mespilmanI woke up and showered and wrote a doctor who practices not far from my apartment. Over the last ten years, I’ve been a transplant, I told her. I’ve lived in five cities, never coping well, never braced with any enthusiasm to stay. My real life, I’ve always imagined, will begin once I graduate and,…
via Read This If You’re Waiting For Your Real Life To Begin — Thought Catalog
Ready… Set… GO! The celebration of National Poetry Month continues with a special offer for you, from me! That’s right, for one week only, you can get the Kindle version of my first haiku book, A Haiku Perspective 2015 for a mere .99. That’s right, Ninety-Nine Cent, Haiku, for YOU! What’s equally exciting, is […]
“Happiness is letting go of what
you think your life is supposed to
look like and celebrating it for
everything that it is.” – Mandy Hale
– Mandy Hale
Being happy, walking that path, has been my primary goal in life. For a long time, I thought that being happy meant being a part of something or living wholly for someone. In essence, I thought that being happy meant being in a relationship. What I did not realize was that, although happiness can be found interpersonally, it must first be found intrapersonally. I needed to learn to be happy with me. Moreover, consistent self-happiness can take incredible daily effort, especially if your environment is far from conducive to promoting a healthy mental state.
Still, I believe that experiencing happiness can be as simple as taking your next breath or becoming aware of your senses. Self-happiness does not have to start with an internal examination of self, where you check off all the ways that you are sound psychologically, intellectually, and spiritually. No, it can begin with an external examination, i.e., physically. That you physically exist, regardless of form, is something about which you can be happy. Paying attention to and celebrating how your body
Paying attention to and celebrating how your body does work, instead of how it does not, is important to feeling happy, especially if, like me, you have a chronic illness. For example, I find joy in wriggling my toes when I’m wearing socks. The sensation of the cloth restricting my toes makes me aware that I have toes, and that is something for which I truly grateful. When I experience gratitude, I also experience happiness.
Starting off this Monday, why not take a moment, in whatever way, to show yourself gratitude that you are, that you exist. And by just existing, despite the opinions of others and your physical surroundings, you have the potential to create an even greater happiness for yourself.
I know that I will be doing that. I hope you will, too. 🙂
Until Later,
D.
Couple of days ago we brought you a story about this guy who traveled the subway in New York while reading books with creative fake covers! His name is Scott Rogowsky, he is a comedian and he recently posted an album on his Facebook page (better to say, a page for his late-night talk show) with all the book…
In response to Writer’s Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge Survival theme I offer advice and a poem, followed by words from Neil Gaiman and Bryant McGill. My advice, “When you fall, stand up and know that you are human”, applies to mistakes and blunders large and small. There is a place for responsibility, remorse, and […]
Sleeping for an uninterrupted eight hours a night is not, in fact, natural human behavior. Last week, writer Jesse Barron described in the New York Times how she accidentally fell into a pattern of “segmented sleep,” a routine that was standard for centuries until the late 19th century. The practice—which typically involved going to bed…
The NaPoWriMo challenge 10 is to use books from your shelves to create a poem. Here is my take on the challenge. An ode to the younger generation. Dear Abby, The young visitors Now a days. Too good to be true! Put downs lost in translation, Awkward family photos…voodoo histories. Vile bodies up […]
via The Evolution of Useful Things — La vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin
Single ladies aren’t just a catchy Beyoncé lyric, but a major driver of political change. Social and economic structures have typically been designed for married couples and so, as the number of unmarried women increases, so does the pressure to break out of these conservative constructions. Journalist Rebecca Traister explores the idea in depth in…
via There is a powerful relationship between the population of single women and social progress — Quartz
So, I decided to walk to get healthy. Not just wandering around but actually setting aside 30 minutes each day to walk at pace. To check my progress, I used my iPhone Health app which told me how many steps I had done each day. I had decided on this option as…
via How to reduce your extreme stress with rice — Julia’s Place
It’s time for something a little different here on the blog. We have a poetry challenge, a fiction writing challenge, and I co-host the Writer’s Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge on another blog with Colleen after we both felt a need to retire our individual Wednesday challenges and combine them to keep the big picture going […]
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