Tag: life

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

The tip for today was to notice five things that are beautiful in the world around you.

I’m writing this a day or two in advance, so here goes.

I like to take pictures. My wife laughs at me, but I find these to be nice reminders of life over time. Sometimes I just flip through them. In any case, here are some beautiful things.

I’m leaving out friends and family, as those are certainly beautiful, but I tried to think and notice things that were in my life, but I sometimes don’t think about.

The Wide Open Spaces

I love Colorado. I love being outdoors, but of all the places I’ve lived, I enjoy Colorado. The dry air, the changing seasons, the openness of my ranch. The view is often the same, but walking around the other day, I find this to be beautiful.

The Sky

The sky in Colorado is often sunny (300+ days a year), it’s big and expansive, and it’s beautiful. Even as much as I see it, I still like looking at it’s beauty.

My Guitar

I’ve owned a few, but my wife bought me this one a year ago. I’ve enjoyed messing around on it, and I spent a lot of time during my sabbatical practicing. I built some skill, confidence, and found joy again in making music.

I’m not great, but I did feel good enough to provide a light backing track for Mike Walsh’s weekly call on Friday.

My Animals

This dog is amazing. Her name is Azure, and she loves playing fetch. She drops balls, scraps of paper, and twigs at my feet on a regular basis, asking for them to be thrown so she can chase them.

She’s a beautiful reminder of the joy of simple things, and of simple pleasures.

My Charging Stand

I built this.

I cut two pieces of wood, got them to fit together, and stained them. I’ve dropped my phone on this for 3 or 4 years. Last year I moved to wireless charging and didn’t use this as much, but over my sabbatical I routed out a hole for a wireless charger (thanks, @United) and then plugged it in. Now, I can drop my phone here and it charges.

This is beautiful to me, a useful thing I made. It’s not perfect, it’s not something anyone else would want, but it’s beautiful to me.

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

No April Fools for this one. This is a big one, and it’s likely important. The tip today is “call a loved one to catch up and really listen to them.”

I called my Mom recently. She’s in a retirement community, and locked down. There have been some illnesses among the staff and to avoid spreading, they have reduced some contact, ask most people to just stay in their rooms or apartments and deliver food. Fine for my Mom. She has a kindle, a piano, and enjoys the quiet. She exercises in her room and enjoys it.

Good catchup there.

Not so good for me as my Mom is fairly conservative and as of last week, she didn’t think we needed the shutdown, we should have all businesses open and “we don’t have that many cases.” This was before the US surpassed all other countries.

I try to be understanding and appreciate other points of view. I also think that a number of very conservative outlets are criminally negligent in downplaying the seriousness of this. I do think some liberal/progressive news outlets may be sounding too many alarms, but in the place where mistakes are serious, I can tolerate a little more chicken little news than dismissal.

So I listened, debated a bit, and tried to provide her company, swallowing some of the stress that this caused.

I’ll also have to do this again every few days. Looking forward to more virtual happy hours with friends that take me away from news.

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

Today was interesting: Take give minutes to sit and breathe. Repeat often.

It’s funny, I regularly practice yoga, and this is something we do in class. I’ve used my watch to track my exercise, and I can see when my heart rates rises, so I know we often sit for about 5 minutes quietly, or with a quote/thought from the teacher, before we get moving.

I tried this a couple times last week. I set a timer on my phone for 5 minutes, stood up, closed my eyes, and tried to just be. No music, nothing to see, just see if my mind can quiet. Sometimes it didn’t and thoughts continue to swirl through my head, sometimes I relaxed, as I might do when walking or driving and my thoughts quietly flow.

It’s surprisingly hard to just stop for 5 minutes, and I don’t know if I can do it more than once a day. So far, I haven’t, but I will be thinking about adding this to part of my routine.

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

In the newsletter today, I wrote this: Share what you are feeling and be willing to ask for help.

This is a tough one for me. I’m fiercely independent and hate asking for help if I can do something. I should be able to handle this myself. I’m not sick, my family isn’t sick. No one I know is that sick, and only a few are a little sick. I only personally know of two people that have lost their jobs.

However, this pandemic has affected me. It’s all over the news, it’s heartbreaking and maddening.

I am sad for those that have lost someone or are suffering.

have sympathy for those losing their jobs, especially low income workers.

I’m maddened by those that haven’t taken this seriously.

I’m sharing here, and I’ve shared some of this with my wife and kids. We commiserate a bit and get things off our chests. I also have learned to ask my wife for help, to listen, to hold me, to just be there. It’s helpful, though this is still hard.

I’m working to close off from news, but not from people, which is a challenge. I’m working to keep my temper and emotions in check. I’m asking you to help me do that. If I’m upset, I’d appreciate a gentle reminder that things will be OK.