Do you see anything in my recent images that would help you fall asleep?

The Daily Bitch is telling me that there are friggin’ reasons why I’m having trouble falling asleep this week.

Here’s “How To Fall Asleep In 2 Minutes” from AsapSCIENCE:

Hearing back from people helps me fall asleep, so consider leaving a comment below.

Finally, gratitude is helping me fall asleep this week, so thanks to all who read this blog, including YOU!

Day 2931: Everything happens for a reason

Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

I find it more difficult to believe that everything happens for a reason when so many people seem to have lost their reason.

When so many people seem to have lost their reason, I look for a reason for why that has happened. That’s why I posted this question on Twitter yesterday:

.

People’s responses happened for a reason and included the following:

.

Those answers may have happened for a reason, but I still can’t find the reasons why so many people are still Trump supporters after all the unreasonable — and dangerous — things he has done and said.

Have these photos and other images happened for a reason?

There’s a reason why I captured that last image — I plan to use the “Thank you!” to end this post.

Here is “Everything Happens for a Reason” by Zhané:

It happens that I have so many reasons to be grateful, so thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including you!

Day 2928: Love everyone

Some days, it’s easier to love everyone. For me, today is one of those days.

I also love every one of my photos today.

I love everyone, including the person who responded to my tweet last night of that last photo captioned “Harley is a Democat” with “Someone’s projecting! Harley doesn’t care” and then liked my response of “Harley cares about many things.”

I love everyone in this video:

I love my reader Maureen, who tells me that some people can’t view that video, so here, again, is the late, great U.S. Congressman from Georgia, John Lewis, crowdsurfing at the Stephen Colbert Show, with a bonus track of him dancing to the song “Happy.”

I love everyone who reads this blog, including YOU!

Day 2926: What’s on my mind

Every day, for the past eight years, I’ve been telling people what’s on my mind through this blog.

Today, Georgia is on my mind, because of the two races for control of the U.S. Senate and because of this:

There exists a recording of somebody with sedition on his mind calling the Georgia Secretary of State, but because I don’t want to go out of my mind listening to somebody who is out of his mind, I’d rather listen to “Georgia on my Mind” performed by writer Hoagy Carmichael.

I also prefer to have Ray Charles’s rendition of “Georgia on my Mind” on my mind rather than what’s on the mind of somebody with a severe personality disorder who’s on everybody’s mind because he is still in power until January 20.

What’s on my mind also includes a broken filling in my tooth, which I’m letting my dentist know about now because he reads this blog every day. Hello, Dr. Del Castillo! It’s on my mind to call your office today.

I share what’s on my mind by capturing images like these:

What’s on your mind, here and now?

Gratitude is always on my mind, so thanks to all who help me share what’s on my mind every day, including you!