Today I’m grateful for a simple thing. Sometimes it’s the only thing that can keep us from completely falling to pieces. That glue today is music. I’m so beyond grateful for the art of music, and my ability to listen to it whenever I want to. We have virtually unlimited access to unlimited music from across the world. I’m grateful that not only do I have the ability to hear it and that it’s available to me, but I’m also extremely thankful for the musicians, producers, and technicians that make modern music readily available to us. I’m fairly certain that without music that spoke to me in all of my trials, tribulations, joys and sorrows, I would not be here today. Music provides an outlet for singing, dancing, and many feelings that I would otherwise not be in tune with. Music speaks to me on every level, and I am just so damn thankful that it exists and I can listen to it. I have laughed, cried, danced, sang, spaced out, and more to music. My goal is to continue listening to music until my ears no longer work or I leave this plane of existence. I hope that there’s music in the afterlife, whatever that may be. Music has made my day better today and helped keep me focused on the tasks at hand, including this blog. I’m thankful that I carry music with me on my phone, in my head, and in my heart. I’m also grateful that my husband and daughter love music as well. Our tastes may be significantly different, we still appreciate it equally. For this too, I am thankful.
Day 13- Gratitude Project
Today I am grateful for the people I work with. My bosses are both stellar humans, treat me and my coworkers with respect, and are understanding when I have concerns. They value the work that I do for them, and are stand-up fellas. We can have conversations like friends, but also get down to business like a true team. Other people I work with are equally awesome and I couldn’t do my job effectively without them. The leads help me find answers to tough questions and allow me to understand their roles. They are so willing to lend a hand, and I am extremely thankful for their presence. The people that sit around me are hardworking and focused, but allow themselves a chat when things are slow. I enjoy the people I sit near because they are charismatic, cheery, and often hilarious. We all come from different backgrounds and have different stories to tell, but we all find the common ground so that we can work well and are personable with one another. Finding a better group of people would be hard to come by and I’m very grateful that I get to work in such a great office, with such amazing individuals, and for a company that cares.
Day 12- Gratitude Project
Apparently I forgot to write my gratitude yesterday, again. My days are busy most of the time at work, and when I get home in the evenings, its family time. So, I’m going to try harder to make sure that I write every day.
Anywho, yesterday I was grateful for the opportunity to chat with my new supervisor. We had a conference call with our boss and a couple other higher-ups, but it got pushed back at the last minute. So while we were waiting for the meeting to start, we had a chance to chat. He just started a couple weeks ago and has been getting his feet under him. But having a little while to chat about ourselves and get to know one another was really good. It turns out we have a number of things in common and I foresee a great working relationship.
We both value hard work and are on the same page professionally. He is new to the company, but not the industry, so he has a great deal of knowledge that I can learn from. He also admits that he does not like following up on mundane paperwork, so he will need help with that. As it turns out, I’m good at babysitting and making sure paperwork gets done. Perfect combination.
I am grateful for the ability to get to know my supervisor better, the good conversation we shared, and understanding how each other works. Our chat was fun and productive. Two of my favorite things.
Day 10- Gratitude Project
Yesterday was yet again, Screen free Sunday in our house. So I’m doing yesterday’s entry this morning and I’ll post today’s entry this afternoon.
My pick of gratitude for yesterday is communication. I’m grateful that we have the ability to communicate with one another, that we have language, and that we can engage in discourse. I’m also grateful that in the face of miscommunication we can often find a way back to the path of effective communication. In this age of electronic communication, our world is smaller than it has ever been, yet poor communication is at an all time high. It’s hard to determine syntax, innuendo, and jest via text or email. Sometimes even harder, is detecting sarcasm. I’m a huge fan of electronic communication, but give me old fashioned verbal communication above all anytime. There’s just no substitute for face to face interaction. You can pick up subtle clues verbally and nonverbally. You can read body language and facial expressions. This often helps in times of miscommunication or poor communication. When the talk is going south, you have the ability to bail out or redirect it.
Because we are human, arguments and crappy communication often still happen. That’s mostly because of ego. We want to be right; we want to be heard. This leads us down a destructive path that can sometimes be irreversible. However, we also have the ability to say we are sorry. A sincere apology works wonders to repair broken communication. I hate saying it as much as the next person, thanks to that peaky ego not wanting to admit our own faults. But getting back to good communication and stopping the hurt feelings is a good thing, and saying I’m sorry is another part of this that I’m grateful for.
I’m thankful for communication and owning ones missteps in communicating.
Happiness by the kilowatt
Live the way I want to live, walk the walk, harmoniously
Temper, temper: whenever I get angry, meditate instead
Let it go, it’s not personal, and even if it is, it’s temporary: karma isn’t always yours
Live in the now, but think of the future: find sources of joy and memories
This has been a really strange week. There was a holiday right in the middle of it and it’s hard to know what day it is, though, I know it’s Saturday. I spent half the work week thinking that it was Monday. Anyway, happiness has seemed pretty elusive for those around me. It appears to be a time of great change for several people (including myself). Some of these people are going through physical changes, others it’s geographical, still others it’s purely financial. Nevertheless, each of my friends are experiencing levels of hardship, sacrifice, or upheaval. Many of them are facing significant challenges to their lifestyle or quality of life because of the changes that are happening.
The question I’ve been thinking about in the past few days is, how can someone remain “happy” during extremely difficult situations? I know that I’m experiencing moments of pure joy during incredible struggle. From moment to moment, I can’t say for sure that I’m happy, but I am feeling the most positive about my life, my future and myself as I have in several years. This is a totally foreign feeling, simply because I’m often too focused on other things to enjoy this feeling of happiness in the moment.
At the very same time, as I’ve been told, I appear to be maintaining my composure and nobody would ever know that I was stressed, struggling or experiencing real difficulties. That, to me, is a small success. I am often quite reserved and don’t allow the whole world to see my inner workings. Once you’re within my sphere of close companions, my “tells” are much easier to read, since my guard isn’t nearly as strong. I know that a few of my friends have a similar ability, but I’m pretty good at reading them. Shout out to Peaches. ;)
Shake it Out- Florence and the Machine
I am pleased to say that while I’ve got personal struggles happening, I’ve also got personal successes happening too. I think that’s why maintaining is relatively “easy”, there seems to be a greater sense of balance between good and bad. As for the goals of Right Intention, I’ve really made it a point to cultivate the right mindset and a clear path to internal happiness.
In a conversation yesterday, a friend and I were talking about our parents not listening to our opinions, even when backed by true facts. We decided it was based on our “status” in relation to our parents. They don’t want to learn something from their kids. I know I’ve been going on about nutrition and health with my mother for years and then out of the blue she shares some information that she heard from elsewhere, that I’ve said a million times, like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. But this conversation ended with the notion that sharing information must be effective to be worthwhile. If the audience isn’t ready, they will not absorb it. This applies to me and the happiness project in that rather than beating everyone over the head with information, I just live it. Walking the walk, and allowing that to be my method of persuasion seem to be most effective in most cases. I am open to sharing information, but wasting my time preaching helps no one.
Pictures of Success- Rilo Kiley
The other aspect of my goals that I’ve been working on primarily is finding sources of joy in my life and trying to get as much out of those experiences as I can. This has been a little bit of a struggle because I’m used to MAKING things happen, rather than enjoying them as they are. I’ve truly had to change my way of thinking, almost over night, because I was going nowhere good thinking I could control every detail of everything. So, while certain situations might not be “perfect” they’re pretty damn good as they are and I should embrace them as the wonderful experiences they are instead of being upset that they aren’t “my” way.
And finally, to bring this blog full circle with it’s title, music. Music has been a huge source of support, strength, courage and joy for me and several of my friends lately. We’ve been listening to a lot of music and sharing it with one another. It’s been really great getting back to music. My whole life has had an internal soundtrack and reigniting my passion for music has made every minute of my days more bright. I cannot express how amazing that feeling is, the feeling that someone has taken your struggles, heartbreaks, joys, gratitude and put them to music and shared them with you. It makes people feel less alone to know that others share their experiences and put them out in the world. I know I feel that way.
Thanks for reading this very long blog. I appreciate those of you that read it and those that also read and comment. :)
