Tiffany White – “Dogs Hugging Humans” – FirstforWomen.com
Tag Archives: attitude
Civilized
Sent to me by my friend, Marsha.
Now THIS, in my opinion, is the way protest should be done. Maybe she might be a bit more specific about WHAT she is a little upset, but I love this.
Filed under Attitude
“Whine with Cheese”
Quotespedia.org
It seems to me that we are becoming a nation of whiners. (I think that a friend, Lisa Richey, came up with my title for this post, making a handmade paper poster years ago with this phrase.)
I can only listen to the news for a short time these days, with the concentration on victim-hood, claims of ‘distortion of the facts’ and things done for ‘political purposes’ from BOTH sides of what passes for Congress nowadays. I check several sources for my news now, and sometimes STILL am not sure what actually happened when I finish.
I choose to try to look toward the light, rather than become mired in the muck. I admit that is probably an ostrich-with-my-head-in-the-sand or Pollyanna-ish, but I want to concentrate on what is right, good, and inspiring – and happily, it’s going on all around us. :0)
There are people who are doing good things – quiet things – things where some kindness changes another person’s day. There are people creating art, seeing things differently than the rest of us, making something breathtaking out of what might be ordinary materials. There are others practicing singing, dancing, or athletics, so when they get their chance, they are ready to give it their all, bringing us to joy or tears when they share it.
Joel Osteen said it succinctly – “If you cannot be positive, then at least be quiet.”
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
Tell Them
The Mind Journal
I’m finally learning to TELL PEOPLE when they do or say something that touches me. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long; but instead of dwelling on that I’m just trying to not miss a chance to say something that just might make someone’s day, might brighten their spirit a bit, might bring a smile to their face.
As this quote says, it only takes a minute and it might mean a lot.
Just do it.
Sanity
Minions
Day 3 in my husband’s fight to get the shop computer up and running again. He’s trying to get the operating system updates onto the computer. This takes a long time and THEN announces the failure of the attempt. More than frustrating. We’re compromising now, with some time for me on my computer first thing, then my computer and the TV are unusable until late after dinner. Since I’m totally spoiled, I’m having withdrawal symptoms.
I’m reading, doing some cleaning, some cooking, and I spent time in my art room yesterday for the first time in a long time. I’ve started work on an idea up there with some cleaning up and putting away in there, too.
It FINALLY stopped raining! The sun is out today – a hugely welcome sight. I’m planning to take at least one walk in the yard today. We’re supposed to get more rain/wintry mix tomorrow, but we’ll deal with that THEN. It might mess up Lunch Bunch. :0(
Filed under Attitude, Challenges
Why?
Leashrly Life
Why am I like this? I’m far too old for it to be ‘cute’ anymore. I KNOW one thing in my head, but I ACT differently. I set myself up for failure by my all-or-nothing attitude, rather than taking things I want to change ONE STEP AT A TIME and then treating any problems/lapses/mistakes/weakness as an excuse to throw the day away, rather than looking at it and deciding to handle it differently next time. It’s embarrassing.
Yesterday I did well on my eating until my husband got out some chips after dinner. I wasn’t even particularly hungry, but like a lemming, I went into the pantry and got some chips, too. THEN, to compound the weakness, I proceeded to beat myself up mentally and emotionally.
I’m either ready for House Beautiful Magazine to come in and photograph or you can see tufts of dog hair wafting around as you walk across the dining area tiles.
I read a couple of articles yesterday on making improvements. It stressed not taking everything on at one time – making SMALL changes one at a time and building on that. I am TRYING to taking that to heart and practice that.
Filed under Attitude
“Habit”
Practical Psychology
I think I’ve finally done it. Oddly enough, I’m convinced I’ve done it because I HAVEN’T been able to exercise lately and I am thinking about it and MISSING it. YES! You read that right. I AM!
In my former life, The fact that I’ve not been able to continue my ‘however-many-days-in-a-row’ streak and continue putting starts on my calendar would have caused me to give it up. My current feelings are more mature (yeah, I know – hard to believe), but I’m simply looking forward to feeling good enough to be able to do a session of yoga. Each day I’ve been closer, and this afternoon might be the time I can do it again. And also, hopefully, when I’m able to do that, I’d like to start with my alternating warm-up and weights videos one day and elliptical trainer the next again.
I’m writing this day down on my calendar because it’s hard to believe that I’m not having an out-of-body experience or something. It doesn’t MATTER that I haven’t been able to keep up my ‘streak.’ I won’t even keep track of it anymore. The IMPORTANT thing is that I’m doing ONE DAY AT A TIME.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE – I just received a text from Patty, Linda’s daughter. She said that Kay had called her and said she was sick and wouldn’t be at Lunch Bunch today. Patty is out of town and said that Linda wouldn’t be there, either. I told my husband that Lunch Bunch was called off for the week. He said, “We could still go to the Waffle House.” I thanked him for the offer, but told him (again) that I was really trying to eat right and that when we had a chance to do that, we should, and that I would rather just stay home today and eat our normal lunch. I managed to NOT eat anything in-between meals yesterday, had bought some dried fruit to eat if I DID eat between meals, and that I was trying to take one day at a time, eating right and doing my exercises.
It’s funny. I’m older than dirt, but am just NOW starting to act a bit more like an adult. :0) The question of how long does it take to build a habit varies a lot from person to person. The answer for ME is around 172 days – at least on exercising. The ‘habit’ of eating right is just in its infancy for me, but I won’t count.
Kris Carr On Twitter
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises
Winning One Fight of Two
India Today
My husband and I are having our separate, but equal, frustrations today.
FIGHT ONE –
My husband finally won HIS fight – we got new windshield wipers for the truck. He tried, but had trouble with getting the old ones off last night. This should be a simple thing to do. You push one button and the thing comes off. No dice. He gave up, tackling it again this morning. He came into the office a few minutes ago, saying he had to DESTROY the old ones to get them off. He put the new ones on and we’re in good shape now, but he got thoroughly frustrated in trying to get the old ones off, plus got chilled working for so long in the cold garage.
FIGHT TWO –
MY fight is trying to file a claim on a package that wasn’t delivered. I ordered two things from Amazon. I hadn’t received them, so I got online to see if I could track the order. It was marked that it had been delivered last Wednesday. The proof of delivery said the UPS driver left it “at the mailbox.” We didn’t get an email notifying us of the delivery and we check the robot and the mailbox each time we drive down. I contacted Amazon, who told me to talk to UPS. I got online. The site wouldn’t accept our password. I tried to change the password and got a screen saying that the app for that wasn’t working now. I called and talked to a robot, who told me that claims couldn’t be taken on the phone, directing me back to the website. I’ll keep trying, but it looks like I’m screwed. :0(
Filed under Attitude, Challenges
Heart-Warming Stories 4
Children’s Dentistry – Fort Valley, GA
____________________
Whenever I’m disappointed with my spot
in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.
Jamie was trying out for a part in the
school play. His mother told me that he’d set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen..
On the day the parts were awarded, I went
with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement..
‘Guess what, Mom,’ he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me…’I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.’
__________________
(Sent to me by my friend, Marsha.)
I love this story. It reminds me of a teacher who was on America’s Got Talent with a huge group of kids. He described the voices of his kids (paraphrasing) “Some are great singers, some are good, and some sing with great enthusiasm.” :0)
Heart-Warming Stories 3
Institute for Family Studies.
________________
On my way home one day, I stopped to
watch a Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was ‘We’re behind 14 to nothing,’ he answered with a smile.
‘Really,’ I said. ‘I have to say you
don’t look very discouraged.’
‘Discouraged?’, the boy asked with a
Puzzled look on his face…
‘Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t
Been up to bat yet.’
_____________
Thanks to my friend Marsha for these stories
Sunshine
It’s easy these days to be down. Things become more and more challenging, frustrating and downright scary in our world. It’s hard to listen to or read the news because of all the bad stuff.
It’s important to stay informed, but I’m determined to focus on the beauty around me – not to be a Pollyanna or put my head in the sand like an ostrich, but not to let it all stomp me into the dirt psychologically.
Every day I look at what talented people have created. I search for it because I find people creating music, books, paintings, photographs and sculpture so beautiful it makes me forget for a bit what a mess we are making of things. It doesn’t matter what the medium is. Someone can look at it and see it in a different way, seeing its potential and bringing forth beauty that makes you cry. What a gift!
People focus on making plants grow or practicing a skill until it’s an art form. Teachers light a spark that causes a fire in a child’s heart that cannot be extinguished. Someone’s speech makes you want to help or turn your life in a different direction.
The fact that we live on the same planet as these talented people is almost unbelievable, and yet it’s true if we only look for it.
We can realize that not everyone is rushing headlong into the scary. We can keep our eyes open, protect ourselves and our loved ones as much as possible, try to help in any way we can, and keep the faith.
As Anthony J. Dangelo said, “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.”
Filed under Attitude, caring, Challenges, character-building exercises, Encouragement
Shot in the Dark?
Well –
I reached the wonderful guy who said he would fix our driveway. It’s been several months now and I hadn’t heard from him, so I called to find out if he 1) had been sucked into the void, 2) was still alive, 3) remembered us.
The good news is that he HADN’T been sucked into the void, IS still alive, and remembers us.
The bad news is that the second man, who was actually going to do the work with his equipment which was more suited to the job, has a problem. His rig burned up! Completely. It’s dead and gone.
So –
Our guy needs to find someone else who has a rig suitable for our job. I asked if he would call me when he finds someone. He said he would.
So –
I’m not really sure where we are now. We’re still waiting for the driveway to be healed. I WAS able to reach our guy, but I have no clue why he hadn’t bothered to call and let us know what had happened and that we were still on the list. I guess I’m a dinosaur, expecting common courtesy. I expect people to act as “I” would act, and I guess that shows how old I’ve gotten. People don’t seem to come, call, write, send carrier pigeons or smoke signals anymore. People say things just for form’s sake, not really feeling obligated to follow up.
When I sold a pair of earrings on my Etsy site recently, I messaged my customer, acknowledging the order and thanking her, telling her I planned to mail her earrings the next day and that I would let her know the tracking number when I had it. I messaged the next day giving her the tracking number and the expected delivery date. I got on the USPS site, entered the tracking number and entered the information needed so they would let me know when it was delivered. When I got the notice, I messaged my customer, asking if the earrings had arrived safely and if she was pleased with them. When she answered, telling me she was delighted with them, I wrote back, thanking her again for the order inviting her to return in the future. That’s just common courtesy.
So –
I guess one of my pet peeves is people making me feel hostile and unimportant when they don’t do what they say they will do. My list is growing.
Filed under Attitude, Pet Peeves
Freeze Frustration
You would THINK that, with as old as I am, and as many years as I have lived in Arkansas, that I would handle the sudden, one-time freeze event that happens every year with more grace.
It’s happening tonight. If it happens as predicted, the one-time event will kill everything still alive in our planters. THEN, instead of staying cold, it will warm up again for up to THREE MONTHS before freezing again.
I’ll show you ONE reason I get so hostile about this –
My elephant ears are happy and thriving, even though I do need to clean them up a bit. These will be devastated by a truly hard freeze.
I hope the weather forecasters are wrong…
Filed under Attitude, Gardening, Mother Nature
Feeling Lazy Saturday
My to-do list is intimidating me today. I went from feeling organized to have it all written down to feeling totally overwhelmed.
Brian Tracy wrote, “When you feel overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time, remind yourself that all you can do is all you can do.”
For the time being, I’m ignoring the list and doing what I want to do (writing blog posts) while I enjoy a cup of coffee. Then I’ll choose the most important thing and do that. Hopefully, these will give me the impetus and motivation to continue…
Filed under Attitude, Laziness - Sloth
Trying
I’m disgusted, but determined.
My scales are still impossibly snide, sneering at my efforts to lose the lard.
Most of the time I’m ‘good,’ only eating what I should. Other times – like in the middle of the night – I could eat the wall and not be satisfied. I’m frustrated and stressed, as we ALL are from time to time for various reasons. I’m trying to deal with that WITHOUT resorting to stuffing my face.
I’m using MyFitnessPal.com to record what I’m eating – except when I binge and all common sense and responsibility goes out the window. I’m 98% ‘there’ on trying to develop good habits of eating, drinking lots of water (my eyeballs are floating), and today is DAY 62 of my daily yoga practice.
98% is pretty good, but it’s the 2% that is killing my efforts. My husband said last night that the pain in my legs and hips at night might be due to my carrying a bit of extra weight. The result of THAT comment is that I can now add a bit of depression to the mix. He followed that up today, on the way back from the phone place, in stopping at Sonic and wanting to get us shakes! I told him to go ahead and managed to NOT get a chocolate shake. I did NOT bite him in the leg. (It’s a good thing because I haven’t had my rabies shot.)
So I’m going to fix our lunch now, drinking a full glass of water with it. I’ll drink a bottle of water mid afternoon, hoping that will curb my voracious appetite, and I’ve planned our good dinner, with lots of veggies, a bit of meat, and some fruit.
One day at a time…
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