cheerfulmonk.com

Some some commenters have said I have artistic talent. No, not at all! Ask me to draw something and you’re lucky if I can do a stick figure. I didn’t even draw those by hand. I searched and searched for bits of them that I could modify, and I assembled them in Photoshop. Then I revised and revised and revised by cutting and pasting and redrawing with my mouse. It took me days to do each one. But I wasn’t blogging every day — or trying to get to bed at a decent time — and they made me happy.

Here are three more that I still like:

January 9, 2025

Yesterday’s post reminds me of two other cartoons I drew years ago:

The second one reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time:

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
—Duke Ellington

It never ceases to touch my heart.

January 8, 2026

In the upper right-hand corner of my iPad I have a photo widget. I don’t know how it came to be, but it shows a little picture (which changes from time to time) from my Memories and Featured Photos. I mostly ignore it, but once in a while a photo grabs my attention and I click on it to see it full screen. Here are four of them.

Kaitlin and Torben sent me this first one — of Tempi in some poppies when they were living in California:

I took this one up on the land a couple of years ago:

This one was taken in January, 1987. Back then the winters were snowy, and we had to snowshoe for a couple of miles to get to the land.

That was a long time ago!

This last one is a cartoon I drew years ago. I was surprised to see it, but it still makes me laugh.

It’s a good reminder to be able to laugh at ourselves.

January 7, 2026

1. Instagram Reel
    This was too good not to share. Click on the photo to see what happened.

2. Bean Update

    The bean plants are starting to look bedraggled.

But they are still trying.

3. Propane Update
    They were supposed to come up by yesterday, but that didn’t happen. So they put us back in the queue and we may be scheduled again in 3-5 days.

January 6, 2026

My New Year’s post talked about noticing which of my automatic habits were making my life happier, healthier, and more meaningful, and which weren’t — then gradually making appropriate changes. Here are three habits that I have changed:

• Parking in front of new steps — I wrote that the first time I drove home after we got our new stairs, I almost parked by the old ones. I remembered in time, and I never had to remind myself again.

   
  

  

• Keeping the apartment neat — I was surprised how easy it was to make that switch. As I’ve said before, my apartment used to be my play pen. If I got immersed in a project, I didn’t mind if things got untidy. I knew when the mood struck I would put things back in order until the next immersion. Andy didn’t mind so it was a fine way of operating.
   
  Then in fall 2024 Kaitlin convinced me to have Merry Maids come in every two weeks to clean. I was tickled to see how easy it was switch to my new system. Now I like things looking uncluttered and keep it that way. Who would have guessed?

 

• Automatically becoming centered — It took a while to establish this one. But now when I’m hit with a challenge and start to tense up, I automatically get centered — an alert mind in a relaxed body. Remembering this image helps.
  

  acorn.com

  That, without a doubt, is one of the wisest things I have ever done in my life.

January 5, 2025

Stress-Hardiness

The quote in yesterday’s post,

The quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention.

comes from

The Traits of Stress-Hardy, Resilient People

I wrote that about 25 years ago when I was teaching a course on transforming stress into personal power. There’s a link to it on the right sidebar under Stress-Hardiness (as well as ChatGPT’s rewrite called Stress-Hardiness, ChatGPT Version).

I decided to read it again to see if it still feels true. It does. There are always things for me to work on, but it’s a great guide for me.

Bean Update

Do you remember those bean flowers from last Tuesday?

It looks as if they have turned into the start of bean pods:

Here’s a closeup of a Wikimedia picture of pods on a bean plant.

I’m gobsmacked. No other word for it.

January 4, 2026

The quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention.

That’s one of my mantras — it goes along with these two:

• Play your part well and let go of the results.
• Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens, keep learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.

They’re all a part of pulling the weeds and nurturing the flowers.

Yesterday the first one took a more specific form,

Don’t waste your time fussing about things you have no control over.

Andy was starting to complain about our propane company. They were scheduled to bring some propane to the land Thursday, and we were happy about that. The roads are free of snow, and the Forest Service wasn’t scheduled to lock their gates until yesterday. We were relieved we didn’t have to deal with that.

Unfortunately, I received an email in the afternoon:

We are sorry we were unable to deliver your propane on a recent visit because the gate was locked

We are working to reschedule your order. In the meantime, please ensure we are able to safely access the tank. Someone will contact you shortly regarding your delivery.

No, no gate was locked. The fellow just got lost. (We’re not blaming him, GPS maps are notorious for being inaccurate up there.) And phoning Customer Service directs us to a centralized call center, which doesn’t know anything about our area.

We did phone them yesterday morning and asked that the driver contact us when he is going to deliver so Andy can tell him where to meet. They will let us know a day ahead of time, sometime before Monday, and the driver is supposed to phone us when he is on his way. The hope is for Andy to stay down here and talk to driver about where exactly to meet, and assume Andy can get up to the Forest Service gate with the key before the driver gets there. Not ideal, but fingers crossed!

I am asking Perplexity and ChatGPT if they have any suggestions for the future. I will let you know how it all turns out!

January 3, 2026

For higher resolution, click on the picture.

Calvin and Hobbes

I explore a lot — on the internet. I poke around until something catches my fancy, then I save it for the future or look into it more deeply.

James Clear says,

To learn, wander. To achieve, focus.

For me there’s a middle step. Once I’m gathered enough bits and pieces, my mind gets cluttered and I need moodling time.

So you see, imagination needs moodling — long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.
–Brenda Ueland

It’s time to let my subconscious mind process things, see connections, come up with insights and blog ideas. There’s no hurry, I’m not doing this for external validation or a deadline. When the beginning of a blog post starts to form, I play with the best way to express what I’m trying to say. It doesn’t have to be perfect — the joy of doing it is the important thing.

As I’ve said, I spend a lot of time reading about what’s going on in the world and supporting people and organizations that share my values. I don’t ignore the cruelty and destruction —- but I refuse to let them eclipse the magic and joy of exploring, playing with ideas, and sharing what I discover.

January 2, 2026

Click on the picture for higher resolution.

Calvin and Hobbes

I agree with Calvin about not setting goals for the new year. But I don’t exactly wing it, my resolution is always to keep doing what I’ve been doing — pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers.

Pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers, delighting in watching things grow.

What does that mean? It means noticing some of the automatic habits that shape my life. Most of our lives runs on autopilot. Some of our habits—our reactions, routines, and choices— make our lives happier, healthier, and more meaningful, and some don’t. Some are neutral and others get in the way. The gardener metaphor means gently standing back, noticing, and strengthening some habits and replacing others.

I will no doubt write more about that in future posts, but in the meantime….

My last three plants are still hanging in there. The old leaves are starting to develop dark spots,

but the two plants on the right of the pot are still putting out new leaves.

And the upright plant on the left is putting out a couple of flowers.

A last gasp before it dies? I will let you know.

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!

January 1, 2026

Click on the pictures below for higher resolution. (And if you have trouble reading the English dialog, click here.)

Calvin and Hobbes en Español

Calvin and Hobbes

As I’ve said before, Andy and I don’t have to go looking for challenges to keep us on our toes and learning new things. They keep coming to us. What about you? Too little challenges/excitement, too much, or about the right amount?

Since it’s New Year’s Eve — a time to look back– I thought I’d look to see what I’ve done so far in blogging. This is my 5222nd post. I started posting twice a week in May, 2007, and switched to daily in August, 2013. Like plugging along with baby steps in Spanish, it adds up.

Happy New’s Year Eve!

December 31, 2025