Category: The Senior Side of Life

All about living the third stage of life which lies between 70 and 100

KICKING THE TIRES OF MAY 14 2019

S R Janssen
Graphic
Changing Habits

Doing What I Don’t Want to Do

Caught myself blaming circumstances for not accomplishing what I want to accomplish. As the old saying goes “point one finger at others, and four are pointing back to yourself.”

I Have Met the Enemy

In the words of Pogo, “I have met the enemy and he is us.” In my case, I have met the enemy and it is me. G.’s needs are not preventing me from anything. The domestic needs of the home are not preventing me from anything. What holds me back is my resistance from plunging both hands into the core of the activity I want to accomplish. I dance around it, and build up to the spirit of doing it (which never happens.) Simply put, it is resistance.

Accomplishment

I added words to my novel: not a thousand, but some. I did some cleaning, I framed and tarped my tomatoes. I really waste time and energy with negative thoughts. It’s a far, far better thing to have no thoughts at all.

KICKING THE TIRES OF MAY 7, 2019

S R Janssen
Agave with blossom stalk

Today is the Better Tomorrow

Either I am on the verge of a chronic illness, or my general resistance to life is like a cement block because I conked out yesterday feeling exhausted. But, but, but I experienced a great deal of satisfaction from the results of painting the front panels of the file drawers, and raising the curtains by a foot.

I am getting quite practiced in simply dropping thoughts when I catch myself thinking thoughts about my now situation. It’s a shock to realize how much of my mental time is engaged with rancorous thoughts about other people. They are not dramatic; merely a continuous background rumble like summer lightning flashing miles above the earth.

The New Trick: Dropping Thoughts

When I catch myself thinking negative thoughts, I don’t waste a moment wrestling with it so that I am thinking a better thought. I simply drop the thought, leaving a brick of blankness in my mind. Occasionally, I jump to a better thought. It’s not a better thought about a situation I don’t like but thoughts upon a totally different topic. If I have uncomfortable thoughts about an upcoming bill, I think about flying kites in the stiff breezes of March.