Day 2761: Hell and Heaven

Today’s post is inspired by images I captured yesterday:

Here are some quotes about Hell:

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
― Dante Alighieri

“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”
― Victor Hugo, Ninety-Three

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
― Aldous Huxley

“Hell is—other people!”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit“

“Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Hell is truth seen too late.”
― Thomas Hobbes

“I think hell is something you carry around with you. Not somewhere you go.”
― Neil Gaiman

“What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Damned

 

Here are some quotes about Heaven:

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”
― Robert Browning

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”
― Mark Twain

“I don’t like to commit myself about Heaven and Hell, you see, I have friends in both places.”
― Mark Twain

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.”
― Desmond Tutu

“The connections we make in the course of a life–maybe that’s what heaven is.”

― Fred Rogers

Here‘s a video of Eric Clapton first performing “Tears in Heaven”, which he wrote after the accidental death of his 4-year-old son Conor.

Please share your thoughts and feelings about hell and/or heaven in a comment, below.

Earthly gratitude to all who helped me create this “Hell and Heaven” post and to all who are reading it, including YOU.

 

Day 2590: Clouds

While I’ve been in the clouds about my December 27th wedding to Michael, I’ve also been noticing clouds, including these:

What do those clouds look like to you? Do you see

• a unicorn?
• a dragon?
• a face?
• hope?
• threats?
• something else?

What does this look like to you?

Some people have been like dark clouds in my life, and when they disappear, it IS a brighter day.

Maybe my new socks have something to say to dark clouds.

I don’t want to cloud the issue, but I actually do care. I wish to be aware of all clouds and do what’s in my power to deal with them.

Here are some quotes about clouds:

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate and those that I guard I do not love.” — William Butler Yeats

” Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.  You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” — St. Augustine

“It is better to have your heads in the clouds and know where you are … than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.” — Henry David Thoreau

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”  — Edward Abbey

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” —  John Lubbock

“Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky.  They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives.” — Roger Ebert

“Mirth is like a flash of lightening, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.” — Joseph Addison

“Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation will continue to prosper as before.” — Abraham Lincoln

“I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights, and I have to be very careful when I’m in the clouds, but it is also what I love; it is my domain, so when you love something, you don’t have fear.” —Philippe Petit

“Who cares about the clouds when we’re together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.” — Dale Evans

Do you see any clouds in these other recent photos?

It’s nice to see a squirrel in a cloud of lace.

Here‘s a song about clouds:

 

Here‘s another song that’s hovering in the clouds of this post, above:

 

If you were to comment on this post, I’d be on Cloud 9.

Now it’s time to end this post in a cloud of gratitude, so thanks and happy trails to all who help me find my way through the clouds to blog every day, including YOU.

 

 

Day 2470: Permission

I hope I have my readers’s permission to start this post with a definition:

per·mis·sion
/pərˈmiSHən/
noun
consent; authorization.
“they had entered the country without permission”
synonyms: authorization, consent, leave, authority, sanction, license, dispensation, assent, acquiescence, agreement, approval, seal of approval, approbation, endorsement, blessing, imprimatur, clearance, acceptance, allowance, tolerance, sufferance, empowerment, freedom, liberty
an official document giving authorization.
plural noun: permissions
“permissions to reproduce copyright material”

I hope I have your permission to wonder this about that definition: Why are so many people so focused on others entering countries without permission? Is that REALLY the worst problem the world is facing?  Aren’t there other problems we should be erasing?

With or without permission, I’m going to state my position:  we are all occupants of this planet, dammit!  Why can’t we all come and go as we please, with more ease?

I know that if I were running for office in my home country with an attitude like that one, my quest for election would definitely be soon done.

Here’s my admission about why I’m focusing on permission:

I took that photo without anybody’s permission.    That was my decision.

Here are some quotes about permission, in addition:

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“When you give yourself permission to communicate what matters to you in every situation you will have peace despite rejection or disapproval. Putting a voice to your soul helps you to let go of the negative energy of fear and regret.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“A strong gives forgiveness but weak gives permission.”
― Santosh Kalwar, Quote Me Everyday

“The more people you have to ask for permission, the more dangerous a project gets.”
― Alain de Botton

“When people change they do not ask your permission.”
― Jennifer Pierre

“Quiet the noise around you; soften its pitch. Our deepest stories are our best teachers. Let the weapons of the weak — the poison, the nagging, the gossip — burn themselves to ash. Cast them to the wind. Take back the permission to succeed. Make it yours.”
― Elissa Altman

“Stop looking for permission from other people to do what you know you are meant to do.”
― Adam Smith

“Do you really need permission? Still waiting for that invitation to your life? No one is going to give it to you…only you can do that.”
― Jennifer Ho-Dougatz

“When we give ourselves permission to go wherever our outlandish thoughts take us, we feel that rush of creativity and excitement.”
― Teresa R. Funke, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life blog

Without a permit, here are other photos I’ll submit:

You can give yourself permission, my dear,  to let go of future fear. Make a magic incantation without any hesitation.

Who gave me the permission to rhyme all this time?  It’s inspired  by listening to a rap musical sublime.

Whether Clark on Stage got permission to do this cover I don’t know. I’m still grateful that he gave it a go.

 

Whenever there’s a lot a stake, give yourself permission to take a break.

No matter what your position, you don’t need  permission to make a comment submission.

Thanks to all who help me create, including my readers, who are GREAT.

 

Day 2447: Empathy, again

Yesterday, in my therapy group, I wrote the word “empathy” twice on the white board.

I wrote “empathy” twice because I heard and experienced so much of it from the group participants. I especially noted and appreciated it because I hear and experience so little empathy, these days,  from world leaders.

Why do the participants in a therapy group seem to have so much more empathy than world leaders?

Is it because “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?

Is it because people who have come together to cope, heal, support, and learn from each other naturally have more empathy?

What does your empathy tell you about that?

Here’s a definition of empathy, again:

em·pa·thy
/ˈempəTHē/

noun
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
synonyms: affinity with, rapport with, sympathy with, understanding of, sensitivity toward, sensibility to, identification with, awareness of, fellowship with, fellow feeling for, like-mindedness, togetherness, closeness to
“what is really important about learning a language is learning empathy for another culture”

Here are some quotes about empathy:

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is won and lost.  And that someone’s pain is as meaningful as your own.  — Barbara Kingsolver.

Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you’re clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person’s feelings even if you’ve never experienced them yourself. —  Joe Gebbia

A prerequisite to empathy is just paying attention to the person in pain.  — Daniel Goleman

Human nature is complex.  Even if we do have inclinations towards violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.  — Steven Pinker

Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality.  It’s all through our own individual prisms.  — Sterling K. Brown

Empathy is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want. It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn’t pass the legislative branch or, if it did, would create voter backlash.  — Karl Rove

When you show deep empathy towards others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems. — Stephen Covey

The struggle of my life created empathy — I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me. — Oprah Winfrey

Empathy is the starting point  for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change. — Max Carver

Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.  — Neil Gaiman

 

Is there empathy in my other photos from yesterday?

 

Which of those photos represents empathy best, to you?

For me, it’s this one:

Or maybe this one:

If necessity is the mother of invention, what is empathy?  Here’s “Call Any Vegetable” from Just Another Band from L.A. by the Mothers of Invention:

Here‘s another version of “Call Any Vegetable”:

Any empathy in this quote from Frank Zappa, the leader of the Mothers of Invention?

The mind is like a parachute.  It doesn’t work if it’s not open.

I look forward to the empathy in your comments, below.

Empathic thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2275: Petty

When I’m petty, I feel guilty.  When I observe other people being petty, I get scared, because I’ve observed pettiness wreaking havoc with relationships.

Here’s a definition of petty:

pet·ty
/ˈpedē/
adjective
1. of little importance; trivial.
“the petty divisions of party politics”
synonyms: trivial, trifling, minor, small, slight, unimportant, insignificant, inessential, inconsequential, inconsiderable, negligible, paltry, footling, fiddling, niggling, pettifogging, nugatory, of little account
2. of secondary or lesser importance, rank, or scale; minor.
“a petty official”

My personal goal for today is to make other people being petty of little importance, trivial, minor, small, slight, insignificant, inconsequential, and negligible to me.

Here are some “petty” quotes:

I fly because it releases my mind from petty things. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Our thoughts are broadcasts of the soul, not secrets of the brain. Kind ones bring us happiness; petty ones, untold pain. –– Ritu Ghatourey

Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses. — Jean de la Bruyère

Guilt is petty; I am above guilt. — Susan Cheever

Reproof should not exhaust its power on petty failings. — Samuel Johnson

More than jealousy or  possessiveness pettiness kills love. — Marty Rubin

Don’t be afraid of failure; be afraid of petty success. — Maude Adams

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out — it’s the grain of sand in your shoe. — Robert Service

The art of giving orders is not to try to rectify the minor blunders and not to be swayed by petty doubts. — Sun Tzu

The constant petty behests of life permit few opportunities for major satisfactions, and when one is offered it should be seized.  — Rex Stout

Petty things don’t bother me as much as they used to  — Rebecca Lobo

Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day’s receipts. — Sheri S. Tepper

Great necessity elevates man.  Petty necessity casts him down. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is better to lose everything you have to keep the balance of justice level, than to live a life of petty privilege devoid of true freedom. — Bryant H. McGill

Beware of those who attribute petty instructions to God. — Abdul Sattar Edhi

Petty laws breed great crimes. — Ouida

Never fear being a petty fool it means you ain’t dying.  — Timothy Spall

Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things. — George Carlin

In the Wikipedia entry about Ouida, it says she “dressed expensively but not tastefully.”  That seems rather petty, doesn’t it?

Do you see anything petty in my photos from yesterday?

 

That puppy at Pet Express was very pet-ty and here’s a quote from me:

Petty is the enemy of friendship. — Ann Koplow

Here‘s a Petty Song:

 

Here‘s  the Petty Song I was looking for:

 

It’s not petty for me express my gratitude to all who helped me create todays “Petty” post and — of course! — to YOU.

 

 

 

Day 2265: Loss and Change

Because I am so aware of loss and change right now, here are some quotes about “Loss and Change.”

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight. — Marcus Aurelius

People lose people, we lose things in our life as we’re constantly growing and changing. That’s what life is, is change, and a lot of that is loss. It’s what you gain from that loss that is life. — Thomas Jane

When you have a tough loss, go through it and agonize. I had one loss that I still want to change, but at the same time I realize it is an important part of who I am. — Andrew Shue

There is so much inherent drama in the matter of change. Disappointment in yourself and others, coping with the fact that life is essentially a shipwreck, becoming a person you yourself could not imagine yourself to be, for good and for bad, and then ultimately there is the basic matter of loss. — Jane Hamilton

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters. — May Sarton

Do you see loss and/or change in my photos from yesterday?

I changed my framing of “CARE” to “CA”  above because of an upcoming change:  I’m flying to CA for a group therapy conference in three weeks.  Chances are that I’ll experience and witness change,  loss, disasters, and treasures while I’m there.

I was very aware of the loss of Bob Marley yesterday, because of this:

Any thoughts or feelings about loss and change?

Something that doesn’t change: how I notice and share thanks with YOU.

Day 2194: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

If  my post title today irritates you or leads you to an understanding of yourself or others, let’s give the credit to Carl Jung.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

… is displayed on the front of the packaging for the Carl Jung action figure in my office.

Whenever I share that quote with others, they seem to understand.

How do you understand that quote from Carl Jung, my understanding readers?

These days, several things are irritating me about others, which means I have an unprecedented opportunity to understand myself!  I’m going to celebrate that by sharing some other recent photos (which may be an irritating habit of mine, which I hope you understand).

It’s not how old you are, it’s how you keep learning to understand yourself and others.

Here are 10 additional quotes from Carl Jung, which can lead to more understanding.

I hope you understand my gratitude for all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — for YOU.

 

P.S. After I published this post, I realized it was irritatingly similar to this one, from August 2017. I hope you understand!

Day 2127: I don’t know what to write about hate

Today, the day after the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue, I don’t know what to write about hate.  Therefore, I will quote others.

Patriotism is when love for your own people comes first;  nationalism,  when hate for people other than your own comes first.  — Charles de Gaulle

This world of ours … must avoid being a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works.  All good things are difficult to achieve, and bad things are very easy to get.  — Confucius

If you hate someone, it’s like a boomerang that misses its target and comes back and hits you in the head. The one who hates is the one who hurts. — Louis Zamperini

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference — Elie Wiesel

You reclaim your power by loving what you were once taught to hate. — Bryant H. McGill

Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. — George Washington Carver

I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that women were inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it.  I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions,  and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. —  John Shelby Spong

Hate has no place in the House of God. — Desmond Tutu

I never learned hate at home, or shame.  I had to go to school for that.  — Dick Gregory

It is not anthrax or terrorism or AIDS that is the worst ill in our world: The most horrible disease in the world is hate. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.  —  James A. Baldwin

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them,  but to understand them.  — Baruch Spinoza

I don’t know what to write about hate, so I’ll share some photos from yesterday.

I don’t know what to write about hate, so here’s Cantor Azi Schwartz singing Jewish prayers to the fallen in 2015.

 

I don’t know what to write about hate, but I do know how to express gratitude to all who helped me write today’s post and — of course — to you.

 

Day 2104: Surrender

Yesterday, I surrendered to a therapy group member’s suggestion that people express their thoughts and feelings about “surrender.”

What does surrender mean to you?  What’s your personal experience of surrender?  What would happen if you surrendered?  What would change in your life?

 

Ann shall now surrender to her wish to quote others about “surrender.”

It took me a while to learn the true meaning of patience and surrender, but I have finally accepted that healing doesn’t happen on our schedule. It doesn’t have a clock or a calendar.

— Yolanda Hadid

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

— Julia Cameron

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.

— Gail Sheehy

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.

— Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

Always say ‘yes’ to the present moment… Surrender to what is.  Say ‘yes’ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to work for you rather than against you.

— Eckhart Tolle

There are also many quotes about the negative side of surrender, including this one:

Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.

— Keith Ellison

Please vote for your favorite photo in today’s post, including these:

 

 

Soon I’ll be surrendering my shoulder to my physical therapist, Matt, who was devilishly happy on Wednesday when I added a chorus, just for him, to my  original song “Triggers.” Here are some of the lyrics I’ll be surrendering up to an audience tonight at an Open Mic performance of “Triggers”  in Arlington, Massachusetts:

TRIGGERS

For me it’s the cold and the dark,

For him it’s not finding a safe place to park.

For some it’s a loud noise,

For others it’s bad boys,

For many it’s news of attacks by a shark.

Everybody’s got a trigger,

Some of us have more than one.

Some are small and some are bigger.

None of them are ever fun.

© Ann Koplow 2018

Here‘s “Surrender” by Cheap Trick.

I also surrender to the musical suggestion of these socks.

I surrender to the truth that some won’t be able to watch the videos I include in these posts.

I now surrender to your comments and to my gratitude for all who helped me create this “surrender” post and — of course! — for YOU.

Day 2101: Verge of tears

These days, I’m on the verge of tears.

What can I do when I’m on the verge of tears?

• Name it.
• Distract.
• Cry.
• Look up quotes about tears.

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.

— Leonardo da Vinci

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, of unspeakable love.

— Washington Irving

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

— Robert Frost

Nothing dries sooner than tears.

— Samuel Richardson

Tears are the summer showers to the soul.

— Alfred Austin

The tears of the world are a constant quality.  For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops.  The same is true for laughter.

— Samuel Beckett

More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.

— Saint Teresa of Ávila

Sympathizing and selfish people are alike, both given to tears.

— Leigh Hunt

Beauty of any kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity .. and some scarce see nature at all.  But to the eyes of the [hu]man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.

— William Blake

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset — tears are words waiting to be written.

— Paulo Coelho

In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought.

— Louis Kronenberger

When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.

— Maurice Maeterlinck

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.  I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

— Kurt Vonnegut

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.

— Isak Dinesen

Those quotes have me on the verge of tears and on the verge of sharing some recent photos.

Here’s another quote about tears:

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

— Ludwig  van Beethoven

Even though “should”s and male ideas about the differences between men and women can put me on the verge of tears, that quote is still a great introduction to today’s music.

 

Are you on the verge of commenting?

I am on the verge of ending today’s post, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s blog and — of course! — to YOU.