I share my thoughts and feelings, hoping that also helps you in some way.
This is the place for me to say this: before you step into 2020, be sure to cancel your subscriptions to other people’s drama and negativity, but please do not cancel your subscription to The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally.
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” — Rabindranath Tagore
“I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate and those that I guard I do not love.” — William Butler Yeats
” Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” — St. Augustine
“It is better to have your heads in the clouds and know where you are … than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.” — Henry David Thoreau
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” — Edward Abbey
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” — John Lubbock
“Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky. They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives.” — Roger Ebert
“Mirth is like a flash of lightening, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.” — Joseph Addison
“Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation will continue to prosper as before.” — Abraham Lincoln
“I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights, and I have to be very careful when I’m in the clouds, but it is also what I love; it is my domain, so when you love something, you don’t have fear.” —Philippe Petit
“Who cares about the clouds when we’re together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.” — Dale Evans
Do you see any clouds in these other recent photos?
Here‘s another song that’s hovering in the clouds of this post, above:
If you were to comment on this post, I’d be on Cloud 9.
Now it’s time to end this post in a cloud of gratitude, so thanks and happy trails to all who help me find my way through the clouds to blog every day, including YOU.
Does that mean I care too much? Or have too many cares? I’m not sure, but I do care to tell you that I just woke up from a dream where I said the word “kill” (as in “Did that make you want to kill them?”) which was overheard by somebody I knew, who then dropped to the floor in obvious emotional pain and crawled laboriously away (like a snake) down a hallway, as her husband told me not to care about her reaction. He said, “This happens and she’s just going somewhere to pull herself together.”
When I was driving to work the other day, my attention was attracted by a story on the radio about how Christmas lights on a vehicle are illegal because they distract and attract too much attention. The reporter said, “The animal in us notices everything that moves.”
Yesterday, when I was distracted by all the activity in the hall outside the group room (which I could see through the glass door), I invited the group members to do a mindfulness exercise where we noticed what attracted our attention and then stayed with that. What attracted my attention was not the activity outside the room, but rather the little ripples in my water bottle that was standing on the table and reflecting the movements in the room. Those ripples totally kept my attention throughout the mindfulness exercise.
What attracts my attention these days includes:
movement,
danger,
anger,
loud noises,
mysteries,
stress,
trauma,
pain,
politics,
faces,
the unexpected,
color,
light, and
the things in these photos:
That giant Santa cookie might have attracted my attention, but I didn’t buy it. However, I did buy some black and white chocolate drizzled popcorn, which attracted my attention way too much last night.
After the retreats — which involved some small talk but mostly medium and big talk — I was thinking about all the wonderful friends I have lost over the last few months and I remembered how I’ve been saying to people, “Please don’t die.”
Then, last night at our local supermarket, I saw this:
Please don’t die, all you people who are reading this. Or, at least, do your best to stay alive as long as possible.
Here are the other photos I took yesterday:
Please don’t die, Harley and Oscar.
Please don’t die, tigers and other wildlife. Please don’t die, cousin Lani (who sends me great photos of tigers through snail mail, which is apparently still alive).
Please don’t die and use whatever remedies that might help you stay alive.
Dwell in possibility (following the undying words of Emily Dickinson) and please don’t die.
Please don’t die and please celebrate every day that you are alive. YAAAAY!
Please don’t die, no matter who you are, what you are, or how you say hello. Just don’t say goodbye.
I did a double take, just now, when I realized this is my first post about double takes, defined as ….
noun
a rapid or surprised second look, either literal or figurative, at a person or situation whose significance had not been completely grasped at first:
His friends did a double take when they saw how much weight he had lost.
I’m doing a double take at that definition because
I don’t know what a figurative double take would look like, literally or figuratively.
I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost recently because, as I discovered yesterday, our scale in the bathroom presents two very different weights, depending on where you move it on the floor.
In case you haven’t completely grasped the weight or significance of today’s title, here are some visual double takes:
Did you do any double takes at any of those photos, literally or figuratively?
Yesterday, Michael & I were trying to remember supermarkets that were around when we were young. We remembered Stop & Shop (still around today) and A & P (no longer with us). I asked Michael, “Do you remember the old joke that Stop & Shop and A & P are merging and the new name is ‘Stop & P’?” I did a double take when Michael said he’d never heard that.
I also did a double take when I saw how few views “Double Take” by Blondie has on YouTube:
Here’s a double take of gratitude for (1) all those who helped me create today’s blog and (2) YOU.
