Surviving summer — jumping into June
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blog and photos. . by @d-pend . .
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Introduction
Summer has historically been a challenging time for me. The intense heat both day and night besieges my brain. (Perhaps the fact that I was born in winter is somewhat pertinent here?) I tend to make some of my worst decisions during the hotter months, and often see great declines in my creative output as well. I know others who claim similar during times of year I generall thrive — like Winter. Or is it all just excuses, excuses, excuses? In any case, I thought it would be productive, or at least cathartic, to do some musing about staying focused during this time of year — surviving summer. Here we are jumping into June, and it's been a while since I've written a prose post.
Back to basics — lifestyle and thought habits
Studying the lives of great individuals, you will notice they tend to take responsibility for their life situation. That precludes sitting around making laundry lists of all the personal and impersonal factors that are "to blame." The human domain is meant to provide the maximum degree of freedom for learning's sake. To learn, people often have to make similar mistakes repeatedly over the course of centuries. Patience wider than that typically available to a human being is required to maintain equanimity in the face of turmoil. However, once this internal balance is attained, one becomes very difficult to sway, and easily sees through deception and distraction.
Focusing on what is in front of us
In the digital era it is quite tempting to scratch the primal itches for gossip, negativity, drama, violence, gloom-n-doom, etc. It is also rarely helpful for one's personal development to spend overmuch time concerned with things upon which one can practically bring no influence to bear save being what one is, which is the greatest gift we can offer to the world. The best response to any so-called tragedy is to continue to focus on basic principles that cause one to choose to live. Live well, and seek to bless others by osmosis. There is a common societal fallacy that in order to be virtuous, it is necessary to denounce what is perceived as evil. Actually, it is only necessary to choose the constructive and move straight forward no matter what seems to be happening "out there."
Sharing and accountability
Anyone who has the tendency to become solitary can tell you there are many positive and negative aspects of prolonged solitude. One of the more dangerous aspects of not having people around you is not having anyone to hold you accountable to your goals. Thankfully, even if we are physically alone, we can leverage the more functionally helpful side of technology and find creative ways to share our creative path. For me, my HIVE blog functions this way. Whether I am sharing something prosaic, or poetic/abstract, this is a form of journaling that allows me to document my journey through life.
Goals for the rest of this year
It's going fast, but we still have over half of the year remaining. There are many things I hope to accomplish in this time, but most of all I want to focus on my physical, emotional, mental, and social health. Many of the other aspirations I hold require long stretches of time to see through to fruition, and some of them seem to contradict each other. I look forward to sharing more details as they become clear and crystallize, as tends to happen for me going into the fall and winter. I have to accept that I can't quite comprehend how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together and seek to determine what "little things" I can achieve on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Everything else will come if I can survive the summer with grace.
Share in a comment below :-)
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Peace,
@d-pend
June 3, 2020
Writing and photos by Daniel Pendergraftcreated to be published on HIVE on June 3, 2020.
Your whole paragraph "Focusing on what is in front of us", I agree with. Our energy and prayers should be in doing positive things, loving our family and friends and any people we encounter. Using a lot of breathe and time talking about what is wrong and what was done in the past is exhausting and pointless.
One of my goals is to add on to my knowledge of Spanish this summber - reading/writing it and putting sentences together. I'm hoping to be good enough at this to tutor students in beginning Spanish. I also want to become adept at speaking Spanish with native Spanish speakers. I'm trying to figure out the rest of my goals for this year...
That is a great goal; I'm sure you will reach new heights in your Spanish skills with consistent practice and applying what you learn to real-life conversation! Watching TV programs and movies in Spanish is also a great way to get used to understanding different accents and being able to comprehend at the rapid-fire pace people speak :-)
Hey, Daniel! It's always a pleasure to read to you... I remember you said you always went a little crazy in the summer and I never knew how much, although I tried to find out through your writing. I learned to love the divine being in you with your intricate and valuable poetry. Now we hardly see each other, but you are always in me.
Greetings and an infinite hug. Take care!
Basic principles and grace will get you far.
It's not what people. It's the roots.
Indeed. Thanks for stopping by @mineopoly!
A huge hug 🤗 and a little bit of !BEER 🍻 from @amico!
Un caro abbraccio 🤗 e un po' di BEER 🍻 da @amico!
hello @d-pend!
why you down vote my post?
is there anything wrong?
This post was chosen to be voted by THEUNION.
Thank you very much @theunion for supporting my post :-)
We should all throw our TVs away and just enjoy the wonderful nature. Just see the beautiful pink clouds. Pefect sunset. Great pictures
Haha, thank you for the comment @missagora. I agree that we should pay attention to the simple omnipresent beauty of nature :-)
Después de leer su publicación y todos los comentarios, me doy cuenta que Uds. viven una realidad maravillosa.
Poder disfrutar las cuatro estaciones a lo largo del año, obliga al cuerpo a abandonar la monotonía.
Tener un idioma materno y aspirar a aprender otros idiomas es ideal.
Solo hablo español ( venezolano). Mi computadora los traduce, con imperfecciones pero puedo entender que lo que ha planteado es real.
Es así, cada persona es un mundo aparte y personalísimo.
No es solo la naturaleza, es todo.
Sus metas son una excelente muestra de la calidad de persona que es.
Lo felicito por afrontar la vida, desde las cosas más sencillas y a medida que vayan llegando.
El largo plazo se planifica solo. aliriera