Timely advice as we move into June

Some sage advice from my friend Gary to me, which I am delighted to share with you.

1.    The ability to speak several languages is an asset, but the ability to keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless!

2.    Be decisive. Right or wrong, decide. The road is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t decide.

3.     When I get a headache, I take two aspirin and keep away from children just like the bottle says.

4.    Just once, I want the prompt for username and password to say, “Close enough.”

5.    Becoming an adult is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.

6.    If you see me talking to myself, just move along. I’m self-employed. We’re having a meeting.

7.    Does anyone else have a plastic bag full of plastic bags or is it just me.

8.    I hate it when I can’t figure out how to operate the iPad and my tech support guy is asleep. He’s 5 and it’s past his bedtime.

9.    Today’s 3-year-olds can switch on laptops and open their favorite apps. When I was 3, I ate mud.

10. Tip for a successful marriage: Don’t ask your wife when dinner will be ready while she’s mowing the lawn.

11. So, you drive across town to a gym to walk on a treadmill?

12. Old age is coming at a really bad time.

13. If God wanted me to touch my toes, He would've put them on my knees.

14. Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet.

15. Why do I have to press one for English when you're just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?

16. I don't need anger management. I need people to stop irritating me.

17. My people skills are just fine. It's my tolerance for idiots that needs work.

18. "On time" is when I get there.

19. Even duct tape can't fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound.

20. It would be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for ten minutes, then come out wrinkle-free...and three sizes smaller.

21. "One for the road" means peeing before you leave the house!

Day Dreams

Dreamers believe that if you ask any question just before you sleep, and it will be answered. The world of dreams is interesting for us. Dream theories are conceived as imagery but in literature and music, its symbolism is varied. Singers and songwriters may offer a realistic perspective with surreal or bizarre lyrics. The varying natures of dreams are often expressed with desires and anxieties. Self-awareness and inspiration are showcased through dreaming themes in songs.

 Songwriters and poets use symbols and motifs that are creatively presented through lyrics that talk about dreams. Varied aspects that pertain to reality, perception, illusion, fantasy, expectation, and imagination are showcased in songs with dreams in the title. In different genres, dreams are portrayed in a magical, exciting, melancholic, frightening, sexual, surreal, or adventurous manner. Obsessive tendencies related to dreaming are showcased with dark humour and sarcasm in certain songs.

The way a subconscious mind relates to an elusive state of perception and reality is portrayed with varying degrees of escapism in songs with concepts. In music videos, the visual nature of dreams is showcased with locations, characters, people, objects or artifacts blending into each other. These images are often reflective of a person’s experiences and memories. Dimensions and new worlds showcased in dreamlike sequences are exaggerated or bizarre in their form. Although a wide range of attributes is associated with dreams, in songs, dreams may symbolize or signify: 

·       Emotions

·       Joy

·       Fear

·       Happiness

·       Anxiety

·       Insecurity

·       Hope

Songs with dreams in the title that I happen to like. (enjoy)

Dreams—Fleetwood Mac

Day Dream Believer—The Monkees

“Lucid Dreams”—Juice Wrld

“A Head Full of Dreams”—Coldplay

“Wildest Dreams”—Taylor Swift

“All I Have to Do Is Dream”—The Everly Brothers

“Dreams”—The Cranberries

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams”—Green Day

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”—Eurythmics

“Dream On”—Aerosmith

“Girl of My Dreams”—Rod Wave

“I Have a Dream”—ABBA

My hope is that if you can ask any question before you sleep that by the mornings you will be answered. But mornings your "hearing" is often best so asking your question in the morning and then daydreaming may help you find your answer. Yes, we can hear you now, can you hear your answer in your dreams?

The Law of Relevance

When something is "relevant," it matters. Its importance is clear at least to the objective observer. Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that makes it useful to consider the second topic when considering the first. If something does not have relevance to the problem we are facing, we need not consider it as we try to solve our issue or move forward in our life.

So, consider these ideas and see if they are relevant to us as we face this pandemic. No matter how scared, or tired, or ill you are; no matter how lost, or confused, or desperate you become; no matter how lonely, depressed, or cranky you feel. If you just do what you can, with what you have, from right where you are, it will always be enough. Pretty good odds, huh?

The concept of relevance is studied in many different fields, including cognitive sciences, logic, and library and information science Relevance is simply the noun form which means important to the matter at hand. As we face the pandemic, many of including artists and politicians are worried about our relevance but as we are on this journey into the unknown or forgotten realm of a new normal, we really do not know what is relevant and what is not. So, no matter what your situation, do what you can with what you have, and it will be enough. If it is not enough then you will find the strength and courage to find what you need to make it relevant. Life is not strange as mankind has always worked with what we have to make our world relevant, and we, I think always will.

 

Rivers

Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay springs to mind as I watch the Fraser River flow to the sea. I walk almost every day and I have been building up my stamina to reach 7K a day. I was half way along the walk and I found my stamina was not what it was, and I had to sit. So, I choose spot on the dock along the River, where I am watching the River as I rest.

 I watch the currents swirling and the flotsam drift by my spot. For those who are not aware the Fraser River is a large River on the West Coast of BC and where I walk it is also a tidal river. At this time of the year is running high and fast due to the snow melt and the rains.

 The logs, branches and other debris are floating by at, what I thought was a fast pace. As I watched the river, I noticed that the debris appeared to be slowing down and then it stopped. The branches and the flotsam, slowed to a crawl and the just started to bob without moving, as if they were treading water. Slowly, almost at a snail’s pace, the debris I was watching started to move back up the river. Usually in the fall, winter or earl spring, I have noticed the tide turning and found it entertaining to watch the river currents first moving toward the ocean and then moving back to the mountains as the river and the tide fought for control. 

Because the river is so high and running so fast, I had not expected the tide to turn the river, but it did. I knew that within an hour the tide would turn, and the debris and the river would continue their journey to the ocean.

 As I was watching I heard a power boar approaching, going down river, and I noticed that the boater gradually increased the acceleration of the boat as the tide shifted. The boater may not have realized what why he/she was slowing down but they compensated for the extra force against the boat to maintain the same speed.

As we go through life, some of us are the flotsam and allow the currents to take us where they want us to go, we drift along until sometimes we  get caught between powerful forces that we are not aware and we stop, and drift around until we are pulled ahead without knowing what happened or why. Some of us are the boater who knows where they are going and have the energy to get there fast and when we are faced with currents that slow us down, we just increase the amount of energy we have to expend to get to where we want to go.

What do you remember?

Ever wonder, when looking back at your life, why it's easier to remember the good than the bad, the pleasant than the unpleasant, the laughs than the cries? Some could say that it's simply because there's always a lot more of the former. That may be true, in every life. 

How do we allocate our time in life, assuming we live for the average age, which in Canada is 81. 

We live a total of 29,565 days or 709,560 hours
of those we spend (on average);
206,952 hours sleeping, 
88, 680 hours eating, 
90,000 hours working, 
10, 800 hours commuting,  
7,200 hours in K to 12 
21, 600 hours on social media
5,472 hours in quality time with family
312 hours in the hospital
65,688 hours watching TV
60,000 hours on the phone
2, 208 on the toilet

and the list can go on to include things that we do that are out of the realm of those who find statistics interesting. By the way, each of the above statistics was found by doing a google search. I find it remarkable that people study us that much. 

The point is that we have very little time, so when we cast our minds back we remember the good times because they force their way through the routine of life into our long-term memory. As people, we move away from pain and toward pleasure which means that as we recall our lives, we remember the good times not the bad.

Harvey

I have a split personality, sometimes I am quiet and sometimes I am outgoing. I wonder how many of us have the same way of looking at life.

When I am in a quiet mood I find that people, sometimes virtual strangers, tell me their deepest secrets. I think it is because when they talk, I don't judge, I just listen and I hear their story. I also don't offer advice or rarely do. When I was young I gave advice and found it was usually ignored so I no longer give advice. 

I really like a movie called Harvey. James Stewart plays a man who sees a "Pooka", whose name is Harvey. No one else can see Harvey but James Stewart. In the movie, the character played by James Stewart befriends many people just by listening to their stories, and when they are finished telling him all their troubles and sorrows, he introduces them to his friend Harvey, and as his character says in the movie.  And they tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. They tell me Their hopes and their regrets,  their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey. And he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed.

When people are sharing their secrets with me,  my quiet self-shows them through non-verbal language that no matter what they have to say, I will not lose my respect for them. I also do not introduce them to my invisible friend.  Sometimes it is easier to tell a stranger your problems then it is to tell a friend. I wonder why that is.