September 21, 2019 - 8 - "Mindset"

     You know how sometimes you'll hear a new idea and it shakes up your entire world?

     If you've ever had this experience then you are my friend.  It indicates that you have a Growth Mindset.  And this openness to life is something I truly admire.

     This relatively small idea has absolutely revolutionized my way of looking at the world, and has given me a whole new understanding of people.

September 20, 2019 - 7 - "Exercising Discipline"

     More than three years ago (edited:  realized I began in July of '16) I started doing a workout program designed by Kayla Itsines.  A coworker told me about Kayla's Beach Body Guide fitness plan and said a lot of people were having success with it.  She suggested I search online for ‘BBG transformations’ to get an idea of what it could do for me.

     I looked at just a few of the images and stories and thought:  ‘Wow. I'm doing that.’  I downloaded her app and got to work.

September 19, 2019 - 6 - "Delivery Devotee"

     I suppose the addiction started when I lived in Manhattan.  Even way back in the Pre-Amazon-ian Era if you were in the city you could get almost anything delivered to your door at any hour of the day or night.

     This was a godsend for me for so many reasons:
          1) I was flying international trips then and my exhaustion level and inability to distinguish night from day made establishments with traditional hours challenging for me to patronize.
          2) As an introvert who spent a lot of time with masses of people the interactions involved in going out my door, down my apartment stairs, and down the street to the corner store seemed overwhelming.
          3)  Just putting on pants was an insurmountable obstacle at times.
          4)  I have a deep and abiding hatred of all errand-running.
          5)  My overall laziness about, and apathy towards, leaving the strong force field that surrounds my home has always been hard to overcome.  Some people get cabin fever quickly and just can't wait to get up and out into the big bright world.  I'm more the hunker-down-until-stores-of-food hit-critical-lows-before-I'm-involuntarily-forced-out-of-my-lair kind of person.

September 18, 2019 - 5 - "Higher Ground"

      The beautiful and affirming book "The Artist's Way" talks about how we circle back to things in life.  Like, basically, we keep revisiting and/or repeating past mistakes.

     That idea used to bum me out.  I'd see myself returning to that same friend who I regretted calling, or that same junk food that I'd just later regret having.  It felt so defeating, like:  'Crap!  Here I am again?  You've got to be kidding?!  Why am I still having to deal with this same old problem/memory/bad habit, etc...?'

     But Julia Cameron made it all make sense for me.  She says that, yeah,  it's kind of true that we do keep looking at the same old stuff.  But it's as if we're circling up a mountain path and every time we come upon that same situation  it's from a different, higher viewpoint.

September 17, 2019 - 4 - "Man Bun"

     I flew with a young man with long hair he'd tied up into a top knot.  

     It suited him.  Made him look kind of edgy and cool.  

     Male flight attendants, traditionally, (and formerly by absolute company mandate), have tended to look incredibly conservative.  I loved that this guy was doing his own thing.  

     Another crewmember, a woman about my age, mentioned his 'man bun'.  

Me:  "Cool, huh?"   She sort of guffawed and looked at me like I was a nut.  

September 16, 2019 - 3 - "Two Quotes"

     I was boarding a flight recently and had several patience-testing moments in a row.

     That last sentence is, of course, redundant.  Getting a hundred and something people, and all their baggage (both mental and physical) settled into very tight quarters, with severe time constraints, by definition,  is patience-testing.

    A man watching all the commotion and ruffled feathers around me said:  "Wow.  How do you manage to stay so calm and pleasant through all of this?"

September 15, 2019 - 2 - "Surviving the Life: Frenemies"

First off; a Disclaimer: 

     The truth is, I could fill a whole big corner of the internet with what I don't know about friendship.  I have gotten it right, and I have gotten it hellaciously wrong.  

     But I have learned some things.  So here are just a couple of my gems of wisdom.  These gems, like all gems, were formed by extreme pressure.  In this case by the pressure of those two-ton 'friendships' that hurt your heart and prepare you for the darkest challenges of life.  Stuff like political debates and bouts of strep throat.

September 14, 2019 - 1 - "Our Daily Thread"

Willpower Doesn't Work

     I'm reading (aka listening to on Audible) "Willpower Doesn't Work" by Benjamin Hardy.  It's yet another attempt of mine to form a more perfect writing habit. I've been working on this goal for some time now; more or less since I could form letters of the alphabet.  

     The main point of Hardy's book is that accomplishing hard things in not about willpower.  It's about setting up environments that make the daily work of your goals nearly automatic.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, so clearly am no expert, but I'm sharing what I've learned so far to explain how it's helped and motivated me already.

   

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     Hardy says you first have to have a compelling reason why you want to achieve something.  He calls it your "Big 'Why'".  

So here are my reasons for wanting to write:      

Non-Fat Cat

     The vet said our cat was fat.

     She went on at great length about just how bad this is for cats.  Talked about how they get less and less active and it's a downward spiral of more lethargy, more food, more weight...leading to less activity, which leads to more boredom, which leads to even more food...and more weight.

     The vet said when you look down at a cat they should have a waist.  She told Michael off about it.

     At length.

     In front of people.

     She then took a plastic food scoop, dramatically swiped a line on the side of it with a Sharpie, (in front of everyone in the waiting room), handed it to Michael, and explained  the line indicated the shockingly tee-ninetsy amount of food she felt Ella should eat in a day.

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     This is all very very bad for more than one reason. 

Superpowers

I had this cool dream.

I was a superhero.

I was a Cloud Climber.  That may have even been my superhero name.  Not sure.  No one called me anything in my dream.

I just knew I was a Superhero.  Mainly because someone wanted me to stop this bad guy in a plane.

That's where the dream started.  I was getting details of my mission:  There was this plane with a bad guy in it.  Not sure what he did but I felt pretty sure that many lives hung in the balance between my cunning and skills, and his malicious intentions.

Just Begun: My Granddaddy Scott

When Granddaddy Scott died he spoke to me in a song.

Or that's how it felt anyway.  Truth is, I'd had a song recorded from the radio that I'd been listening to quite a bit.

John Denver sang it and I thought it was pretty.  Before that morning it was a song about romance, but when my grandfather died, it became him telling me that everything was going to be okay.

Captain Obvious ( Or: How I Have to Get Hit in the Head By New Information)

My Life Lessons really need to be very clear.  If only Life would invest in some Skywriting planes, or someone to artfully tag large walls that I will pass regularly with little hints like:

YO!  SUSAN!

PAY ATTENTION!

THIS IS A LESSON YOU MUST LEARN:

 ...and then spell it out.  

And I mean really spell it out.

     I'm such a self-improvement junkie I would totally listen.  It's just that I need very specific marching orders.

Here are a few of the valuable tidbits I'm finally catching onto:

Authentic City

A perfect card to draw for this post!
It's from my deck 'Affirmators!' cards.  (Thanks Kristine!)

You know those old people who'll say anything?

They blurt out the most inappropriate things, share unflattering tidbits about themselves...or you.  Maybe dress in ways that flout the social norms.  (Think Gladys from the Ellen Degeneres show randomly volunteering stuff like:  "Hey honey, I'll tell ya:  I love Jesus, but I drink a little.")  Or the lady at the corner market wearing a ball gown to get groceries.  Or that neighbor who tells people they need to lose a few pounds...

This used to seem very embarrassing to me.  I wondered if they were getting senile or something.  Losing all social skills.  It seemed sad.

But I'm starting to see them as Superheroes.