The first group of my favorite animals are my past pets.
Puffers
Puffers lived with me for over 12 years. She was given to me when a friend could no longer care for her. She would come and meet at the door when I came home from work. She also loved to lay on me when I went to sleep. On my back. On my leg. Fortunately, she knew not to lay on my head but everywhere else was fair game.
Taffy
I got Taffy from the Humane Society. My favorite thing that I remember about her was when she spooned herself beside me under the covers at night.
The second group that is my favorite animals are horses. I grew up around race horses. My parents raised, trained and raced them.
I also love to photograph animals that I see in nature.
I woke up to snow falling this morning. So, I took pictures while walking home from church
Snow covered park
This is Cutler Park near the Waukesha library.
Pine Trees at Cutler Park
I take pictures of these trees a lot. They always look beautiful with snow on them.
A local organization decorated the city’s planter boxes. This is a picture of one of them with snow on it.
Bush with snow on it
What have you seen this week that is beautiful? Sometimes what we focus on is the only thing that we notice. Try to notice something that you haven’t seen before. While I focused on beautiful things, your experience can be whatever you choose. I’d love to read your thoughts and experiences.
Since I have always liked his quote about “looking for the helpers,” I bought this book from a friends of the library sale.
“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”(Page 3)
Even though I am 50 years old, I still wonder what I will do when I grow up. I dream of becoming a write/blogger as a side income. Other times, I think about making YouTube videos. But, data analysis, robotics and AI sounds like an interesting field to study and work in. Oh, did I mention human genetics especially gene editing. Too many ideas.
“Some days, doing ‘the best we can’t may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect-on any front- and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.”(Page 4)
When my depression was bad, I begged God for the energy to get through the day every day. I had no energy to do anything outside of work. This quote is a reminder to me and anyone else who needs it that there will be days like that. Let’s remember to forgive ourselves and others when we can’t seem to get much done.
“There’s no ‘should’ or ‘should not’ when it comes to having feelings. They’re part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.”(Page 20)
I used to call myself a “crybaby” in my own thinking. When I started therapy, my therapist encouraged me to accept my emotions. I can only manage my emotions if I have accepted my emotions and behaviors. Please understand that I am not saying that all behaviors and emotions are okay. If the behavior or thought doesn’t hurt someone else or violate God’s law, then it is best for me to accept it. This helped me to focus on talking myself into stopping crying rather than obsessing on whether everyone will think that I am a crybaby.
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” (Page 53)
This quote reminds me that love is working on maintaining and building a relationship even when I feel angry with him/her. I am working on my relationships with my family members and friends.
“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” (Page 79)
The name of this site is Listeninghearts because I have been learning the value of being a listener. I learned about active listening in my studying of addiction counseling. I used to think that I had nothing to offer because I had very little money or material things to donate/use to help others. But, I have been learning that a word of encouragement or a sympathetic ear may be even better than money at times.
“When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong along with the fearful, the true mixed in with the facade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way.” (Page 95)
When at technical college, I read an example therapy session in the back of our textbook. The therapist told the client that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It was so logical that even my brain couldn’t argue with it. It reminded me of a book that I read in my university days.It was a book on self-esteem. It focused on helping readers to have a more balanced view of themselves. It had me list my positive and negative traits. It is important that you learn your good and bad traits, your passions and learn to accept yourself.
“All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors- in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.” (Page 136)
“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else- or ever will have-something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.” (Page 137)
I painted some rocks in honor of our two year anniversary.
Waukesha Strong rocks
I bought a cookie cutter shaped like the state just for these rocks. I placed them around downtown Waukesha yesterday afternoon.
Today was the day of the dedication ceremony of our five points memorial. Here is a picture from the day before.
I was pleased to see how many people came and that Governor Evers came and spoke.
After the ceremony, I went over to the hotel across the street and made a tile for the Grede Park Memorial.
The six tears are for the six people who died. It bothers me that I can remember who killed them but can’t remember their names.
Afterwards, I attempted to take a picture of the new memorial at five points.
The person in white was a lady reporter while the man in black was another reporter. I was trying to get the picture without interrupting them. This image reminds me of when there was more press on the street than residents.
On Thanksgiving, I took some more pictures of the memorial. I found a bouquet and put it a little higher on it for the picture.
I am reading two books right now. One is Daily Laws by Robert Greene. As you know, I am collecting quotes from it. I ended up giving up on this book. While some of it is about learning new skills, other parts focuses on manipulating others in order to get power, promotions and pay raises.
The second is Amsco Advanced Placement United States History,Third Edition. I have always believed tha my public education missed some important parts of history. I knew that France helped in the US revolutionary war. But, I was surprised to read that they were “giving both money and supplies” secretly since 1775. Then, it openly allied with us in 1778. A year later, Spain and Holland joined the war on our side. I had never read anything like that. The book stated that Britain was disliked as a powerful empire nation. So, other nations joined us in our revolution.
The next surprise was the idea that the north occupied the south after the civil war. I knew of the reconstruction but not an occupation. Then, I read about segregation of blacks. Women got the right to vote in 1920 but blacks remained segregated. They could vote if they could pass the state “literacy test.” I saw a video of a lady taking one and was shocked by the confusing questions. They were made to be failed.
