Day 3666: I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, etc.

I’m good enough, I’m smart enough to remember Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley character from Saturday Night Live.

Stuart, who was not a licensed therapist (unlike me) often said “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

Yesterday, I was good enough and smart enough to talk to another licensed therapist about Stuart Smalley and that catchphrase. In EMDR therapy, I’ve been working on believing that I’m good enough and smart enough to trust myself, and I imagined saying those affirmations to myself and believing them.

I’m good enough, I’m smart enough to realize that even though Stuart was a character on a sketch comedy show, he is still good enough and smart enough to help others, including myself.

Are my images for today good enough and smart enough?

Thanks to all those who are good enough and smart enough to help me create this daily blog, including YOU.

Day 2554: Clouds

While I’ve been in the clouds about my December 27th wedding to Michael, I’ve also been noticing clouds, including these:

What do those clouds look like to you? Do you see

• a unicorn?
• a dragon?
• a face?
• hope?
• threats?
• something else?

What does this look like to you?

Some people have been like dark clouds in my life, and when they disappear, it IS a brighter day.

Maybe my new socks have something to say to dark clouds.

I don’t want to cloud the issue, but I actually do care. I wish to be aware of all clouds and do what’s in my power to deal with them.

Here are some quotes about clouds:

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate and those that I guard I do not love.” — William Butler Yeats

” Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.  You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” — St. Augustine

“It is better to have your heads in the clouds and know where you are … than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.” — Henry David Thoreau

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”  — Edward Abbey

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” —  John Lubbock

“Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky.  They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives.” — Roger Ebert

“Mirth is like a flash of lightening, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.” — Joseph Addison

“Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation will continue to prosper as before.” — Abraham Lincoln

“I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights, and I have to be very careful when I’m in the clouds, but it is also what I love; it is my domain, so when you love something, you don’t have fear.” —Philippe Petit

“Who cares about the clouds when we’re together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.” — Dale Evans

Do you see any clouds in these other recent photos?

It’s nice to see a squirrel in a cloud of lace.

Here‘s a song about clouds:

 

Here‘s another song that’s hovering in the clouds of this post, above:

 

If you were to comment on this post, I’d be on Cloud 9.

Now it’s time to end this post in a cloud of gratitude, so thanks and happy trails to all who help me find my way through the clouds to blog every day, including YOU.

 

 

Day 2249: Differences

As I am experiencing differences between Los Angeles and Boston and exploring similarities and differences at a group therapy conference, do you notice any differences in today’s post?

 

 

 

 

Here are some quotes about differences:

One can state, without exaggeration, that the observation of and the search for similarities and differences are the basis for all human knowledge. — Alfred Nobel

The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for differences. — Ruth Benedict

I refuse to let any man-made differences separate me from any other human beings. — Maya Angelou

Stories are the common ground that allow people to connect, despite all our defenses and all our differences. — Kate Forsyth

If you don’t acknowledge differences, it’s as bad as stereotyping or reducing someone. — Aasif Mandvi

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. — Audre Lorde

We don’t need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables — the lettuce,  the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers — to maintain their identity.  You appreciate the differences. — Jane Elliot

Talent perceives differences; genius, unity.  — William Butler Yeats

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. —  Swami Vivekenanda

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. — Marian Wright Edelman

Embrace your differences and the qualities about you that you think are weird. Eventually, they’re going to be the only things separating you from everyone else. — Sebastian Stan

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. — W.H. Auden

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives. — Mark Twain

What are your different thoughts and feelings about differences?

Here‘s a song about differences that I think about on many different days:

 

Thanks to all who make a difference, including YOU.