THREW Mikes EyEz

Original Writings, Images, Video and Artworks of Mike Hartley


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Unwinding ways

How do you unwind after a demanding day? – Asks the daily prompt again.

Thankfully most of my demanding days are behind me. I guess taking care of the grandchildren is a demanding day now. And that I can recover from physically, while I’m smiling mentally.

To be honest I enjoyed challenging and demanding days and assignments when I was working. That was till they weren’t appreciated and then it became demanding in another way. And by appreciating, I mean a simple thank you would have been fine a vast majority of the time. Luckily, I had some good managers over the 5 decades who knew how to say that.

Sometimes the most demanding part of the day was the hour or more each way to and from work. Especially when the weather was poor.

Some of the things I used to do:

  • Sometimes when I got home before sunrise I’d sit outside and listen to nature come alive. Especially on warm summer mornings.
  • Listening to music was always a go too.
  • Get a hug from my better half.
  • The last several years of work I would write a bit when I got home.
  • Some years ago, I played on company softball teams or bowling leagues.
  • Pickup basketball games with friends in the early years.
  • There were a number of years I’d go for a short ride on the motorcycle before dinner when I worked day shifts.
  • Some years when I got off work between midnight and 3am, I’d just sit in the quiet at home. Now that I think about it, there was always a lot of noise involved in my work. Maybe that is why the quiet sounded so good.
Sports are a great stress release. Then again so is a cold beverage. Photo by Mike Hartley


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Unwind

How do you unwind after a demanding day? – Interesting question from the daily writing prompt today.

Funny thing, nothing popped into my head immediately. I guess I hit the computer for some knowledge or entertainment. Maybe sit a bit and watch some sports. Sometimes, I’ll exercise a bit.

When I was working and had a stressful day, I’d take the scenic route home. I remember laying in the hammock after some challenging days and just looking at the clouds rolling by or a plane overhead.

One thing that I just remembered, occasionally I’d stop by Rocky Gorge park and just stop and look at the water in the reservoir and nature around it.

Dragonfly or bi wing plane? Photo by Mike Hartley


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Real demand

How do you unwind after a demanding day? – The Daily Writing prompt inquires.

My first thought was to the working days which many were demanding. Those long commutes of at least one to two hours on the road at a minimum each way, bookended an extra long work day.

But thinking about what is, a demanding day I paused and thought about a recent event. A workday and stressful commute isn’t a demanding day. It’s easy to think of that as demanding. It’s what most do every day and it just becomes routine.

The recent event is a very close friend who lost a family member this weekend. That is a demanding day.

I believe their family came together as ours has during these events that are truly demanding. And from what I gathered thoughts were gathered, stories were shared, laughter, smiles and tears were had. And that reminded me of a few quotes from a Jim Valvano speech below.

“We should do three things every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is to think, we should spend some time in thought. And, number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.”
“If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
“I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you’re emotions going, to be enthusiastic every day.”