Tag: gifts

Saturday’s Soliloquies

“Years ago, someone said that I was a character actor locked in a leading man’s body. I thought that was a wonderful compliment.” – Tom Skerritt

+ I’ve mentioned the Daily Sparkles book on the blog before. Yesterday, one of the “daily sparkles” was: “Someone complimenting you in a way that makes you feel seen.” I had just read the actor Tom Skerritt’s obituary and his quote above, put me in mind of what this daily sparkle really means. Obviously, that particular compliment meant so much to Tom Skerritt that he never forgot it. He repeated it in interviews. It’s easy to say, “Cute outfit” or “You’re funny” and no one hates to get any compliments, but a really well thought-out, genuine compliment about what makes someone unique and special and makes them stand out – that kind of a compliment will be one that a person will keep for a lifetime. What a gift!

+ The other day I used Claude (AI) to format pictures on to a sheet of paper. I wanted four photos to be on the same page. At first, I went to Word to try to format it, but then it dawned on me to try to use Claude for the task. Claude did it in less than a minute, perfectly. I was telling my kids about this, and my one son seemed genuinely shocked that I managed to do this. “Good job, Mom,” he said with a noticeable tinge of shock and awe in his voice. “Why are you surprised?” I snapped back, feeling a little bit annoyed and patronized, but then I thought about the many, many times as my kids have grown up, how utterly impressed (and sometimes even surprised) I am to see them easily navigate tasks like getting car loans, setting up overseas travel, and even managing to put their laundry away neatly. I suppose all generations have a little bit of smugness about our own “special” abilities and wisdom, and we sometimes get antonished to see that there is a lot of crossover in the territory of being humans. Another Tom Skerritt quote seems apropos to this point: “I’m not a big star in Hollywood. I’m not a big star anywhere. I’m a human.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday – Funday

A wise person once said to me, “You don’t go to the gym, see a totally fit, “stacked” person and say to yourself, Hmmm, I wonder why they are here? They are already totally fit.”

When you see the totally fit person at the gym, you inherently realize that they are there at the gym to maintain their body’s strength and flexibility. They got fit at the gym, and they stay fit by regularly going there to work out. Their body’s strength and flexibility and health are a priority to them, and this is shown by their actions.

My hairstylist is 60 and I have been going to get my hair done by her for almost a decade. Since I’ve known her she has always been thin and svelte. Even during the pandemic, she kept her weight steady. My hairstylist also has to stay on a gluten-free diet for her digestive health, and she told me once that it really bothers her that people assume that she is thin only because she is on the gluten-free diet. She works hard at maintaining her weight, and her health, and it “irks” her that people think that she just lucked into her long-lasting body type.

Whatever you admire about a person – their relationships, their career, their style, their health, their knowledge, etc., most likely did not come easy. Even if the natural, raw talents and abilities were there, it is difficult to grow, and to maintain these gifts. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but the facts are, people live their priorities. It’s insulting to someone to treat their best attributes, assets, and gifts as only lucky breaks, which just happened to easily and randomly fall upon them, out of the clouds, and then magically stay there, without any effort on the lucky person’s part. When you see the admirable “finished product” of success, health, happiness, you don’t see all of the “behind the scenes” of blood, sweat, and tears, research, desire, tough decisions, and prioritizing that it took to get there, and then also, to keep it.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Full Bloom

I had my annual physical yesterday and my doctor has a wipe board in her waiting room. One of her staff wrote this quote on the board in fancy letters:

“Be Patient with yourself. Nothing in nature blooms all year.”

I thought that was such a nice reminder. We are such tough task masters on ourselves. Also, sometimes I think that the qualities about ourselves that we take for granted, other people marvel about. I know that I am so impressed with people who really think ahead and seem to be so prepared for anything, like good scouts. Another quality that I just marvel at, is people who can pack up a suitcase or trunk of a car, so it fits about eight times the amount of stuff you think should be able to fit in there. I love people who put you at ease right away and make you feel like you have known them since you were born. The point that I’m trying to make is that we all have some really special traits, beyond our obvious talents that we use to define ourselves, such as art or music or sewing or number crunching. Just because it seems easy and innate to us, doesn’t make it any less special. Our gifts are the gifts that we share with the world, that in turn, makes the whole world move in symbiosis.

So please today, know that you are special, needed, and gifted, even when you are not in full bloom.