I can’t write much this morning. I have to go see about a tooth. It appears that there is a root canal in my future. (sigh) If my writing appears erratic this week, know that it is because I am either in horrific pain, or I am extraordinarily loopy on pain drugs. Could be interesting . . . . I hope that your week is starting out better than mine.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. —Stephen Hawking
I think that this is the big crossroads of aging versus staying youthful. If we grow into our age believing that we know everything and that we have everything all figured out, our mind becomes old and decrepit. There is no elasticity there. Our mind is stuck in its own judgmental closed capsule of fluids that are turning a decaying yellow. When we stay curmudgeonly stuck in the process of aging, we choose only to focus on things that emphasize and validate to us, what we smugly think that we already know.
A youthful mind can’t get enough. A youthful mind is curious, imaginative, creative, and full of wonder and innocence. A youthful mind constantly gets replenished in gargantuan waterfalls of inspiration and refreshed in the pools of hope and possibility.
And below is just for fun because it is Monday – Funday (and its a good reminder to remain youthful) Bugles are so underrated:
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“Career OVER. I’ve made my mark. I’m done. We were lining up for lunch. A student gives me a hug. I immediately start joking. Are you looking for an A?! Do you want a candy bar?! She looks up at me and says: You’re the reason I come to school.” (credit: @joypcoffee, Twitter)
Teachers, you are amazing. I am friends with many excellent teachers. And I can still call out the teachers by name who made a big difference in my own life and of course, I can also call out by name the teachers who made a huge difference in the lives of our four children. Teachers, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The kids in our area started school this week. It feels surreal. This will be the first time in over two decades that I won’t belong to a PTA, or have to go on a scavenger hunt to find an odd colored folder with a specific amount of pockets that doesn’t exist.
Our youngest child, our daughter, started college this summer. She is home for a couple of weeks before she heads back to her university for the fall session. She was horrified when were in a store the other day and the clerk asked her if she was doing back-to-school shopping. “I’m in college,” she declared, loud and proud, for everyone around to hear. At what age does the shift occur when we no longer want to be noticed for being older and more mature? I can’t even remember. That ship sailed a long, long time ago for me. I did feel slightly delighted (and a little embarrassed) when I was purchasing BOGO iced animal crackers and the clerk asked me if these were for school snacks. “My kids are all grown,” I admitted. “These are mature woman sneaky snacks for when sugar cravings hit.” She nodded in full understanding.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Many people think that poetry has to be serious, long, confusing, emotional, hard to understand and difficult to decipher. It’s easy to forget that Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein were also world famous poets with their fun and silly, rhymey ditties. Today’s poem is written by the Hollywood actor, Woody Harrelson. He wrote the poem on social media, to a response to an Irish mother posting a picture of her daughter Cora, remarking on Cora’s resemblance to Woody.
Oh Woody! You’re delightful!
Those who dismiss you are just being spiteful.
I’ve enjoyed your many roles over the years.
But my favorite is when you were the bartender on Cheers.
On the show you fell for a girl who shares my name.
Listening to the song you wrote for her, I may never be the same.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
credit: Just Mike, Twitter
Laughing is good. There are a lot of funny people in the world. I saw someone pose the question on Twitter the other day, “Would you rather be smart or be funny?” A lot of people responded that most funny people tend to be quite smart. “Funny” itself is kind of a cute, funny word.
I pick up our youngest child, our daughter, from her university today. After a small bout of homesickness, she came out of her shell and took her first summer session at college by storm. My one son exclaimed that his sister had done more activities this summer at college, than he had done there in all four years. Funny.
Our daughter will be home for a couple of weeks, before she heads back to school for fall session. I am excited and aware. Once a child leaves home they never come back quite the same. And this is not a bad thing. It’s fun to see the facets of your children that are glistening new aspects of themselves, which only occur when they leave the nest and really explore things on their own, with a blossoming adult outlook. This is when your relationship with your children starts to evolve into a mutual, adult relationship, and this is when we parents and children start to explore each other’s personalities, experiences, perspectives on a more level ground. We get to know each other more as “people” versus rigid, hierarchical roles. I honestly enjoy this shift. It’s surprising, interesting, and a growing moment for both of you.
As has been the case with all four of our children, I think that our daughter is most excited to reunite with our dogs. They never disappoint. Dogs never hold back their exuberant feelings of love and excitement.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
credit: Rex Masters, Twitter
I hope that everyone is staying cool and comfortable and financially solvent this summer.
The wisest thing that I have read lately is from Taylor Blake, a young woman and a Florida farmer, who has recently received some fame for videos that she has put out on social media, featuring one of her dearest pets, an emu named Emmanuel. Taylor was recently a guest on the Jimmy Fallon show. This is what she recently wrote:
“I spent years of my life hating myself and blocking my own blessings because I allowed other people’s opinions of me to rule my life. I don’t care if you don’t think I am funny. I don’t care if you don’t like me. I love me and I will continue to create content that makes ME happy. <3”
That’s all I’ve got for a Monday. Have a great week!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Over a decade ago, I talked my husband into get a pedicure with me (his one and only professional pedicure). His poor technician gained muscles and my husband went down a shoe size. This meme pricked this hint which I keep getting from the Universe, to clean out my cabinets. I have 8,364 facial products and I tend to mix them all together (I’m an amateur chemist), so I have no idea what actually works, or if any of them even do.
I was walking barefoot in the grass this morning while taking my dogs out. That is one of the most healing things that you can do for your feet, and your spirit and your heart. I read once that when ever you need to feel grounded and peaceful and comforted, walk barefoot in the grass and chant “Pachamama” which is the Incan word for “Mother Earth.” Try it. It works. Despite all of our mistakes and taking her for granted, Mother Earth does all that she can to keep us comforted and whole.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Eatinerni posted this picture with the line: “Follow me for more (great) recipes.” I love this dish. I’ve been making it since I was an early adolescent. And don’t be intimidated, it’s really easy to make. I can’t vouch for its nutritional value, however.
“We crave stability and we bore easily in it.” – Nicole LePera
I love this quote. I feel like this quote is the story of my life. I get to making things “simple-d down to nothing” any time my life feels chaotic and out-of-control, and then I start getting antsy, twiddling my thumbs, wondering how to jumpstart my mojo again. And this makes me sound like someone who can never be pleased, which is my least favorite kind of person in the world. Yuck.
I hope that we all can find our “happy medium” soon, not just individually, but in our institutions. I think that this is something that we are all desperately needing right now. The extremes are fraying our collective nerves. And it ain’t a pretty sight.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I’m sorry for the bad quality. I literally took a picture of this Tweet and put it up here. Hank Green is one of those science guys on Twitter (a Bill Nye kind of guy) who helps to explain science to us unscientific types. This is one of the first photographs from the James Webb Space Telescope. Mind blowing. So many responses to this tweet referred to “existential dread.” Sometimes I wonder if “existential dread” is actually synonymous with “egotistical dread.” OMG, what?!? We’re not the center of the Universe?! Our current drama that’s playing out is not actually all that important at all?!? I honestly don’t feel dread when I read about scientific discoveries like this. I feel peace. I like the relief and the quick change in perspective that it gives to me.
In other news, I read this profound quote the other day:
Everybody has a heart; you just have to find the location.
— “The Goldbergs,” “The New Landlord” (1949)
Playing detective to find out what is really at the heart of any matter, explains a lot. Last night, I was at a dear friend’s house, and we were trying to help another friend understand why she had quit doing one of her great passions/purposes/talents in life (something which she loves to do as much as I love to write, maybe even more, and honestly she is better at it, than I am at writing). It turns out that what was stopping her from doing her avocation was related to a great loss that she had experienced, which was closely tied to her passion project. My one caring, questioning friend helped our dear friend get to this heart of the matter, and the relief that our bereaved friend seemed to feel, coming to this realization, made me hopeful that she will resume with her passion soon again. What is near and dear to anyone’s heart is found in the tender, vulnerable parts of what matters to that person the most. And everybody has at least one thing, or at least one person, that matters to them greatly, and that is where they store most of the whole of their precious, beating heart.
On a lighter note, my second eldest son and I had a text exchange, in which we were discussing his longtime girlfriend’s upcoming birthday. My son is in medical school and if he weren’t in medical school, he probably would have been an engineer. He is a science geek. My son would adore the first part of my blog post and would already be off looking for more information on the Webb telescope without finishing the post. “Subjective” is his least favorite word. He was the kid whom I always had to remind, “DO NOT touch any buttons or levers anywhere, at any time, do you understand?” In my humble opinion, he tends to be a tad practical, and perhaps not quite sentimental enough, when it comes to getting his girlfriend gifts. So, I texted him this thought:
“I read something that you should never buy a woman something that has a cord.”
His reply:
“Hahaha Damn, I’m glad I’m not a woman then.”
And of course when I mentioned this text exchange to my antagonistic youngest son, this son went on to give plenty of examples of women who love receiving fancy curling irons and blow dryers and he reminded me of all of the women who buy power tools from him every single day. (I get it. I get it. Perhaps I should have been more direct in my communication about maybe finding something with a cord, that also may have some sentimental value, or perhaps I should learn to just butt out – something that I need to work on every single day of my life. Yes, I can be nosy. I can be bossy. My heart is usually in the right place, but still, I need to work on these attributes of mine, this I know.)
I think I’ll end this post with a word that I learned from Rex Masters on Twitter the other day. It is a Japanese word: kuchisabishii – it means the times that you are not hungry, but you eat because your mouth is lonely. My mouth is lonely a lot. In fact it’s kind of lonely right now, so I am going to sign off. See you tomorrow!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“You know you’re an adult when everything annoys you.” – an anxious panda (Twitter)
“I believe in annoyed at first sight”. – @williedontmiss (Twitter)
My husband and I have a little getaway planned this weekend for just the two of us. We need it. I think that we both have morphed into “grumpy old men” lately.
“It hit me that I’m not a snob. I’m not anti-social or emotionally unavailable. I just don’t form close bonds if the energy isn’t right for me. I use my discernment and this taught me that perfect alignment asks you to be very selective.” – Valencia (Twitter)
“The most important thing when attending any function is planning your escape.” – Dan Regan (Twitter)
“Whenever you are alone, remind yourself that God has sent everyone else away so there is only you and God.” – Rumi
We were talking to our daughter last night about her first impressions of college. She loves it. And although she still plans on being a finance major, she thinks that she may minor in Astronomy (she’s had two days of Astronomy class and she LOVES it.) And finally, the only downside of being in college that she sees so far, is that there are people everywhere and anywhere. She can never escape from people. (Yep, she definitely has our genes.)
“People cry not because they’re weak. It’s because they have been strong for too long.” – Johnny Depp
If you need a good cry, please cry. Cry. Tears are our bodies’ release valve. You’ll feel better after you cry. I always do. I consider myself to be a happy, strong person and I cry a lot.
“Sometimes miracles are just people with kind hearts.” – The Burly Monk (Twitter)
Be someone’s miracle today. Yes, you do have that power. It’s been built right into your kind heart. Many kind hearts have been my miracles over the many years of my life. I am so grateful for the walking miracles all around me.
And for self care advice:
“Don’t forget to drink water and get some sun. You’re basically a houseplant with more complicated emotions.” – Your Tango
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
