Beware the Brinicle
Mother Nature writes science fiction... trigger words can be your best friends... and more...
Welcome to Odd Socks Issue #22
I write about stuff that interests me, puts a smile on my face, or could use some clarity amidst the noise. Enjoy!
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Beware the Brinicle!
Not sure if that sounds like an undiscovered H.P. Lovecraft short story, or a found Dr. Seuss book deemed too scary for the little ones! Neither, of course, but still a weird phrase.
I love immersing in nature, watching well-filmed nature documentaries, and especially oddities and unusuals only Mother Nature can dream up. File this in the category of "you can't make this stuff up."
When I stumbled on this BBC documentary YouTube video on a little known artic water phenomenon, I was intrigued and surprised. The ~5 minute video is worth watching, if for no other reason that to understand my title!
Trigger Words
Going through some age-related body less-thans right now, which requires me to remember to do certain things in a new way. Some old dogs (“arf arf” here) learn new tricks at the speed of molasses in winter, so to help stick beneficial habits, I usually adapt and adopt a trigger word or phase to remind me to do things correctly.
Some useful trigger words/phrases I’ve used in the past (and still do):
Clouds – An old trigger word from decades past that helps me while mediating to detach from my monkey mind as though I was lying on my back in the grass and watching the clouds drift by. Like when beach combing for sand dollars, watching clouds go by seems to empty the mind and only focus on the clouds (unless one of them resembles mean old Aunt Clara and off you go remembering THAT past!).
It is what is is – For the record, I’ve used this phrase since long ago, and well before it became “popular” and overused. Useful in reinforcing my stoic philosophy of life to accept things as they are and work from there, rather than wishing them to go away or ignoring them.
Remember the Pain – Rhymes with “Remember the Maine” from my history lessons and slaps my thinking to remember the pain I fixed by doing X. We humans have such short memories and can forget how bad we felt before, when we swore NEVER to feel that way again. I fixed a long-endured digestive issue in part by eliminating sugar. But now when out for coffee, I’ll often “forget” and get a cookie or bakery nosh. Once might slip by, but it’s rarely once over a short period. I forget that old pain and do the wrong thing anyway. I need this trigger phrase all the time to stay on the path.
Wouldn’t it be cool to save the feeling of that old pain on your iPhone so you could zap yourself for 10 seconds for a “Ah, okay… that sucked and I don’t want THAT again”. App developers get to it!Motion is Lotion – If I could tattoo this on the inside of my eyelids and it would help me remember this, I would. Translates to take every chance, every day to MOVE: walk every day, park far away to add extra walking, take stairs not elevators, change work positions frequently, get up and move around during football timeouts, etc.
Up and back – My newest trigger used CONSTANTLY now to remind me to stretch my spine up, and push my shoulders back. It’s all about good posture, baby (especially now!) Also a hint about the body issue mentioned in the opening.
Got any good trigger words you use to keep yourself in line? Share them down below in the comment thingy if you’d like.
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