Tag: Olympics

Tuesday’s Tidbits

+ If you are around my age (53) and you miss your grandparents, check out this 94-year-old “granfluencer”, Grandma Droniak. In her own words, she “slays.” https://www.tiktok.com/@grandma_droniak?lang=en And if you don’t like her outfit for the day, you can leave. (again, her words)

+ I can’t believe that I haven’t seen Inside Out 2 yet. I adored the first movie. My daughter and I have watched it together several times (and cried every time we watched it). Anyway, this chart is an excellent way to get a better idea of how to name the feeling or feelings which you are feeling. With the unofficial start to fall in my household, I am feeling a mix of ecstacy, melancholy and intrigue. (and perhaps even a little bit of surprise).

+ We’ve had a lot going on the past week or so, and so I told my husband that this weekend’s plan is taken directly from a Spanish proverb:

“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.”

+ And another great chart is below that I saw on LinkedIn. I like this comment about the chart by Sam Young (It has a “Dad joke” feel to it): “In the end, it all comes down to the human sole. Everyone needs just a little bit of heeling..”

+ I read something yesterday about the fact that as exciting as it is to watch the Olympic athletes, the performers and the presenters, the Olympics would not happen if a million different “little people” both employed and volunteers (cooks, traffic planners, towel changers, medal organizers, ticket box workers, construction workers, camera crews, launderers etc.) didn’t do their jobs properly. We are all part of the ant colony, friends and every job matters. The show does not go on when all of the pieces aren’t in play. You matter. So does everyone else.

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2719. What do you love most about where you live right now?

Living the Dream

I’m annoyed with myself, and with all of last night’s events. I went to bed early to read myself to sleep and thus, I missed watching one of the most feel-good stories of the Olympics with my husband: The outcome of the Men’s 1500m Race. I was woken up several times in the night, once with my husband coming to bed, giddy about what he had just witnessed in Olympics history, then around 12:30 a.m. when I heard a door opening and shutting in my house (my middle son had been at our youngest son’s apartment helping him put together a 1000 piece bedroom dresser, and then decided to come back here – thankfully he texted me that the mystery door noise was him, and not an intruder. My husband slept through that disturbance.) And then, around 4 a.m. our collie, Josie, started panting and pacing, and so I put on my grumpy pants, and I took her out into the humid darkness to do her thing. (My husband and my son slept through that wake-up call, as well.) Why do we mothers hear all of the noises and distress calls of the night? Is it primal from the days when we were waking up with our babies on the hour? I’ve retired from raising children. Shouldn’t my internal alarm system be set to “off”, now? Sigh. Enough rant, back to the feel-good story:

For the first time in 112 years, two American men were on the podium for the 1500m race. This was entirely unexpected. The favorite runners to win were a Norwegian and a Brit who had apparently been trash talking each other all week. Cole Hocker, an American runner from Indiana won the gold medal and broke an Olympic record, and his teammate, Yared Nuguse from Kentucky won the bronze. (Britain’s Josh Kerr came in second.) I watched a few interviews with the young American men/medalists, and both talked about how it was actually good to be “under the radar”. They believed that they were every bit as good as the other lauded runners, and they stated that this belief in themselves is vital because long distance running is largely a mental game. According to these athletes, if you are at your physical peak, the hardest part of it all, is the mental game. Yared stated that towards the end of the race, he just repeats to himself, “Stick with it. Stick with it.”

Yared Nuguse is a first generation American. His parents were political refugees from Ethiopia and became American citizens in the 1980s. As I was lapping up all of the background stories on these runners, I ended up on a runners’ site on Reddit. This exchanged really moved me:

Did any other immigrants to the USA get emotional when the camera flashed to Nuguse parents crying? Maybe it was just me, but I felt immigrant tears of joy…it probably took A LOT to get to the USA, and now to win a medal for this country…only other immigrants would understand the depth of their tears… (tcumber)

I’ve been following Nuguse since his NCAA years. Extremely happy for him (and Cole). It would have been one thing to win an Olympic bronze in a slow race because of some fluke, but to PB in a race that sets the Olympic record shows he left it all on the track. He’s already one of the top 5 milers of all time, but he’s now also the 9th fastest 1500m runner all time, and looks like he could go faster. (DomDeLaweeze)

He made our entire ethiopian household proud. My mom choked up when they panned to his mom. (Besk123)

Yes!..because your mom is probably intimately aware of the struggle and sacrifice to get here, and to see what can happen in this country with just ONE GENERATION.

THIS is the American Dream we all came for, and are willing to work so hard to attain…a better life not only for ourselves, but for our families.

I shed happy tears with them because I understood…many of us understand. It is more than winning a bronze medal. It is understanding where they started, how hard they all worked, and where they are all now….in Paris…at the Olympics…watching their son do so well. He could have finished last…there is still pride that he got there and did his best…but he won a bronze.. Oh my….

Sigh…someone just cut some onions beside me….(tcumber)

When I read that, I must have been cutting onions. I write this with a lump in my throat. With all of the negative, divisive political hoopla swirling around us these days, we must remember what really makes us great. We are a nation of Native Americans, who are only just recently getting the recognition which they wholly deserve for their reverence and caretaking of our beautiful land for generations and generations, and then of waves and waves of immigrants (some brought here against their will during the horrible scourge of slavery). Regardless of our beginnings, all of us here have been chasing the American Dream in one form or another, and attaining it, again and again and again. . . . . . My belief is that the best of us Americans, in this vast country, understand this incredible, vast, realizable potential for ourselves, and for our fellow citizens. The best of us fly under the radar, but continue to make sure that the American Dream continues to flourish. The majority of Americans know that it is a mental game to live a Dream. The majority of Americans, all persevere in our lives and in our beliefs, knowing that the key to realizing the Dream is to “Stick with it. Stick with it. Stick with it . . . .”

Stick with it.

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

407. Has anyone ever approached you thinking you were someone else?

Nerdy Friday

Happy Friday!!! Happy August!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!! On Fridays on the blog, I talk about my favorite stuff in life. On Fridays, I try to get out of my otherthinking mode and into my “Let’s Play and have Fun!” mode. My favorite for this week just has to be America’s Olympics gymnastic teams. Watch any interview with Steve Nedoroscik, a.k.a. pommel horse guy, and you will remind yourself that nerds really do rule. Steve is so genuinely himself, and likable, and he deserves every second of attention that he has been receiving. And overall, look at the diversity of our wonderful gymnasts!! No other country’s teams have the beautiful rainbow of diversity that ours do, and despite all of the infighting and work which we still need to do to achieve equality for all, DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH. I love the Olympics because they show the best about each of our various countries. They remind us all to be patriotic and proud and united again, no matter where we come from in this world.

Okay, I do have a bonus favorite. I love plumcots. Plumcots are a hybrid of plums and apricots and so they are sweet and tasty and still juicy like plums, and yet also, they have a firmer consistency, so they are not as messy to eat as traditional plums. They are delicious! Diversity is their strength.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends. Our middle son and his girlfriend and their adorable dog are coming for a visit this week and I can’t wait. One of the beautiful things about all four of our kids being all grown up is that we get more concentrated one-on-one time with each of them, than we ever were able to have with them when they were younger. We tried, but having four little kids with four crazy schedules, made one-on-one time, a rare special treat. It is a real joy to get to know the adult version of each of your beautiful children in a more relaxed, open, focused, curious way than when you responsible for getting all of them ready to launch, all at once.

See you tomorrow!

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

536. If you could take a street sign or sign from anywhere, what sign would you want?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. I’m a little late with today’s post because I got waylaid on this website:

https://www.teamusa.com/athletes

I was lead there when reading an article about the sport, “breaking”. (some of us oldies may remember this as “breakdancing”. Its name has been shortened to “breaking” IYKYK) Anyway, that site listed above, gives a list of all of the sports being represented at the Olympics, and all of our American athletes competing in those sports. Athletes perform beautiful poetry with their bodies, don’t they?

Back to poetry with words, as Sunday is devoted to poetry on the blog: Recently, I was reintroduced to the poetry of Nikita Gill. Nikita Gill is a living poet and she stirs up words into pure poetic magic. Here is a taste of one of her poems:

May today be a poetic day for all of us. What makes life poetic? One of the definitions in the dictionary of poetry is this: “a quality of beauty and intensity of emotion.” Don’t be afraid of your intensity of emotion. Use it to make poetry in your life. Find an outlet for your intensity of emotions. Our Olympians use that intensity to make magic with their bodies. Poets use that intensity to write their words. Artists use that intensity to create tangible beauty. Your intensity and beauty needs an outlet. Find that outlet for your own unique beauty and intensity of emotion, to uplift yourself, and thus, all of the world we share.

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2508. Do you think morals are universal, or relative?

Olympic Friday

Hi friends!!! Happy Friday!! Happy Best Day of the Week!!! I just took a quiz asking, “How many gold medals has the United States won in the history of the Olympics?” Like any true, proud, optimistic, ethnocentric American I picked B. 3012, which was the largest number out of the three choices. It turns out a majority of us true, proud, optimistic, ethnocentric Americans also chose the same answer. We chose wrong. The true answer is 1179 gold medals (still, not too shabby).

My regular readers know that Fridays on the blog are devoted to my favorite things. What’s not to love about our stuff? We wouldn’t be true, proud, optimistic, ethnocentric Americans if we didn’t love our stuff. But before I get to my favorite for today, I wanted to give you a bonus mental health trick. We are in sticky, political times. These times tend to bring up edgy, political conversations. We’ve learned with certain people in our lives, who hold different views than us, it is best to just say, “Let’s drop the conversation.” And deep down, if you are both reasonable people who care about the health of your relationship above all else, you take this wise direction. Did you know that you can use that statement with yourself? Say you are in a mental tizzy, beating yourself up for something that you did, or something that you forgot to do, or you are just worked up about your life in general, and your mind is going over and over and over it, like a broken record, you can use the same line on yourself. “Let’s drop the conversation.” And then once you do that, force yourself to be mindful by counting your breaths, or noticing one of your senses, like what you are currently hearing. Treat your monkey mind like your annoying acquaintance who won’t let something go. Train yourself to use, “Let’s drop the conversation.” Your wisest self knows this is for the best for the overall health of your relationship with yourself.

Okay back to stuff: Earlier this summer, when I was in London, I went to the Lush flagship store. Now, not being a big fan of shopping malls, I erroneously assumed that this Lush store was the only one in existence. I excitedly texted my daughter to meet me in this amazing, interesting, one-of-a-kind store, to which she answered, “Mom, we have Lush at the mall.” (This world has gotten so global.) That turned out to be a good thing, because you probably have Lush at your own mall and if not, you can get their products online. The product which I am in love with from Lush is BIG Shampoo. Having fine hair can be such a curse, but this BIG shampoo adds volume to my hair like no other product that I have tried before it. The secret of this shampoo is big chunks of sea salt that give it an interesting, admittedly “hard to get used to” texture, but the results are worth the adjustment. You can buy it in all different sizes and even get free samples at the store, so give it a try. Let’s bring Big Hair Back, 80s Ladies!!

Have a great weekend, friends!!! See you tomorrow!!

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2940. Are you holding a grudge against someone or something? If so, what?

We All Fall Down

“We see these athletes do superhuman things. They are still just human.” – Adam Rippon (discussing Simone Biles, choosing to pull out of the Olympics gymnastics finals)

“As much as I’m disappointed, I know that when I step on the track I represent not only myself, I represent a community that has shown great support, great love … I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.” She added, for her fans, “Don’t judge me. I’m human, I’m you. I just run a little faster.” – Sha’Carri Richardson, runner who was disqualified for the Olympics due to failing a test for marijuana in her system

“I know it might not make sense that someone who writes for a living, literally, could find herself so unable to say what needed to be said. But that’s the truth. I was wounded, & I waited too long.” – Best-selling Christian author Shauna Niequist, answering critics as to why it took her a long time to speak out about her father having to step down from a Chicago mega-church, due to many allegations of sexual improprieties

Shauna is human, too. We are all human. That doesn’t excuse or explain away our mistakes. Most of us ended up paying some sort of consequences for our mistakes. And the truth is, most of us are so much harder on our own selves than anyone else is, when we disappoint ourselves and we disappoint others, by not living up to the standards which we have created for ourselves. Mistakes are part of being human. Imperfections are part of being human. Falling down sometimes is part of being human. Not living up to our own, or to others’ expectations all of the time, is just one part of our being human.

Not being able to finish the Olympics, dashing the hopes of yourself and so many others, or not being able to even attend the Olympics and represent your country, due to an emotional slip-up, or being a wordsmith and yet not being able to find the right words to say about your father (and pastor) being publicly disgraced by his own egregious misdeeds, are all tough, “on display” events that most of us will never, ever, even come close to experiencing. The old saying goes, “The higher you climb, the harder you fall.” The most amazingly talented people among us, have put fear aside, to see how far they can climb with their passions and their abilities and their aspirations and their strengths and their powers, and we are so inspired by them. Yet we also put them on these gilded pedestals, as if they are emotionless statues of perfection. Still at the same time, how quick we are to judge these colossally talented people, and to deride them when they fall down from their great heights, and lie broken. We forgot that they were never statues. They are humans.

Perhaps it is easier for us to see wildly successful people as other-worldly superheroes. “I’m not that talented. I could never do that.” “He was born with all of that ability. It’s easy for him.” “She had a leg up. She’s naturally beautiful, or a genius, or from a rich family.” Schadenfreude is the German word for pleasure felt when someone else experiences misfortune. Don’t worry or be ashamed about having felt schadenfreude. Everyone has felt schadenfreude one time or another. It’s only human to do so. Sadly, we most often feel schadenfreude towards those who have roused us to our own great heights, by being amazing examples of all that humans are capable of doing and of being.

Perhaps what we are mostly upset about when someone doesn’t live up to “the hype”, is the very real reminder that we are all human, even those humans among us who seem more like other-worldly superhumans. Maybe that scares us or disappoints us about ourselves. Maybe when the mighty fall, we have to come to the realization that perhaps we ourselves are just too scared to test the heights of our own strengths and powers. When we see that someone is human, by having fallen down, we also realize that it was this very same human who did some incredibly amazing and difficult achievements, in the first place.

We will all fall down at times, and we will rise again. It’s the human in us. We all have our own unique abilities that we get inspired to explore, and to grow, and to hone, because of the others who have shown us the way, by making the utmost of their own special skills and talents and gifts. As humans, we have a choice, we can sneer at the fallen, or we can offer a hand of compassion, to pull them back up. Our deepest shared humanity is always inclined to extend a hand.

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