Tag: twitter

Repository

https://youtu.be/HwLzAdriec0

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.”

Arbitrary Reflections

Random thoughts of mine, on a rainy Monday during the coronavirus shutdown:

+Coronavirus is still brand new enough of a word that WordPress underlines it, as if it’s a misspelled word. I really wish that was all that coronavirus is – just a misspelled word. If only we could correct coronavirus, by spelling it differently.

+Three of my immediate family members have celebrated birthdays during this quarantine. Everyone has had the same response along with their well wishes, “This is a birthday that you will never forget!” We keep reminding our kids that they will be telling their grandchildren about these days, many years into the future.

+As a person who leans more towards being an introvert, my lifestyle hasn’t changed all that drastically. I just more hate having the constant underlying anxiety and the psychological toll that a lack of freedom, takes on me. As a person who also leans towards a lot of empathy, my heart hurts a lot, for my more extroverted family and friends, who have had so many plans and experiences stolen from them, from this awful scourge.

+I have an old burnt down candle that is one of my favorite aromas. I keep it on my desk and I smell it every morning, to make sure that I still have a good sense of smell. I like the reassurance and the false sense of security that this routine gives to me, along with imbibing zinc, echinacea, Vitamin C, tonic water (has quinine in it, which is considered anti-malarial) and my Green Vibrance. The “old wife” from “old wives’ tales” notoriety, comes out of me, hard, in times like these.

+My energy levels have dropped significantly. I can’t even seem to get myself to write my daily journal. Sometimes I just write “Quarantine Life” in big block letters on the day’s page in my journal. In Florida, a lot of cars have “Salt Life” stickers on their rear windows. Will they start making “Quarantine Life” stickers?

+There are a lot of really funny people (even if they aren’t great spellers) on Twitter, if you find the right hashtag. One of the funniest threads I saw over the weekend was #TerribleQuaratineAdvice, with quarantine spelled incorrectly. Some funny responses:

Speak openly and honestly with everyone who you are quarantined with.

When heading to the bank, wear a ski mask for protection.

Everyone should switch to a bean-based diet.

What you can’t see, can’t hurt you. Instead of a mask, wear a blindfold.

Play a hashtag game on Twitter, with obvious spelling mistakes.

Enjoy another day of Quarantine Life, friends and readers! I’ll see you tomorrow. Stay well!!!

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What I am Learning

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This is from Twitter, with “What I am Learning in Quarantine” trending right now.

Here are some of my favorite answers from the thread:

+How easy it is to practice social distancing from a scale

+My procrastination skills are more expert than I thought they were

+Being a homebody saves money

+I now use my phone to find out what day it is

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+Pets really do make the best coworkers

+That teachers are not paid enough

+How to use the least amount of toilet paper as humanly possible

+I’m not very good at social distancing from the refrigerator

+I love eating more than I love cooking

+I miss my kids being toddlers, learned no one ever . . . .

+It’s easy to take the simple things for granted

For me, I’ve learned that I think that I might actually be enjoying this forced, “no guilt” slowing down of my life. I feel incredibly grateful for my family and for our health and I’ve learned the fact that we still live together, pretty peacefully, in close quarters, despite all of the kids being grown up and having lived on their own. I am grateful for the ability to Face Time our eldest son in New Jersey and I am grateful to have learned that he is a wise, careful, conscientious young man, with cabinets full of beans and dry goods. I’ve learned that he can take very good care of himself. I’ve learned that I’m more grateful for the ability to text friends and family than I ever realized. I love the instant ability to connect and to laugh and to cry about this situation at the same time, together, even while we’re apart. I’ve learned that my dogs and other people’s dogs are the best entertainers/therapists/company/exercise physiologists/huggers/intuitives on the face of the earth and I love them even more than I did before. I’ve learned that nature is a meditation unto itself and there is nothing more beautiful than the wildness of our Earth and its creatures and it’s a renewing treasure that has been given to all of us, for free. I’ve learned that doctors and nurses have a level of bravery and a stoicism that is almost unfathomable. I’ve learned that I feel grateful that there are people out there with the inclination to want to lead and to manage our communities, and our states and our countries and to try to discern and to make the best decisions for everyone. I’ve learned that I have more compassion and less contempt for our leaders through all of this. They’ve taken on “Mission Impossible” with a great deal of energy and courage and hope. I’ve learned that if I let myself feel all of my feelings and I try not to judge them, they flow through me, in a very fluid way. Sad doesn’t stay at sad. And anger is good at burning itself out pretty quickly. I’ve learned that at my very core, there is a serene peace and acceptance that inherently knows that everything is alright. Despite all of the outer turmoil, and fear and uncertainty, we are all okay and we are all going to be just fine.

Fortune for the Day -“When you possess light within, you see it externally.” – Anais Lin

Bring in the Clowns

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This was trending on Twitter this morning. I did read about a married couple who were stuck on the Princess cruise ship, who said that the experience of being quarantined, definitely brought the spice back into their relationship. If you need some good laughs, through this otherwise “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad” experience check out #WithEverythingSuspended on Twitter. It will give you some much needed giggles, such as this one:

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Hang tight, friends. Stay well. I’ll be here for you. I’m not going anywhere. Literally.

Fortune for the Day – “Don’t search for the answers. Live the questions.” – Rilke

Trader Joe Knows

RIP – Joe Coulombe, the original creator of Trader Joe’s

I didn’t know anything about Joe Coulombe, until today, as word of his passing at the age of 89, has hit the internet. I have always loved shopping at Trader Joe’s. (unfortunately, where we live now, doesn’t have a Trader Joe’s store very close by, but even my kids have been praying that one opens up, closer to us, soon, because the experience of shopping at Trader Joe’s is always so incredibly unique and fun and uplifting) What I read today, about Joe and his family, made me, in one part, wish that I had known more about him and others like him, while he was still alive, versus all of the stupid gossip which I could recite about current trendy celebrities, royals and reality stars. However, in second part, I also achieved a lasting smile – a big soothing, internal, happy grin, with the realization that there are a lot of good people like Joe Coulombe doing so much to add to the goodness and the happiness of our collective living experience. We rarely to never hear anything about these people, but they are surrounding us, and elevating us, and loving us and loving life, and they don’t need any praise or notoriety for making the world a happier, better place. These people are the majority of us, friends. Joe Coulombe set out to create a grocery store for the overeducated, underpaid among us, much like his in-laws, who were academics. Before Joe died, a local Pasadena, CA newspaper printed this article about Joe Coulombe and his wife of 67 years, Alice:

“Joe and his wife Alice are entirely lovely people, still very much part of the social fabric of Pasadena, great supporters of the musical arts. But quiet about it. Joe came to a Star-News evening seminar teaching readers the ins and outs of Facebook a couple of years ago, and I doubt anyone else there but me even knew who he was — the creator of one of the most imaginative business ideas of the late 20th century. He saw the tremendous demand created for fresh, non-preservative-filled food by Americans who, thanks to the 747, could finally afford to visit Europe. His famous quote about his ideal customer: “An unemployed Ph.D.” “

Joe graduated from Stanford, was raised on an avocado ranch, served in the Air Force, raised three children with his college sweetheart, Alice and enjoyed six grandchildren with her. As the article said, he and his wife are “entirely lovely people.” When I was perusing Twitter, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people thanking Joe for their favorite Trader Joe’s staple foods. As Debra French Bloom on Twitter stated about Joe: Joe created a “grocery store, a culture, a destination.” As I am writing this, my husband and my daughter are outside, putting up a hammock that she has been wanting. She was home with the flu yesterday and he wants her to feel better, so he bought her the hammock and they are playfully trying it out, giggly at each other’s graceless attempts to enter the cocoon of the hammock. My husband, my daughter and I (in spy mode), are having an “entirely lovely moment” and my heart is swollen with joy. Friends, the world is FULL of entirely lovely people (you are among them), sharing entirely lovely moments, in an entirely lovely space on Earth. Yes, there are problems, there are pains, there are things to fear and to grieve, but mostly, mostly, our collective world is an ENTIRELY LOVELY PLACE, when we really focus on the love that surrounds us and holds us and inspires us and sustains us and connects us. Like Joe, that love doesn’t scream for our attention. It’s “quiet about it.” Perhaps it doesn’t have to scream for attention, because it is contented in being. It is contented in being Love. It is contented in the knowing that Love itself, is what Life is really all about.

RIP – Trader Joe. Thank you for the reminder of all of the wholesomeness and goodness and fun and abundance that life has to offer.

Nothing to Prove

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Once again, Think Smarter (Twitter) nailed it. I think that one of the biggest traps most of us fall into, at least at some points in our lives, is the need to be “right.” I admit that I fall into this trap quite often. One time, someone very wise said to me, “What does “right” even mean?” When you think about it, you could take just about any subject in the entire world and you could find people who whole-heartedly, with every ounce of their beings, believe that they are undoubtedly RIGHT, at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

When I was still a kid, my mother had a long, drawn out jury duty. Of course, she was not allowed to discuss the case with anybody, including her fellow jurors. She really clicked with one juror and they had lunch together throughout the trial. She said that they only thing that they ever discussed during the trial was just how completely obvious that they each thought the verdict was (without discussing the actual verdict), in this particular case. Imagine to my mother’s total surprise, that when it came to casting their votes, that they both voted for the completely opposite verdict.

When we get stuck on our need to be right or we have a strong need for others’ approval for what we are doing, we give away our peace and we give away our power. I think that my husband has figured out that when my scary, fiery temper comes out, he can extinguish it immediately with, “You are right. I am sorry.” (I am willing to bet that half the time, he really doesn’t even think I am right, but let’s keep that to ourselves, dear husband) What else can I say to that response? And why don’t I do some introspection as to why it is so important for me to be right? What does that really get me?

I only have the power and the responsibility to decide what is right for me, and then to create the boundaries around myself, to protect my way of life. That’s a big enough onus, in itself, for me to handle. Sometimes “just my life” is a lot to handle. At the same time, I am the only one who gets to decide what is right for me. No one gets a vote in that, unless I specifically ask for someone’s input. And even then, other people’s advice is just up for my consideration. Otherwise, as the saying goes, “What other people think about me, is none of my business.” In the end, I decide what is right for me. I believe that this is the Divine Design. We were each given one body, one life, one set of circumstances to deal with in this lifetime, and that is very complicated, in itself. It is all that one adult person can handle.

I read something recently that when people are acting in ways that are driving you crazy, or you seeing them heading for a train wreck decision, and you so sure that you can school them on the “right” way, take a pause. Take a pause, take a breath, and then just say to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if this driver used his turn signal, or the PTA members weren’t so petty, or this clerk was polite . . . . . . ?” Then, do what you can do, to extricate yourself from the situation, conversation, expectation, etc. and then go on calmly, with your own precious day, which is a rare, priceless unit, making up the totality of your own single precious life. As as hard as it can be, choosing peace over being “right“, is the healthiest, most serene way to live.

Fortune for the day – “The journey is the reward.” – Chinese proverb

The Lesson of the Trees

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****Above is another great one from Think Smarter, my favorite Twitter feed of all-time.

Every morning, on the drive to school, my daughter and I ride through a street that is canopied by trees. It is like a long, beautiful tree tunnel and I look forward to driving through it, every single day. This tree-lined lane is one of those lovely places that is probably roped off from time to time, so that people can have beautiful, natural wedding processions and celebrations, underneath the comforting shade and protection that these majestic trees so ably provide. It is interesting to me that these trees are firmly rooted, on directly opposite sides of the road. They are big, strong, solid trees that have weathered many Florida storms and even hurricanes, together. And although they sit on complete opposite sides of the road, they look to be almost exactly the same. They all carry the same tree DNA.

By far, the most exquisite part of these lovely trees, is the canopy of delicate, yet sturdy sunlit leaves and branches, that they have created, where they come together in gambrel fashion. It is breathtaking, how desperately these trees seem to want to meet in the center, as the highest part of each of these trees, reach for each other, in a deep yearning stretch. It just seems so natural and correct, for them to want to find each other in the center of the road. And where these awe-inspiring trees finally do meet, their coming together, at the highest place – oh my, their creation looks almost as lovely a rooftop, as does the beautiful, vast, starry night sky.

We have so much to learn from the wise, old, sensible trees.

Minutes of Unrest

Good one from Think Smarter (Twitter) this morning:

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My husband and I watched 60 Minutes last night. I have a love/hate relationship with 60 Minutes, because I love the unique stories that the show presents, yet the show really stirs me up emotionally. Too much. Last night, I felt muddled wondering if mining our ocean bottom is really an answer to prayers and a wonderful, vast, unexplored resource, or the last natural environment on Earth that we have left to destroy. I just don’t know. And then the story about Sesame Street making a special TV show, especially for the children who have grown up in tents in refugee camps in the Middle East (miraculously, many of these tents have satellite dishes), touched me to tears, but then, it also made me sick to my stomach, imagining one child, much less thousands, growing up in those fields of desperation. I then found my thoughts wandering over to my shallow side, getting hypercritical about Lesley Stahl’s earring choices and her moppy hair style, which spurred me into some curiosity about Lesley’s age. Lesley Stahl is 77 years old!! She is still an interesting (because she, herself, is curious and interested), sharp, objective reporter. Lesley Stahl has written a book about how much she loves being a grandparent, and she and I share the exact same birth date. Shame on me. Lesley Stahl can wear her hair and her earrings any damn way that she wants. Lesley Stahl is awesome. Simply awesome. Back on the pedestal, she goes. (See, I told you, 60 Minutes puts me in a conflicted state of mind, which is not a restful way to end the week.) 60 Minutes should NOT be aired on Sunday nights. But, it is a good contrast to and break from football . . . . . and then, the conflicted mind continues on and on and on . . . .

Wandering and Pondering

It’s a deliciously cozy, rainy Saturday here. I love the all-over relaxed feel, in every part of my body. I love that my coffee tastes particularly warm and soothing. I love that the wind is just strong enough to lightly strum my wind chimes, so that their sound is pleasant and pacifying versus annoying and jarring. I think that I’ll light some candles and just breathe a while. Here are some tidbits of wisdom that I pulled off of Twitter this morning, a perfect morning to do so, to allow for some lazy mind wandering and pondering . . . .

Be someone who makes you happy. – FofF (Twitter)

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Life. (Twitter)

Anyone can love a rose, but it takes a lot to love a leaf. It’s ordinary to love the beautiful, but it is beautiful to love the ordinary. – WISE WORDS (Twitter)

Life is worth savoring. Stop rushing through everything. If we are going to revel in the happy times we have to be able to exist peacefully in the bad times too. Stop to smell the roses. But also stop to feel the thorns. – 30 Second Therapy (Twitter)

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Think Smarter (Twitter)