gratitude-a-thon day 989: martin luther king junior

 

50-best-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-6328-19Gratitude to a man who stood up for inclusivity with dignity and grace. By using non-violent civil disobedience, and without Twitter, Martin Luther King Jr. inspired us all to do better, be better.

I wish our president-elect was a 10th of the man this Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal winner was. The disparity between the two is stark.

But we can choose to remember Martin Luther King Jr. and allow him to guide us. With light and love, he made a difference. I’m putting him on my advisory team.

I will not be silent about what matters to me, Martin. I will not be silent.

 

 

 

gratitude-a-thon day 988: things to do when the news is bleak

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You could wear a suit of armor to protect yourself from the horrendous things going on in the world, but it isn’t going to help your soul.

A 12 year old girl live streams her suicide on Facebook. The United States elects a president who is more interested in Twitter than unifying our country (and that’s the nicest thing I can think of to say about him). The House is repealing the Affordable Care Act, which will make the lives of millions worse. Russia is invading. The middle East is a terrifying place. I could write for the rest of the day on what’s going wrong right now.

How does one hold onto sanity when there is devastation, and seriously bad shit going on all over the globe (and our own country is very much divided)? I mean besides breathing? How can we wake up and try to live in a positive vibe when the sky is basically falling?

Some suggestions:

  1. Light a candle. By yourself, take some time and light a candle and set out your hopes (some would call this praying, but you can call it anything you want to call it, just try it).
  2. Exercise is undeniably good for the old mood. Park farther away at the grocery store to get some cardio in, or throw a tantrum, just get yourself moving around.
  3. Think of the good in people and the times you have experienced kindness from others. Meditate on that shit.
  4. Do one thing that makes you feel like you’re fighting evil. Give a little money to a charity, better yet volunteer, speak up and let your voice be heard. And remember a little something is better than a little nothing.
  5. Talk to people who believe what you believe so that you do not feel alone. Extra credit if you can make each other laugh. Feeling alienated will break you. Connect.
  6. Read. Things that inform you, but also things that take you away to places that allow you to reset your mind.
  7. Start a gratitude journal. I know, I know, this is certainly not an original thought, but write even just one thing you’re grateful for everyday. Just one is good enough. It will take you all of two minutes. It will make you feel better.
  8. Put the political leaders who matter on your speed dial and let them know what you think.
  9. Let the younger people in your life know that you are available to talk about anything. Encourage them. Watch out for them.
  10. Let the sun fill your eyes for at least 10 minutes a day.
  11. Go see some art. People do incredible things, communicate a plethora of thoughts through painting and sculpture and photography and film. Let it nourish you and remind you of the goodness and light in creativity.
  12. Make your own art. Color, draw, take on painting, phone photography, collage. Making stuff is good for our insides.
  13. Play with a dog or a cat. They’re pure love. And love is always good.
  14. Stay informed, but not to the point that it causes you pain. Shut it down when you see that it’s taking over the wheel.
  15. Meditate on happy things. This is different from trying to clear your mind–the aim here is to fill it, but with memories and events that made you feel good.

I am finding this is a very difficult time to stay in the light. Do what you can to take care of yourself. We need you.

 

gratitude-a-thon day 987: i’d be happy if

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Sometimes I think if the weather would just stay warm, I would be happy. Or if I could lose five pounds, five pounds down and life would be a freaking rose garden. Or like, if I just didn’t have a bad back and a wonky foot and I could wear heels, or if I just had a bigger bathroom, or could travel more, and didn’t have such a 95 pound weakling immune system. Knives that stayed sharp, a car that was self-cleaning, a closet that was bigger and this girl would be whistling a happy tune. Or like, if I could have pancakes for breakfast every morning, and was an organized person, happiness would be mine, mine, mine.

Or If I could help solve people’s painful problems, empower the masses, nobody would ever be happier.

If I could see every Broadway show, always be in the front row at the concerts of my choice. If I could change the outcome of the presidential election, surely I would be like Snoopy doing the happy dance.

The thing is that happiness comes from the department of the interior–yours.  It has to do with you more than it has to do with anything else. It has a lot to do with the gratitude you feel about the things that you already possess–the consistent meditation on what’s already yours, inside and out. Five pounds, higher heels and pancakes won’t do it, but some gratitude just might.

gratitude-a-thon day 985: please mr. president, don’t go

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You can’t help but notice the difference. One man has integrity oozing from every pore, and the other seems to be devoid of it entirely.

This is not about one party vs. the other, it’s about human dignity, moral character and grace.

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I felt inspired once again last night as I watched President Obama deliver his farewell speech. I felt encouraged, and like we were more together than apart. I felt the powerful pull of his gentle urging to get involved and unify.

I felt hope.

But then he left the stage, as I moaned like a wounded cat on my couch, and the pundits began to espouse his eight year reign and I was forced to remember that the next four years would be very different, and that I would have to hold onto what Barack and Michele Obama had modeled to keep my sanity, to keep my own dignity.

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“When they go low, we go high.” I don’t mind telling you that getting high for the next four years seems a better option.

Thank you Mr.President and Michele for showing us all what integrity and inspiration looks like.

 

best and worst dressed-a-tude-a-thon day 984

After an election where the man who campaigned (and eventually, sadly won) made fun of everybody in the country who wasn’t him, it feels cruel to be mean to anybody.

But, as Hollywood says, the show must go on. You know, for the good of the people (so you will have something to giggle about. Because Jesus, GOD, do we need that right now).

And may I say before I begin, all hail to Dame Streep, taking her speech time to unify us more than that excuse for man who should be doing that, has even tried to do. Bravo. That was no acting, that was the best of humanity up there.

And so we bash the beauties who didn’t appear to look in the mirror before leaving home, the girls who spent plenty on stylists who were vision impaired. Here you go–the worst.

Nicole you’re Kidding me, man.

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What’s with the trend to have some sort of weird sleeve mid-way down your arm, because that makes (no) sense. I kept imagining how pretty this dress could have been if there was no saloon house poofs and it had remained just a tank gown with a heavenly bottom. In the disaster category, this equals that time she married Tom Cruise.

Sarah Jessica Parker looks sad here. She must have seen a mirror.

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Again with the sleeves. There is too much dress, too much eye make-up, too much UGLY. A Princess Leia nod with the hair, maybe? This is a train wreck from head to toe. Carrie is rolling in her fictional character grave.

Anna Chlumsky. Toga has got togo.

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I have two issues with this dress, aside from its Kermit-the-frog-appearing-in-Animal House comparison. 1. She could have four more boobs in the top of it and the dress still wouldn’t fit. 2. What is that black strap doing on the right shoulder? What does that have to do with anything (thank the fashion Gods she at least had a black shoe on for a little bit of a tie-in).  Did she, right before leaving the house, just give in and say, “fuck it, I’m wearing my bra?”

Felicity Jones. The Theory of Everything wrong with this dress.

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Pepto Bismol pink belongs in the bottle of Pepto Bismol and nowhere else. Ever. EVER. If you are going to wear Pepto Bismol pink, do not mix it with black. If you are over five, do not wear a bow at your waist. I must move on, before I vomit.

Carrie Underwood. Everything’s coming up roses, and way too many of them.

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The top of this dress was entirely too overwhelming for Carrie’s petite bod. Which is not to even mention the major dowdiness factor here. Proving once again that money just cannot buy taste.

Winona Ryder. Macy’s prom department is missing a dress.

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This look just says “I give up” and while I mostly always love a little black dress, this one hangs on her like a heavy blackout drape. And the back had a giant bow. I give it a giant no.

Jessica Biel. IS she wearing suspenders?

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I love a small boob, so it’s not that that’s bothering me here. It’s that where her boobs should be, they are not. The whole top is screaming for more fabric.

Priyanka Chopra and her golden globes.

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This girl is beautiful, but this dress is too tight, and the highlighting of her nipples, in case you didn’t know where they were, is just distracting.

Jessica Chastain. Could that hair be any more severe?

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I hate this dress, but it’s her hair that really gives her that worst dressed look. It’s GLUED to her head, and the side part is too much to the side. As for the dress, the “It’s a boy” color is hideous, and the bizarre fit is just off.

I thought Tracee Ellis Ross was a greek column, but then she moved.

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All I can say is that I hope the building she borrowed this dress from did not fall over.(I did love her blinged out fingers, though).

Hank, I mean Michelle Williams.

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Without that shoelace around her neck, this look would be fine (still wouldn’t be crazy about it, but not the worst). That black thing makes me think she might be in Westworld, partying it up with Thandie Newton.

And those style stars who killed the carpet.

Lily Collins and the fairy tale ending.

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This dress is just so pretty. And the hair and makeup is perfection. She looks like a disney princess. The kind who gets the guy, and the audience falls in love with.

Issa Rae of light.

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Fresh and fierce. This is a gorgeous look from the top of her head to the bottom of her little train. Insecure, I doubt it.

Brie Larson. Red hot.

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The fit is absolutely perfect.The styling is right on. This is what you call flawless.

Viola Davis. How to get away with being so perfectly dressed.

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Not a fan of the color yellow. Probably would never wear it. But look at her GLOW. This is a perfect fit, some fab styling (LOVED THOSE EARRINGS), and just a slam, dunk, done.

Jackie Kennedy, I mean Natalie Portman.

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Momma has class. It could have fit a little better in the boob area, and the bottom could have been pressed a bit more, but this look really conjured up one of the best dressed first ladies EVER.

Naomie Harris in the Moonlight

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There is not one thing I don’t love about this look. Minimal styling, maximum GORG.

Drew Barrymore, more, more just like this.

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This is so free-spirited, Boho chic Drew. She hasn’t looked this good since she phoned home in E.T.

What did you love, what did you hate? Do tell.

gratitude-a-thon day 982: looking for hope

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By now I had half hoped that the guy who won the Oval, whose name it’s really hard for me to say or write on account of how awful of a human being I believe him to be, would have done something that I could interpret as unifying.

He hasn’t. In fact, he is, on the daily, making me feel less and less hopeful (and I started out with no hope whatsoever, so I’m nosediving into the middle of the earth at this point).

But here are some hopeful things to focus on, instead of the dreadfulness that keeps getting tweeted by our totally irresponsible, childish P.E., who will soon be our P. (pee is more like it).

Ann Lamott, one of my most trusted advisers and beloved authors and all-around lovely humans shared something her son wrote and it is so brave and so important and so I wanted to also share it. It’s called How I managed not to kill myself yesterday. Bravo, Sam. You are courageous and smart and loving like your momma.

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The Golden Globes are on this Sunday, and you know who will be watching carefully so I can write my best and worst post on Monday. Woot, woot.

Dan Rather is now the father of Facebook. I’m in.

Homeland starts this Sunday (oh, but I will be watching The Globes, first world problems). Cannot wait to see what kind of shenanigans Carrie is going to get into this season.

I worked out (sort of) for the first time in a month (due to this ongoing virus/sinus infection/CRUD). Let’s hear it for my non-existent abs.

The days are getting longer! The light is coming!

You don’t have to go to, or watch the inauguration. Nobody is going to force you to. You have a choice!

Boston’s channel 7 has succeeded from the Peacock so that you can see Family Feud at 8, nightly. (Just seeing if you’re paying attention, of course I hate The Feud).

Kim Burrell lost her radio show after her homophobic rant (some people actually get scolded for non-inclusive behavior, not our President-Elect, but some people). Pharrell Williams comment is worth a read.Screen Shot 2017-01-06 at 7.14.19 AM.png

gratitude-a-thon day 980: better different

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There are a shit ton of things to be grateful for.

It’s simple and it’s complex, but being aware of what you have in your grasp is a sure-fire, no frills, winning way to live.

Whether it’s a ripe strawberry, a bed with piles of covers, that first sip of coffee prepared exactly right, a healthy bundle of baby, someone who loves you truly, madly, deeply (even when you could be mistaken as Linda Blair in The Exorist), the smell of sizzling garlic, or just the ability to tilt your head up at the sky to witness the insane beauty going on up there, our choice to see and feel the stuff that’s ours can make the human condition, a happier condition.

When you are able to grasp the process of being grateful, I believe your attitude begins to change. Being an “I have” is way more appealing, not to mention healthier than being an “I want.” Plus it’s more fun. Ruminating about what you don’t have can ruin a day quicker than you can say “Did we really elect that guy?”

Even we here (meaning me here) at the gratitudeathon lose our way sometimes. I have been sick for over a month, and I have lost my way brothers and sisters, and have just begun feeling sorry for myself. But the cool thing about being in the gratitude loop is that you can begin again if you find yourself having reared way off course and are wandering aimlessly through a field in Iowa. Just get back to yourself and think of what it is that’s yours–material, non-material, borrowed.

Start now. Don’t wait for a more convenient time. Now is the time. Today.

 

 

 

gratitude-a-thon day 979: i’ll take that and that and that

 

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“My boy, Elroy.” I admit it, I thought we might be flying around when I was older, but the internet was not something I could imagine when I was young.

Having been so sick during the holidays, I did a lot of online shopping. And like, gratitude for that, because while I was fending off chills and body aches and a snotty nose and a dog cough, and exhaustion that came from doing nothing more than napping, I could actually do the Santa work that I normally would do in stores.

I always think about the fact that when I was a kid, if you told me that I would one day be able to shop from my bed (let alone carry the world around in my pocket) I woulda thought you’d watched too much Twilight Zone while raiding your parent’s liquor cabinet. I mean, it would have been out of the realm of my imagination. Who could have thunk it? I thought maybe we’d be flying around with jet packs, a la The Jetson’s, but shop from my house by pushing buttons on a thing that’s the size of a standard notebook–nuh-uh.

I know there are lots of demons that come with our technology, but the internet saved my ass this Christmas, and it’s just one more time that I am shocked and damn grateful for the magic of the world wide web.

gratitude-a-thon day 977: do better

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It’s a shiny brand spanking new year! Filled with possibilities and plans and promises. It’s a blank calendar, a fresh slate, an open book.

I resolve, each year to do certain things. Over and over, I put them on my list (lose weight, eat better, exercise more, get organized…..) . But this year, I am thinking that I will make a different kind of resolution. It’s simple.

I will do better.

Whatever it is I’m doing, I will try to do it better than I used to. This is not about doing more, it’s about doing better, stopping myself to say, is this the best you’ve got? Is this a better way, a better decision, a better choice?

Feels like a good approach. Happy 2017. Do better.