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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to record what makes each day special.

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Speaker 1: One of the most common observations I've heard from people

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Speaker 1: about this spring's long season of social distancing is that

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Speaker 1: life started to feel like the movie Groundhog Day. The

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Speaker 1: main character lives the same day over and over again.

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Speaker 1: Without the usual markers of time, days can merge into

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Speaker 1: each other, each indistinguishable from the last. Quarantines are obviously

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Speaker 1: extreme examples of this, but even during normal times, people

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Speaker 1: can get caught up in the daily grind. Tuesday's commute

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Speaker 1: is indistinguishable from Thursday's commute, and you have to look

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Speaker 1: at the calendar as you wonder is it Friday yet?

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Speaker 1: But today is not Groundhog Day. Each day can be

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Speaker 1: its own little jewel. Noticing and writing down what makes

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Speaker 1: each day distinctive helps us value all our days during

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Speaker 1: disjointed or normal times. In April, our Jewish friends celebrated

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Speaker 1: Passover at the Statar. The youngest person traditionally asks why

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Speaker 1: is this night different from all other nights? The response

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Speaker 1: focuses on features of the meal that commemorate the deliverance

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Speaker 1: of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Now, of course,

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Speaker 1: Passover is a major holiday, and so of course this

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Speaker 1: night is different from other nights. But as I wrote

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Speaker 1: in my book Off the Clock, I believe this is

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Speaker 1: a worthy question for ordinary days too. What distinguishes this

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Speaker 1: day today from all other days of my life? Even

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Speaker 1: if you happen to be sheltering in place? What distinguishes

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Speaker 1: this day from all other days of sheltering in place?

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Speaker 1: We can think of all kinds of distinctions. Today is

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Speaker 1: different because we made s'mores around the firepit. Today is

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Speaker 1: different because Uncle Rob had a virtual birthday party and

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Speaker 1: every family on the call had made their own chocolate cake,

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Speaker 1: which is Uncle Rob's favorite. Today is different because I

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Speaker 1: rearranged the furniture in the guest room so it's more

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Speaker 1: conducive to my working from home. Today is different because

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Speaker 1: we hiked a new trail. Today is different because I

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Speaker 1: colored my own hair for the first time. Today is

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Speaker 1: different because I figured out how to edit a video.

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Speaker 1: Today is different because we received our first vegetable delivery

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Speaker 1: from a local farm. Today is different because the kids

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Speaker 1: taught the dog to shake hands. Today is different because

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Speaker 1: the lilacs started blooming. These are not life changing differences,

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Speaker 1: but there are enough to make the days special and

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Speaker 1: distinct and worthy of notice if we choose to notice them.

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Speaker 1: So set a time each day to record what makes

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Speaker 1: each day special. Maybe as part of your dinner routine

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Speaker 1: you could ask your family to share the day's gems,

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Speaker 1: or at bedtime you can jot down these distinctions in

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Speaker 1: a journal. Notice them, celebrate them. Because though all time passes,

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Speaker 1: when life is ultimately short, it's a miserable bargain to

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Speaker 1: wish time away. Each morning we wake up to new possibilities,

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Speaker 1: it behooves us to value each day we are given.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, there's a sneaky little upside to

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Speaker 1: recording what makes each day special. Once you know you'll

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Speaker 1: need to write something down, you realize that you can

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Speaker 1: engineer special things into your life. You can set an

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Speaker 1: intention for something worth remembering. You see nothing particularly promising

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Speaker 1: on the calendar, so you elect to cook a new dish,

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Speaker 1: go for a walk by the lake, or FaceTime a

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Speaker 1: relative you haven't talked with in a while. Or maybe

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Speaker 1: today will be different because it's the day you start

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Speaker 1: recording what makes each day special. And just like that,

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Speaker 1: today is different from all other days, just as you intended.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H m

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Speaker 1: hm