Day 2046: You choose

We choose so many times on any chosen day, whether or not we’re aware of those choices.

I choose “You choose” as today’s title because I saw this, yesterday:

You choose while so many people are trying to influence how you choose.  You choose, but how do you know if you choose well?

I choose

• to write a daily blog,
• to share photos,

• to dream,

• to travel to new places like Iceland, and
• to search YouTube for relevant videos.

“Who is the most stupid here?”  was one of the top two choices in my YouTube search for “You choose” and has 5.8 million views. Do you choose to believe that “Who is the most stupid here?” explains your personality?

Would you choose “I Choose You” by Sara Bareilles?

I chose that. What song would you choose for today’s post?

You choose what comment you want to leave.

I choose to end this blog post with gratitude to all, including 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 2011: What’s your intent?

When I am confused by somebody’s actions or statements, I like to ask “What’s your intent?”

If I don’t ask, I assume what the intent is and I’m probably wrong.

If I knew the owner of this car …

… I would ask  “What’s your intent in having that license plate?”   Because I don’t know that person, I assume it’s a communication about disaster.  What kind of disaster?  Maybe living in Maine is a disaster for a lobster.

What’s my intent in taking and sharing these other photos?

My intent is to tell you that you are not alone. We’re all in this together.

Here‘s “Good Intent” from Kimbra.

What’s your intent in reading my blog today?  Please express your intent in a comment, below.

At the end of every post, my intent is to express thanks to all who helped me create it and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2010: Smart

It’s  smart to define your terms, so here’s a definition of smart:

smart
smärt
adjective
1. (informal) having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.
“if he was that smart he would never have been tricked”
synonyms: clever, bright, intelligent, sharp-witted, quick-witted, shrewd, astute, able
2. (of a person) clean, neat, and well-dressed.
“you look very smart”
synonyms: well dressed, stylish, chic, fashionable, modish, elegant, neat, spruce, trim, dapper
verb
1. (of a wound or part of the body) cause a sharp, stinging pain.
“the wound was smarting”
synonyms: sting, burn, tingle, prickle
noun
1. NORTH AMERICAN informal
intelligence; acumen.
“I don’t think I have the smarts for it”
2.sharp stinging pain.
“the smart of the recent blood-raw cuts”
adverb
1. in a quick or brisk manner.
“it is better for tenants to be compelled to pay up smart”

Are you smart enough to notice that one word evokes intelligence, fashion, quickness,  and pain?  I’m smart enough to notice that I’ve never used the word “smart” in a blog post title before but not smart enough to know why that is.

My smart boyfriend and I have been having many discussions lately about how smart the U.S. President is or isn’t and how much this presidency smarts.

Let’s see if I can find any smart photos on my smart phone.

 

 

Here’s one smart video from YouTube:

And here’s a smart number from Aladdin (which I’m seeing with my smart friend Deb this weekend).

I wonder if we’ll be smart enough to figure out how they get the carpet to fly like that.

I look forward to your smart comments.

It’s time for some intelligent, fashionable, and quick thanks to all who helped me create this smart post and — of course! — to YOU.

 

Day 2007: Don’t Look Back

Don’t look back at my recent posts, or you might see this:

Don’t slavishly obey people who tell you what to do or not to do.  Look back if you want to — you might see something important.

When I look back at yesterday, I see all these things, looking back.

 

 

When I look back, I see beauty, clouds, benevolence, sympathy, fear, worry, my son Aaron, his friend Cameron, books, bunnies, and Boston.

What do you see when you look back?

Here‘s Boston telling us “Don’t Look Back.”

When I looked back at YouTube just now,  this was playing after “Don’t Look Back.”

I look forward to looking back at whatever comments there are for this “Don’t Look Back” post.

Don’t look back at my blog if you don’t want to see gratitude looking back at you.

 

 

Day 2002: What gives you a lift?

In times like these,  it’s important to ask the question “What gives you a lift?”

What gives me a lift includes a visit to Chicago,

sunshine, being near the water,

urban parks,

liberty,

freedom of the press,

 

Edinburgh, Scotland (which I’m visiting again with my son in August), good public transportation,

Lyft drivers who have candy for their passengers,

sand sculptures,

embracing that it’s my time to fly, and most of all, coming home.

My friend Dave guarantees that watching this will give me a lift:

 

It did!  I’m sure your comments will give me a lift, too.

Gratitude, as always, gives me a lift. Thanks to all who helped me create today’s post 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 1940: It’s all coming together

Even though this blog has been coming together daily for several years,  I’ve never before quoted something my boyfriend Michael says all the time.  Whenever I express relief or another positive reaction to some development, minor or major, Michael says, “It’s all coming together.”

I think Michael says that so often because

• things seem to fall apart as often as they come together,
• we discuss many falling-apart and coming-together developments, and
• he wants to help me keep it together.

For example, yesterday I left the refrigerator door open when I left early in the morning, the refrigerator heated up to the extent that Michael had to throw away lots of food, I left my Fitbit at home, many people were falling apart at work, and whenever I looked at the news, it seemed like the whole world was falling apart. However, when I did a blood test last night and found my INR was in range (during a period where it’s often been out of range), Michael immediately declared, “It’s all coming together.”  It all came together for me and I said, “That’s the title of my blog post tomorrow.”

All my photos that weren’t loading to this site are now coming together, including several photos of ducks coming together.

It’s all coming together for me to share #8 on this top 30 list of awesome rock.

It’s all right now and it’s all coming together for me to express my thanks to all who help me write these posts and — of course! — to YOU, for coming together to this blog.

Day 1938: Paramount

Yesterday, I was near the Paramount Theater in downtown Boston.

Today, it is paramount that I facilitate an all-day retreat for group therapists, where we’ll be talking about paramount issues.

Therefore, I am going to post all my photos of the Paramount  and let you decide which of the photos is paramount for you.

But first, an accurate definition of “paramount” might be paramount at this point.

par·a·mount
ˈperəˌmount
adjective
more important than anything else; supreme.
“the interests of the child are of paramount importance”
synonyms: most important, of greatest/prime importance

Finding one’s purpose is often paramount, no matter how difficult or funny it is.

Because some people think it’s paramount for me to include a video in these blog posts, here’s the result of my search on YouTube for “paramount song”:

It’s not paramount that you leave a comment, but it is paramount for me to thank Boston’s Paramount Theater, the Paramount School of Excellence, and — of course! — YOU.

Day 1772: The fight, flight, or freeze response of cave dwellers can ruin modern life

Yesterday morning, when I was fighting to fly to work on time, I froze when I saw this:

The fight, flight or freeze response of cave dwellers can ruin modern life.

Before I read that article by Kate Murphy in the New York Times, I knew  it would echo many things I’ve been telling my patients for years, including:

• fear and its companion — the fight, flight or freeze response — can save us from danger,
• however, the level of fear we experience today is  based on the realities of the distant past — the danger-filled lives of our  cave-dwelling ancestors who lived under constant threat of  invading tribes and wild animals,  and
• that level of fear  interferes with modern life.

Here’s a quote from that article:

“Change has occurred so rapidly for our species that now we are equipped with brains that are super sensitive to threat but also super capable of planning, thinking, forecasting and looking ahead,” said Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. “So we essentially drive ourselves nuts worrying about things because we have too much time and don’t have many real threats on our survival, so fear gets expressed in these really strange, maladaptive ways.”

I don’t want to drive ourselves nuts by spending too much time on that article here, but I recommend you read the whole thing.  And I do want to include a few more quotes from the article before another flight into photography.

• Consciously activating the more measured, analytical part of your brain is the key to controlling runaway fear and anxiety.
• Arresting an overactive amygdala requires first realizing and then admitting you’re feeling uneasy and scared.
• “The more you try to suppress fear, either by ignoring it or doing something else to displace it, the more you will actually experience it.”

• The amygdala is less apt to freak out if you are reminded that you are loved or could be loved. For example, seeing images of people with frightened expressions is usually a huge trigger for the amygdala, but that response is greatly diminished when subjects are first shown pictures of people being cared for or hugged.

• Just as fear can be contagious, so can courage, caring and calm.

How did those photos affect your modern life?

Before you take flight from this post, I will fight to express my main reason for taking that last photo — it reminded me of the song “Our Time”  from Merrily We Roll Along:

To make this our time rather than the time of cave dwellers, let’s do our best to focus on courage, caring, and calm.

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