How to cope with messy Lives?

Seems like just about everybody I know is in the middle of a messy life cycle.

A messy life cycle is best described as those times - usually lasting weeks to months - during which junk happens that causes extra anxiety, heartache, confusion, and disappointment.

I am looking for survival pointers to pass on to my friends - any ideas?

I jumped in to Facebook - have you?

Where is all of this techno-chat heading? If you want to communicate with some one there is a wide menu of choices - we can IM or text or email or Twitter or skype. But in the end - really do we do anything more than just tell me what we either think they want to know or what we want them to know! Where is the value in that?

I confess, I jumped in to Facebook and now I am not sure I see the value - do you?

Random things about me leftover from Facebook.

These are in no particular order.
1. When I was 10 years old my family and I survived an F-4 tornado by hiding in my grandparents basement in Tracy, Minnesota.
2. My wife and I spent the night with Walker Railey, sleeping on the floor of his room at Presbyterian Hospital the night after his wife was attacked and left for dead.
3. I was a trumpet playing band nerd in High school, even made it to Asst. Drum Major!
4. 10 days after I got married I went with the Centenary College choir to Russia and Poland.
5. While we were in Russia - the Russian army invaded Afghanistan!
6. I went to my Sr. prom with a girl named Duchess - she wore a Southern Belle antebellum hoop skirt gown...interestingly we left the prom with different dates?
7. I met my wife while attending a High school weekend event at Centenary - she led my campus tour.
8. I got married on Christmas break of my Sr year in college - the next semester I had a 4.0!
9. We honeymooned in Northern Arkansas - while on a hike one day we were chased by a pack of wild dogs.
10. Sept 23, 2003 I had a radical prostatectomy for stage 3b prostate cancer - 5 years later I'm still kicking!
11.I have the most beautiful wife-friend-partner in the whole world!
12. When I was a Sr. in high school I thought I wanted to be a forest ranger.
13. I grew up in a little red-neck town outside of Houston called Channelview.
14. My college roomate was/is an opera singer in Germany - in 2001 he had the #1 CD in all of Germany!
15. In the 5th grade my friend Robert and I caught the woods behind our homes on fire.
16. We have 4 amazing adult kids - they are beautiful,bossy,fun-loving, thoughtful, caring and adventurous.
17. I was born in Minnesota.
18.I have to have a cup of coffee within 5 minutes of waking up in the morning.
19. I flew in a vintage 2 seater airplane over the glaciers and moose habitats of Alaska.
20. The first and last time I went snorkeling I threw up all over the boat.
21. When I was a Sr. in High school I kissed my girlfriend while standing on the outdoor observation platform of the World Trade Center in NYC.
22. My top-secret fantasy is to be a world famous, modern artist.
23. When I was in elementary school everyone called me Dougie Meyer.
24. I think one of the sweetest things in the world is puppy breath.
25. I have had a dog (not the same one) since I was 4 years old.

why are people mean from Oprah magazine

Someone insults you (and your little dog, too). You can retaliate, whimper—or exercise your own vast power. Martha Beck shows you how to rewrite your own character.Why Are People Mean?The first time I saw a T-shirt that said "mean people suck," I thought, Now, there is a heartfelt sentiment, succinctly expressed. I only wished I'd been the author. I mention this because recently I've encountered several mean people, and I've had to remind myself that the concept of authorship is key to surviving these experiences.I don't know about you, but my favorite ways of reacting to mean people are (1) getting mean right back or (2) lying down quietly to display the word welcome! written where my spine used to be. Annoyingly, my job constantly reminds me that there's a more responsible and effective way to live. That's how it is for us authors. I say "us" because you're an author, too. Not all of us write for publication, but every living person has the power of authorship when it comes to composing our lives.

Meanness emerges when we believe that we have no such power, that we're passive receptors of life's vagaries. Inner peace follows when we begin responding to cruelty—our own and other people's—with the authority we've possessed all along.

Why are people mean?
Here's the short answer: They're hurt. Here's the long answer: They're really hurt. At some point, somebody—their parents, their lovers, Lady Luck—did them dirty. They were crushed. And they're still afraid the pain will never stop, or that it will happen again.There. I've just described every single person living on planet Earth.
The fact is that we've all been hurt, and we're all wounded, but not all of us are mean. Why not? Because some people realize that their history of suffering can be a hero's saga rather than a victim's whine, depending on how they "write" it.

The moment we begin tolerating meanness, in ourselves or others, we are using our authorial power in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and the obligation to do better

I don't understand mean people!

I can kinda understand mean kids, maybe even mean old people, and really poor people who are mean, - but certainly not mean middle aged people. People who are supposed to know better, people who go to church, people who are better off than so many other people.

Why are they mean? What's that about?

Is it a wiring problem? Has something come loose in the little wires up in their grey matter, wires that influence their ability to keep their mouth shut if they can not say something nice, wires that help them realize the world does not rotate around them, wires that help them get over whatever crap has happened in their life and not to blame the rest of us for their unhappiness?

What does a person get out of being mean? Does it help them sleep better at night?

anyone with ideas? Please advise me asap!

hooray - it happened - Ice Day 2009!

If you live in the DFW area you know what I am talking about - the weather people got this one right! We had a respectable ice storm blow thru here Tuesday afternoon hanging around til Wednesday morning - resulting in a much enjoyed day off from school and work!

hoorah!

Last night about 10:00 o'clock Nick and I took Lyra and Blu for a walk. It was great - the freezing rain was coming down and the trees were all coated in a beautiful layer of silver ice. It was a nice. We walked throguh our neighborhood up to a local grocery store...crossing what is normally a very busy street. The streets were empty. We had the entire grocery store to ourselves as we looked for hot chocolate, microwave popcorn and Thera-flu!

The ice hung around most of the morning - glittering in the sun. Then almost as if on cue - all at once - the icicles began their graceful exit. This is the perfect kind of ice day: contained to one day, not bitterly cold, nice enough in the afternoon that all the roads cleared off and those who had to commute home had an effortless journey.

until next year!

I get a rush from a potential ice storm - do you?

You know exactly what I am talking about...our Dallas weather people get all worked up and in turn we get all worked up about the prospect of an "ice-event" here in our DFW area.
Why do so many of us get reved up!

Does it bring back those emotions we had as kids as we headed off to bed hoping and dreaming and praying that we would wake up to ice covered trees and streets? What is it? Our thrill at the prospect of an adventure? the prospect of no school or no work? I want it to be true - but I am so afraid they will be wrong - again! I don't thing my heart can handle being broken again!

Maybe-just maybe the weather will turn extra nasty during the day and all across Dallas the cry will go out for all school children to be dismissed early and for all moms and dads to head straight to get their kids, then home to hot chocolate and rented movies and grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and Fritos.

Please let it be so!