Pecking Order

The fish eyes and cheeks were a delicacy saved as an honor for the chefs in his country. Yet when Andrew made his signature sesame noodles dish it was ignored by his American sisters-in-law. Andrew ran a restaurant for over forty years, and no matter what he brought to the holiday table they snubbed him, refused to taste his creations. In their minds they were the only ones who could bake and cook.

freshly bagged ends:

You can buy discounted deli meat ends and cheese pieces in the self-serve pre-sliced coolers or bargain display bins right at the Market Basket Deli.

Delicious on homemade sourdough with mustard and home made sauerkraut. 

Reginald lived alone in Blackridge on Montfarm Avenue. His wife and daughter abandoned him last fall. His crazy dog Dagger was still there and his wife's recording on the security cameras still shouted Get the fuck away from my trash, when you walked by. He was the only resident who left his bins out all week as bait, so he could use his wife's voice to shout at passers by. Everybody in Blackridge knew it wasn't just the dog who was psychotic. People suspected Reginald was the Blackridge bomber. 

Summer's Ending, Painting by Jared French 1939

 

Think of many things; do one. Portuguese proverb

Stop NOT writing. Just do it, badly. Just write the thing you need or want to write, that you are avoiding. That avoidance is costing you greatly, isometrically, and in general well-being. So can you find one measly hour, to write, badly?

ANNE LAMOTT

 “When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.”
― Molly Ivins

“I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.”

― Molly Ivins

“Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, once asked a group of women at a university why they felt threatened by men. The women said they were afraid of being beaten, raped, or killed by men. She then asked a group of men why they felt threatened by women. They said they were afraid women would laugh at them.”

― Molly Ivins, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?

When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it. Sigmund Freud

The First Hour after Waking is Sacred Space

The first hour after waking is neurologically distinct from the rest of the day. Cortisol is naturally elevated, the prefrontal cortex is fresh, and the brain is in a state of relative openness before the day’s demands have begun to accumulate. 

Dr. Judy Ho

https://drjudyho.substack.com/p/how-to-focus-when-everything-is-designed 

Whoops!

The other day I was practicing on my saxophone and it was making strange noises. I panicked. The upper notes were fine but the lower notes were not. I examined the horn and was puzzled. And concerned.

The next day I bloodied my reed fighting my horn. I turned the horn upside down to see if there was blood on the reed, and an empty plastic water bottle fell out. I laughed. This bottle was from after the last parade when I had no place to put it on the ride home. So I put it in my horn! What a relief. I would have been even more embarrassed had I driven to the repair shop.

When completely relaxed, we experience the essence of our being, the deep silence that knows everything as it is. Haemin Sunim

Thinking too much can make it difficult to act. If you just do it, then it is done. But if you give in to your thinking, your mind will get in the way, telling you “you can’t,” “you shouldn’t,” “you don’t want to.” In that case, get up early the next morning and just do the thing you’ve been putting off. If you give yourself time to start thinking about it, inaction will take hold again.
― Haemin Sunim, Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection

Vitamin D and Dog Ownership

https://shadowmap.org/learn/the-vitamin-d-advantage-of-dog-ownership-how-your-furry-friend-boosts-your-health

The most important thing in human life for one’s sanity is to be able to be playful or to be able to do things which are sublimely useless. Alan Watts

Much of the secret of life consists in knowing how to laugh, and also how to breathe. Alan Watts 

A man does not really begin to be alive until he has lost himself. Until he has released the anxious grasp which he normally holds upon his life, his property, his reputation and position. Alan Watts

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves. Alan Watts

 You can’t live at all unless you can live fully now. Alan Watts

If you make where you are going more important than where you are, there may be no point in going. Alan Watts

Lacking self-acceptance, we are always at odds with our point of departure, always doubting the ground on which we stand, always so divided against ourselves that we cannot act with sincerity. Alan Watts