Thank You, John Lennon

I'm restless.  There are always a million and one things that I could or should be doing.  But when I'm feeling antsy like I have been these past few days, the could be's and the should be's just don't hold any appeal.  So I pick away at things.  And end up doing a whole lot of nothing.  Now there's nothing wrong with doing nothing -- if that's what you decide to set out to do. But deciding to do nothing feels a whole lot better to your psyche than trying to do something and ending up doing nothing.  To those of you who've been there, done that this will make perfect sense.  To those of you scratching your heads wondering just what the hell I'm talking about, I envy you your steady sense of purpose.

I've been thinking a lot lately of all the things I want to do, all the things gradually making their way onto my Bucket List (and silently bemoaning all the money I'm about to spend on shit -- the septic, remember?)  Because let's face it -- if it's on your Bucket List there's a pretty good chance it's going to cost a few bucks.

And then today, as I was busy doing nothing, I got to thinking about one of my favourite sayings -- Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.  This quote is usually attributed to John Lennon as a line from his song Beautiful Boy, but it's been around a whole lot longer than that.  But I like John, so he gets the credit here.  And really, when you stop and think about it, truer words were never spoken.  Most people, if they're lucky and so inclined, get to do something fabulous once, maybe twice a year.  An awesome trip somewhere.  A kick ass concert or sporting event. Whatever floats your boat.  And so for a few weeks every year we are living, I mean really living.  And the rest of the time?  While you wait for the big moment?  That's your life.  And it's not all about the fun stuff.  There's a lot of gotta do's in there with the wanna do's.  It's all about finding your definition of happiness in the stuff of everyday.  Something, I'll admit, I have been neglecting to do of late.

Last year I participated in the 100HappyDays challenge on Facebook along with my friend and good and faithful blog reader, Katrina.  It was pretty simple -- every day we had to post one photo of something that made us happy that day.  Sometimes it was a bit of a stretch finding something in a pretty typical ordinary day.  Or worse, in a crappy day.  I mean one day my happy thing was bacon.  But the point being, by stopping to examine your day from a happy thing mindset, you ended up looking for the good and ignoring the not so good.

So here's what I'm challenging myself to do here on Green Jar Adventures, until the next adventure starts to take shape.  A weekly roundup of life is what happens.  I'll be looking for the stuff that makes my life pretty damn good.

I'll try to make it more interesting than bacon.


Book Reviews:  Our June selection for my book club was Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman.  Now I have not seen the Netflix show, but from the comments I've heard about it I expect it can be pretty sexually graphic and physically violent.  And maybe that's why the book disappointed me.  It all seemed a little tame.  Or maybe it's because I come from a law enforcement background and didn't find anything new.  All in all I found it kind of boring.  Sorry.

Until the Night by Canadian writer Giles Blunt is the 6th in his John Cardinal mystery series.  I've read them all.  Enjoyed the first four, wasn't jazzed by the fifth, but he seems back to form in this instalment which was written a couple of years ago.  They are set in the fictional northern Ontario town of Algonquin Bay and winter typically plays a big role.  As long as he keeps writing them, I'll keep reading.

Pines by Blake Crouch is the first of a trilogy.  It is currently being aired as a ten part series called Wayward Pines.  I'm watching and reading at the same time.  When I've finished both, I'll let you know what I think.