Old School Sunday

I woke up yesterday morning with a craving for donuts.

But not just any donuts. Dunkin' Donuts glazed chocolate donuts.

Of course it wasn't just a craving for a sweet breakfast. It was actually a craving to reconnect with my husband.

When we were first dating more than 20 years ago, we had a habitual Sunday morning.

Drive to Dunkin' Donuts. Buy donuts and orange juice (neither of us drank coffee back then).

Jump back in the car and head up Mesa Drive to the Pikes Peak/Garden of the Gods overlook. Listen to Says You!, the public radio word game show while eating said donuts, drinking said OJ, and chatting. After that, we'd head to Barnes & Noble to wander the shelves and ponder the new releases.

Maybe not the healthiest choice for our bodies, but healthy for our relationship.

I woke up yesterday morning wanting that again.

He was game, so we bundled up and headed out for "Old School Sunday."

There were a few changes. We did go get donuts, but we also stopped for coffee and chai.

We brought Lucy along. Couldn't leave the pup out!

We had stopped listening to Says You! years ago because the show didn't have a podcast — but after some research, we found it does now. Downloaded a few episodes and set them up on the iPhone.

Headed up the hill to the overlook. Ate. Drank. Tried to guess Says You! answers. Added a short walk around the property with the pup. Took a few panorama shots. (I used to take photos up there, but back then, they were taken on a film camera.) (Geez, I'm feeling old.)

We dropped the pup off at home and headed back out to B&N for some bookshelf "window shopping."

It was nice. Really nice.

It got me thinking about the habits we form in our lives. And the ones we let go of.

Do you have habits unintentionally long-gone that you miss?

I'm not really sure when we stopped our Sunday "Donuts, Driving & Discussions." Or why, exactly. I assume things shifted when we started making more conscious choices about eating and supporting local, and when we started drinking local coffee, and maybe when we moved from the Springs ’burbs back downtown.

But I realize in gaining something in all of that, we did lose this regular Sunday morning connection.

It's something I want to work on bringing back.

(And maybe every now and again, a glazed chocolate donut.)

Welcoming the new year with new tunes

Happy New Year!

Yes, I realize I'm two weeks behind on the sentiment. Since mid-December, I've been overwhelmed with a new fosterpup, and then both I and my Lucy pup got sick (see example of how we looked in the photo to the right).

As excited as I was about a new year, and about the many ideas I wanted to share with you, I just couldn't muster up a post. (I couldn't even keep up with my Savor blogging project. Which looking back has me a bit bummed out now.)

But that's life sometimes, right? Sometimes we have to choose to step back.

So that's what I did. In addition to much restorative napping, blowing my nose, sipping ginger-lemon-honey-cayenne tea, and making sure Lucy wasn't eating anything she shouldn't be, I've been listening to a lot of music and I wanted to share what I've been dipping in.

You can stream my Seeds Beneath the Snow Winter 2016 playlist below or find it over here on Spotify. It features some of my favorite artists: Gregory Alan Isakov, Tow'rs, Danielle Ate the Sandwich, Tracy Chapman, and Ingrid Michaelson, along with some newer to me.

I hope you enjoy it. Have an amazing weekend and I'll be back next week.

P.S. I've also been reading a lot — I'm seven books in to my goal of reading 78 this year. Have you picked up Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear yet? So. Good.

Burnt popcorn and bad days

I'm having a day.

Actually, I'm having a week. Maybe a month.

Maybe more.

I'm having the kind of day that feels like your kitchen smells when you accidentally burn popcorn in the microwave. Like really burn it. Like when the bag is actually black and smoking and you're effing up a storm while tossing it all in the trash. And then you realize if you don't actually throw it into the trash outside, it's going to continue to stink up your house for days. (And on top of that, it was your last bag of popcorn.)

I'm having that kind of day.

It started — at least this latest variation of "day" — when I watched this social experiment video yesterday morning. (Go ahead. Watch it. It's just 3 minutes. I'll wait here.)

The CliffsNotes version: A bunch of individuals were asked to rate their success on a scale of 1 to 10 and talk about how they feel about themselves. Then friends and family members of those individuals were also asked to rate their particular loved ones' success. (If you didn't watch, I bet you can guess how this went.)

What I want to know is how would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10?

Because even though many of us could guess how this experiment would go just from watching the first few seconds, just from hearing the gist of it, I think many of us still would rate ourselves lower than we should. Lower than we are. And lower than the people closest to us would rate us.

Oh, how I would love to feel like a 10 in my life. Or a 9.75. Or even an 8 most days.

But the truth is, it takes work to feel like I'm at the top of the scale. And on some days, like today, getting to 5 feels hard. And when getting to 5 feels hard, everything feels hard. Getting work done feels hard. Running errands feels hard. Heck, getting out of bed feels hard.

I have no easy answers for you, or for me. But I do know that my self-talk plays a major role in my day-to-day. The good days, and the not-so-good days. And I also know that a positive word from a friend can help shift stuff. It would be kind of awesome if we could all go through the type of experience those in the video did. Not really practical, but awesome.

Yesterday, in the midst of my messy mind stuff, I sent a friend who's also having a rough time right now a quick text image (credit for the quote/art, FYI, is unknown, so apologies to the originator).

It said this:

It's not a rating. But it's kind of like a rating. Because I meant it in the "you're so awesome I would give you a 10 every day if I could" way.

And on top of that, it made me laugh. And laughter, they say (whoever they are), is the best medicine. Tears help clean out an exhausted and depressed system. Laughter helps fill it back up with joy.

So for any of you out there having a day like I'm having a day, this image above is also for you. And for me. And for anyone who just happened to burn their popcorn today.

High-fives, awesomeness and 10s all around. May tomorrow be a better day.

(P.S. I have not read You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero, as shown in the photo I took while in an airport bookstore recently, but I think perhaps I might.)

For you, from me, with love

A blend of old and new offerings around and about that I've been dipping into this week.

Enjoy!

Learn: "The Gentle Art of Trying Something and Sucking At It," by Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits.

How do you get over sucking at something you’re trying to learn, so you can get good at it? The answer is to become curious about the suck.

(After you've read the full article, come back here and read this note — Go on. I'll wait for you... — The only thing I would add to Leo's piece is that sometimes we won't ever get good at something. Sometimes we "embrace the suck" for an extended period of time and we still don't make much or any progress. And that's OK too. Move on. Try something else. There is plenty to tackle out there in the world.)

Insight: I've read Start With Why, and found the concept awesome for the nonprofits I've worked with, but I have wondered how it applies (and how well it applies) to the self-employed life. Sarah Von Bargen has some great thoughts on how YOU can be your business' WHY.

Watch: Thank you, Harry Potter. (The power of great stories.) Via Tell The Story Please.

Read: In honor of poet Mary Oliver's birthday, which was yesterday, I want to recommend any of her books. (And if you don't know where to start, try A Thousand Mornings.)

Eat: If you make these Easy Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers before I do, will you invite me over?

Participate: The Migrant Offshore Aid Station is dedicated to preventing loss of life at sea by providing assistance to migrants who find themselves in distress while crossing the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe vessels. They've saved more than 11,000 people so far. Every dollar helps.

Listen: And laugh. JF and JT.

For you, from me, with love

A blend of old and new offerings around and about that I've been dipping into this week.

Enjoy!

Learn: "The Art of Daily Ritual," by the amazing Courtney Martin for On Being (read the whole piece here): "Even washing the dishes can be a kind of ritual if you treat it as such. It’s about pace and intention, the senses and the symbols. It’s about the meaning you imbue into an object or an act, rather than a script you inherit. It’s about noticing."

Participate: Just a little more time to get in on this cool portable aromatherapy Kickstarter. (It's guaranteed to be funded!)

Read: Alice's Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts, by author-friend of mine DeAnna Knippling.

Watch: Dogs and pigs. Equally awesome. (From Mercy for Animals and ChooseVeg.com.)

Eat: Really want to give these Turmeric Cashews a try.

Insight: Death By Chrysalis — I saw this poem come through in a Goodreads newsletter this morning, fell in love, and went out seeking the poet, Danny Earl Simmons. I'll be adding his site to my Feedly because it's a wealth of good poetry, his and others'. "Death By Chrysalis" was originally published in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Pirene's Fountain.

Not everything that dies becomes a moldering rot like the sticky black ooze of the weeds of ancient seas.

Take that wooly mammoth, for instance, found in a block of ice on the edge of the middle of some frozen nowhere, flowers half-chewed in its mouth. What luck to be unlucky in such a way – in a cold flash just after a little dinner-salad – so that, all these centuries later, heads wag in disbelief and grunt smirks at the shaggy once was of him.

And what of the death by chrysalis of the caterpillar – a voracious, needy, earthy thing that dies from cramp and forced revision only to be resurrected with two thin surprises connected lightly to the same center of it all?