what I’m learning and loving: spring 2018

We’re officially three weeks into summer (and more than that, unofficially), and I’m just now getting to this list, recapping what I’ve been learning and loving over the last season. I think I’m going to go back to doing these monthly because to keep track for an entire month makes these post way. too. long. We’ll see how that works out!

Loving

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. One reason I am going to try to return to writing up these recaps once a month is because a whole season is too long for me to remember things to share! Grant and I both loved this series. It pushed all of our buttons: hilarious, authentic, some history, great music, and larger underlying themes. Watch it!

Our new screened-in porch. Late last fall, we had to have our roof replaced. Because the entire roof had to be taken down to the studs, we decided to add on a screened-in porch on the back, something we have wanted to do since we moved in, since they could make it look more seamless to do both things at the same time. I had no idea how much we would love it. We are just now getting into the buggy season here, but I didn’t realize how much I would love the shade aspect, especially as hot as it has been lately. Anything that gets us outside more is a win in my book, and the new porch definitely does that.

Penny Reid. I used to stay at each grandparent’s house for a week every summer (they lived in the same city), and my one grandma read a ton of all genres, but mostly mass-market paperbacks. I once sneaked a romance novel off her shelf, and I got a bit addicted, moving quickly from one to the next. At some point in high school, I think, I quit this addiction except for the occasional Nicholas Sparks beach read throughout the years. I think I need to dig into this a little deeper. Who says we have to read/watch/consume highbrow stuff all the time? Or more specifically, why do I feel like I have to hide my cheesy romance novel at the pool?

I picked up one of the books in this series on a whim last year, and I am remembering my previous addiction. Maybe I’m just at a season in life where I need some guaranteed happy endings (a happy ending is required to fall into the “romance” genre, something I learned recently), but I have fallen hard for just about every title in Penny Reid’s repertoire.

Short hair. I chopped my hair off around the end of March. I did not love it at first (and I honestly don’t always love it in pictures of myself), but I can be showered, dressed, blow dry my hair, and be out the door in twelve minutes – and I do LOVE that.

Garden season. I am honestly thankful to close down the garden in November. This year, we did very little season extension, and it was the right decision because we (and the soil) needed the rest. But I am so happy to be back out there again in my happy place.

Learning

The dark underbelly of the undernets. Don’t take my work for it, listen to Rob Bell’s three-part (so far) series: part one, two, and three. I think his episodes on the undernets are required listening for anyone living in 2018 America. I’m still working through what this means for me/our family, but he has given us much too chew on.

Emotions lodged in our bodies aren’t benign. Alternatively, as the yogis say, our issues are in our tissues. Many times over the last year, I have learned that emotions become lodged in our bodies. I think I first heard this in a yoga class, and certainly we discussed it in yoga teacher training, but I didn’t really grasp it until I started digging into some stuff on trauma, especially via Hilary McBride (I started with this episode and this one, but start around the 45 minute mark to skip the too-long commentary at the beginning and go straight to her interviews). I have sent that trauma episode to literally everyone I know; it’s necessary listening even if you don’t think you’ve never experienced trauma.

A few weeks ago, I listened to an interview with Judith Blackstone that is no longer available, but it looks like this interview is along similar lines, and this idea that stuck emotions aren’t benign stuck more than it had previously. I’m still trying to work out what this means in practical terms, but I think acknowledging it is the first step. I also think this is intuitively why the practice of yin yoga has been so impactful for me.

Baby steps. I think I’ve even said this here before (oh yes, here among many other places), but I obviously need to be reminded often and maybe you do as well. Anything worth doing requires baby steps, and it is often two steps forward, three steps back. This is why our teachers call us to a practice because it is this continual returning to the discipline, knowing that getting off track and back on is part of the process.

For more inspiration along these lines, listen to Rob here, Lazy Genius here and here, and pretty much all of my favorite heroes.

YOUR TURN!