Coincidentally, I just hit the wrong button and lost my whole comment. Argh!
Here is my suggested affirmation: I am worthy of being recognized for all that I have to offer. Or, My artistic expression is valued, meaningful, and important.
Here are some series I would recommend (and choose) for a watch/re-watch: Deadwood, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Six Feet Under, the original CSI, Schitt’s Creek, Queer Eye, Call the Midwife, Bridgerton, Happy Valley, A Discovery of Witches, Line of Duty, Veronica Mars, Russian Doll, 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lonestar, and Reservation Dogs
Some things I missed and want to watch are: The Handmaid’s Tale, Person of Interest, Our Flag Means Death, The Office, The Expanse, Ozark, and Supernatural.
I’m currently watching For All Mankind, Under the Bridge, and House of the Dragon (before season 2 drops). I’m also watching the Good Wife, and plan to follow up with the spin offs, The Good Fight and Elsbeth.
I really resonated with your writing about words, said or unsaid, and the comparison with water. I cried a lot Thursday and Friday, I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t stop the flood and wept in front of people I normally wouldn’t have. A dam broke and I released a torrent of words, held back for years, I don’t know what repairs need to be made.
Laura - You have quite a list of rewatch options. I think that’s a good thing—always good to have things in our back pocket for a comfort or easy watch. It’s funny how we have a bit of overlap, but not much. Thank you for this list. Speaking of House of Dragons…. Loved that. It’s definitely one I will watch again. I guess I should take a look and pay attention to when Season 2 is coming. Thank you for the affirmation suggestions.
I am sorry for whatever the week held and that there was a dam break. I hope things are okay? Everyone has to vent.
My affirmation is: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Or is that an affirmation? It’s just my current mantra as I stockpile work.
Not watching anything currently. Just finished Modern Family, so I’m on the lookout! I’ll have to check back on the comments, see if something strikes.
Lightning bugs. This midwesterner cannot say fireflies. Lol
We are missing you on Sundays! I think your line is an affirmation, a good one to keep in mind. I hope all that work is going well and feeling satisfying.
My affirmations? Or something’s that lives rent free in my head one is “what ever time I have is exactly the time I need.” & “stop being so dramatic”
I can be anxious about time, death, how much I can do in a day, have I done enough ___ for someone my age, etc., so these mantras sneak in since watching Sculpting Time
Reading your experience with your new phone made me think about getting my new phone in January. As I was preparing my old phone to turn in for trade, I thought about all the things we had been through together - fun times 🎉 hard times 😭 all the moments captured by photo, video and audio 🌟 the communication with family and friends near and far ♥️♥️♥️
I wrote a thank you letter to my old phone and included it in the return box - whoever received my phone probably thinks I'm crazy🤣🤣🤣
I'm also considering rewatching Game of Thrones (how did this become one of my "comfort" shows 🤣🤣)
Have you watched The Last of Us? (Only 2 seasons though)
You made me laugh out loud with this story of sending the letter with the phone. That’s too funny, Melissa. I hope whoever opened the box took time to look!
The Last of Us is one I definitely plan to rewatch. That’s a good suggestion. Might be a good fit in a short window right now. Thanks!
Thank you, Fran. I’m sorry about the stairs comment. That comes across as thoughtless. It was related to my own walking of the stairs each day this week as I’ve exited a building, but it should have been edited out. I guess we might say “take the long way.”
I love that a you have these affirmations on the cards you carry!
Oh, no, it was a joke! Please leave the part in about taking the stairs. I think it’s important that people do that. My mom used to say that you should walk upstairs for your heart and downstairs for your kidneys. you were not being thoughtless. I was. Sorry.
Thank you Amy. You do show up. I've "known" you for about 4 months and I witness you keep to your commitments about posting on the regular. The 100 Day project has been such a gift to me. And your words are a wonder. You show up for me every week, I don't think you've missed one of my essays, and I'm so grateful for your support. Here's an affirmation that I use daily (when I remember!) that my therapist shared with me. It's SO helpful. The great equalizer: "I’m neither beneath or above anyone. I am independent of other peoples positive or negative opinion. I’m fearless in the face of all challenges." I adore this. It keeps me humble and grounded in the present. Have a beautiful day.
Thanks, Nan. There aren’t very many people I read “each” week, but I do read you (and Elizabeth, below). I appreciate you comment — and I appreciate knowing that the 100 Day Project has been noticed. I’ll be sharing some final thoughts on that as it wraps up in two weeks.
But you are a shining beacon of positivity, remember??! 😅
Thanks for linking the IG post, Amy. I shared this there:
Three things:
* You are enormously talented. I can’t tell, sometimes, if you claim that or not, so I figure I’ll remind you.
* Most of us are looking for ways to be inspired, whether we acknowledge it or not. Watching you draw is a path to inspiration that requires little effort. Just watch and feel yourself lifted, standing a bit taller, the world a little brighter.
* The open-ended, exploratory form of your writing is important and equally inspiring. But I think it requires greater levels of investment, which some people are unwilling (or unable?) to give.
That affirmation about being a shining beacon really is one of the funniest ones. Lol.
Thank you for your words, Elizabeth. I appreciate all of these points, even the gentle counsel in the final one. “I am not for everyone” was definitely a good affirmation in recent weeks ;)
I like the affirmation you offered! Have a great week ahead.
Screw the negativity bias. You know what’s really life-crushing? Demeaning? Soul-shrinking? Toxic positivity. It’s the ultimate gaslighters’ trick bag, and I detest it. Saccharine voices like nails on a chalkboard, to use two mixed and miserably cliched but absolutely on the money (3) descriptors. I literally (coffee-spewingly) laughed out loud at your list of no-go affirmations. Jinx.
Here’s what made the loud room quiet down and stop, though: the slight shivery image of turtles under the surface. That. Observations like that. Writing — like that! That’s why we read. Even in a busy over-worded mess like my current Sunday.
Thinking too about your layers and cloaks and the recurrent imagery of a hand out; about the instinct to hide and the will to show up; about invitations written in disappearing ink like an exquisite childhood mystery; about a trail through the last months of Sunday missives that I’m . . . .following? Imagining?
I’m a student of the glimpse, the allusion. And also oddly literal sometimes.
Back to the matter of positivity. I totally rejected the idea of glimmers (for reasons of both temperament and philosophy). Until I saw one, this morning. What the AF. Is it possible that I don’t always rush to the dark in everything? That as I’m bracing for the wash of dread, I feel instead — curiosity? Here’s the deal: I’m writing but not drawing. That’s ok for now because it all comes from the same place. And for the first time in years I’m feeling (ever so slightly) unstuck.
Finally, a misread: I was scanning the end of your post, looking for the Like button to tell you that I see you, and I swore I read “Thank you for reading The Liberated Life.” I cackled for all the aesthetic reasons that’s dreadful, and all the Freudian ways it’s spot on.
Oh, so many things. I still think we should be writing. I’m laughing at you laughing…. Somehow, you get it. I’m with you on the toxic positivity, but I did almost take out most of the “real” stuff here, the rational part of me knowing that it’s probably a really bad idea to start out by putting everyone at arms length from the get-go. Lol. I think sometimes we vent and spill about the wrong things, things that are easy targets ….when something else really is the issue. I have been trying hard to keep that in mind these days. I know I may be over-reading, mis-reading, and so on. I had to do a double-take on the glimmers. I’ve been thinking (because I need to think ahead carefully for the next several weeks) of resurfacing a post on glimmers…. But the odd thing is that when I wrote that last year, I also wrote about toxic positivity. So interesting to see these come up in your comment together. I am not someone who sees glimmers around every corner either. I’m glad though that something took you by surprise today. I really am. — Do you know how awesome it is to hear you say that you are “unstuck”? It’s really awesome. Secret messages…. Yes… As for the dark…. There is light, Inkytoro…. There is always light. And there is always laughter. It means a lot to me when you comment.
I watched that phone erasure slowly coming, like a technology horror movie…yelling at the screen “no, don’t do it, don’t do it! Something bad is coming!” But I’m glad you navigated through that and didn’t lose too much. Super frustrating, and I am the same way about deleting photos even when they’re backed up. They seem so evasive, just pixels floating in these seemingly delicate digital storage places while containing such precious memories. I used to make a photo album each year ever since the kids were born. I have not fit that in that past four years. I would like to do catch up final version… “Brown Family Photos: The Last Edition, Three Graduations and a Wedding, and a New Home and New Place and New Business”? Maybe someday…
Thanks, Erin. I appreciate that you saw it coming! You have a LOT of photo catching up to do to capture all of that change and evolution in your family story!
Late to the party as usual but the phrase that has been running in my head lately is “Life is not a race and you are never behind “. Not sure it qualifies as an aspiration. We called them lightening bugs when I was young and I learned to do an origami cube we called a lightening bug box but I never caught a firefly to put in it. Thank you again for a thought provoking post.
Never late. Always right on time. That is a really good phrase to keep in mind, for sure. We called them lightening bugs where I grew up, too. That’s fascinating about the origami cube box! We were mason jars with holes in the lid people ;) — Thanks for reading and commenting, Catherine.
We did not have fireflies or lightning bugs on the west coast but I think I called them fireflies if I ever had an occasion to.
My current affirmation is This Too Shall Pass - I heard a story about it on a podcast that I did not fact check about some rich dude asking people to sum up life in 4 words and this was one. And I feel another connect to it after that and have been reminding myself of this a lot lately.
Long series rewatch - Midsomer Murders. I have done the rewatch several times. It is my comfort show.
Definitely a good mantra to keep at hand, right? I hope you are finding peace in it. So often we need to be reminded (or remind ourselves) to slow down and refocus. — I’m also on the west coast, so no fireflies now, but I did grow up with them, clouds of lightening bugs that would rise at dusk.
You’ve named a show I haven’t watched! I will definitely take a look. I love knowing what shows people have as comfort shows — and I love knowing people who HAVE comfort shows.
“showing up” is really where it’s at. Great post with many messages.
I affirm to learn something every day and to find at least one good laugh.
Thanks for thoughtful words.
Thank you for reading, Jill. I love your affirmation — and I think finding something to laugh about each day is a good goal, too!
Coincidentally, I just hit the wrong button and lost my whole comment. Argh!
Here is my suggested affirmation: I am worthy of being recognized for all that I have to offer. Or, My artistic expression is valued, meaningful, and important.
Here are some series I would recommend (and choose) for a watch/re-watch: Deadwood, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Six Feet Under, the original CSI, Schitt’s Creek, Queer Eye, Call the Midwife, Bridgerton, Happy Valley, A Discovery of Witches, Line of Duty, Veronica Mars, Russian Doll, 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lonestar, and Reservation Dogs
Some things I missed and want to watch are: The Handmaid’s Tale, Person of Interest, Our Flag Means Death, The Office, The Expanse, Ozark, and Supernatural.
I’m currently watching For All Mankind, Under the Bridge, and House of the Dragon (before season 2 drops). I’m also watching the Good Wife, and plan to follow up with the spin offs, The Good Fight and Elsbeth.
I really resonated with your writing about words, said or unsaid, and the comparison with water. I cried a lot Thursday and Friday, I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t stop the flood and wept in front of people I normally wouldn’t have. A dam broke and I released a torrent of words, held back for years, I don’t know what repairs need to be made.
Laura - You have quite a list of rewatch options. I think that’s a good thing—always good to have things in our back pocket for a comfort or easy watch. It’s funny how we have a bit of overlap, but not much. Thank you for this list. Speaking of House of Dragons…. Loved that. It’s definitely one I will watch again. I guess I should take a look and pay attention to when Season 2 is coming. Thank you for the affirmation suggestions.
I am sorry for whatever the week held and that there was a dam break. I hope things are okay? Everyone has to vent.
My affirmation is: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Or is that an affirmation? It’s just my current mantra as I stockpile work.
Not watching anything currently. Just finished Modern Family, so I’m on the lookout! I’ll have to check back on the comments, see if something strikes.
Lightning bugs. This midwesterner cannot say fireflies. Lol
We are missing you on Sundays! I think your line is an affirmation, a good one to keep in mind. I hope all that work is going well and feeling satisfying.
Yes to lightning bugs!
It’s very satisfying as the stock piles up. I’m missing Sundays as well. You guys are my touchpoint in the week.
You certainly do show up. In a thousand ways.
And a suggested affirmation--a line from "The Hospital" by Patrick Kavanagh. (There's a reading of the whole poem in my last post.)
"But nothing whatever is by love debarred"
I will have to go and check your recent post. Thank you for reading and for this affirmation. That’s a thought-provoking one!
My affirmations? Or something’s that lives rent free in my head one is “what ever time I have is exactly the time I need.” & “stop being so dramatic”
I can be anxious about time, death, how much I can do in a day, have I done enough ___ for someone my age, etc., so these mantras sneak in since watching Sculpting Time
Arlene Shechet
Art 21 on PBS
⬆️⬆️💘 I love the Art 21 series
Thanks, Kritty. I haven’t watched Art 21. I’ll have to check it out!
Reading your experience with your new phone made me think about getting my new phone in January. As I was preparing my old phone to turn in for trade, I thought about all the things we had been through together - fun times 🎉 hard times 😭 all the moments captured by photo, video and audio 🌟 the communication with family and friends near and far ♥️♥️♥️
I wrote a thank you letter to my old phone and included it in the return box - whoever received my phone probably thinks I'm crazy🤣🤣🤣
I'm also considering rewatching Game of Thrones (how did this become one of my "comfort" shows 🤣🤣)
Have you watched The Last of Us? (Only 2 seasons though)
You made me laugh out loud with this story of sending the letter with the phone. That’s too funny, Melissa. I hope whoever opened the box took time to look!
The Last of Us is one I definitely plan to rewatch. That’s a good suggestion. Might be a good fit in a short window right now. Thanks!
Omg - 2nd season isn't it yet 🤪
No worries! But I went ahead and started the series again. Good suggestion.
Amy, thanks for another stirring compendium of ideas. As usual, too many to absorb at once.
I am sorry about your phone. My strategy is to let my carrier erase the phone. I cringe at even emptying the trash on my computer.
I am sorry you don’t realize you are surrounded by friends and that people genuinely do care. I think I do.
As for taking your advice, I’ll pass on taking the stairs. My wheelchair might object.
The backs of my business cards carry one of two affirmations:
What’s between is what’s real
and
Do less, live more
Know that you are loved
Thank you, Fran. I’m sorry about the stairs comment. That comes across as thoughtless. It was related to my own walking of the stairs each day this week as I’ve exited a building, but it should have been edited out. I guess we might say “take the long way.”
I love that a you have these affirmations on the cards you carry!
Oh, no, it was a joke! Please leave the part in about taking the stairs. I think it’s important that people do that. My mom used to say that you should walk upstairs for your heart and downstairs for your kidneys. you were not being thoughtless. I was. Sorry.
Thank you Amy. You do show up. I've "known" you for about 4 months and I witness you keep to your commitments about posting on the regular. The 100 Day project has been such a gift to me. And your words are a wonder. You show up for me every week, I don't think you've missed one of my essays, and I'm so grateful for your support. Here's an affirmation that I use daily (when I remember!) that my therapist shared with me. It's SO helpful. The great equalizer: "I’m neither beneath or above anyone. I am independent of other peoples positive or negative opinion. I’m fearless in the face of all challenges." I adore this. It keeps me humble and grounded in the present. Have a beautiful day.
Thanks, Nan. There aren’t very many people I read “each” week, but I do read you (and Elizabeth, below). I appreciate you comment — and I appreciate knowing that the 100 Day Project has been noticed. I’ll be sharing some final thoughts on that as it wraps up in two weeks.
Great affirmation. All three parts are good!
But you are a shining beacon of positivity, remember??! 😅
Thanks for linking the IG post, Amy. I shared this there:
Three things:
* You are enormously talented. I can’t tell, sometimes, if you claim that or not, so I figure I’ll remind you.
* Most of us are looking for ways to be inspired, whether we acknowledge it or not. Watching you draw is a path to inspiration that requires little effort. Just watch and feel yourself lifted, standing a bit taller, the world a little brighter.
* The open-ended, exploratory form of your writing is important and equally inspiring. But I think it requires greater levels of investment, which some people are unwilling (or unable?) to give.
Affirmation: I rise above.
That affirmation about being a shining beacon really is one of the funniest ones. Lol.
Thank you for your words, Elizabeth. I appreciate all of these points, even the gentle counsel in the final one. “I am not for everyone” was definitely a good affirmation in recent weeks ;)
I like the affirmation you offered! Have a great week ahead.
Screw the negativity bias. You know what’s really life-crushing? Demeaning? Soul-shrinking? Toxic positivity. It’s the ultimate gaslighters’ trick bag, and I detest it. Saccharine voices like nails on a chalkboard, to use two mixed and miserably cliched but absolutely on the money (3) descriptors. I literally (coffee-spewingly) laughed out loud at your list of no-go affirmations. Jinx.
Here’s what made the loud room quiet down and stop, though: the slight shivery image of turtles under the surface. That. Observations like that. Writing — like that! That’s why we read. Even in a busy over-worded mess like my current Sunday.
Thinking too about your layers and cloaks and the recurrent imagery of a hand out; about the instinct to hide and the will to show up; about invitations written in disappearing ink like an exquisite childhood mystery; about a trail through the last months of Sunday missives that I’m . . . .following? Imagining?
I’m a student of the glimpse, the allusion. And also oddly literal sometimes.
Back to the matter of positivity. I totally rejected the idea of glimmers (for reasons of both temperament and philosophy). Until I saw one, this morning. What the AF. Is it possible that I don’t always rush to the dark in everything? That as I’m bracing for the wash of dread, I feel instead — curiosity? Here’s the deal: I’m writing but not drawing. That’s ok for now because it all comes from the same place. And for the first time in years I’m feeling (ever so slightly) unstuck.
Finally, a misread: I was scanning the end of your post, looking for the Like button to tell you that I see you, and I swore I read “Thank you for reading The Liberated Life.” I cackled for all the aesthetic reasons that’s dreadful, and all the Freudian ways it’s spot on.
xo
Oh, so many things. I still think we should be writing. I’m laughing at you laughing…. Somehow, you get it. I’m with you on the toxic positivity, but I did almost take out most of the “real” stuff here, the rational part of me knowing that it’s probably a really bad idea to start out by putting everyone at arms length from the get-go. Lol. I think sometimes we vent and spill about the wrong things, things that are easy targets ….when something else really is the issue. I have been trying hard to keep that in mind these days. I know I may be over-reading, mis-reading, and so on. I had to do a double-take on the glimmers. I’ve been thinking (because I need to think ahead carefully for the next several weeks) of resurfacing a post on glimmers…. But the odd thing is that when I wrote that last year, I also wrote about toxic positivity. So interesting to see these come up in your comment together. I am not someone who sees glimmers around every corner either. I’m glad though that something took you by surprise today. I really am. — Do you know how awesome it is to hear you say that you are “unstuck”? It’s really awesome. Secret messages…. Yes… As for the dark…. There is light, Inkytoro…. There is always light. And there is always laughter. It means a lot to me when you comment.
You affirmation, if you choose to accept it, should be: I am a beautiful gift to my community.
Because it is true.
Thank you for reading, Hanna!
I watched that phone erasure slowly coming, like a technology horror movie…yelling at the screen “no, don’t do it, don’t do it! Something bad is coming!” But I’m glad you navigated through that and didn’t lose too much. Super frustrating, and I am the same way about deleting photos even when they’re backed up. They seem so evasive, just pixels floating in these seemingly delicate digital storage places while containing such precious memories. I used to make a photo album each year ever since the kids were born. I have not fit that in that past four years. I would like to do catch up final version… “Brown Family Photos: The Last Edition, Three Graduations and a Wedding, and a New Home and New Place and New Business”? Maybe someday…
Thanks, Erin. I appreciate that you saw it coming! You have a LOT of photo catching up to do to capture all of that change and evolution in your family story!
Late to the party as usual but the phrase that has been running in my head lately is “Life is not a race and you are never behind “. Not sure it qualifies as an aspiration. We called them lightening bugs when I was young and I learned to do an origami cube we called a lightening bug box but I never caught a firefly to put in it. Thank you again for a thought provoking post.
Never late. Always right on time. That is a really good phrase to keep in mind, for sure. We called them lightening bugs where I grew up, too. That’s fascinating about the origami cube box! We were mason jars with holes in the lid people ;) — Thanks for reading and commenting, Catherine.
We did not have fireflies or lightning bugs on the west coast but I think I called them fireflies if I ever had an occasion to.
My current affirmation is This Too Shall Pass - I heard a story about it on a podcast that I did not fact check about some rich dude asking people to sum up life in 4 words and this was one. And I feel another connect to it after that and have been reminding myself of this a lot lately.
Long series rewatch - Midsomer Murders. I have done the rewatch several times. It is my comfort show.
Definitely a good mantra to keep at hand, right? I hope you are finding peace in it. So often we need to be reminded (or remind ourselves) to slow down and refocus. — I’m also on the west coast, so no fireflies now, but I did grow up with them, clouds of lightening bugs that would rise at dusk.
You’ve named a show I haven’t watched! I will definitely take a look. I love knowing what shows people have as comfort shows — and I love knowing people who HAVE comfort shows.
Have a great week, Lea.