Shaun Takes Over – Page 4 – Carrie Jones Books

Love Your Way Through It

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s or Captain Pontification. And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂

So, I have decided that the problem with the world today is a lack of love and compassion for other human beings. Of course, by “today” I mean almost since the beginning of humanity, but the issue seems to be getting more exacerbated every day. This could also be interpreted as an overabundance of hate but since I believe that love and compassion can always win over hate, I think it is appropriate to say that we need more love and compassion in our world!

I cannot even fathom what drives some of the hatred in our communities or what motivates people to try and change history in an attempt to make their viewpoints the correct ones. I can guess, and if I was to do so, I would say that the biggest motivators are power, greed and for some ignorance, or rather a lack of educating oneself beyond the beliefs that they were taught while in an impressionable state.

Being human brings with it the fault of imperfections and I, being very much less than perfect, often times find myself rushing to judgement or adopting a poor attitude without much thought. However, as time ages me and I write more of these “Love Your Way Through It” blogposts, I do find myself trying much more often to put myself in other’s shoes and to not be so immediately judgmental, condescending or angry. This emotional slowing down actually makes me feel better as a human and more mature.

I have a hard time being mature sometimes!

My point is that we are all human. We all make mistakes. We all need love, compassion, empathy and acceptance as an equal to any other human. Please try to remember that spreading hate has an emotional cost to everyone, spreading love has no cost and the emotional benefits are endless!

Have a wonderful day full of love and compassion and remember to always Love Your Way Through It!

Shaun

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.

Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

best thrillers The People Who Kill — The people who kill

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones — The Dude Goodfeather Series – YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

You Lucky Duck

We are who we are and we choose how we live and how are lives work out. That is the bottom line really

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s or Captain Pontification. And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂

Do you believe in luck? Do you believe in karma? Do you believe that bigfoot is really an alien being in a less than carefully chosen disguise?

Well, if you have an interest in any of these topics, you should start listening to Loving The Strange, a live podcast that Carrie and I do every Friday evening at 7 o’clock Eastern Standard Time. We love doing it and if you listen, we hope that you will love it as well!

Luck, what is it? Is it a predetermined experience that is so wonderfully timed or fortuitous that we think that it can’t possibly be natural and therefore must be attributed to some supernatural force that has blessed us in a timely fashion? Is it something that we bring about ourselves due to how we think and how we act in our daily lives? Is it sheer coincidence of an occurrence during a time when we are so down that almost anything with a positive lean seems impossible?

I don’t know the answer to those questions, and I am not going to bother researching the philosophical definitions or musings of luck. I don’t really need to for the purposes of this blog because, in my worthless opinion, we are all lucky. Luck is not a singular or a repetitive happening in our life, it is our life.

We are ALL lucky!

We are lucky to be here.

We are lucky to be who we are and exactly how we are born.

I know that some of us were born with seemingly everything against us. I also know that some of those people have made the very best of their lives and have complimented other people’s lives with abundant positivity during their life, even if it was extremely short or extremely hampered by some obstacle of physical or mental acuity. We are who we are and we choose how we live and how are lives work out. That is the bottom line really.

Tragedy of the greatest kind has befallen many and they have dealt with it and decided to turn it into a positive moment or opportunity. There really are no excuses, we are all human and we all choose to deal and spread love and kindness or we choose to wilt and die off. Choose to spread love and kindness people! Choose to be somebody else’s good luck! Choose to take a chance that any random kind act that you perform can be somebody else’s good luck for the day!

Peace people and remember to always Love Your Way through It!

Shaun

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Don’t Forget to Stir Your Soup Because It’s All About the Base

Does it not seem that it is often the case that it is much easier to remember negative events in our lives? Our miraculous vessels of life and the brains that control them are and probably always will be a bit of a mystery to us.

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s or Captain Pontification.

I believe that to enjoy soup to the fullest, you must regularly stir it while eating, this way you can prevent all of the tasty bits from constantly sitting on the bottom waiting until the end.

Some of you may argue with me and say that you enjoy those tasty bits sitting and waiting, and that the last few bites are therefore always the best. I can see your point and often times actually agree!

However, for this blog post, soup is but a simple analogy and if you hear me out maybe you will see my point.

Last night while Carrie and I were taking an evening stroll and enjoying our unseasonably warm weather, she started to ask me questions about how I recall things. This of course led to a full blown discussion about recall and memory and how people do that in different ways. Some people can vividly picture an object in their mind, some people can picture an object in their mind with less detail and apparently, some people cannot visualize objects at all. Very interesting, I thought!

This morning I was pontificating upon that subject matter further and I began to wonder how the human brain works. I mean, a memory must be built upon all of the different sensory inputs that we possess, right? What makes the brain decide which ones to discard, which ones to keep vaguely and which ones to keep for a very long time, if not forever?

Think about some of your earliest memories for a moment. I would wager that some of them make perfect sense that you can still remember them because they are attached to something special. It could be a hyper-negative situation or an extremely special one in a positive way.

However, I would also wager that some of them are just run of the mill memories and you cannot attach any significance to them that would make you understand why you can still remember them. These are the memories that have put me into a quandary.

I could type forever and actually research this subject and learn not only myself but maybe some of you on this topic, but alas, I am too lazy for that and I don’t feel it necessary. I will say one more thing on the subject, however, just to throw in some more confusion for myself. Does it not seem that it is often the case that it is much easier to remember negative events in our lives? Our miraculous vessels of life and the brains that control them are and probably always will be a bit of a mystery to us.

So, back to the soup analogy. While it is true that the tastiest bits often times sink to the bottom, and therefore need to be stirred up, the real essence of the soup is in the broth! The mundane. The day to day. The memories that come and go so fast that nobody could have an accurate visual recall in their head. The flavor and the all of the components that could possibly make this soup we call life better, are in the broth. Just like all of the flavor and components that make you who you are are in the minutiae of the broth that makes up your being.

Point? Always work on making the broth the best that it can be! Remember to stir up the tasty bits of memory regularly! One without the other is merely chunks of meat or veggies or glorified dishwater, but together they make a very tasty dish!

And most importantly, remember to always LOVE YOUR WAY THROUGH IT!

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Why Do We Say The Things We Say and Where Do Those Sayings Come From?

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

There is more than one way to skin a cat.

I actually uttered this phrase this morning to Carrie, who cringed, and I have not yet been able to stop thinking about it. I mean, obviously, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Heck, there is more than one way to skin anything, but who ever wanted to really skin a cat? They can be so incredibly soft and warm but at best you could probably get a small pair of mittens out of one. So not worth it! I truly wouldn’t advocate for skinning your, or even your neighbor’s extremely annoying, domestic feline!

Back to the question at hand: where did this phrase come from and what exactly does it mean?

For me it came from the mouth of my grandfather who was a very learned and eloquent phraseoligist. I don’t remember if I ever had to ask him what it meant or if I just instinctively, via the amazing trait of human contextually based inference, knew what it meant. It means that there is more than one way to get things accomplished for those of you who may have never heard this wonderful saying.

I have done some online research, because we all know that the internet is always correct and accurate, and I think I have come up with the earliest known mention of this phrase at least in print. In 1840, American humorist Seba Smith indicated as much in her short story The Money Diggers when she wrote: “As it is said, ‘There are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money.”

However, for at least two hundred years prior to Smith publishing her short story, people had sayings that revolved around animals and referred to the fact that there is more than one way to accomplish just about anything. Apparently dogs were the main target for such atrocious dribble and it wasn’t until the 1800s that our other furry companion, the house cat, came under fire.

And you know what? There is more than one way to get something done and I have indeed just created another way to get you to read my Thursday post. I wanted to tell you that this Friday evening, on our live podcast at 7, Carrie and I are going to be talking about phrases, old or young, common or uncommon, and what they mean and where they may have originated from.

Please join us if you want to have a laugh and probably learn something. Even better, if you have a strange or unusual saying that you would like to share so that we can research it, please do so here on this blog or on Carrie’s Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/carriejonesbooks

https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article181298616.html

Where is LOVING THE STRANGE?

It’s live on Carrie’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and eventually here.

As always, thank you for reading and remember to always Love Your Way Through It!

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Get ready for a little north versus south love

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

best writing coaches — Best husband award

So, I love food! Like, I love everything about it from growing to harvesting (both plants and animals), to preparation and of course, eating. I enjoy all types of food and one of my favorite things to do is to try new foods or new ways of cooking food I have already had.

Carrie and I do a lot of cooking and probably spend more time in the kitchen then the average family when it comes to meal preparation. We have learned a lot from each other and my favorite thing to do is introduce her to food that I think of as being from the South.

I am from the South and spent a good deal of my childhood in the kitchen surrounded by three generations of women, all of whom were great cooks. I suppose this is where my love of food comes from. Well, at least the cooking aspect.

I think I come by the eating part naturally. I have always loved to eat. Of course, I don’t like all foods and I have a few that I particularly dislike and unfortunately, a couple of them are southern staples. Tomatoes? No freaking way! The same goes for okra, collard greens, and lima beans.

However, the list of what I do like is so very much longer and oh so delicious. Biscuits and sausage gravy, grits, fried chicken, including livers and gizzards, frog legs, alligator, barbeque, catfish and any other wild game.

I have had the pleasure of introducing Carrie to a number of these delicacies and I believe that she has loved them all. I think she is actually a Southern gal at heart, but she would likely say otherwise.

So, this Friday night at 7 p..m. (EST) on our podcast Loving The Strange, we are going to compare aspects of the South (that would be me) with aspects of the North (that would be my lovely wife Carrie) and I am sure that we are going to end up talking about food. I hope that you can join us and maybe offer up some of your personal loves, traditions or opinions on either region. Of course, you can’t beat the south, but that is just my very bias opinion. We’ll be on live on Carrie’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. And then here on the blog on Saturday.

No matter where you love, remember to always Love Your Way Through It!

Peace y’all,

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Look, Ma! No Mask! Friendship Rocks!

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

So, last night Carrie and I went to a friend’s house for a small gathering of fully vaccinated people who had also lived through their two week of after vaccination period. It was fun!

On the drive there we both expressed to each other that while we were looking forward to it, we were both also a little nervous. We have literally not interacted, in person, with any other adults in fourteen months. The exceptions to this are four occasions when we sat on our front porch and one of our friends visited with us from ground level or six feet apart and fully masked.

Like I said, last night was fun. It was great to see people that we hadn’t seen in person or even talked to in fourteen months. Friends! People who you can open up with, feel safe communicating your feelings with and who are understanding and supportive in most cases. One of the highlights of my evening, and I think Carrie’s as well, was when one married couple told us that they listen to our newish live podcast, Loving The Strange.

The best part about them telling us this is that they did it independently of each other. I was playing in our friendly poker game and the husband was sitting to my left, also playing.

One of the first things he said to me was, “I have been listening to yours and Carrie’s podcast and it has been cracking me up. I laugh so hard!”

I had no idea that he listened to our podcast.

Meanwhile, Carrie was socializing with non-poker playing people and this man’s wife told her that they listen to our podcast and love it. How cool is that!

For us, it was super duper cool! I mean we go into that podcast every Friday night at 7 with a bit of trepidation and nervousness.

What if nobody shows up? What if we suck? What if we say something wrong and hurt or anger someone?

Even though it is one of the favorite parts of my week, there are still concerns. We do it for fun; we do it for the entertainment of ourselves and others, but we really do want people to enjoy it.

In fact, we want people to LOVE it! If we can make you laugh or just entertain you with our own stupidity for an hour, we consider ourselves to be successful.

I have gotten a little bit off track here because I was intending for this blog to be about the amazing benefits of friends. I will try and get back on track, I apologize.

Remember, not only are friends great to have, but it is also great to be a friend! I have said this before in my blogs and I will say it again. You never know when one little thing, which you may think is silly or stupid, will have a profound effect on somebody’s moment or life.

Just this morning Carrie posted her usual inspirational Facebook post, which are always accompanied by a photo of one or more of our animals, and she got a really incredible response. A local woman who is one of her Facebook friends and an acquaintance in real life said to her something to this effect. Thank you for your post this morning, it has motivated me to make a change that I have been thinking about and putting off for a long time!

How cool is that? Remember that not everything that you say to people will be anything other than normal conversation. However, it is those one out of a hundred comments that really touch someone that can make all the difference in the world! Also remember to listen to us on Friday nights at 7 for Loving The Strange and always Love Your Way Through It!

Peace,

Shaun

You should totally like and subscribe to us somewhere because it’s cool to be kind.

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

What Is Perfect?

In order to find perfection you must be able to forgive

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

Have you ever made up your own definition of a word?

I think that in a debate situation I tend to do it quite frequently and that is really laughable but a sign of my ego and desire to be correct!

I am not talking about a debate situation here; I am just referring to everyday life and everyday words. The specific word that I am thinking about right now is perfection.

What is perfection? According to Merriam-Webster at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfection, perfection is

“1: the quality or state of being perfect: such as
a: freedom from fault or defect : FLAWLESSNESS
b: MATURITY
c: the quality or state of being saintly
2a: an exemplification of supreme excellence
b: an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence
3: the act or process of perfecting”

My definition of perfection would be something more like the quality or state of being that is perfect in the eyes of the beholder regardless of any fault, defect or flaw. You see my point? How can anything ever be perfect except to the person, or group of people, who think that it is perfect?

Of course, I realize that my definition takes on the assumption that all things have faults, defects or flaws, and I believe this to be true. Especially when we are talking about human beings! While I may think that my wife is perfect, others may not. While that may make them stupid people in my opinion, the truth is that none of us are without flaws.

Therefore, it stands to reason that in order to find perfection you must be able to forgive. I know that I think that I am perfect, but I also know that Carrie does a hell of a lot of forgiving!

So, what is my point you may be asking in a frustrated mumble.

Well, it is basically that none of us are perfect. Nothing is perfect. And if you believe that someone or something is perfect than you are capable of forgiveness. I don’t think that a lot of people think about it in that simplistic form, but it is true. So, let’s start doing more forgiving, less criticism, much more loving and much less belittling! Basically, remember to always Love Your Way Through It!

Peace,

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Beauty and Love are About More Than Makeup and Fashion

Sometimes Shaun is swoon worthy.

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

I am sure that there must be a name or a scientific explanation for what I am about to talk about, but I will tell you up front that I am too lazy to look it up and will be simply speaking from my own experience here. So, let’s get started!

If I was to title this blog post, I would call it, Humanity, the Gateway to Love. And not everyone may be able to relate to this because I think it takes some life experience, some maturity and possibly just some plain ol’ years on this planet to understand.

Beauty, what is it? The first answer that comes to my mind is that it is not the popular construct of television and social media. That is mostly makeup and great camera work! Real beauty is the ability to feel attractive and not have to wear makeup or feel pressured to do so. Real beauty is the ability to be secure in who are and not have to worry about people fawning over you all of the time. Real beauty is the ability to not even think about applying makeup, not worry about wearing the latest fashion or having the newest electronic device and still being able to leave the house, socialize and treat others as though they are your equal, nothing better and certainly nothing less!

But you know what real, real beauty is? It is the beauty that one individual sees when they look at the love of their life! It is the beauty that starts at a certain younger age and never changes through the years, no matter how much time passes! It is the beauty that allows an eighty-year-old person to look at their eighty-year-old partner and see the exact same beauty (or more) as when they were both twenty!

This is true beauty, not built on purely physical traits but rather the totality of the circumstances for which one fell in love. Personality, intellect, the ability to relate, the ability to deal with life’s greatest challenges and life’s greatest humors, and depth of soul and heart are what make up a human’s beauty! These should be the characteristics which we look at or for in another human.

Yes, this is a mixed bag post as I am speaking both of general socialization and interaction and I am also talking about love and partnership. Leave the physical qualities out of the picture and treat one another as humans who are something much greater than their skins. As a world we will all benefit from this approach and as an individual you will too. If you happen to be looking for love, this will help you find everlasting love. As someone who was lucky enough to check all these qualities off in another, I can tell you that the beauty of your partner will never diminish as a result, no matter how old you are!

Love Your Way Through It,

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Make Love Spicy

On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.

He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.

So, happy Thursday!

Carrie and I do a live podcast on Friday nights at 7:00 p.m. eastern time and we have been having loads of fun doing it! We love hot, as in spicy, foods and sauces so we have done a hot wings challenge for one episode and we are going to do another one with a different line-up of hot sauces this Friday. The podcast is called Loving The Strange and we would love to entertain you this Friday night if you have nothing better to do in this time of COVID boredom.

We actually purchased a brand new sauce for this Friday night’s festivities and we both just gave it a try.

First, let me tell you that it is called “Da’Bomb, The Final Answer.” Second, let me tell that, IT ROCKS!

Rated at a supposed 1,500,000 Scoville units, it will light you up and keep doing so for a good ten minutes. Neither of us are hot sauce wimps and we thoroughly enjoyed trying a little bit of our new product a few minutes ago.

When I say a “little bit,” I mean just that. The bottle literally comes with a dabber attached to the cap and you need just one drop to get the amazing effects of this potent sauce. However, this blog is not an advertisement for the previously stated product, although I would recommend it to anyone who likes heat, it is more of an advertisement for our podcast and having fun in life.

The true point of this entire diatribe is that sometimes people need a bit of a pick-me-up in the form of excitement. Now, not everyone likes heat in the extreme and that is exactly why there are thousands of different hot sauces manufactured for you to purchase. Even if you hate heat you should try the advice that I am about to give, just buy something more mild.

If you are in a funk and need to be distracted by a pleasant pain that you can share with someone whom you care about, try a little hot sauce. I know that you are thinking right now, “What is wrong with this idiot?”

Seriously though, what does it mean to be in a relationship with someone special? Does it not mean sharing experiences and the emotions that go with those experiences? My point!

Eat some hot sauce that is outside of your comfort zone and share that experience with your partner in life.

This little “trip” will allow you to embody so many emotions! You may do any and/or all of the following; cry, laugh, swear, roll around on the floor, drink milk straight from the jug or curse my very existence.

The point is that whatever you were doing before you embarked on this journey will be forgotten and you will have just shared something unique with your special someone. It may hurt, but in the end, you will have a smile on your face.

As a matter of fact, I am now making the following recommendation to all budding couples – try the hot sauce challenge approach to gauging how compatible you are. If, in the end, you don’t both end up laughing and enjoying your mutual pain then they are probably not the right one for you.

But, regardless, remember to Love Your Way Through It!

Spicy vibes and keep your hands away from your eyes,

Shaun

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

LOVING THE STRANGE Shaun Takes Over the Blog

In fact, anything can seem strange at times, but aren’t these sometimes the most incredible moments of life? Does strange have to equal bad or even be a negative? Heck no!

What is strange?

Well, the answer to that question is probably as huge and varied as any other non-fact based question.

In my opinion, strange is everything and everything is strange!

The reason I believe this to be true is because everyone is going to have different answers to what is strange and what is not strange. If you polled a substantial population I think the answers, if grouped and sorted, would be a giant Venn diagram of “normalcy” and “strangeness.” Of course there are so many factors that influence any person’s ideas of normal and strange; psychology, sociology, geography, religion, etc. that I would likely be writing for days trying to cover all of the different influences and I would be doing it with barely more than a layman’s knowledge of most of the subjects, so I am not attempting that.

When I posed the question as my opening sentence, I was simply trying to get your brain to think about the question within the parameters of what you know, think and believe.

For instance, I find it strange that some people profess true love and affection for inanimate objects. But then again, I also find it strange how mainstream love is commonly defined and all of the different variables of this love that satisfy different people.

For instance, Carrie professes to love me and sometimes I can’t understand why she would. I mean, I am the most awesome husband ever, but I do lack so many attributes that others would seemingly look for in a partner. I am not outwardly beautiful. I am not wealthy. I tend to emote my emotions (mostly the negative ones I am told) so powerfully that they are noticeable to even the most casual observer and I can be so attentive to certain that I think I can make people feel badly about themselves simply by trying to put things in order in “my world.”

Of course, these are just a few examples of what is probably a very long list of human defects, defects that while we may not have a lot of them in common, every human being possesses.

How do we overcome these imperfections? Well, around here we have adopted a mantra of love your way through it.

Simply put, it means what it says, love your way through it, but there is another side to that, which is, to be thankful for what you have.

If you have life and you have love, you have everything you need to live another day and to make that day the best day it can be, no matter the circumstances. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, there are many caveats to this and sometimes love cannot conquer all things, but this is supposed to be a more positive blog post so I am foregoing those topics today. The point is that if it works, sometimes it simply works, no matter how strange it may seem!

Alright, I’ve gotten off track and want to remind you that I was talking about what is strange and not love. Love was just an example of what can seem strange sometimes.

In fact, anything can seem strange at times, but aren’t these sometimes the most incredible moments of life? Does strange have to equal bad or even be a negative? Heck no! Strange can be awesome and amazing and as long as it’s not a strange that causes intentionally inflicted personal pain ,we should embrace it as an opportunity to enrich and fulfill our lives.

In this effort, Carrie and I are starting a new podcast called, Loving the Strange. This will be a live podcast during which we will attempt to delve into the strange, any kind of strange, and dissect it a bit and discuss the potential that it may have to enrich lives.

Of course, not all strangeness is going to be life enriching, some will just be dorky like us, but we believe that if you can teach yourself to approach the new, the different, the strange with an open mind that you might see a new side of this incredible journey we call life.

Our first live podcast will be tomorrow, Friday, February 12^th at 7 p.m. eastern standard time. If you would like to join us as we explore this strange that we call life, you can find it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. All the links to Carrie’s channels are at the bottom of the post. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

You can also watch it at your leisure if you can’t make it Friday at 7 on those sites, or just listen to the audio on a whole bunch of platforms starting this Saturday.

So go out there, get your strange on.

As always, thank you so very much for taking the time to read my ramblings and have an awesomely strange day!

Shaun

loving the strange the podcast about embracing the weird

LET’S HANG OUT!

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?

MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?

Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.

Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!

One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?

And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass .

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!

It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.

And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

We are ALL lucky!

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

Have you ever made up your own definition of a word?

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this: