People who watch this blog may have noticed this watch in yesterday’s post:
That is a Fossil shrapnel-guard watch which reminds me of one of the first watches I ever bought. It mimics World War I watches used when people had to watch out for shrapnel while still needing to watch their watches.
Watch what my mind does when I think about watches with shrapnel guards — “So shrapnel guards helped protect the watches but what about the hand wearing the watch?”
Watch where my mind goes next: “When danger is all around, I guess some protection is better than none.”
Now it’s time to watch what I’ve watched recently through my iPhone:
If you watch this blog carefully, you may know that I use a magic wastepaper basket in my “Coping and Healing” groups. Yesterday, I watched while people in a telehealth group threw worry into my magic wastepaper basket (along with markers that no longer work).
Based on what I’ve watched over the years, worry never helps. If you are worrying, watch it! And watch out for worry about worry, which doesn’t help either.
What are you watching these days? Michael and I are still watching Match Game reruns. I like watching those because it’s a group of funny and spontaneous people who obviously like each other, having a good time. Also host Gene Rayburn reminds me a little of my late father (and if you watch this blog, you know it was my dad’s birthday yesterday).
Here‘s the Match Game episode Michael and I watched last night:
Because I watched some information about that “Trench Hand” episode, I know that viewers joined in the fun by sending in donations, which the show gave to a worthy cause.
I also watch that 1970s U.S. game show with new eyes, based on all that I’ve watched since then.
I’ll be watching for comments from you about this “Watch” post. Watch this space for gratitude, every day!
My father and I agreed about Ella Fitzgerald, 100%.
Consider spending a percentage of this beautiful day leaving a comment, below.
I’ve spent a major percentage of life experiencing and expressing gratitude, so thanks to all those who have helped me spend about 12% of my life creating these daily blogs, including YOU!
Be honest, please, and tell me how you would fill in the blank in today’s title.
Be aware that two of my photos from yesterday provide possibilities.
Be prepared to listen to some “Be” music (which should be here, here, and here on YouTube).
Be hopeful, my friends. And be confident enough to express your thoughts and feelings in a comment, be-low.
Finally, be open to accepting my thanks to all who helped me be ready to create this “Be ____” post, including the Ronettes, Mario Lanza, the Be-atles, and YOU.
[…] those boundaries that are set to make sure mentally and emotionally you are stable” (Prism Health North Texas, n.d.). Another way to think about it is that “Our boundaries might be rigid, loose, somewhere in between, or even nonexistent. A complete lack of boundaries may indicate that we don’t have a strong identity or are enmeshed with someone else” (Cleantis, 2017).
Healthy boundaries can serve to establish one’s identity. Specifically, healthy boundaries can help people define their individuality and can help people indicate what they will and will not hold themselves responsible for.
While boundaries are often psychological or emotional, boundaries can also be physical. For example, declining physical contact from a coworker is setting an important boundary, one that’s just as crucial as setting an emotional boundary, i.e., asking that same coworker not to make unreasonable demands on your time or emotions.
I’m writing about healthy boundaries today because I’m approaching the boundary of my 17-day staycation from work. Healthy boundaries are particularly critical during these pandemic days of working from home, when the boundaries between work and non-work are blurred. Also healthy boundaries are especially important for self-care when you are working in a caring profession, like I do.
In order to set healthy boundaries, I find it useful to
write down a list of what I WILL do and what I will NOT do,
share that list with others, and
follow that list.
What I WILL do now is share my photos from yesterday. Let’s see if we can find any healthy boundaries in them.
As you can see from these two photos …
… Harley’s boundaries are changing, which is healthy for both of us.
This image from the The Kindness Rocks Project (which has healthy boundaries) …
Here‘s the Playing for Change version of “Listen to the Music” …
… and here’s a quote from Playing for Change:
In music as in life, the things that make us different make us stronger. All the various instruments, tones, perspectives, and cultures in this recording combine to create a new version of this classic Song Around The World.
The idea was born a few years ago during breakfast at the Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia. Our friend and drummer, Peter Bunetta, introduced me to Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers and we talked about taking “Listen to the Music” around the world. We started the track with an acoustic guitar demo played to a click track and then added bass from Colombia, tablas and veena from India, and then headed to the Redwood Forest in Northern California to record and film Tom Johnston live outside. We then recorded and filmed Patrick Simmons and John McFee playing along to the track in a park in San Diego. The journey then continued throughout North and South America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, and Africa. This final version features 30 musicians from 12 countries united through their love of music.
Listen to the music and change the world!
-Mark Johnson, PFC Co-Founder
Here’s a comment from that YouTube video:
Geno M 10 months ago This is going to sound dramatic and fake but I’ve literally been suicidal for the last 2 months especially this past weekend. I am on medicine and seeing therapists but there is a lot of downtime between getting help and being alone with your thoughts. These videos help me cope and really help me think about the good still left in the world making me try and appreciate what I have and my family. Thank you for uplifting folks and spreading good through music.
There is a healthy boundary between Geno M and me — that is, I can feel empathy for his struggle without rushing in to try to save him. These healthy boundaries are especially important for people who are in a caring profession, like I am.
If leaving a comment is on your list of what you will do today, I will leave you a healthy reply in the near future.
Thanks to all who help me create these posts and healthy boundaries, including YOU.
When I was young, my mood for a day seemed to depend on how the Boston Red Sox were doing. If my favorite baseball team won, I had a good mood for a day. If they lost, I had a bad mood for a day. Many other people have had their moods for a day affected by the Red Sox; I’m not the only one who has had “Red Sox bipolar disorder.”
These days, my mood for a day seems to depend on the state of the U.S. November election. If it looks like my candidates are going to win, my mood is good for a day; if it looks like they are going to lose, my mood for a day is bad. I’m sure I’m not alone in this kind of daily mood disorder, either.
There are other things that influence my mood for a day. Can you see any of them in my recent moody photos?
Our moody kitty Harley recently showed an unexpected mood for a day — Harley jumped up on the sofa between my camera-shy husband and moody me and rubbed his head against my hand. That definitely improved my mood for a day and more. Yesterday, in the midst of many moods for the day, I said to Michael: “Harley hanging out with us and asking me to pat him was THE BEST.”
Here‘s Steve Howe from Yes showing moody guitarists how to play “Mood for a Day”:
Here‘s Steve Howe improving people’s mood for a day by playing “Clap” and “Mood for a Day” live:
What affects your mood for a day, these days?
My mood for a day can always be improved with gratitude, so thanks to all who help me create this mood-for-a-day blog and to all who visit, including YOU.
It’s for you that I write these blog posts. But it’s also for me. As I encounter so many ups and downs in life, blogging every morning strengthens me for the day ahead.
It’s for you that I’m trying out a new, unfamiliar-to-me editor as I blog today. But it’s also for me (to increase my confidence about using new technology as I prepare to host my 50th high school reunion on Zoom).
It’s for you that I captured all these images, but it’s also for me.
It’s for you and for me that I realize that “It’s for you” would make a good caption for this:
It’s for you that I have a comments section but it’s also for me.
It’s for you and for me that I collect images of gratitude to end these posts.
I’m grateful that writing this post with the new editor was much easier than I expected! This reminds me of the helpful cognition I’m working on in EMDR therapy:
I can trust myself, which allows me to figure out who else to trust.
Thanks to Pat, Lyle, Harley, Michael (for the burritos), the South Shore of Boston, our neighborhood church, our neighbors, snowy and not-so-snowy egrets, WordPress, and YOU.
Apparently, my iPhone calendar makes suggested locations for events. Let’s see if I can locate any proof of that kind of suggested location.
I did spend my vacation day yesterday in the suggested location and in other locations very close to the suggested location.
I made sure to be in locations last night to see the full Corn Moon. My first photo, located above, suggests that I was thinking about the Corn Moon all day.
Before I took the last photo located above, I passed by some young neighbors I hadn’t met before, located outside their home. Here’s what transpired at that location, as I walked by with a mask located on my face.
Them: Hello!
Me: Have you seen the moon?
(pause) (during which some thoughts like “how weird am I?” located themselves in my head)
After I continued on my way to locate the Corn Moon at the end of our street and then turned back, I saw that my young neighbors had followed me to locate the beautiful moon too.
I wish that somebody like Fred Rogers was located in the White House and I plan to make my best suggestion about that with a future vote in a suggested location.
Today, my suggested locations include home and near home, again, and all suggestions indicate that those will be my suggested locations for quite some time.
I want to tell about something beautiful that happened yesterday, when I went to a doctor’s appointment at one Boston hospital and then went to another Boston hospital for the first time since February to retrieve some beautiful items from my office and to see some beautiful co-workers. The main beautiful item I wanted to retrieve from my office was a collection of beautiful questions a beautiful person had put together for my Coping and Healing groups. After I got back to my beautiful home, I realized that the beautiful bag I had placed my beautiful items in had a big, beautiful hole in it, and that beautiful collection of questions was gone.
Then, I had a beautiful decision to make: should I take up more time during my beautiful vacation to look for those beautiful questions or just beautifully accept that my time with them was over?
I called the beautiful Lost and Found department of the big beautiful hospital, remembering that I had lost several beautiful items over the years (including my favorite beautiful red jacket) that had never been found. I struggled to come up with a beautiful description of the lost item: “It’s a collection of small rectangles with questions on them, held together with a silver ring.” The beautiful person on the phone said, “Wait a minute” and then returned with this answer, “Nothing like that has been turned in.” I asked, “Should I call again tomorrow?” and the beautiful person said, “Sure.”
Then, I spent more beautiful minutes trying to decide what to do next. I really didn’t want to get back into my beautiful car and drive in lots of beautiful traffic to retrace my steps. My beautiful husband could tell that I was very sad that I had lost those beautiful questions. He said, “Maybe it will turn up.” I told my beautiful son, who was ready to go on a beautiful walk with me, “I’m going back to try to find what I lost.”
When I got into my beautiful car, I realized that my beautiful Scream mask was also missing. I had put that beautiful mask in the beautiful bag with the big beautiful hole when beautiful people at the beautiful hospitals had told me I needed to wear the beautiful masks they were providing to their beautiful patients to keep them beautifully safe during this very unbeautiful pandemic.
When I parked my beautiful yellow car in the same beautiful place near a beautiful church in beautiful Brookline, Massachusetts, I saw my beautiful Scream mask on the ground, almost immediately. Then, I had beautiful hopes that I would find my beautiful collection of beautiful questions.
I retraced my steps with beautiful accuracy, looking everywhere for the collection of beautiful questions. I went back to the beautiful hospital where I work, returned to my beautiful office, took more beautiful photos, retrieved more beautiful items from my office, and met more beautiful co-workers. I talked to several beautiful people who I thought might be able to help me in my beautiful search, trying to share more beautiful descriptions of what I had lost. At one point, I said, “It’s a ring – no, not a jewelry ring, but a big silver ring holding together rectangles that have questions on them.” Everybody tried their beautiful best to understand my stumbling attempts to describe what I had lost, but nobody had seen or could find my beautiful questions. Knowing I had searched everywhere, I decided that some beautiful person had probably picked up the questions and might put them to beautiful use.
On my beautiful walk back to my beautiful car, I had beautiful thoughts about how we all deal with loss. Then, much to my beautiful surprise, I saw what I was seeking, as plain as the beautiful day, lying on a beautiful spot on the beautiful sidewalk where lots of beautiful people were walking. I knew that it had NOT been there when I had walked by that same beautiful spot before. I picked up the Lost and Found item with beautiful speed, placed it on a beautiful wall, and took this beautiful photo:
I am doing my beautiful best to follow the beautiful directions on that beautiful card: “Tell about something beautiful.”
