The secret, for me, includes a good-enough night’s sleep.
Is there a secret in any of my other images today?
There is at least one secret in those photos. After years of living here and trying many times, I cannot figure out how to get to this intriguing location:
I have faith that the secret will be revealed some day, just not yet.
Here’s what comes up on YouTube when I search for “the secret”:
In the midst of all the action in yesterday’s petty post, there was this invitation to take time to reflect:
You may not have noticed that good advice from this good book:
because I was guilty of reflecting it on its side, like this:
I didn’t take time to reflect those two page in their correct orientation yesterday, because there was so much petty information I wanted to share.
Like Wilma, I believe it is important to take time to reflect, even in the midst of emergencies and adventures. Today, I have a day off from work because of Presidents Day, so I can take time to reflect. My boyfriend Michael, who definitely takes time to reflect, asked me to reflect on who were my most favorite and least favorite U.S. Presidents.
If you take time to reflect, how would you answer Michael’s question?
I’m going to take time to share something else Michael reflected: “These days everything seems sinister to me.” I took time to reflect Michael’s feelings and then to ask him if I seemed sinister to him. When he said no, I took time to reflect that I AM sinister, because “sinister” means “left-handed” in Latin.
Whenever I need to make an important decision, I like to look at all sides of the issue.
In order to look at all sides before making a decision, it helps to make a list of pros and cons of taking an action and also a list of pros and cons of NOT taking that action.
Yesterday, I took action and looked at all sides of many things.
Do you trust me to look at all sides and find two sides of a great song for this post (here and here)?
Every day, I look at all sides to find new ways to thank those who help me create this blog and you — of course! — for being on my side, every time you visit.
I knew that “Yikes!” would be today’s post title when I looked at my favorite watch yesterday.
Here are just some of my reasons for saying “Yikes!” right now:
I have to go in to Boston for more surgery today, exactly six weeks after my open heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
The reason I need today’s surgery is that my Implantable Cardiac Device, which I received in May 2015, caused two deaths because of early battery depletion.
I had to stop eating and drinking last night at midnight, and I am not reporting for surgery until 11:30 AM.
The weather is going to be unseasonably warm and beautiful today, but I will be otherwise occupied.
The United States presidential election, less than a week away.
The Chicago Cubs might win the World Series tonight.
If I feel up to it, I hope to sing at an Open Mic Friday night.
Because of its latest update, my iPhone no longer recognizes my thumbprint but has lots of new features which I haven’t had time to learn.
Speaking of my “improved” iPhone, here are all the other photos I took yesterday. Do any of them make you go “Yikes!”?
Yikes! The words “warming” and “naturally” in that last photo, above, are reminding me of my first therapy session since my open heart surgery. Yesterday, my therapist George and I came up with a soothing ritual to help me prepare for today’s surgery — to place both my hands over my heart, to warm and naturally soothe my still painful chest cavity.
What is making you say “Yikes!” today, in your world?
Yikes! If I actually am able to sing at an Open Mic night in two days, will I remember all these lyrics?
Today’s post title was inspired by this Jaco Pastorius tune, magically playing as I walked around yesterday, during a magically beautiful Sunday.
(YouTube video of Opus Pocus by Jaco Pastorius found here)
Jaco Pastorius was a magician of a jazz bass player, who apparently had bipolar disorder and who died way too young. He played on several of my favorite albums of the 1970’s, like Jaco Pastorius(where “Opus Pocus” appears)
To demonstrate for you, ladies and gentlemen, the magic of Jaco, I looked for videos on YouTube of him playing live. And I found something very magical, for me: the full Shadows and Light concert from 1979, with many of my favorite magicians/musicians, including:
I am not imbedding the video of that concert into this post, because I’m concerned about how blog-posting magic might be working for me, these days. I’ve heard from some of my magical readers — Mark Bialczak and LadyPinkRose — about my posts loading too slowly.
Technology can seem like magic to me. When I am doing something new, I tend to learn only those spells I need to get some magic started. If there are problems later (in blogging and elsewhere), I can forget my ability to learn anew, to keep enchantments coming.
I’m working on improving the magic here. For now, I’m wondering how these images from yesterday are going to magically appear, for you:
Did you notice anything magically new there, in any way? (I’m going to reveal my behind-the-scenes trick: I tried to improve the WordPress Photo Witchcraft today, by scaling down those images in my media library.)
Now that I’ve magically altered my state of mind (if not my photos) — by summoning up that joyous performance of “In France They Kiss on Main Street” (starting at the 2:00 minute mark of the Shadows and Light concert) AND by sharing some personal magic with you — I’m ready to publish this post and start my work week.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 