There is nothing like a vacation to make you take note of things for which you are thankful but we shouldn't wait to give thanks.
Even in the most distressing of times, there are glimmers of good, signs that our lives are not black and white, nor set in stone as either good or bad; each moment has elements of both.
If we can manage to notice the good in each moment, the positive energy will help carry us through the bad of that same moment.
There was an interesting description of how one of dd's friend's brain works in the discussion of Robin William's death. Like mine, his brain runs at a thousand miles and hour jumping from thought to thought. Here's what he wrote
While my brain does similar mental memory gymnastics, the difference is at each of those steps, there is something to be thankful for and I'll see the thankful moments as well as the sad ones.Humour is difficult to define, but one common definition of humour is "surprise". A related (but narrower) definition I like is "humour is making a new connection the audience didn't see before." Unexpectedly but effectively lead an audience from idea X to idea Y, and they'll laugh.
Robin Williams was genius at that. He could see all the connections, all the time. In a four-minute span, he could make jokes about Banks, which he links to to Sarah Palin, which leads to Oprah, which leads to The Olympics, which leads to British Columbia, which leads to Marijuana, which leads to California State Parks. One idea, leading to another idea, leading to another idea. Draw all those connections and it's a laughfest for everyone...right?
Not always. "One idea leading to another idea" also effectively describes how triggers work. Connections aren't necessarily good, sometimes they're very bad. For example, if someone tells you they're going to see Sting at The Aud, and the mention of Sting might remind you of your ex-girlfriend – your dead ex-girlfriend – you'd be suitably bummed out.
Except if your brain is the type to see connections everywhere, it doesn't have the sense to stop there! Your brain's all like, "P used to listen to Sting when I visited her room. She died February 4, 2005. That night I was supposed to see XYXY, the show where W and S got together, and their age difference is 8 years – same as my parents who are split up now. They had gotten married on February 29, 2004. P was the only other witness. February 29, 1984 was also M's birthday. She's dead now too. That happened April 17, 2013. I found out, then walked to the Cheese Club EOT..."
But a comedian won't tell you those chains, the depressing and personal and inaccessible ones. A comedian will only tell you the funny ones.
I'm thankful to have Whitepoint to return to each year. I look out on the beach and see my grandmother sitting there painting but that turns my minds to her paintings on my walls and how they bring Whitepoint to me even when I'm at home, rather than drag me down the negative thought path that she had dementia, as did her aunt (her mom died at 36 so we don't know about her), her siblings, her children (inc. my mother) and likely I will as well unless those long-living genes from my father's side take over, except then I get to live until all my friends are dead and most of the my children and their friends are dead and I'm all alone.
See, we can go from delightful to depressing thoughts easily, but, to a certain degree we can steer ourselves to the delightful if we search for the things for which to be thankful that present themselves in each moment.
So that is my wish for each of you. I see many thankful, positive, posts here and I'm thankful to learn (or be reminded) how to live through adversity with grace, compassion and strength by reading your stories each day.
The pumpkin color is especially bad against a crimson colored car (IMHO). Our new car is "velvet red" so it has the 'sparkles' in it. This is the text I've drafted for our dks. Tell me, does it SOUND like we're getting a puppy/dog? 
Seems dcampowner had told friend he was going down anyway as soon as the water is off and he'd drive the truck. Their main concern was that they didn't want me going alone. After dh talked with them both this morning, they agreed that was the best plan. Campowner didn't really want to drive, he preferred to fly so he'd have a couple more days down there. Imagine they're only going for 2 or 3 weeks, tops. Next up is to figure out just when dd can come up. If it's not till when dh is leaving anyway, there's little sense in that and will decide then what we'll do.
