Yesterday, as I was looking around me, I posted this on Twitter:
As I expected, the answers to my question opened up new and wonderful windows for me to look through.
Here’s what I saw when I looked around me yesterday:
When you look around you, what do you see? I’ll look for your comments later.
I looked around YouTube and saw this:
When I look around me, I see and feel gratitude, so thanks to everyone who helps me see more and more each day, including you!
Yesterday, I saw this at Mialisa salon, where I was living the dream of getting a great haircut from the dreamy and fabulous Mia.
Mia is a dream of a hair stylist because she is
I am living the dream because I am doing all that I can to spend precious moments on this earth with people (and other creatures) like Mia.
I am living the dream because I love my work as a group therapist.
I am living the dream because I’m working at being the hero of my own story and helping others to be the heroes of theirs.
I am living the dream because I have a healthy and hilarious husband and a healthy and wonderful son.
I am living the dream because I live near the ocean and am healthy enough to take walks every day.
I am living the dream because I just got a good night’s sleep with no disturbing dreams by slowing down my busy mind and reciting this over and over again: “We are all one, connected. I am at peace.”
I am living the dream because I’m going to Nashville in two weeks with my ukulele, my original songs, and a great haircut.
Do you see any signs of me living the dream in my other photos from yesterday?
I’m living the dream because I get to have Michael’s amazing tuna salad again today.
Here’s “Livin’ the Dream” by Morgan Wallen …
… and “Living the Dream” with Usain Bolt and Nugent “NJ” Walker:
I’m living the dream by sharing daily thoughts, feelings, images, and music with YOU.
Come experience the difference as I get my hair cut, eat inside at a restaurant for the first time in almost a year, and hang out on Twitter and in other familiar places, completely vaccinated.
Apparently I’m not going viral, AGAIN, because I was not dead when I posted that tweet last night:
I wrote that when I was experiencing the difference of being a vaccinated woman out at our local supermarket.
Come experience the difference of my song “Vaccinated Women” after I had some time to practice it.
Come experience the difference of posting a new comment, below, and the difference of a new expression of gratitude from me to YOU.
Yesterday, when the wonderful hands of Mia from MiAlisa Salon were giving me a hands-down fabulous haircut, Mia told me about a beautiful way she has been self-soothing during these hard times. She holds her own hand.
Mia said that she held and held her mother’s hand in her hand while her mother was dying, and she misses her mother. Now, when she clasps her own two hands together, she feels powerfully comforted, settled, and anchored. Mia said holding hands with herself also helps her fall asleep.
I told Mia that I have been encouraging people in my Coping and Healing groups to give themselves hugs and that I will add clasping their own hands to the self-soothing repertoire.
And I am happy to report, this morning, that holding hands with myself helped me sleep through the night for the first time in months!
My sleep is also being helped by the growing certainty that my country will soon be in better hands. For the past four years, the USA has been in the hands of a toxic narcissist.
Speaking of hands, if anyone wants to see me play the ukulele with my own hands tomorrow evening, please sign up to be in the audience before the end of the day today using this link:
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/9040b4eadaa23a2f49-jamn15
As people continue to count ballots by hand, I’ll be singing “The Impossible Wait” to the tune of “The Impossible Dream.”
I took all of these photos using my hands. Can you spot the hands of Mia and my husband Michael?
Here is “Hands — A Song for Orlando” from four years ago, showing how hands can hurt and heal.
If you leave a comment with your hands, I will respond with my hands and my heart.
In this time of social distancing, please wash your hands and wear a mask. My hands go out to yours in gratitude, here and now.
According to William Wordsworth (who wrote many worthy words), the origin of poetry is “emotion recollected in tranquility.”
I have emotions (including joy) about recollecting THAT, sooooo many decades after learning it in college. I’m recollecting it today because of my recent personal experience of having strong and upsetting emotions, letting time pass, recollecting those emotions in tranquility, and feeling resolute and happy about achievable next steps.
Therefore, I believe that emotion recollected in tranquility not only creates poetry but also creates paths to move forward through troubled times. Instead of being so reactive to our emotions (especially anger and fear), let us recollect those feelings in tranquility to achieve wise mind (an overlap of emotional mind and logical mind).
Do you see emotion recollected in tranquility in my photos from yesterday?
In tranquility, today, I am recollecting the emotions I felt yesterday having my first restaurant meal since the pandemic began, with caution, with a new haircut, and with my long-time friend Deb.
Here‘s what comes up when I search for “emotion reflected in tranquility” on YouTube:
What are your emotions and thoughts about this emotion-reflected-in-tranquility post?
For me, emotion reflected in tranquility always results in gratitude, so thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.
Do you dream?
I dream and last week I dreamt that I was supposed to give a talk that day about a Tom Hanks movie that was similar to the movie “Big” in that he was a child trapped in the body of an adult but it wasn’t “Big” and I couldn’t remember the name or details about the movie and I was giving this presentation in a few hours and I was very mad at myself that I hadn’t prepared better and then I woke up and I was VERY RELIEVED that the dream was not true.
My husband Michael dreams and very recently he had a dream where somebody spilled lots of “chicken juice” on the floor and he was trying to clean it up and the cats were nearby and he was afraid that they would lick it and get poisoned by bacteria and people including his old girlfriend kept walking through the chicken juice and spreading it all around and he woke up feeling VERY RELIEVED that the dream was not true.
I dream and last night I dreamt that I was at a party with Pete Buttigieg and my sister and I wanted to leave because I was very tired but people decided that before you left you had to go around to everybody there and have some sort of ritualized and elaborate goodbye and I wasn’t really paying attention to the details because I was so tired but the first person I said goodbye to was Tom Hanks and he helped me through the first goodbye, which included fist bumps and saying something that authentically captured and reflected your interactions with them during the evening and then I tried to say goodbye to a group of three people but they were distracted and I didn’t feel like interrupting them so I snuck out and went home and then I woke up and forgot about the dream until a few minutes ago.
I dream that sharing dreams helps us realize how connected we are, so that’s why we sometimes share dreams in my Coping and Healing groups.
“Do you dream?” is something I saw yesterday at MiAlisa Salon in Watertown.
Do you dream? I dream about a functioning adult becoming President of the United States in 2020. In the meantime, I expect I will have trouble sleeping and will continue to have anxiety dreams.
Here‘s a clip from the movie “Top Secret!” in which Val Kilmer is VERY RELIEVED when he wakes up from a classic dream:
Do you dream and do you have dreams similar to any of the dreams mentioned in today’s post?
I dream about all my readers knowing how much I appreciate them, every day.
Yesterday, as I was looking for
I encountered the word “good” (and other good words) several times. Can you find the goods in the good amount of photos that I took yesterday?
Did you spot the goods?
Good people who have been reading this blog for a good many years might have recognized our good neighbor Karen and her good dog, Faxy, among all the other good images.
Also, I took two good shots of this good mural …
… during a good walk through the good Neponset River Reservation because my good son and good boyfriend were trying to guess what was on the missing panel (in the upper left corner next to the good bee). What would be your good guess?
What would be a good song to include in this post?
Gratitude is always good, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s good enough blog post and — of course! — to YOU, my good readers.
Let’s try on this definition of “Try me” from The Free Dictionary:
Try me
Also found in: Wikipedia.
Try me.
Ask me.; Give me a chance.A: I don’t suppose you know what the Achaean League is. B: Try me.
I don’t suppose you know what the Achaean League is, because I don’t either. However, ask me and give me a chance to show you why I’ve chosen “Try me” for today’s post title.
I didn’t try that moisturizer at MiAlisa Salon yesterday, but I did try to take other photos, which involved trying things.
I tried on some new socks and leggings yesterday morning, despite reading an online article, “What Middle Aged Women Should Not Wear” which included patterned socks and leggings. Try as I might, I can’t find that article today. Also, I’m past middle age, so maybe it’s not so bad if I keep trying those things. However, that combination might be particularly trying.
There’s my friend Deb, trying to pick up leaves in her back yard. Do you want more information about those yellow leaf-picker-uppers? Try me. If I don’t know, I can always try to ask Deb.
Here are other images I tried to capture yesterday:
I enjoy images that show people trying new things, including crafts like mosaic quilting and flameworking. If you’re trying too hard to read some of those pictures, try clicking on them to make them larger.
Do you know what season it is around here? Try me.
As I try to finish up today’s blog post, I’m going to try to share what else is on my mind. I do want people to try me — to ask me and give me a chance. I try to convey that as best as I can. Sometimes I might try too hard and perhaps people find that trying. Also, I can find it trying, sometimes, to try to ask others for what I need.
Do you have questions about all this? Try me.
Here‘s “Try Me” by James Brown.
Do you want to know how much gratitude I have for all those who helped me create today’s blog post and for you? Try me.
Yesterday, at the back end of my post, I flashed this photograph:
Was that fake news? Yes, I’m back at WordPress, as always, but was it really in a flash? Actually, I’m back more than 24 hours after I originally flashed that sign yesterday in Day 2070: What’s your super power.
Here and now I’m flashing back to yesterday, when I listened to people whose views I respect, including
The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people. To suggest otherwise is a lie. Justice in my America is blind. This person will receive a fair trial, as it should be. If convicted, he will face the consequences society has set. Beyond that, he deserves no more attention.
To the Hispanic community, my family stands with you and offers its heartfelt apology. That you’ve been beset by the circumstances of Mollie’s death is wrong. We treasure the contribution you bring to the American tapestry in all its color and melody.
My stepdaughter, whom Mollie loved so dearly, is Latina. Her sons — Mollie’s cherished nephews and my grandchildren — are Latino. That means I am Hispanic. I am African. I am Asian. I am European. My blood runs from every corner of the Earth because I am American. As an American, I have one tenet: to respect every citizen of the world and actively engage in the ongoing pursuit to form a more perfect union.
Given that, to knowingly foment discord among races is a disgrace to our flag. It incites fear in innocent communities and lends legitimacy to the darkest, most hate-filled corners of the American soul. It is the opposite of leadership. It is the opposite of humanity. It is heartless. It is despicable. It is shameful.
When I connect to people whose views I respect, here’s what comes back in a flash:
Hope.
I’ll be back in a flash after I find the other photos I’ve taken most recently without a flash.
Across the street from where we live, birdwatchers and photographers are often back in a flash.
Back in a flash, after I search for some relevant music on YouTube….
In a flash, I found “Back In A Flash” from Disney’s House of Mouse.
I’ll be back in flash, after I publish this post, to find out what thoughts and feelings you’ve flashed in the flashy comments section, below.
Back in a flash with my latest flash of gratitude for all those who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — YOU.
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* When I published this, I erroneously wrote that Mollie Tibbetts’s father’s first name was John. When I realized my mistake, I was back in a flash to correct it to his right name: Rob Tibbetts. I apologize for the mistake.
In the last two thousand and thirty-eight days of blogging and living, I have never said, written, or thought, “I give up!” Today, I am saying, writing, and thinking it. Why? Because starting yesterday, every time I use my laptop to try to create a new blog post, contact WordPress support, or do many other essential tasks, all WordPress gives me is this unhelpful, unchanging screen:
That gives me nothing and no way to post or to get help.
I’ve given this a lot of time and many attempts at solving this. My mind is giving me no more ideas and options.
I give up!
But I can NOT give up blogging, no matter how many new obstacles life gives me, because this blog and my readers give me so much.
So how can I keep giving myself and my readers more daily gifts?
My phone does not give me the ability to contact WordPress for help, but it does give me the ability to create a new post.
So I can give you, today, this daily blog and give you my latest photos.
Harley is obscured there, just like solutions to my blogging problem are hidden from me now. Is it curtains for my blog? Or will some solution become clear and emerge?
Is there a recipe of steps that will give me back the ability to blog from my laptop? If not, maybe I can give myself comfort with the delicious food Michael gives me.
Maybe some computer genius, somewhere, will give me some solution to my WordPress problem. If not, I’ll just keep blogging, giving up disappointment and judgment.
This is the kind of look I give the world when I’ve had no sleep the night before. I’m going to give my haircutter, Mia, a look at this photo the next time I see her, so she can give me a similar haircut next time.
Even if nobody can give me the answer on how to blog again on my laptop, my phone will be just that good as my daily blogging machine.
I give my patients the choice of five “Coping and Healing” groups every week. This gives me tremendous satisfaction.
If you were lost in the woods — of WordPress or elsewhere — and it got dark, what would you do? I’ll give you all the time you need to think about that.
Michael keeps giving us amazing meals — that’s the one he gave us last night before we gave my son Aaron a ride to the airport.
I took this photo to give me a clue about how to find my car in the enormous and confusing parking lot at the airport, which always gives me a headache.
After I took that picture, we did not give up when we were told that Aaron needed a printed-out visa to board his flight to India, even though a website had given him the erroneous information that he could board by giving the visa information on his phone. Michael and Aaron gave me his bags to watch while they ran to the Hilton Hotel, which had printers which gave Aaron what he needed.
I give up trying to explain that any better.
Is it time for you to give up some comments below?
First, give it up for Jason Mraz performing “I Won’t Give Up.”
I now give up thanks for all people, animals, and things that help me create this daily blog, despite all the obstacles life gives me.
… “You’re golden!”
