Caught In The Act?

I do embarrassing things all of the time. Most recently, I was performing at a festival with a Bollywood cardio dance group and I kept tripping on my harem pants. I caught my foot in the billowy fullness gathered at the ankle at least 3 times! And every time - especially the last, as it was the most pronounced - I envisioned going ALL. THE. WAY. I'm talking massive wipeout where I'm not going down alone. Oh no, I'm in the back row at this point and if I'm falling, it's forwards so I'm taking friends with me.

Secretly, I wished it had happened and my caught foot ended up taking out a fifth of the performers on stage. I nearly bursted out  laughing, mid-dance at the thought. Though I'm sure this mirth was highly elevated by my amusement of a completely horrendous second dance.

But back to falling. Think about it, how funny would it be to witness a dancer trip and fall, taking out fellow dancers on her way down?!

It'd be amazing! I would LOVE to see that!! I can just imagine how my cheeks would be hurting from laughing so much. And the days of pleasure to follow after, calling up giggles simply at the thought (and of course subsequent mental replays of the event).

Sometimes it really sucks to do embarrassing things. They can make you feel shy, nervous, stupid, etc. Luckily for me though, those feelings are less common - at least for more than a second. More commonly, I hope that when I have an embarrassing moment I'm caught in the act. If I know that I would enjoy seeing the same situation happen to someone else, then it's seems like a waste if no one can get enjoyment out of my embarrassment.

As the saying goes: What goes around, comes around. So why not will the coming and going of humor and cheer? It's ultimately for the greater good, after all . . .

An Heir Hair

What is this? 

A duo of threads? 

Line for a fishing rod?

Maybe for some. For me, it is proof of an heir. Or perhaps more appropriate, an heir hair.

It's been discussed in my family that all of the daughters have fine, golden-hued, silky tresses, while our mom's was more coarse and dark. I can still vividly recall as we aged, the exclamation of my older sisters as they each found their respective first coarse hairs.

"It is so thick!"

'Where did this come from?!'

I'm no stranger to coarse stragglers on my ol' noggin, however, while washing my hair the other day I discovered the most curious thing. My Heir Hair. This was not just a random coarse hair in a forest of strands. This was proof of the metamorphosis itself. A hair transformation caught in the act, if you will. A complete transformation of not only girth, but hue as well.

Behold, my tangible destiny! And caught in the midst of puberty, no doubt.

Let's take a look again at the photos from the beginning of the story again.

Now zoom out and see . . . . . . 

They are connected. 

It is one single strand of hair. WHOA! That's crazy. And also quite impressive and cool. Just think, if it weren't for my disgusting hairballs I stick on the walk of the shower to avoid clogging the drain, I would have missed it entirely!

The Violin & The Water Glasses

The. Best. Thing. I've. Seen. Riding. Public Transit.

Or at least close to it . . .

I wish I had a video to show you of the great sight, but sadly, I don't. Looks like you're going to have to use your imagination!

Picture, if you will, a gray building with rooftop access right next to the elevated train tracks. Standing side-by-side on the rooftop are two men, right at the ledge. The man on the left is playing a violin. The man on the right is holding a serving tray with two wine glasses of [what I'm assuming is] water, OVER the edge of the building.

As the train curves around the building, the violinist plays on. The water man's arm shakes with fatigue (I don't really know if his arm was tired, but it sounds good!) My head turns as the train passes by, eager to see what is happening. As the building quickly disappears from view and I'm straining my neck and eyes to their fullest extent, I see only ONE other person on the train who has spotted the odd situation outside.

I'll never know exactly what was going on, but my suspicion is a science experiment! I predict they were seeing if the violin could play the right note at the right frequency to shatter the wine glasses. I also predict the glasses had different levels of water. I discussed this great sight with a friend later and she had different ideas as to what the two men were doing - but now I forget what they were . . .

So how was your imagination? Could you picture it? If not, my quick drawing below will bring it home for you.

NOTE: This is an EXACT likeness.
Couldn't get closer to the real thing unless you were there!

Actions Speak Loud With Some Words

When trying to live my life by practicing what I preach, in terms of everyone matters and all people have value, I've found things harder than before. Really, the struggle now seems to be NOT acknowledging people around me.

Like most people - scratch that - like ALL people, I have initial impressions about those I see around me. I won't lie, the other day when there was a mentally handicapped man on the train stopping and talking to various people, I didn't want him to talk to me. To reduce the chances of this, I knew I needed to NOT acknowledge him - which was really hard! I think I couldn't fully ignore everything except my own existence in the world and looked in his direction.

He started talking to me.

I had two options: be a humongous jerk and completely ignore him or politely acknowledge him with limited responses. I chose the latter. But even as I started in with my tight smile and short answers, I found myself quickly becoming much less defensive about interacting with him.

Why?

Because I had eyes, to start with. I could see how everyone else looked at him, averted their gaze when he approached or completely ignored him. And this observation made me really sad. I'm no angel. I'm guilty of doing all of these things on a probably more frequent basis than I even realize. However, my attitude-changing thought on the train was: What if this was me? How incredibly lonely and degrading and dehumanizing would it be to essentially be excluded from interactions of everyday society because you are different and can't help it? It would be a completely different story if he was a drunk on the train and terrorizing people. But he wasn't. He was [probably] a mid-30s, bearded man, complimenting people on their shirts.

That was the first reason I quickly changed my stance on talking to him. The second reason was gratitude - You could tell that he was genuinely happy about talking with another person. If I wasn't completely sure of this, the smile and twinkle in his eyes definitely gave it away.

What did we talk about?

Actually, it was still just me giving short acknowledging responses to the statements [I could understand] about his train destination plans for the afternoon. But through this he was able to share and (sort of?) make connections with others [i.e. me] around him.

Taking time to adjust my instinctive impression and being open to talking with this man on the train may not seem like a big deal. And it may not have meant anything to the man at all. But regardless of the meaning on the receiving end, I know I can feel good about upholding my own standards and giving everyone a chance of at least a small bit of human dignity.

Again, It might not seem like much, but just imagine if everyone was willing to make such small efforts! That's the world I want to live in and I'm trying my best to lead by example. Will you join me?

A Sister's Duty . . .

Is to come up with a fantastic variety of options from which her new nephew's name will be chosen. 

Embrace Change . . . REALLY

I've heard the phrase a lot, as well as have it on the vision board that's hanging on my wall. Whenever I look at the board the component that jumps out at me first - hands down - is 'embrace change.'

[You'd think it would be the giant 'healthy,' right?]

Weird. Is there a reason for that? I think, yes, as I'm going through a career/life transition and figuring out what I REALLY want, what I enjoy, what makes me happy. And then the easier part of figuring out how to apply these things and make a living. I'm not joking about application being the easy part. I mean, it's hard, but the introspection that has to come before it is REALLY hard! Which is probably why I still haven't passed through that phase . . .

With a fluid and ever-changing life state and an overwhelming number of possibilities before me, yes, I think there's a reason 'embrace change' jumps out at me.

However, I discovered that I might not be viewing the 'embrace change' philosophy through the best lens. Last night, I realized that I associate change that needs to be embraced with change that is not necessarily the result of one's choosing. Therefore, I subconsciously attach a slight negative connotation to it, I think. That's not to say I think change is a bad thing, but in my experience embracing change typically contains elements or situations where there is pain or great uncertainty before glory and excitement. For example, moving on from a relationship that's no longer suiting you or getting transferred to a different team/project at work. These changes are definitely good, and more often than not you know they are - or will be - good for you, but what if there's more to the whole thing?

Maybe embracing change is really about actually feeling all of the emotions we have as we are experiencing them, in an effort to REALLY take in the moment - and life. With this thought in mind, you could totally apply the 'embrace change' mindset to fantastic, planned changes that take place. They are changes, after all, and you do need to embrace them fully. Let's flip the previous examples. Maybe this joyful change results from working on a relationship to now positively benefit all parties, or acknowledging and getting excited about the new things you'll learn in your new team or project at work, added responsibilities you might have, greater ownership, and an overall new experience.

We can all embrace change:
- in times of struggle and uncertainty: trusting and working hard so that things work out in our favor (however that may be - even if unknown to us)
- in times of joy and clarity: celebrating achievements and direction you are traveling, expressing your emotions and sharing them with others, and then paying it forward to help others do the same.

The Google dictionary tells me that embrace means:

"accepting or supporting something willingly or enthusiastically"

That sounds pretty good to me!

What changes are you dealing with right now? Are you embracing the more difficult changes with an open mind and sense of adventure? Or the easy, joyful changes by allowing yourself to truly feel your emotions at this time and sharing them with others - helping to inspire and motivate?

I hope so. 

I'll certainly be adding this to my list of things to work on. 

Day 52: Broken Buzzer :(

Uh-oh 

A broken buzzer is mighty unfortunate. But I certainly enjoyed seeing the notification as I passed by! I really enjoy pictures like this. There's always so much more going on than first meets the eye. Let's see how much you see with a [fun] counting game.

How many doors do you see?

How many cars?

How many trees?

How many windows?

Can you see any lights?

How many locks?

How about straight up layers to this photo?