Mother’s Little Helpers

Published by Laurie on Tagged Life, Blogging, Midlife

No this post isn’t about Nembutal, Valium or Xanax or any of the anti-anxiety prescription drugs known as Mother’s little helpers.   This is about Mother’s little cyber helpers.  Places that I’ve come across that help me, daily, in one way or another.  It all depends on what kind of day I’m having, what kind of mood I’m in, and generally what I’m needing a little help with at a particular time.  All of the ingredients I require to make the most out of each day.  Living, laughing, learning, connecting, loving. 

These are the little helpers that add to my enjoyment of life.  The best part is that they are right at my fingertips, just point and click, and I get a fix, with no unpleasant side effects and no risk of overdose.

Living
Personal development and inspirational sites have always been a favorite of mine.  Depending on the day, they can give me a much needed pick-me-up or a much needed reality check.
Steve Pavlina has THE site that always helps me out.  It never disappoints.  He’s insightful and uplifting.  But you had better block off a bit of time in your schedule because once you’ve started reading, you never want to leave.

Learning
Let’s face it.  Learning happens automatically every time we open our eyes in the morning.  But expanding my horizons and learning something that I might not have if I had not happened upon a particular site is the criteria for this one.  If I feel like I have come away feeling much more educated, then it’s here.
Pick the Brain definitely fits into this category.  The site is a self-improvement site and does a great job of teaching me real strategies I can use to improve my life.  I’ve been one of those “lurkers” on his site.  I should have taken the time to comment on any one of his great posts, if for no other reason but to thank him for the informative articles. (My bad)
Wild Bill at Passionate Blogger is loaded with information about blogging.  I have already learned so much reading his blog.  I’m working the archive, from the top down. 
Lifehack, I visit that one religiously.  I don’t know how many people run it, who it’s run by, or anything else about it except that it’s great.  It is so comprehensive I always learn something new within 2 minutes of landing there. 

Laughing
Laughter is a definite must in my daily life.  It’s one of the criteria I judge the quality of any given day.  If I’ve had a day where I haven’t laughed at anything, then I’m having a really bad day.  I love all kinds of humor, from sarcastic, to satirical to just plain silly. These helpers have not disappointed.
Fiar over at the humor site Radioactive Liberty combines humor with politics. A perfect combination.  Hey, I need to laugh at politics just to keep myself from crying.  And with the upcoming election you can be sure they’ll have plenty of material to keep me laughing.  He also has plenty of posts that are non-political but just plain hysterical, with the recent addition of guest  blogger Chris, who has a great site of his own, it just gets better.

A more recent discovery is the FrogBlog.  Froggster recently commented on one of my posts and I followed the link over to his site.  His brand of humor is right up my alley.  His writing reflects intelligence and sarcasm peppered with a little self-deprecating humor that makes me laugh out loud.
Both of these guys also belong to Humor-Blogs.  If you can’t find something to laugh at over there, then see your doctor, there’s a good chance you are clinically depressed.

Connecting
By connecting, I don’t just mean networking with other people (while that definitely qualifies) I mean connecting on some level with the author of site.  It’s when I come away with the feeling that this is a real person, writing about similar issues to mine.  They have an authenticity about their writing that really connects with me.
Danielle over at The BiPolar Diaries does precisely that.  She writes about subjects and issues that connect with my life and my midlife.
I also started reading My Menopausal Musings, her posts are well written and insightful. 

And when I want to get a man’s midlife point of view I visit Midlife-A Journey.
To connect with people from all walks of life, there’s a newer social networking site at Build a Better Blog.  I really wasn’t sure whether to put this under learning or connecting.  Both are benefits I’m receiving from this site since I joined it.

Love
There are no links here.  No forum links, no blog links.  No dating site links.  Sorry.  When I find myself feeling that what I need at this moment is to love, or to feel loved, there is only one thing that I do.  I click on Shut Down Computer, then a dialogue box comes up asking “Are you sure you want to turn off your computer?”   Yep, I’m sure.  Then I turn it off, and spend time with the people I love, and the people that love me.  I can search high and low on the world wide web for love, but why should I?  It’s right in front of me. 

Stumble it!

September 9th, 2007