Yesterday, when I was going on with my son to buy last-minute Christmas presents and cat food, this sign was going on inside the Fresh Pond PetSmart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA:
What’s going on with you, dear readers?
Could it be the holidays?
What’s going on in my other photos from yesterday?
What’s going on as I end up this Christmas Eve post, with happiness about my almost six years of blogging about what’s going on?
Earlier this year, two days before I tried out for the TV show The Voice, I wrote a post titled “Comparisons.” Because comparisons are a cognitive distortion that can lead to envy, dissatisfaction, low esteem, disappointment, and misery, I hesitate to compare today’s post with the one I wrote before.
Since I’ve been back at work after my two-month medical leave, several people I’ve seen in therapy sessions have presented as unhappy due to comparisons with other people. Indeed, yesterday I circled “comparisons” on the list of cognitive distortions displayed on the wall of my office, because that particular cognitive distortion seems incomparably toxic.
Here’s a definition of the cognitive distortion of comparisons:
Comparisons.
We compare ourselves to others, with ourselves coming out short. For example, “I’m not as smart (or good, competent, good-looking, lovable, etc.) as that other person.” Or, we compare ourselves to how we think we should be, or how we’ve been before. We might think that comparisons help motivate us, but they usually make us feel worse.
I don’t want to compare myself to other people, but I’m wondering whether others ever make the kinds of comparisons I’ve been making lately. These comparisons have included:
comparisons to people who are healthier,
comparisons to other blogs with higher readership,
During this time of the year, there are flesh and bones everywhere, but many more bones than usual:
Here’s something I feel in my flesh and bones, on this October day: I miss my only child, Aaron, who is away at college in Edinburgh, Scotland. Three of those photos of bones, above, reminded me of this fuzzy, flesh-and-bones Halloween photo of long ago:
In my flesh and bones, I also miss my late mother (on the right).
What are you feeling in your flesh and bones, today?
As I continue to recover from open heart surgery, the bones in my rib cage feel like a too-large bird cage, especially when I’m trying to sleep. However, this flesh-and-bone blogger is SO grateful her bones and flesh are healing, every day.
Since my trusty and strong leg bones took me many other places besides Hillcrest Road in Belmont, Massachusetts, yesterday, I took several other flesh-and-bones photos besides the boney ones, above. I’d say it’s time to flesh out this post with those:
Which of those photos do you prefer, in your bones?
In my bones, I know that this is the video — created by my son Aaron more than seven Halloweens ago — that I want to share with my flesh-and-bones readers, today:
Flesh-and-bones thanks to my son Aaron, to everyone else who helped me create today’s post, and to you — of course! — for visiting, here and now.
Now that I have a new medical device (implanted a few weeks ago), I need to identify myself to others that way, for my own safety. Here’s the temporary identification (ID) card I now carry with me, at all times:
That temporary identification card identifies me as having an Implantable Cardiac Device (ICD). The manual they gave me at my identified hospital identifies me as having a CRT-D (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillator):
For the past 52 years, since the age of 10, I’ve identified myself as having a pacemaker. Part of my identification as a writer at WordPress is reminding people that adjusting to change — including a new identification — takes time. I am reminding myself, now, that it may be a while before I easily use the identifications ICD or CRT-D, about myself.
Part of my identification as a blogger at WordPress is taking photos that focus on different types of identification, like yesterday:
That last photo identifies the reality that identification can sometimes be … confusing. I shall now identify my main question about that: How can one product be unreal AND 100% real at the same time?
If you can identify an answer to that (or anything else), I hope you identify yourself in a comment.
You may have identified — from my previous posts — that my identity also includes sharing music which identifies well enough with the topic. I’ll identify, right now, that I’m having trouble ID-ing an appropriate musical identification today.
What identification song might you identify, for this post?
Well, part of my self-identification, as a human being, is loving the music from West Side Story. Last night, as I was falling asleep, the Boston classical radio station (identified by the call letters WCRB-FM) played Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from that musical:
How would you identify your reaction to that?
A little more identification before I identify the end of this post … I just snapped these identifying pictures of Harley:
Michael (whom I identify as my boyfriend) said, “Harley likes to look out the window and watch the world go by.”
Personally, I think Harley is trying to ID some birds.
I shall now identify and thank — for helping me create this Identification post — pacemakers, ICDs, CRT-Ds, Dr. Estes, Belmont Massachusetts, Captain Stephen Frost, pleasant streets everywhere, those who put smiles on others’ faces, unidentified establishments, dogs of any kind, people who see-saw, tennis players, Star Market, flowers, the real and the unreal, West Side Story, WCRB, Leonard Bernstein, Harley, birds, Michael, and you — of course! — for identifying with me today, in any way.
