I’m doing two online Zoom meetings for my group psychotherapy organization this morning, and I’m going to do my best to be in the here and now, with all of it.
Why is it so difficult for us to be in the here and now, with all of it?
I could guess, but I’d rather be in the here and now, with all of these photos.
This music, which I shared in a recent post, has been helping me stay in the here and now, with all of it.
Here and now, all of your reactions are welcome.
Here and now, with all of my gratitude to YOU, until next time.
My immediate reaction to checking my old blog posts, just now, is surprise that I have never written a post with “Immediate” in the title before.
My immediate thought upon waking up this morning was “It’s the day of my one-day only Fringe Festival show — “Group ‘Therapy’ with Ann.”
I’m hoping to help the people who show up to my show to get an immediate appreciation of the benefits of group therapy. I’m also hoping that the immediate and understandable performance jitters I might be experiencing during my show will not cause me to forget the immediate words and the chords of the two original songs I’ll be sharing.
When I saw this sign yesterday on the streets of Edinburgh,
… my immediate thought was “That’s the title of my blog post tomorrow.”
What are your immediate reactions to the many other photos I took yesterday?
My immediate urge is to let you know that you can enlarge any of those photos by clicking on it immediately.
My immediate reactions to the extraordinary show of my venue captain …
When I was putting up my immediate posters for my show at the venue — The Natural Food Kafe — I asked a patron if he would come to a show like mine. His immediate reaction was yes, if he could. It took just a few minutes for us to realize that we had an immediate connection in our mutual love for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.
I don’t have much time to blog this morning, so allow me to immediately get to the heart of the matter.
Last week at a group therapy conference in the heart of Los Angeles, I heard a wonderfully skilled and compassionate group therapist suggest something that mattered a lot to me — if somebody is telling a long story in group which is taking people out of the here-and-now, the facilitator can interrupt to ask, “What is the heart of the matter?”
Yesterday, in my first therapy group after my return to Boston, I told the members what I had learned about inviting people to go to the heart of the matter. That touched people’s hearts, in the moment, and deepened the experience of the group.
Do you see the heart of the matter in my photos from yesterday?
Usually, it matters to me that I completely erase the white board in preparation for other meetings in that room. Yesterday, I left “The Heart of the Matter” on that white board for other hearts to experience.
For now, I have more must-dos for today’s blog. For now,
somebody I’ve known for years is not speaking to me,
I’m President of a local professional organization of group psychotherapists,
with great power comes great responsibility (I saw the new Spider-Man movie at the Seaport District theater yesterday),
I haven’t experienced the full glory of the new Spider-Man movie yet, because a fire alarm screwed up the theater’s computer system and the house lights stayed on for most of the film,
I’m writing a new original song every month,
I haven’t made any high quality recordings of any of my songs,
I’m still waiting to hear back from the Edinburgh Free Fringe about my show proposal, even though their last email to me three weeks ago said somebody would get back to me “in a few days” and I’ve written them again asking for a response,
I’m feeing better about not hearing back now that I’ve read that Edinburgh Free Fringe link, above, and seen that “our main programming decisions [will be] taking place from the end of January and through February and March”,
my son is in Boston on Christmas vacation from University,
I haven’t started packing for our Disney World trip this weekend,
I feel tired when I walk up stairs, and
I have more pictures to share from yesterday.
For now, there is still plenty left of the best tuna noodle casserole I’ve ever had in my life. For now, I can assume that Michael meets the two criteria I had established for a future boyfriend when I was 10 years old: That my boyfriend love cats and tuna noodle casserole. For now, I’m actually not sure that Michael loves tuna noodle casserole, but he certainly helps me to keep my tuna casserole love alive.
For now, this the best “For Now” song I can find, from the musical Avenue Q.
For now,
and see you tomorrow. And for all those who helped me create today’s blog post and for all those who are reading this, thanks for now and beyond!
Whenever we choose to do anything, there are an infinite number of things that we aren’t doing. If we focus on what we aren’t doing, rather than on what we are doing, there are infinite reasons to believe that we’re not doing enough or that we’re not doing the right thing.
Here’s something else I’m not doing right now: taking photographs. However, I am sharing these:
Here and now, we’re getting ready to move, so I’m unearthing many memories from there and then.
There and then, I’ve created my own t-shirts.
The first t-shirt I ever created, there and then, had the Chinese name for Jackie Chan (“become the dragon”). There and then I loved that t-shirt, especially because I was born in the Year of the Dragon.
Here and now are more memories from there and then.
I hope it’s okay, here and now, that I include three musical numbers from there and then (here, here, here and now on YouTube).
In the words of Pat Metheny, “We Live Here.” Together.
As always, I express thanks to those who helped me create this then-and-there, here-and-now post and to you — of course! — for being here, now.
Question: What kind of questions does Dr. Leszcz ask people in therapy groups?
Answer: “What are you thinking?” “How do you feel right now?” “What is your hunch about that?” “How do you think other people are experiencing you?” “What do you want people to know about you?” “What are you going to do next?” “What did you see?” “How would you like to work on that in the group?”
Question: Does Dr. Leszcz think that working in the here and now is good?
Answer:
Question: What did I do last night?
Answer: I went to a Pat Metheny concert.
Question: Whom did I meet there?
Answer: Gabe, who is a jazz guitar student at Berklee.
Question: What’s the first question Gabe asked me?
Answer: I am going to the bank in preparation for selling my condo, getting an INR blood test at the hospital, and driving down the Cape to visit with fellow blogger Mark Bialczak and his dear wife Karen!
Question: Should you leave a comment about today’s blog?
Answer: Yes, please.
Question: Who should I thank, here and now?
Answer: Everybody who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — YOU.