Day 3152: Balancing needs

Yesterday, as I was balancing my needs with other people’s needs while working at home, I asked this question on Twitter:

The answers were balanced, and many people cited the Oxygen Mask Metaphor: you can’t effectively take care of other people’s needs if you ignore your own.

I continue to learn more about this balancing act for myself, as I witness other people struggling to balance their needs with others’.

What balancing needs do you see in my other images for today?

It’s might be challenging balancing the needs of fajita day with ice cream pie day, etc.

Here and now, I need to share a favorite tune from this CD I picked up on one of my balanced and needed walks yesterday:

How do you balance your needs with other people’s needs? You don’t need to reply, but I look forward to all the comments that will be balancing below.

As always, I need to express my gratitude to all who give me what I need to stay balanced blogging every day, including YOU.

Day 3029: Talk

Let’s talk about today’s title, which is inspired by this …

… and this:

Let’s talk about my other images for today.

Let’s talk about my trip to Nashville. I hope to

• meet up with my friend Jenn who lives six hours away,
• meet up with fellow blogger Christopher Waldrop,
• explore new places,
• enjoy great food,
• perform some of my original songs at open mics, and
• be around people without fear.

Here’s some talk about the best things to do in Nashville:

Please talk to me about Nashville (or anything else) in a comment, below.

As always, I talk about gratitude when I end each of these daily blog posts.

Day 3028: Be fearless

It might seem fearless or even foolish of me to tell you to be fearless during these extremely fearful times, but I’m just passing on the advice of last night’s Yogi tea.

Let’s be fearless together and look at my other images for the day, all provided at the right time.

Here’s “How to be Fearless” by Smarter by the Day:

According to that video, we can become fearless by continually asking ourselves this question: Will this action improve the well-being of myself and those around me?

Considering that, I press the publish button with fearless gratitude.

Day 2953: Join us on our mission!

I received this mission message yesterday on a bag of salty but relatively healthy snacks:

I didn’t read about their mission because I thought I was doing enough for their mission by buying and consuming their product. Also, I’m on vacation this week, so my mission is to relax, focus on self-care, and re-energize for my work as a group therapist during these difficult times.

So many people are asking me to join their mission these days, that I have to choose my missions wisely. For example, when I chose a birthday fundraiser on Facebook this year, I wasn’t sure which mission to join. There were so many worthy missions I considered, from racial justice, to environmental activism, to animal protection, and so on. I eventually joined the same mission I joined for my birthday fundraiser last year, Everytown for Gun Safety.

Join us on our mission to

• improve the world, one step at a time,
• focus on self-care, so you have the energy to engage,
• accept all feelings,
• set and maintain clear and healthy boundaries,
• let go of worry, guilt, shame, and harsh judgment, and
• observe and appreciate all you have.

Reply requested, and please listen to “Mission Impossible” while you consider choosing to accept the mission of joining us in the comments section, below.

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Join us on our mission to express gratitude and love, every day!

Day 2670: Urgent

Despite my dealing with many urgent situations over the last two thousand, six hundred and seventy days (but who’s urgently counting?), I’ve never published a blog post with the title “Urgent” before.

Well, there’s no time like the present and these can seem like urgent times, although “urgent” is not an adjective I’ve heard about these times we’re living through together. I HAVE heard people describe these times as

• challenging,
• uncertain,
• difficult,
• strange,
• weird,
• anxious,
• upsetting,
• frightening,
• scary,
• terrifying,
• troubling,
• painful,
• confusing,
• unexpected,
• unprecedented,
• stressful,
• crazy,
• crazy-making, and
• surreal.

Yesterday, during these challenging, uncertain, difficult, strange, etc. times, we brought our cat Oscar back to the Urgent Care Veterinary Center for a blood pressure test and to get medication. His situation didn’t seem urgent enough for an ultrasound of his digestive tract yesterday. However, if he ever throws up dried blood again,  we’ll urgently schedule that test as soon as possible.

Anything urgent in my pictures from yesterday?

People in my Coping and Healing group yesterday talked about many topics — urgent and otherwise —  including the anniversary tribute to Prince , which I had missed. So, after our trip to the Veterinary Urgent Care Center, Michael, Oscar, and I watched “Let’s Go Crazy: Grammy Prince Tribute” On Demand last night, including this performance posted on YouTube by BoDerekSmith:

Here’s an urgent performance of “Baby I’m A Star” by the original, one-and-only Prince.

What feels urgent to me, during times like these, is finding and sharing moments of joy with others.

It’s not urgent that you express your thoughts and feelings about this “Urgent” post in a comment; however, it’s definitely appreciated. Urgent and emergent thanks to all who help me create these blog posts, including YOU!

Day 2665: WTF??!

What, There’s Frost on April 18 in Boston??!

WTF is going on here??!

Why These Fotos??!

WTF do you think WTF might stand for??!

WTF is this??!

Where’s The Friggin’ comments section??!  It’s below, if you want to express Whatever, Thoughts and Feelings.

Who’s Thankful,  Friends?

 

 

Day 2648: What the world needs now

One thousand, two hundred, and twenty-seven days ago, when it was a different world, I published another blog post with today’s title.  Now, more than ever, what the world needs now is love, sweet love.

Yesterday, people participating in the world of my online Coping and Healing groups shared that they enjoyed watching this video of Berklee students —  alone but together —   performing “What the World Needs Now.”

I really need that video and I need to share my new photos with the world, here and now:

Yesterday, I needed that delicious chicken dish, I needed Michael, I needed a walk outside, I needed the cats, and I needed to figure out how to make my new whiteboard work for my online groups.

What the world needs now is

• love, sweet love,
• any thoughts and feelings you choose to share in a comment, below. and
• gratitude, so thanks to all who are showing love during these difficult times (including YOU).

Day 2636: Face it!

Face it!

Oscar does not understand the whole social distancing thing…

… but I do.

Face it!  I’ve been trying to reassure my worried friends with how well my face looks in that recent photo.

Face it!  I’ve been trying to put more smiles on my own face by watching favorite funny movies from simpler times, like Big and What About Bob?

I’ve also been stuffing my face with good food, like this:

Face it!  Humans have survived pandemics before and our best hope of survival is if we face this together (at a distance, of course!).

Face it!  This scene, starring somebody else recovering from the coronavirus,  always puts a smile on my face.

 

What’s been helping you face these strange times?

I look forward to facing your comments, below.

Face it!  I haven’t been able to go out into the world to collect new expressions of gratitude, so here are some old ones, which include a few nice faces:

 

Day 2635: Good news

There’s always good news to be found, if you look for it.

In Venice, dolphins are swimming in the clean waters of the canals for the first time in decades.

Maybe people’s reactions to the coronavirus are demonstrating that human beings can actually change their behaviors and come together for the common good.  That’s good news for our species and for the planet.

Do you see good news in any of today’s photos?

Please share whatever good news you can in the comments section, below. That would be good for all of us.

Gratitude is always good news, so thanks to all who help me share the news in this daily blog, including YOU.

 

Day 2599: Who is it for?

Before I reveal something about myself in a therapy group, I ask myself “Who is it for?”

If the answer is that it’s mostly for me, I will not share the information. If I believe that it’s mostly for the group, I will use self-disclosure.

Yesterday morning, while I was feeling very sad about the death of jazz pianist Lyle Mays, I was listening to a jazz program on WHRB, the Harvard radio station.  I decided to call them and tell them about the death of Lyle.  Who was it for?  It was for me and for any fans of Lyle who might be listening.

As I suspected, the two Harvard students who were DJ-ing  the morning jazz program on WHRB were not familiar with Lyle, but they did this for me:   they announced his death on air and played one of his tunes.  Then it was for me and for the other listeners who called in that they abandoned their scheduled playlist and shared lots of Lyle.

One of the tunes they played yesterday morning was “It’s For You.”

When I first heard about Lyle’s death Monday night, a melancholy melodic phrase from “It’s For You” filled my head, but I couldn’t remember the name of the tune.  It’s for you and for me that I share a live version of “It’s For You” now.

 

It’s for you that I take and share my recent photos.

Who was that delicious and nutritious meal for? It was for me and my husband Michael as we watched the returns from the New Hampshire primary last night.

Who is it for when I blog every day?  In case you didn’t know, it’s for you AND for me.