Is your fridge starting to smell not so great? After your make your morning pot of coffee, don’t throw those grounds away! Coffee contains nitrogen, which helps to neutralize odors, so leave them on a baking sheet to dry and place them in a small bowl. Then just put that bowl in the fridge and let it do all the work.
After surviving a horrific year in 1993, I started a tradition of making a list of my accomplishments for the year just past instead of setting New Year’s resolutions. I limit it to 10 items. Rather than setting goals, which we all fail to truly follow through with, leading to self-recrimination and despair, I see what wonderful things I accomplished. My end-of-year self-evaluation was and is a positive experience, not a recriminatory exercise.
In 1993, making that list allowed me to feel joy, hopefulness and gratitude that — in spite of a nervous breakdown that led to my dropping out of college, losing all income and nearly becoming homeless — I had, in fact, experienced the most prolifically creative year of my life and had come out of it far stronger than before.
The following year, I went on tour, gave public speeches, wrote a book that I self-published in 1995, and, overcoming the horrors of my 1993 little hell, emerged respecting myself and useful to others.
It is 2025, and though the events of 1993 also led me to being classified as totally and permanently disabled, I’ve not only survived but thrived, too, and brought beautiful original music and ideas to many. These yearly “accomplishments lists” keep me motivated and hopeful.
Create a spring sounds playlist. While I don’t listen to music while I work or read, I don’t like sitting in silence either. A playlist made of the sounds of birds chirping and light rain falling is just what I need in the background of my days.
Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…
What resonates with you this week?
Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…
Real Life of an MSW 
Comment System
I love the Op-Ed section of the paper. I believe we all need to write at least one letter on something we’re passionate about in our lifetime. In saying that, I applaud this reader
‘New to me’ and ‘provocative,’ yes. ‘Clarifying’ and ‘thoughtful,’ no. The beauty of The Post’s old comment system was that it was heartfelt, immediate, self-correcting and real. Comments gave me a timely sense of what and how people in America thought and felt. The conversations were a bit hardscrabble at times, but I never felt insulted by a response to my observations. I liked the give-and-take. It felt like a town square.I never saw anything I would flag to moderators, except an occasional off-topic comment that I would flag — to myself as a waste of time. The new rule of three strikes and you’re out is draconian. It’s akin to a parent throwing their child out of the house because they didn’t measure up three times. We have a very diverse society and a very angry one at present. This new policy is not the way to handle controversy. Yes, The Post should disallow profanity, name-calling and anything off topic. But leave the rest alone. Let people talk. Take the bitter with the sweet. You are placing yourselves in the position of an almighty entity, when in fact you exist only through the power of your subscribers. A newspaper that is no longer connected to its readers in a meaningful way loses its readers.
Mary Ann Skold, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Share this: