U is for United

Today's insightful wisdom is brought to you by one of my favourite philosophers, the Legendary John Cougar Mellencamp, who famously said:

Everybody has got the choice between hotdogs and hamburgers.
Everyone of us has got to choose
Between right and wrong
And giving up
Or holding on.

*****

While some people I know are mystified that I would plaster my life on Facebook, telling the world all my secrets, I find it works as therapy.
When I say, "I'm having a bad day." or "I feel like a failure." my Facebook friends will fill up a page with love and support. Some might see that as a cry for attention.... well, yes, it is.

My friends are all genuine people. There is no teen angst going on here, no showing-off or trying to get some boy to show an interest.
When I cry for help, it's because I need it.
Even when I can't say what the problem is, my friends rally round. They lift my heart when it feels to heavy for me to lift myself.

They say delicious things, they remind me that all is not lost, they make me laugh, and sometimes cry a little.

And they do it with the written word. They take the time to type out a response, and if you think that's easy, you don't have predictive text on your phone.

There is great power in the written word. Seeing something in black and white is concrete. Comfort expressed on paper (or a screen) lasts a very long time.

*****

Sometime in life we all need a friend to help us. We can't always do it ourselves.

Maybe we need someone to help us hold on, or to catch us when we fall.

Or maybe you will get the chance to BE that friend.

Never ever underestimate the worth of a kind word or gesture when someone you know is in trouble.

T is for THANKFUL

There's a character in a book (one of the Otherland books by Tad Williams) where a guy has a music chip in his head so he can listen to music all day long presumably without damaging his eardrums.

I would so do that if I could. (this guy turns out to be a pyschopathic killer but I'm pretty sure the music is incidental - however, best look into that further before surgery)

I feel like there should be a soundtrack to my life.
I have songs for everything -- not just wedding and funeral songs, everyone has those, right? but songs for parties and songs for driving and songs for cleaning and songs for sad.
I have the song picked out for my husband in case he carks it. (please God, not this century).

I have ringtones for people on my phone (Fabio's is the Superman theme song) and songs for people on Facebook (in my head, since Facebook has so far failed spectacularly to arrange ringtones).

So you get that music means something to me, it's not just background noise but rather, I connect with it in my spirit. It calms me down or lifts me up, just like it probably does for you, too.

This morning, one of my Facebook friends asked for good news, cos she wasn't seeing any on the tv or in the papers, so people have been telling little snippets of things that make you smile. It's really lovely.
Many of those things are tiny, maybe easy to skip over if you're in a bad mood or busy. But the truth is, there's usually good news around us all day, every day -- it's just that we don't see it.
I am trying (with varying degrees of success) to see the good instead of the gloomy, and it helps a bit with those depressed days I have during my cycle.

For me, one of the surest ways to start looking for the little things is to play THIS SONG while I'm driving. I sing at the top of my lungs and I look around me and I see.

Today, I saw a mum and a dad walking the kids to school, holding hands and talking and laughing. How good is that?

 I saw kids running into the schoolyard greeting friends they haven't seen for two weeks.

 I saw builders working on two houses that we've been driving past twice a day since the lots were empty. The roof is going on both houses and I smiled to myself, thinking how excited the owners must be feeling now.

 I saw people checking the new plants by the side of the highway, out in the sunshine amongst the bees (and mosquitoes), instead of cooped up in an office somewhere.

 I saw magpies and cute little songbirds hopping around looking for breakfast.

 I saw people walking their dogs and a guy mowing his lawn.

 None of this is earth-shattering stuff. It's just people (and birds) going about their daily business, small doings in a big world.

But to me, it's also a beautiful world.





PS listen to the song.