Last week, a patient I’ve done my best with told me about a useful mantra they had created:
I’ve done my best
I’ll let the universe do the rest.
For years, I’ve done my best at
blogging,
psychotherapy,
parenting,
music,
humor,
taking pictures,
connecting with others, and
being a thoughtful citizen of the world.
It’s nice to think of the universe doing the rest. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop
blogging,
psychotherapy,
parenting,
music,
humor,
taking pictures,
connecting with others, and
being a thought citizen of the world,
but it does take some pressure off.
I’ve done my best to introduce my images for today.
I’ve done my best with my old student Chris Delyani, who’s done his best with his latest novel. I’ve done my best jogging and now that I’m dealing with health restrictions I’ll let the universe do the rest.
Yesterday, I attended the Labor Day protest march in Boston where I saw many signs of the times.
Members of a metal-workers union. Governor Maura Healey!
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I went to the protest with my ukulele, my signs of the times, and a plan to sing my protest songs if I could. However, I got distracted by all the great signs, the competing music, and running into several people I know, including a classmate from college.
However, I played “You Don’t Scare Me” for some organizers of the weekly protest in Cambridge and they loved it, so a sign of the times is that I’ll be attending one of the Cambridge protests in the near future.
Do you see other signs of the times in this blog?
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Here’s what I find when I search for “signs of the times” on YouTube.
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Thanks to all who are here for these signs (and songs) of the times, including YOU!
I try to make my therapy groups a good place for people to share whether or not they are in a good place.
People will sometimes start the group by admitting that they are not in a good place. By the end of the group, they seem to be in a better place, just knowing they are not alone.
The hospital is a good place for me to do my therapy groups in person on Mondays. The rest of the week, my home is a good place to do my virtual groups.
It’s difficult for me to see the USA as a good place these days.
I try to get into a good place before I check my INR, since so many things affect it, including my mood.
This seems like a good place to share my photos for the day.
The ferry is a good place for me to start my Mondays. A patient told me about a good place — Ponyhenge in Lincoln, MAThis is a good place I need to visit. I told my patient about a good place nearby that honors Amelia Earhart. I need to find a good place for this calendar in my new, shared office. The ferry is a good place to be at the end of my workday. A Tesla is a good place for these bumper stickers.
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Here’s what I find when I search for “a good place” on YouTube.
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The comments section is a good place for you to express any thoughts and feelings about this post.
Thanks to all those who make a good place better, including YOU!
While I’m waiting for my photos and images to upload from my phone onto this blog, I’m also waiting to come up with a good enough opening for this post.
The waiting for that is over!
Because of my keen sense of mortality and belief that every day may be my last, I’m not a big fan of waiting. One might say that I’m waiting to become more patient and accepting of waiting.
Along with many other people I know, I’ve been waiting for the weekend and the end of the current heat wave.
I gave up waiting for the Halifax Fringe to respond to my proposal to do my “Group Therapy with Ann” show there this year, so I booked a trip with my son Aaron through the Canadian Rockies. Now I’m waiting to see Vancouver and many other beautiful sites in Canada for the first time. If I do get accepted to the Halifax Fringe, we’ll all be waiting for me to do my show there another year.
Do you see waiting in my images for today?
Rather than waiting for the heat of the day, I took a very early walk yesterday near the company that makes my mechanical heart valve and my pacemaker/defibrillator.Because today is all we have, I’m not waiting for tomorrow to live my best life. This group email, which I received yesterday after many months of waiting, seems to imply that I might have been given a show at the 2024 Halifax Fringe. Now I’m waiting for them to contact me personally so I can tell them I can’t do it this year. Michael’s creative dishes are always worth waiting for.
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Here’s what I find when I search for “waiting” on YouTube.
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If you would like to make a comment about this “waiting” post, what are you waiting for?
In the 1980s, when I was asking myself “what’s missing?” in my career as a business writer, I took the Johnson O’Connor aptitude tests to try to discover what job would be a better match for my skills and interests.
In one of the tests, I was asked to study a card that contained illustrations of several ordinary objects like keys and cutlery. What was missing for me as I stared at that card was any interest in what I was looking at — the illustrations were bland and the objects were sooooo mundane. After a while, I was shown another card that contained all the same objects but one, and I was asked “What’s missing?”
While I could definitely see the blank spot where something was missing, I could not, for the life of me, remember what was missing. While I’m a pretty observant person, that skill of identifying a missing mundane object was definitely missing for me.
The testers at Johnson O’Connor explained that what would be missing for me in my life because of this inability to identify missing ordinary objects would be minimal, as long as I didn’t become a medical doctor (I’d be missing many diagnoses of physical changes). I notice this inability to remember what’s missing when I pass by an empty store front on a familiar route and I struggle to remember what used to be there (unless I have specific, personal memories of the place).
I acutely feel and remember what’s missing where human beings and animals are concerned, and those were definitely missing on the Johnson O’Connor cards of ordinary objects.
What’s missing for me at work this week is a sense of familiarity and comfort with the hospital operating software. What’s missing also is my faith in myself to adapt to this major change and return to my usual sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in my current job as a psychotherapist.
What’s missing from my 7-year-old laptop is the ability to run the new hospital software when I am working from home, so I went to the Apple Store yesterday during lunch to get a new laptop. When I got back to work I noticed what was missing from my new Apple Air — the power cord.
I wondered if I somehow lost it on my walk between the Apple Store and work. What’s often missing for me is trust that situations like these — when I may be the one at fault — will work out. When I returned to the store and explained that the power cord was missing, they gladly gave me another one.
What’s missing in my life right now also includes the need to prepare for my show of original songs, which took up so much of my attention for months.
What’s missing in today’s blog?
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As usual, the Daily Bitch has an interesting perspective on what’s missing.
In case, like me, you have trouble identifying what’s missing, I’ll tell you what’s missing from today’s blog. Because I was so exhausted from my day at work, I fell asleep before I could ask my last question of the day on Twitter. That’s the first time in many years that question was missing from my daily Twitter posts. I wonder if anybody noticed that was missing.
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “what’s missing?”
Thanks to David McRaney and his talk on survivorship bias, I’m more aware of the importance of what we are all missing.
What’s never missing in these blog posts is my gratitude for YOU!
