Day 2198: Oh what fun

Oh what fun

there is today,

If we see things in this way.

Walking by the sea,

Writing bad poetry,

Swearing up a storm

About how it’s getting warm.

Noticing a new fruit

and animals so cute,

Enjoying what’s almost funny

And focusing less on money.

Living for today

in your own special way,

Knowing you’re amazing

Even when others are not praising,

Deciding to just dance

 

When ever there’s that chance.

And singing along

To an “Oh what fun” song.

Expressing gratitude

For readers, songs, and food.

 

 

Day 2111: Say it isn’t so

“Say it isn’t so” is

• a common reaction to dire reports about climate change,
• something I often think, if not say,  these days,
• an expression of denial,  and
• a sign I saw yesterday.

Say it isn’t so that people get hurt at the opera.

Say it isn’t so that people we love leave.

Say it isn’t so that big brother is watching us.

Say it isn’t so that the sun will become our enemy, as average temperatures rise around the world.

Say it isn’t so that our cries for help go unheeded.

Say it isn’t so that somebody put these bumper stickers on his big SUV.

Say it isn’t so that so many people are traumatized by abuse.

Say it isn’t so that Daryl Hall turned 72 yesterday.

Say it, please, in a comment below.

Say it isn’t so that I would ever forget to thank all those who help me say what’s so important to me in these posts and — of course! — YOU.

 

Day 2051: Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest

When I see “Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest” these days, I inevitably think of the scary effects of global warming, like the wildfires raging in California right now. However, when you see “Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest” when you’re in Iceland, it refers to geothermal phenomena like geysers and naturally heated pools.

However, when you see “Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest” at Ann’s blog, it could mean many things.

What do you think of when you see “Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest”?

Feel free to leave a Fierce comment below.

Natural gratitude from Iceland to all those who helped me create this “Meet Mother Nature at her Fiercest” post and — of course! — to you, my Fierce and/or Natural readers.

Day 1974: Real

Here’s a real definition of “real.”

re·al
rē(ə)l
adjective
1.actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.
“Julius Caesar was a real person”
synonyms: actual, nonfictional, factual, real-life
2. (of a substance or thing) not imitation or artificial; genuine.
“the earring was presumably real gold”
synonyms: genuine, authentic, bona fide
adverb NORTH AMERICAN informal
1. really; very.
“my head hurts real bad”

Here’s the real inspiration for today’s post:

What’s your real reaction to that?

My head hurts real bad when people

• deny climate change and
• otherwise deny what’s real to me.

It’s time for some real quotes:

Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing?  Did I let go of my resentment? Did I forgive?  Did I love? These are the real questions.  I must trust that the little bit of love I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.  — Henri Nouween

Character is like a tree and reputation is like a shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.  — Abraham Lincoln

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.  Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.  — Mahatma Gandhi

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.  — Confucius

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.  —  Hosea Ballou

There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection.  — James Salter

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.  — Buddha

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.  — Albert Camus

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.  — Wayne Dyer

Nothing ever becomes real til it is experienced.  — John Keats

The world is like a reverse  casino.  In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you’re certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you’re gambling is, say, your time or your embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you. — Scott Adams

The truth is, as most of us know, that global warming is real and that humans are major contributors, mainly because we wastefully burn fossil fuels.  — David Suzuki

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too.  They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win. — Stephen King

People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil.  The real conflict is between truth and lies.  —  Don Miguel Ruiz

Well, real estate is always good, as far as I’m concerned.  — Donald Trump

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.  — Douglas Adams

Nothing is so strong as gentleness;  nothing so gentle as real strength.  — Saint Frances de Sales

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.  — Marcel Proust

To keep it real, I try to have new eyes every day.  Here’s what I saw with new eyes yesterday:

Now I have a real dilemma: whether to share a real video of the Cookie Monster singing in the voice of the real Tom Waits …

… or this real video of my real son Aaron and his real friend Cameron from years ago,  in which lasagna and Michael make real surprise appearances and Aaron keeps it real in the moment.

I’m looking forward to real comments about this real post.

Finally, here are some real thanks from me to all those who helped me create today’s real  post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1601: Stress Relief

I’m going to relieve some stress by confessing that  I wrote another post titled “Stress Relief” last August, when I had a LOT of stress needing relief, including

• my only child leaving for college in Scotland and
• my first open heart surgery.

As always, it was a relief for me to describe and let go of my stress in that post. I can’t stress enough how writing this blog is stress relief for me, every day.

Yesterday, I definitely needed some stress relief.

I did end up happy yesterday, but that took some time and work because of all this stress:

• My boyfriend Michael is away from home  helping out his brother for three days.
• We’re moving to a new place near the ocean this summer.
• Scientific reports indicate that our new house will be under water soon.
• Because of a ridiculous series of unfortunate events, I will be losing long-term disability payments for the rest of my part-time leave from work.
• I was so stressed by all the urgent calls at work yesterday that I didn’t have time to take any more photos.

As usual, it’s a relief to name my stress here.

Pat Metheny’s music is a reliable source of stress relief for me.

However,  on June 10, I’ll have the stress of deciding whether to use my ticket and see him live in concert or attend an important dinner at a group therapy conference.

It relieves my stress to realize that some of these are good problems to have.

Gratitude is always great stress relief, so thanks to all who helped me create this stress-relief post and to you — of course!  — for the relief of your presence, here and now.

Day 1516: World of Puzzles

It’s a world of puzzles, isn’t it?

Here’s the first photo I took yesterday in my world of puzzles.

My world includes these puzzles:

• Why and how did I come down with a sore throat during the warmest February day I can ever remember?
• What world issues inspired this tweet, yesterday?

What’s more important? Global warming or my enjoying a 60-degree February day in Boston?

• How is it possible that my son Aaron’s YouTube video (shown in yesterday’s post) was mentioned in the New Yorker two years ago and neither of us knew about this until yesterday?
• Why in the world are all these puzzling photos on my phone?

Your strength is your own knowledge and did you have the strong knowledge that I would include some music from the world of YouTube in this puzzling post?

What puzzles are in your world, today?

Thanks to all who helped me create this world of puzzles post and to you — of course! — no matter how puzzled you are, here and now.

 

Day 214: (Small) Talk About The Weather

When I was younger, I used to think that talking about the weather was “small talk.” When people talked about the weather, I thought they were avoiding talking about something important. I had some judgment about small talk, assuming that it was the avoidance of a deeper, more authentic communication or connection.

There have been times when I’ve said, “I don’t like small talk.” And   “I’m not good at small talk.”

Lately, I’ve been wondering if there is such a thing as small talk.

The more therapy groups I do and the more I really listen to people with an open mind and heart, the more I hear in every statement.

Right now, on the morning of my last work day before my two-week vacation, as I listen to the rain outside my window, here are some random thoughts about “talking about the weather.”

• Weather is often a metaphor for how people feel.
• Weather really affects how people feel.
• When I studied English Literature in college, I remember learning about “pathetic fallacy”, which is defined here as ” a literary term for the attributing of human emotion and conduct to all aspects within nature. It is a kind of personification that is found in poetic writing when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, when dogs laugh, or when rocks seem indifferent.”
• The weather is something that a lot of experts have been talking about lately, with different amounts of concern and fear about the future.
• When I talk to people about their emotions (especially disowned or otherwise negatively judged emotions such as anger or sadness), I use the metaphor of allowing emotions to pass through naturally, “like the weather.”*
• I have had moments of worry about what the weather will be when I travel to England and Scotland next week, because people have been telling me that area of the world has been “unseasonably warm.”

Here’s what I’m thinking, right now, as I’m readying to wrap up this post, so I can go into work and wrap up some things before leaving on vacation:

It helped me to write this post, as always.

However, I think I might have written about some — if not most — of these things in previous posts.

And I’ll name this: I do have a fear of repeating myself.  I guess I fear that repeating myself will make what I am saying seem … what?   Less believable? Less important?

Sort of like small talk.

Which, as I hope I’ve demonstrated for your reading pleasure and satisfaction today, does not exist.

And even if “less important” communications do exist,  just wait.  They will pass through —  just like the weather — soon to be replaced by the next big thing.

Let’s see if I can find a photo I’ve taken this year, to illustrate this post …

That’s a photo I took, a few months ago, when I did my last (small) bit of traveling. (Knowing me, I probably had some moments of worry about the weather for that trip, too.)

Okay!  Thanks for reading everything small, or big, I wrote today.

____________________

*  Thanks to my friend Carol and her friend Eric for talkin’ ’bout this metaphor.

Day 200: Signs

Sometimes —  especially when I’m experiencing “flow,” synchronicity, or other forms of connection and openness to living — I see signs.

By “signs,” I mean helpful indications of things to pay attention to.

Four examples of signs, according to Google Images:

.

Two examples of signs, according to me:

Sign:  It’s too friggin’ hot around here.

Possible meanings, reasons, things to pay attention to:

1.   Global warming.

Depending upon where you live, global warming is either (1) controversial or (2) completely non-controversial.

That about covers it, doesn’t it?

2. Maybe I really should consider moving.

Where I live, it’s Painful-Cold for many months of winter and Painful-Hot for many days of summer. This leads to helpful people giving this advice:  “Think about how cold it gets here during winter and get in touch with gratitude for the heat now.” (These are the same helpful people who say the reverse, during winter .)

How about getting in touch with this?

I’M LIVING IN A PLACE WHERE I’M IN PAIN, ABOUT HALF THE TIME.

Who deserves that?  Not I, said the little red hen.    

Second Sign: I’m having trouble sleeping.

Possible reasons and things to pay attention to:

1.  I have a lot of things to do.

2.  There are some people I’m going to see, this weekend, whom I haven’t seen in a while, and I’m excited about that.

3.  As my mother used to say (about me and then, my son), “You don’t want to miss anything.”

4. I can be afraid of things that don’t actually exist. Or, if they do exist, they’re not as dangerous as they seem.

5.  It’s too friggin’ hot around here.

Thanks for going around with me today. It’s a good sign (according to me).