Tag: J.K. Rowling

Repository

I have found that I use this blog, much like my calendar and my daily journal, as a repository for information which I would like to easily be able to find again, should I need it. I consider my blog to be a communal bank/library and I hope that you will come back any time, for any information that may be useful and/or comforting to you. I have found the search button on the top right corner of the blog, to be surprisingly good. The above video was shared by the Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling. She did not get tested for coronavirus but she was showing signs of it, for a couple of weeks and she claimed that this technique was the most helpful tip for her, during her illness. Honestly, though, while I share this in the library of information on the blog, I hope none of us get sick enough to have to use it as a resource.

A while ago, around Christmastime, one year on the blog, I talked about the feeling of being “happily sad” or “sadly happy.” I have found that feeling to be very prevalent during this difficult time, especially as the feeling pertains to children and how this pandemic is affecting them. I read this morning that the prime minister of New Zealand, announced to children that she had added the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, on the essential workers list, and as such, they may or may not be able to do their typical duties, and she asked the children of New Zealand to please understand.

The below video was added to Twitter by a doting uncle, who said that his nephew is among the friendliest little guys on the face of the earth and even through social distancing, he extends warm greetings to perhaps just “imaginary friends.”

https://t.co/yxCepxPHyS

And of course, John Krasinski hit it out of the ball park again with another wonderful addition to his SGN (Some Good News) YouTube series:

Friends, I know it is so hard to feel like just staying home is enough, but it is honestly the best thing that we can do for everyone. Our neighbor is one of our county’s medical examiners. Last week, we shouted greetings across the road to each other, asking him what we could do to help. Without hesitation, he firmly shouted/stated, “Stay hidden. Stay home!” Today is World Health Day. Let’s honor the brave and selfless health professionals who are taking care of us, by doing our part, by being faithful to the guidelines set by the CDC. We are all just doing our best. It makes me happily sad/sadly happy to witness “our global best.”

God Bless You, Friday

My son was telling me a story about one of his science professors. She is a strict, brilliant German woman. She is currently teaching him Organic Chemistry 2. He said that the most interesting trait about her is that no matter what is going on in the class, no matter if she is in mid-discussion of a highly complicated subject or demonstrating a lab experiment, if someone sneezes in the class, she stops and says, “God bless you.” My son said that this has become such an obvious trait of hers, that he sometimes thinks that students fake sneeze on purpose, in order to get her blessing. I love that story! It clearly demonstrates the truth of the saying that what people will remember about you won’t be as much about what you said, your brilliance, your looks or your possessions, but more so, how you made them feel.

On that happy note, “God bless you, readers!!” It’s Friday, the easiest day of the week to feel blessed!!! Here at Adulting Second Half we call Friday – “Favorite Things Friday”! I typically list at least three favorite things, songs, websites, videos, books, etc. that have added positive vibes to my life and I encourage you all to do the same in the Comments section. (please feel free to Comment on anything, any time. I see the stats, I know that you are out there – I would LOVE to hear from you!) Please check out previous Friday posts for other favorites.

Today’s favorites are all quotes. I took these from a list of 77 of supposedly the world’s most popular quotes. I narrowed that list down to my favorites (at least for this Friday)! Here goes:

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
– Dr. Seuss

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
– Oscar Wilde

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
– C.S. Lewis

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
– Marilyn Monroe

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
– Albert Einstein

“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”
– Malcolm X

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
– Helen Keller

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
– J.K. Rowling

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
– Abraham Lincoln

And to end with where we started:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou

Happy Friday, friends!! God Bless You!! Thank you for blessing my life and making me feel heard, interesting, and worth your time!!

My Second Favorite L-Word

My daughter and I went to our local library yesterday. I love libraries. Ever since I was a little girl, I feel an overwhelming sense of peace, tranquility and happiness, when I am in a library. It had admittedly been a while since we had been to our library. I’m as guilty as anyone, being a victim to my own need for instant gratification and downloading books to my Kindle and even being outraged if the books don’t download correctly or fast enough. In fact, earlier in the day, before my daughter asked me to take her to the library, I had already downloaded a mystery to read, and truthfully, I was half-hearted about going to the library, until I got there, of course. Then, I didn’t want to leave.

A few years ago, our local library held an essay contest asking kids to write their visions of what libraries in the future would look like. I remember pondering that question myself, and sadly wondering if libraries would even exist anymore, at least anywhere close to the form that we have always known them. Even bookshelves are becoming passe’ and apparently are not particularly desired features of new, modern houses. Anyway, my youngest two children entered the contest. Neither of them won a prize, but I did think that my youngest son’s essay was really quite interesting. He is a very good writer and he has a vivid imagination. My son envisioned libraries in an Apocalyptic time and frankly, the essay was a bit dark. I imagined that the judges of the essays (mostly volunteer retirees) might have been a bit disturbed and maybe even concerned about our parenting style, but at the same time, they secretly may have also liked a break from reading about robots cleaning shelves and floating comfort chairs. Those items seemed to be the common theme of most of the winners. Still, what struck me about my son’s essay, is that the library was the sanctuary, the safe-place, and the only place where life was still teeming. Perhaps that is what will ensure a library’s place well into the future. Who doesn’t like a communal place of calm, a place of universal interest and learning, where we can all be together, but also in our own worlds – in peaceful gratefulness and understanding, immersed in all of the mysteries of life?

“When in doubt, go to the library.” – J.K. Rowling

“When I got my library card, that’s when my life began.” – Rita Mae Brown