OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty Five HEROES

This is it.  This is the last post I will make on OGT DAILY.   It was started 366 days ago on Martin Luther King Jr Day and thus I am ending on this day as well.  It has been a supreme pleasure to entertain you these many months and to reap the benefits of a gratitude practice.  I cannot recommend it enough.

I wanted to make sure to devote this last post to heroes.  If there was ever a time when we needed to remember those who shine as examples for the rest of us it is now.

Martin Luther King is at the top of the list.   A quote from him that I heard today:

"When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact...that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters...”

Others are John Lewis, Corretta Scott King, the founders of the Women's March, Black Lives Matter, the editors and reporters of the New York Times, the Washington Post and all those dedicated to continuing to report the news in the face of threats to the media, Masha Gessen, Krista Tippett, my sister Liz and her wife Eileen for starting an active and effective Indivisible group which as effected real change locally,  Kzir Khan and his wife, people standing up for clean water in Detroit, the first responders and rescue crews who are helping to clean up Houston and Puerto Rico and the fires and mudslides in California, the countries of the world who continue to abide by the Paris Climate Accord, Daniel Macron, Malala Yousefsai, the men and women of our armed forces who risk their lives every day despite wasteful and foolish leadership choices, the police and fire control workers who commit to a difficult job despite adversity and politics.   Parents and teachers who continue to teach honesty and values of democracy and free thought despite the assault on public education and common decency.   I have forgotten so many and the list could go on forever for I believe the world is filled with more heroes than it is villains.

We need to look to our leaders and we need to become leaders to move to another era where integrity and honesty carry more weight.   

So for now - so long, farewell and I hope to return again.   If not as OGT DAILY perhaps in another form.  But I encourage you yourself to take up the practice, looking for the good each - creating the good each day and making the word a better place.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty Four ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This has been a challenging year in so many ways, but for me it has been a year of accomplishments.

I made more art between July 1 and Oct 1 than I have made in the last ten years.   I learned how to weave.  I learned how to make a basket and a net and a rope and to felt and crochet.  My hands know how to do so many new things.  I've returned to old skills especially knitting and have completed three sweaters in the past three months.  I am on roll.  I have completed and hope to publish a chapter on resiliency and art therapy for kids in foster care.  I completed the first year of my training as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner which was one of the the best decisions I have made in years.  Because of this training I have a better understanding of my own nervous system and am conquering old physical and emotional patterns as a result.   I live with less pain both physical and emotional.   I have spent the year working with a wonderful chiropractor who has aided me in this as well.   Years of lower back pain from skiing injuries have now faded into minor issues. That is a major accomplishment.   These new skills will help me to help others do the same

I have also witnessed and participated in the accomplishments of this country.  I have witnessed and participated in the rise of awareness that our democracy is at risk and engaged the urge to action.   I have helped push the election of Democrats in national and local races by phone banking and canvassing and making calls to my representatives and writing letters.   I have learned how to lobby for changes in legislation, which I did with Mom's Demand Gun Sense in Albany for common sense gun regulation.   I am proud and I am hopeful that we can move forward from what is low point in our political history.

Of all the accomplishments however the one that may have been the most helpful to me and of which I am most proud has been this commitment to gratitude practice called OGT DAILY.  That may be why this blog post and the last are a day or so late.   It is going to be hard to let go and I chose to end on Martin Luther King Jr Day because that is the day on which I started.

And cheers to you for all your own accomplishments the past year and thank you for reading all these many months!

My son and daughter wearing their new Christmas sweaters.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty Three RIGHT MIND

One of the many things I learned over the course of this year is that we can have control over our thoughts and how they affect us. 

Negative thoughts can lead to more of same, to shutting down, to seeing only the limits - the proverbial glass half full, the world through dark glasses.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.   Corinthians 13:12

The more positive we are the more clearly we see and feel the lightness of being which transcends time.

To choose to be grateful instead of dissatisfied is revolutionary even in the face of hardship - especially in the face of hardship.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty Two GRATITUDE

Gratitude practice has  transformed my life this year.  This One Good Thing Daily Practice.   Heed my praises as it can have on not insignificant effect on your life too.

Humans are not necessarily all venal, base, greedy, and war mongering.   Altruism is an innate quality displayed by babies who with cry in empathy for another.   Sure we can cultivate hatred and violence and it seems easy in the current climate.   Some are born to be sharks, but many of us are generous, open and grateful for all that this world gives us.

Even among other animals we find this behavior.

Below is a humpback whale who saved a marine scientist from a tiger shark.  This image makes me so hopeful for the positive energy there is present in life.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty COUNTDOWN

Sunday will have been 365 days since I started this blog and I just wanted to take stock and give you all the heads up.   It has been a chore at times and as you can see I have had to have catch up days, but it has also been a boon and a delight.   Not only did it force me to find a glimmering diamond within each waking day in a year of chaos, darkness and madness, but it kept me a on a schedule to do so and allowed me to change the lens in my glasses to see beyond the obvious and look at a bigger cycle of time; at the possibility of resilience and change.   In the space of 365 days many things can change and I'll list a few:

The Women's March
The Me-Too movement
Tax Reform
Escalation to war
The dropping popularity of the current president
The election of women and democrats in Republican strongholds
Decimation of the EPA
The maintenance of the Paris accord by European Union and the rest of the world
The downfall of Steve Bannon

What will another 365 days bring - so much could be different a year from now.
I will admit to binge watching trash TV during the "deep freeze" - namely "The Tudors."

Cardinal Woolsey,  Thomas Merton, and Thomas Cromwell all came, ruled and lost their heads under the tempestuous reign of terror that was Henry the Eighth

.   Trashy as it is - it reminds me that greed and mindless corruption is a given in humanity as is compassion, kindness, and wisdom.

The wheel will turn again and again.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Nine BAKING

Today at dinner a friend turned me on to a most "good" thing.   That is the Great British Baking Show.  What a delight!

Set in the English countryside under a big white tent with British flag banners all around, twelve erstwhile bakers are asked to make a perfect Swiss Roll which is followed by a round of creating 36 perfect miniature cakes and then a the Head Judge's English Cherry cake recipe. 

The drama and tension are some how sweeter and less cut throat than our own Chopped or Iron Chef.
The accents are certainly lovely and the jokes more silly: Q: "How do make a Swiss Roll? A: "Kick Roger Federer down a hill." 

Even with the English rain falling outside the tent there is a focus and precision to the art of baking which is calming to my DYI heart.   As you know I do love baking.   There something nice about seeing construction workers and postmen and other work a day people pouring their passion into biscuits and sponge cake.

Mary Berry with berries 

Who can't love a show where the judges names are Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. 
Mary's signature line seems to be, "Well its slightly over baked" or "In this one the cherries all fell to the bottom."   Her's is the ultimate word.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Sixty One THAW

After several weeks of deep freeze the ice is flowing southward on the Hudson again.  It is a rare site to see ice flow on these waters and this does not happen unless the temperatures are close to zero, but it is such a good feeling to see that freeze break up and thaw.   I can almost feel it in my body.  The corresponding freeze has been in my sinuses and they are now flowing as well.  Gross I know but I'm sure I have good company. 

Things will freeze again I know, but this thaw and the experience of it is something to hold onto.  It heralds the return of spring; the ever turning cycle.

In my work with adolescents I see this freeze and thaw over the course of several years as a young person goes into to the frozen turmoil of "who am I?" - all sulky and blank looks, inexplicable silence and behavior - only to emerge eventually, slowly, as "I think this is who I am and what I believe," with small moments of articulateness and gestures of independence.   It can be equally thrilling and deeply moving to witness this thawing and blossoming of a human being.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Eight NEW REGIME

Today is a day of celebration.  In Westchester County George Latimer is being sworn in as County Executive for a change of power after seven years of a Republican whose ambitions seemed focused on larger offices.   My prayers and blessings are with George who stepped up to run for this office for the good of the people of my town and my neighbors.   I will him to have the wisdom and fortitude to remain strong and fair and not be swallowed by the political machine. 

It is a time of celebration for all of the Indivisible Groups, which have formed across the country and for the hope of political change at a grass toots level.   It's not a time for rest however, but a time to remain motivated and active.   There is still much to be done...

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Seven STRETCHING the LIMIT

It seems we are at a moment in time when credulity is stretched to its limits.   I don't think its necessary to specify.

I have myself been doing some stretching. This morning facing the river with its ice flows I was back to my rituals.  Stretching to my toes and my spine I feel the edge of the stretch and stay there.   A place of meeting, perhaps of pain, but of reaching and being still at the same time.   In this morning's stretching I had the patience to be in the place of tightness and allow it to give way to something else; something softer with more room to move about.  Finding that place can make time expand and last forever. 

There are so many places in life where this lesson applies.   It seems something therapists are inclined to promote with clients; being with the pain and making room for it to ease or change. 

The film Call Me By Your Name has such a moment, when a father encourages his son to feel the pain at the end of a relationship rather than shut it out.   To feel pain rather than shut it out is to remain human with all the joys as well as the sorrows.    For life and its joys are fleeting.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Six FRIENDS

One of the things I have valued the most about this past year, and there have been many, was the number of new friends that have come into my life and opened me up to seeing the world in new ways; to learning new skills; and to being in the world in a different way.

Who would think at almost 59 years of age that one could still make new good friends.  Well it has happened and this makes me feel young all over again. 

At the same time I return to my old friends - some from as long as fifty years - for the secure knowledge of who I am and where I have come from.    There is nothing like old friends to confirm that, while new friends teach you new things about life and yourself.   

So thank you for all the politicking and trainings and art making this year which have been great adventures.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Five BLIZZARD

Snuggled on the couch with my dog, knitting and watching, the winds whip and blow.  Contemplating a trek to our neighbor's for dinner.  I'm reminded of the immortal words of WC Fields. For your viewing pleasure:

"Ain't fit night out for man or beast"  

 W.C. Fields in "The Fatal Glass of Beer"  1933

Stars: W.C. Fields, Rosemary Theby and George Chandler Director: Clyde Bruckman Writer: (uncredited) The prodigal son of a Yukon prospector comes home on a night that "ain't fit for man nor beast."

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Four COLD WEATHER

I am just loving it!   Several days of walking in temperatures in the teens; a ground that is frozen like iron steel; snow that accumulates and sits unmoved for days at a time; frost on the windows in the morning; the fireplace going at night and wind howling in the eves. 


This cold snap seems abnormal and I do worry for those who have no shelter, but this is normal.  I grew up in New England where freezing weather and snow wereour winter.   Extreme cold kills all the bugs which attack the garden in the spring and the viruses and bugs which attack us as well.   The plants in the garden love a cold chill in winter - especially the tulip and daffodil bulbs.  It bode wells for the spring.   After several years of soggy winters and a year of frankly putrid politics, I find this brittle cold cleansing and refreshing.   Bring on the snow!   I've got my long johns and my shovel.  I'm ready.

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Three LAZYNESS

Sometimes not rushing up to do all and everything is the best mode of action.  Allowing the lazy day once in a while.   I think I am unfurling out of the glow of the holidays slowly; letting the warmth linger.   Thus this post is a day late!   I am honoring my new mode of not giving into anxiety but going with ease and measured response.  That means I might not get it all done today, but maybe tomorrow or the next day or even the next.

This is the only way to be when the weather is so cold your own breath might freeze and is a righteous response to the knee jerk tweeting and reactive, explosive news coming across the radio, TV and social media all the time.

So ho hum....yawn...time for a winter's nap....

OGT DAILY Day Three Hundred and Fifty Two RECKONING

The new day dawns, the new year arrives with bitter cold and bright sun as well as five gallon flood from our fish tank and an old dog who pooped on herself.  So indeed the shit does lay upon the path and this was no auspicious way to begin the new year.   But we have resolved to reckon with the hardship and to soldier on.

Dean was up at four am dealing with all of this, but after a nap and cup of coffee, we still went for our walk in 14F weather.    Brisk and bitter but warming on the inside and hopeful for the new year despite the "shit" that comes our way.   With resolve we can reckon with what comes our way.   With gratitude practice things only continue to get better.

The beacon of lights which was our pretty balsam Christmas tree came down today as is my New Year's day ritual.   It stayed lit all this bitter cold week warming our hearts and that warmth remain there as we wait for the sun to return and the warmth of the air.