I shock creative writing students, their tutors even more,
when I say I only ever write one draft. But it’s true. It just comes out
of my head through my ears on to the page. I finish, correct and tidy
up, and that’s it. If I get stuck, or reach the end knowing this one
just doesn’t work, I throw it away. There’s always another idea or three
waiting in the wings, or the notebook.
chronicallyintentional I’ve
had a dark few days. I’m struggling through endometriosis surgery
recovery more and/or in different ways than I anticipated. I’ve had some
extremely difficult emotional conversations with my loved ones. I
learned harsh consequences of trying to take a break from certain meds.
this is all falling on top of my severely burned out mental health.
I
don’t plan to make a regular thing of discussing interpersonal
relationships on here, but I can’t talk about this without mentioning
how phenomenally my partner is moving through all of it with me. this
shit is HARD, for both of us. anyone who’s either cared for an adult
loved one or been through a major health event themselves knows it can
be devastating. patience, communication, & making room for mistakes
are crucial.
it’s also necessary to understand that even for
“normal” healthy people, one person cannot be an entire support system.
in illness/disability, community & support networks are vital. as
someone who prefers to operate quietly alone, this is a challenge for
me, especially when I need it most.
today I got to hear an old
friend’s voice for the first time in years. this woman saved my life
when I asked her for help 10 years ago, & we’ve been showing up for
each other before & since. it’s so special that we can share in our
physical/emotional health journeys together now.
she reminded me
that my life matters, in the way only her fierce lioness heart can.
& also why I need to show up when things are messy. there is so much
beauty in healing, but most of it is raw & painful. hiding or
censoring the ugly parts might make me feel more secure, but it does a
disservice to myself & others who are struggling. if anything I
share helps just one person, it’s worth it. no one can shoulder
everything alone.
“That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest
purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between
us and our most disturbing personal truths and gnawing fears.”
―
Richard Russo,
Straight Man
“And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you
don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance
again.”
―
Richard Russo,
Empire Falls
“What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend?
What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?”
―
Richard Russo,
Empire Falls
“Not giving a shit, she decided, is like the defrost option on a
car's heater that miraculously unfogs the windshield, allowing you to
see where you're headed.”
―
Richard Russo,
Empire Falls
“What I discovered I liked best about striking out on my bicycle
was that the farther I got from home, the more interesting and unusual
my thoughts became.”
“The world is divided between kids who grow up wanting to be their
parents and those like us, who grow up wanting to be anything but.
Neither group ever succeeds.”
―
Richard Russo,
Straight Man
“One of the odd things about middle age, he concluded, was the
strange decisions a man discovers he's made by not really making them,
like allowing friends to drift away through simple neglect.”
"It is not rocket science," Charles Deutscher, a policy adviser for the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), wrote on the
organization's Humanitarian Law & Policy blog
in March. "It's investing time and showing empathy — drink more tea,
sit with people and listen to them to understand their concerns,
cultures and creeds before coming at them with a needle."
If you could send one thought to your father through the ether somehow, what would it be?
I
would say, "Can you give us something to help us get through what we're
going through now?" If my father were alive today he would be
apoplectic with what's going on with our government. But, you know, he
would be out in the streets. He would be making music to benefit
immigrant families. He would be doing everything he could think of, I'm
sure. We could use his good works and good energy right about now.
Name one thing about you, and one thing about your father, that you hope readers will take away from the book.
What
I hope I conveyed is that everything my father did, in any aspect of
his life, was always in the context of love. If he could have, he would
have hugged every person on the planet — and he kind of did, through his
music. So when I wrote this book, I, too, am hoping that I framed
everything I wrote about in the context of love. There are a lot of
things about my dad that are complicated and sometimes unsavory. He was a
handful, to say the least. But I hope that I presented all of that in
the ultimate context of love, because that's certainly how he was.
I have been making carrot salads all summer but this one came out the best so I am writing it down.
Combine freshly grated carrot, pineapple chunks and juice, orange juice, sliced red onion, olive oil, kosher salt raisins and crumbled walnuts. Let marinate for a few hours in the fridge for best flavor. Delicious!
“Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the
open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and
atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we
watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but
there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller
can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded
with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these
years it still takes my breath away.”
―
Carl Sagan,
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
“It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their
passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it
not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white
light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the
wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so
doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the
same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of
the sunset to know a little bit about it.”
―
Carl Sagan,
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
“The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then
determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of
life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our
errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is
preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a
reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find
ourselves a worthy goal.”
―
Carl Sagan,
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science
and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much
bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?”
Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to
stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence
of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw
forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional
faiths.”
―
Carl Sagan,
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On
it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of,
every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of
our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and
economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward,
every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant,
every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child,
inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt
politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and
sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust
suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast
cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants
of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants
of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager
they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the
rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in
glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction
of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are
challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in
the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this
vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us
from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to
harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to
which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or
not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has
been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building
experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of
human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it
underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and
to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever
known.”
―
Carl Sagan,
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Everything I see or do, the weather and the water, buildings
. . . everything actual is an advantage when I am writing. It is like a
menu, or a giant tool box, and I can pick and choose what I want. When I
am not writing, or more important, when I have nothing on my mind for a
book, then I see chaos, confusion, disorder.
Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
For a drink of written water from a spring
whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?
Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?
Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,
she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.
Silence - this word also rustles across the page
and parts the boughs
that have sprouted from the word 'woods.'
Lying in wait, set to pounce on the blank page,
are letters up to no good,
clutches of clauses so subordinate
they'll never let her get away.
Each drop of ink contains a fair supply
of hunters, equipped with squinting eyes behind their sights,
prepared to swarm the sloping pen at any moment,
surround the doe, and slowly aim their guns.
They forget that what's here isn't life.
Other laws, black on white, obtain.
The twinkling of an eye will take as long as I say,
and will, if I wish, divide into tiny eternities,
full of bullets stopped in mid-flight.
Not a thing will ever happen unless I say so.
Without my blessing, not a leaf will fall,
not a blade of grass will bend beneath that little hoof's full stop.
Is there then a world
where I rule absolutely on fate?
A time I bind with chains of signs?
An existence become endless at my bidding?
The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.
“I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.”
―
Wislawa Szymborska,
Nonrequired Reading
"By being physically active instead of sitting and resting, you will actually help prevent fatigue and maintain alertness."
— Edward R. Laskowski, M.D.
Don't
have time for a full 60-minute workout? Don't sweat it. Divide and
conquer. Shorter spurts of exercise, such as 10 minutes of walking
spaced throughout the day, offer benefits, too. The key is to get
moving. Take the stairs, walk during your lunch break and do household
chores at a pace fast enough to get your heart pumping. It all adds up! -Mayo Clinic
1 pound lean ground turkey breast meat (or 12 ounces soy-based crumbles)
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups zucchini, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon mild chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 ounces reduced-fat cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
10 whole-wheat hamburger buns
Instructions
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté ground turkey until
browned, about 7 minutes. Add onion and sauté 2 minutes. Add carrot and
green pepper and sauté 2 minutes. Add zucchini and garlic and sauté 2
minutes more.
Add tomato paste and water, stirring until the paste has dissolved.
Add chili powder, paprika, oregano and pepper. Reduce heat to medium
and continue to cook until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes.
Preheat broiler. Divide cheese among the bottom halves of the
hamburger buns. Transfer both halves of the buns to the broiler,
open-faced, and toast until the cheese has melted and the buns are
toasted.
Remove buns from the broiler and fill each sandwich with the meat-vegetable mixture. Serve immediately.
I like to write, if I can, in the mornings, when I feel mentally most
fresh, with stacks of my books around me (surrounded by these books,
which make me secure somehow, I feel a little like those babies whose
parents prop them up in their cots with soft toys so that they don't
roll over on their sides). I like to go for a walk before I start to
write - otherwise I feel as if I haven't connected to the world outside
my window.
Go for long walks, in the city or the countryside, and let your imagination off the leash.
Matthew Beaumont, a Professor of English Literature at University College London, is the author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London (2015) and The Walker: On Finding and Losing Yourself in the Modern City (2020).
Writing is not typing. Thinking, researching, contemplating, outlining, composing in your head and in sketches, maybe some typing, with revisions as you go, and then more revisions, deletions, emendations, additions, reflections, setting aside and returning afresh, because a good writer is always a good editor of his or her own work. Typing is this little transaction in the middle of two vast thoughtful processes.
I think, therefore I am is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches. I feel, therefore I am
is a truth much more universally valid, and it applies to everything
that's alive. My self does not differ substantially from yours in terms
of its thought. Many people, few ideas: we all think more or less the
same, and we exchange, borrow, steal thoughts from one another. However,
when someone steps on my foot, only I feel the pain. The basis of the
self is not thought but suffering, which is the most fundamental of all
feelings. While it suffers, not even a cat can doubt its unique and
uninterchangeable self. In intense suffering the world disappears and
each of us is alone with his self. Suffering is the university of
egocentrism. MILAN KUNDERA
In Afghanistan, many tribes have historically sided with the Taliban and with various ultra extremist factions. This is why it’s virtually impossible to “eradicate” terrorism there. In the US, millions side with ultra right wing terrorists, too. I will let you draw conclusions.
I mourn for the Marines sacrificed at a gate in Kabul on a mission to save lives.
I mourn for the scores more killed and maimed by this deadly attack.
I mourn for those in danger of being left behind.
I
mourn for the American service members who have already been lost and
wounded over 20 years of brutal conflict, and the casualties of our
allies and civilians.
I mourn for our nation, so torn by the most unseemly of politics, that a terrorist bomb becomes an excuse for point-scoring.
I
mourn for a pandemic of anti-science conspiracy theories that is
filling our ICUs beyond capacity and killing by the hundreds of
thousands.
I mourn for all who have died because of the recklessness of others.
I mourn for our planet, sick and aching.
I mourn for all those suffering tonight, who are going to bed homeless, hungry, and frightened.
I mourn for a world in mourning.
I
write this to find some solace in sharing this sadness with others, to
find comfort in our common humanity. Loss is part of life. It comes in
waves of unequal frequency, on a personal level and a global scale. We
can create a space to share our feelings, tonight and going forward.
Steady.
I leave you tonight with a famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, spoken by Malcolm in a moment of great tragedy:
"Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break."
The food cycle is also part of the mood cycle. I have this too. All
of my clothes get tight across the chest and belly and I say WHY? I EAT
GOOD FOOD and perhaps a bit too much when my mood is TRANSMITTY.
Everything tastes fantastic and is super sensory and FUN TO EAT! so I
have 4 coffees, and more of everything;
But here's what I tell myself: Accept the mood cycle weight cycle. because it's part of how you were made.
Too much EXTERNAL control might cause a rebellion!
I can't glue the leaves back on the trees in the fall. I can't
prevent the sun from being too bright in April May June July, but I can
wear sunglasses or hide in a shaded room.
Back in the old days when I wasn't understanding how important
exercise was I would lose my appetite in a low phase completely for
8-10 weeks and that made everything worse. I had bad head noise and I
couldn't sleep.
So swim, walk eat well and love your cycle. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! If
you start to feel an out of control feeling coming on, grab your
notebook and give it a voice, or write me a letter. Then have your food
after. You are perfect just as you are. Allow yourself some slack. You
have a lot of stressors and pressures. Another idea is if you think you
are needing to eat extra try homemade popcorn or raw carrots and hummus
--something very good for you! Or steamed veggies with salt and olive
oil. Good food that is full of vitamins. It sounds like you are doing
this already. I am fighting the same battle trying to focus on the LOVE.
I wear my black dress, and swim in my black bathing suit everyday
because BLACK makes me feel beautiful no matter what. Why not? And
lipstick too! Do the things that make you feel beautiful because you
are!!
A woman mailed her diary to a stranger, who added an entry and did the same. People have kept it going for a year.
Kyra
Peralte had an idea to send a composition notebook with her diary entry
to a stranger last April. The woman who got it did the same, and a year
later, seven diaries have circulated, and 115 women have been part of
the traveling diary. (Courtesy of Kyra Peralte)
By Sydney Page
May 4, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Kyra Peralte thought keeping a diary during the pandemic might help her sort out her tangled feelings. Then she decided to drop her journal in the mail and share it with a stranger.
Peralte
— a mother of two in Montclair, N.J. — started writing candidly last
April about the challenges of juggling work, marriage and motherhood
during a global crisis.
Writing
was cathartic, but Peralte, 44, wanted to know how other women were
doing. Was she alone in her feelings or were other women experiencing
the same overwhelming stress? She craved connection.
So
she made an unusual offer. She invited other women from near and far to
fill the remaining lined pages of her black-and-white marbled
composition notebook with their own pandemic tales.
“I
wanted an interaction that felt human, and it feels very human to read
someone else’s writing,” said Peralte, a children’s game designer.
She
dreamed up “The Traveling Diary” — a simple notebook that would
traverse the globe via snail mail, collecting handwritten stories and,
ultimately, creating a community.
A
year later, seven marbled notebooks have circulated in various
locations — from the United States to Australia, Canada to South Africa —
and a growing group of strangers have formed an unexpected friendship
as a result. So far, 115 women have signed up to participate.
Peralte
found her first contributor on a Zoom conference for entrepreneurs,
during which she mentioned her diary idea. A woman from North Carolina
immediately reached out and said she would like to write in the book.
From there, Peralte wrote a Medium article, in an effort to recruit more women to get involved. Word spread, and she created a website
so participants could easily add their names to the queue. Each person
is allowed to keep the diary for up to three days and fill as many pages
as they wish, with whatever writing or artwork they choose. Then, they
are responsible for mailing it to the next person, whose address Peralte
provides.
Women
around the world from various cultures, races and lifestyles eagerly
signed up to share their stories. They each began filling the pages with
their own handwriting, narrating their pandemic experiences, recounting
obstacles they faced and sharing lessons they learned. While some women
wrote about grief and heartbreak, others wrote about joy and new love.
“Everyone approaches the blank pages in their own personal way,” Peralte said.
The entries all reflect the moment in time when they were written.
Amy
Tingle, 52, sat down with the diary last September, in the wake of
civil unrest and ongoing protests, and she decided to focus her entry on
America’s racial reckoning.
“I couldn’t escape the sadness,” said Tingle, who lives in Maine. “I remember being really disappointed in humanity.”
Writing
in the communal diary, “was definitely a therapeutic thing during that
time,” she said. As an artist, she also included a collage of women,
symbolizing the sense of friendship she felt with other participants.
While
writing her own thoughts was healing, she said, it was equally
meaningful to read the words of other women who held the book before
her.
“It was so fascinating to know that we’re all in the same moment in time, but having such different experiences,” Tingle said.
Kirsty
Nicol, 29, who lives in London, heard about the Traveling Diary through
a friend. She received the journal two months ago, after it was shipped
from New York City.
“It
came to me at a challenging time during lockdown,” she said, adding
that on top of struggling with prolonged isolation and pandemic fatigue,
she also got tonsillitis. Reading the entries allowed her to escape,
transporting her into the lives of others and finding bits of wisdom
they left.
One
woman from Australia had written: “Working with the setbacks. Not
against them. Patience and gratitude. It’s a dance. Life is moving and
we can stomp our feet in rejection, or we can gracefully embrace the
mess, tidying as we go.”
“I
wrote about my ambitions, my goals and how I wanted to step into the
new year,” she said. It felt meaningful to “to pass on something so
personal. It felt like these were women that I had known even though I
didn’t know them at all,” said Sarr, who works in health care.
Recently, though, Sarr did meet some of the women whose stories she read, through a virtual get-together that Peralte organized.
“It
has really evolved into a community,” Peralte said. She often hosts
Zoom events so the women get the chance to get to know one another more,
share stories they might have missed and connect more intimately. Some
of the women, she said, have actually become close friends.
Nan Seymour, 54, described meeting fellow Traveling Diary participants as a “miraculous” experience.
Seymour,
who lives in Salt Lake City, received the diary last month. She learned
about the project on social media and immediately signed up.
“I
loved that it was a tangible book, and I loved that it was coming by
snail mail, operating at a different speed and frequency than our
jacked-up Internet-based life,” she said.
Holding
the book in her hands, “I felt like I was reading something sacred,”
she said. As she slowly examined the 12 entries that preceded her own,
“it evoked a sense of awe.”
“I
found all the experiences relatable in their essence, but there were
definitely reports from lives very different than my own,” she said,
Seymour wrote a personal essay about her 26-year-old daughter, who is transgender.
“I
wanted to represent that part of my life, and I thought it might
benefit others,” she said, adding that she knew her words would be
well-received.
“We’re
all drawn to this project from the same heart-based purpose,” she said.
“Once you come through this door, you’re meeting people whose values
align.”
Although
six notebooks are still traveling the globe, the original diary — which
contains Peralte’s very first entry about navigating pandemic life and
reconnecting with family — is finally back in her possession, with two
more books expected to arrive in May.
“It was beautiful to have it again and to read it,” she said. “I carry these stories with me on a daily basis.”
She feels a strong bond with the people who wrote them, none of whom she would have otherwise known.
Peralte’s spontaneous idea, she said, has had a profound effect on her, and she hopes, the other women who were part of it.
“The Traveling Diary is making sisters out of strangers,” she said.
I started this blog when I was 19 years old as a creative outlet when
I needed to claw out of a really bad space. I had no real intention of
it being anything more than a space where I could write about my
feelings, adventures and cute pictures. For a while, that’s all it
really was but now I realize how many I could help with everything I
have learned.
Cher Belle means Dear Beautiful. I crafted the name as the first
affirmation to myself. To remind myself that I was beautiful, worthy and
deserving. Since then, I have learned and understood the importance of
affirmations and what having a positive dialogue with yourself can do
for you.
When I was at my absolute lowest, unmotivated, detached and without
purpose – this blog breathed life back into me. My only hope is that it
can continue to be a space where you feel inspired, capable and filled
with purpose.
I have been on a self love journey for years now and I finally feel I am
firm on my feet with everything I have learned, which is why I want to
share it with you. Healing from years of depression, trauma and general
low self esteem has given me so many lessons. I have learned how to
laugh, and truly mean it. I have also learned how to cry when need be
and how to get up and try again. I have learned how to treat myself with
tenderness and kindness and that I am my own best friend. However, most
of all I have learned how to work on being a better person everyday and
how to love myself intentionally.
Romeo bumped into RAGWEED and got hit with a poof of pollen. I said It's The Green Clouds of Ragweed and we agreed it should be the name of an Irish pipe tune!
Three neighbors who I care a lot about think they will be one in a million and die if they get the vaccine. They also think they won't die if they catch the virus. I'm trying to convince them to get the vaccine. I guess everyone thinks they are one in a million and perhaps it's true but get vaccinated. Put the odds in your favor.
I work in the small building out back, and it’s just right
for me. There’s no running water and no telephone. No distractions.
Because it has windows on all four sides and a high ceiling, there’s no
feeling of being boxed in. It’s off-limits to everyone but
grandchildren. They come out anytime they wish—the smaller the better. I
work all day and just about every day. I go out about eight-thirty in
the morning, like I’m going to the train, come back in for lunch, look
at the mail, then I go back again for the afternoon. We built it when I
was writing The Great Bridge. Before that I rented a little studio from a
neighbor who had built several of them, each on wooden skids. You could
pick out a spot on his farm and he’d hook a studio to his tractor and
drag it there for you.
No TV while eating — and only as much as you exercise.
Studies show that watching TV — or any other “screen time,” such as
computer use — is a driver of weight gain. You aren't moving, and
there's a good chance you're also sipping or nibbling on something. So
spend only as much leisure time watching TV — or in front of any screen —
as you spend exercising. That way, you're breaking the bad habit of
mindless eating and adding the good habit of being more active.
No sugar — except what's naturally found in fruit.
If you want something sweet, eat fruit. Otherwise, stay away from
sugar and sweetened foods, including table sugar, brown sugar, honey,
jam and jelly, candy, desserts and soda. Alcohol also counts as a sweet.
Keep in mind that many artificially sweetened foods like candy,
cookies, cakes, ice cream and yogurt can still pack lots of calories.
Relying on fruit to satisfy your cravings is a healthier, lower-calorie
habit.
No snacks except fruits and vegetables.
Common snacks typically have a lot of calories and little
nutritional value. If you're hungry between meals, eat only fruits and
vegetables and nothing else. Snacking on healthy fruits and vegetables a
couple of times a day can help you manage your weight. Stock your home
with a variety of ready-to-eat vegetables and fruits.
Moderate meat and low-fat dairy.
Limit total daily consumption of meat, poultry and fish to 3 ounces —
the size of a deck of cards. If you consume dairy products, use only
skim milk and low-fat varieties, and consume them in moderation — about
two servings daily. Full-fat dairy products contain saturated fat that
can raise your cholesterol. Even lean cuts of meat and skinless poultry
have some saturated fat and cholesterol and can be high in calories.
No eating at restaurants — unless the meal fits the Lose It! program.
Eating out is associated with weight gain. The tantalizing sights
and smells of a restaurant, deli counter, bakery display, food court or
concession stand entice you with high-calorie menu items and large
portions. If you must eat out, make sure you order foods and beverages
that fit the habits in this plan. (Mayo Clinic)
“In Zen, actions speak louder than words. Doing is more important than knowing, and knowledge which cannot be translated into action is of little worth.”
— Thich Thien-An
“Each season has its own beauty. To practice meditation is to open the mind so that all of them may be enjoyed. When each season comes we should enjoy it; & when it goes, we should let it go and open our mind to the next season.”
— Thich Thien-An
“The beauty of Zen is found in simplicity and tranquility, in a sense of the all-embracing harmony of things.”
— Thich Thien-An
“In Zen Buddhism an action is considered good when it brings happiness and well-being to oneself and others, evil when it brings suffering and harm to oneself and others.”
— Thich Thien-An
“In Zen, actions speak louder than words. Doing is more important than knowing, and knowledge which cannot be translated into action is of little worth.”
— Thich Thien-An
“To practice Zen Buddhism is to train oneself to eliminate hatred, anger and selfishness and to develop loving-kindness towards all.”
— Thich Thien-An
“So let the mind flow like water. Face life with a calm and quiet mind and everything in life will be calm and quiet.”
— Thich Thien-An
If we are always demanding something out of life, then we will never be content. But if we accept life as it is, then we will know contentment.
— Thich Thien-An
“Since everything is interrelated, since all things depend one upon another, nothing is absolute, nothing is separate, but all are part of the one indivisible whole.”
— Thich Thien-An
“We all shed salty tears and shed red blood. All is one.”
I
am sorry that we are where we are today with a raging pandemic when
free, incredibly effective vaccines are readily available. I am sorry
the ICUs and Emergency Rooms are full with people who did not need to
get this sick. I am sorry that selfishness, ignorance, and arrogance has
exacerbated this crisis and that you have had to bear the burden of
life-and-death battles, hospital bed by hospital bed. I am sorry that
elected officials have tried to score political points by stoking
anti-science narratives based on lies around this virus, the vaccine,
and bogus treatments, while attacking your credibility and service. It
is beyond shameful. I am sorry that you have been subjected to verbal
and even physical abuse while you have risked your lives and the lives
of your families.
I
remember in the early days of the pandemic when we would gather nightly
in New York to applaud your sacrifice. In those days, there was no
vaccine. There was no expectation that there would be any protection
anytime soon. And yet, day after day, you went into the fight, trying to
save lives. How long ago those days seem now. How much has transpired,
some of it hopeful, much of it deeply discouraging.
I
would like to believe that the vast majority of Americans value your
service, even if they will never know the full horrors you have had to
endure. Like soldiers constantly on the frontlines, tour after tour, you
have had little time for rest. I understand why you are drained,
frustrated, and angry. I understand why many of you may choose to leave a
profession that has been your life’s work. In times of war, many glibly
thank members of the armed forces for their service, never
understanding the full measure of their sacrifice. So is it with you
today. We owe you much more than our gratitude. We owe you our lives.
And we owe you the freedom that allows us to dream of a healthier
future.
It
is a cruel irony that those who denigrate basic measures of public
health under the misguided banner of “freedom,” have confined you to
continued imprisonment in a nightmarish world of endless waves of new
cases. And now the enemy has regrouped with a deadlier variant, and once
again you are asked to man the battlements and repel the invaders.
People who blithely castigated your knowledge and the vaccines now
selfishly demand that they get every possible treatment. Their presence
in crowded hospitals also means there is less time and fewer beds - if
any at all - for you to treat patients with other medical needs, like
strokes, trauma, and heart disease. The stress on the system builds.
My
hope is that your allies across the country, the tens of millions who
have been vaccinated, who are trying to protect others and themselves
from the virus, have also had enough. Mask mandates are growing, and
politicians who try to ban them are receiving serious pushback. Vaccine
mandates are also on the rise. This is all progress. But when the
pandemic eventually fades we will need more than just acknowledging
these measures of necessity. We will need to have a deep introspection,
an after-action report, to understand how we pushed our healthcare
system to the brink and how we make sure nothing like this ever happens
again.
Your
heroic service deserves to be long remembered and celebrated. But I
suspect, more than anything, you would yearn for the appreciation that
comes from the humbling knowledge that our public health demands that we
look out for each other, that we do all we can to protect our
communities and the broader world. I pledge, and I ask others to do so
as well, that we will not let this issue fade as the case numbers
hopefully decrease. We must demand of our leaders that they fortify our
nation for the public-health battles ahead. We need the press to be
engaged and we need every platform that disseminates information to make
sure that they ferret out the lies, and promote the truth.
Naming, labeling, pegging, tagging will always increase the
audience’s sense that it can control if not curb the writer. Just the
way our readers constantly want us to repeat and write more of the kind
of text that has pleased them in the past, whenever we strike out into a
totally different direction, from sentimental liberal feminism to black
satiric humor for instance, they’re disappointed because they want us
to continue giving them more of the same. They’re terrified that some
subversive, abrasive new aspect of any writer’s sensibility will disturb
that philistine bourgeois experience: the reader’s pleasure.
Combine basmati brown rice and wheat berries, rinse them and pressure cook them together covered in water (20 minutes in the pressure cooker) or baked in the oven for an hour or boiled on stove-top 45 minutes. Enjoy with seared broccoli, chick peas, almonds and dates. So good!
“I've
never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been
depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that
one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering
me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words,
loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've
always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at
a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel
loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone."
I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and
give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't
help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you
going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out
there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let
them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to
rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in
factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been
lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's
drink more wine!” ― Charles Bukowski
“Have you ever seen the stars in the night? See them closely, they will
tell you, how to be open, how to love and how to shine and twinkle
without any differences and jealousy of other stars.”
―
Santosh Kalwar
The burden of this pandemic now rests on the shoulders of the
unvaccinated. On those who are eligible to get vaccinated but choose not
to, a decision they defend by declaring, “Vaccination is a deeply
personal choice.” But perhaps never in history has anyone’s personal
choice affected the world as a whole as it does right now. When hundreds
and thousands of people continue to die — when the most vulnerable
members of society, our children, cannot be vaccinated — the luxury of
choice ceases to exist.
If you believe the pandemic is almost over and I can ride it out, without getting vaccinated, you could not be more wrong. This virus will find you.
If you believe I’ll just wait until the FDA approves the vaccine first, you may not live to see the day.
If you believe if I get infected I’ll just go to the hospital and get treated, there is no guarantee we can save your life, nor even a promise we’ll have a bed for you.
If you believe I’m pregnant and I don’t want the vaccine to affect me, my baby or my future fertility, it matters little if you’re not alive to see your newborn.
If you believe I won’t get my children vaccinated because I don’t know what the long-term effects will be, it matters little if they don’t live long enough for you to find out.
If you believe I’ll just let everyone else get vaccinated around me so I don’t have to, there
are 93 million eligible, unvaccinated people in the “herd” who think
the same way you do and are getting in the way of ending this pandemic.
If you believe vaccinated people are getting infected anyway, so what’s the point?,
the vaccine was built to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from
severe illness. Instead of fatal pneumonia, those with breakthrough
infections have a short, bad cold, so the vaccine has already proved
itself. The vaccinated are not dying of COVID-19.
SARS-CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated countless times during this
pandemic, adapting to survive. Stacked up against a human race that has
resisted change every step of the way — including wearing masks, social
distancing, quarantining and now refusing lifesaving vaccines — it is
easy to see who will win this war if human behavior fails to change
quickly.
The most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones and the world is to GET VACCINATED.
I’ve tried very hard and I’ve never found any resemblance
between the people I know and the people in my novels. I don’t search
for exactitude in portraying people. I try to give to imaginary people a
kind of veracity. It would bore me to death to put into my novels the
people I know. It seems to me that there are two kinds of trickery: the
“fronts” people assume before one another’s eyes, and the “front” a
writer puts on the face of reality.
‘Behavioural
addictions have soared. Every spare second is an opportunity to be
stimulated, whether by scrolling Instagram, swiping through Tinder or
bingeing on porn, online gambling and e-shopping.’ Illustration: Harriet Noble/The Observer
A
hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life
depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must
exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I received and am
still receiving.
Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, sisters of the Graeae, Echidna, and Ladon – all dreadful and fearsome beasts. A beautiful mortal, Medusa was the exception in the family, until she incurred the wrath of Athena, either due to her boastfulness or because of an ill-fated love affair with Poseidon. Transformed into a vicious monster with snakes for hair, she was killed by Perseus, who afterward used her still potent head as a weapon, before gifting it to Athena. Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Medusa/medusa.html
Despite all the cynical things writers have said about writing for money, the truth is we write for love. That is why it is so easy to exploit us. That is also why we pretend to be hard-boiled, saying things like “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money” (Samuel Johnson). Not true. No one but a blockhead ever wrote except for love. . . . You must do it for love. If you do it for money, no money will ever be enough, and eventually you will start imitating your first successes, straining hot water through the same old teabag. It doesn’t work with tea, and it doesn’t work with writing.
Read your work aloud! This is the best advice I can give. When you read
aloud you find out how much can be cut, how much is unnecessary. You
hear how the story flows. And nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it. JUDY BLUME
I never correct anything and I never go back to what I have written, except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to. If you once look back, you are lost. How could you have written this drivel? How could you have used “terrible” six times on one page? And so forth. If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain.
"There is a 3/3/3 rule of thumb with adopting animals into your home –
it takes 3 days for them decompress when you first bring them home, 3
weeks to learn the routine of the house and 3 months to feel fully
integrated into the new home. The same can be applied to this
situation," says Kostiuk. "The sooner you begin (re)introducing them to
the new routine, the better."
Op-Ed: As a doctor in a COVID unit, I’m running out of compassion for the unvaccinated. Get the shot.
By Anita Sircar
My
patient sat at the edge of his bed gasping for air while he tried to
tell me his story, pausing to catch his breath after each word. The
plastic tubes delivering oxygen through his nose hardly seemed adequate
to stop his chest from heaving. He looked exhausted.
He had tested
positive for the coronavirus 10 days ago. He was under 50, mildly
hypertensive but otherwise in good health. Eight days earlier he started
coughing and having severe fatigue. His doctor started him on
antibiotics. It did not work.
Fearing his symptoms were worsening, he started taking some hydroxychloroquine he had found on the internet. It did not work.
He
was now experiencing shortness of breath while doing routine daily
activities such as walking from his bedroom to the bathroom or putting
on his shoes. He was a shell of his former self. He eventually made his
way to a facility where he could receive monoclonal antibodies, a lab-produced transfusion that substitutes for the body’s own antibodies. It did not work.
He
finally ended up in the ER with dangerously low oxygen levels,
exceedingly high inflammatory markers and patchy areas of infection all
over his lungs. Nothing had helped. He was getting worse. He could not
breathe. His wife and two young children were at home, all infected with
COVID. He and his wife had decided not to get vaccinated.
Last
year, a case like this would have flattened me. I would have wrestled
with the sadness and how unfair life was. Battled with the angst of how
unlucky he was. This year, I struggled to find sympathy. It was August
2021, not 2020. The vaccine had been widely available
for months in the U.S., free to anyone who wanted it, even offered in
drugstores and supermarkets. Cutting-edge, revolutionary, mind-blowing,
lifesaving vaccines were available where people shopped for groceries,
and they still didn’t want them.
Outside
his hospital door, I took a deep breath — battening down my anger and
frustration — and went in. I had been working the COVID units for 17
months straight, all day, every day. I had cared for hundreds of COVID
patients. We all had, without being able to take breaks long enough to
help us recover from this unending ordeal. Compassion fatigue was
setting in. For those of us who hadn’t left after the hardest year of
our professional lives, even hope was now in short supply.
Shouting
through my N95 mask and the noise of the HEPA filter, I introduced
myself. I calmly asked him why he decided not to get vaccinated.
“Well,
I’m not an anti-vaxxer or anything. I was just waiting for the FDA to
approve the vaccine first. I didn’t want to take anything experimental. I
didn’t want to be the government’s guinea pig, and I don’t trust that
it’s safe,” he said.
“Well,” I said, “I can pretty much guarantee
we would have never met had you gotten vaccinated because you would have
never been hospitalized. All of our COVID units are full and every
single patient in them is unvaccinated. Numbers don’t lie. The vaccines
work.”
This was a common excuse
people gave for not getting vaccinated, fearing the vaccine because the
Food and Drug Administration had only granted it emergency-use authorization
so far, not permanent approval. Yet the treatments he had turned to,
antibiotics, monoclonal antibodies and hydroxychloroquine, were
considered experimental, with mixed evidence to support their use.
The
only proven lifesaver we’ve had in this pandemic is a vaccine that many
people don’t want. A vaccine we give away to other countries because
supply overwhelms demand in the U.S. A vaccine people in other countries
stand in line for hours to receive, if they can get it at all.
“Well,”
I said, “I am going to treat you with remdesivir, which only recently
received FDA approval.” I explained that it had been under an EUA for
most of last year and had not been studied or administered as widely as
COVID-19 vaccines. That more than 353 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the U.S. along with more than 4.7 billion doses worldwide
without any overwhelming, catastrophic side effects. “Not nearly as
many doses of remdesivir have been given or studied in people and its
long-term side effects are still unknown,” I said. “Do you still want me
to give it to you?”
“Yes” he responded, “Whatever it takes to save my life.”
It did not work.
My
patient died nine days later from a fatal stroke. We, the care team,
reconciled this loss by telling ourselves: He made a personal choice not
to get vaccinated, not to protect himself or his family. We did
everything we could with what we had to save him. This year, this
tragedy, this unnecessary, entirely preventable loss, was on him.
At
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, doctors
and nurses are faced with what they dubbed the “fourth wave” of
COVID-19.
The
burden of this pandemic now rests on the shoulders of the unvaccinated.
On those who are eligible to get vaccinated, but choose not to, a
decision they defend by declaring, “vaccination is a deeply personal
choice.” But perhaps never in history has anyone’s personal choice
impacted the world as a whole as it does right now. When hundreds and
thousands of people continue to die, when the most vulnerable members of
society, our children, cannot be vaccinated — the luxury of choice
ceases to exist.
If you believe the pandemic is almost over and you can ride it out, without getting vaccinated, you could not be more wrong. This virus will find you.
If you believe I’ll just wait until the FDA approves the vaccine first, you may not live to see the day.
If you believe if I get infected I’ll just go to the hospital and get treated, there is no guarantee we can save your life, nor even a promise we’ll have a bed for you.
If you believe I’m pregnant and I don’t want the vaccine to affect me, my baby or my future fertility, it matters little if you’re not alive to see your newborn.
If you believe I won’t get my children vaccinated because I don’t know what the long-term effects will be, it matters little if they don’t live long enough for you to find out.
If you believe I’ll just let everyone else get vaccinated around me so I don’t have to, there
are 93 million eligible, unvaccinated people in the “herd” who think
the same way you do and are getting in the way of ending this pandemic.
If you believe vaccinated people are getting infected anyway so what’s the point?,
the vaccine was built to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from
severe illness. Instead of fatal pneumonia, those with breakthrough
infections have a short, bad cold, so the vaccine has already proved
itself. The vaccinated are not dying from COVID-19.
SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated countless times during this
pandemic, adapting to survive. Stacked up against a human race that has
resisted change every step of the way — including wearing masks, social
distancing, quarantining and now refusing lifesaving vaccines — it is
easy to see who will win this war if human behavior fails to change
quickly.
The most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones and the world, is to GET VACCINATED.
And it will work.
Anita Sircar is an infectious disease physician and clinical instructor of health sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine.
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