Five hundred and sixty-three days and posts ago (but who’s counting during these strange times?), I created and published a post with the same title as today’s.
Today’s post COULD be titled Day 2659: Stay Wicked Fah Apart.
It could be also titled
Day 2659: Social Distancing is Working
Day 2659: When will things return to normal and what will that look like?
Day 2659: With daffodils and magnolia trees in full bloom
Day 2659: The rites of spring
Day 2659: Clouded
Day 2659: A hard truth
Day 2659: No one really knows
Day 2659: Let’s keep playing!
Day 2659: Let’s Go!
Day 2659: SLOW
Day 2659: Caution
Day 2659: Sheer Compassion
Looking at all the photos I took yesterday, you might have your own ideas about what the title of today’s post could be.
Here is music for one of the suggested titles, above.
The title of today’s post, of course, could also be Day 2659: Thanks!
Let’s see what’s not dead in my other photos from yesterday:
I mentioned in a recent not dead post that I’ve been playing Peggle on my phone, so that I can remain not dead and self-soothed during anxious times. I’ve been stuck on Level 105 for MANY not dead days. I always die on the second of three very difficult “battles” and have to start over again. Yesterday, while I was Peggling at the mall, I lived through the incredibly difficult Battle 2 of Level 105, much to my amazement. After I paused the game and then wondered if my dying phone had lost my progress, I said to my dear and not dead husband Michael, “If my phone lost this and I have to start this level over again, I’ll kill myself.”
And I stopped and thought, “WHAT did I just say? There’s no way I’d kill myself over Peggle!”
Even better, I realized, there’s no way I’d kill myself over anything.
When we got home, I told Michael I was going to try to complete Level 105 and if I failed and died, “You’ll hear an unearthly moan of pain.” However, when I did die almost immediately in the much easier third battle, I neither moaned nor cared. I was happy to restart Level 105 with a new life.
As I said to Michael, “Now that I know that it’s possible, I’m fine.”
Then Michael and I danced to this not dead song (living here on YouTube):
Edwyn Collins, as of this writing, is not dead, although he is struggling to stay alive, according to the YouTube comments.
Now it’s time for my undying gratitude to all who help me create these not dead posts, including YOU!
Yesterday, a girl told me she always felt like a failure. I asked her, “What if the concept of failure did not exist?” — a question I’ve asked before in therapy and in this blog (here and here).
She answered that question the same way many others have: “That would be GREAT.” I said, “Welcome to my world.”
What would happen if we all pretended that the concept of failure did not exist?
Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be. —John Wooden
Success is often achieved by those who do not know that failure is inevitable. — Coco Chanel
Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. — Denis Waitley
When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important. — Ellen DeGeneres
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways which won’t work. — Thomas A. Edison
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston Churchill
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. —Paulo Coelho
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill
We are all failures – at least the best of us are. — J.M. Barrie
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. —Johnny Cash
Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing. —J.K. Rowling
No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist. —Chris Hardwick
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push the limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die. — Criss Jami
Whenever I write these blog posts, this message appears:
Saving of draft failed.
I don’t let that stop me.
Let’s see if failure exists in any of my recent photos:
I keep failing at that very difficult level in Peggle but I keep retrying, which I find comforting.
I wonder what interesting failures are ahead for me today?
Here‘s Billie Holiday with “I’ll Never Fail You” …
Is this blog turning into The Year(s) of Living Combatively?
I don’t think so, but I have noticed a lot of battles around me lately. Do you see evidence of that in these photos?
I fell asleep on the couch last night and missed the anticipated battle between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at the latest debate of Democrat Presidential hopefuls.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 