When you’re feeling down, know that you’re not alone.
When you’re feeling down, remember that you’ve felt down before and made it through.
When you’re feeling down, resist the temptation to get down on yourself and beat yourself up.
When I’m feeling down, I share my heart with people I trust, observe what’s around me, set an achievable goal, access good memories, and get in touch with humor.
When you’re feeling down, get down with the Daily Bitch (and maybe eat a creative ice cream flavor or a ginger snap).
Here are new lyrics for “I Can’t See Clearly Now””
I can’t see clearly now
There’s darkness here.
So many obstacles in our way.
It seems like everyone is acting blind.
When’s the next bright (bright) bright (bright) sun-shiney day?
When’s the next bright (bright) bright (bright) sun-shiney day?
I hope we can make it now
The pain is here.
All of these bad feelings have reappeared
Where is the rainbow I’ve been praying for?
When’s the next bright (bright) bright (bright) sun-shiney day?
Look all around, I don’t see blue skies.
Look straight ahead, I’m sighing some blue sighs.
I can’t see clearly now
There’s darkness there.
So many obstacles in our way.
Where are the the people so humane and kind?
When’s the next bright (bright) bright (bright) sun-shiney day?
When’s the next bright (bright) bright (bright) sun-shiney day?
Can you see clearly, now, my other photos for today?
Even though there’s not much left to take from that kristindudish.com heart, there’s still inspiration there. Let’s take what we need wherever we can find it.
Right before I started writing this post, my boyfriend Michael and I had a conversation that went all over the place, including
different reactions to my 16-year-old son getting his wisdom teeth out yesterday,
feelings and thoughts about recent “trivial” changes in our lives (like the paint trim on our building and a new format for a magazine I’ve subscribed to for decades),
possible reasons why our cat Harley, who lived with other people before us, is so oddly skittish in certain situations,
how I don’t do puzzles or read novels as I used to — before I changed careers and became a psychotherapist — possibly because my work now includes “solving” puzzles and hearing stories all the time, and
things we wish we could “unsee” (e.g., a disturbing medical x-ray, violence, death, etc).
Are there things that you’ve seen, that you wish you could unsee? Or, for that matter, are there things you’ve heard that you wish you could unhear?
Hmmm. I’m surprised to see the turn this post is taking.
Why? Because I seem to be unseeing and unhearing acceptance, right now.
Can you see (or hear) what I mean by that?
Acceptance means acknowledging what’s been seen, heard, and otherwise experienced in the past. It doesn’t necessarily mean liking those things — it’s just acknowledging the reality of where we’ve been and where we are … allowing ourselves to be more fully in the moment and to open ourselves up to the possibilities ahead.
So …. am I unseeing the concept of acceptance here, by focusing on what we might wish we could unsee or unhear?
What do you think?
Just now, I was unseeing Oscar, who is always with me when I write these posts:
I was glad to un-un-see him, in the moment.
Sometimes, we can re-see things. Is that similar to unseeing?
When I saw that sign at work on Friday, I saw that as “hope” and immediately took a picture of it.
After I published the post yesterday, I re-saw that sign, like so:
Where I work, people use signs on the door to signal whether it’s okay to enter. That’s an awfully short “h” in that word. Could that sign have actually said … “nope”? Is the other side of that sign …. “yep”?
If I can remember where I saw that sign at work, I’ll see if I can see the unseen side of it when I return.
Here are some more images I’ve recently seen, unseen by you (until now):
Now that you’ve seen all this, can you unsee any of it? Would you want to?
Here’s something you can choose to hear or not hear — a song by Johnny Nash I’ve used here before (but in a different version):
(See here for the YouTube video of Johnny Nash singing “I Can See Clearly Now” on a 1970’s Midnight Special)
Thanks to all — including you! — for seeing and hearing what was here, today.
