Today’s Paraprosdokian
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What’s in your complaint box?
What’s in your complaint box? Any chance of turning those complaints around and thinking of them as blessings?
I’ve been doing an experiment. Every day I write down as many things that I can think of from the day under the heading: Good Things That Happened Today. It isn’t hard to think of things. As with anything in life — when you pause to take an inventory — there is much more going on than that which skims the surface.
After I finish my Good Things list, I then write as many things that I can think of under the heading: My Takeaways on Life in the Current Moment. When I pause to think of My Takeaways, all sorts of good things start to burble forth — things that hitherto felt like an obstacle or a challenge or a frustration. It’s like magic. The weird stuff suddenly starts to transform into a better place.
For example, imagine that you are making an offer to purchase what you perceive to be your Dream Home. And we’re talking Dream Home, people. You are convinced that this house is It. It is exactly what you want to buy and to live in for the rest of your life — or at the very least the next decade. In your Good Things list, you write: I made an offer on my Dream Home today!!!!!
But then life intervenes. Another offer comes in on the same day as yours, but $10,000 higher than your offer. And to make matters worse for you, their financing is in perfect order. Guess whose offer gets accepted? You feel bummed! That was your house! Not theirs!
The days pass and you search for things to put down on your Good Things list. You might even write under Takeaways: I learned that it is best to remove such high emotion from a business deal. Something like this. But then. Something really crazy happens. You read about an opportunity to go to Ireland and serve as an intern at this amazing art school. It’s your dream!! You apply. You get accepted. Guess what? You’re going to Ireland for a full year! Woot!
This adventure gets listed under Good Things. In addition to recording this adventure to Ireland on your list, you write, I‘m so glad that that house deal fell through! Thank you!!! on the line directly below your entry about the Ireland opportunity. You see the correlation so clearly. In fact — even better yet — you feel the correlation and you experience an understanding that calms your soul and quells your frustrations about the house deal falling through. All is right with the world and you marvel at how things just work out!
You get the idea. The seemingly bad breaks that occur in life have all the potential to set us up for something even better. You just have to be looking. Be aware. Be open to seeing the “bad stuff” as “potential good stuff.” That there are Takeaways, if you only look. Life events aren’t always easy to dissect into lists, but I find that if I really stretch and embrace both the Good Things and the Takeaways . . . I learn a lot about me and how I can be happy in the flow of the present moment.
How about you? Do you want to join me in my Good Things/Takeaway challenge? If you want a PDF to download to get you started, just submit your email address and I’ll send it to you. It’s fun to turn things around to a place that allows you to embrace that which seemed like such a bummer.
As for me? Well, I thought that it was going to be smooth and perfect sailing as I prepared to go forth to Ireland . . . but the art internship fell through — something about something occurred, which meant I wasn’t going away to Ireland for a year.
Now, this unwelcome news certainly wasn’t expected, but I am learning as a result of my daily lists. Instead of listing the loss of my Ireland trip in my Takeaway list, I recorded it immediately in my Good Things list. After all, I am learning about this life stuff in a new way that is changing my mind and my heart. I know that something good is happening right now . . . and I am trimming the unexpected starboard list of the boat that I thought was set to sail for Ireland. It’s a good thing that there were life rafts on that boat!
And I am ready for the next adventure.
Who knows what’s next? I don’t. Be it a Good Thing or a Takeaway, I am learning that what works best is for me to be open. To understand that I don’t have a bird’s-eye view of every little piece that has been set in motion. To be me and to be happy and to have a light heart. To stop complaining and to start paying better attention.
OK Go Saturday Dance Music
theunseenwordsproject.com
If you haven’t seen an OK Go video, then you are in for a treat. These videos are super clever! Take a few moments this morning to appreciate some fanciful videos, listen to some good dance music, and get up and start moving. The thing about OK Go, they don’t spare any creativity when it comes to representing their music. Have fun today! It’s Saturday!
There is a reason why this video has over 53 million views!
And this is just plain fun!
Here are a few fun things to entertain your Saturday . . . music, Legos, book!
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
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Klutz LEGO Chain Reactions Craft Kit
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Mistakes That Worked Paperback
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Secret Passages
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A writer’s life is spent entering secret passages and opening doors. If the passages are too dark or dim, I might take the time to turn around and go back to look for a light. And if re-tracing my steps feels like it is too long ago, I might simply feel my way with my senses in the darkness. After all, I might trip over a flashlight and kick it into life or develop human sonar or spy a flicker of light down one of the corridors or develop a seventh sense. Anything could happen in these secret passages. After all, I am the author.
If doors are locked tight, I may start to hunt for a key. Or not. If looking for a key feels too time-consuming or futile, I might resort to one of those battering rams that you see in movies that involve crooks and the FBI. Boom. Open sesame. It’s up to me. I am the author.
[pas·sage (ˈpasij/) noun: the act or process of moving through, under, over, or past something on the way from one place to another.]
There are just so many remarkable words in this sparse definition. Act. Process. Moving through, under, over, or past something. On the way from one place to another. Sometimes I forget or take for granted or don’t pay attention to the ponderous weight that each word in our lexicon — any language’s lexicon — bears. These varied words that writers place on the page bear a nuanced message that goes far beyond the symbols and morphology that transcribes experience into imagination.
Writing. Socrates believed that writing was detrimental to the mind — that by writing something down, we have essentially dulled the mind’s ability to remember what is important. Being a writer, I look at the written word differently. Writing allows me to see my soul reflected back to me in a way that other experiences and relationships can’t. It is a solitary journey perfect for the exploration of secret passages. And my muse seems to like the secret passages the best.
Lillian Rose 1945 Mini Typewriter, 10 by 9.75 by 6.5-Inch
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Hemingway Pencil Cup
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GreatBIGCanvas Photographic Print with Black Frame, 36″ x 26″
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GreatBIGCanvas Photographic Print with black Frame, 36″ X 27″
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Finding Your Own Quiet Center
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“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” – William H. Gass
“You can make anything by writing.” – C. S. Lewis
“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the water is turned on.” – Louis L’Amour
Today, have fun finding your own quiet center of life and writing your thoughts, if only written by tracing the words across the clouds in the sky.
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Celebrate Transition
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Although I very much enjoy the heat and sunshine of summertime, I always look forward to the change in season. The cooler temperatures, the colors of the leaves, the crispness in the morning air . . . these things are like a happy pinch to the soul, reminding it to appreciate the warmth and the sunglow, as it is soon to be replaced by gray skies and rainy days. Rain, rain, and more rain.
Living in the Pacific Northwest, it helps if you like the rain. Well, I like it a lot. The rain sheds a whole new slant on life. It draws your attention to how nature feels on your skin. It replenishes the air with something indefinably sweet. It helps you appreciate your inordinately high volume of cute rain boots, puddle jumpers, and lightweight coats.
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The rain encourages you to linger a little longer over that second cup of coffee. In fact, it might be mid-afternoon and you think about having a mid-day cup to brighten the day. You lose track of where you last left your sunglasses because it has been a while since you needed them.
The muted colors and shifting fog also mark the fall and winter days. There is an exquisite softness in the air that reminds you to pause for a moment and breathe before getting into your truck. You wake up in the morning and you can smell the salt in the air. The birds are quieter and the squirrels are more active.
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As much as I enjoy a beautiful autumn rain, I do appreciate these lingering weeks of summer. The days when I go to work, having forgotten my raincoat. The late-evening walks that spell out a crimson and peach sunset. The warm afternoons when I forget that fall is soon to arrive.
It’s all so beautiful, isn’t it? These periods of transition awaken us and embolden us. We feel inspired to try new things when we feel nudged by nature.
What is one new thing you have been wanting to learn? To try? To do? Visualize your New Thing inside the box below:
Now visualize your New Thing outside the box:
Maybe now is the time to prioritize your preference and just do it. There is no time like the present to create your own season of transition and change.
3dRose LLC 8 x 8 x 0.25 Inches Fall Leaves Mouse Pad
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The Things I Thought I Wanted: a diary with a lock and key . . . and the thing about secrets
Oh, how I wanted a diary when I was a girl. You know the kind . . . a beautiful girly girl’s diary with a lock and key. And I was simply ecstatic the Christmas when I was ten years old and I received one. Mine had a navy blue cover with gold embossing and “1 Year Diary” gold-stamped into the cover. I simply loved it! I can still remember the sound that the gilt-edged pages made when I opened it for the first time . . . It felt like that crinkly sound was opening its pristine, glued-together pages to the secrets I was about to share with it.
Well, that’s the thing about secrets. No matter how much we try to preserve them or hide them from the prying eyes and inquiring minds that intersect our life, they are [sometimes] doomed to be discovered . . . paraded . . . maybe even disrespected. We feel violated when our secrets have been made public without our permission.
It takes a lot of risk and guts to commit a secret to the page . . . a lesson that I was quick to learn at this young age. My hopes of finding my true self via those gilt-edged pages were temporarily dashed when my big sister read my diary entries aloud — pages that detailed my first big crush [Dean W.], in front of said crush, who was my big brother’s best buddy.
I learned a lot that day about secrets and sisters and writing and locks and keys. I learned that just because something has a lock on it, doesn’t mean that it can’t be jimmied open. I learned that secrets can be made un-secret when they fall into the wrong hands. That, although it can be risky, it’s okay to be honest with my thoughts. That what someone else chooses to do doesn’t define who I am. That although I might feel a wee bit discouraged, I am going to keep writing.
It took some time to view things from my sister’s perspective. I learned that people do things that they don’t really intend to be hurtful in long-lasting ways. That what might seem funny at the time, never really was in the first place. And that sisters somehow stick together, even when they do things that aren’t very nice.
I am happy to have survived the awkwardness, and — now all the stronger — I have maintained my love and discipline of writing. And in the ways of true forgiveness, I have since pardoned my diary-reading, secret-disclosing sister. We are still the best of friends.
But you know how writing is. It liberates us, even when life sort of sucks. Writing asks us to pay attention to the details, even when it hurts. Little does this sister know that she is the muse for an extremely unattractive, glowering villainess who gets her payback comeuppance in one of my current short stories.
But this is the way of writing. You can change what is now by writing it into a different room or even onto a different planet. Does reality change? I don’t know how to answer this. I only know how to live it. And write it. And tell my sister that I love her dearly, because I do. And keep my journal hidden when she comes to visit.
Your choice. Choose you.
theunseenwordsproject.com
Greetings, lovelies. Today is a great day to Choose You.
- Grab that key.
- If you can’t find the key, teach yourself how to pick a lock.
- Open the lock and swing the doors wide open. You might be surprised to discover that you have actually, all this time, been the one who has been locked inside — not the other way around, with all this time thinking that your dreams are the ones that have been locked up and inaccessible.
- Step outside into the world of possibility and let your hair flow in the fresh breeze.
- Open your arms and embrace the many opportunities that are all around you.
- There are so many that are designed especially for you. For you. Believe.
- Step forth and choose. You only have to choose one to make a difference in today. Like choosing a puppy from a darling litter of adorable choices, pick the one that picks you.
- Nurture your choice. Let it know that it is loved. Feed it, water it, walk it, clean up after it.
- Groom your choice. Brush it, bathe it, pick the sticks and burrs that get stuck when it is out running around and exploring.
- An opportunity is a choice. You are worth the time and care that making the choice to choose you requires to nurture it. Love who you are. Believe in yourself. Choose well.
Saturday morning boogie time!
theunseenwordsproject.com
It’s Saturday! And it’s time to dance, people!
Dance like you did as a young’un. Just go for it! Shake it, move it, groove it!
Life is lively event. Seize the movement.
Sometimes all it takes to get you moving is a pair of dancing shoes. Put them on and start moving!
“Thank you for letting us be ourselves.”
“Celebrate good times! Come on!”
“When you wish upon a star . . . dreams will take you very far.”
It’s September!
The Unseen Words Project 