Day 3515: Message in a Bottle

Yesterday, I saw this “Message in a Bottle” at a public art installation near the hospital where I work:

Here’s the description of “Message in a Bottle” by Janet Kawada and Bette Ann Libby:

For centuries, bottles have been used for preservation and as vessels to carry thoughts and memories. They have the capacity to last much longer than we anticipate. Finding an unexpected relic of a bygone time gives the discoverer a moment to consider. WHO left it, WHAT was that person doing here and WHERE did they come from? Yearning for peace, love, a better future, frightened, hopeful, adventurous or all of the above. Did we welcome them? Maya Angelou states, The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

In a way, every blog post is a message in a bottle from me — yearning for peace, love, a better future, frightened, hopeful, etc. Also, my photos often try to capture a message in a bottle from somebody else.

What message in a bottle do you notice here, now?

Because it’s National Tell a Joke Day, here are some “message in a bottle” jokes.

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Here’s “Message in a Bottle” by the Police:

I look forward to your message in the comments bottle, below.

Thanks to all who have sent or received a message in a bottle, including YOU.

Day 3027: Therapy

This daily blog is therapy for me and, I hope, therapy for you.

Lately, in therapy, I’ve been asking some patients if a letter from a therapist would be helpful. For example, yesterday I wrote somebody this one:

To whom it may concern:

Please get your act together or leave ______ alone.

Signed,

Her therapist

My patient plans to put that on a t-shirt before we meet again in person for therapy.

Are any of today’s images therapy for you?

The Daily Bitch has her own ideas about therapy.

Travel used to be therapy for me but I’m really out of practice, like all of us. Therefore, I’m thinking of traveling to Nashville in May for a few days, which leads me to this:

To whom it may concern:

Any ideas about fun things to do and great places to eat in Nashville? Also, is the Fairlane a good place to stay?

Signed,

Your blogger

Singing along to music is great therapy, so try singing along to this as loudly as possible no matter who is listening:

Gratitude is therapy, so thanks to all who help me do therapy every day, including YOU!

Day 2582: Send the right message

Yesterday, after I tried to send the right message to my blog readers for the 2581st consecutive time, I saw this message at my local post office:

And I thought, how do we send the right message? And what makes a message right? And even if we do figure out how to send the right message, who’s to say how different people will receive and understand our message?

I don’t know if this is the right message, but I wonder what messages our governments and the media are sending these days. I also wonder if anybody is listening to other people’s messages.  It seems like most people have decided what messages they are going to hear and they are not open to hearing any new messages, no matter how right they are.

Lately, I’ve been choosing to send the right message mostly through photos, like these:

When I was walking by the beach yesterday, I heard“Message in a Bottle” by the Police.

Millions of people have gotten that message of “I’ll send an S.O.S. to the world.” Is that the right message?

I look forward to any messages you send in the comments section, below.

Thanks to the amazing people who help me create the messages in this daily blog and to all who read those messages, like YOU!

Day 2559: Other people’s pain

Dear other people,

Are you in pain? Are you in emotional or physical pain, here and now?

How does other people’s pain affect you? Does that cause you pain?

Yesterday at work, I talked to several people who were in extreme pain. That  pained me so much that I noticed moments when I wanted to turn away from their pain. It would pain me to tell you if I had turned away from other people’s pain, but I did not. I stayed with their pain and with mine.

At last night’s Coping and Healing group, other people in pain suggested that we focus on the topic “hope” as a way to ease the pain in the room.

I take pains to protect the confidentiality of all who attend my groups, so I’ll disclose only what I wrote last night:

In case reading that is a pain, here’s what I wrote:

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers.

— Emily Dickenson

Hope is what we all need.

I believe that everybody has a spark

of hope somewhere even if they’re

describing themselves as hopeless.

I think of it as an ember of heat and light

ready to ignite.

 

The worst moments of my life

have been when I’ve lost track of hope.

I’m so grateful that somehow,

I have always found it.

 

If you have everything but hope,

you have nothing.

If you have nothing but hope,

you have everything.

 

Here’s the only other photo I took yesterday:

Does that poinsettia in the group room look like it’s in pain? It did to me, last night.

Here’s “The Hopelessness Theory of Depression” on YouTube, about other people’s pain:

 

Here‘s  “King of Pain” by The Police:

 

I facilitate five groups every week because I believe sharing pain with other people reduces that pain.  Feel free to share any pain, below.

As I say at the end of every group about other people’s pain, I am grateful that you showed up here, exactly as you are.

 

 

Day 2321: Messages

Fourteen hundred days ago (but who’s counting?), I wrote another blog post titled “Messages.”  During my first year of blogging, I wrote three posts about messages: Day 317: Challenging Negative Messages, Day 178: Feeling discouraged, what helps, and voicemail messages, and Day 144: “Emergency” messages.

My messages for today include the following:

• Some messages bear repeating,
• Sometimes people don’t want to hear messages,
• Messages can be direct, implied, or unexpressed,
• The medium is the message,
• I enjoy exchanging messages with my son through the medium of our phones,
• People talked about messages in a Coping and Healing group recently,
• Mixed messages are everywhere,
• Some messages are hard to read,
• Clarity is important for getting your messages through,
• Many of us have internalized harsh, critical messages from the past,
• This week, two people shared the message that attending my groups has been “life changing,”
• Some people prefer messages in words and other people prefer messages in pictures.

Which one of those visual messages pops for you?

Here’s “Message in a Bottle” by the Police:

If you want the messages of those lyrics more clearly, here‘s this video:

Please accept my messages of gratitude at the end of every post.

Day 2032: Synchronicity

Despite five and a half years of blogging synchronicity, I am just now creating a post about synchronicity. Why now?  Because of the synchronicity of this sign:

I saw that in the synchroni-city of Boston, last night.

Here’s a definition of “synchronicity”:

syn·chro·nic·i·ty
siNGkrəˈnisədē
noun

the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.
“such synchronicity is quite staggering”

Are you ready for the simultaneous occurrence of photos that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection?

Here‘s “Synchronicity” by The Police.

Ooops!  Wrong Police.  Let’s try that again.

I look forward to the synchronicity of your comments.

There’s a lot of synchronicity of gratitude here for all those who help me with the synchronicity of my blogging and — of course! — for YOU.

Day 1864: PAIN IS NOT A PUNISHMENT

Yesterday, in a therapy group, several people were talking about physical and emotional pain and wondering what they had done to deserve all that pain.  I quoted the helpful phrase “PAIN IS NOT A PUNISHMENT”  which led to an interesting discussion about the painful messages people got in their families of origin, the wish to make meaning of pain, self-blame, and self-forgiveness.  Somebody in the group asked me to write “PAIN IS NOT A PUNISHMENT”  on the board.

As I wrote that, I was very aware of the pain in my left shoulder, which has been getting worse since my fall last Wednesday.   As the pain continued to increase into the night, I spoke to a doctor on call who suggested I go to the emergency room.  People there listened to my description of the pain and somebody speculated that I may have torn my rotator cuff, which is often a pain for major league baseball pitchers.  I don’t know any other group therapists who have injured their rotator cuffs, but that diagnosis might explain the pain.

As I’m writing this,  I’m reminding myself that past pain, present pain, and future pain (which might include physical therapy) are NOT punishments.

I hope it’s okay when I share my pain here and also my latest photographs:

I also found out that taking extra-strength Tylenol over several days disrupted my INR, which is another pain.

I will know more about the shoulder pain when I see an Orthopedic Doctor, probably this afternoon. I hope the news is not too painful.

Here‘s music to remind us that PAIN IS NOT A PUNISHMENT.

Here’s a Police song about pain and the “Weird Al” Yancovic parody:

As always, gratitude reduces the pain, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.