Category: humor

friendship, humor, life lessons, love

Puppy Love – Literally

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Ok, I’m a dog person…a crazy, mushy dog person.  I get the whole cat thing – really I do.  We’ve had cats in our family and when they snuggle and purr and deign to acknowledge you with an arbitrary display of affection, it feels good.  But for me, there’s nothing like a dog.  Teddy sits in my lap while I write, Archie encourages me to forget what I’m writing about by bringing me his ball in a never-ending game of ‘stop-taking-yourself-so-seriously-and-play-with-me’.  Neither of them are going to score off the charts on any canine I.Q. test, but they would be in Mensa if the requirement was affection and loyalty.  Teddy did get a certificate once for being ‘Perfection In Fur’ – but that was because he didn’t really take to the training for which completion certificates were issued.  And it’s true, neither is particularly discerning, and were it not for the barking, a robber would be made to feel welcome.  Ah well…they’re my guys..

And here’s a weird one for you..the first dog we got when we moved here was Bubba The Wonder Dog.  And he was a wonder dog – probably could have been a brain surgeon but for his webbed paws and absence of impeccable hygiene.  A big guy, Bubba would sit on my lap during our regular drives up to NY and NJ – 70 lbs of lap dog.  When I was diagnosed with this funky autoimmune issue, Bubba would just stay with me on the bed, he’d lick my face when I cried and made it very clear that he was going to be my side 24/7.  After each surgery,  Andy would hold Bubba and lift him onto the bed so that he could arrange himself for the duration without bumping up against some unpleasant incision somewhere.  Bubba was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease too and when living became too much for his body, I couldn’t handle my sorrow.  How could we both get hit with the same ball??

This isn’t about sadness though – it’s about connections that we make that are not necessarily human-to-human.  Connections that reflect unconditional love, no pretense or guile, devotion and trust.  The lessons we absorb about ourselves, friendship, nurturing…the laughs we are given by goofy looks,  a relentless paw, wet licks and unexpected havoc when a certain you-know-who has to get his wiggles out.  Puppy breath and Buddha bellies that just beg for a rub…growing into four-legged friends with a capacity for love and devotion that in many ways is unparalleled.  We learn how to love from many teachers and in many ways.  If you have a bad day and feel just bummed with the way the world behaved towards you – just look at your dog’s face when you walk in the door.  He’ll remind you that you’re better than all the rest…

 

friendship, humor, inspiration, life lessons, love, mindfulness

Post This

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I did!  I have post-it’ed messages in lots of fun places today…This one was put on the napkin holder at Uno’s…

 

 

The Post-It notes had one of three messages – “You’re Terrific”, “Smile” or “Have A Wonderful Day”… I started at the gym, surreptitiously placing notes on the handle of an exercise bike, on the mirror in the locker room and on the windshields of two cars in the parking lot.  Honestly?  I felt both tremendously silly (and I do silly very well) and sneaky (I don’t do that as well) .  Onto a quick meeting, where I left one Post-It on the panel of the receptionist’s desk and again on a windshield.  At Starbucks I put one on the cash register (there was no one behind me in line – the place was empty for a change), left one on the sugar/cream counter and in the ladies’ room…Boldly I strode into the supermarket, where some unsuspecting soul will find a message on a package of chicken breasts, a yogurt container and the cover of a “Newsweek”.  And yes, another parking lot, another car…

Talk about stepping outside one’s comfort zone!  I haven’t passed hidden notes since junior high.  The best part of course is not knowing who the recipients are and recognizing that some will crumple them up and throw them away.  But maybe, someone will see it and smile, or laugh or shake his/her head while looking around to see if anyone remotely culpable is standing around.  Maybe it will make someone feel good on a really bad day, or maybe it will make no difference at all.  The best kindness is that which is extended with no expectation of anything in return, and given my stealthiness I am confident that I will remain unconnected to this crime of good fun.  My thanks to Christine for the inspiration behind this atypical day.  How fun it was to step outside myself  for a little while.  How intrepid and bold of me!!  And if it provided a small giggle for someone today, then all the better.

Perhaps as the karma truck keeps rolling along on its path, it will stop to pay the kindness forward.  Not to me, but to those I love – my sons and their wives, my son and his girlfriend.  Maybe the truck will make a pit stop in their respective driveways, and give them the blessings and peace and joy that they so richly deserve.  Perhaps it will stop near the homeless person who plays his sax on a corner in DC, or swing by someone who is bowed under the strain of getting through the day.  And that my friends, would be more than I could ask for – just because I ‘love-bombed’ a few unsuspecting souls today.

 

friendship, humor, inspiration, life lessons, love, mindfulness

Tuesday Morning Musings

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Interesting exercise – how did you read it?  Please don’t run too far with your result – I read it as “life is nowhere” and immediately got upset with my self for not first seeing the more optimistic phrasing.  The beauty of course is that we can look at it again and opt for the interpretation which most closely aligns with what we believe.

Yesterday’s post prompted a response from Christine – her blog  TheBookOfAlice.com delivers a daily dose of delight (my how alliterative!).  She wrote that she was going to consider arbitrary  ‘love-bombings’ – placing Post-It notes with a positive thought in unlikely places.  I’m sure she wasn’t suggesting that one paper a wall with such messages (after all, she read “You Are Special” on the wall in a ladies’ room).  Ok, Christine, you’re on.   I’m going to do this today – the Post-Its and felt tip marker are already in my bag.  I realize it’s not the greenest approach, but what if one person takes the note to heart?  Puts it in his/her pocket?  Shares it with someone else?  Ok, I admit it’s a little hokey, even a contrivance.  It also sounds like fun and if I don’t get caught, a challenge to myself to do something a little out of the ordinary.  Yes, I admit – I’m feeling a little exhilarated.

Perhaps too, I need to put some more positive energy out there – and maybe it will return to those for whom I wish the most wonderful things.  Who knows?  Maybe it’s just about adding some new accessories to my daily outfit (metaphorically speaking).  Shel Silverstein, who delighted my children and me for years with his tender poems and stories penned a lovely little rhyme which seems apropos this morning…

May the hugs be with you.

 

 

 

friendship, humor, inspiration, life lessons, mindfulness, music

Trip The Light

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I’m sitting in the kitchen, shaking my head with disbelief that we’re already well on our way to one-hundred plus degrees with enough humidity to make the air feel like a soupy custard concoction.  My brother-in-law is somewhere touring Civil War sites and I keep wondering if he’s actually breathing during these treks, or whether he’s just driving around in air-conditioned comfort (I know he’s engaged in the former – a great guy, if not a little crazy).

Even the trees are beginning to tire – sagging as they typically do toward the end of August, when they’ve had enough of the season and are bowing their heads, laying low until the cooler September days arrive.  The birds are limiting their conversations to the pre-dawn and post-sunset hours – and typically they gossip with each other all day (if we think that our lives can mimic a soap opera, I have a feeling that the birds have it all over us).  Even the Sirs have had it – when I take them out, they sort of look at me like I’m kidding.

 

So where’s a person to go to get her happy on?  Right here.  I’m restricting myself to songs that make me smile, books with happy endings and ice-cold water.  I read Simon Marsh’s blog this morning and felt humbled by his grace,  grateful for his friendship and transported by his enthusiastic love for life’s unintended beauty.  HelpMeRhonda posted some crazy pictures of attack flies that swarmed her truck while she was out with her dad.  The gift of being with her dad resonates more with me – though the flies did make me wonder what could happen if Mother Nature gets any more ticked off.   David Kanigan continues to set a bar that is so high, I just keep going to the gym to see if I can stretch my muscles far enough so I can at least touch it on tip-toes.

I can kvetch with the best, but I’m choosing to sing.  I can slog through this day or I can dance – I’m a better dancer than I am a slogger.  And certainly I laugh far more heartily than I snivel.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m definitely holed up in the air conditioning while I trip the light fantastic, but today I’m going to trip all over myself within the confines of my house.  And if you’re wondering what to do with a spare moment in your day – here’s an idea..it’s time to party somewhere in the world, so you might as well get up and dance.

 

friendship, humor, life lessons

Entering Through The Exit..

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..or something like that.  You slogged through my morning rant  – thank you.  In return I give you one of my more embarrassing moments to underscore the importance of paying attention to the details, even if you are a ‘big picture’ kinda person.

Whenever I visited our offices in London, I stayed on the same floor, followed the same path to and from the elevators, the coffee-room, the loo.  I knew how to get access to the stairwells for every so often, physical exercise took priority over waiting for the lift with a cup of takeaway from Cafe Nero in hand.  Fair enough..

Until the one visit when I was sitting on the eighth floor.  I was next door to one of our DC associates who had recently transferred to the UK.  We would chat on and off during my week’s stay – he was a great young man with a rockin’ sense of humor and mischief.  Each day, I followed the same route that I knew – the floors were rectangular – eventually you’d get where you needed to be even if you have no sense of direction (I was born without this gene).

You know where this is going – all week, I visited the men’s room instead of the ladies.  I saw the urinal, which struck me as somewhat different from the ladies’ on the other floor, but thought little else about it.  I never saw another person while I was in there, though I did hear hand washing (a good sign I always think).  Friday morning, I thought I’d make one quick visit before leaving for the airport.  And I saw the little symbol that is universally known for ‘men’.  I ran back to my office and asked my US pal, if he had been watching me go to the wrong loo all week.  He of course busted out laughing, acknowledging that he had been waiting for me to put my glasses on and realize what I was doing.  I wish I could tell you that my mortification lasted for a long time – but he was laughing so hard and this was so typical of me – I just shook my head, blushing.   Little did I know this would become a local story in the London office for years to come, and someone routinely placed a large sign on the ladies’ room door when I was in town – bless their heart.  Don’t tell me you’ve never done something like that – of course you have, right?  Right?

friendship, humor, inspiration, life lessons, love, mindfulness, music

Making It Mine

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Lucky for me, this song came up on my iPod at the gym this morning.  Typically, the music I listen to while working out is not this mellow, so I’m convinced that this was not serendipity – I needed to hear it.  There is little that moves me like music – and those who know me recognize that this has been my ‘go to’ since I was a child.  It can drive my mood, steer my thoughts, set my course for the day (far better than any GPS).

In my office at the firm, there was always something playing in the background.  People would come in just to hear what genre was moving my moments.  And there is really nothing I don’t like, which makes picking favorites difficult – although I do have certain people and bands that get a heavier rotation than others.

Something about the words to this song, the visual of hanging out at the ‘gratitude cafe’…hearing angels sing a chorus that’s just exuberant.  My only wish is that I posted this earlier this morning, with the hope that you heard this as part of your day’s beginning.  That it made you feel good.  My plan?  To make sure I make this day mine.  Let me know what you think…

friendship, humor, inspiration, life lessons, love, mindfulness

What Would You Say To Yourself?

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I watched this video this morning, and began to wonder what I would say to my twelve-year-old self.  My first thoughts were “the bullying will stop”, “you’ll get better looking”, “you’ll never use advanced math so don’t worry about it”…I think I would also advise myself that some things will also get worse,  hurts change, though they hurt just as much.  Perhaps I would be philosophical and suggest that time is going to accelerate at some point, that no season is really as long as it seems.  I wonder if I would think I was just another obnoxious twelve-year-old, self-righteous and theatrical.  I don’t think I would have sought much advice, for I always felt like I was getting too much of it anyway.

The truth of the matter is, I talk to the kid inside me all the time.  It’s where certain adult wounds cut deepest, for there don’t seem to be the right kind of band-aids, where my greatest feelings of inadequacy are under-protected despite my years of learning how to hide them.   I am certain I wasn’t as prescient as this guy was as a twelve-year-old boy, to even think of making a video before videos were ubiquitous.

So I pose the question to you – if you had the chance to talk to your twelve-year-old self – is there anything you would want to say?