Bee’s Musings

From Seth Godin’s Blog:

You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It’s never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment — just one second — to decide.

I know I’ve been on a motivational, change your life kick lately, but the fact is this: You only have one life. You only have one chance to live. We have thousands of chances to laugh, smile, and love. But there’s only one life, so we each need to take each chance to make the most of it.

In the vein of Let It Go, is Hack Yourself.

Go read it. Seriously.

And read it every day, until you’ve ripped out your demon and dance in the street.

First - the shootings. For those who haven’t read the news yet, 4 people were killed today in 2 separate (but potentially related) church shootings in Colorado. The first shooting was in Arvada; the second in Colorado Springs.

I was reading the story tonight on NY Daily News (because it was the top link in GoogleNews, not because I regularly read their coverage). What horrified me more than the actual events was the comments from their readers.

Read them here.

What type of insensitive, uneducated, and narrow-minded person really reads about a tragedy like this one, and then has the audacity to say “Where is your God now?” These are people - each of these people was someone’s child. Someone’s best friend. Someone who was looking forward to sharing the upcoming holiday season with people that they love. They weren’t out tormenting people, wreaking havoc in the lives of someone. They were simply worshiping in their own way. Rather than judge them for where they were at the time, I would hope that we as people could extend sympathy to their loved ones rather than raise this kind of criticism.

Holy crap…. this is seriously the coolest thing ever! If you’re on AIM, add the user name “SmarterChild” then say hello. SmarterChild an AIM bot that can do all sorts of interesting command line-y things, like look up the weather, store notes, trigger timed IM reminders, calculate and convert, and generally answer any kind of question.

Here’s just part of our conversation today.. its even got little pick-me-up’s if you’re feeling down.

Brandi: what is the weather like in loveland, colorado
SmarterChild: Current weather conditions for Loveland, CO:

Currently: 28 F
Condition: Overcast
Wind Chill: 20 F
Dewpoint: 27
Humidity: 91 %
Visibility: 2 mi
Wind: N/8 mph

Next time, just type weather loveland, co.

>>> I have a thesaurus. Type thesaurus (any word) and I’ll give you synonyms.
Brandi: i love you smarterchild
SmarterChild: OK, I love you too!

From YogaJournal:

Life can be filled with countless lost moments. In the haste of juggling the demands of family, work, friends, and the needs of your own body and mind, your connection with the present is often replaced by preoccupation with the future. Lost in thought and busyness, your attention is prone to simply sliding over the surface of life. It’s all too easy to miss the simple moments that make your heart sing: a child’s laughter, a crisp snowflake resting on the windshield, the beat of your own heart.

You live and breathe amid the miracle of life. But for it to touch your heart, you need to be present. The precious moments of calm and stillness your heart longs for are born of your willingness to live the moment you are in. Yes, this very moment.

Waking up today in Colorado, I woke up to snow. It is truly beautiful, looking at the crab apple trees that still have little berries attached, all coated with snow, like thick icing from my favorite cinnamon rolls. But I didn’t notice the beauty of the snow right away. Instead I looked at it with curiosity, trying to determine if I’d have to shovel out the driveway before I left for work, and how much the snow would delay my drive.

Then I checked my email and read the Daily Insight from yesterday. I was fortunate enough to remember how the fields looked driving in, with the ends of the grass sticking through the snow cover, but it reminded me to slow down.

Its Friday. Slow down. Enjoy something over the next few days. Even if its just taking 2 minutes to watch the snow fall.

So, I haven’t written much in a while. I’d like to say its because I’ve been off having some sort of fun adventure, but its not. I do have a new friend… but I have to say, he’s not all that much fun. He’s not the kind of friend most people would like to have.

Meet Melvin. He’s my cough. This is what I picture him looking like.

He seems to be here to stay. The doctor wasn’t sure if she thought it was bronchitis, or walking pneumonia. So she gave me a massive dose of antibiotics, and some neat little cough medicine pills and sent me on my way. That was 8 days ago. So far, I felt better for about 3 days. And then I started feeling worse again. So, now my buddy Melvin and I spend lots of quality time together. We watch movies and read books and are generally lazy.

So I hope that you’re doing well, fair reader, and that you don’t get a case of Melvin. xoxo