Day 1585: Excellence

If you came to this blog today looking for excellence, you’re in luck.

My social work intern, Justine …

… has shown excellence in individual and group psychotherapy this entire year. Justine is so excellent that I recently acknowledged her excellence with a list titled “Reasons Why Justine is Awesome.”  When we said goodbye yesterday, Justine demonstrated more excellence.

 

Justine shared the excellence of that ant quote during the therapy group we both facilitated yesterday. Because of that ant, we all sang this excellent song:

At that same excellent therapy group, as we were saying goodbye to Justine, we all acknowledged Justine’s excellence as well as the excellence of this helpful thought:

The pain of the loss is directly proportional to the importance of the connection.

Do you see excellence in my other photos from yesterday?

 

 

 

Please share the excellence of your own thoughts and feelings in a comment, below.

Thanks to Justine, our therapy group, Frank Sinatra,  Greg Stones, and everybody else who contributed to the excellence of today’s post. Also, thanks for the excellence of your visit to this blog, here and now.

Day 1461: Great

Great!  It’s time for me to write a great blog post on the final great day of 2016.

I have this great tradition, every New Year’s Eve, of listing the 10 greatest things AND the 10 least great things that happened all year.

My son, Aaron (who tops my great list), recently said to me, “I’m sure the worst thing that happened to you last year was your open heart surgery.”  My great answer? “No, it wasn’t.”

Any great guesses about what tops my worst list for 2016?  I hope you know that any comment you leave would be great.

Yesterday,  the great staff at cardiac rehab gave me this:

See that Arm Ergo exercise on that great card?  I felt great about telling the great cardiac rehab staff that  I didn’t want to do that yesterday, since that great new exercise had caused some great pain to return last weekend.  The staff said, “That’s great!  Pain just means your muscles are waking up!”

Cardiac rehab:  Making pain great again.

Are any of my other photos from yesterday great?

 

One of my top 10 great memories from 2016 was watching this great Jim Jefferies routine with my great friend Maria two weeks after my open heart surgery:

It was great to see Jim Jefferies with my great son last night at the Wilbur Theater in the great city of Boston (where they recorded his great gun control routine two years ago).

Two of my pictures, above, are inspiring me to share this great song in this end of year post:

 

In conclusion, thanks to my great readers for supporting me throughout 2016. I have high hopes that we will have more to celebrate in the future.

Day 1031: Hope

I hope I can express, in my first post about hope, how important hope is for human beings who struggle, cope, bruise, and heal.

I hope you understand that I’m saying that hope is important to all of us.

Hope is:

• a word that comes up in therapy, every day.
• something I hold for every person I encounter.
• according to Emily Dickinson, “the thing with feathers.”

I hope you don’t mind if I include that entire Emily Dickinson poem, here.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)
BY EMILY DICKINSON
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I hope you see the hope in today’s photos.

I hope I am healthy and you are, too.

I hope you enjoy today’s music!

I hope you share thoughts, feelings, and music about hope, below.

Hopeful thanks to Emily Dickinson, to Frank Sinatra, to children everywhere, to Foxes and Fossils, to Crosby Stills & Nash (for creating “Helplessly Hoping“), to people who hope to heal, and to you — of course! — for reading this post and liking it (I hope).