Dear Reader:

A couple of things to share tonight - quick on the heels of my last post - just because the mood strikes me (this is also for my future reference, dear reader!):

http://www.ted.com/talks/guy_winch_the_case_for_emotional_hygiene

This is pretty solid stuff.   Seriously.   Wow.  Check it out.   "When you are in emotional pain, treat yourself with the same compassion you would expect from a truly good friend."   Word.   "Studies tell us that even a two minute distraction is sufficient to break the urge to ruminate in that moment."   I am totally going to try this, you guys.   Crosswords?   Sudoku?   DISTRACTION.   Avoid the rumination.   I need that on a T-shirt.    This TED talk rocks.

Another thing that rocks?   Mary Oliver's autobiographical book of essays - "Long Life:  Essays and other Writings."   Here's the mind-blowing excerpt for me:

"Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and - it was the most casual of moments - as I stepped from under the trees in the mild pouring-down sunlight I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness.  It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort.  I made no struggle toward it; it was given.

Time seemed to vanish.  Urgency vanished.  Any important difference between myself and all other things vanished.  I knew that I belonged to the world and felt comfortably my own containment in the totality.  I did not feel that I understood any mystery; not at all; rather that I could be happy and feel blessed within the perplexity - the summer morning, its gentleness, the sense of the great work being done though the grass where I stood scarcely trembled.   As I say, it was the most casual of moments, not mystical as the word is usually meant, for there was no vision, or anything extraordinary at all, but only a sudden awareness of the citizenry of all things within one world; leaves, dust, thrushes and finches, men and women.   And yet it is a moment I have never forgotten, and upon which I have based many decisions in the years since."

Mind-blowing.   I just can't even talk about it.

To clear the palate from that indescribably profound utterance, I will now share this link that will help you discover if you are, indeed, in a Jane Austen novel.   I am in one.   I have been for a long, long time.   Really, at least 3//4 of these have been true for me at one time or another.   Especially the woman playing the pianoforte who hates me and the woman in the absurd hat.   I've also taken quite a few walks with cads.    Enjoy:

http://the-toast.net/2014/05/27/tell-jane-austen-novel/#B3e7ujTZiVRbLW7s.01

OK, I'm going to go bring in a pot of flowers from the front porch to protect those violas from the cold snap.   Then, I'll have a cup of tea.  Then, I'll go to bed and dream of that Mary Oliver moment.

Love, love, love to all!

Thanks for reading.