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.

Monday-Funday

Good morning. I afforded myself the luxury of sleeping in a little – something I rarely do on a Monday. My daughter also brought home a gigantic slice of peanut butter pie (a top favorite of mine) from her work last night, and I have already eaten several bites of it. I think that I am feeling a tad rebellious against typical manic Mondays today. And it’s delicious.

The picture above is “Sassenach”, a Valais sheep. (On an aside, anyone who has ever watched Outlander knows that Jamie lovingly calls his wife Claire, “Sassenach”. However, “Sassenach” is typically a derogatory term for English people, used by the Scots and the Irish. It’s all in the tone you say it in, I suppose.) I have a feeling that this gorgeous sheep is also more lovingly called “Sassenach” because he lives at the lovely Arnbeg Farmstay in Scotland. The Arnbeg Farmstay is on my bucket list. It is a bed and breakfast on a working sheep farm in Scotland. Here is their website:

Until I see this beautiful farm in person, I lap up their posts on Twitter. And as a Monday bonus, here’s another wonderful picture of Valais sheep (I don’t believe that these particular sheep live in Arnbeg). Is there anything cuter?!

Rebel a little this Monday. You won’t regret it.

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

Monday-Funday

Years ago, I got a lot of giggles from a little cartoon called “Making Fiends.” The show featured two little elementary school girls who couldn’t be more opposite in their inherent natures. Charlotte was an overly bubbly, perfectly happy, “Pollyanna” type who was absolutely oblivious to any negativity, and Vendetta was an evil, cranky, manipulative, angry little witch who created havoc wherever she went. For some reason this show just tickled me. I think that this is because on any given day, I could relate to either one of them, at some level. Today when I was looking up memes for my Monday blog post I found one that Charlotte would have posted:

And then I found one that Vendetta would have posted:

If you need a little goofiness in your day, here’s a little “Making Fiends” short to enjoy:

See you tomorrow, fiends (I mean, friends)!

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

Monday – Funday

I love our dogs. I mean, I adore our dogs. But Josie, our collie causes more fur-formed tumbleweeds than a major storm in the Mojave Desert. And our dogs can’t look out our glass sliders (which form most of the back of our house) without making absolutely sure to having their sloppy wet noses touch the glass. (And of course, our dogs are all three different heights: small, medium, and large) The bottom half of our sliders are translucent to opaque, on a regular basis.

My youngest son questions everything in life. (I wonder where he gets that from. Hmmm.) He once said, “I love our dogs as much as any of us do, but don’t you think it is kind of weird that humankind has evolved to have animals living with us, in our houses? I mean, does it seem a little strange?” (Despite agreeing with him, we all kissed the dogs and ignored our son the rest of the day. 😉 )

Bottom line is, I love my dogs and I love Oreos. They are worth the never-ending cycle of cleaning up after them. Have a great week!

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

Monday – Funday

I read an interesting article by Alan Cohen the other day. The article was talking about how there are easier ways to say “no.” The article suggested that instead of mustering up the courage to say “no” to things that we don’t want to do, we often subconsciously self-sabotage ourselves with accidents, or with other undermining behaviors towards our own selves. Sometimes pains and illnesses occur in our bodies, seemingly out of nowhere, that stop us doing from what we don’t want to do.

We don’t need to punish ourselves for our “nos”. There are easier ways to say “no” than hurting ourselves. Where do you need to be an advocate for yourself? Can you find some clues to this question in your body, or in your dreams, or in repeated negative patterns that keep occurring in your life? Be a detective about yourself. You may be surprised with the answers that you may find.

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

Monday – Funday

Credit: @thewitchbrmclst, Twitter

There is a funny thread trending on Twitter this morning. It starts with “#InThe80sNoOneSaid” and here are some chuckle-worthy, relatable answers:

“In the ’80s you never called someone on the phone and then asked “where are you”

“I’m going to sleep in on Saturdays and watch my cartoons on streaming later. You woke up for those Saturday morning cartoons or you didn’t see them!”

“Is this too much hairspray?”

“Put on a helmet.”

How safe are those jarts/lawn darts for kids really?

Damn, left my phone on the roof…

“I’ll have a Venti Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte, please.”

“what’s the WiFi password?”

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

Monday – Funday

Credit: @woofknight, Twitter

My adult kids and their friends were talking and laughing about their latest experiences with job recruiters the other day, so I thought that this meme was a good one to share for a Monday chortle.

I am having the same experience that I had many, many years ago, when my youngest child first went to kindergarten and I got used to a full school year of the house all to myself during the day . . . . and then summer arrived. My youngest two children are here, for this month, after many, many months of it being just my husband and I here at home. It goes without saying, that we adore our children and there are a lot of good things about having them back home with us again. But then there are sayings like “What I don’t know, can’t hurt me,” that ring true when your adult children come back to live with you.

Since starting our family, summer has always been the season of adjustment. Summer is the pausal season before autumn comes up and cranks up the regular routine once again. Some day, when all of our children are done with their secondary schooling and fully into their own adult lives, perhaps summer won’t be such a noticeable change in our lives. Despite getting a glimpse of that possibility, it turns out that my husband and I just aren’t quite ‘there’ yet. So we will soldier on . . .

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

Monday – Funday

Credit: @MindPsychology, Twitter

It feels so good to be back in my writing seat this morning! Did everyone press your reset buttons this weekend? Are you reset, renewed and rejuvenated for the year ahead? As a big picture person (Thank goodness that I’m married to a detail-oriented person. We’re yin/yang this way. I set up the plans, and my husband makes sure that we have food/gas/directions and a perfectly packed trunk), a question that I often ask myself, or I tell my friends and family to ponder, is: “What’s the endgame here? What am I ultimately trying to achieve? What’s most important for me in this endeavor?”

When you are dealing with a situation that you are frustrated with, and you are overthinking it, and you find yourself feeling annoyed, irritated, and possibly even stubborn and hopeless about it, take a few steps back. Pause and ask yourself if the thoughts that you are thinking, and the actions which you are taking, are necessary in order to bring you to the ultimate result, which you are trying to achieve. If you ultimately want peace for yourself, is it truly in your own best interest to hold on, like a dog on a bone, to your side of an argument? If you have grown enough in your career to support the overall lifestyle that makes you feel comfortable, is it still necessary to overwork/over-volunteer for things, as if you are desperately trying to climb the corporate ladder? If you want to keep climbing “the ladder” to see what level you can ultimately achieve, do you need to do more? If you can’t stand managing people, is the title of “manager” truly important for you to have on your business card? If you are tired of yard work, could you envision yourself living in a simpler condominium? You get the (big) picture . . . . What’s the endgame here? This “step-back and pause for a minute” question, helps to bring better clarity for ourselves. It shows us what our own honest priorities are in our lives. It helps us to eliminate confusion, and the “shoulds”, and rote thoughts and rote habits, which are things that have a tendency to cloud our clarity on what we ultimately want to achieve, and to feel, on a daily basis. It pulls us out of the deep-dive weed bed of too many details and compulsions.

If you have a frustration going on right now, ask yourself, “What’s the endgame here?” Once you have the end goal figured out, you can then see if your thoughts and your actions and your plans are matching up to that end goal. We all know that there are no guarantees. Life likes to throw curveballs at us here and there. But even when running in circles, it still feels better to know that we have taken clear-headed steps towards a direction of our own choosing.

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

Monday – Funday

Actually, I slept really well last night. We went to bed quite early after enjoying a full weekend of just plain, good ol’ fun. We went out of town, which helps anyone to stay in “the just fun” mode. When your house projects, and your home office, and your laundry room are not in walking distance, or staring you in the face, your only option is to relax and to enjoy. Changes of scenery are wonderful.

Yesterday morning, when we were packing to leave our hotel, a funny thing happened that nearly jump-started my heart. My husband and I were staying at an artsy, modern, boutique hotel that had minimalist decor. Our headboardless bed was sitting on a low platform, giving the whole room an Asian feel. When I was packing to leave, I did my usual “Let’s check underneath the bed to make sure that we didn’t drop anything”. I had to get way down on my haunches because the bed was low, low, low. It was then that I almost emitted out a loud, guttural scream and this was not because of the pain that I was feeling from going low, low, low. I almost screamed because I saw a limp hand lying underneath the bed. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was my own hand (I recognized the wedding rings). It turns out that the platform that the bed was sitting on was made of mirrored chrome.

If you like the picture above, check out this Russian fisherman’s Instagram below. He takes pictures of the ugliest catches he has ever brought out of the ocean. These creatures make the World’s Ugliest Dogs look like show dogs.

https://www.instagram.com/rfedortsov_official_account/

Have a great week, friends! (if you want to)

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