Posts by Pat:
It’s always a choice!
Everyone (and everything!) can be a valuable lesson if we so choose. And it’s always a choice!
Maybe we can not only learn lessons on how to live, but also how not to live our lives!
Oscar here shows us how quickly we can change our feelings. He’s a living breathing zen koan, a paradox who purports to “hate being happy” and “love being miserable.”
Ludicrous as this might seem, we really do know we are all trapped in our own version of this psychological hamster wheel. Our life keeps changing, as do our feelings. From happiness to misery and back again.
And regardless of what Grumpy Cat says, I don’t think we can be vaccinated from either extreme.
There are a lot of negative role models to choose from: Oscar, the Grinch, the Grumpy Cat, Scrooge, Maxine, Garfield, Lucy, Eeyore…
AND, maybe even a relative or the boss, or…YOU?
After all, it is always our choice:
- how we will act,
- how we will react,
- what we will say,
- what we will do.
We name it and then we claim it! And thus we make it our experience. We can (and do) pick our role models. Maybe there’s a balance somewhere between Mary Poppins and her ‘spoonful of sugar’ and Lucy and her proclamation?
So, what have you been choosing?
What are you now choosing?
What will you choose?
Playing with words again!
Read until the end to just enjoy our delightful language! This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word. This word is “UP.” This one word in the English language can be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition. Who knew?! Not this (ex)English teacher! To be knowledgeable about the proper […]
Know this story?
“Once there was a very wise king who spared no effort to teach his people good habits of being industrious and careful. He felt that nothing good could come to a nation whose people complain and expect others to fix their problems for them. One night while everyone else slept, he placed a large stone […]
What are the Dog Days?
It’s summer time (and the living is easy? You know what that means…lots of fun, vacations, picnicking, sunbathing, lazing around. But also, potentially, the utter collapse of any of our momentum and productivity. It’s true, the dictionary even defines the “Dog Days of Summer” as “lethargy, inactivity or indolence.” And it’s from early July to […]
Food for thought…
“One song can spark a moment. One flower can wake the dream. One tree can start a forest, and one bird can herald the spring. One smile can begin a friendship. One hand can lift a soul. One star can guide a ship at sea, and one word can frame the goal. One vote can […]
Summer and the sun…
Summer has finally arrived and it’s time to celebrate! Recent graduates are beginning their new lives, the summer solstice brought the longest day of sunlight to us and the gardens are growing. Let’s commit to enjoying this season. (I recently saw an article that talked about the power of one ray of sunlight. Did you […]
Why your June 22 is so important…
Today is June 22. In 8 days , 2025 will be halfway over! That seems hard to believe! It seems like just yesterday we were making our plans for the year and feeling motivated about the future. Question to think about: what have we accomplished in this near-half-year? Have we achieved what we set out […]
What’s a Dad?
“A dad is someone who wants to catch you before you fall but instead picks you up, brushes you off, and let’s you try again. A dad is someone who wants to keep you from making mistakes but instead lets you find your own way, even though his heart breaks in silence when you get […]
Were YOU ever grounded?
Does that question ring a bell with any of the rest of you? When I was growing up, getting grounded meant that I wasn’t allowed to do the things that I valued most at the time. It means something different to me at this stage of my life! These days I often feel called to […]
Time for a new beginning?
Divine discontent happens when something new beckons, and we are hesitating. It’s when we’re trying to find satisfaction in a world that’s too small for us, yet we want to stay there because it’s familiar even though it no longer serves us. It’s like a chick in the egg. First it is comforting and then, […]