Try to avoid solely focusing on what’s wrong or what can be improved. Remember to also focus on what’s right and working so that you can build momentum.
It’s easy to pick apart and criticize. It’s more rewarding to capitalize on a good thing and grow it.
This poem makes me think of emigrating, changing jobs, moving homes, moving cities, and childhood memories that won’t be recreated. Change is an art that takes practice.
One Art – by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Your blood work and skin looks like the food you eat and the air you breath.
Your body and physique looks like the people you exercise with.
Your brain reflects and reveals the content you read and watch. Be careful and raise the bar when you feed your mind.
It amazes me how closely non-Americans are following the 2020 election. Everyone is watching, waiting and anticipating. They all have deep and thoughtful opinions on the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
It’s a reminder of how prolific American culture and influence is around the world.
Explaining what happened and why it happened is useful.
Providing insights on what is going to happen and why, is valuable
Feeling hopeful for November 3, 2020.
Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home
History says, Don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
if there’s fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.
That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
I wonder if there’s a correlation between societies that care for the environment and low Covid numbers.
Caring for the environment is about looking after future generations and less about the short term benefits. Improvements to the environment will help out our grandchildren more than they help us. But it means sacrificing short term conveniences and investing in the future with no short term returns.
Covid is the same. Wearing a mask, staying home if you are sick, getting tested in case you are asymptomatic is more about looking after others than looking after yourself. Selfish people don’t care and don’t respect the rules to protect the vulnerable.
Selfish societies are all about the individual. Selfless societies are about something greater than the individual.
Maybe countries with Covid numbers are full of selfish people.
Some things in life are priceless. No amount of money can buy them back because they aren’t for sale:
Carefree childhoods
Memories of family holidays
The love for family dogs and cats
Controlling our time
Physical and mental health
Old friendships
The bonds we form with our grandparents, parents and siblings
Spending time with our kids
The older I get the harder it is to remember who I’m supposed to hold a grudge against. It’s way better just to forget and move on.
I learned a new word today that described someone’s spending habits.
Parsimonious – very unwilling to spend money or use resources.
“even the parsimonious Joe paid for drinks all round”
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