Three Ways to be Happy for Five Minutes

Lots of people are having a great day today.

And, most likely, lots of people are not.

The reasons can be circumstantial, health issues of any kind, or simply being in a state of unhappiness that defies explanations.

There's a lot of talk these days about about "being mindful" and "being in the moment," but some moments aren't that terrific, honestly.

But if you're not feeling well or if you are feeling stressed or otherwise not on top of the world today, take five minutes and apply a slogan that old people like me were taught in the old days in regards to crossing railway tracks.

Stop.

Look.

Listen.

I'm really not being silly. Just do it.

Now maybe when you stop and look and listen, you don't like what you see and here. Let's say, for instance, you see a messy house and hear the kids bickering. 

But could it also mean noticing you have a home with plenty of possessions that need straightening and cleaning (many people don't any possessions or a home) and a house full of life (even though living on an island "sounds" like a good idea right now).

Every coin has two sides, even if the second side is blank. 

On Sunday morning, after treating myself to sleeping in, I settled at the computer to get some work (on deadline) done, only to find that, for the second day in a row, I've had to restart the computer. 

I had no choice but to stop. So I figured, instead of getting annoyed, I could look and listen.

Well, my desk is FULL of paperwork that needs sorting, a water bottle, reheated coffee from yesterday, and my cell phone.

The paperwork shows I have plenty of stories to write. I have the financial means of buying water bottles as well as a nice working refrigerator/freezer to keep the bottles frosty cold (the way I like them).

Drinking yesterday's coffee means I have people who love me so much that they brought me a nice Americano late yesterday before I could drink it all.

And they bought it from a place that makes coffee so well, the texture and flavor doesn't break down in the microwave (and I have a working microwave that, within seconds, heats coffee to the temperature I prefer).

My phones are handpicked by Timothy because he understands my job duties and selects phones to match. The last phone I bought with my own money was twenty years ago. If my phone malfuctions, Timothy calls the insurance company, Timothy gets the new phone in, Timothy transfers all my data and pictures at a time that is conveniennt to me, too. 

He does all this voluntarily.

If the computer doens't boot up (it eventually did, which is how I'm writing this blog), I have a laptop, my daughter has a laptop, my two sons each have a laptop, and my daughter also has a desktop. So it's not the end of the world (or my job) if the computer I WANT to use in this moment doesn't boot up).

Note: I finally did have to call on Rebekah for help.

The sun is shining through my window, the birds are tweeting up a storm, and a cat is sleeping on my bed. So even as I'm working, I'm surrounding by good weather and life.

I'm really not trying to be all pollyanish here.

Taking five minutes won't change the fact that the house still has to be cleaned, the kids still have to be discplined, and the cat hair will still have to be brushed away. If you have a migraine, that's probably still there, and if you have knee paiin, that probably hasn't gone away.

Stories don't write themselves (I wish!), and if I want to keep myself in water bottles and dark roast coffee, well, I have to write the stories, even in those moments when I'm tired or uninspired or distracted or too busy, or...well, fill in the blanks.

But by taking five minutes to stop and look and listen, you hit "pause" on the stress and mentally refresh yourself to tackle those challenges.

And, for just five minutes, perhaps you can feel a twinge of happiness, however fleeting and transient.

And, perhaps, in those moments, you feel a whisper of hope to help pull you through the rest.

Have a most blessed day.

Just Don't Attach a Photo

So it seems whenever my computer goes through an update during the night, it has an issue with attaching and uploading photos.

Attaching and uploading photos is a big part of my early morning routine, since I'm answering emails, scheduling social media, putting photos into the system for stories due later in the day, etc.

So when I randomly have this issue in the early morning when I scarcely awake, I wind up having to troubleshoot and restart the computer (sometimes a few times), which puts the whole day behind.

This morning, I had an idea.

I'll just have emails ready to go (draft form), social media posts ready to go and just NOT attach any photos.

Then while I'm making breakfast, I'll put the computer through a restart. And then I'll attach photos and press "send."

This only took me half a year to figure out.

It's not a solution. It doesn't fix the issue (I really need Christopher for that). And it's certainly not the blog post I wanted to post today.

But it does keep the morning on track. As long as I keep making a conscious effort to not attach or upload photos (It's amazing how much I do automatically. Good habits are great - until you have to change it up).

So if you're reading this post and see a photo, you'll know the problem is resolved for today.

Quick Monday Morning Reflection

So my computer went through an update yesterday and now it freezes when I try to attach a photo, making me wonder why I got up extra early to get a jump on the day.

And from my window this morning (just to to my right) is a beautiful sunrise, orangey-pink streaks through the lightening blue.

Of course, I can't share a picture of that with you.

I'm not very far into the work day and I can scarcely see my desk for all the paperwork haphazardly covering it.

But I slept fairly well last night and a health issue, which has flared off and on these last few months, has quited down, for this morning at least. And my day (week, month, year) is full of more story ideas than I can ever possibly write, something that me as a child dreaming to be a writer one day could never have imagined possible.

The cup of coffee is three-quarters empty. But I have plenty more coffee downstairs, five varieties of coffee, ready for whever I wish to make it.

Once Rebekah has a moment, she can fix the computer issue while I catch up on social media and email (I'm woefully behind in replying to posts, which makes me feel antisocial). 

So perhaps the computer issue is an opportunity to accomplish another project?

For anyone reading this post, here's hoping any pebbles in your path today are really opportunities in disguise - and any roadblocks are really invitations to go another, and better, way.

PS: If you're reading this post and you see a photo, it means Rebekah has fixed the issue, and I've returned to attach a photo. So thankful to her!

PPS: The issue resolved all by itself. But Rebekah is still great!

PPPS: This is not the sunrise from my window. But it's a beautiful photo Timothy took some time ago and sent to me. 

Take a Breath

So trying to be a team player on the home front today, I shelved some work for "later" and caught up (somewhat) with stuff around the house that needed to be done.

Among all that, I helped a writing comrade with a project.

Knowing I  have a few hours ahead of me and others will want the shower, too, I decided to be proactive and claim privileges before anyone else wanted them, too.

I returned to a changed screen.

Did it go through an update? Power surge? Random electronic goofiness I don't understand?

No matter. I lost nearly half an hour and had to bother Timothy to help figure it out. 

"Sometimes I had computers," he said.

Me, too.

Anyway, everything is back up. And I am back to work.

I'm sure everything will get done.

Although maybe not on my schedule.

In fact, probably not on my schedule.

But is that bad?

Illustration by Christopher Gleason for "Staked!" Follow him at www.artworkbytopher.com

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: My Computer Monitors and Me

Back in 1998, when I started freelancing, my mother bought my first computer, a Gateway, from Circuit City.

Don't laugh.

Because I suck at math, I don't know the size of the monitor screen, but it was definitely way smaller than the salesman recommended for someone that would be spending a large part of her day composing in front of it. For reasons unrelated to this post, the computer was never actually installed until April 1999.

In the spring of 2009, still using the same monitor (Hey, it was a perfectly good monitor), a strange thing happened. It started...blinking. I shrugged it off as, "Well, it's probably starting to go," and suffered through it. Between pay cuts and rising prices, we were starting to feel the money pinch, and I didn't feel a new monitor was worth the money.

I am also the woman that wore Sarah's old snowpants on the route from 1998 until someone stole them out of our church coatroom at least a decade later (I had duct taped the holes), but that's a different story.

So in that summer of 2009, while working on deadline of course, that monitor began flashing colors and then literally started smoking. Because I have no idea what cord connects to what, I did what any reasonable technology stupid person would do: yell for a kid.

Timothy ran in and disconnected it in seconds and reconnected a really ancient monitor someone donated to our youth group. I was back in business.

In a few days, Christopher bought me a new monitor, something called a flat screen. He also bought this amazing pair of speakers (no, I don't kow the brand, only that the sound quality is phenomenal). And when that screen crapped out two years later, he replaced it with his, since he and his family were now living at my house, and his giant screen for the TV was doubling as his monitor.

I ignored the squiggly lines made by my two-year-old grandson who shouldn't have had access to a Sharpie in front of a monitor and forged on.

When that one crapped out, Christopher replaced it with a used one someone had donated to his computer repair business. And no, I don't have any idea what year that was or its size.

This past summer, that monitor and I began a morning battle that would continue for six months. It went like this:

I turn on monitor. Monitor blinks and goes back to sleep. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat, anywhere from five to fifteen minutes with blearily sipping coffee.

Any thinking person would buy a new monitor. But that's not why I started an emergency fund. That was for EMERGENCIES, not a monitor that played games with me every morning when most people are still sleeping.

And so it continued.

Finally, the monitor was taking so long to turn on, that Rebekah (I don't know how to do such things) adjusted the controls so it never went to sleep. The ensuing light distrubed our sleep, so she covered it with a  pillow case, a bad idea, because monitors emit A LOT of heat. So we scrapped the warm pillow case, and she rested a book binder against it, partially obscuring the light.

At this point, we decided the monitor was a fire hazard. A new onbe seemed like a reasonable thing to consider.

But then we rolled into college finals and holiday deadlines at The Herald-News and Timothy's medical emergency, and there was either no time, no money, or no transportation for a monitor. And we worried that it might not be the monitor, but a problem with the computer itself.

To determine that, Rebekah and Daniel disconnected my monitor and replaced it with an old one of Daniel's. That, too, was a flat screen, but very tiny. Not sure the size, but it was small, as in manybe twelve inches small, according to one of the kids said, so small, that working was darn near impossible.

It continued this way for a couple weeks, with some minor grumbling from me.

On Old Calendar Christmas on Thursday, Timothy announced that he, Rebekah and Daniel had collaborated on a present for me, but it hadn't arrived yet. On Friday when I came home from work, Timothy said the present had arrived and was now on my desk.

Intrigued, I headed for my room and desk. No present.

I moved aside my scattered papers of notes and looked. No present. I returned to Timothy's room with one question, "Where?"

It was truly a face palm moment.

I had totally missed the HUGE monitor and new keyboard and mouse. Now I was a little surprised at the last two, since there was nothing wrong with those.

"The keyboard had missing keys," Timothy said.

"But the keyboard always had missing keys," I countered."It was a used one from Christopher. And they were keys I never used."

BTW, the keyboard is amazing, much easier on the fingers than the old clackety-clack model I had used for, well, I don't know how many years. I'm already accustomed to the mouse, and I love the keyboard.

I told everyone so on Sunday evening.

"Well, that was a delayed reaction," Daniel said as I bid him good night.

Doesn't he understand I couldn't tell how great it was until I spent a weekend writing fiction (Before the Blood) on it? Sheesh! Kids!

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for "Visage." Follow him at www.facebook.com/artbymattcoundiff or @MattCoundiff on Twitter.

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday Cancelled Due to Computer Updates

So I have to be at work early this morning for an early morning meeting. I wisely set the alarm back to compensate for the lost time.

Unfortunately, my computer chose that very moment to go through updates. slowly. As in after an hour, it's at 11 percent. So I'm now on a laptop with issues. Oh, yeah, and I'm standing hunched over the kitchen counter because the other members of the household (not me) have covered all the outlets with heavy furniture, and this battery doesn't hold a charge.

Today I feel thrown back to dinosaur technology era. Wonderful way to begin the busiest day of my week.

But, hey! At least the coffee's good. :)