Posts in the “personal” category

“I preach heavily about present tense” ~ Cubs manager Joe Maddon, intentionally or unintentionally speaking about mindfulness

“The path to our destination is not always a straight one, Ed. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.”

~ Leonard speaking to Ed on Northern Exposure, via Return to Cicely

When I was a freshman in college I ended up living in the girls’ dorm (and sneaking out every morning). I’ll skip the details of that story, other than to say that one of my “roommates” was named Kristy, and “Love the One You’re With” by Stephen Stills was one of her favorite songs:

“Acting is something I do,  but it’s not who I am.” ~ Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman, speaking to Darren Burrows off-camera on the Northern Exposure set.

Mr. Westerman played “One Who Waits” on Northern Exposure, and Mr. Burrows played Ed Chigliak. I found this quote in Mr. Burrows’ book, which can be found on the ReturnToCicely.com website.

“I’m like a neurotic shark. If I stop worrying, I’ll die.” ~ Richard Lewis on the tv series Anything But Love

I’ve noticed several people lately that inflict stress on themselves in such a way that I now refer to this syndrome as self-inflicted stress. My thinking is that these people — for some unknown reason — want or need stress in their lives, so they manufacture it.

As one example, a friend wrote me a “sky is falling” email about situations related to her relatives. My first thought was “These problems have nothing to do with you, why are you stressing about them?”, and — knowing the situations she was writing about — my second thought was, “Nothing has changed since yesterday (or even five days ago), why are you so wound up today?”

As another example, one of my nieces got married recently, and in the days leading up to the wedding I observed several people who are only loosely connected to the wedding itself taking on the stress of the wedding as though they were getting married themselves. Personally I tried to enjoy the moment(s); I haven’t been around a wedding in a long time and I wanted to enjoy it, so I thought how unusual it was that these people would bring/invite stress onto themselves.

Note: At the last moment I was asked to be the videographer for the wedding. Way back when I was married, my wedding pictures were messed up by a relative who my wife’s family had asked to be our photographer, so this was an unpleasant thought for me; I didn’t want my niece to think of me as I think of him. But I took the job — and then the video camera they gave me quickly died. The wedding ceremony was about to conclude, so thinking fast, I took out my phone and began recording the end of the ceremony on it. Then it filled up and I grabbed someone else’s phone, and recorded the rest of the wedding and reception on it. I certainly had stress at this time, but at least it was the stress of trying to do a good job.

I’m not 100% sure what the right term is for this phenomenon, but a term like “self-inflicted stress” or “manufactured stress” seems 98% appropriate.

“Everything passes, nothing remains.” ~ Lama Surya Das

“The body is the canvas and the Asanas are the art we create.”

(a quote from the book, The Key Muscles of Yoga)

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Having written a few books and short stories, I think I understand the saying, “Every artist needs a muse.” I can’t say that I’m an artist, but I always have someone in mind when I write.

There’s a guy here in Colorado named Dr. Rick Perea (who has this business coaching website), and he usually talks on the radio about handling pressure and succeeding. Today he said a few goog things about winning, including “Don’t focus on the result, focus on the process.” The idea is that of course you want to win a game if you’re playing a sport, but focusing on the desire to win causes stress, and focusing on the process of what is needed to succeed is what will actually get you the win.

As an example, when I pitched in high school, I could want to win as much as possible, but if I didn’t focus on throwing my pitches to the right spots and mixing them up well, all that desire would have been for naught.

I had an MRI on my head/brain a couple of weeks ago, and I was told everything was normal. Then I went to pick my records up today, and as I was reading them there’s a portion that reads, “There is a lack of blood flow to three ‘deep white matter’ locations” (my words, not the technical words). I think “normal” sounded better.

“You don’t have to understand here to be here.” ~ Charlie Crews, Life

“That ability to visualize the unseen has always been the key to creative genius.” ~ Walter Isaacson, in this nytimes.com article on Albert Einstein

“Matter tells space-time how to curve, and curved space tells matter how to move.” ~ John Wheeler, physicist

As a quick note to self, a few weeks ago I was talking to a really nice employee at Barnes & Noble and told him that I liked Walter Isaacson’s work, and he recommended three other authors to me: Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, and Bill Bryson.

“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains,
and we never even know we have the key.”

~ The Eagles, Already Gone

“We sit together the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.” ~ Chinese poet Li Po

I stumbled across this song (Undertow, by Genesis) when I was driving across western Canada and Alaska in 2010. I heard it again today, and it brought tears to my eyes as I thought of the people in Paris, and people everywhere who are murdered every day.

If this were the last day of your life, my friend
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?

Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you
Make the most of all you still have coming to you.
Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you
Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees.

Let me live again, let life come find me wanting.
Spring must strike again, against the shield of winter.
Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me
Telling me the danger’s past
I need not fear the icy blast again.

“Everything is dust in the wind.” ~ Kansas

(If you’ve ever driven through Kansas on a windy day, you know this to be true.)