Friday, feeling good!

(Because…Friday!)

Those of you who have been around here a while know that I write on a weekly-but-rotating day “themed” schedule. Well Friday’s theme is “Feel-good Friday” and what I am realizing today, about 21 months into this writing experiment, is that merely thinking about what I’ll write today gets me feeling good. And there’s a lesson there, I think.

On feel-good Friday. My primary job is ensuring that I feel good. The end.

Well, that’s the end of that but it’s not the end of this.

Today I’m gonna take an old-school inventory of things I feel good about right now, and it won’t an an exhaustive list, it will be a list of the things that come readily to mind (because I overslept today and haven’t had coffee yet so I need to get crack-a-lacking’ on the day:

1. This cover song. You know me and my covers and you may or may not remember my old Quarantine Playlist, but the original version of this song by Jackson Browne is on that, because I’d been out walkin’ and wasn’t doing that much talking, so it felt like a good choice…(remember, that’s why this is called The Pedestrian Pundit….walking thinking walking thinking thinking thinking walking etc.)…anyhow, I hope you have a listen and I hope you enjoy it. (And I’ll also recommend a detour after you read this to your favorite audio streaming service to revisit (visit?) 10K Maniacs breakthrough first album “In My Tribe.” You won’t regret it. Or maybe you will. But I say this: don’t ever regret giving something a try.)

2. Kerri went away last Thursday and got home Tuesday and all I can say is that while I am glad she went and I am glad she had fun I am also glad she is back—the house feels like home again.

3. Last week, I read something a friend wrote about validation, and it got me thinking about that concept, namely the difference between validation and accolades, the difference between recognition and acknowledgement. While the differences between them are subtle, and as much as some of us are happy with knowing what we know and doing what we do and caring little about the rest, it reminded me that we all need an external pulse check, we need someone or something else to remind us we’re doing ok. We need that little voice, or sign from the universe, that things are working according to plan. I had a small moment like that this week…I’ve been smiling on and off since. Find peace in those small moments when they come.

4. Going to watch the Sox at Fenway always makes my heart happy and Wednesday night was no exception. Perfect weather, cold beer, good friends, big win—beat that!

   

5. James Clear is the genius behind my favorite weekly newsletter. It never disappoints, so I can’t recommend you subscribe highly enough. Check it out. This week, in a quote from someone else (that’s part of his construct), he introduced me to the concept of acting one’s spirit v one’s age. Read about it below.

   

   So while I’ve never been a fan of acting my age, this idea of acting my spirit boosted my spirits. And since that quote came on the heels of reading this,

   

   well, I’m very content to nourish that enthusiastic kid and act my spirit. Age ain’t nuthin’ but a numbah. (That said the workouts at my gym are definitely geared more towards those whose age is a much lower number, try though I may…the shoulder work we’ve been doing lately is such that they hurt when I lift a beer. Not enough to not drink it, but still…it’s drastic)

6. Celtics. Not the end we wanted but not a ride we expected. The joy is in the journey, and we got a bonus trip. The better team won—and that’s ok.

7. So on Monday I had what’s most easily described as a dermatological intervention on my face. Needless to say, I came out of the doc’s office looking more of a fright than usual. I FaceTime my mom every morning, but on Monday she was traveling so I went from the dermatologist’s to Starbucks (bumped into a colleague as my luck would have it) to pick my mom up at the bus—she glanced quickly and looked straight ahead, using the drive time to fill me in on her trip. On Tuesday she recoiled upon answering her phone and seeing me, before quickly regrouping and telling me with a straight face that it wasn’t that bad at all. I got the same refrain Wednesday and again yesterday. I met her out last night and when I walked up to her she immediately reached into her purse and furnished a tub of Vitamin E lotion. “For your face,” she said. The same face that wasn’t “that bad at all.” No love like mom love! Unconditional!

Lucky 7 feels like a natural feeling good stopping point. It’s feel-good Friday. Take a few minutes to enjoy thinking about what you feel good about.

Thanks for stopping by—I appreciate you.

Love you too! (See you Monday, with a Maiku.)

And I’m going to leave you with another 10K Maniacs cover (off the same album— Campfire Songs—as “These Days”, because this song…and Michael Stipe):