Sometimes I wonder what my last word will be. I hope it’s not “Ooops!”
What last words do you see in today’s blog?
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I’m glad that the last word in that list is not “unlucky.”
Here’s the first thing I find when I search for “last words” on YouTube:
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My last words about this year are that I hope next year is better for us.
My last word for this blog post is THANKS!
P.S. Here are Joan’s last words for this blog post:
What’s the best thing you can say when you’re on vacation and have tickets for great shows and plans to spend time with your only son and you’re sick with a fever and what feels like bronchitis?
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What’s the best thing you can say about 2024?
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Here’s what I find when I search for “what’s the best thing to say?”
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That reminds me of Alex Edelman, who says that the best thing you can say in response to anything when you have nothing else to say is “Can you believe it?”
What’s the best thing you can say about this blog post?
Thanks to all who help me find the best things to say every day, including YOU!
Yesterday, when I was having the best New Year’s Eve with my camera-shy son Aaron in foggy and rainy New York City, I asked this question on Twitter:
Can you tell from these photos that yesterday was my best New Year’s Eve?
We had a great meal at the Essex in New York and skipped the New Year’s Eve countdown in Times Square, which was probably for the best.
Every day I spend with my son is the best and I look forward to more best days with him in the future.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “Best New Year’s Eve.”
Happy New Year to my readers — you are the best!
Today, according to the National Day Calendar site, is Make Up Your Mind Day.
I can’t make up my mind about many things, including whether people across the United States really observe Make Up Your Mind Day. However, I am celebrating, on New Years Eve Day and No Interruptions Day, the fact that I have finally made up my mind (after many interruptions) about the tiles, the fixtures, etc. to repair our severely water-damaged shower.
I don’t know why it takes me so long to make up my mind about certain things — maybe it’s a fear of making a mistake and having to live with it.
I do know that I easily made up my mind to spend a few days in NYC with my only son, Aaron. I’m so grateful I made up my mind to try to have a child in my 40s, after doctors changed their minds about whether it was advisable for someone with an unusual heart like mine to have a baby.
Now I’m going to make up my mind about how to arrange the images I have to share with you today.
I made up my mind to ask that question on Twitter after Aaron and I discussed who we would like to be interviewed by (among many other topics) on the train to NYC and before I saw that Barbara Walters had died.
There were many images I didn’t capture yesterday — including the throngs of people in Times Square and a local TV personality reporting about it — but I’m making up my mind, here and now, to let go of regrets about what I haven’t or have done in the past. I’ve also made up my mind to focus on hope and joy, even when there is so much pain and suffering in the world.
I’m glad I made up my mind for us to see “A Strange Loop” last night before it closes next month on Broadway. I’ve made up my mind to share this with you today:
Now I have to make up my mind about how Aaron and I are going to spend this precious day, besides finally seeing the musical Merrily We Roll Along together.
I hope you make up your mind to leave a comment below.
Every day, I make up my mind to end this blog with gratitude for YOU.
Because I think New Year’s resolutions can be the worst, my best way of marking the New Year is to compile my personal 10 Best and 10 Worst lists for the year. What’s best about that ritual is that it allows me to look back over the past year in a useful way, getting some closure as we move into the brand new year.
Because I don’t want to dwell on the worst, I think it’s best that I share only my personal 10 Best of 2018 (in alphabetical order):
Aaron
Blogging
Friends
Groups
Health of those I love
Home near the ocean
Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy (inc. becoming President)
Original songs
There were so many bests this year, the cats didn’t even make it on the list. Although, maybe it’s best that I include them in the “Health of those I love” or in “Friends.”
Here are my best and worst photos from yesterday:
If you can’t read any of those photos, it’s best that you click on them to enlarge.
My son Aaron thinks that the first song I wrote is still my best. Here it is:
I don’t know if I agree that “I Don’t Like You” is my best, but it’s certainly not my worst.
If you want to share your personal best and/or worst of 2018, it’s best you do so in the comments section, below.
Every time I post, I do my best to thank all who help me blog every day and — of course! — YOU. Happy New Year!
Great! It’s time for me to write a great blog post on the final great day of 2016.
I have this great tradition, every New Year’s Eve, of listing the 10 greatest things AND the 10 least great things that happened all year.
My son, Aaron (who tops my great list), recently said to me, “I’m sure the worst thing that happened to you last year was your open heart surgery.” My great answer? “No, it wasn’t.”
Any great guesses about what tops my worst list for 2016? I hope you know that any comment you leave would be great.
Yesterday, the great staff at cardiac rehab gave me this:
See that Arm Ergo exercise on that great card? I felt great about telling the great cardiac rehab staff that I didn’t want to do that yesterday, since that great new exercise had caused some great pain to return last weekend. The staff said, “That’s great! Pain just means your muscles are waking up!”
Cardiac rehab: Making pain great again.
Are any of my other photos from yesterday great?
One of my top 10 great memories from 2016 was watching this great Jim Jefferies routine with my great friend Maria two weeks after my open heart surgery:
It was great to see Jim Jefferies with my great son last night at the Wilbur Theater in the great city of Boston (where they recorded his great gun control routine two years ago).
Two of my pictures, above, are inspiring me to share this great song in this end of year post:
In conclusion, thanks to my great readers for supporting me throughout 2016. I have high hopes that we will have more to celebrate in the future.
I’m looking at the title of this post, people, trying to decide what to tell you about it.
I’m looking at this entire year, people, trying to decide what to tell you about it.
Here’s a relevant quote, from a movie I love.
“Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Here’s a short clip, including that quote:
(thanks to angelofcaine69)
I wanted to find a clip that included JUST that quote, but I couldn’t. So time to move on … to summing up.
Perhaps I avoid summing up. Why? Maybe because summing up can involve numbers*. Or maybe because summing up means conclusions and decisions, which I can also avoid, because I LOVE …
And yet, today is a traditional day for summing up and for conclusions. To get closure. To let go of the past (while still respecting its gifts). To move forward.
I’m now looking at the title of this post, again, with a critical** eye. I’m asking myself, “What is true in that title, and what is opinion?”
Well, it’s an undeniable fact that it’s the End of the Year, right now (at least where I live). But … is it really a Big Deal? And if it IS a big deal … to whom? To me? To you? To other people?
I’ll tell you what I love about “Big Deal!” in that title. It implies “Yes” AND “No.” It contains authenticity AND irony.***
Yes, I love that.
Okay! At this point in today’s blog post, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to re-visit my “About” page, which was written a year ago, to see if I have fulfilled my commitments.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
This blog is part of my creative process.
It’s also a way to work on my growing acceptance and appreciation of life, and to share and develop some of the wisdom I’ve been slowly accumulating. My commitment is to start on January 1, 2013 and to blog once daily, throughout 2013.
This blog is also another way for me to take risks, to venture out into the world in new ways, and to embrace and express all my different human feelings– joy, fear, sadness, anger, the whole Emotional Enchilada. I plan to engage in my well-developed sense of play, and approach some painful material, also.
So this blog does a lot for me!
Hey! You know what? I fulfilled those commitments. I shall now take a moment to celebrate that accomplishment, by asking for “New Year Fireworks” from my old friend, Google Images.
(thanks to dailymail.co.uk)
Because celebrating what I’ve done is a skill I continue to work on (and encourage in others), I would like to extend this celebration for few more minutes, via the same request — “New Year fireworks” — from another old friend, YouTube.
(thanks to hanabian)
I’ve learned a lot this year, my dear readers.
What have I learned?
Well, I guess you’ll just have to read those posts I wrote, every day, to really answer that question. But, to emulate Inigo Montoya, let me sum up:
Since I’m continuing on this blogging adventure, what to do about the title of this blog? I mean, it’s “The Year of Living Non-Judgmentally” and that year is coming to a close, today. So, obviously, I have to change it.
(sigh)
That’s been another thing on my friggin’ to do list, y’know?
Well, I highly recommend taking the easy way out, whenever possible. Keep it simple.
And every change, no matter how small, still counts. Every change is a Big Deal.
So without further ado, I shall now unveil the new title of this here blog:
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally
Yep, that’s it!
I don’t know what YOU think or feel about THAT. However, I do know this:
I LOVE it.
Thanks to all my readers for a year of living, loving, and learning; of disappointment and hope; of fear, sadness, anger, and joy; of all those big deals and more. See you tomorrow, in 2014!
____________________
* I don’t want people to get the wrong idea, regarding my feelings about numbers. I love numbers, sometimes. However, numbers are not my native language, so sometimes they challenge me. Hmmm. I don’t like the way I said that. “They challenge me” is too mild, too wimpy a statement. How about this? Sometime, I hate numbers. Nope, too strong. How about this? Sometimes, numbers make me crazy. Nope, “crazy” is not a great word for me to use. How about this? Sometimes they make me angry. Nope, people have trouble with anger. Arrrghh! What’s the right word, regarding me and numbers? Damned if I know, right now. Maybe I’ll figure that out next year.
** In other words, with judgment! Did you catch me?
*** Or humor or sarcasm or whatever else you want to call that.
I tried different titles for this post.
Examples:
February is the cruelest month. (It can be very icy, cold, and miserable, but T.S. Eliot already grabbed that honor for April.)
February is the shortest month. (Can’t argue with that.)
February is the worst-spelled month. (I mean, come on! What IS the deal with that goofy silent “r”?)
But I settled on the title “February is the coolest month” for three reasons:
(1) It is quite cold, at least where I live.
(2) It rhymes with “cruelest” (for a little literary echo).
(3) For me, it meets the other definition of coolest, because … it’s my birthday month.
And, dear reader, I DO think that February is the best month — the coolest of them all. I guess that’s because I’ve managed to separate any negative feelings about aging from my experience of my birthday.
What I’ve done with my fears about aging is to strategically place them elsewhere. On New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve is when I get all caught up with the passage of time, fears about my own mortality, and all that other fun stuff. As a result, if I’m going to get moody and freaked out about getting older, I save it up for New Year’s Eve. Who knows how I’ll feel on December 31 of This Year of Living Non-Judgmentally; in all the judgmental years leading up to this one, I’ve really disliked it.
So while this strategy may be unfair to an innocent, end-of-year date, it allows me to continue to enjoy my birthday. Freaking out about where the hell time is going? New Year’s Eve. Fun and excitement and the expectation of cake? That would be my birthday.
I’m glad that I’ve been able to maintain some consistency of joy each year so far, looking forward to my birthday.
And I’m glad the coolest month is here.