Life experiences – Page 39

A Label-Free World (for 2018)

Posted on January 25, 2018February 20, 2025 by Neal Saye

Hello out there. I did this blog post quite a while ago, but thought in today’s adversarial political and cultural environment, it might be relevant. We (okay, I!) judge others much too quickly.

Let’s try, in this new year with relatively few mistakes in it so far, to give each other the benefit of the doubt, to refuse to label somebody or some thing based on initial interactions or our preconceived notions.

What an incredible truth! (And, oh gosh, how it indicts me.)

I LOVE this short video about labeling:

2018: A Label-Free Year (at least for you and me).

Humor, Neal's Writing, New, Savannah Joy, The Joy and Wisdom of Children, Transition, Uncategorized, Where Happiness Finds You

The Bear and the Unicorn

Posted on January 24, 2018November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

For my recent suxteee-seckth birthday, I celebrated with my big ole’ modern family …

… at Savannah’s Tequila’s Town restaurant in Sandfly.

(Seriously? Can you believe they come hooting “Happy Bday” laden with tequila for the celebrant! Even though I had my large head prepared for an oversized sombrero and some flan.)

Post-tequila I received some neat gifts, but perhaps my Favorites came from five-year-old grandtwins Madison (inappropriately pictured above next to the tequila) and Matthew. Their mom let them pick out their gifts for me. Madison gave me a pink unicorn in a love mug …

…while Matthew opted for a brown bear that actually smells like chocolate when you rub it vigorously!

(Matthew is in an over-smiling-for-the-camera stage.)

Oh, they also each got me a large skein of yarn–yellow from Madison and green from Matthew. Not that I knit (who has the patience for that?!), but because they like to unravel the yarn, make giant spiderwebs and throw it all over the furniture and each other.

Thus, inspired by the tequila, when I got home I opted for a quick photoshoot to document my suxteee-seckth.

Moral of Story: the strangest little gifts ofttimes make for the biggest shots of … Joy.

Holiday Joy

A Most Awesome Father’s Day & Night!

Posted on June 21, 2015June 15, 2022 by Neal Saye

I hope your Father’s Day (and night) 2015 has been a peaceful and joyful one. Mine was/is. Spent time with both daughters and all four grandies. What a blessing to have them all in my Savannah. My cards:

And an incredible Facebook post by older daughter Amy:

“Happy Father’s Day to my very hip and high impact dad! I am blessed to have a dad who taught me to love without discrimination, to have joy in all circumstances, and who creates an environment of safety and acceptance where I am free to develop into my best and truest self.”

What a Difficult and Unparalleled Joy Fatherhood is!

The Joy and Wisdom of Children

G

Posted on May 6, 2015March 30, 2022 by Neal Saye

I have FOUR grandchildren. (Yes, you’re right, I’m FAR too young. We all know that. It’s a given. But sometimes Mother Nature has a way of bypassing her laws of when people should have grandchildren–and presents them in, well, early, early middle age.)

Anyway, the second-from-the-oldest-grandchild is Gabriel, 5, a rambunctious bundle of pure little boy-ness. He’s often affectionately referred to simply as “G.” In his most recent pre-K school report, the patient-as-a-saint and give-her-a-raise teacher wrote that Gabriel is “smart, funny, with many friends … and has a touch of naughtiness.”

Here’s G (on the far right) with a few school buddies,

And here he is the other night with older brother Daniel (8).

Today I received this text from my daughter/G mom Amy:

The brutal honesty of children.

Holiday Joy

HH – Holiday Happiness

Posted on December 28, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

It’s Sunday night. December 28. Three days after the big day. Christmas gifts and meals are opened and eaten.

Just a few more days left in 2014.

Sometimes there’s a bit of a letdown after the glitter is gone.

So … what is there to be Happy About? Especially if you’re alone? Or sick? Or frustrated? Or angry? Or not where you wanna be?

To be honest, I don’t know.

BUT I encourage you to do this: Go on a Gratitude Rampage. Start listing — or just thinking about — what you have to be grateful for as 2014 wanes.

Go ahead — try it. Make a list.

Here’s a tad of mine:

1. Air to breathe.

2. Legs that help me to walk.

3. Imperfect family members.

4. A mind that allows me to think.

5. Shoes.

6. Eyesight.

7. Collard greens (I just sautéed some for dinner).

8. Music.

9. Sunshine.

10. Cinnamon.

11. Grandchildren.

12. People who know my name.

13. Insurance.

14. Roaring laughter.

15. Pecans.

This list could go on and on.

May peace, joy and love be your portion now and forever!

Gratitude is powerful. Try it and see how it makes you feel.

Holiday Joy

Have You Counted Your Holiday Blessings? (Part Two)

Posted on December 23, 2014November 23, 2021 by Neal Saye

A couple of days ago I encouraged you to consider, and attend to, the blessings that are in your life. I hope you have taken a brief break from the Christmas rush, and done so.

Here’s my Counting Continued:

6. Sitting Down and Sitting Still for a few minutes.

7. A Christmas Visit with my parents (father–91, mother 87).

8. Sparkly Lights.

9. Appreciating my local Savannah Police. Our police men and women are the first folks we usually call when something goes awry in our homes, neighborhoods and cities.

THANK YOU, BLUE!

10. The ability to see.

Are you counting your holiday blessings?

Where Happiness Finds You

This Road

Posted on November 17, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

Each Monday morning, my former colleague Eric Nelson up the road at Georgia Southern University posts a poem on the departmental listserv. I love today’s. It feels a little “The Road Not Taken”-ish but with a twist of its own.

What If This Road

— by Sheenagh Pugh

What if this road, that has held no surprises

these many years, decided not to go

home after all; what if it could turn

left or right with no more ado

than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin

were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,

that is shaken and rolled out, and takes

a new shape from the contours beneath?

And if it chose to lay itself down

in a new way; around a blind corner,

across hills you must climb without knowing

what’s on the other side; who would not hanker

to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know

a story’s end, or where a road will go?

— from What If This Road and Other Poems (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2003)

College Teaching

The Smile — and Happiness Shared

Posted on November 11, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

The students in my English 123 (Freshman Composition) classes at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) are doing what I call Visual Essays in this, their next-to-the-last week of Fall Quarter 2014. We read two books this term, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Tal Ben-Shahar’s Happier, both relating to our course theme of “Happiness and the Exploration of Joy.” The Visual Essay project invites the students to MAKE, rather than write, their papers. Traditional essay requirements are still required: a focus and thesis, structure, detail and support, etc. But this essay morphs into a drawing or painting, a sculpture, a collage, a video, a food, etc. Basically this project is a visual representation of one topic narrowed into a clear thesis/perspective/idea. The challenge: how to “show” their thesis.

Debora Jacob (from Brazil) went to Forsyth Park here in Savannah last Saturday. Here’s her Visual Essay titled “Happiness Shared” on the topic of the smile and its significance.

Thanks for the encouragement, Debora.

Let’s all SMILE more often.

Photography 101

Solitude & The Absent Smile

Posted on November 7, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

Yes I admit it, I’m an optimist. Pollyanna’s a very good buddy. We took tap dancing together.

What I mean is I’m USUALLY a somewhat cheery person. But not always. A while back, I underwent a fairly unpleasant medical procedure. (I’m a big baby when it comes to anything that hurts at a .5 or higher on a 1-10 pain level.)

Here I am in the waiting room, reading about blogging:

Finally I was called back to the procedure room but had to wait in solitude quite a while. The doctor was running behind. I got bored and started playing with the IPhone’s reverse camera capability:

I looked at these pictures, grimaced at their muted and otherworldly haziness, realized I wasn’t smiling–and started to delete them.

Then it hit me.

Get real, Neal. It’s okay not to smile. It’s okay to be muted and hazy … and to be by yourself for a while.