November 20--What ARE You Thinking?

Things are always better than you think they will be. So think that. 
--Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, Nov 18

    Ain't that simple?!?!! This made me laugh at first, but there's some big-time wisdom there. "What ifs" can lead our thoughts down a scary path. We tend to (un)consciously assume that "the other shoe is going to drop." Yet I can think of so many instances where this quote rings true. One is my international travel--always turned out better than I expected. My recently celebrated birthday--even WAY better than I thought it might be. Teaching yoga and Melt Method for many years--so much more rewarding than I could ever have imagined at the start--it brought me some of my best friends and adventures in this lifetime. And my 12-Step journey--who knew that giving up my substance of choice could make my life so much better?!?!

    I'm guessing that some thought will lead you to your own examples. So let's just go with "this is going to be even better than I can imagine!!" 

    What's next?!?!

        Leta

Fort Collins, CO
(another trip that was better than expected!)

November 19--Bumming on College Basketball

Usually the team that scores the most points wins the game.  --John Madden

    I have been a big sports fan most of my life. Major League Baseball, of course, is No. 1. My interest in NFL football is mostly limited to watching the Chiefs. My dad taught me about the game as a young kid, and I know just enough to be entertained. Over the past decade I have increasingly enjoyed NBA basketball, starting with my "local" favorite, the Oklahoma City Thunder. I also follow the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. I plan a trip annually to see an OKC Thunder game. 

    All this brings me to the point of this blog. I used to be a big fan of college basketball, following Wichita State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Penn State (I grew up near there). I have tuned into one game for each of those teams so far, and I cannot name one returning player from last year on any of those teams. One or more may be there, and I just missed them. Anyway, my point is that the transfer portal has wrecked college basketball. I used to look forward to March Madness, but I doubt that I will even watch many more college games. Money, and the potential for money, has overtaken that sport, too. Recruiting is now the focus, and coaches' jobs have become more challenging. It's all very disappointing. 

    Opening Day of baseball season cannot come soon enough!

        Leta

November 18--What We See or Don't See...

We may live in the same country, the same city, or even under the same roof, but we live in different realities.  --Brian McLaren

    This is written by McLaren and comes from the Nov 17 "Daily Meditation" from the Center for Action and Contemplation:

Over the last decade, I have felt increasingly alarmed about the vitriol, distrust, and destructive miscommunication that are tearing people apart everywhere I turn … in nations, in religious communities, in businesses, in non-profit organizations, in friendships, even in families.

On social media, name-calling, misinformation, and propaganda squeeze out intelligent, honest, respectful conversation. In the mass media, accusations of “fake news” fly in all directions, leaving people wondering who to trust. In the world of religion, shallow, mean-spirited, or profit-hungry preachers draw huge crowds week after week, and they consistently appeal, not to the better angels of human nature, but to our unspoken fears and unacknowledged prejudices.

In the world of politics, uninformed, dishonest, and manipulative candidates keep winning elections, telling people not what they need to hear, but what they want to hear. Because of our polarization and paralysis, major problems are going unresolved, which intensifies frustration on all sides, and leaves (literally) billions of us vulnerable to populist demagogues.

The social fabric seems to be stretching so tight that it might rip apart. That scares me. “What’s going on here?” I keep asking myself….

Here’s the simple truth I began to see as I observed the decline in reasonableness, monitored the rise in dysfunctional and even dangerous discourse, and reviewed the academic literature:

People can’t see what they can’t see.

We all, yes, even me—and more shockingly, even you, have a whole set of assumptions and limitations, prejudices and preferences, likes, dislikes and triggers, fears and conflicts of interest, blind spots and obsessions that keep us from seeing what we could and would see if we didn’t have them.

We are almost always unconscious of these internal obstacles to seeing and understanding, which makes it even harder for us to address them. We are, you might say, blind to what blinds us. The name for these unconscious internal obstacles is bias.

Bias makes us resist and reject messages we should accept and accept messages we should resist and reject. In short … we can’t see what we can’t see because our biases get in the way.

    We are reminded yet again that solving our current issues begins within each of us.

        Leta

November 17--Too Much Energy Going to Pain

If you are doing something to avoid pain, then pain is running your life. 
--Michael Singer

    Yesterday's crankiness encountered a kindred spirit and bless the human sense of humor, we were able to laugh our way out of it. I shared a photo of a couple items from my post-it note collection (below). 

    Today's quote was my morning "2x4 upside the head." Pain has been running my life since being in Bali. Even as I grow physically stronger and pain lessens, I have an ongoing fear of pain, so it's still running my life. I'm now halfway through PT for my left foot/ankle/calf, six more sessions to go. I succumbed to scheduling a long overdue physical for mid-December. Despite six weeks of PT on my right shoulder, it has shown no improvement, though I got some temporary relief from a shot. So in December, I have the physical, conclude my foot PT, and get another shoulder shot. I declare that when those are complete, I am DONE with medical attention for the entirety of 2026 (and hopefully beyond!!). Any remaining aches and pains will simply be lived with and I will keep moving. 

    Weary of the "organ recital," our common term for excessive medical/ailment talk.

        Leta

Poor sleep is the big culprit!

November 16--Is It Nap Time Yet?

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. --Exodus 20:8

    I'm cranky from poor sleep, so I'm taking the day off. Alas, I wish sleeplessness was as beautiful as the painting below.

        Leta

"Sleeplessness at Night" by 
Leonid Afremov

November 15--Let Us Use Imagination Wisely

No one has ever hurt their eyes by looking on the bright side.  --Mary Davis

    I have a magic magnifying morbid mind. I think that Grammie dying suddenly when I was four years old implanted the idea that something horrible could happen at any minute, and my imagination went wild and never stopped. My interminably long recovery from sciatica and the current U.S. political horror have only exacerbated the scariness. When I head down a frightening path, I'm developing the practice of dragging my thoughts in a more positive direction, while giving myself credit for my vivid imagination. I'll say to myself, "Good one! But that's not helping my mood, let's go elsewhere." That same imagination that scares me also enables me to paint, garden and write a blog. 

    Less terror, please!

        Leta

Nature's beauty in our neighborhood

November 14--BUGS! and Such

My mother is a walking miracle.  --Leonardo DiCaprio

    Why am I having goofy thoughts this morning about my long-deceased mother? She passed in 1979 at the young age of 61, so for the bulk of my life, I have been motherless. 

    She had a thing about bugs, most especially roaches, lice and bed bugs. She believed that having any of those critters in one's home was a clear sign of "white trash." (Note that I grew up in an area with very few non-WASPs.) Those bugs were a crisis to be avoided at all cost. 

    Dishwashers, Kleenex and margarine were Communist plots. Dishwashers wasted water, and who needed one when you had a daughter (me) perfectly capable of washing dishes? Kleenex were wasteful--use a handkerchief. And margarine--Good Heavens! Why would you use fake stuff when you had real butter?!!? I grew up in a family that worshiped butter, and I still do to this day! 

    Mom loved her roses and she had a bed of about a dozen bushes in the back yard. Japanese beetles were the bane of her existence. She was generally an organic gardener, but for her roses, no chemical was too strong to keep them thriving and bug-free. She raised and preserved, via canning or freezing, nearly all our fruits and vegetables. 

    Mom never drank alcohol. Dad drank enough for both of them, and I think not-drinking was her one truly self-righteous stance. She brought a bottle of champagne back from France around 1971, and never drank it. We found it when we cleaned out the house many years later. 

    Mom took me on trips to France, Italy, Canary Islands and Japan. She was always trying to sneak back home cuttings from exotic plants. She would certainly be "pulled aside" at airports these days!

    Her favorite late night snack for watching Johnny Carson was to fry up a batch of chicken livers. 

    I would easily label Mom as a hypochondriac, and she spent hours poring over our two-volume medical encyclopedia (yes, actual books in those days!) trying to figure out what was wrong with her. 

    In hindsight, I'm amazed that I turned out even close to "normal."

        Leta

Bird of Paradise, Mom's favorite non-rose flower