Thankful Thursday or tickets, tailgates and teeth-skin ... yes, you read that right

Taking a little work break to write a Thankful Thursday post about all the amazingness that has been happening around here.

The first 3 things that come to mind are:

1- I am thankful that my sister scored tickets for James Taylor. Yes, Sweet Baby James. This is the woman who teases me about my love for all things Mellencamp when at least he's still mobile.

Hopefully, her seats are close enough to the stage that she'll be able to hear his bones getting brittle and see the wires holding him up and moving him across the stage. True, when Mellencamp sings "when I fight authority" he's talking about the AARP, but at least he won't crumble to dust if you shake him vigorously ... yet ... just kidding Tori. I love James, too.

2. I am thankful that hubs got a new tailgate from the dealer. Hubby went to some kind of "restaurant" auction (are we opening a restaurant now - I don't ask) and his truck tailgate was stolen ... off his truck ... in the parking lot. Someone just lifted it off (you would think these things would be welded on somehow) and carried it away.

(I think it was his "buckle up, it makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car" sticker)

so anyhoo, he got a temporary dented up one from the junkyard and drove around for awhile with one of those sticker families on the wrong color tailgate. The wrong color didn't bother us, but the sticker family with its tiny little row of ... cats ... was driving Olive nuts.

3. I am thankful that Shark Week repeats are now on youtube so we can spend our evenings alternating between Jon Stewart and learning everything you ever wanted to know about Great Whites before we head out to the beach this summer.

Like did you know that the skin of a Great White is composed of denticles, which are like scales made of tiny teeth. How badass is that? This shark can kill you with its skin.

(which is kind of like me right now, have I told you I have a staph infection ... on my nose ... don't ask)

Also sharks prefer Pottery Barn to Target. Trader Joe's to Whole Foods. And they wish to God we'd stop peeing in the ocean.

OK now back to work for me - I feel compelled to mention that there is a new moon right now in Aries which makes it a perfect time to set our intentions for some new things to be thankful for - true you may not be able to manifest the kind of amazingness we have going on over here in Jersey, but James Taylor could be falling apart performing at a nursing home theater near you ....

*ninja tee from geekthings

you don't have a problem you have a predicament ...

A friend said to me this week - "you don't have a problem,

problems have solutions

you have a predicament

predicaments only have prayers"

(and yes, it did make me google predicament because I didn't realize a predicament, although the word does conjure up dire images of maidens tied to railroad tracks ... that could just be me from too many years watching Underdog or Bullwinkle or Mighty Mouse or whatever that was ...  is that much different than a problem)

predicament (pri-dik-uh-muhnt) noun
catch -22, bind, corner, no win situation

I'll write a post about the particulars at some point, but just not today.

It is amazing how much time and energy and power we invest in trying to solve things that are just not solvable even when we know better ...

So, for the week ahead - I will be asking not for a solution, but just to be shown how to live with what already is. Let's see where this takes me ....

the blessing in disguise ....

Sometimes the things we are dealing with feel so big and so important

that making the right decision feels ...

well, literally like life and death -

and this death could be an actual death and it could be the actual death of a dream and since our dreams are literally the stuff our future selves are created from - the death of a dream is huge

And we find ourselves looking for answers about what to do and no matter how still and how quiet we get the only answer seems to be this uncomfortable feeling that something important is happening here and we had better be paying attention ...

and of course, this feeling is uncomfortable because it is a gift -

(if it was comfortable we wouldn't pay attention to it)

so maybe instead of asking for an answer we should be asking for a journey and the ability to recognize the blessings in disguise as we encounter them ...

* his and hers disguises by yellow heart art