May 25, 2020
Memorial Day Taps Across America
This year's Memorial Day tributes have been affected by the Covid 19 situation. No gatherings at national cemeteries to lay wreaths or flags and the usual parades and other events where there would be crowds are not officially taking place. However, there were some interesting ways to honor those that gave their lives in war.
One of those was Taps Across America.
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May 21, 2020
Play Time for the Stay At Home
Since so many of us are spending nearly all of our time at home, away from other friends and family, figuring out how to spend our time, and probably having ongoing anxiety about the future, I think your playtime deserves attention.
Because we live in a time where there are plenty of technological wonders the draw of social media and online gaming is strong. Nevertheless, I suggest we all can benefit from getting offline some of the time and opening ourselves up to imaginative play.
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May 13, 2020
Experiencing Life and Preserving Those Experiences
We are living in a time when the ability to preserve our life experiences is greatly assisted through technology. Smart phones, tablets, computers, video recorders, websites, the Internet, the Cloud (which still mostly mystifies me) and probably some other things that I am not mentioning.
Back in the day people might have used cassettes, reel to reel tape, bulky and clumsy video recorders, or even further back archaic forms like pen and pencil!
I wrote an article related to this topic in which I muse about both the technology and the importance of why we need to preserve our life experiences. I think some of it applies well to what we are all going through right now with our stay-at-home/social distancing situation due to the coronavirus.
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May 05, 2020
Mister Mahegan's Dream Jobs
There are many jobs in the world. The key is to find the ones that become more than a job. When they become a vocation it no longer feels like work; it feels like you have found your purpose.
In 2009, after several months of unemployment, I embarked on the path that led to becoming a certified school teacher. Ten years into it and I still think it is the hardest and most rewarding work I've ever done.
Today I discovered someone who could be living my dream life. He is also a teacher, but he has a part-time job as the public address announcer for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Anyone who knows me is well aware that the Red Sox are my favorite team and have been since I was about 11 years old. So to discover Henry Mahegan's story today on the Boston Red Sox Sox Docs feature was incredible.
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May 04, 2020
Death and Data
Every day on the news we are presented with death and data. The pandemic of Covid-19 has our attention and we are probably becoming accustomed to the numerous charts displaying new cases, deaths, recoveries and more.
We need numbers. We need data. We use statistics to help us understand quantities. But math is hard and viewing large numbers displayed on numerous charts and graphs can sometimes desensitize us to what they represent. That's not good when it represents people dying.
Every person in a data report still represents a human being, someone with thoughts, feelings, desires, values and, well, a history. We must not forget that.
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May 04, 2020
Your-Life-Your-Story - My Life Story Blog Archives, April, 2020
An archive of previous My Life Story blog entries from April, 2020 regarding personal history, life story writing and more.
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Apr 28, 2020
The Human Touch
You might need somethin' to hold on toWhen all the answers they don't amount to muchSomebody that you can just talk toAnd a little of that human touch- Bruce Springsteen "Human Touch"
For most of us we are now seven weeks into our stay at home/shelter in place existence. The COVID-19 virus is still out there, still infecting others, and even though precautions are being taken we are a long ways until we are out of the woods. This is our new reality.
If you are fortunate to have a loved one, a partner or family member with whom you can be around and even touch, perhaps you are gaining a new appreciation for that very real human need. We need it.
Human touch doesn't have to be physical, although we mostly experience it that way. But as Bruce Springsteen's lyrics above demonstrate, it can also be "Somebody that you can just talk to." Writer Mitch Albom is sharing a new serialized story online with us, Human Touch, that is capturing the shared experience we are having right now.
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Apr 22, 2020
Be Still and Know It's Good For Your Brain 50th Earth Day Reflection
What should be the message we take in today, April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day?
Scientists speculate our planet has been around for 4.5 billion years Humans have been a part of that for a tiny blip in the cosmic timeline. And it has only been relatively recent that people have called in earnest for paying greater attention to how we treat our home planet. It is not disposable, but we often live as if it is.
One of the insights I gained today that helps me better appreciate Mother Earth is an article that doesn't even directly reference the Earth, nature, climate change or planting trees. Yet it makes a wonderful pathway for me to walk. I need to walk this path in a leisurely fashion, taking in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations that comes with just...being.
The article, Why 'stillness' is crucial for your brain during this pandemic, written by Steph Yin, informs and reminds us that sometimes we need to do nothing.
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Apr 17, 2020
The Journal and the Journey
Every day is a little slice of life. And it is a slice of your personal history.
How we reflect on each day, remember it, honor it, document it and treasure it is up to each of us. For me it is important to do some writing. If I can't get my thoughts down in writing on a regular basis I feel incomplete.
Many people keep a journal of some type. I have for years. Keeping it on my computer works well for me. I do believe in the value of handwriting and illustrating that many paper journals allow you to do. But the efficiency of a "digital diary", a stored record of my ideas, thoughts and feelings helps me. It helps because I can easily document my life journey and I have access to a lot of material from which I can pull for life writing such as a memoir.
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Apr 13, 2020
Trust the Process and Rise Up
I was reading in my journal from a year ago. It was the day after Easter and I wrote, "Trust the process. Process is how we do things and the continuation of doing. We don't do it to be patted on our head for a good job. We do the process to grow."
People are incredibly resilient and we can rise up and meet the challenges of life. This is an essential message for us at this time in history.
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