Last week in one of my therapy groups, we noticed how some members were asking “does this make sense?” when they were making complete sense.
We tried to make sense of this and discussed how people can doubt their ability to make sense when they’ve gotten messages from the culture and/or their families that they make less sense than others.
Does this make sense? That so many people receive undermining messages like that?
An older woman in the group shared how she has learned to stop asking “does this make sense?” when she is speaking, which made sense to the other members.
Does this make sense that I’m sharing these thoughts and images with you today?
To make sense of this reading: My INR is finally back where it needs to be!
Does this makes sense that “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” would be on a WEEKEND?
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “does this make sense?”
It always makes sense for me to end my blog posts with thanks to all who try to make sense of them, including you!
Honestly, I’ve been having trouble deciding what to call today’s post.
Honestly, I often take my cues from the Daily Bitch Calendar.
Honestly, I don’t expect to outlive my dear husband Michael, because I’m 10 years older than he is and I have complicated medical issues. Honestly, Michael keeps telling me that I’m going to outlive him and, honestly, I prefer to focus on the wonderful moments we are sharing with each other now.
Honestly, today is the 12th anniversary of our first encounter online through the dating app OkCupid.
Honestly, I’ve preserved and printed out all the messages Michael and I exchanged online before we met in person on Halloween, 2010. Honestly, I think that collection would make a great epistolary novel.
Honestly, I don’t observe Jewish holidays any more but I do want to wish everyone who celebrates them a Happy New Year today.
Honestly, I’m relieved that my INR is in a safer range, as of this morning.
Honestly, sometimes life is a little overwhelming.
Honestly, these are all the other images I have to share with you now.
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Honestly, for me, every day has to be Situational Awareness Day.
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “honestly.”
Here and now, I’m trying to make sense of things, including:
Why my INR level dipped dangerously low yesterday,
Why I thought to check my INR earlier than usual (thank goodness),
How it was so difficult to get the shots I needed to protect myself from having such a low INR from my local pharmacy,
Why I’m doing a better job administering those shots than some trained professionals did last week at a Georgia hospital when my INR was also dangerously low,
Why some people that I reach out to take so long getting back to me,
Why the repair of our upstairs bathroom is taking so long,
Why some days have so many National Day observances and other have so few,
Why so many people in the USA don’t exercise their right to vote,
Why so many people get fooled by toxic narcissists, and
How I continue to remain sane through all of this.
Yesterday, my dear friend Carol and I discussed how trying to make sense of things can lead to magical thinking.
For example, I’ve been trying to make sense of the unexpected and scary medical things I’ve been dealing with lately by magically thinking they might be the the result of:
my unexpectedly being reassured by a new cardiologist this month that my very unusual heart was serving me very well and should keep me alive for many years to come,
my not observing the Jewish High Holidays,
my boldly and confidently sharing my original song “Everybody‘s Somebody’s Asshole” with total strangers in Georgia and getting a delighted reaction, and
being “too” confident in general.
I’m wondering how you are trying to make sense of things (including this blog post) right now.
Please join me in trying to make sense of my images for today.
Thanks to the National Days website, now I’m making sense of National Seat Check Saturday.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “trying to make sense of things.”
Gratitude always helps me make sense of things, so thanks to those who visit this daily blog, including YOU!
A manager I know at work sometimes refers to her job as “herding cats.”
Here’s what I find online about herding cats:
Managing people can be like herding cats. Managing thoughts, which can go everywhere — into the future, into the past, miles away from where we actually are, and often to the worst-case scenario — can be like herding cats. People and thoughts are entities which are inherently uncontrollable.
Speaking of entities which are inherently uncontrollable, there’s cats. Yesterday, I didn’t close the front door correctly after we got home after food shopping amongst many unherded people. When the door came open later, our cat Joan (who used to live unherded on the streets of Tennessee with her sisters and lots of kittens) got out. My husband Michael, who was on the phone, noticed the door was open and his unherded thoughts went to disaster (a cat has escaped and is GONE!) but Joan, unherded, walked back in. When Joan jumped up on the sofa next to me, my unherded thoughts tried to figure out why she felt so cold.
We’re all very relieved that Joan didn’t take off — unherded and unheard from again — for warm Tennessee.
Now I’m going to herd my images for today into some sort of order.
I assume that someone on Twitter is going to herd those days into a single celebration, like “I’m going to go to the dentist wearing a dress after getting cavities from eating frozen food, oreo cookies, and white chocolate cheesecake, and getting a medal for finishing all those.”
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “herding cats.”
Now I’ve got to go herd my blood-testing equipment into line and check my INR. Feel free to herd any thoughts and feelings you have about this post into a comment, below.
Thanks to all those who help me herd so many things into this daily blog, including YOU.
It’s no chore for me to blog every day and here’s a definition of “chore.”
My husband, Michael (who does almost all the chores around here) and I sometimes discuss what chores we dread. He dreads the chore of taking out the garbage and I dread the chores of being on call at work, doing our taxes, and testing my blood every other week because I take the anticoagulant Coumadin. We both dread the chore of taking either of our cats to the vet.
Last night, I asked this question on Twitter:
I phrased the question that way because a few people have let me know that they find my Twitter questions a chore. I look forward to reading all the answers to that question, which will be no chore at all.
My niece Julie McGrath has said this about chores: “Try changing I HAVE to do this to I GET to do this!” Using Julie’s advice, I’ll say this: I get to check my blood INR today!
I also get to share all these quotes about chores with you, plus other random images.
Today I get to celebrate National Love Your Pet Day, which is no chore at all.
If it’s no chore, please leave a comment below.
Now I get to express my thanks to all who get to do chores and who read my blog, including YOU!
Because I can’t seem to break my habit of worrying about (1) possible catastrophes, (2) not responding quickly enough to everyone, and (3) inexplicably high numbers for my weight and my INR, I am telling myself (and anyone else who needs to hear it) to chillax.
If you don’t know what “chillax” means, chillax. Here’s a definition.
These days, I can dance to my favorite tune or chillax, but I can’t have friends over because of Omicron.
Yesterday, in a remote Coping and Healing therapy group, we helped each other chillax by consciously letting go of fears and accepting our own worth.
I recently committed to doing another remote Open Mic on Friday and doing a presentation about my groups in February, so I need to chillax about both of those. I have a tendency to get nervous about performances, even though I’ve done so many before, so (say it along with me, please) …
Chillax.
After I get up every precious morning, I chillax by creating this blog. Do any of my images for today help you chillax?
I don’t know what “World Quark Day” is, but I’m going to chillax about that. Also, I’ve been eating way too much popcorn lately, which might explain the weight gain, so instead of eating popcorn on National Popcorn Day, I’m going to chillax.
Joan chillaxes by fetching her favorite toy.
What helps you chillax?
Ending each daily blog post with gratitude helps me chillax, so thanks to everyone who is visiting here now, including YOU.
I’ve written numbers of blog posts about numbers during the last 3,296 days, although I am not sure what that exact number is.
I was thinking about numbers today because of the rising numbers of COVID cases worldwide. Because the Omicron variant is so highly contagious, those numbers seem very scary.
I was also thinking of numbers today because every other Sunday I need to check my INR numbers. I check those numbers every other week because I have a mechanical heart valve, so I need to take a number of anti-coagulant pills every day.
The INR numbers, for me, are supposed to be between 2.5 – 3.5. (The INR number for a typical person is supposed to be 1.) If the numbers are too low, my mechanical heart valve might clog and need to be replaced. If the numbers are too high, I might bruise and even bleed internally.
My numbers are usually pretty steady, but sometimes they are a little too high or low. There are very few numbers that have been really scary. But I still get nervous whenever I’m waiting a number of seconds for my home testing machine to give me those numbers every other Sunday.
Here is the number I got this morning:
That is outside the ideal numbers of 2.5 – 3.5, but not by much. My anticoagulant nurse, Veronica, will call my cell phone number tomorrow and, I assume, tell me to eat higher numbers of spinach leaves this week and/or reduce the numbers of pills I take.
Do you see numbers in my other images for today?
Out of those numbers of National Days, I’ll be celebrating National Sunday Supper Day at home with my husband Michael and my son Aaron.
These days, many people in therapy are talking about procrastination.
Without procrastination, I’ll tell you why: People feel guilt and shame about not getting more done during the coronavirus pandemic when “I had so much more time on my hands!”
I wish people would stop procrastinating letting go of guilt and shame about procrastination. Procrastination is NOT a sin. Procrastination occurs when you
have to do something you dislike doing,
are focusing on the prospect of failure,
don’t have the information or resources you need to complete the task, and/or
are not at your best and think you would do a better job if you waited until you felt better.
When you consider that, it’s amazing any of us are getting ANYTHING done.
I’m now procrastinating sharing something I just realized. I not only procrastinate, I also do the opposite of procrastination, which I’m calling concrastination.
What is concrastination? It’s the need to do something immediately, without putting it off to a better time. I concrastinate the following:
responding to emails, texts, and phone calls,
meeting people’s expressed needs,
trying to solve perceived problems,
exploring new ideas,
expressing my feelings, and
creating blog posts after I wake up, even if it’s in the middle of the night.
Do you see procrastination or concrastination in any of today’s images?
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 