As I look forward to the rest of my life after serving for a decade on the board of directors of a group therapy professional organization, I want to share this sign with you:
I am looking forward to much more time to spend on music, singing, dancing, writing, reading, relaxing, and fun!
I hope it’s not too forward of me to share all these other images, as I look forward to today and the rest of my future.
Even though I am no longer on the board of directors, I look forward to continuing to practice and express my passion for the healing power of groups — here and everywhere else.
Now I look forward to sharing these two songs with great vocal performances (here and here on YouTube):
Now, I look forward to your comments and expressing my gratitude to all who help me keep blogging every day, including YOU!
I have many happy returns to share in today’s post, including the return of my son Aaron from Scotland to Boston.
I was happy to return yesterday to my home work desk, Twitter, Wollaston Beach, the Kindness Rocks Project, Logan Airport, and Facebook; Aaron was happy to return to our home; and Harley was happy to return to our couches (if not happy about Aaron’s return).
I’m happy you’ve returned here today to share in our happiness.
The Daily Bitch is happy to return on this many happy returns day.
Most people have trouble expressing at least one emotion, so I had no trouble asking today’s title question on Twitter.
Other people expressed trouble expressing affection, vulnerability, joy, disappointment, and other emotions. I had no trouble expressing that they were not alone.
I have no trouble expressing my belief that it is healing to own all your emotions and to learn effective ways to express them. I also have no trouble expressing my happiness about my son Aaron’s return from Scotland to Boston today!
Can you see the emotions expressed in the rest of today’s images?
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What emotion do you have the most trouble expressing?
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “what emotion do you have the most trouble expressing”:
I have no trouble expressing my hope that you’ll watch “Emotional Mastery: The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Emotions,” the TED talk by Dr. Joan Rosenberg.
Finally, I have no trouble expressing this emotion: my gratitude for all who help me express my emotions in these daily posts, including YOU!
Last week, when I was sitting at my laptop conducting an online therapy session, I gave somebody the assignment of sitting with the discomfort. When that person had some discomfort figuring out the details of the assignment, I said, “Sit for ten minutes every day, get in touch with the discomfort, and see what happens.” My belief was that it would not be difficult to get in touch with discomfort, because we are all feeling some discomfort these days.
Because I feel discomfort asking somebody to do something I am not willing to do, I committed to doing the same assignment of sitting with the discomfort daily for ten minutes until our next therapy session.
I have been sitting with the discomfort since then and, as I sit here with some discomfort (the aches and pains of early rising), I am comforted to tell you that I am finding that assignment helpful.
Too often, we deal with our discomfort with distraction, addictions, avoidance, and disconnection. It helps to just BE with the discomfort for ten minutes a day, noticing and observing without judgment.
Here are some images I captured yesterday when I was not sitting with the discomfort:
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There is some sitting, some discomfort, but mostly joy in “Good Morning” from Singin’ in the Rain.
I won’t be sitting with discomfort waiting for comments on this sitting-with-discomfort blog post.
I am grateful and comforted to be sitting, standing, walking, and blogging for you!
Lest you feel betrayed, bewildered by today’s title, I shall start this post by sharing two tweets I sent last night:
Nobody guessed the answer to my pop quiz but several people felt betrayed, bewildered by the reappearance of a salad bar in Whole Foods at this point in the pandemic.
Here’s who said “betrayed, bewildered” in a 1996 film:
Yesterday, my non-betraying and non-bewildering life-long friend Barbara and I kept using the phrase “betrayed, bewildered” while we were discussing many bewildering interactions we’d had with other people in which we felt betrayed. The reality is that many interpersonal interactions are bewildering and seeing them as a betrayal doesn’t help — when we do that we are personalizing the situation. People are going to be themselves no matter what you do and it doesn’t help to expect “you” from them.
What did help Barbara and me yesterday was to realize we were not alone in feeling betrayed, bewildered and to laugh together about all those interactions that had us temporarily feeling bewildered and betrayed before reaching a level of acceptance and peace.
I hope you don’t feel betrayed, bewildered by my run-on sentences or any of my other images for today.
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Here’s “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” sung by the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald.
I won’t feel betrayed, bewildered by any comment you might leave about this “betrayed, bewildered” post.
Neither betrayed nor bewildered, just grateful for you.
Very rarely, I look at all the images I’ve gathered during a 24-hour period and have trouble coming up with an underlying or overlying theme. When that happens, I turn to my readers and ask “What’s the theme of this post?”
Who wants to play?
Maybe the theme today is “favorite things”?
In case that’s a possibility, here’s John Coltrane playing “My Favorite Things.”
What do you think the theme of this post is? There are no wrong answers, so please leave a comment, below.
One overlying or underlying theme in all my posts is gratitude, so thanks to all who help me blog every day, including YOU.
Today’s blog is brought to you by my mind and by The Daily Bitch Calendar.
Yesterday, my mind tried to set Twitter on fire with flying thoughts about popular proverbs and other matters:
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My mind was very occupied facilitating two Coping and Healing therapy groups yesterday, so I hope you don’t mind that I have only three photos of the outdoors to share today.
