1. More fresh air, sunshine, and water for everybody of all ages.
2. Screens are the new smoking.
3. The best people aren’t really on social media much, if at all. This is just a fact.
4. Western medicine can fix hardware problems but not software problems and a lot of times what looks like a hardware problem is actually a software problem. Just because you have physical pain, doesn’t mean it’s a hardware problem. Do you see where I’m going with this?
5. The person who voted for the other guy has some very important points if you can slow your nervous system down enough to listen. To be crystal clear: not everyone who voted for the other guy is an idiot who doesn’t know anything and you should know this because you know you are not an idiot who doesn’t know anything and the other guy’s team says this about you all the time. It’s not ok.
6. You absolutely can teach old dogs new tricks. It’s hard to do this. It’s hard for people who are deeply embedded in something to get out of it, but it can be done and it’s what redemption is for and all about.
7. Time is a construct and it surprises me that we’re still acting like this is some sort of sci-fi only idea. Lots of legitimate scientists accept it as a simple fact.
8. Gratitude is the best mood booster and mental/emotional brain hack. It’s a muscle and it gets stronger. You can teach it to your children. It works. Wonder, joy, and delight also work in this way, and so if you feel like you’ve mastered gratitude, move on to these.
9. Original ideas require a lot of thinking time. When I see my 12-year-old wearing down a groove in the backyard because he’s pacing around, thinking, I wonder what kind of idea he’s going to put out into the world in about 30 years. When he does, I will tell him he’s been thinking about it for decades and it will be true.
10. The institutional church is and has always been corrupt and flawed. You can choose to make it your profession and maintain your integrity but it’s not as easy as it looks. This shouldn’t be surprising, but it always is.
11. The best things are always on the margins and the outside and (of course) the intersections.
12. We (and by we, I mean at least people who drive in the US and possibly the entire world) need to figure out how to merge efficiently and make a law about it that everyone follows under penalty of a traffic ticket. We figured out stoplights, so we can certainly figure out merging in a way that doesn’t leave all of us sweating and swearing and frustrated. Seriously, what’s wrong with us?
#WritersWrite and I write almost every day. I sometimes share my thoughts publicly in this series called “500 Words or Less” This practice allows me to explore a variety of different topics in a restrained/contained way and learn what resonates with people. I wrote it, not AI. If you share, please give proper credit. © Traci Smith, 2024. All Rights Reserved.