Making Lemonade with Giant Lemons of Change Opens Doors of Perception

MAKING LEMONADE WITH GIANT LEMONS OF CHANGE—Monthly Writers’ Gathering for Scribes Ancient and Modern, Insecure or Otherwise

Nihil Illlegitimi carborundum Don’t let the b- -tards grind you down

Keep Enjoying and Celebrating the Little Things

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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about Science and Technology

Carl Sagan, 1999

After a year of Zoom birthdays, virtual graduations, and masqued take-out dinners, many of us want to party again: to attend impromptu gatherings like music festivals, left, and explore the innards of ancient ruins or modern museums’ treasures, right. Celebrations help to create and cement relationships. Celebrating puts us back in touch with our happy self.

But it’s not just big occasions that should be marked. Acknowledging small moments is so important for wellbeing. Psychologists call it “savoring.” Savoring is about appreciating an event or activity in the moment, sharing tiny victories, and noticing the good things around you

Are you the Languishing or Flourishing type?

The Harvard psych department Dr Van der Weele quiz sets out five areas of life you can personally assess: good, bad or indifferent. Do you wake up each day with a reason to go out and do; or would you rather go back to sleep?

Ticking the Boxes & Remembering to feel Gratitude

Grateful for rain, fresh air, a small garden, a walk in the woods? Bringing that to our attention—feeling gratitude—has an effect of lightening the load, making us feel useful, purposeful aka better. Creating a weekly gratitude ritual can cement a good habit. Studies show that taking time to reflect on what we’re grateful for improves our mood,

Feel like we’re ticking boxes. Getting things done makes us grateful for the quality of life.

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Achievements may make us feel like Hercules l. slaying multi-headed Hydra, running off in our private time machine, or the busy scribe

The simple act of thanking someone for what they do—hospital workers, shop assistants, security guard. Even the masked raider who delivers your unexpected package out of the back of an anonymous brown and black UPS van.

The Robin Hood Effect: Being Kind—Giving a Helping Hand Makes the Helper Feel Good, Familiar

Sometimes people feel an extra spring in their step when they talk to a stranger on a plane or the subway, or when they are greeted in a restaurant.

While eating out has become a rare event, we have missed the familiar: being seen in public by other people, being greeted enthusiastically and with respect by others—particularly after long periods of isolation and self-entertainment—has the effect of energizing and invigorating the (lonely) psyche, and immediately helps create bonds within the neighborhood or community. This has happened for people connected with a church, choir or singing group, familiar running mates and yoga and fitness classes.

Re-connecting within the community—even something as simple as hanging out at your old coffee shop—is something we have all missed.

Social media has filled the gap in many western societies where iPhones and Smart devices have taken up the slack of no daily rhythm of entertainment. But all of us writerly virtuosos, weaving our virtual conversations, have become accustomed to retrenching in the Writer’s Cave, making our own coffee, and getting back to business —thanks to our Muse—on the keyboard.

Ancient Ibis-headed scribe Thoth’s ability to write made him god of wisdom, carrier of information and inspiration—similar to Greek Hermes, Roman Mercury. Patron of writers, he invented writing, music, medicine, and magic.

He wrote it all down.

Although Osiris and Isis are said to have brought civilization to mankind, Thoth gave the Egyptians their civil-religious practices. God of Equilibrium, he weighed the balance of life and death, kept records of the Afterlife and maintained the Library for the gods. At a time when few could write, his unique ability was supernatural, divine.

Make an Ancient Connection—with a Tree, a Bird, a Human, a Cat

Ibis-headed Thoth, seen as the “voice of Ra”—accompanying the Sun through the dark realm of Night to emerge next day, to begin again—sets an example to us 21stC lost souls: He sees mystical connections within the Earth, that all Life is interconnected and adapting to change. And we human scribes may actually benefit—yeah thrive—from learning something new; DOING a new dance routine, trying a woodland walk never attempted before. Writing the long-dreamed pf fantasy novel. Ticking happy boxes, indeed.

The gods assure us—cave-dwelling scribe-o-philes with a passion for the written word—that we won’t regret it. New habits for old; new life where there was none. Writing community/IWSGers, What are we waiting for?

©2021MarianYoungblood