Perform at the Inauguration if you have class

Why are Hollywood people letting this new administration silence them?  No one will perform at the inauguration?   You're not supporting Donald Trump by performing, you're supporting your country. I would get together with all my fellow performers and put on a show no one will ever forget.  Remind everyone (including the new administration) you're still there, strong, proud to demonstrate what an American looks like, and not acting liking a little bitch (Hello, Alec Baldwin).
#Inauguration2017  #DonaldTrump

New Year, New You, No Exercise or Dieting Required!

For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.  Who knew that Newton's third law was the secret to happiness?  Once you get this in your head, life gets easier.  In other words, for all the good stuff that happens, there is an equal amount of crap to accompany it.  It's just the way it is.  The sooner you accept it, the happier you'll be.

• Your washing machine broke?  You were fortunate enough to have a washing machine in the first place!  

• You walked ten blocks to the laundromat with a giant basket of clothes but you forgot your money? You have the ability to walk!  You have clothes!

• You have a child with a serious illness?  You were able to get pregnant and give birth! 

• Your house blew up?  You had a house!

• Your friend stopped taking your calls and hanging out with you?  You once had a friend. (Not everyone has friends in their life.)

NO ONE HAS A PERFECT LIFE.  You might see pictures on Facebook or sit next to a spiffy coworker, but I PROMISE YOU, those people have problems.  They might not be YOUR problems but there are problems.  They might have an abusive relationship, or depressive thoughts, or wash their hands 5000 times a day, or keep all their toenail clippings in a paper bag in their closet, or have a giant, hideous birthmark on their six-pack abs, or spend their entire paycheck on QVC and live with 20 cats.  Just because the problem in someone else isn't obvious to you, doesn't mean it's not there. So once you accept that no one is perfect or has a perfect life, you can stop comparing yourself to these people.

Remember, there are people living in our world right now who don't have food, clothing, a job, a home, safety.  (But they might have love, appreciation, friendship, a hopeful outlook, a family.)

So here's the big question:  Knowing what you know now, would you change anything?  Would you not buy a washing machine in the first place knowing it might break?  Would you not want the experience of being pregnant and giving birth, knowing you might have a sick child?  Would you not go to college and get your degree because your mother died while you were away?  Would you not want to be born at all because you're super short or fat or tall?

Accept that with anything good, comes some bad.  With bad, comes good.  Yes it does.  Once you turn yourself from a 'Glass half empty' to a 'Glass half full' person, your life will change 180 degrees. The movie White Christmas reminds us, "Go to sleep counting your blessings."  Try it for one week and you will see what I can't put into words.  Happy New Year!

When Christmas is sad

Why can't Christmas always be the happiest, most perfect time of the year?  Why are so many people sad or bummed out around Christmas?  (And I'm NOT talking about those contemplating suicide. I'm talking about you or your neighbor or your coworker, who seems reasonably happy and pleasant, but underneath it all is kind of sad.)  No doubt there is a long list of reasons.  I can think of a few.

If you were lucky enough to have a nice childhood with happy Christmas memories and traditions, you will eventually be sad around Christmas when:

• You grow up
• Your parents, siblings or other people who were part of those happy memories, start dying, moving away, or getting married and go to the new families' celebrations instead of yours
• Your children grow up

Maybe you always used to have certain people at the house for Christmas Eve and Christmas, perhaps a full, bustling dinner table, with loads of delicious food and treats, followed by presents getting unwrapped while listening to certain Christmas albums.  Perhaps your mother baked cookies all December long, and there were stacks of filled cookie tins piled around.  Maybe you had old friends and new just drop in unexpectedly during the month, where you all sat around the living room eating cookies and catching up.

Possibly you had a crappy childhood and started as an adult to make wonderful Christmas memories after you got married and had children.  

But then your mother or father died, or your parents moved into a smaller place, or your kids became teenagers, interested in everything except Christmas.  No more squealing kids waking you up at 5:00a.m. on Christmas morning to see what Santa left.  No more pure joy and excitement throughout the season.

At some point when November rolls around, you start remembering all the sweet Christmas memories and feel they are gone forever and Christmas will never be as sweet.  You still get invited to someone's house for Christmas Eve, or you stay home and have only a few guests, you don't prepare as much food or bake much anymore, you're getting older, time is moving fast, and things are most decidedly not the same.

It's not that you don't have friends or family members or office Christmas parties, it's just that it's not like it used to be, and that makes you sad.  And then January hits and you snap out of it.

Is there anything we can do?  Of course!  

• If you were lucky enough to have even one glorious Christmas memory, please SMILE that it happened, don't be sad because it's in the past.
• Force yourself to be fluid every Christmas so your not clinging too tightly to any one ritual.  
• Invite different people to your house every year or go to a different person's house every year.  
• Go away on a long awaited trip. Spend Christmas in another city or country. 
• Start in early November volunteering at a local soup kitchen, shelter, nursing home, hospital, animal shelter, food pantry or meals-on-wheels program. Get to know the other workers and the recipients. You'll never know where the experience leads you.
• Don't watch the ridiculous Christmas movies on television with perfect-looking people in big houses and quaint towns, with their 'problems' that get satisfactorily resolved by Christmas Eve.  It's not real, so don't even watch.
• Adopt a homeless pet from the SPCA well before Christmas so when Christmas rolls around you won't be missing anything.
• Get a stack of interesting books from the library, have some yummy snacks on hand, and read, read, read until January 2nd.
• Stop in with a small gift to some elderly or single neighbors.
• Forget about your idea of a perfect Christmas and start having nice Christmases.

If you're not volunteering your time in some capacity, you'll never know pure joy.  And remember, you're not alone in these feelings.  Write all your feelings down in a good old fashioned letter and mail it off to someone you knew long ago or to Santa Claus.  Or write thank you letters to area police and fire stations.  Smile at strangers.  Enjoy a gentle season.