Category Archives: Habits

Count Your Blessings

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I noticed a squirrel sitting on a rock across the pool in the morning sun. I like how the sunlight highlights his fur.

Count Your Blessings was how our weekly zoom call ended. Every Thursday, I have a zoom call with about a dozen other people where we discuss the world’s geopolitical problems, religion, local politics and news. We were on a dour note talking about how the world has changed from when we were young whippersnappers and how on earth our country is going to survive with 38 trillion dollars in debt.

Then one member of the group, who is a former history teacher and Jewish, said some insightful things, like there’s nothing new under the sun. If we think things are bad now, remember our country survived the Great Depression, World Wars and people of his faith faced the Holocaust.

He said to count our blessings. He said he looks forward to every Thursday morning to have an in depth discussion with a group of intelligent people who want to make a difference. He reminded us that none of us are homeless, we’re in good health, we have our families and our homes. He said in the Jewish faith they say blessings all day long. His favorite blessings are for bodily functions. He gives blessings that God has given him a miraculous body that still works!

I googled blessings because this was something new to me. I learned that people of Jewish faith aim to say 100 blessings a day.

We left the zoom call with positive feelings and gratitude for the important things in our lives.

A squirrel on a bench in our backyard.

I’m grateful for my family, my home and the wild creatures around me.

I spotted a Gila Woodpecker feeding somebody in the Saguaro Cactus nest.

He’s been going in and out the past few days. Maybe he’s preparing the nest, or there’s already babies in there.

I scared him away with my camera.

What are you grateful for today? What do you think of counting your blessings?

The Gift of a New Year

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I got another visit from my javelina friends. I was taking out recycling when I smelled something nasty and skunky. Then I looked outside the fence and there they were! Yes, they smell. They also seem to use their sense of smell to figure out where I was and don’t seem to see that well. Their snouts are very active!

Now back to my topic: The New Year is a Gift

With January slowly slipping away, I’m making a conscious effort to make the most of it. Each new year does feel like a gift. There’s a chance to be better, make changes to be healthier and focus on new goals.

How am I doing that? First, by re-reading Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance.”

From Amazon’s description:

The third book in Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking trilogy on creative self-renewal, now for the first time in paperback. In this inspiring twelve-week program, the third in Julia Cameron’s beloved body of work on the creative process, Cameron offers guidance on weathering the periods in an artist’s life when inspiration has run dry. This book provides wisdom and tools for tackling some of the greatest challenges that artists face.

The second thing I did this weekend was renew my membership to SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators) and downloaded “The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.”

The guide covers all aspects of the publishing process, including finding an agent, writing a query letter, writing a book proposal, understanding contracts, and more.

I also watched a video of marketing trends in children’s literature which was on SCBWI’s resource page. I have several children’s manuscripts that I’d love to get published. I’m going to give it another try!

One of them is a story about growing up with my mom with her quirky and eccentric ways. I wrote it at least 20 years ago and got an offer from a small publisher. At the time, I was on contract with the Los Angeles Times Kids’ Reading Room to write children’s stories and was published in children’s magazines like Ladybug. I thought the publisher’s contract was too small! Of course, I never got another offer and quickly learned getting published is not that easy.

The other manuscript won first place in a Writer’s Digest competition as well as my local SCBWI chapter. It was also picked up by the most adorable website in the UK called S’mories where young British kids were recorded reading stories. The website was taken down for some unknown reason. Perhaps the parents no longer wanted their children broadcast in public all around the world.

I’m going to start with those two projects and will work on new projects, too.

Momma with two babies.

A video of Javelina with babies eating birdseed.

Do you feel like a New Year is a gift?

What plans or goals do you have for 2026?

Take Time to Flourish

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quail photo
Male Quail photo from my Bird Buddy.

I discovered a simple exercise that can help us with our mental well-being and happiness. I’ve mentioned it before, but want to give more information about where I found it and how it works.

I learned about this simple practice called the “What-Went-Well Exercise” or “Three Blessings” in a book called Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being written by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., who is the director of University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center. According to Seligman:

“We think too much about what goes wrong and not enough about what goes right in our lives. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to analyze bad events so that we can learn from and avoid them in the future. However, people tend to spend more time thinking about what is bad in life than is helpful. Worse, this focus on negative events sets us up for anxiety and depression. One way to keep this from happening is to get better at thinking about and savoring what went well.”

Here’s how the exercise works:

“Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well,” Seligman wrote. “You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance. (“My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today”), but they can be important (“My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy”).“Next to each positive event, answer the question “Why did this happen?” For example, if you wrote that your husband picked up ice cream, write “because my husband is really thoughtful sometimes” or “because I remembered to call him from work and remind him to stop by the grocery store.” Or if you wrote, “My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy,” you might pick as the cause “God was looking out for her” or “She did everything right during her pregnancy.”

According to Seligman, he used the Three Blessings exercise with his students and patients. He discovered after six months, it was as effective as anti-depressants. I’m trying to be consistent with my gratitude journal and include Three Blessings.

What practices do you follow for better mental health and happiness?

Would you consider trying Three Blessings?

Watch baby quail in my backyard along with a quail fight by the adults.

Am I worth it?

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Triple milled soap from Italy.

Our good friends, who live at the beach, returned from a trip to Italy right before our beach vacation.

I didn’t expect my friend to bring me something from Italy, but she did. She brought me hand soap that has a rich rose scent. I thought that was so thoughtful. I wouldn’t think to do that, especially trying to get gifts into my suitcase.

The soap has been sitting in it’s lovely wrapper for weeks on my bathroom counter.

I thought about putting it in the guest bathroom where guests could use it. My mom always had special soaps in our guest bathroom — carved little blue roses or scented soaps.

I thought to myself, wouldn’t my friend want me to enjoy it? My other thought was that it’s too nice to use at my own sink daily to wash my hands. It definitely belongs in the guest bath.

Also, I don’t have a soap dish to hold it. it’s a large block of soap.

A quick trip to Target solved that issue. Now I’m luxuriating in the wonderful feel and scent of rose soap imported from Italy and I think of my friend — every time I wash my hands.

Why do we have nice things for guests, but don’t feel like we should use them ourselves?

When I can’t sleep

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Saguaro across the street on the nature’s preserve.

If I wake up in the middle of the night, I often turn on a podcast or a radio station and find myself falling back to sleep quickly.

Last night I listened to someone talking about circadian rhythms and something they called “midnight brain.” I fell asleep so of course I only remember a little bit. They were talking about how more crimes happen late at night.

I read an article today on Healthline called Why the Human Mind Is ‘Not Designed’ to Stay Awake Past Midnight.

Here’s an excerpt:

Most people have been tempted to stay up late at some point in their lives. Others may have to work late, often past midnight, due to the nature of their job.

But a new research review, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Network Psychology, suggests that staying awake past midnight may have implications that stem beyond needing an extra cup of coffee the next day. In fact, the study authors suggest that the mind simply isn’t “designed” to be awake into the wee hours of the night.

While prior studies have explored the effects of sleep deprivation on cognition, the new research focuses more specifically on what happens to the human brain when it’s awake past midnight.

The resulting “Mind After Midnight” hypothesis states that the mind isn’t set up to operate as it does in the daytime, and as a result, we’re more likely to make impulsive and even “risky” decisions.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-the-human-mind-is-not-designed-to-stay-awake-past-midnight

The authors of the study said these four things can happen to those staying up past midnight:

  • suicide and self-harm
  • engaging in violent behaviors
  • use of alcohol and illicit substances
  • higher food intake

The article also mentioned that some people are night owls and are more creative at night. They don’t experience any of the downsides most people do.

My husband has said for years that nothing good happens late at night. I stayed up late as a teenager. Friends and I would try to stay up until the birds sang. It was a badge of honor.

But the older I get, the earlier I fall asleep. In fact, I go to bed so early it causes me to wake up in the middle of the night!

What are your thoughts about circadian rhythms and midnight brain? Are you an early to bed early to rise? Or are you a night owl?