The actual caption to the photo above is “Elderly Falls”. Sounds like a nice vacation spot, doesn’t it?

I recently celebrated my 52nd birthday! Here are some of the things that I look back on as nuggets. Some may be nuggets of wisdom.

1. There is, in fact, such a thing as too much coffee.

2. While there is a certainty that you can not get enough sleep, for some reason your body begins to push the limits. Having too much coffee makes it worse. I’m lucky if I get six hours now.

3. Plants are living creatures. They respond to your touch, your voice, your moods. They heal. In larger numbers, they can heal sometimes in larger proportions.

4. Not everyone will agree with you. When you feel the colour red bubbling up inside you, take a breath. Red feelings aren’t always the best feelings to lead with.

5. Change, although uncomfortable and inevitable, is sometimes not so bad. It can be horrible. I mean, it may seem horrible. Ok, sometimes it just sucks. Especially if it’s a shaking out of a comfortable routine. Nobody likes to leave a warm bed. But if we always stayed in bed, we’d shit the bed. And bed soars.

6. It’s ok to be different in a way that people look at you in a puzzled way.

7. It’s ok to not make sense to other people.

8. It’s ok to talk to yourself, or be confused at things other people find simple. We all see the world through different windows. Some people are lucky enough to have stained glass.

9. Dogs are angels. Cats are also angels, but I’m a dog person. Even if they pee on the rug, it’s an angel.

10. The hardest thing to learn in the world is that you’re almost always going to have an internal reaction to what someone says, what someone does. Sometimes those reactions are going to be good, sometimes they’re going to feel really gross. Being nervous and reacting in nervous ways are normal for a lot of us, especially those of us who’ve experienced trauma in our lives. The trick is to know that being nervous doesn’t always look like you’re nervous. The bigger trick is learning to not let the nervousness control your reactions. People agree to do things they don’t want to do because this all the time. People become things they don’t always want to be because of the trauma in their past.

Take a breath. Pause if you can. Try to be logical about it if you can. Make as good a choice as you can about the situation. You can always cry with someone or rage with someone after. And you’ll always grow, even if you can’t see the growth.

Plants are doing that kind of growth all around you all the time. So are your fingernails and your hair. So there.

11. “Not my monkeys, not my circus–but I know who the clowns are.” -author unknown

12. Faith, prayer, and dialogue with God are ways to keep a solid foundation in your life. It doesn’t mean that things aren’t going to get rocky or boring. It means that you’ll ride it out easier.

12.5. I remember strange things from my past, mostly embarrassing things, or things or moments when I felt awkward or was rolling downhill towards despair. If this happens to you, do not worry. I think that it’s one of two things:

It’s your brain, recognizing it’s full, needing to dump data to make space. By reliving the memories that aren’t the greatest it’s dumping to create space for more.

or

You’ve reached a point where you’re able to cope with the emotions around the event better, so your brain brings it up so you can resolve it emotionally, and walk away from it.

12.75 My aunt makes the best black forest cakes.