Self-Defeating Thoughts and Questions

So often it's difficult to know which is "the better part of valor."

I think most of us would do the right thing most of the time if we were sure what it was. (Heady discussion at lunch today about the pros and cons of fundamentalist religion: it does give a secure sense of right and wrong about many things.)

But would any religious code tell me whether to keep working at the moment or take a nap or the afternoon off and start again refreshed? Maybe it's too small a matter to matter. But such decisions often feel quite important to me. ( See obsessive compulsive disorder: scrupulosity)

Once I righteously kept working (which involved driving to a copy center) when I was very tired. I got hit by an 18-wheeler and my car was totaled. It was half my fault; I thought he was signalling to me to drive out in front of him, but he wasn't. Would have been better if I'd taken a nap. But how was I to know?

A person could waste a lot of time and energy and joy trying to make the right decision about everything.

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Boldly Grateful

A wise friend recently told me he feels gratitude is the key to success in life.

I already knew that genuinely feeling grateful does a lot for one's health and happiness. But as I thought about it, I realized how effective a focus on gratitude could be for making alliances, working with people, recognizing opportunities, and so on.

And it does feel better than griping about what's not right.

Probably it cuts down on self-consciousness, fear, and irritability as well. Anyone who is in the midst of reveling in the wonders of what she has been given probably isn't simultaneously in a swivet about the oppressive to-do list, money pressure, how the meeting this morning should have gone, and so forth. Anyone feeling that kind of ease is likely nice to be around.

Even my computer is more cooperative when I don't swear at it for taking 8 seconds to do something.

It's pretty easy to feel genuine gratitude (nothing's more annoying than the fake pious lying kind) Feeling grateful happens simply by remembering what's good: an 8-second delay in getting into a website is miraculously easy research compared to the old days of driving somewhere to pore over microfiche archives. And so forth.

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Boldly Catching Up

Just slept 11 hours. The last week, with the five-day, nine-to-three workshop plus a few other things happening and coming due, was intense. When I woke up midday today, I thought: is there anything better than this? the luxury of lying here?

A friend once said that she enjoyed being tired once she gave in to it. I don't at first, because at first it feels like illness. But being well into recovery feels great. And I'll be back to full steam probably late this afternoon when I get out in my little paddle boat. All emails to be returned tomorrow.

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Puppy Cam

Who wants to be bold all the time? It would lose its zing.

Here's a nice break: a webcam watching a litter of puppies who are at the perfect age to be the ultimate in delightful. They were all asleep when I just peeked in, but stretching and shifting around and propping their heads on each other in a winsome manner. I'm not a huge fan of cute; I tend to prefer gorgeous and majestic and mysterious, etc. But these little guys are a don't-miss.

Note: I was tipped off to their location by the blog wowOwow, The Women on the Web. However, dog-people of any gender will enjoy this, I think.




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Patriotic Spending

My local paper published this weekend a list of 101 ways to save money: don't go out to eat and things like that.

I certainly do understand that. And at the same time, there's a strong argument for going out to eat, if possible, as much as usual. Because if all the restaurants in town go out of business, that's not going to help the economy a whole lot. Restaurants failing will hurt every other business in the community as well, thus leading to more layoffs.

Me--I'm going to keep on buying that 99-cent BLT at the Cookout drive-thru down the street. I consider it bold and patriotic.






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