Heroes Not Zombies

Episode 2 of my More Good Days podcast is available now, come and subscribe to my substack to receive each episode, free, in your inbox.

Here’s the text, if you’d like to read it……

Are you having a good day? Was yesterday a good day? Whatever your answer, and, yes, I would really like to know about your good day, let’s make today a good day. I’d like to help you do that, and I think the best way for me to do that is to share with you what I’ve learned from my experience with thousands of patients who told me what makes a good day for them, as well as sharing what makes a day a good day for me. 

We are all different. We live according to our own values, tastes, desires, our own relationships and issues, so what goes towards making today a good day for me, may well be different from what makes a good day for you. However, we also have a lot in common, there’s a lot that we share. 

In this podcast, I’ll share with you lots of actions you can take to make today a good day. There are tried and tested principles underpinning these actions. Many of them have been taught through different cultures and traditions over centuries. Some we’ve only discovered more recently. 

You can take any of these principles, try any of these actions, for yourself. Make them your own. The way you apply these ideas in your everyday life will also be unique. That’s great. That’s how it should be. Your day is unique, because you are unique. Nobody else is living, will live or has lived the exact same life as you. We might all be made from the same star stuff, we might all share the same air, the same water, and food produced from the same ground, on this little blue marble of a planet, but there are no two of us who are, were, or ever will be, exactly the same.

When I ask if today is a good day, I know there aren’t just two kinds of days. Good ones and bad ones. Our experiences are much more nuanced than that. Our days are more multi-coloured than that. You may well have some good experiences today, but there might, as well, be some not so good ones, and only you can decide if you’d like to call today a good day. 

In the evening, maybe before you head off to bed, you might reflect on your day, ask yourself, how does it feel? Are you going to call this a good day? If so, why? What particular moments, which specific experiences or encounters made this a good day? 

And if you don’t feel you can call this a good day? Well, why not? What happened today, what experiences did you have that lead you to say that today wasn’t a good day? 

As you think back over the day, even if you conclude it was a pretty crappy one, were there any moments in it which felt good?

You might like to just spend a few minutes on this, this reflecting, this thinking back over the day. 

Why not get a notebook, a journal, and write your thoughts down? These days some people prefer to speak their thoughts, rather than write them and that’s so easy now. Our phones and computers all have easy to use dictation software on them now. So, you could record your thoughts by speaking them into a digital note. Paper, phone, computer, whatever works best for you. The important thing is to make it a habit. Do it every day. Spend a few minutes, reflecting and noting down what made today a good day (or not a good day!)

Remember what we pay attention to, grows. So, my suggestion is to become more aware of what, in your opinion, makes your days good ones, and to spend some time remembering, and so reinforcing, whatever made them so. 

L’émerveillement du quotidien

If there was just one thing I’d recommend to anyone wanting to increase the quality of their everyday life, it would be to nurture a capacity for wonder and awe. 

There’s a French phrase which has appealed to me a lot from the very first time I encountered it – “l’émerveillement du quotidien”. It’s not that easy to translate, because I don’t think any single English word substitutes for “émerveillement”, but the “du quotidien” bit is easy – it means everyday, as in “ordinary”, “typical” “daily” – but the key is the “émerveillement” which contains the meanings of “wonder”, “amazement”, even “awe”. 

I’m fairly happy to translate it as “the wonder of the everyday” as long as that phrase also conveys the idea of “the extraordinariness of the ordinary”. 

The thing is, every single experience we have, we are having for the first and last time ever. Every single experience is unique. Every encounter is unique, just as every person and every relationship is unique. We can get in touch with that uniqueness by stirring up a sense of wonder. 

Actually, the practice of becoming aware of first and last times, is an ancient “spiritual” or “philosophical” practice, which I’ll go into in more detail another time. But, for now, let’s spend a little time wondering about wonder….where can we find the inspirations that make us wonder?

Wonder in Nature

I find natural phenomena to be the greatest source of wonder. I can be amazed at the sight of a butterfly, the colours and patterns on its wings, (astonishingly, the colours in a butterfly wing are mainly produced by the microscopic scales which cover the wing. These scales reflect and absorb light to produce the appearance of colour. I’m not sure I can quite get my head around that). I watch in wonder at the way a butterfly flits from flower to flower, constantly changing and direction. I try to predict which flower they’ll fly to next, and I never get it right. I’m sure I once read that physicists haven’t managed to work out how on earth a butterfly manages to fly that way. As I watch the butterflies I think of how different they are from the caterpillars which they were when they were younger. How on earth does a creature like a caterpillar, create a cocoon for itself, and emerge some time later utterly transformed into a beautiful, butterfly with the ability to spread its brand new wings and fly? 

I can be entranced by the little lemon tree growing outside my front door, now full of buds, then flowers, amazed at the dark, unexpectedly reddish colour of the new growth leaves, delighted at the appearance of the lemons, first as small green globes, swelling and ripening over many weeks to beautiful yellow lemons.  I can lose myself gazing up at the shapes of clouds in the sky, watching them constantly morphing from one shape into another. I can be surprised and captured by the way the petals of a flower catch the sunlight making it seem like they are glowing, looking as if they are shining this energy from within themselves. You get the idea, I’m sure. 

I love to walk amongst the trees, to pause, take deep breaths and smell that cool, slightly damp, woody smell. I delight in the diversity of colours and shapes of their leaves, their blossoms, the sometimes immense girth of their trunks. I think of how some trees have been alive for centuries, and how, despite the fact they don’t have brains, and they can’t move from place to place, they’ve evolved the ability to live on this planet for much longer than we humans can. I think of the scientist, Richard Feynman who said that trees are created out of the air. They take in carbon dioxide and water from the air, and turn it into trunks, branches, twigs, leaves and blossoms. They capture the sunshine for energy and create the oxygen without which every single animal, including humans, would die. You might think that trees get their water from the ground, but, Feynman said, yes, but where does the water in the ground come from? It comes from the sky. Trees really do create themselves from sunshine and air. Isn’t that incredible?

By the way, there is a lot of evidence that spending time amongst trees is good for your health. I’ll tell you about that in another episode.

If you ever browse through the photos people post on social media you’re likely to find plenty of pictures of sunsets. We love sunsets, don’t we? Especially sunsets over the oceans. How often do people gather on beaches, or along promenades to watch the sun go down? One sunset that really made a great impression on me was in the movie, “Le Rayon Vert”, The Green Ray. The film is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, although his story is set in Scotland, whilst Eric Romer’s film is set in France. The green ray in question is a rare phenomenon which can occur just as the last of the sun sinks below the horizon of an uninterrupted view across an ocean. The legend, Jules Verne created, was that when someone observes the green ray, they can see into their own heart, and into the hearts of others. 

I don’t live on a coast, but any time I notice the clouds in the sky turning pink as the sun sets, I feel compelled to go outside into the garden, to look up, and just savour the glorious, fast changing colours, in those last few moments of the day.

Meanwhile, which natural phenomena caught your attention today?

Wonder in people

Also, I’m amazed by people. I looked forward to every Monday morning at work because there would be a new clinic, with new patients come to share their utterly unique and wonderful stories with me, and then there would be others coming to relate the changes they had experienced since their last visit. You couldn’t predict what they were going to say, and you never heard an identical story twice. Time and time again patients would tell me about their experiences of trauma, events which had wounded them sometimes which had happened decades ago. Events which shocked and upset me, but which they’d survived. They would demonstrate astonishing abilities to cope and to keep going. Many times I would think, wow, you are an amazing person. Many, many times patients would say to me “You’re the first person I’ve ever told that. I’ve never spoken about it to anybody else”. The fact that we could create such trusting relationships made me feel very, very privileged. I’d hear people say, “You know me better than anyone else ever has”, and I was convinced that meant they now understood themselves better than ever before. 

These comments were common in my place of work. Colleagues had the same experiences. Both during my years as a GP, and my years working at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, I was privileged to have colleagues who shared a holistic, non-judgemental approach to patients. It really was normal for me to hear my partners and co-workers describe their enthusiasm about such impressive, and even awe inspiring encounters. It wasn’t like that 100 percent of the time. We all had our share of misunderstandings, disappointments, and frustrations. But it happened enough of the time for those days to feel like good days, and for there to be enough of them for us to feel that this way of practicing Medicine was a life worth living. It felt like we were helping to make the world a better place, for one person at a time. 

Wonder in learning

When I was a child my parents subscribed to two part work magazines for me. One was called “Knowledge” and the other was “Look and Learn”. I loved them and looked forward, every fortnight, to each and every new issue . I collected them in especially designed folders, gradually creating my own encyclopaedia. In fact, I was so taken with the range of knowledge, discovery and wonder available in an encyclopaedia, that, at 24, when I graduated from medical school, and received my first month’s pay as a Junior Doctor, I bought a complete set of “Encyclopaedia Brittanica”. I still have it. I know the internet, what with wikipedia, and everything, have made something like that pretty redundant, but I still enjoy pulling out a volume at random and opening it to discover something new to me. It’s the serendipity of these discoveries which delights me. 

You’ll be familiar with the old saying “Every day’s a school day”. It’s often used when something goes wrong, but something we can learn from, or where we suddenly realise something. Insights and understandings are the kind of learning which can thrill me. Those, “aha” moments, where something becomes clear. By the way, learning, it appears, is good for you. People who learn a second language, for example, have been shown to have healthier brains. Maybe it’s the old “use it or lose it” phenomenon, but whether or not that benefit is real, I find that on the days I learn something, I’m more likely to experience that day as a good day. 

When I retired from medical practice in Scotland, I emigrated to France, partly because I was drawn to French culture and French weather, but, also to immerse myself in learning a second language. Twelve years here and I learn a little more French every single day, reading it, listening to it, and having everyday conversations with neighbours. It’s even inspired me to begin to learn more languages, which is a bit of a surprise, because I was never keen on language learning at school. So, if “every day is a school day”, I find that learning is actually a lot more fun now than it ever was back in the day when I was actually a school boy. Learning is a form of wonder for me. I’m delighted and amazed by what I discover. 

Wonder in the human body

When I studied Medicine at university, I was frequently amazed by what I learned about the human body. I remember especially the lectures in embryology, illustrated beautifully in coloured chalks by the Anatomy professor. I was utterly astonished by how two cells, at the very beginning of a human life, a sperm and an ovum, after merging, would double and double, again and again, organising themselves into a complete human being, with arms, legs, a face, and all the bodily organs and systems. All in exactly the right places. It still astonishes me to think of that. 

I was amazed at the healing powers of a human body. How it could knit together a broken bone, seal a cut in the skin, resolve a bruise, or reduce a swelling. I saw how the body did all those things and more, not because a drug had been prescribed, but because that’s what a body does. That still amazes me. 

At seventy years old I realise more than ever just how little we humans can know and understand about life, about this planet we live on, about the universe. I know that I understand much more now than I did when I started work aged 24, but I am humbled by the realisation of how little that is in the grand scheme of things. 

So wonder keeps me engaged with the present day world, and it keeps me humble and open minded. Moments of wonder delight me. They can stop me in my tracks. They bring me joy, a smile to my face, a deep sense of belonging in this incredible world which we all share. They stir a feeling of gratitude, and that’s such an important part of making a day a good day. They make me feel it’s good to be alive. 

I’ve got two poems for you today, both of which have something to say about this sense of wonder.

The first is “Lost” by David Wagoner….

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes behind you

are not lost. Wherever you are is called here,

and you must treat it as a powerful stranger,

must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it, you may come back again, saying here,

no two trees are the same to the raven.

No two branches are the same to the wren.

If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,

you are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows

where you are. You must let it find you.

This is such a beautiful poem. It’s about presence and the power of Nature. It reminds us of the basic fact of uniqueness, how no two moments are the same. It’s entitled “Lost” and it tells us clearly that when we are feeling lost, we just need to turn our attention to the natural world around us, and feel that deep connectedness which arises when we open our hearts and minds to the living world. 

The second poem is by Gregory Orr…

Ask the tree or the house

ask the rose or the fire

hydrant – everything’s 

waiting for you to notice.

Everything’s waiting for you

to wrap your heart around it.

That music has been playing

since you were born.

You must be mad to resist it.

Always the beloved

surrounds us,

eager to dance.

All we have to do is ask.

Here the poet includes inanimate objects, a house, a fire hydrant. He reminds us that this world we live in is an abundant one. We only need to turn our attention to whatever is around us to become aware of that. And, I think, crucially, he says we need to pay a particular kind of attention….you need to “wrap your heart around it”. It’s Mary Oliver’s “loving attention”. It’s Saint Exupery’s Little Prince learning that what’s most important is what we see with the heart. “That music has been playing since you were born. You must be mad to resist it.”

So, there we have it. My main sources of everyday wonder spring from the natural world, from people, from learning and from the amazing human body. 

How about you? If you do start to note down what makes a day a good day for you, then over time you’ll start to become aware of your own personal sources of wonder, of awe, amazement, and, yes, joy. All of these experiences are likely to create good days for you, and as that becomes your norm, I’m convinced you’ll start to feel, more and more, that you are living a life worth living. As you experience that, as I experience that, as we, and our friends and family experience that, we’ll build the strength, the ideas and the will to make this world a better place. 

Last time I included a poem by Mary Oliver, and this time I’ve read you two poems, one by David Wagoner, and one by Gregory Orr. I think poems engage us in a unique way. I’ve learned that they stimulate and reinforce the part of our brain which is responsible for a particular kind of attention – a broad, appreciative, attention which reveals patterns, connections and the whole to us. I’ll tell you more about that part of the brain in a future episode. But, for now, I’d be really interested to hear from you if you have any favourite poems. Please, get in touch and tell me what they are. I’d like to include them in future episodes, so that we, you and I, can build our own poetry collections to dip into, to savour, relish and enjoy. 

I’ve read that poems were originally music, originally sung. I’ve also read there is a theory that music preceded speech in human evolution. Whether or not that’s the case, there is no doubt that both poetry and music go deep into our souls. I can’t imagine life without them. Well, I can, but it would be a diminished life, a poorer one. 

So, what about music? How much do you listen to music? What kind of music do you like? It’s a fair bet that our musical tastes and preferences are unique to us, but I’d like to share with you some of the music which means so much to me. Because I listen to music every day. I listen casually, playing music while I’m doing something else, but I also listen deliberately, sitting down and paying attention, just to the music. Music can affect my mood, and I’m willing to bet it can affect yours too. A particular song has the power to take right back to a day long ago, in the same way that Proust’s madeleine did for him. In fact, there’s good evidence that music has the power to affect our brain function, improving everything from memory to cognition. I’ll say more about that some other time. 

I have a vinyl record collection which I bought, one record at a time, mainly through my teens and twenties. But I suppose I mainly listen to music these days on streaming services, like Spotify and Youtube. I’ve created a More Good Days playlist on both Spotify and Youtube, where I’ve started to add songs that, I find, contribute to more of my days becoming good ones. Check them out, and let me know if there are any particular songs you’d like me to include. Or make your own playlist, for your own enjoyment. If you’d like to, send me a link to your own playlist and I’ll check it out. 

The easiest way to find my playlists is to use one of the links here – 

Here’s the link to the Spotify playlist – and here’s the link to my youtube one – 

Here are the first songs on my More Good Days playlist – 

First off, I like Days Like This, by Van Morrison. I’ve got quite a number of Van Morrison albums on vinyl and this song is one of my favourites. For those days where everything feels just right.

I was born in 1954 and the first records I bought were by The Beatles. I still play many of their songs, but one which actually mentions good days is “Good Day Sunshine”, a simple song about how sunshine and love can make the day a good one. Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys said this was one of his top 10 favourite Beatles songs.

One Day Like This by Elbow. I love Guy Garvey’s singing voice. Another song about sunshine and love, but with the great line “kiss me like we die tonight” which is spot on for the old “first and last” technique the ancients taught. I also like that Guy sings that one day a year like this would be good enough for him. I know not all days can be good ones, and I sure hope you have more than one every year, but, from time to time, we’ll all have really great days. Just like Van Morrison’s mama told him!

Next up is Lovely Day by Bill Withers. This goes back to the late 70s, and again, sunshine and love are credited for the creation of a good day, but the focus here is really the loving relationship. “Just one look at you and I know….”

I’d never heard of the band Luce until I searched for songs with “good day” in the title, but this is a good one. It also focuses on those themes of love and sunshine, but like Bill Withers song, the loving relationship is the key.

Another song that came up on my search was Good Days by Rodell Duff. I’d never heard this one before either…more sunshine and a loving relationship in play here, but the lines that really connected to me were “so let’s don’t let these Hours and minutes and seconds go to waste, hey ‘Cause these are the good days” which reminds me to reflect on the moments which made today a good one, not least to reinforce them in my life.

Going back to my single buying days, I had to include Thank you for the Days by the Kinks which reminds me of the power of gratitude. I’ll return to that subject, but expressing gratitude for what you’ve experienced today is a powerful psychological practice which contributes to mental health and wellbeing. 

Colin Vearncombe, who sang as “Black”, had a beautiful voice and I’ve long since been a fan of his bit hit with Wonderful Life, which reminds us “There’s magic everywhere”

And, finally, so far, a classic from Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World. I mean, this is just perfect, isn’t it? He sings of the natural world, of seeing friends shaking hands and of the miracle of witnessing a child growing up. 

That’s nine songs, and a playlist of 33 minutes. I hope you enjoy all of them, or, at least, some of them!

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on Bluesky where I post pretty much daily. Just pop my name, bobleckridge, all as one word, into the Bluesky search box and you’ll find me. There’s only one Bob Leckridge! And if you do decide to follow me there, please say hello and introduce yourself. 

I’m just getting started on Substack but you can find this podcast there, you can find a transcript there, and, if you subscribe, you’ll start to receive regular emails from me. But you can also say hello, and introduce yourself there, and if you send me a message, I’ll always reply. 

So, until next time, au revoir et bonne journée, bye, and have a good day.