Day 2890: Red

Yesterday, I wrote about the color blue. My true-blue reader, Maureen, wrote this in a response:

I’m intrigued by how strongly the political parties in the United States are associated with the colors red and blue. Do you think that avid Republicans could ever feel that blue is their favorite color? or do people’s political associations affect their color preferences?

I am an avid Democrat and my favorite color is red, as you can see from the photos I’m sharing today.

If my country doesn’t turn blue this year, I’ll be thinking thoughts like today’s Daily Bitch, turning red in anger and embarrassment.

While I am waiting for the election results, I shall listen to favorite music, including The Red One, featuring some red-hot guitar playing by Pat Metheny and John Scofield.

What are your thoughts and feelings about this red post?

Red thanks to all who help me create these daily posts, read by many, including YOU!

Day 2873: Stranger Danger

Have you ever experienced a stranger time with so much danger? Above all, there is danger because of the stranger in the White House.

Do you see stranger danger in today’s images?

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I am having an echocardiogram today at 3 to discover whether COVID-19 has damaged my heart, which is stranger than yours. Everyone will be wearing masks during this procedure, so that strangers won’t cause danger to each other. Even though masks might make us look and feel stranger, it’s the strangest behavior in the world not to wear one to reduce danger to oneself and others.

The stranger in the White House is endangering countless lives of strangers with his stranger and stranger behavior. If you are voting for him, nothing is stranger to me.

Truth is stranger than fiction, and “Stranger in Town” from Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion showed up in my headphones yesterday when I was taking my “Stranger Danger” photos.

What are your thoughts and feelings about this Stranger Danger post?

Thanks to all the friends and strangers who help me create this daily blog, which reduces my danger during these stranger and stranger times.

Day 2839: It’s for you

It’s for you that I write these blog posts. But it’s also for me. As I encounter so many ups and downs in life, blogging every morning strengthens me for the day ahead.

It’s for you that I share today’s music, by Pat Metheny and the late Lyle Mays.

At the same time, sharing “It’s For You” from As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls is for me.

It’s for you that I’m trying out a new, unfamiliar-to-me editor as I blog today. But it’s also for me (to increase my confidence about using new technology as I prepare to host my 50th high school reunion on Zoom).

It’s for you that I captured all these images, but it’s also for me.

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It’s for you and for me that I realize that “It’s for you” would make a good caption for this:

It’s for you that I have a comments section but it’s also for me.

It’s for you and for me that I collect images of gratitude to end these posts.

I’m grateful that writing this post with the new editor was much easier than I expected! This reminds me of the helpful cognition I’m working on in EMDR therapy:

I can trust myself, which allows me to figure out who else to trust.

Thanks to Pat, Lyle, Harley, Michael (for the burritos), the South Shore of Boston, our neighborhood church, our neighbors, snowy and not-so-snowy egrets, WordPress, and YOU.

Day 2768: Big hikes

Today’s Daily Bitch Calendar relates to big hikes:

I am hearing from many people, through my Coping and Healing groups, that food choices and walks are very important these days.

Here are some photos from yesterday’s big hike:

Thanks to Michael for that big meal (with monkfish, vegetables, and noodles) after my big hike.

It was hot here yesterday, so here‘s “Heat of the Day” by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays:

 

No matter where I’m hiking, I’m always feeling big gratitude:

 

Day 2636: Therapeutic

For the past week, I’ve been doing a version of my Coping and Healing groups for staff where I work.  My group supervisor shared this very helpful thought with me:  “For your co-workers, these groups are not therapy, but they still may be therapeutic.”

A Coping and Healing group, no matter who it is for,  includes a mindfulness exercise, a check-in where each person gets to say whatever they choose without interruption, a focus on the shared common experiences in the room, and the chance to get a good enough sense of closure at the end of the meeting.  Members of the groups say they find this  format therapeutic, and so do I.

Are any of my recent photos therapeutic?

That Chilean sea bass with ginger and garlic was SO therapeutic last night.

This week, it’s been very therapeutic for me to listen to  music by the late, great keyboardist Lyle Mays, including “September Fifteenth”— Lyle and Pat Metheny‘s wonderful tribute to the late, great Bill Evans.

It was also therapeutic for me to read  these comments about that YouTube video:

Tamara Munk
1 day ago
So sad he’s left us, but he’s left an indelible legacy, and made his mark on me. His music has lifted my soul. Thank you Lyle.

JSkalman
1 day ago
This. So fittingly honoring on this day to remember decades of enjoying one of the greatest collaborations in the history of music. The last note belongs to Lyle.

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Sherif Shaalan
1 day ago
It was 1978 when as a young music student, I first heard Lyle Mays play piano and keyboards with the Pat Metheny Group in concert on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit. I was astonished! He immediately became my favorite pianist of all time, and has remained so to this day.

His composing, arranging and piano/keyboard playing combined melodic sensitivity, harmonic richness, rhythmic diversity, and a remarkably fluid technique, all firmly rooted in both classical and jazz musical traditions . . . are entirely innovative.

While I never met him, I read many of his interviews and watched hundreds of his videos and remain awestruck by the modesty and humility of someone with the genius to evoke such thought, emotion and tranquility through his own music . . . music so complete in its usage of nearly the entire spectrum of compositional and improvisational elements available to musicians.

I loved and admired both Lyle’s solo work and his best known collaborative work with the great jazz guitarist, Pat Metheny, beginning in 1974. Their final collaboration as the Pat Metheny Group was in 2005.

Since then, I, along with millions of other fans all over the world have longed for a PMG reunion, but unfortunately with today’s news, we have already enjoyed our final “Pat Metheny Group” recording, which makes me quite sad.

But what a profoundly beautiful and soulful musical legacy he left.

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Pamela G.
2 days ago
Goodbye Lyle! See you on the other side – I know you’re adding to heaven’s light with your beautiful music.

What is therapeutic for you, here and now?

I hope you know that gratitude is also therapeutic, so thanks to all who help me create these daily posts, including YOU.

Day 2634: Heartland

Today, my heart is heavy because one of my favorite musicians — Lyle Mays (appearing in posts here, here, here, here, here , here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) — passed away yesterday.

Yesterday, not knowing that Lyle had passed, I took pictures of hearts.

Music is one of the universal languages of love, and here is Lyle (about the age when I first saw him play) and Pat Metheny performing one of their many compositions which will live forever in my heart: “(Cross The) Heartland.”

Whatever Lyle wrote and played, it landed directly in my heart.

Here‘s “Mirror of the Heart” from Lyle’s first solo album:

 

Pat Metheny wrote this on his website:

‘Lyle was one of the greatest musicians I have ever known. Across more than 30 years, every moment we shared in music was special. From the first notes we played together, we had an immediate bond. His broad intelligence and musical wisdom informed every aspect of who he was in every way. I will miss him with all my heart.”

My heart goes out to all who loved Lyle and his music.

Thanks for joining my heartland, today.

 

Day 2432: Choose to focus on good things

Yesterday, a good friend chose to send me this good thing to focus on:

 

It’s a good thing that soolooka created that, so that Vivian could send it to me exactly when I needed it.

Let’s choose to focus on good things in my photos from yesterday:

 

I chose to focus on that donkey last night during a good long walk with Michael and Aaron. I chose to focus on its expression and to share that the good donkey looked a little judgmental to me.  My good boyfriend and my good son chose to disagree.

I choose to focus on this: civil disagreement is a good thing.

I choose to focus on this great rendition of a good song:

Here‘s the original version of that good song:

Choose to focus on good things in a comment, below.

I always choose to focus on gratitude at the end of every post, so thanks to all who helped me focus on the good things here and — of course! —  to you, my good reader.

Day 2400: Leaving town

Sometimes, leaving town is a great way to

• get perspective,
• find unity with new people,
• unify the different parts of yourself,
• replenish & refresh,
• put down some baggage,
• practice saying “hello” and “goodbye,”
• leave worries behind,
• change your mood,
• explore your feelings,
• get smarter,
• notice what’s there, waiting for you,
• get recharged,
• put a new spin on things,
• become more social,
• find your voice,
• take the next step towards change, and
• get new ideas.

Yesterday, as I was in the process of leaving my home town of Boston and traveling to the great town of Chicago, I took these photos:

Ah ha!  There I am in Chicago.

Here and here are today’s songs about leaving town:

Last night, I was feeling kind of shy  in Chi-town when I was having dinner with some people I didn’t know,, but when the group organizer asked me to sing, I stood up, found my voice, and  sang my latest song  — “Everybody’s Somebody’s Asshole.”

People seemed to like my new song but even if they didn’t, I’ll be leaving town tomorrow.

No matter what town I’m in, I see gratitude everywhere.  Thanks to all who helped me create this out-of-town post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2370: Based on a true story

All my blog posts are based on a true story, so it’s true that I love starting today’s blog post with a true image from my true friend Barbara’s truly lovely home.

Yesterday, Barbara

• went with me to see guitarist Pat Metheny for Barbara’s first time,
• had the best fish dish of her entire life,
• took selfies of herself and her friend of sixty-three years (me),
• swapped amazing stories with her friend,
• admired the gorgeous concert venue in Rockport Massachusetts,
• experienced the wonder of synchronicity,
• was, as usual, a wonderful friend,
• enjoyed many adventures, and

these are all true stories!

We have proof that these stories are true, because of all these true photographs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara and I both agreed that we truly enjoyed Pat last night especially when he involved more instruments than just one solo guitar. I told her the true story of his development of his own incredible Orchestrion, of which he had a small sample on stage with him last night.  I also told her the true story of how I saw Pat play at the Orpheum theater in Boston a decade ago when his Orchestrion album came out, and how truly amazing that was.  She wished she could have seen more of that, so this is truly for you, Barbara:

 

I’m looking forward to all your true stories, below.

My gratitude is always based on true stories, so thanks to Barbara,  to true friendship, to Pat Metheny, to all who helped me create today’s true post and — truly! — to YOU.

 

 

Day 2369: Celebrating

On the two thousandth, three hundredth, and sixty-ninth consecutive day of this blog, I am celebrating the first use of the word “Celebrating” in a post title.

I am also celebrating

• the rich availability of relevant imagery all around me,
• seeing my guitar hero, Pat Metheny, with one of my friendship heroes later today,
• my son’s imminent arrival from Scotland on a newly-instituted direct flight from Edinburgh to Boston,
• the popularity of my Coping and Healing therapy groups at work,
• the resilience of the people I meet every day,
• my own resilience,
• the relative absence of carpenter ants in our home-by-the sea, Squanticello,
• visitors to my blog,
• Boston accents (deemed the second sexiest in the United States),
• different ideas,
• puns (and more “elevated” forms of humor),
• brains,
• hearts,
• guts,
• gifts,
• smiles,
• keepers,
• art,
• wishes,
• self-expression,
• baseball season,
• flowering trees and flowers,
• sunshine,
• freedom,
• deliberately and consciously leaving behind guilt, shame, and fear with every step, and
• whatever else I can find to celebrate, every precious moment.

I am celebrating all those things, and more, by sharing my images from yesterday.

I am also celebrating a new sidewalk, above,  which will prevent the kind of trips that landed me on the ground with a torn rotator cuff fifteen months ago.

I’m celebrating trees and Pat Metheny with this tune that was playing yesterday while I was walking that new, safer sidewalk to work.

What might you be celebrating, here and now?

As always, this blog celebrates the power of gratitude, every day.