KICKING THE TIRES OF AUGUST 21, 2019

My brother and cousin approximately 1942

Disturbance of Old Photos

The two children in the photo have been gone from this earth for more than nine years. The boy is my half brother, and the girl is my cousin. They were half a generation ahead of me; half-growed so to speak by the time I was born. My half-brother completed high school at New Mexico Military Institute. Right after graduation, he enlisted in the Air Force, attended OCS after his first hitch, and spent most of his life overseas. My cousin grew up and married in Iowa. After divorcing her first husband she spent the remainder of her life in Colorado.

Looking at the photo of those bright children, I would never have imagined the outcome of their lives to be as they were. Although both were very successful in many ways, I feel the final years of their lives were unnecessarily unhappy. My opinion, based only on subjective feeling and no facts whatsoever, their unhappiness was generated by a pessimistic and negative mindset that carried them far from the people they may have been as children.

KICKING THE TIRES OF AUGUST 22, 2019

No law that says you have to think about “problems”

Light bulb Moment AKA Aha

Halfway into my morning cup of coffee, I noticed that I was feeling glum because, because, because my mind was busily engaged with “figuring it out.” In a nutshell, I was resenting an item on my “To Do” list that I was doing for another person instead of myself.

Resenting the situation felt bad; thoughts ricocheting between the pros and cons of the matter was only adding more to the pile of bad feeling. Then I woke up to the fact that I didn’t have to think about “the problem” at all. I could simply start thinking about something else entirely. So I started thinking about my exciting project of replacing the crap carpet on the sun porch with Flor tiles: soft sage and grey that will go splendidly with curtains. Just thinking about placing the order has jazzed me.
Today is a very good day indeed and I am feeling fine.