Day 3541: Peace

Peace to you, dear readers, on this precious day. Let’s start this Peace piece with a definition and some quotes.

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Can you find peace in any of my images for today?

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Here’s “Peace Piece” by Bill Evans.

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Peace and thanks to everyone, including YOU.

Day 3411: Feet

Feet are on my mind this morning because I love to walk and I’ve been having some pain in my feet.

I wonder if my feet will take me to a doctor before taking me on to a plane this Monday to fly my feet and the rest of me to Portland, Oregon.

Yesterday, I was on my feet while I was capturing these images:

I don’t know if my feet will let me celebrate Dance Like a Chicken Day, since I have been groaning after putting on my shoes, just like the Daily Bitch.

This was what my ears were listening to yesterday when I started worrying about my feet:

Before my feet lead me into this beautiful day, thanks to all who help me take the steps to create this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 3238: What’s something you’re looking forward to?

Last night, when I was looking forward to my last day of work before my vacation, I posted this on Twitter:

I’m looking forward to facilitating a therapy group today and going to New York City on Monday with my son Aaron. I’m also looking forward to seeing the Sondheim musical Company and Late Night with Stephen Colbert in NYC.

I’m looking forward to sharing these images with you today.

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Now I’m looking forward to pizza and chicken soup for the soul. What’s something you’re looking forward to?

I found this when I searched YouTube for “what’s something you’re looking forward to”:

I look forward to a day when I don’t worry so much about grammar.

I’m looking forward to your comment about this post!

I hope you look forward to my gratitude, because I really appreciate YOU!

Day 3161: Just because

Just because I’m on vacation, I’m just taking my time, just relaxing, and just capturing images like these:

Just because I just took this video on National Just Because Day, I’m going to share it with you.

Just because I love Pat Metheny, I’m going to share this tune I was listening to yesterday.

Just because I created this blog post, I feel ready for the day ahead.

Just because I love to hear from you, please consider leaving a comment, below.

I always end these posts with gratitude, jus because.

Day 3160: How not to be wrong

How not to be wrong starting a blog post? I’m just repeating today’s title and letting it flow from there.

“How Not to Be Wrong” is one of the books I’m reading/not reading on my two-week vacation from work.

Personally, I think I spend too much time thinking about how not to be wrong, which can inhibit what I say and do. These days, I’m embracing mistakes as learning experiences and spending less time worrying about the consequences of being wrong.

Granted, it’s very important for us not to be wrong about our health and safety — for ourselves and others. For example, if I forget to take my Coumadin and if I don’t eat a consistent amount of vitamin K, my mechanical heart valve might clog and fail. So I need to think about not being wrong about THAT every day. Also, there are a lot of creatures that depend on me, so I don’t want to be wrong in such a way that jeopardizes their future.

However, I’m not wrong about knowing myself well enough to choose to focus on accepting that I WILL be wrong, every day, and that not every mistake will result in disaster.

Do you see any examples of how not to be wrong in my other images for today?

How not to be wrong on August 26, 2021 MIGHT include having a cherry popsicle, but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that women’s equality day should be every day.

By the way, usually I spend more time arranging the order of the images in my blog posts — is it wrong that today I’m not worrying about how not to be wrong in creating a good enough post for you?

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “how not to be wrong”:

How not to be wrong about guessing how much time you have to watch a video today:

How not to be wrong about sharing your thoughts and feelings about any of my blog posts? Leave a comment, below.

How not to be wrong about any interaction with other people? Express gratitude when you can.

Day 3157: Clearing your mind

Minds can get so cluttered up with fear, worry, judgment, guilt, shame, dread, distractions, self-consciousness, regrets, assumptions, cognitive distortions, other people’s behaviors and thoughts, the past, the future, and SO ON, that clearing your mind is an important skill.

I’ll be working on clearing my mind as I start my two-week vacation from work. Over-thinking is an old habit for me, so here and now I’m clearing my mind of everything except the current task, which is to create today’s blog post.

In each moment, I am taking a breath and letting go of any distractions (of which there are many).

Do any of today’s images help in clearing your mind?

As I’m clearing my mind for National Ride the Wind Day, how are you clearing your mind?

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “clearing your mind”:

I also find this:

If you do have thoughts and feelings about this clearing-your-mind post, try clearing your mind of them by leaving them in a comment, below.

Clearing my mind still leaves room for gratitude, so thanks to all who help me create this mind-clearing daily blog, including YOU!

Day 2416: Be prepared to stop

Yesterday, on the first day of my two-week vacation, I was prepared to stop and  to appreciate this sign in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA.

Be prepared to

• stop,
• look,
• listen,
• think,
• feel,
• connect,
• change,
• move on, and
• encounter lots of photos from the South and the North shores of Boston.

Be prepared to stop while you’re in the middle of creating a blog post in order to go to the dentist and then take your cat to the vet because, after all, what else should you be doing on your vacation?

Be prepared to stop, take a breath, and share the rest of your photos from yesterday:

Be prepared to stop and tell me what photos you liked best and why.

Be prepared to stop and enjoy this tune by the Zombies, stopping and appearing soon at the Cabot in Beverly.

I’m always prepared to stop and express my thanks to those who help me create these daily blog posts and to all those who read them, including you!

Day 228: Self soothing (decisions, decisions)

As I’ve blogged about previously, I tend to look at the Friday of a vacation before I return to work as … The Last Real Vacation Day.

As I’ve blogged about previously, I have trouble making decisions, some times.

So how to spend this day?

I know this: I want to focus on self-care and self-soothing.

Okay!  So now I know what question to ask.

Which self-care option should I choose, on this fine summer day?

1. Try out my new meditation chair.
2. Go for a walk, somewhere nearby.
3. Take a bath, with something I brought back with me from Edinburgh:
4. Go back to sleep.

So what’s the correct answer?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 1 and 2
6. 1 and 3
7. 1 and 4
8. 2 and 3
9. 2 and 4
10. 3 and 4
11. 1, 2, and 3
12. 1, 3 and 4
13. 2, 3, and 4
14. All of the above
15. None of the above
16. Some of the above and others not listed
17. There is no right or wrong answer

I just realized something. 17 is my lucky number.

Okay!

Thanks to self-soothers, decision-makers, mathematicians, jet-laggers, and test-takers everywhere, and to you, of course, for reading today.

Day 224: Reasons why I shouldn’t spend too much time in our hotel room blogging this morning

Reason #1:  What’s outside the room.

Edinburgh and the Festival Fringe!

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Reason #2:  What’s inside the room.

This might be yet another example of the Cognitive Distortion of mind reading, but I think this creature, which I discovered in our hotel bathroom, is trying to tell me something:

You may read something else into that expression, but I see this:

Ann!  Go out and enjoy Edinburgh, as soon as you can!

And who am I to argue with a purple duck?

Thanks for reading, everybody.

Day 214: (Small) Talk About The Weather

When I was younger, I used to think that talking about the weather was “small talk.” When people talked about the weather, I thought they were avoiding talking about something important. I had some judgment about small talk, assuming that it was the avoidance of a deeper, more authentic communication or connection.

There have been times when I’ve said, “I don’t like small talk.” And   “I’m not good at small talk.”

Lately, I’ve been wondering if there is such a thing as small talk.

The more therapy groups I do and the more I really listen to people with an open mind and heart, the more I hear in every statement.

Right now, on the morning of my last work day before my two-week vacation, as I listen to the rain outside my window, here are some random thoughts about “talking about the weather.”

• Weather is often a metaphor for how people feel.
• Weather really affects how people feel.
• When I studied English Literature in college, I remember learning about “pathetic fallacy”, which is defined here as ” a literary term for the attributing of human emotion and conduct to all aspects within nature. It is a kind of personification that is found in poetic writing when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, when dogs laugh, or when rocks seem indifferent.”
• The weather is something that a lot of experts have been talking about lately, with different amounts of concern and fear about the future.
• When I talk to people about their emotions (especially disowned or otherwise negatively judged emotions such as anger or sadness), I use the metaphor of allowing emotions to pass through naturally, “like the weather.”*
• I have had moments of worry about what the weather will be when I travel to England and Scotland next week, because people have been telling me that area of the world has been “unseasonably warm.”

Here’s what I’m thinking, right now, as I’m readying to wrap up this post, so I can go into work and wrap up some things before leaving on vacation:

It helped me to write this post, as always.

However, I think I might have written about some — if not most — of these things in previous posts.

And I’ll name this: I do have a fear of repeating myself.  I guess I fear that repeating myself will make what I am saying seem … what?   Less believable? Less important?

Sort of like small talk.

Which, as I hope I’ve demonstrated for your reading pleasure and satisfaction today, does not exist.

And even if “less important” communications do exist,  just wait.  They will pass through —  just like the weather — soon to be replaced by the next big thing.

Let’s see if I can find a photo I’ve taken this year, to illustrate this post …

That’s a photo I took, a few months ago, when I did my last (small) bit of traveling. (Knowing me, I probably had some moments of worry about the weather for that trip, too.)

Okay!  Thanks for reading everything small, or big, I wrote today.

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*  Thanks to my friend Carol and her friend Eric for talkin’ ’bout this metaphor.