Posts Tagged With: learning

Day 1690: What makes life worth living?

Posted on August 17, 2017 by Ann Koplow

Yesterday, in a therapy group, somebody asked this question:

Using one word, what makes life worth living?

Somebody replied, “Love.” Somebody said, “Learning.” I said, “Everything,” which I thought might be cheating, but people didn’t think so. We noticed that nobody said “Money.”

Then, last night, after many hours of shopping and trekking all over the South Shore of Boston in preparation for my trip to Scotland on Saturday, I discovered that my wallet was missing. Suddenly, life seemed very difficult (although still worth living). Michael suggested we retrace our steps and that I also call the Target Store in Braintree, which was about to close in fifteen minutes. I was almost positive that my wallet was not at Target, but I called anyway.

Here’s the phone conversation:

Me: I was at your store earlier tonight and I’m missing my wallet. I was wondering if anybody turned it in.

Customer Service Representative: What does it look like?

Me: It’s mostly red and black. It’s made from recycled billboards.

Customer Service Representative: Is there a name on cards?

Me: Ann Koplow.

Customer Service Representative: Yes. It’s here.

I think the word “Yes” can make life worth living. Or, at least, less of a hassle.

Let’s see if my photos from yesterday include anything that makes life worth living.

Just so you know, I took all of yesterday’s photos before I knew that my wallet had been lost or found.

Here’s what comes up on YouTube, over and over again, in response to “What Makes Life Worth Living.”

I am ending this post with one word: “Thanks.”

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: everything, found wallet, gratitude, group therapy, learning, lost wallet, love, Lucy Kalanithi, Paul Kalanithi, What makes life worth living in the face of death | 48 Comments

Day 1413: ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Ann Koplow

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about the title of today’s post is right here:

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about that photo includes the fact that I took it last night at Target.

At times in my life, I’ve thought to myself, “That’s ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.” Soon, though, I knew I needed to know more.

Recently I thought, “That’s ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW” about

the 2016 U.S. presidential election,
my very unusual heart,
recovering from open heart surgery,
the late Robert Vaughn (who played Napoleon Solo on my favorite TV show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E)

and then I learned it wasn’t.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about this blog includes this: I try to share ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW with my photographs from the day before.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about those chocolates:

my two managers from work sent them to me,
they’re incredibly delicious,
I ate too many of them since they arrived yesterday,
they remind me of “Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get” from Forrest Gump, and
they are now inspiring this song:

Did you get ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW from this post? I’ll get absolutely everything I need to know about that from your comments.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about who I need to thank: absolutely everybody I needed to create this post and you, absolutely!

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries", 2016 U.S. election, Box of chocolates, CCTGA, Donald Trump, Forrest Gump, learning, open heart surgery, Robert Vaughn, Serenade Chocolatier, Target | 39 Comments

Day 134: The Next Right Thing (re-visited)

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Ann Koplow

Waaaay back this year, on Day 35, I wrote about doing the next right thing.

I just re-read that post (which, apparently, was the Next Right Thing for ME to do, in THAT moment). I was happy to see that I linked to somebody else’s blog post, at WordPress. (It was the first time I had done that, so I remember feeling nervous about doing that.)

I was surprised at how much I got out of reading what I wrote before.

I was surprised at how little I judged what I had written.

Sometimes, I don’t read things I’ve already written, out of fear — fear of judging something I’ve created, fear of becoming depleted because of that self-judgment ( and, therefore, less capable of moving forward).

Here’s my question for today: What have I learned (or re-learned) about Doing The Next Right Thing (between Day 35 and today)?

Fear of doing the wrong thing gets in the way of figuring out what The Next Right Thing is.
There are many, many Next Right Things.
It’s your choice what to do next.
Your choice is affected by many different things — inside you and outside you.
If you think you have done the Next Wrong Thing, learn from that.
Let go of shame and regret, so you can move on (see #1 above).
The more open you are to what you have learned, in each moment, the more wisely you will choose.

I just re-read that list and I feel an urge to kid myself a little bit, because I sound like a wise old owl.

So going with that urge, I just did a Google Image search on “wise old owl” and this is what I found. This:

And this:

Now I know. The next right thing, in this moment, is …

… to conclude this post. Thanks for reading, everybody!

Categories: personal growth | Tags: adventure, blogging, community, connection, fear, learning, owls, self improvement, the next right thing, wisdom | 5 Comments