Yesterday, on the first day of my two-week vacation, I was prepared to stop and to appreciate this sign in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA.
Be prepared to
stop,
look,
listen,
think,
feel,
connect,
change,
move on, and
encounter lots of photos from the South and the North shores of Boston.
Be prepared to stop while you’re in the middle of creating a blog post in order to go to the dentist and then take your cat to the vet because, after all, what else should you be doing on your vacation?
Be prepared to stop, take a breath, and share the rest of your photos from yesterday:
Be prepared to stop and tell me what photos you liked best and why.
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.
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”
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
