Dear Friends,
As you may have noticed, I haven't been writing as often or as much as I used to. These last few months have been full of many things: great travel adventures, house projects galore, steps toward new interests, and a lot of time simply taking care of myself in order to be able to accomplish all these other things. Busy doesn't begin to describe my situation lately, but it's intentional and, in the end, all the time spent away from my first love of writing will be worth the experiences, lessons, and achievements gained in other areas of my life.
As I'm getting back into the swing of thoughts to fingertips to keyboard, I thought I'd share some of my favorites; favorite stories, food, moments, and experiences from these last several months.
In no particular order, let us begin...
1. I've recently become a foster mentor. In fact, I'm in the pairing process right now and will be assigned a child or young adult soon. I'm elated and terrified and thankful and hopeful. In my bones I know, I can feel, this is where I've been heading for years, but just finally found the path. And truly, the way I got here couldn't be anything less than by divine intervention, in which similar souls from the same state met at an ice cream parlor in New Zealand and started talking about kids.
If you're interested and if you have time to commit to better the life of a child in need, please look into how you can become a foster parent or mentor. It is literally life changing for both parties.
2. This Ted Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert is everything to me right now. It's old, but applicable. How I used to feel about being a good writer and needing to, in ways, be sad or struggle to really create something magnificent. How I later decided that didn't have to be the case. How hard it is to put yourself out there in a way that so many criticize when no other career is tackled with the same questions and doubts. How my poetry also comes to me in waves that often feel ethereal and otherworldly, and how, I too, have to catch them before they vanish.
It's inspiring. Please give it a listen and take note of the theme around genius and how we should maybe start viewing it instead.
3. I was recently in San Francisco and found these amazing gluten free cookies, by Salty Sweet, which you can buy online and have shipped to your house...to your house!!
Do it.
4. I was also recently in Portugal, both Lisbon and Porto, and I cannot stop thinking about how badly I want to go back. The beauty of the cities, the incredibly fresh seafood, the interesting story of tea (the real name is Cha and tea time originated in Portugal, not England - FYI), the boatloads of street art...I would travel here again tomorrow if I had the time. Not to mentions how safe- how incredibly, undeniably safe I felt in Lisbon day or night, alone or not, anywhere I went. Portugal is the travel destination right now and once you're there, it's obvious why. The history is so rich it makes your mouth water. Every corner holds a story of the past. Every nearby town or city has something so astonishing, so beautiful you want to hop on a train and go exploring.
Portugal is about to boom big time, even bigger than it is now. Be prepared.
5. Ages ago my grampa built by gramma an oversized window off their dining room that had glass shelves and special lighting for all of her plants; violets, succulents, roses. This was normal to me, back then, a house full of plants, but I never adopted it myself until just now. I'm not sure why, other than my reluctance at growing things and successfully keeping them alive. However, over the last few years, I've been becoming a gardener of sorts.
I plant every spring and every fall. I water-water-water my little heart out in the summer. I see what survived and what didn't, and take my lessons back with me for next time. And now, just now, I've moved my gardening indoors. Friends, I have to tell you, it feels like coming home to something I've been missing this whole time, this piece from my past.
I think my plants know. I think they know I love them.
6. I've been slowly but steadily sorting through each inch of my house to determine what I love, what I need, what is necessary and what isn't. My goal is to clear away the excess and leave the essential. I typically do a practice of this sort once a year, but this year is a little more...intense, shall we say.
It's amazing how much humans accumulate over time and what all of those accumulations mean to the world in the form of resources used, trash, waste.
7. For years now I've done this thing where I "adopt" people into my family. They don't know it, obviously, because it's a game I play in my head, but my husband is aware and he knows when I've just met someone that will be inducted into my Make Believe Family. There are no real rules or requirements, rather a feeling I get when someone radiates goodness and kindness. When this happens, I always repeat the same wish: that their lives be filled with that same kind of goodness and kindness, that all their dreams come true, and that they win the Power Ball. Because why not, you know?
Over the course of a year, I don't typically meet that many people that get The Make Believe Family Invite. Maybe 5, and that's on the high end. However, it seems like I've been running into more and more folks this last year. Given the state of the world (or my world, in the United States) I take this as a good sign.
In times like this, real kindness is what we need.
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