Grateful Friday

A bit of spring This time of year 40 degrees feels like hope and inspiration and some sort of saving grace. It’s a reminder of all things good. I’m enjoying it in all its sunny glory. Running in the cold has been really hard for me. Not physically hard, mentally. I just don’t like it, and I don’t want to do it anymore. It has made me feel like I don’t like running anymore. But a little sun and a little warmth and I have a deep sense of reassurance that this is still something I love very much. 

Good working relationships This morning I met an old coworker for coffee and it was refreshing to catch up and talk shop. I think he is often misunderstood by a lot of people (I can understand how), but we developed a good repertoire early on. He thinks about things a lot differently than other people I have worked with and I really appreciate that we’re able to have intelligent discourse and I walk away with a new perspective, something I hadn’t thought of before. 

All this snow I get to head to the woods next week, and with Monday off I have one thing on my mind: back-country skiing. My heart is bursting at the seams just thinking about cruising through those woods again.

Homemade pasta Much better than the alternative, I have discovered.

Reminders This week I had a few moments where I had to remind myself how good I have it, how certain things in my life are exactly how I dreamed they would be, and I’m grateful to have had a shift in perspective in the moment, when I needed it. This is something I’m continuing to work on.

When the universe takes over I know, it sounds all new-agey to say something like that. I have had these little pricks in my life over the past few weeks (months?) of things that I have been dreaming up and craving starting to make appearances. It’s rather magical, and I’m ready to receive these dreams I’ve been dreaming. 

What are you grateful for?

Maybe it’s ok to celebrate love

Perhaps ironically, Valentine’s Day is a love/hate thing. People love to love it, they love to hate it, and no matter how you feel, someone out there is criticizing you for it*.

My Valentine’s Day started on Tuesday evening, when I came home to a card and a bar of fair trade chocolate in the mail from my mother. And then on Wednesday I received a valentine from a sweet little girl I used to nanny for in Cambridge, showing off her 7-year-old handwriting (a cursive ‘S’!) and a temporary tattoo attached that said “girls rock!” What is not to adore about all of that?

Last weekend I got out the scissors and glue and fancy patterned paper and made my own valentines for friends and family**. This is one of my favorite rituals, and it’s important for me to make these small mementos for those that are dear to me, to remind them that I care, especially if they are questioning the amount of love in their life; there is at least one person who has a whole lot of it for them.

Love it or hate it, it’s not just about romance***. I say this every year. Just like Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or Birthdays, it’s an opportunity to reflect on who is important in your life and let them know.

xo.

*so goes everything, eh?
**I should apologize to my brother. I never put hearts on his, and this year I was floundering on the design. I like to think there’s a bit of humor in me sending him a valentine every year, anyway.
***But come on! Romance is cool.

Impending

In the summer, when we’re about to get a really nice patch of weather, we prepare. We stock up on food for the cooler, clear our schedules, pack bags for adventuring, and head to the ocean or the mountains or the lake. And then we earnestly enjoy ourselves.

Preparing for a blizzard is much the same. We stock up on food (including a treat or two), gather up our winter gear (whether it be comfy clothes for staying in or skis and snowshoes for getting out), change our travel plans, and watch the weather and sky in anticipation.

Just like the perfect summer day there is something special about a hearty winter storm.

Winter health thoughts

I think that diet and health are constantly evolving pieces in my life. I mean that in a good way. When one of your primary focuses in life is to be healthy and support your body you’re always learning and adjusting. I thought I would share some of the adjustments I have been making lately.

My diet contains very little animal protein. While I consider myself a pescetarian, it isn’t uncommon for a month or more to go by without eating any seafood. Women in general have a harder time getting adequate levels of iron, as do runners. Women runners? It’s an uphill battle. I recently switched from this multi vitamin to this one because the version for women had twice the iron. I read this fall that caffeine can block the absorption of iron, so I now take my multi after I eat lunch, instead of with breakfast. I have noticed a difference.

While we’re talking about caffeine. I have come to the realization that I’m kind of sensitive to it. Specifically coffee. I can’t get into the habit of drinking it too many days in a row (sometimes as few as two and three will throw me off) too early in the morning or I’m destined for an all day headache the one day I’m off schedule. I notice it less with black tea and have not had trouble with green tea. On the earliest mornings I go for the green tea and have something heavier later if I’m dragging.

I’ve been reading about starting the day with hot water and fresh lemon, and I have experimented with it a few times. I like the feeling of starting my day that way, doing a little mini cleanse before I put food and caffeine into my body. Warm lemon water is supposed to help your skin, increase energy, improve digestion and aid in detoxification. Read more about it here.

In the fall I spent some time researching omegas. I came to the decision that I needed to switch back to an omega-3 (I was taking a 3-6-9). Ideally I would take an algal based version, but those are very expensive, so I am taking NOW foods brand omega-3, made with sardines, anchovies, and mackerel, which is supposed to be the safest, best option. I still hope to find a good, less expensive algal supplement however. I’m convinced that omega-3 is an important addition to my diet.

I’d love to hear what others are doing this winter to stay healthy and happy.

As someone who has pined after a typewriter the past few years

“I don’t think anyone really thinks of a computer as a tool for writing, and that’s maybe where the appeal comes from. For some modern writers, I feel like the typewriter is still that unique tool that kind of belongs to us. Painters still have brushes, musicians have instruments, and I think maybe a lot of us just like the idea of an instrument just for writing.”

-Patrick Cochran, Typewriters making a return

That something inside

It pushes me, and it scares me.

Lately I have this feeling that I’m inside an egg shell and I just need to break out, to find what makes me tick creatively, to pursue it with as much drive as I can muster. It’s a strange knowing that despite my life, how happy I am with it, how appreciative I am of what is and what will be, that it is going to be better. Even better.

It is hard to explain what being a creative person feels like. It’s as though the sun is inside your chest, burning and sparkling and energizing, and there is also a river that is heavy and flowing and shifting, and there’s a quiet field, a symbol of reassurance and trust, and there’s a high pitched scream in there too that demands you pay attention to it, especially after a break from it.

I feel it inside me at 8 in the morning when I sit down at my desk. I feel it on my drive home. I feel it when I’m getting ready for bed, and every single time I daydream.

I don’t know where creativity comes from. I don’t know if it’s taught or encouraged or inherited, or just gifted like a perfect slice of apple pie on a sunny September day. But it’s there, and behind that feeling is a sense that after all of this, my life is supposed to be about that, and it excites, motivates, and inspires me.

And truthfully, it scares me a little bit too. Because what if I’m wrong? What if my life won’t ever be about it? What if I’m always just chasing it? So I keep focusing and honing and trying.

You buy primrose

Because you think they might look nice on the table, a bright contrast against the gray season.

But the pink petals and the yellow pot just succeed in looking out of place, as though anything so colorful this time of year could only be fake.