Yesterday, when I spoke to some lovely people at Samaritans (where I got the title Ann 1360* when I volunteered for their suicide hotline in the 90s) about contributing proceeds from my June concert and album to them, I mentioned my song with the title “Don’t Kill Yourself.”
I don’t know if “I Love Myself” is a great title, but I started writing this new song yesterday:
Thanks to all who help me find great titles, including YOU!
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* Everyone who volunteers at Samaritans gets a great title comprised of their first name and a number; while I do remember my first name, I’m not sure about that number.
Yesterday, in my first “show biz” coaching session with the Not F-ing Around Jeff Leisawitz, Jeff gave me some homework, which he prefers to call “invitations.”
One of Jeff’s invitations was for me to write (or otherwise express myself) about my very hilarious and performing-loving late father Aaron (known as Arkie), my wonderful ex-stand-up comedian son Aaron (known as Aaron), and me (known as however people know me). Jeff’s invitation included the suggestion that this writing might be in the form of a dialogue.
Taking Jeff’s invitation, I started writing something early this morning, including this:
I really appreciate Jeff’s invitations and now here’s an invitation from me: please peruse my other images for today.
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I see interesting invitations from the Daily Bitch and the universe today.
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “invitations.”
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I shall now give invitations for people to comment on this blog, below.
Thanks to all who help me offer and accept helpful invitations every day, including YOU!
Yesterday, I was talking about wall hangings with Matthew …
… while he was taking x-rays of my teeth at Beacon Hill Dental Associates. Matthew told me that after considering other possible wall hangings for his home, he decided to frame this panoramic view of his teeth …
… and hang that up on his wall. That wall hanging reflects Matthew’s creativity and his obvious love for his work.
Do you see possible wall hangings in my other images for today?
Today’s list of National Days would make a very long wall hanging.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “wall hangings.”
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Many thanks for reading this “Wall Hangings” post and for hanging around with me here.
Today is April Fool’s Day, so let’s start out with a definition of “fool.”
If I were at a restaurant and somebody said “that damn fool waiter” to me, I would get away from that person as soon as I could, and I’m not fooling.
That reminds me of the time when I was waiting at my favorite restaurant to meet a guy from a dating site for the first time who had a very prestigious job, and he was late. The waiter kept refilling my water and when I started to feel like a fool I let the waiter know what was going on. When the guy finally showed up, I wasn’t fooled by him — he seemed insensitive, entitled, and humorless — and after a few minutes I said, “Look, I don’t think this is going to work out. I don’t want either of us to waste our time,” and I said goodbye and left. It’s a good thing I wasn’t fooled by him, because later that week I met my husband, Michael, who, if he is a fool, is the same kind of fool I am.
Also, the next time I went back to my favorite restaurant, the waiter (who was no damn fool) told me that the staff who saw everything loved it when I walked out.
Here are some quotes about fools:
I obviously don’t write for fools.
In my images for today, can you spot the fool who took the photos?
Somebody who is no fool shared that image on Twitter yesterday in honor of National Crayon Day.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “fools.”
I look forward to reading all the comments on this “fools” post and thanks to all who helped me create it, including YOU.
I have a special talent for including links in these blog posts, so please click on the paragraph above for more information about the incredible Shaun White.
Can you find special talents in my images for today?
It takes a special talent to celebrate every day.
This is what I find when I search YouTube for “special talents.”
What’s your special talent?
One of my special talents is expressing gratitude, so thanks to all who help me create these daily blogs, including YOU.
My plans for yesterday included seeing my fabulous dentist Dr. Del Castillo about an unplanned missing filling.
My plans for today include singing my new and timely lyrics for Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” at a remote Open Mic, which you can hear in this planned YouTube video.
My plans for my vacation this week included testing out a new microphone before tonight’s performance. Because of the distortion on the high notes, I plan to post a new video of “Vaccine” tonight right after the Open Mic.
Before I share my other plans for today with you, I plan to share some thoughts about plans:
I enjoy plans when they combine structure and creative freedom.
There is a big difference between worries and plans, although we tend to confuse and combine the two.
It is possible to plan without worrying and I plan to continue to get better at that.
My plans for today include sharing all my planned and unplanned photos from yesterday with you.
I hope your plans for today include leaving a comment about this “Plans” post.
Every day, my plans include ending my daily blog with gratitude, so thanks to all whose plans included stopping here today, including YOU.
When my non-crazy patients worry out loud about being or seeming crazy, I often say, “You’re not crazy, and I’m the expert on crazy.”
The expert on crazy thinks the President of the United States is crazy.
The expert on crazy thinks this is driving many people crazy, including me.
The crazy expert on crazy, in attempts to remain sane, captured these images yesterday.
The expert husband of the expert on crazy made a crazy good risotto yesterday. I would have been crazy not to marry him last December, before things got really crazy.
Closure is challenging, because it brings up old closures, which often relate to losses.
I like to use the term “ending the chapter”, when I talk to people about closure. Somebody, in my office, recently said that in their culture, they use the term “putting the period on the end of the sentence.” I like that, too.
Here’s what I’ve written, so far, about closure in my final letter from the President:
As I’ve thought about writing this, my final letter to you as President of NSGP, naturally my mind has gone to thoughts of closure. (Personally, I don’t like the word “termination”, because that sounds SO final.) As I have learned from my trainings at NSGP (and as I often tell people in my “Coping and Healing” drop-in groups) a good-enough sense of closure is critical in transitions — allowing us to appreciate what we’ve shared together and to move ahead better equipped for future challenges.
In my groups, we often discuss the insufficient and disappointing closures with family members, friends, work situations, organizations, and other important aspects of our life, and how this lack of satisfying closure in important transitions can keep us stuck. During these challenging days, when we might be feeling uncomfortably stuck, closure is especially important.
So what helps with closure? Saying what feels left unsaid.
Naming what you got.
Naming what you didn’t get.
Discarding what is not serving you well.
Later today, I will facilitate a “Coping and Healing” group on a telehealth platform (which I sometimes call “The Home Version of Coping and Healing”). At the end of the group, the participants will hear me, as usual, acknowledge the importance of getting closure in the “wrap up” section of the group. I will introduce wrap-up by explaining, again, what helps with closure. I will invite discarding “what is not serving you well” by showing this to the group:
That’s the magic waste paper basket, an important part of my Coping and Healing groups. If you throw something away in the magic waste paper basket, it will either go away or come back less powerful. Here’s an incomplete list of what people have thrown away in the magic waste paper basket:
In yesterday’s Coping and Healing group, the members chose to focus on the topic of “Compassion.”
What is your personal experience of compassion? What gets in the way of you experiencing compassion? How could you bring more compassion into your life?
In my responses to those questions about compassion, I mentioned self-compassion and also this song:
I had the compassion, just now, to choose a version of “Shower the People” by James Taylor that includes lyrics and which (I think!) is accessible to all my readers.
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.”
― Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe“
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
― Plato
“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
― Leo Buscaglia
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
― Aesop
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
― Maya Angelou
“It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
In the group yesterday, we also discussed the opposite of compassion, which some people thought was indifference and others thought was cruelty. Do you see compassion or the opposite of compassion in any of my other photos from yesterday?
I have compassion for any thoughts or feelings you choose to express in a comment, below.
Thanks to all the compassionate people out there, including YOU.
As I described last week in two blog posts (here and here), I’ve been working on reducing the power of a toxic person in my life by reimagining them as a less powerful entity — transforming them in my imagination from a dragon to a little yappy dog.
Yesterday, I discovered that it also helped to think of this person as an “odd duck” — an image that I reinforced by taking pictures of the various ducks I encountered during the day.
(idiomatic) An unusual person, especially an individual with an idiosyncratic personality or peculiar behavioral characteristics.
Synonyms
odd fish, strange bird, weirdo; see also Thesaurus:strange person
… do you see any evidence of odd ducks in my other photos from yesterday?
Sting (whose birthday it was yesterday) does not have a song titled “Odd Duck”, but Björk does.
I’m wondering how many odd comments I’ll get about this “Odd Duck” post.
Duck! Here comes an odd number of thank you’s to all who helped me create today’s odd-numbered blog post, including YOU!
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 