Day 2511: Families

It’s not unusual for “Families” to show up  in my Coping and Healing groups.

Yesterday, the group chose to focus on families, telling stories about families they were born into and families they had chosen. I shared my experience of the world seeming less safe after my mother died in 2008 — when I realized I was now an orphan.

GoodReads has four thousand, eight hundred and eighty-nine quotes about Families (but who’s counting?).  Here are a small percentage of them:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is different in its own way.” — Leo Tolstoy

“The capacity for friendship is God’s way of apologizing for our families.” — Jay McInerney

“Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world you had to earn it.” — Ann Brashares

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. “– George Burns

“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching — they are your family. “– Jim Butcher

“My dear young cousin, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the eons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.” — Rick Riordan

“If you can’t get rid of the family skeleton, you might as well make it dance.” — George Bernard Shaw

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” — Oscar Wilde

I think this topic and these quotes are especially timely, because

… the holidays are here!

Let’s see if there are families in my other photos from yesterday:

Albert Schweitzer (shown above) is a member of the family I choose,  as evidenced by these quotes from him:

“Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

“Sometimes our light goes out, but it is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.”

“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”

Here’s one means of refuge from the misery of life …

… and another:

Feel free to share thoughts and feelings about families, below.

I am grateful for all my family members out there, including YOU.

Day 2170: How to get back to sleep in the middle of the night

If, like me, you often wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, try this before you go to bed:

1. Identify what might preoccupy your mind if you did wake up in the middle of the night (like challenging relationships, unfinished business, politics, heath issues, the holidays, ghosts of the past, the news, an upcoming event, money, food,  your inadequacies, ugliness, global warming, animals, conspiracy theories, etc.).
2. Write down one achievable action for each one.
3. If you can’t identify an achievable action, acknowledge that the situation is beyond your control.
4. Go to sleep.
5. When you wake up, remember that you’ve got plans that won’t work in the middle of the night, so there’s no need for your brain to engage.
6. If your awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night brain comes up another issue you didn’t anticipate, put it on the list of “Things to Do Tomorrow.”
7. Go back to sleep.

I hope none of my recent photos keep you up at night.

Here‘s something else you can try if you can’t get back to sleep at night:

 

You could also focus on gratitude. Sincerely, gratitude always helps.