is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea
“Over the past two years I’ve become increasingly concerned that we’re raising children who have little tolerance for disappointment and have a strong sense of entitlement, which is very different than agency. Entitlement is “I deserve this just because I want it” and agency is “I know I can do this.” The combination of fear of disappointment, entitlement, and performance pressure is a recipe for hopelessness and self-doubt.” Brené Brown
Brunch, bicycles, and battleships. That was my Sunday.
We’ve been wanting to try out this new restaurant nearby, and today we finally made it. When we arrived, the hostess asked if we knew it was their brunch only menu and was that okay? Brunch is always okay! I love brunch and this place had a spectacular one. Our accidental brunch made me think of this hilarious video.
And one day,
In the middle of a life you didn’t sign up for
On roads you never thought you’d walk
With bruised knees
And tired legs
With hopeful eyes and
Slow, unclenching fists,
You will stumble upon a mirror
Unsure of what you’ll see
And you will
Look into the reflection,
Surprised to discover
That
Everything
may have changed
But you
Look more like yourself
Than you ever have
Before.
-macaile.hutt
Change that to the end of a very long week, and that was me last night. I took a hot shower and crawled between the sheets and then proceeded to sleep for the next 11 hours straight. Ahh, pure heaven. It’s no secret that I love my bed and I highly value getting enough sleep. I see it as a vital part of good self-care. Eat well, exercise, mediate, and sleep enough.
Did you ever want it?
Did you want it bad?
Oh, my
It tears me apart
Did you ever fight it?
All of the pain, so much power
Running through my veins
Bleeding, I’m bleeding
My cold little heart
Oh I, I can’t stand myself
And I know
In my heart, in this cold heart
I can live or I can die
I believe if I just try
You believe in you and I
In you and I
In you and I
In you and I
Alan Watts & David Lindberg – Why Your Life Is Not A Journey from David Lindberg on Vimeo.
Wait. What? Life isn’t a journey? That’s so contrary to most of our life teaching. Alan Watts’ basic message is that our cultural conditioning and standardized system of “education” keeps us in a rat race. From kindergarten to high school, college to graduate school, to career promotions to…retirement in old age.
It was Sir Elton’s birthday the yesterday, so my Amazon music was playing some of his albums He’s one of my all-time favorite artists. I saw him in concert a few years ago, and he was amazing. Full of energy and quite gracious, not the diva he’s been portrayed to be. Perhaps he’s mellowed with age. 😆 Although this is one of his lesser-known songs, it’s one of my personal favorites.
I hope this is me at age 74! Still fierce, spirited, and silly. 😛
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
-Khalil Gibran
How do you explain this thing where love comes one day and takes your life back, and suddenly you can’t remember what you found so interesting about before, because you are here and I am here and have you ever seen a world so beautiful as this?
Enough now of the wet eyes of winter.
Not one single tear.
Hour by hour, green is beginning,
the essential season, leaf by leaf,
until, by spring’s name, we are summoned
to take part in its joy.
How wonderful, its eternal openness,
clean air, the promise of flower,
the full moon leaving
its calling card in the foliage,
men and women trailing from the beach
with a wet basket of shifting silver.
Like love, like a medal,
I welcome it,
I take it all in,
from south, from north, from violins,
from dogs,
lemons, clay,
from newly liberated air,
machines smelling of mystery,
storm-colored shopping,
everything I need:
orange blossoms, string,
grapes like topazes,
the whiff of waves.
I gather it up
endlessly,
effortlessly,
I breathe.
I dry my shirt in the wind,
and my opened heart.
The sky falls
and falls.
From my glass,
I drink
pure joy.
~ Pablo Neruda
When they ask you why you love the rain, the ocean, the river,
tell them it is because unlike the people who should have loved you better,
the water was never afraid to touch you;
even when you were at your most damaged and broken.
-Nikita Gill
Resisting and ignoring your own feelings and emotions does not serve you. It leads to stress, illness, confusion, broken relationships, fits of anger and bouts of deep, dark depression. Anyone who’s experienced any of the above knows that these states of mind are horrifically unhealthy… and when you’re in the habit of self-neglect, it’s nearly impossible to escape.
Refuse to ignore your inner siren any longer. Refuse to neglect yourself. Choose to take up lot of space in your own life. Choose to give yourself permission to meet your own needs. Choose to honor your feelings and emotions. Choose to make self-care a top priority.
Here are a few simple ways to choose yourself today:
P
Yes, this looks good to me. I just need a “Snoopy” to cuddle with and I’m all set. ☺️ I’m not feeling my usual weekend surge of “let’s get stuff done”. I’m not feeling bad, on the contrary, I feel relaxed. That’s what enough sleep and plenty of fresh air will do for me.
