Day 1389: Within Reach

Here are some things that are within reach for me, as I write today’s post.

1. My laptop.
2. The end of the 2016 U.S. presidential contest.
3. Halloween.
4. My getting the go-ahead to drive again, as my sternum heals from my September 21st open heart surgery.
5. My returning to (and probably exceeding) my exercise “baseline” through cardiac rehab.
6. Determining my weekly dose of Coumadin/Warfarin, an anticoagulant I now need because of my new mechanical heart valve.
7. The replacement of my recalled St. Jude Medical  ICD (Implantable Cardiac Device) on November 2.
8. My seeing Mel Brooks in person for the first time, two days from now.
9. My next teeth cleaning, in five days.
10. My return to work as an individual and group psychotherapist, probably during election week.

All day, yesterday, I took photos of things that were within reach of my iPhone camera:

 

Here‘s a tune whose title was within reach in one of my photos, above:

 

What’s within reach for you, here and now?

The end of this post is within reach, as I thank all those who helped me create it and all those who are reading it today, including you!

 

Day 71: The Secret to Life is Three Things

Cristian Mihai is one of my favorite bloggers here.  This post of his showed up in my reader today.

That post, titled “Three easy steps to achieving what you want,” inspired me to write about something that I consider one of the most valuable gifts I’ve ever received.

About 20 years ago, I attended a weekend retreat — the  Opening the Heart Workshop — run by an organization which was then called “Spring Hill”.  (Spring Hill was a gorgeous location in Ashby, MA, and there are some pictures of that beautiful spot in the link above.)

During that weekend, one of the presenters told us this.

The secret to life is three things:

(1)  Show up.

(2)  Be gentle.

(3)  Tell the truth.

That’s it.

Since that weekend, I have shared that gift with many, many people.  I sometimes invite people to notice that “be gentle” also means to be gentle with yourself.

A lot of people have told me they find this gift really useful.

20 months ago, when I left the day treatment program where I’d worked for 12 years, one of my esteemed colleagues there gave me this clock as a going-away present:

I keep this clock in my office.  I sometimes show this clock to people who come to therapy for the first time.  I think it’s a pretty good beginner’s How-To description of therapy.

So now that we’ve discussed the secret to life, I guess it’s time to end this blog post.

 

One more thing, though. When I got the photo of the clock off my phone, I noticed another photo I took recently, which is making me wonder if I should amend the title of this post.  

Maybe the secret of life also includes a fourth thing:

 

(4) A bunny cake.

Thanks for reading, everybody.