I’m on my way to explaining the inspiration for today’s post.
I’m on my way to having a cat sitting near me when I blog, again, because shy kitty Harley is, for the first time, next to me while I’m blogging. If I got up to get my phone to prove that Harley is close by, he might be on his way somewhere else.
I’m on my way moving through the grief process for the loss of our ever-present kitty Oscar, although every time I read this post or that post about his passing, I cry.
We’re all on our way to the November U.S. Presidential election and I hope I won’t be crying about those results. In the meantime, I feel like I’m on my way to being stuck in a David Lynch movie.
I’m on my way to showing you my other photos from yesterday.
I love seeing cats and my son Aaron when I’m on my way.
Wherever it is that you are, welcome to “Wherever it is that we are.”
Wherever it is that I am, I am wondering what my next blog post is going to be. Initially, I was planning on calling this post “I’m not here” because of this …
But apparently that was neither here nor there, because then I found today’s title in this captured image from The New York Times online:
Wherever it is that we are, as expressed during the first night of the U.S. Democratic National Convention, is a place that is
desperate,
hopeful,
united,
determined,
grieving, and
laser focused on November 3, 2020.
Wherever it is that I am, I know that election day in the United States is November 3, 2020.
Wherever it is that I am, I am taking photos for this blog.
Wherever it is that I am, I see astonishing things, like somebody seeming to walk on water, people celebrating important events like graduations, family members cooking with love, somebody exercising their right to vote (in an early local election), and creatures being wherever it is that they are.
What’s on your mind when you look at all the images I captured yesterday?
It’s on my mind to remind you to click on any of those images if you wish to enlarge them.
These mindful and beautiful performances were on my mind when I woke up this morning (here and here on YouTube):
As always, gratitude is on my mind, so thanks to Lani, Take 6, Donald Fagen, tigers everywhere, everyone who is coping and/or healing, and (of course!) YOU.
Because I affiliate myself with a blog that often defines terms, here are some definitions of “affiliate”:
af·fil·i·ate
verb
əˈfilēˌāt
1. officially attach or connect (a subsidiary group or a person) to an organization.
“the college is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin”
synonyms: associate with, unite with, combine with, join (up) with, link up with, team up with, ally with, align with, band together with, federate with, amalgamate with, merge with; More
noun
əˈfilēət
1. a person or organization officially attached to a larger body.
“the company established links with British affiliates”
synonyms: partner, branch, offshoot, subsidiary
affiliated; affiliating
transitive verb
1 a : to bring or receive into close connection as a member or branch. “The medical school is affiliated with a hospital.”
b : to associate as a member. ” She affiliates herself with the local club.”
2 : to trace the origin of. “They affiliated Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to earlier plays.”
intransitive verb
: to connect or associate oneself : combine. “She refused to affiliate with any political party.”
I am officially attached and connected to a national organization of group psychotherapists which has multiple local affiliates. Therefore, today I am associating, uniting, combining, joining, up, linking up, teaming up, allying, aligning, banding together, federating, amalgamating, and merging with representatives of other local affiliates for many hours in Houston, Texas, a state affiliated with the United States of America.
Are any of today’s blog-affiliated photos good representations of “affiliate”?
There are many children’s book characters affiliated with Massachusetts.
That skating rink is affiliated with the Galleria Mall in Houston — an unexpected affiliation to me.
Since you are affiliating yourself with this blog today, how might you use “affiliate” in a sentence?
Thanks to all who helped me create this post now affiliated with The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally and — of course! — thanks to YOU, no matter how you affiliate yourself.
trust
trəst
noun
1.firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
“relations have to be built on trust”
synonyms: confidence, belief, faith, certainty, assurance, conviction, credence, reliance
“good relationships are built on trust”
2.LAW
confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others.
verb
1.believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.
“I should never have trusted her”
synonyms: rely on, depend on, bank on, count on, be sure of
“he can be trusted to carry out an impartial investigation”
2.archaic
allow credit to (a customer).
Do you trust that definition? What helps or hinders your trust?
I trust that my boyfriend, Michael, will say this again in the near future:
“Who are you going to trust? Me or your lying eyes?”
Trusty Michael says that when we’re discussing people in power whom we don’t trust.
Do you trust that my eyes have seen all these things?
My balanced intention, this morning, is to create a blog post with balance.
I wish to balance
light and dark,
courage and fear,
joy and sadness,
reality and dreams,
rest and movement,
routine and spontaneity,
solutions and problems,
contentment and exploration,
active and passive,
structure and play,
caring and not caring,
my needs and the needs of others,
yin and yang,
beginner’s mind and hard-won wisdom,
thoughts and feelings,
facts and intuition,
social connections and time alone,
health and illness,
the past and the future,
the here and the now,
talking and listening,
awareness and distraction,
the new and the familiar,
engagement and escape,
sense and nonsense,
patience and impatience,
humor and seriousness,
the important and the trivial,
work and time off,
sweet and sour,
trust and caution,
trying and letting go,
noise and silence,
sun and clouds,
day and night,
comfort and discomfort,
hot and cold,
so on and etc.
That’s a lot to balance! Let’s see if my photos from yesterday will help.
What would you choose to balance in your life?
Here‘s my favorite singing group — Take 6 — in Paris, balancing their beautiful voices in a song balancing smiles and sadness:
I’m balancing that performance of “Smile” with a differently balanced one from Take 6’s live album Tonight (balancing here on YouTube):
I hope you balance my thoughts and feelings about balance with yours, in a comment below.
I feel more balanced when I express gratitude. Thanks to all those who helped me create this balanced and balancing post and to you — of course! — for the balance you bring, here and now.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 