idealawg

Unexpected potatoes: Lovely story from a friend

My friend and respected colleague Francine Campone (more here) emailed to me a story this morning about her garden surprise. I appreciated it so much that I asked her if I could share it with you.

As you can see, she said, "yes."

When I planted the vines early in the summer, I thought they were purely ornamental.  Last year,  I had these same vines in the balcony rail planters and they made lovely little purple flowers until the gray doves came and made a nest and I couldn't water one box for weeks because it would disturb the birds.   But I planted  them anyway and when I put the dark eggplant purple vines in with the saffron marigolds this year, I was anticipating flowers again.  But oddly- and maybe because it was initially a very cold summer,  then a very hot and dry one,  the vines never bloomed but they did grow long and twisty and covered all of the bare dirt.  Even though I neglected them a bit because of all the time running around to doctors and hospitals taking care of Ed,  the vines kept growing and I waited for flowers.  Summer blistered and scorched;  the tomatoes grew huge and the basil went crazy and the nasturtium finally came into their blazing orange own toward the end of the summer.  And the vines never bloomed.  Finally,  cold nights got to them and maybe the teeth-rattling pounding of the construction machines a half a block away shook them too badly.  But the vines started to wither and I told myself it was time to pull the out as they looked so miserable and besides- I never got flowers.
 
Yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and started tugging and for some reason, the plants were resistant even though the soil had been left bone dry to make it easier.  I pulled and pulled and…..found a squiggly red potato.  Then another.  Then a couple of skinny nascent spuds clinging to the root.  I yanked the next plant out and….more potatoes.  By the time I had pulled out nine vines, I had a bowl full of little red potatoes.
 
Sometimes we expect flowers and they never come.  And at the very end-when it's least expected- we get food instead.  There's the old saying- when life gives you lemons….  I guess life is giving me potatoes at this moment.  Pass the butter and salt please.

I've climbed some strange trees: Here is the fruit of one of them

I have had many careers, ranging from lawyer to candymaker to cocktail waitress to probation officer, and several jobs in between. During one or two of those roles, I was somewhat New Agey. For the most part, I try to minimize the memories of those fluffier days. Around my most staid friends, those memories are primly hidden, the hippie is fully stashed, the fluff is sharply amputated.

But there are some shimmering images that persist. The lighthearted, improvisational freedom that accompanied those hippy-dippy days occasionally calls my name. Especially when I think of Snoopy.

And when I get tired of the dull and constrained way conflict resolution often continues to be practiced, I feel grey and weary, and miss most my bright Snoopiness.

Today I was missing Snoopy more than usual so I looked for something I had written about him. Here's an ode to the wonderful beagle that I wrote many, many, many years ago. Scoff, stare, point, if you want (especially my lawyers pals), but maybe just for a minute do as I suggest below.

Be Like That Beagle

Snoopy delights us as he becomes a pilot, a dancer, a writer, a scout leader, a vulture. You can delight yourself by becoming whatever you want. A trusty and certain way to Loosen Up, Lighten Up (LULU) is to have a Snoopy Day.

We get so stuck in our roles that we may go through life as if in a trance, or a string of trances. There’s the wake-up-ritual trance — make the coffee, get the paper, read it, make breakfast, brush your teeth. Then you shift into the go-to-work trance.

Break out in a major way. Have a Snoopy day. Follow the lead of that imaginative beagle and be anything you choose. Become an artist, or a cowperson, or a poet, or a vulture, or whatever else you want most. Fill with your whole being a role of which you have only dreamed before.

A Ballerina In My Workplace?

You knew how to do this quite well as a child, remember? Think of all the things you became when you were young. Think of the absolute freedom “make believe” gave you. Snoopy days are “make believe” days and are not just for children. You can be anything we want to be — no matter what that is.

Are we saying that you should go to work acting as a ballerina? If a ballerina is what you choose to be on a Snoopy Day, it would be ideal if you could go to work as one as long as it did not interfere with your

Tomorrow is the 10th annual Upsy Daisy Day: Learn happiness from cows of Boston

In my past, I have done many things, including publishing an ezine called Upsy Daisy Daily. A decade ago, I declared June 8 Upsy Daisy Day and registered it with Chase's Calendar of Events; the holiday has been official for 10 years. The tag line? "A day to remind people to get up gloriously, gratefully, and gleefully."

Okay, so I was in my greeting card phase. I did have fun, and met many very nice people who subscribed to the ezine and then contacted me. In honor of tomorrow, I will today post one of the ezine's editions. I find it curious that I wrote it a few years before I learned about brain science and neuroplasticity (or the benefits of gratitude), yet it foreshadows what I have since learned. It's brain science in bovine terms.

Loosen Up Your Mind With Gratitude

Feeling any resistance to working out? Here is a role model for you

It has been a while since I have written a Friday's-lighter-wisdom post. On this Friday, you simply must watch this video. It shows some of the funniest actions I have seen in days, if not weeks. And its star is kind of motivating, too, don't you think?

Lighter Wisdom: DON'T ARGY-BARGY, SIMPLY DO IT!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day is argy-bargy.

argy-bargy • \ahr-jee-BAHR-jee\  • noun
: a lively discussion : argument, dispute
Example Sentence:
After much argy-bargy, Paul and Hugh finally came up with a plan that satisfied them both.

I was reminded of two things by the word. First, that it has been a while since I posted a Friday Lighter Wisdom, and, second, that years ago I wrote about argy-bargy. Since today is Friday, I will post that article . . .

The Serious Worth of Silly

“Serious things cannot be understood without
humorous things
Nor opposites without opposites.”
--Plato

Silly things can help us to achieve important things. Today will be a silly day.

Echo-words are so much fun to say. They feel good on our tongue and often make us laugh -- at least when we first hear them. I just learned the term argy-bargy, and I laughed when I heard it. It means an argument or to argue; it’s both a noun and a verb. Its cousin is argle-bargle with the same definition.

Argy came from argument and then it picked up an echo along the way and became argy-bargy. Can you imagine the possible results when you begin to use the term? “Let’s not argy-bargy.” That alone might defuse any tense situation. Incorporate it into your vocabulary and enjoy the pattern interrupt whenever you use it.

Hurly-burly is another echo-word. Hurly comes from the root meaning to howl. Sometime in history burly joined hurly because it rhymed. We seem to like echo words -- hodge-podge, wishy-washy, what else?

A Bunch of Gibberish

Make an echo for your name. Make several. Say

Some Friday inspiration: Watch Faith, the two-legged dog, walk upright

Click to watch this amazing dog. And here's an article about her: "Two-legged dog gives hope to disabled Army vets" (Denver Post).

As is often true, the jester knows best

No Way Down the Path

Once upon a time, there was a little town. Its fear-filled citizens lived in separation from the rest of the world. On the only path going out of the hamlet lived a huge, monstrous giant.

Many times, the knights of the citizenry would try to fight the giant. One knight used a hard wooden club. The giant crushed him with a club twice as big and twice as solid. Another knight attempted to burn the giant with scorching fire. The giant charred him with fire twice as big and twice as hot. Still another knight tried to slay the giant with a piercing sword. The giant brought down this knight with a sword twice as big and twice as sharp.

So the fear-filled citizens continued to live in separation from the rest of the world.

In Jest or Not?

Finally, the town jester said he knew what to do. The citizens scoffed at him and ignored him. “Come with me and see,” the jester said.

Very few followed the jester out to where the giant was sitting on the path that fateful day. The jester offered an apple to the giant. The giant took the apple from the jester and ate it. The giant then walked towards the jester with an immense closed fist.

The citizens were frightened and backed away. The jester stood his ground. The giant opened his huge fist

Lighter Wisdom: TEAR THOSE WORDS OPEN! LAY THEM BARE!

Words are important messengers of both comfort and combat. Words can energize. And they can numb; they can create robots and zombies. They are a tremendous tool or they can make you a fool. Are you a fool for words?

Don't Self-Help Yourself to Sleep

In his book Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing [newer edition], Mark Levy gives us an effective filter for the many words that enter our senses each day. This filter gives us a fresh way of seeing our world, as well as a dose of critical thinking.

Levy talks about “opening up words.” If we are under the spell of unexamined and lulling, lullaby words, the process of opening up words wakes us.

As an example of what Levy means, let’s apply his method to one genre of information. Many of us read motivational and inspirational literature and listen to gurus of self-help and incentive. What do their words really mean? Much of the motivational and inspirational vocabulary is becoming trite and tired.

We can learn how to freshen the words up or throw out the stale bread. If the words are just stale bread, they may be getting moldy and may be molding you into a sleepwalker.

The Inner Recesses of Your Expression

Levy says:

When you open up a word, you re-define that word so it has personal meaning. You become an explorer within the word, forsaking the sleepy meaning others have given it, and discover for yourself if the concepts embedded within it are still valid.

He gives the example of the word “empowerment.” How many times do you read and hear that word? Are you giving it a “sleepy meaning” and thinking, “Oh yeah, that’s a great word. Give me more of that” without ever looking inside the word to see what, if anything, it means to YOU.

Levy suggests a four-step process to examine words and see if they fit for us.

First, pick the word or phrase you want to dissect for

The way to wisdom? I don't know

Being fuzzy on the right explanation, seeking a healthy dose of ignorance, holding the questions instead of the answers with grace, can sometimes be the wisest path. This poem talks about another path, one often taken by some lawyers.

“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins:

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out if it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Ever know anyone who beats life with a hose, trying to torture meaning out of it? People who are prone to tying topics to chairs and analyzing, analyzing, analyzing? Analysis can be tiring, and deadly boring.

IMPALED ON THE POINT

I once spent a whole day at a week-long training participating in exercises designed to teach us that one cannot have a good “yes” until one has a good “no.” The trainers wanted us to see that a true and strong “yes” cannot be said by a person who has not developed the ability to say a true and strong “no.”

A valid point, certainly, but . . . The point was tied to a chair and those hoses came out in full force. The point was whacked and swatted and smacked until we all wanted to say, “We confess. Whatever it is, we confess. Let us out of here.” Don’t suppose any of you have ever attended a training like that?

A good “no" and a good “yes” are important. But so is a good “I don’t know.” Sometimes saying “I don’t know” feels like a release, a relief. We don’t always have to know the answer. But do we know we don't?

Some people feel compelled to answer all questions with some answer besides “I don’t know.” These people seem allergic to those three liberating words. They wrinkle their brow and their brain, strain with thought, and emit an answer from their mouth.

And sometimes their answer can seem sempiternal. (I so appreciate the word "sempiternity" because even though it means forever, sempiternity sounds longer than forever or eternity, don’t you think?)

I’M OK BECAUSE IDK

Thought and dialogue and analysis are, of course, very valuable and necessary. But so is IDK (I don't know). I say let’s respect IDK. IDK is an integral part of wisdom.

IDK is also a fun place. When you say IDK, you get to play

Laughter truly has some serious benefits (even for lawyers): Take advantage of those benefits today

I have posted before about the many benefits of humor and laughter and wrote for Law Governance Review the article "Don't Deck the Clown: Inviting Humor into the Law Firm." On this winter Friday, let's remember the many psychological and physiological benefits of humor and laughter. (Click for much more about the gifts of laughter—and about laughism, the prejudice against laughter.)

For a jumpstart on some smiles and laughter, can any of you watch this and maintain a straight face and silence?

Note (added January 25, 2008, 12:40 PM Mountain): From Science Daily: "Laughter Is The Best Medicine."

Laughter is the best medicine. We’ve heard the expression time and again. For decades, researchers have explored how humor helps patients relieve stress and heal. Melissa B. Wanzer, EdD, professor of communication studies at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, has taken it one step further, with her research on how humor helps medical professionals cope with their difficult jobs. She also looked at how humor affects the elderly and how it can increase communication in the workplace and in the classroom.