Day 3286: Hearts

For some reason, I woke up with a heavy heart today. As I connect with other hearts, though, my heart lightens.

What hearts can you see in my images for today?

If you have heartburn from bacon (or anything else), Happy Bicarbonate of Soda Day!

Here is “Hearts” by Marty Balin.

Heartfelt thanks to all who help me create this blog every day, including YOU!

Day 3210: What I learn from my cat

Because it’s Global Cat Day tomorrow, I am inspired by my worldly and composed shelter cat Joan to compose today’s post.

Here’s Joan …

… who teaches me

• That it’s nicer in the sun.
• Not to be discouraged by obstacles.
• To live in the moment.
• Life is a combination of comfort and discomfort.
• To ask for what I want, despite inevitable communication barriers.
• I can still be adorable when I’m having medical issues.
• People may assume what I’m feeling, based on their own experience.
• Resilience includes the ability to adapt to what is.
• Almost everything is fun to play with.
• Even when healing is slow, be patient.
• A refrigerator door opening is something to celebrate.
• So many different types of food (including our other cat Harley’s food) are delicious.
• Not to be discouraged if somebody hisses at me.
• If a door is closed, open it myself or get somebody else to open it for me.
• I may accidentally do damage some times, but people will forgive me.
• Try to achieve a good mix of running around and relaxing.
• Gratitude can be expressed in many different ways, including with a purr.
• Females rule!

What can we learn from my other images for today?

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “what I learn from my cat”:

Here’s Cyndi Lauper with “Like a Cat”:

What have you learned from this post?

Thanks and purrs to all those who help me blog every day, including Joan and YOU!

Day 3043: Whatever doesn’t kill me

Who said “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”?

It didn’t kill me to discover that it was Friedrich Nietzsche.

It didn’t kill me to finally spell “Friedrich Nietzsche” right in that previous paragraph.

Here are others things that didn’t kill me:

• being born with a rare heart condition,
• spending lots of time in the hospital when I was kid,
• ridiculous hospital rules which prevented my parents from staying with me,
• a few awful nurses and doctors,
• medicine that made me sick,
• many surgeries,
• relying on cardiac pacemakers since age 10,
• the assassinations during the 60’s,
• bullies at school,
• mean or incompetent teachers,
• bad leaders,
• bad weather,
• bad food,
• choking on a piece of hard candy I accidentally swallowed while laughing,
• car accidents,
• scary plane trips,
• scary movies,
• scary people, including a rapist,
• jobs that didn’t fit my skills or interests,
• walking across a frozen river,
• my mistakes,
• other people’s mistakes,
• traveling by myself,
• not being able to swim,
• three bouts of endocarditis because of a leaky heart valve,
• valve replacement surgery,
• public speaking,
• public singing,
• mountains,
• valleys,
• depression,
• anxiety,
• PTSD,
• suicidal thoughts,
• rejection,
• disrespect,
• sexism,
• anti-Semitism,
• ageism,
• COVID-19, and
• everything and everybody else I’ve encountered in my long life, including what you see in today’s images.

The Daily Bitch Calendar kills me (in a good way).

Here’s Finger Eleven with “Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me”:

It doesn’t kill me to express gratitude, so thanks to all who help me create these daily posts, including YOU!

Day 3005: Too close for comfort

For over a year, many things have felt too close for comfort. That’s why we need to focus on comforting ourselves and others.

Is anything too close for comfort in today’s images?

I’ve never gotten too close to comforting myself with alcohol, but I know a lot of people who have.

Here’s “Too Close for Comfort” by Johnnie Taylor …

“Too Close for Comfort” by McFly …

… and “Too Close for Comfort” by Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band:

The end of this post is too close for comfort, so thanks to all who help me blog daily, including YOU!

Day 2676: People are resilient until they’re not

One thing I’m thinking about this morning is the suicide of Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency room director  in New York City.

In this article by Rhea Mahbubani and Dave Mosher about the recent suicides of Dr. Breen and John Mondello, an EMT in NYC, I noticed these quotes:

“Of my four children — well I guess now I’ve only got three — no one would’ve predicted that Lorna was having a hard time,” Dr. Philip C. Breen, her father, told Business Insider. “She would not even be on that list.”

As the pandemic has left millions under lockdown and triggered deep loss and widespread grief, medical workers and emergency responders like Mondello and Lorna Breen have faced the brunt of the crisis with grueling workloads, unprecedented stress, deep uncertainty, and a steep death count.

Medical workers are drawn to the profession to alleviate suffering and protect their patients. During the pandemic, however, the virus has in many cases robbed them of the ability to achieve either goal.

Laurie Nadel, a psychotherapist and author, characterized the coronavirus as an “equal-opportunity destroyer” that’s forcing frontline medical workers to go “mano-a-mano with mortality on a larger scale” than ever before.

There are ways to support workers in such high-pressure roles, but Dr. Shauna Springer advocates not calling them heroes. “There’s an invisible pressure that comes with that.”

“People are resilient until they’re not. And so people who are called out as resilient are often more reluctant to acknowledge human struggles and to reach out when they need help.”

For people who are resilient until they’re not (which can include all of us),  that article advocates the healing powers of listening without offering advice and also doing things to lighten each other’s loads.

Do you see evidence of people who are resilient until they’re not in the images I captured yesterday?

I posted that last picture of that resilient tiger on my Facebook page last night with this caption: “She’s taking crisis calls.”   I’m noticing, here and now, that it’s easier to be resilient when somebody has your back.

People are resilient until they’re not, so let’s watch the fifth installment of “Some Good News” with John Krasinski:

Resilient thanks to all who do their best helping themselves and others, including YOU.

Day 2361: Resilience

Even though I’ve had the resilience to create this daily blog for two thousand, three hundred, and ninety-seven days, today is the first time I’ve had the resilience to create a post with that title.

When I search through my blogging past for “resilience,” WordPress has the resilience to return these four posts …

Day 2369: Celebrating

Day  1754: I can’t get over it

Day 1710: Rage

Day 306: Parade day!!!!

If you have the resilience to read any of those past posts, let me know why you think WordPress chose those  to represent resilience.

Today, I need the resilience to

• facilitate a large Coping and Healing group at work,
• drive around to pick up balloons and a gelato cake,
• preside over the  board meeting of a group therapy professional organization, and
• say goodbye to four departing board members.

Do you see resilience in any of today’s photos?

 

Here‘s “Resilience” by Carson.

Here’s “Epic Inspirational Orchestral Music — Resilience”  from Secession Studios.

Do you have the resilience to leave a resilient comment, below?

Resilient thanks to all who helped me create this Juneteenth post and — of course! — thanks to YOU, for your resilience.

Day 1872: Silver Linings

Yesterday, in a therapy group, we talked about silver linings, which are

the hopeful side of a situation that might seem gloomy on the surface. The common expression “every cloud has a silver lining” means that even the worst events or situations have some positive aspect.

The silver linings we talked about in group included the dark clouds of traumatic events which had made people stronger, more resilient, and grateful for the gifts of the present.

I found my own silver linings in that group:  I couldn’t write important themes up on the white board because of my torn rotator cuff so one of the group participants  wrote those lines instead, which meant

• more group engagement and
• better hand-writing.

I was so pleased with these silver linings that I said,”Now I’m glad I hurt my arm.”  At first the group said, in unison, “No you’re not!” but that led to more valuable discussions about silver linings.

I want to underline this about silver linings:  I’m a person who can find a silver lining in my own painful injuries, but I can NOT find  silver linings in another horrific assault-weapon massacre in the U.S.  Maybe I can’t find silver linings there because nothing seems to disperse or lessen the  cloud of gun violence in the United States.

When my only child decided to go to the University of Edinburgh I easily found this silver lining:  no school shootings in Scotland.

What are your thoughts and feelings about silver linings?  Can you find any silver linings in my other photos?

 

 

I have a silver lining of hope that people will change their thoughts and change the world .

There’s  a “Silver Lining” by Rilo Kiley on YouTube.

 

Here’s my silver lining of gratitude for all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — for YOU.

Day 1754: I can’t get over it

I can’t get over how many people I see in group and individual therapy who’ve been sexually, physically, and emotionally abused.

One of those people recently borrowed and returned this book I have in my office:

In both of  my therapy groups yesterday, everybody shared thoughts and feelings about personal experiences of abuse.

I can’t get over people’s resilience, too.

I also can’t get over how “Get over it!” never helps people get over anything.

 

I can’t get over taking and sharing photos on this blog.

 

I can’t get over how the sink at work is always clogged.

I can’t get over how many people read this blog.

I can’t get over my gratitude for you!

 

Day 1720: Walk this way

Walk this way, please, to see what I saw when I was walking this way yesterday.

Whenever I see “walk this way,” I’m distracted this way:

I’m also thinking this way about “walk this way” this morning:

• No matter which way you walk, that way will hold surprises,
• It’s great to walk with good people along your way,
• Try to walk this way with soul, joy, and authenticity, and
• I snap photos as I walk this way.

What brings you joy as you walk this way?

Walk this way to today’s musical selection:

Please walk this way

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to leave a comment your way.

I’d  like to thank people who help me create these posts and you (of course!) this way.

Day 1718: Spend time with people you love

Yesterday, I found out that two people I love will be leaving earlier than I wish. I’m resolving to spend as much time as possible with them whenever we can.

I often think of this line from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods:

Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood

because that’s inevitable, isn’t it?  Here are other  lines from that song:

Hard to see the light now

Just don’t let it go.

Things will come out right now

We can make it so.

Here‘s that song performed by Bernadette Peters, whom I love:

 

Let’s spend time with the photos I took yesterday.

 

 

Krystle Campbell left us too soon. Again, I resolve to spend time with people I love.

As always, I appreciate spending time with people I love on WordPress. Thanks to all who helped me create this post and to you — of course! — for visiting, here and now.