Ooops!! I caught myself. I got a bit whiny yesterday. Yes my friends, I’m guilty as charged of allowing things to stress me out; and when I do that it sure seems like my head goes up in flames and my reaction to the stress is like putting large buckets of gasoline on the fire but you know it’s really not all that bad but I make it out to be only because I have this magnifying mind that can make a mole out of a mountain hill and then I want to run screaming into the woods and ask the wild animals if I can live with them for awhile and they all look at me like I’m some sort of tree monster and they run for their lives and this run-on sentence has become way to silly to continue so I’ll stop it right now.

Thank you.

I’ve been thinking out loud to groups of friends about all this living life stress stuff. They are very good at reminding me to stay grateful and just try to do the next right thing. Bless them… they’re probably getting a bit weary of my rants when I start spouting off about all the injustice in the world, and how some things that have to do with getting older scare the excrement out of me. . They’ve heard it before, and before that, and before that. Yet, they seem to love me anyway! Not sure how anyone else works it all out; but I need to vent to someone who understands when I’m hurting inside. The way it works for me is to vent until I get tired of hearing myself venting. Oh, and I’ve pretty much given up on being angry for very long. Fortunately, I’ve become aware that if I allow anger and resentment to fester in my heart, I’m basically working on poisoning myself. Being livid about things over which I have no control is about as effective as eating a poison pill and expecting someone else to die.

When my serenity alarm goes off, I need to remind myself to run through my “gratitude list.” Although I sometimes allow life, the universe, and everything to crinkle my brain thing; am getting better at replacing negativity with thoughts of thanks to the Universe regarding how truly blessed I am. After all, I’m healthy and I have the love of a beautiful woman. She even let me marry her! We have zero debt, cars that work, a nice home, plenty to eat. We have loving relationships with our offspring, relatives and friends. Life really is good at our universe.

Here in the U.S., the Thanksgiving holiday is on the horizon. Although I’m not a fan of some of the “origin” stories that were thrown at us in grade school, I do use the holiday as a convenient reminder of how fortunate all of us are. I mean hey, if you’re reading this, you are a fortunate person. Why do I say this? Well, I’m willing to bet that if you are reading my silly blog typings, you don’t live under a bridge with a shopping cart nearby that contains all your worldly belongings. That’s just one example.

So, no poison between the ears for me thanks. I will continue to make gratitude my attitude. I will work very hard at enjoying each and every moment of each and every day. You know that saying, “One day at a time,” right? Sometimes it takes a bit of work to pull it off, but life is much more peaceful when I succeed. Can you tell I’m practicing? So I’ve decided to give myself some homework. My new assignment is just like the old song: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Sounds simple enough, but it takes effort.

As our friend Ringo likes to sing, “I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.”

For this week’s video coagulation, here are those two songs.

Here’s Bobby McFerrin with some friends…

And here’s Ringo with some of his friends…