#365Gratitude Day 79: In the garden of your mind

I grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which started broadcasting on PBS the year before I was born, in 1970.  I have loved it, and him, unashamedly and without reserve, my entire life.

My friend Matti, is an age player, a gifted musician, and an absolute mushy emotional softie of the marshmallowiest kind (which is absolutely one of his best qualities.)  Matti shares this same love for Mr. Rogers, and he sent me a link to a sort of song-mashup, based on old clips of the show.  It's stellar.

Watch it.  Like him, and me, you will no doubt tear up and smile when you do.

#365Gratitude Day 78: What you put down, you can pick up again

My gratitude today is that I started running again, and recored this post-run log.

#365Gratitude Day 77: Three birthdays, same cake

Yesterday I found out three of my friends all shared the day as their birthday.  My friends Devin, Marie Furie, and Cargo were all born yesterday.  (Insert "What was I, born yesterday?" joke here.)

I sent them all this picture, as a text.

This is an old gag of mine.  Years ago I found that picture,  and while I change the caption a lot, I often send it to friends on their birthdays.  I'm pretty sure many of my friends have seen it before, and remember my doing it to them in years past, but they always, always laugh.

I love having a regular schtick for stuff like this.  I think the more I use it, the funnier it gets. 

#365Gratitude Day 76: Commuting

My new job has a really different commute than my old one.  It's in the car, as opposed to on the train.  I'm fortunate in that I can take express lanes to get there, and so I mostly avoid traffic.  I was unsure I would like the commute, but it turns out I'm really enjoying it.  I listen to podcasts, or talk on the phone with friends and family, and on the whole find it an enjoyable part of my day.  It goes by fairly quickly.  Really, what's about a half hour commute seems like 30 seconds sometimes.

#365Gratitude Day 75: Nothing to do

One of the things I love about my brother is that we sort of play this relay-tag game with one another, philosophically.  When we first met, he was Christian, and I was an atheist.  Over the years, that's changed.  Now he's an agnostic, and I'm a tao-chia taoist (which makes me a non-theist, not an atheist, or theist, or monotheist, or polytheist).

So his views and my own are often quite compatible.  One big thing we share is an appreciation for the taoist idea of wu-wei, or non-action.  The basic premise of which is that everything in the universe is already unfolding as it should.  You don't need to do anything special for the sun to rise.

Surprisingly, this comes up a lot because of our work on the Big Little Podcast.  Some social ripple will happen in an online community related to ageplay, or we'll get a problematic call or email, and the question comes up - what is it we need to do about it.

Here's a typical exchange we have over such issues:

I'm glad we're of the same mind on these things.  We'll not get right on that.