Aladdin’s Lamp

 

The week before last (last week’s album) the 52 frames photo challenge theme was “Lamp”. (I have been doing this weekly for 360 weeks.) I was terribly busy (it was the middle of Passover, and I was cooking for 12 people for the last two days of the holiday). BUT I had a good idea: Aladdin’s lamp. I had thought of the idea ages ago, and previously had purchased a lamp that suited the theme, saving it for when the 52 frames theme would “fit”. I asked my son to come pose as Aladdin, but I guess he forgot, never showing up. So I “posed” myself, using light painting. The results were not that great; hopefully someday I will shoot the idea again, better.

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OK, I can hear you all saying: ”Ahhhhhhh- WHAT has THIS to do with weight loss?” Well, here is how:

One of the fellow members on the 52 frames site wrote a comment on the photo: “I hope he granted your WISHES!” I replied: “Actually, it was me, so I guess I will need to do it myself!”

Yep...... there is no fairy G-dmother, no magic Aladdin, no “Wish and it will happen”.

If you want to get the “good things” you wish for, you will need to make a plan to reach those successes, and work on carrying out those plans. There are no shortcuts. The good news is that by changing our actions, we CAN work "magic"!

A Shattered Peace

 

   

[photo:  a glass paperweight of a dove, and a collage of same piece. Photo is mine; do not copy!]

Well, it’s early January, and the traditional attitude is “A new year! A NEW chance! How exciting!”

 

    But honestly, that ”new year excitement” just didn’t register at all with me this year. And judging from what I have been reading online, I am not the only one.

 

  Oh last year I WAS excited! After some nine months of virtual house arrest, the vaccines were coming out soon. I had hopes that soon I would be getting the jab that equaled a “get out of jail free” card.  Hopefully this nightmare of COVID would soon be behind us and we would be (pretty much) back to “normal”.

    But of course it didn’t happen like that, and we are facing a brand new 2022 with COVID rates soaring, threats of hospitals collapsing, and again needing to stay away from (or be extremely cautious around) the people we love.  Our anticipated dreams of a peaceful 2022 were shattered as if it were made of glass. And after last year’s big letdown, it is jolly hard to get very enthusiastic about seems a pipe dream of normalcy.

 

   People are tired of all the restrictions. And all the fighting over politics, COVID, etc has wrecked havoc in many families and friendships, let alone the devastation from lives lost.  So how can we get some of that excitement over life and the opportunities ahead? How can we tap into the shrivelled-up optimist lost somewhere deep inside us?

 

   The answer is to look on the good side. Yes, the last two years have been tough.  First let us acknowledge that.  But good things have happened too! Can we wash off the black mud of disappointments, stress, death, and loneliness that has dirtied the diamonds of the last year? Can we also note the good things, and be grateful for them?

 

   If we make an effort, I am sure that we can. And we will be better people for it. And happier ones as well.