Yesterday, when I was facilitating an online Zoom meeting with other group therapists, I asked people, “What’s hard to say?” after sharing my poem “Hard to Say.”
“Its appeal is … in watching people who have devised their own original style of comic performance and have taken it to a rare level of refinement.”
If you like Tati-esque japes, Francophone clowns Abel, Gordon and Romy should be just up your alley.”
“It’s simultaneously a very knowing and strangely innocent film.”
“A little bitty movie with a great big heart that is nearly impossible to resist.”
“It’s often a lot of fun with some dance numbers thrown in.”
It’s hard to say what would be better, for me, than “a lot of fun with some dance numbers thrown in.” I also loved that somebody who was granted three wishes found it hard to say what his third wish would be, even when “I want us to be safe!” was an obvious choice to me.
What’s hard to say about these images I captured yesterday?
It’s hard to say why our cat Oscar tried to steal Michael’s pasta primavera, which was completely vegetarian.
Do you agree that the coronavirus makes oddballs of us all?
Earlier in my oddball day, somebody in a Coping and Healing group said they felt like an oddball until they expressed their feelings and realized they were not alone. Oddly enough, I’ve seen this happen hundreds of times over my 20-odd years as a group therapist.
Later in my oddball day, several Oddballs in another remote Coping and Healing group did a scavenger hunt in our oddball homes, finding and sharing oddball things that were important to us. One of the oddball, important, and favorite items shared was this:
Oddly enough, this oddball item was not shared by me during the scavenger hunt but by a different Oddball.
Are you ready for some other recent oddball images captured by this Oddball during these oddball times?
That last oddball photo shows an oddball item I retrieved and showed in yesterday’s oddball scavenger hunt. Does anybody have an oddball guess of what that entertaining item was?
This Oddball has oddly been having trouble writing oddball songs lately, but I did write these recent oddball lyrics:
Now more than ever
We need to be together,
But now is the time we need to stay apart.
Because people are contagious
New behaviors seem outrageous
And each of us is holding lots of worry in our heart.
Here and here are two oddball original songs I performed in August 2019 for lots of oddballs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, one of the biggest yearly gatherings of oddballs in the world (which has been cancelled during this oddball year):
This Oddball had planned to perform that second oddball song at a gathering of other social worker oddballs at the hospital where we work, but that annual party was also cancelled during this oddball year.
During oddball times like these, we have to remember to grieve our losses and to realize that we are not alone.
I’m looking forward to lots of oddball comments, below, and here’s some oddball thanks from one oddball to another!
I took my own advice and took yesterday one moment at a time. Here are some moments, at a time when we all need to notice the better moments:
Yesterday, one moment at a time,
I facilitated another Coping and Healing group remotely,
We all practiced social distancing,
We took Oscar to the vet because of some scary symptoms,
The vet called us in the parking lot outside the clinic and diagnosed him as “handsome,”
They took lots of tests,
Despite our fears, they did not keep Oscar overnight,
Michael made a delicious meal which even he thought was great, and
Everybody seemed fine.
Today, one moment at a time, I’ll be remotely facilitating two Coping and Healing groups, conducting a mindfulness exercise for many of my co-workers at a Boston hospital, and also receiving Oscar’s test results.
Even though I’ve been doing this blogging thing one day at time for two thousand, six hundred, and sixty-two consecutive days, I’ve never before written a post titled “One Day at a Time.”
One day, at a time when twelve people were doing a remote Coping and Healing group online, many talked about taking the coronavirus pandemic one day at a time.
These are all the other images I captured one day, at a time:
Can’t sleep ? Consider taking these days one MOMENT at a time.
In one day at a time, here and now, I will be:
Doing individual therapy online,
Facilitating another Coping and Healing group remotely,
Yesterday, during what felt like an age of anxiety on Easter 2020 at a Boston Whole Foods Market, I noticed this magazine in a check-out line:
I’m pretty sure that magazine came out before COVID-19 anxiety, which is aging all of us. During any age of anxiety, it helps to know that you are not alone, as that magazine cover reminds us.
Do you see evidence of the age of anxiety in the other images I captured yesterday?
I’ve been experiencing an age of anxiety because my INR has not been within range for TWO MONTHS (partly because of my having COVID-19 and taking antibiotics for suspected pneumonia), until yesterday.
I celebrated my INR being in range with …
… chocolate bunnies (on sale)!
Here‘s a post I wrote, during a different age, about how to reduce anxiety (which can multiply as quickly as bunnies).
Do any of my photos, above, reduce your anxiety? This is my favorite anxiety-reducing photo from today’s post:
That neighborhood cat seems to be doing okay during this age of anxiety.
Five hundred and sixty-three days and posts ago (but who’s counting during these strange times?), I created and published a post with the same title as today’s.
Today’s post COULD be titled Day 2659: Stay Wicked Fah Apart.
It could be also titled
Day 2659: Social Distancing is Working
Day 2659: When will things return to normal and what will that look like?
Day 2659: With daffodils and magnolia trees in full bloom
Day 2659: The rites of spring
Day 2659: Clouded
Day 2659: A hard truth
Day 2659: No one really knows
Day 2659: Let’s keep playing!
Day 2659: Let’s Go!
Day 2659: SLOW
Day 2659: Caution
Day 2659: Sheer Compassion
Looking at all the photos I took yesterday, you might have your own ideas about what the title of today’s post could be.
Here is music for one of the suggested titles, above.
The title of today’s post, of course, could also be Day 2659: Thanks!
If you are struggling during these difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic, you are not alone.
Yesterday, as humans I love and people I work with were struggling, I captured these images:
When I was struggling to fall asleep last night, I looked at that New Yorker page on my phone.
If I am struggling, music always helps, and I’m struggling to focus on a future when I will be able to see Jacob Collier in concert, rescheduled from next month to some time in the future when we’ll be struggling less with the coronavirus.
