Day 3515: Message in a Bottle

Yesterday, I saw this “Message in a Bottle” at a public art installation near the hospital where I work:

Here’s the description of “Message in a Bottle” by Janet Kawada and Bette Ann Libby:

For centuries, bottles have been used for preservation and as vessels to carry thoughts and memories. They have the capacity to last much longer than we anticipate. Finding an unexpected relic of a bygone time gives the discoverer a moment to consider. WHO left it, WHAT was that person doing here and WHERE did they come from? Yearning for peace, love, a better future, frightened, hopeful, adventurous or all of the above. Did we welcome them? Maya Angelou states, The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

In a way, every blog post is a message in a bottle from me — yearning for peace, love, a better future, frightened, hopeful, etc. Also, my photos often try to capture a message in a bottle from somebody else.

What message in a bottle do you notice here, now?

Because it’s National Tell a Joke Day, here are some “message in a bottle” jokes.

.

Here’s “Message in a Bottle” by the Police:

I look forward to your message in the comments bottle, below.

Thanks to all who have sent or received a message in a bottle, including YOU.

Day 2683: Don’t even talk to me unless …

Don’t even talk to me unless you are

• paying attention,
• thoughtful,
• honest,
• interested in others’ responses,
• open-minded,
• self-aware,
• authentic,
• friendly,
• committed to helping yourself and others survive,
• wearing a mask in public places and otherwise following social distancing orders,
• hopeful,
• realistic,
• able to laugh at yourself,
• able to laugh at me, and
• kind to animals.

DO even talk to me about what you see in this post.

I can’t even talk about how anxiety-provoking it is when an animal is sick, because they can’t even talk to you about how they’re feeling and I can’t talk to Oscar about the ultrasound he’s having today.

Are these two people even talking to each other?

.

Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda can really talk about friendship.

.

Don’t even talk to me unless you accept my appreciation and thanks that you showed up today, exactly the way you are.

Day 2585: I don’t want to bore you

I don’t want to bore you, but yesterday morning I heard  Stevie Wonder singing about not wanting to bore you either:

Personally, I’m not bored, at all, and I wonder why so many people worry about being boring. People are SO interesting, as I hope you can see in these photos from yesterday:

I don’t want to bore you with it, but Michael cooked a new fish last night.

I don’t want to bore you with this story, but when I was in my first year at college, one of my professors told us on the first day of class that he would not remember any of our names and quoted a biology professor saying, “Whenever I remember the name of a student, I forget the name of a fish.”

I don’t want to you bore you with this, but I can’t remember the name of that new fish Michael cooked last night.

I don’t want to bore you with this, but

• I get my teeth cleaned every three months because  I got endocarditis three times in my life,
• I’m getting my teeth cleaned today,
• I haven’t gotten endocarditis for ten years,
• I’m seeing my cardiologist Dr. Deeb Salem next week about my very unusual heart, and
• I’m doing fine, even if I worry at times.

I don’t want to bore you with it, but I’m in the photo at the beginning of this post:

I don’t want to bore you by quoting more lyrics of the Stevie Wonder song but “I don’t want to bore you with it, but I love you, I love you, I love you.”

 

Day 2582: Send the right message

Yesterday, after I tried to send the right message to my blog readers for the 2581st consecutive time, I saw this message at my local post office:

And I thought, how do we send the right message? And what makes a message right? And even if we do figure out how to send the right message, who’s to say how different people will receive and understand our message?

I don’t know if this is the right message, but I wonder what messages our governments and the media are sending these days. I also wonder if anybody is listening to other people’s messages.  It seems like most people have decided what messages they are going to hear and they are not open to hearing any new messages, no matter how right they are.

Lately, I’ve been choosing to send the right message mostly through photos, like these:

When I was walking by the beach yesterday, I heard“Message in a Bottle” by the Police.

Millions of people have gotten that message of “I’ll send an S.O.S. to the world.” Is that the right message?

I look forward to any messages you send in the comments section, below.

Thanks to the amazing people who help me create the messages in this daily blog and to all who read those messages, like YOU!

Day 2443: Why should we care?

Since last month, when somebody told me that something I wrote didn’t pass the “Why should I care?” test, I’ve cared too much about that comment. I’ve tried to let go of caring so much about that by

• rewriting very carefully,
• caring about other things,
• spending time with people I care about and who care about me,
• starting a new original song, “Why Should You Care?”, and
• caring to take this picture:

Sometimes it seems like cats and people don’t care, but why should we care about that?  Let’s just keep caring anyway.

Here are the beginning lyrics of “Why Should You Care?”

Why Should You Care?

by Ann Koplow

Why should you care about me?

Why should I care about you?

If I should share about me,

Maybe you’ll share about you.

© Ann Koplow, 2019

Why should we care about the other photos I took yesterday?

Why should we care about “Why Should I Care?” sung by Diana Krall?

I not only care, I express my caring with gratitude at the end of every post.  Thanks to all who helped me create this “Why Should We Care?” post and — of course! — to you, my caring readers.

Day 2417: The “Why should I care?” test

Yesterday, I witnessed somebody telling a writer that their  story did not answer the “Why should I care?” test.  Why should I care about that?  Well, sometimes I wonder why my loyal and lovely readers should care about the personal words and photos I share in this blog.

Why should you care if I went to the dentist yesterday and got a new dental crown that was created, before my eyes, in a 3-D  printer?   Why should you care if Michael and I took Oscar to the vet and he got a clean bill of health?  Why should you care if Harley escaped going to the vet by scratching Michael, hissing, growling, and making it impossible for us to corral him in time to make the appointment? In other words, why should you care about what I care about?

Why should you care about how I recorded some of yesterday’s moments?

Why should any of us care about allowing cats and people to communicate their stories in an authentic,  personal, and full-bodied way?

Why should anybody care about this video I took of the creation of my new dental crown?

 

Why should I care about the comments you make on this blog?  There are SO many reasons I care.   I can only hope I convey that caring in every post and every answer, every day.

 

 

Day 2410: Recurring dreams

One of my recurring dreams is to have a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Much to my amazement, that will be occurring on August 19 at 13:00 (1 PM) at the Natural Food Kafe basement room. I only have one show this year, but I’m hoping the show will be recurring next year.

My show — “Group ‘Therapy’ with Ann” — is loosely based on the recurring groups that I do five times a week at work. At this point, I’m staying up and having dreams about how to make that work well  since there are new and non-recurring elements I’ve never dealt with before, including:

• it’s about half the time of my usual groups,
• I don’t know how many people will show up,
• several of the participants will be total strangers to me, and
• it’s a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

I know that I will be using some recurring elements of my real groups, like mindfulness and a check-in where everybody will have the space and time to speak uninterrupted.  In  my recurring groups, I always introduce the check-in by saying what I’m curious about in the moment, as a way to suggest what people might want to share. For the purposes of my Edinburgh show, I’m planning on curiously asking people:

• why they came to the show,
• how they would introduce themselves,
• something we might not guess about them,
• their experience in the moment,
• what keeps them up at night,
• what keeps them going,
• a favorite saying and/or song, and
• a recurring or vivid dream they’ve had.

In my check-in, I plan on singing one of my original songs and also sharing a recurring dream I have, about trying to call somebody on the phone and not getting through.

Last night, what kept me up was my indecision, at this point, about what to do at the mid-point of the show.  When I finally fell asleep, I had my recurring dream (which hasn’t occurred in years).

In my dream last night, I was trying to call Michael on my cell phone. It was incredibly difficult, because of new changes to the phone, which I couldn’t figure out.  People were trying to help me connect to him,  but nothing was working.  Eventually, I attempted the tried-and-true method of saying to Siri, “Call Michael!”  At that moment, Michael showed up. I was very relieved to see him,  but it was too late for me to get to an important appointment. (The dream had other non-recurring elements,  including a Trump supporter who kept trying to steal one of my boots as I was putting it on, but never mind.)

Do you have a recurring dream?  Would you talk about it if you came to my show? Actually, it would be a dream for me if any of my readers showed up at my Fringe show, no matter what they decided to share.

Certain recurring dreams and themes show up in my photos.  Can you spot any today?

Here’s the original song I’m going to sing during my check-in, which has had recurring appearances in this blog:

I have a recurring dream about people leaving comments, and they often do!

Recurring thanks to all who help me create this daily recurring blog, including you!

Day 1596: Reconnecting…

Every time I communicate with my son Aaron in Scotland by phone, there’s reconnecting. Here’s some reconnecting from last night…

That’s Oscar, me, and Aaron reconnecting.

I’m now reconnecting to beliefs I have about connecting. Every time people communicate by phone, computer, or in person, there’s connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting. It takes work to connect with others, but there’s no work I’d rather do.

Any evidence of reconnecting in these other photos?

I’m reconnecting with the reason I took that last picture yesterday. I knew that tomorrow, tomorrow was today and today is the day I’m reconnecting with my son in Boston!

Thanks to the pictures in this post, I’m reconnecting with two songs from my past (here and here):

I’m looking forward to reconnecting with my readers in the comments section, below.

Finally, I’m reconnecting with my gratitude to all who helped me create today’s post and to YOU — of course! — for connecting with me here.

Day 301: Bearing up

Yesterday, I met my old friend Lawry in Harvard Square, Cambridge, for brunch, with some members of his family.

It was great to see everybody.  I loved talking to Lawry, his wife, his daughter, his sister, his brother, and his brother’s wife.

It was particularly special for me to spend time with them, because I had been feeling some anxiety, over the weekend, about my health (and some about the Boston Red Sox, too).

And it was wonderful to be back in Harvard Square. (See “What’s the problem?” and “Random Images (paired)“, two earlier posts, for more adventures in Harvard Square.)

Here’s a little photo essay, about my time in Harvard Square yesterday.

A Little Photo Essay

by Ann

On my way to meet Lawry and his family for brunch, I saw this amazing tree.  I had to stop and take a picture. Thank you, tree.

It was another beautiful autumn day. Those of us who live in the Greater Boston area have been remarking, this year, about how friggin’ great the fall weather has been.  Those of us who dread the onset of winter in the Greater Boston area have been wondering whether this is a good or bad omen about how painful it’s going to be, too soon. (Actually, I can only speak for my own thoughts about this.)

Moments after  I took that first shot of the tree,  I had to stop and take the above photo. Why?  It’s a sign about a group, people!

Here’s a closer shot of the sign (and some of the flags) that you can see in the background of the previous photo.

.

As I said, it was a beautiful day. Look at those trees and that sky.

.

Another sign in front of the church. I snapped this, as a is Note To Self:  “Ann, make sure you sing more (especially as the cold and dark descend)!”

After I took that photo, I stopped dilly-dallying, and focused on getting to brunch with Lawry and his family.

I didn’t have any photos of Lawry or his family members to show you today, because I was too focused on interacting with each of them, in the moment. Right now, I wish I had some visual proof of how great they all are, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

After brunch, I went to Urban Outfitters because I needed a scarf and gloves — that is, gear for winter,  coming too soon to a location near me.

And …  I DID find a great scarf and some colorful gloves there, which definitely cheered me up. (My philosophy: If I’m going to be cold, I might as well look cool.)

While I was shopping  in the store, I couldn’t help but notice this:

I had never seen anything quite like THAT.  I’ve noticed lots of children — and adults — wearing animal hats in these parts, but a full-bear winter coat?  I was very intrigued, but assumed it was most likely just for display. (I mean, it’s almost Halloween, for heaven’s sake.)

However, when I was in line to pay for my merchandise, I noticed that the people in front of me — a woman and her son —  had just bought one of those bear coats, which was being stuffed into a bag. I blurted out, “Wow!  You got one of those!  Can I see it?”

The woman paused, but then kindly took it out of the bag, to show me. She told me it was for her son, Asa, who was a student at Boston College. “Will you try it on for me?” I asked Asa, as I told them both about this blog.

This was Asa’s reply:

How cool is THAT?

Now it’s a day later, and I’m still feeling better.

Many thanks to Asa and his mother, Lawry and his family, Christ Church Cambridge, Urban Outfitters, all things that make life bearable, and to you, of course, for reading today.

Day 299: Why haven’t I published anything (outside of here)?

This morning, I am posing questions about where I am in my life, right now.

I have enough expertise and skill to be a published author. Why haven’t I made that happen, so far in my life?

What’s gotten in the way of that?

Here are some things I can think of:

1. Doubts about my (previously mentioned) expertise and skill.
2. My ability to think of a kashmillion things I would rather be doing other than writing something for publication.
3. Concern (and perhaps some other feelings) that other people would  have the control to accept or reject something that was important to me (and what makes THEM such friggin’ experts, anyway?!??)
4. My short attention span. (Look!  It’s a baby wolf!)

Where was I?

Oh, yes. I was asking the question:

Why haven’t I published anything, so far in my life?

Oh, I wanted to state the obvious, at this point.  I’m not counting what I’ve published here, at WordPress. Because if I did, I’ve published almost 300 times.

I’m discounting that.

Hmmmm. I’m wondering if I’m discounting anything else?

Because, recent data suggests that I can forget things that I’ve done.  By “recent data,” I am referring to my blog post, two days ago, where I forgot that I had actually taken a photo of Carl Yastrzemski, when I was at the 1st game of the World Series, at Boston’s Friendly Fenway Park.

So, let’s see. have I published anything, outside of  these blog posts?

Hmmm. I guess you could say I have.

About 20 years ago, when I was in Social Work school, I wrote a paper about how people with disabilities were portrayed in the media. I interviewed people from a local chapter of (I believe) the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, and they asked if they could publish a version of my paper in their national publication. Which they did.

And in years past, if you Googled my name, that article appeared. But I can’t find it now, to check my facts (and support my bragging).

So maybe I’ll see if I can find that article, later.

But in the meantime, it’s a beautiful day!

Which means, I would like to wrap this post up.

Before I do, here’s what feels left undone.

I want to ask  myself another question:

Do I WANT to publish (or do I just think I SHOULD publish)?  (Psssst!  The word “should” can indicate a cognitive distortion.)

Hold on, I’m thinking ….

Here’s the answer.

I do want to publish, if it’s something:

1. I feel passionately about, and
2. I think would be helpful to share with others.

So what might that topic be?

I’m interested in communication of all kinds, verbal and nonverbal. Maybe I should write a paper on something like this:

The people in the following image (from a national TV broadcast) are having an experience that most would consider joyful:

That is, they are attending a World Series Game, where their home team is leading by a score of 8-1, one strike away from victory.  What emotions are they communicating, non-verbally? What are the factors influencing those non-verbal communications, from the stand-point of those sending AND receiving the communications?

That’s definitely an interesting topic.

However, I can think of another topic, that’s probably a better fit for the two criteria I listed above: The therapy groups that I have created and facilitate, where I work.

So I would like to take steps to publish, about those.

One last thing, before I end this post: I believe it helps, once you have identified a goal, to make a commitment for action, ideally witnessed by others.

Therefore, I hereby commit, to my group of WordPress readers, that I will take a measurable step, by the end of this year, to publish about those therapy groups.

Okay!

Thanks to  Dan Shaughnessy (the author of “One Strike Away: The Story of the 1986 Red Sox”), thatcutesite.com,  baby wolves (and other distractions), the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, verbal and non-verbal communicators everywhere, and to you — of course! — for witnessing today.