Day 2809: Percentages of life

I have spent significant percentages of my life

• writing,
• reading,
• talking,
• listening,
• asking questions,
• answering questions,
• crawling,
• walking,
• learning new things,
• making mistakes,
• crying,
• laughing,
• making others laugh,
• being afraid,
• being brave,
• singing,
• playing musical instruments,
• playing games,
• watching TV,
• watching movies,
• wearing watches,
• being in school,
• being in the hospital,
• being on the phone,
• cooking,
• eating,
• making messes,
• cleaning up,
• staying home,
• going out,
• traveling,
• working,
• running groups,
• participating in groups,
• worrying,
• hoping,
• thinking about the past,
• thinking about the future,
• living in the present moment,
• living with cats,
• living with humans,
• missing my late father (whose birthday is today),
• mourning ,
• celebrating,
• taking care of others,
• taking care of myself, and
• taking pictures.

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I’ve also spent a significant percentage of my life day-dreaming.

Here’s “Percentage of Life” — a short student film by Dragos Pascu about social media addiction:

According to ranker.com, a notable percentage of the best songs about life were written by Beatles. Here’s #1:

Here‘s #39 — “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall,” performed by The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald:

My father and I agreed about Ella Fitzgerald, 100%.

Consider spending a percentage of this beautiful day leaving a comment, below.

I’ve spent a major percentage of life experiencing and expressing gratitude, so thanks to all those who have helped me spend about 12% of my life creating these daily blogs, including YOU!

Day 2418: Love what you see

These days, it can be difficult to love what you see, despite your best intentions to do so.

Yesterday, in the midst of seeing too much

• injustice,
• harsh judgment,
• insensitivity,
• insecurity,
• greed,
• violence,
• pain,
• suffering,
• cruelty,
• hurtful actions,
• thoughtlessness,
• loss,
• lies,
• close-mindedness,
• emptiness, and
• crises,

I practiced the skill of loving what I see.

Do you love what you see here?

 

I loved seeing that giant baby head at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts yesterday and I also loved seeing Michael ask my son Aaron if he thought the rest of that baby was underground.

I do not love seeing or saying goodbyes ….

… but I will be saying goodbye to Boston and Michael tonight and hello to Edinburgh (which I love) tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll love what I see in Edinburgh.

Do you love what you see in this song?

I love what I see in your comments, so please leave one below.

I hope you love the gratitude you see, here and now.

Day 2355: How To Make Yourself Miserable

How to make yourself miserable?  Here are some suggestions:

• Hold on to resentments.
• Expect people to change for you.
• Notice the negatives.
• Compare yourself to other people.
• Avoid awareness of the current moment.
• Anticipate the worst.
• Live in the past.
• Stubbornly resist inevitable changes.
• Stay in upsetting situations.
• Hang around with critical people.
• Beat yourself up about mistakes.
• Say “yes’ to everything.
• Say “no” to everything.
• Squelch your creativity.
• Let your fears control you.
• Cultivate your distrust of the unknown (especially other people).
• Stay small so you won’t “bother” others.
• Avoid things that might make you happy.
• Decide you’re too old to learn.
• Decide you’re too young or inexperienced to know enough.
• Be so invested in a particular outcome that you don’t have a Plan B.
• Focus on should’s rather than could’s.
• Do not indulge in hope because you might get disappointed.
• Do not read the hilarious and helpful book “How to Make Yourself Miserable” by Dan Greenburg with Marcia Jacobs.

I hope none of my other photos make you miserable, here and now.

 

Here‘s 7 Ways to Maximize Misery:

Here‘s Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now by The Smiths.

Heaven knows I’m not miserable now that I’ve written today’s daily blog.  Thanks to all who helped me create this post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2168: What the hell happened?

What the hell!  Did anybody else have a week where you asked yourself,

“What the hell happened?”

When you’re talking to somebody on the phone and they’re suddenly not there, do you ask yourself, “What the hell happened?  Did they hang up on me?  Was it something I said? Are they angry? Did their phone lose power? Is the signal week?  Should I call back? Are they calling me back?”

What the hell happened  in these photos?

What the hell happened in the first photo above and the last one?  First photo: We did a mindfulness exercise in a therapy group last week where we focused on a piece of paper we crumpled  and then unfolded. Last photo: a group calling themselves “Gym Class” performed Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” at an open mic last night.

What the hell happened last night when I debuted my latest original song, “I Left the House Before I Felt Ready” at that same open mic?   See for yourself:

What the hell do you think will happen if you leave a comment?

What the hell happens at the end of my blog posts?

 

Day 1937: What could go right?

In therapy lately, several people have decided to ask themselves “What could go right?” instead of consistently focusing on what could go wrong.

I’m pulling for everyone to have success in this valiant effort to change habitually negative thinking.  Would you like to follow us and redirect your thoughts from what could go wrong to what could go right?

What could go right, here and now?

These photos could go right.

 

For those of us who think about what could go wrong when we can’t fall asleep, it’s a relief to focus on what could go right.

There are endless YouTube videos about what could go wrong and this one about what could go right:

 

Gratitude for those who help me create these daily blog posts and  for you — of course! — always goes right.