Just a little more than usual
Probably won’t happen today. I did have 14000+ steps on Saturday, when it was still hospitable for humans to be outdoors. So I’m gonna count that as having some in the bank… 🙂
Had a “feels like” temp of 116 here yesterday. More of the same today. And tomorrow.
Kudos to all who get it done today.
I had written and was ready to publish a whole post offering up various ideas and suggestions but decided to nix that, given that I quickly headed into the weeds and water that was over my head. I started to wonder if “negative thoughts” gave license to tackle the topic of depression and decided this was a bridge too far, outside the bounds of a reasonable and responsible treatment of a topic with which I am not that familiar.
So, I will treat this prompt from the perspective of someone who understands “negative thoughts” to be of a more garden variety that looks like anger and frustration– with oneself or with the state of affairs in this country or the world.
Explore these thoughts, recognize an overreaction when you see one, take a walk or run, exercise, help someone, work them out on paper or in a blog post, talk them through with a friend or a therapist. Or make a rational attempt to work through an issue with the person who may have caused the negativity in the first place.
You could just ignore these thoughts, because we all have a bad day every now and then, and given the current state of world affairs, we’re allowed to be a bit sour or angry on occasion.
But an unrelenting cloud of negativity is never a good thing, so it helps to have trusted friends, support, someone who can offer a healthy perspective and some light to counter the darkness, along with the recognition that a constructive response helps lighten the load and disappear the sometimes self-imposed frown.
And now I realize I’m touching on depression, anyway.
Getting up early, going to bed early, being left alone with my thoughts, having less guilt over being idle; working in the yard and tending to the lawn and gardens; broccoli, beets, and chickpeas– but only after they’ve been turned into hummus (the chickpeas, that is).
Pete Buttigieg. He’s smart, and likely capable of keeping us grounded in reality.
The one movie that has left the greatest long-term impression is Selma, because it drove home the idea that life isn’t a take it or leave it thing. Yes, we do have a say in whether or not we engage or disengage, whether we dive in or just dismiss any sense of obligation. But this movie made it much more difficult to treat life with a certain cavalier disinterest.
A book that changed the way I view the world is Sapiens, by Juval Noah Harari. Among other things, it has clouded my understanding of religious faith, which is no insignificant development.
Just English. I took Spanish and French in high school, learned a bit of Swedish in college, and did what I could with Greek in seminary, but I became proficient in none of those.
Knowing English has been enough to carry me through life, but being able to converse in something other than one’s native tongue has always seemed like a great achievement to me. Anyone who is multilingual has my respect, especially those who come to this country and have to learn English on the fly.
Look around you, listen and learn. Take a break from the electronics— on a regular basis. Step away from that noise. The world isn’t necessarily as you view it in a TikTok video, or whatever the current worldwide delivery system has to offer.
Don’t listen to the naysayers, and take with a grain of salt whatever a bully might be able to summon in the way of insults and caustic remarks. Seek out a trusted friend or two— there’s nothing wrong with a small circle of friends. You don’t have to be everybody’s buddy.
Learn patience, be kind. If you’re looking for a religious community, seek out one that isn’t afraid of questions and doubts, one that’s intentional about being engaged and relieving suffering, one that indeed welcomes all and doesn’t claim inerrancy as a selling point.
Know that this earthly life can take a toll on us all, that no one is close to being perfect, and most of us are looking for love, maybe even redemption.
Don’t know as I’m the one to ask about that. It seems that it might begin with one’s own dreams and aspirations, with one’s sitz im leben, or setting in life.
Does a person possess a certain indomitable spirit that allows them to rise above what could be viewed as a lack of opportunity? Do they set their sights high and refuse failure as an option? Do they catch a break every now and then? Do they have people who support them along the way?
And how do they themselves define success?
I guess my only tip is to avoid defining it too narrowly, as if the only success that matters is of a financial nature, or status-oriented. It seems it’s easy to linger in that shallow water.
In some ways, this dynamic already presents itself as a function of my age and all the water under the bridge. I might pick up To Kill a Mockingbird, or watch Dances with Wolves or Castaway or M*A*S*H and experience them differently because my perceptions and understandings have been influenced and shaped along the way.
For the sake of this prompt, I think I’d like to experience The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 movie, for the first time.
I suppose the classic assumption that money or power bring happiness, when maybe it’s more about having enough to provide food, clothing, and shelter, along with enjoying a certain level of respect and appreciation.
It seems to me that happiness of a basic sort means having needs met, feeling loved and supported.
I find it hard to believe that the lifestyles of the rich and famous can automatically be equated with being happy. Yes, I’d rather have money than not have it, but at some point working for a living can turn into an endless pursuit, where people lose sight of what it means to simply have enough.
3 Cents' 