Day 3564: Unanswered questions

I think many of us have unanswered questions, so that’s why I asked this question last night on Twitter:

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Sometimes we need to come up with our own answers to unanswered questions, and then move on.

Are there any unanswered questions in my other images for today?

Speaking of unanswered questions, I’d like to ask the Daily Bitch how she comes up with so many great calendar entries.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “unanswered questions.”

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I like this unanswered question in the comments section for that video:

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Thanks to all who have unanswered questions, including YOU!

Day 2396: Choose to focus on good things

Yesterday, a good friend chose to send me this good thing to focus on:

 

It’s a good thing that soolooka created that, so that Vivian could send it to me exactly when I needed it.

Let’s choose to focus on good things in my photos from yesterday:

 

I chose to focus on that donkey last night during a good long walk with Michael and Aaron. I chose to focus on its expression and to share that the good donkey looked a little judgmental to me.  My good boyfriend and my good son chose to disagree.

I choose to focus on this: civil disagreement is a good thing.

I choose to focus on this great rendition of a good song:

Here‘s the original version of that good song:

Choose to focus on good things in a comment, below.

I always choose to focus on gratitude at the end of every post, so thanks to all who helped me focus on the good things here and — of course! —  to you, my good reader.

Day 2160: Danger

When you’ve been blogging as long as I have, there’s always a danger you might repeat yourself.  And on May 12, 2016, I published a post also titled “Danger” (which is allowed here in The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally).

In that post, there was a drawing of a fish committing suicide. However, nature seems to be in much more danger now than it was in May, 2016.

Because I’m in danger of being late for work, I’ll quickly share yesterday’s photos, which include danger and also some ways to deal with danger.

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Here‘s ‘Danger’ dance practice, featuring the  “South Korean boy band” BTS.

I’m in danger of assuming that there are no North Korean boy bands.

I hope you know there is no danger involved if you leave a comment, below.

There’s also no danger in expressing thanks to all who help me create this daily blog and — of course — to YOU.

 

Day 2158: “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 1681: Everything that irritates us about others

Will it irritate you if I start off this post with a quote from Carl Jung?

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

Whenever I share that quote with others, they understand.

If you find any of  my photos irritating, that can lead you to an understanding of yourself.

 

This is what comes up on YouTube when I search on “irritating Elvis.”

If you are too irritated to comment, I’ll understand.

Nothing in this post irritates me, so thanks to all, including you — of course! — for understanding.

Day 1579: Action

When people take the action of joining my therapy groups, I recommend these weekly actions:

1.  Do something mindfully, using your senses to stay in the moment.
2. Take one action you think would be helpful.
3. Notice and challenge an unhelpful thought.

For example, I am writing this blog post mindfully, using my senses to stay in the moment. I just took the helpful action of writing an email to my realtor, expressing my thoughts and feelings about a property.  My next action is to notice unhelpful thoughts about an action I took yesterday:

I’ve made another mistake.  I should have known better.

Here’s the action of challenging that unhelpful thought:

 Everybody makes mistakes.  I’m doing the best I can. Every mistake is an opportunity for me to learn and grow.

Yesterday, my actions included:

• Voting for myself to be the next president of a group psychotherapy organization,
• Putting an offer on a house near the water,
• Expressing appreciation for the departing interns at work, and
• Facilitating two therapy groups.

Every day, I take action shots and share the action here.

When I show up at YouTube and gently search for “action” there, it’s true that I find this:

If you think it would be helpful to make a comment below, please take action.

My final action in this post?  Expressing gratitude to all who helped me create it and to you — of course! — for your action of visiting this blog today.

Day 1179: Mind blowing

Why am I writing a post titled “Mind blowing” today?

Is it because I saw this mind-blowing image yesterday?

Is it because my mind is easily blown by what I encounter in the here and now, every day of this precious life?

Is it because some readers seemed to find  yesterday’s heart-centered post mind blowing? Sometimes, my mind is blown by other people’s positive and caring reactions.

What are your associations with the words “mind blowing”?

While thoughts are blowing through your mind about all these questions, here are some other mind-blowing sights from yesterday:

 

Aren’t all the amazing connections we encounter every day mind blowing?

Mind-blown thanks to all who helped me create this post and to you — of course! — for blowing my mind by visiting this blog, here & now.

Day 1160: Celebrity

Let’s celebrate the beginning of the weekend with a definition of celebrity (probably written by some non-celebrity):

ce·leb·ri·ty
səˈlebrədē/
noun
a famous person.
synonyms: famous person, VIP, very important person, personality, newsmaker, name, big name, famous name, household name, star, superstar, movie star
the state of being well known.
“his prestige and celebrity grew”
synonyms: fame, prominence, renown, eminence, preeminence, stardom, popularity, distinction, note, notability, prestige, stature, repute, reputation
“his celebrity grew”

What do my celebrated readers notice about that definition?

Here’s another definition of celebrity, written by a non-celebrity at the celebrated Merriam-Webster:

celebrity
noun ce·leb·ri·ty \sə-ˈle-brə-tē\
Popularity: Bottom 50% of words
Simple Definition of celebrity
: the state of being famous or celebrated
: a person who is famous

Full Definition of celebrity
plural ce·leb·ri·ties
1: the state of being celebrated : fame
2: a famous or celebrated person

Examples of celebrity in a sentence
The actress lived a life of celebrity.
There were many celebrities at the party.
First Known Use of celebrity
14th century

What made you want to look up celebrity?

This non-celebrity would like to celebrate and answer the question I found in that Merriam-Webster definition of celebrity.  That is, what made me want to look up celebrity?

1. Since I did not make it onto the TV show “The Voice,”  I doubt I will ever become a celebrity (according to the definitions above).
2. Yesterday I took a picture of somebody who is a celebrity to me.

That, my celebrated readers, is Bah, who works at the garage where I park my celebrated yellow car.  Bah told me he is also the head cook at the hospital where I work, which means that, thanks to him, every Friday I can celebrate THE BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE (featured in previous, perhaps celebrated posts here, here, and here).

Bah also told me, yesterday, that he is one of the celebrities in this celebrated  flu-fighting video (appearing at 0:23, 1:07, 2:49, and 3:42):

Perhaps, like Bah, I’ll be a YouTube celebrity one day, too (especially since I’m working on a theme song for my team at work).

Do any of the other photos I took yesterday fit today’s topic of “celebrity,” to you?

Now it’s time to celebrate your thoughts and feelings about this “Celebrity” post.  If you leave a comment below, you’ll  be celebrated (if not a celebrity) at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally.

Celebratory thanks to Bah, to  Carl Jung,* to THE BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE, and to everybody and everything else that helped me write today’s non-celebrity post.  I am now officially celebrating you — of course! — for visiting here, today.

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* Yesterday morning, when I was driving into work, I heard beloved Boston celebrity Laura Carlo announce on WCRB classical radio that it was “National Take Your Action Figure to Work” day. Isn’t that something else to celebrate?

Day 347: TGIF

It’s Friday. Here’s what I’m looking at, for today:

• For the second day in a row, I have to get into work earlier than usual (which leaves me limited time to blog);
• I have too much to do today.  I won’t be able to do it all.  There’s no way.

So how am I feeling, in the moment? Rushed. Annoyed. And I’m having anticipatory guilt.

Anticipatory guilt?  What the hell is that?

Well, I’m expecting that guilt will be on my plate today, because

• I don’t like being annoyed.
• I will have to prioritize and make decisions about what I do and what I don’t do.
• I will probably question some of those decisions.
• Some tasks will remain undone by the end of the day.

So, my dear readers, we’re looking at a Friday that is Fraught with Guilt Potential.

I’ve noticed that, these days, there are catchy names on the internet, for the days of the week. For example, I’m aware of Throwback Thursday.

I wonder if there are catchy names for Friday that involve the potential for guilt?  Somehow, I doubt it. I think most characterizations about Fridays have to do with relief, not guilt.

For example, I’m aware of this one:

Thank God It’s Friday, often abbreviated to TGIF.

Personally, I’m looking at this kind of TGIF:

Try Guilt, It’s Friday

Arrghhhh!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find guilt a helpful feeling.  Like worry, guilt doesn’t do me any good these days.

So as I’m looking at my own Special of the Day — that offer of “Try Guilt, It’s Friday” — THIS is how I’m going to reply, right now:

Thanks, but no thanks. And, I would like to take this opportunity to change that TGIF to something else. How about these, instead?

Try Groaning, It’s Friday.

Try Griping, It’s Friday.

Try Grinning, It’s Friday.

Try Gratitude, It’s Friday.

Try Growing, It’s Friday.

I’ll probably do all of the above, at some point during today. And that’s fine, because those are all better than guilt.

I don’t know about you, but I feel better now.

What’s missing, before I end this post?  A picture, of course!  Haven’t you been paying attention???

(As I mentioned at the top of my post, I’m starting out this morning annoyed. And when I’m annoyed, I tend to get pissed off at certain things, including my sense that people aren’t paying attention.  So don’t take it personally. It’s not you. It’s me.)

So where was I, before that digression in the parentheses?

Oh, yes.  A picture. Let’s see what I have, on my iPhone ….

Here’s a photo I took yesterday, of something I have in my office:

It’s a gift I got, around this time last year– an action figure of one of my heroes, Carl Jung. I took that photo, yesterday, because I  thought I might want to use it in today’s post.

I was right!* So let’s end with this one:

Try Goofiness, It’s Friday.

Gotta run!  Thanks for reading, today.

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* I’m a good guesser.  Here’s another guess of mine: I’m not going to be the only one who uses this title for a blog post today.