My wonderful friend Megan, who is always a cure for my anxiety, sent me this yesterday …
… in response to my sending her this:
These days, my anxiety is up because of animals much scarier than those kittens on the floor. The cure for my increased anxiety is capturing images like these:
Ocean scenes, cats, Michael’s cooking, chocolate, the Daily Bitch Calendar, competent leaders, and kindness are among the cures for my anxiety.
Music and comedy are other cures for my anxiety, so here is Randy Rainbow with his latest song parody:
What is the cure for your anxiety?
Many people say gratitude is the cure for anxiety, so thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.
At first, I was thinking that the scariest animal would be a crocodile or a bear. Later that night, I realized that, to me, the scariest animal was something else.
Man.
What’s the scariest animal in my images for today?
I find it more difficult to believe that everything happens for a reason when so many people seem to have lost their reason.
When so many people seem to have lost their reason, I look for a reason for why that has happened. That’s why I posted this question on Twitter yesterday:
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People’s responses happened for a reason and included the following:
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Those answers may have happened for a reason, but I still can’t find the reasons why so many people are still Trump supporters after all the unreasonable — and dangerous — things he has done and said.
Have these photos and other images happened for a reason?
There’s a reason why I captured that last image — I plan to use the “Thank you!” to end this post.
Here is “Everything Happens for a Reason” by Zhané:
It happens that I have so many reasons to be grateful, so thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including you!
Yesterday morning, before the bottom dropped out at the USA Capitol Building in Washington, people in my Coping and Healing group discussed experiences of when the bottom drops out, including how that feels and how to cope. By sharing those experiences of when the bottom drops out and realizing they were not alone, the group members lifted each other up. I suggested that when the bottom drops out again they look down, feel their feet securely on the floor, and realize that the bottom is still there, even if it feels like it has dropped out.
According to an online definition, the bottom drops out “alludes to collapsing deeper than the very lowest point, or bottom.”
Yesterday afternoon, the current inhabitant of the White House collapsed deeper than his previous lowest point/bottom, inciting his followers to violently disrupt the transfer of power in the country I love.
As the whole world watched in horror, the bottom dropped out in the USA yesterday. Those of us who are familiar with malignant narcissists like Trump know that the bottom will drop out even LOWER if he remains in office.
When the bottom drops out, I’m too upset to take many photos, so here are all my recent images from top to bottom:
What do you do when the bottom drops out? When the bottom drops out for me, I reach out for people I love and trust, I anchor myself in the present moment, and I tell myself, “It’s safer than it feels.”
Therefore, I’m going to post, again, the video I shared on this blog yesterday, before the bottom dropped out, of audience members at the Stephen Colbert Show lifting up the late, great U.S. congressman from Georgia, John Lewis, as he crowd-surfed above them.
It makes me cry, here and now, to see how far the bottom has dropped out of my country.
Here is Senator Amy Klobuchar speaking to Stephen Colbert last night about her experience of when the bottom dropped out yesterday:
Here‘s Stephen Colbert showing a lot of feeling in his live monologue last night after the bottom dropped out and before his interview with Senator Klobuchar:
And here‘s his interview with Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger about his experience of when the bottom dropped out.
If you have any thoughts or feelings about when the bottom drops out, please drop a comment, below.
Now that you’ve reached the bottom here, thanks — from the bottom of my heart — to all who help me drop a blog post every day, including you.
Some days, it’s easier to love everyone. For me, today is one of those days.
I also love every one of my photos today.
I love everyone, including the person who responded to my tweet last night of that last photo captioned “Harley is a Democat” with “Someone’s projecting! Harley doesn’t care” and then liked my response of “Harley cares about many things.”
I love everyone in this video:
I love my reader Maureen, who tells me that some people can’t view that video, so here, again, is the late, great U.S. Congressman from Georgia, John Lewis, crowdsurfing at the Stephen Colbert Show, with a bonus track of him dancing to the song “Happy.”
I love everyone who reads this blog, including YOU!
I often invite people in therapy with me to make a wish, using that magic wand.
Just now, I made a wish about the senate races in Georgia. I hope my wish comes true.
My son wishes to return to Scotland tomorrow to attend his last semester at the University of Edinburgh and to be with his girlfriend after being apart for six months. I hope they get their wish.
In case you wish to see some photos I recently took, your wish is now granted.
I make a wish for the return of trust, union, intelligence, and integrity to the U.S. government.
Every day, for the past eight years, I’ve been telling people what’s on my mind through this blog.
Today, Georgia is on my mind, because of the two races for control of the U.S. Senate and because of this:
There exists a recording of somebody with sedition on his mind calling the Georgia Secretary of State, but because I don’t want to go out of my mind listening to somebody who is out of his mind, I’d rather listen to “Georgia on my Mind” performed by writer Hoagy Carmichael.
What’s on my mind also includes a broken filling in my tooth, which I’m letting my dentist know about now because he reads this blog every day. Hello, Dr. Del Castillo! It’s on my mind to call your office today.
I share what’s on my mind by capturing images like these:
What’s on your mind, here and now?
Gratitude is always on my mind, so thanks to all who help me share what’s on my mind every day, including you!
My brain is telling me to start out today’s post with this quote from comedian Emo Phillips:
I used to think that the brain was the most important organ in the body. And then I realized, “Wait…what’s telling me that?”
Because I don’t completely trust what my brain is telling me, I just consulted Google and found out that Emo’s last name is actually spelled with one “l,” not two. Google is also telling me that the quote is this:
I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
My brain was definitely wrong in telling me the spelling of Emo’s last name but I’m not sure it was wrong about the telling of the joke. I used to listen to an Emo Philips comedy album years ago and I can still hear that joke in my head. The only way to discover the truth of what my brain is telling me would be to find and listen to that recorded routine again.
My brain is telling me that is not necessary for this particular blog post, because my brain’s point today is that we cannot always trust what our brains are telling us.
Yesterday, my brain was telling me to watch the very telling and wonderful seriesHow to … with John Wilson. In the episode I watched, John Wilson and others were telling me about the Mandela Effect. Healthline.com is telling me this about the Mandela Effect:
The Mandela effect is an unusual phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred. Conspiracy theorists believe this is proof of an alternate universe, while many doctors use it as an illustration of how imperfect memory can be sometimes.
Examples of the Mandela effect include how many people’s brains tell them that the Raisin Bran sun is wearing sunglasses on the cereal box (it isn’t and never was), how many of our brains tell us that Darth Vader said, “Luke, I am your father” when he just said “I am your father,” and how many of our brains incorrectly tell us the safety message that is engraved on passenger side mirrors on cars.
Our brains tell us that our ability to remember correctly MUST be better than it actually is, so that’s why so many people
refuse to believe facts that interfere with their beliefs,
are likely to believe conspiracy theories,
worry about getting dementia, and
freak out when their memories are proven wrong.
Just last week, even though I’ve seen the first Star Wars movie so many times that my brain has lost count, I told someone “Luke, I am your father” while wearing this mask:
My brain is telling me that I should tell you that I also wore that mask in an online therapy session last week to tell someone that, despite their fears, they were not turning into their father. I said to them, “Luke, you are NOT your father,” even though their name is not Luke and Darth Vader never said Luke’s name in the first place.
My brain is now telling me that I should tell you that my brain told me for a long time that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Manfrom Ghostbusters was an actual character from actual bags of marshmallows from my childhood, even though the writers of Ghostbusters totally made that character up for the movie. My brain is telling me how shocked I was when I found that out.
I don’t know if that’s an example of the Mandela effect, because I don’t know if other people’s brains have told them the same false information about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
My brain is telling me it’s about time to share my other photos for the day:
My brain is telling me that Michael’s meals are always nutritious and delicious, including those fish cakes using leftover salmon and cod.
Here’s the first thing I find when I search YouTube for “what your brain is telling you”:
My “what your brain is telling you” search on YouTube also found this:
What is your brain telling you about this post?
My brain is telling me to thank all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU!
