Category: Life – It doesn’t live itself

Inspiration Engine, v.6

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This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week.

1. Rituals from Ginger Sister.  For me, rituals are powerful and even spiritual anchors in life. When was in college, when I went out with an Indian man and learned how to make masala tea, or chai. His sister sent me spices from India, so I didn’t have to depend on a weak stock of stale cinnamon and nutmeg. Every morning started with me over the stove, listening for the boil and smelling the increasingly fragrant steam that rose as the tea heated.  Then, I moved away, we split up, and I stopped doing it regularly.  I found I had a real gap where this ritual had been and felt adrift.

This post is about a beautiful way of transitioning into something new and using ritual to ease that.

3. Finally, there is a delightful blog I stumbled upon this week, Browsing the Atlas, and I found it through the recommendation of the travelogue Take a trip with Andrew McCarthy from the Comfort of Your Chair. I love a good travelogue and I love to find others with a love of traveling. Thank you!

 

Inspiration Engine, V.5 – Mindfulness and Food

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Inspiration Engine is a weekly post I do about blogs that have inspired something in my this week. I normally do it on Thursdays, but am late (again) this week and am getting it out to day. Apologies.  I will also skip next week because I’ll be on my wedding trip. It will pick up the following week.

1. This post, “Untitled,” from the Mindfulness Revolution. This is a very calming post for me, in that it helps me focus and center. It says, “Anything that comes in through the senses is also regarded as ‘food’ for the body and therefore affects one’s mental emotional, and physical health.” I don’t know about you but I have a tumultuous relationship with “food;” I imagine we all do, actually. Eating is quite an emotional experience, and the consequences of eating (or not) have such  manifestations that we can’t help but have strong personal feelings about it.  As I type this right now, I am watching what I eat so I can fit into my wedding dress. At the same time, I am feeling a headache coming on, a headache brought of not eating the right thing at the right time, {or not enough of it.)   I’m also thinking about how to “maintain” dietary plans while at Disney World, a processed-food mecca. Therefore, the idea of nourishing myself through my eyes broadens my idea of “food” and consumption, sort of reframes it.  Moreover, the overall message of mindfulness is a particularly poignant reminder during this time in my life, just before my wedding (in three days.) Thank you, Mindfulness.

 

Wedding Glee Ep. 2

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I am getting married in Disney World (DW) in 5 days! Eee! I am so excited, of course for the wedding, but also for the week-long opportunity to explore Disney World!  Cohiba and I always get so much joyful play-time out of it.

One thing that I really like about DW is that, each time, I have found new things to do, things that make it more special. These are some new things I hope to find this time:

In Magic Kingdom:

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Wedding Glee Ep. I

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I’m getting married next Monday and I am So. Excited. This is the first (and only!) marriage that either of us have had, which is odd at our age (mid-30s).  I think it’s because we were created for each other and we kind of knew it.

I have never been so excited for something, and I know this is going to be one of the happiest days of my life. I picked up my dress yesterday, our rings are coming in tonight… My coworkers gave me a beautiful card and a gift certificate to our favorite cigar bar.  I feel so special.

So excited.

Us
Us

Nothing wrong with a little contemplation

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Is there anything like a funeral to put you in a contemplative mood? We buried my grandmother yesterday, and it’s kind of been a little hard for the past few days as we held the wake and the funeral.

Grandma had a complicated relationship with all three of her daughters and then, by extension, me. She could be a bitch on wheels and she drank way too much, which is probably why she could be so loose and cruel with her tongue. Then I remember my last phone call with her and how sweet it was. So that makes me think about love and different ways of showing it.

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Inspiration Engine V.3 – Work and Social Mores

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This is a series I do once a week on interesting blog posts I’ve found, posts that make me think. This week, the posts took me on a familiar thought experiment about living a satisfying life.

1. The GOP and the Histoprial Obsession with Work in America –

I’ve been thinking about the Protestant Work ethic lately as I’ve been trying to think about what I’m going to do with my life. Being in this position right now is not fulfilling me.  I can work my ass off. I can tell myself it’s for a Catholic agency and I’m serving people as I am called to do by my loving Higher Power. But it’s not doing it for me.  I’m not challenged. At the same time, taking time off is terrible for me – I feel so guilty.  Isn’t that crazy?

This blog post challenged me to think about that but, unfortunately, didn’t offer any insight into how to NOT participate in this system I am ensconced in.  How do I work around it?  Can I? I started thinking about moving to France or somewhere with a less intensive protestant work ethic. Maybe I should read about the French and what they do.  So I began to think about that, and this also lead me to my next search…

…where i found this:

2. French Social Customs, Etiquette, and Idiosyncrasies

This post specifically talks about things like the long lunch and other French, well, idiosyncrasies, and how it can be frustrating. For example, how it can be frustrating when you’re trying to take care of business and business is closed. That would never happen here (U.S.). So perhaps this is just a matter of “the grass is greener?”

3. So then, as I was thinking about all of this age old question of balance, I looked up “priorities” and stumbled upon Hundred Goals blog, that pretty much speaks to this very question.  The author of this blog, he lists 100 goals that he has, and it kind of reminds me of an adult version of a bucket list.  Like, not something I want/hope to do, but something I will do. (No offense intended to bucket listers – perhaps that what they already do; I just don’t think of them that way.)

I love this dude’s philosophy, about setting goals that people will work to accomplish. “Those who dream and believe will do whatever it takes to make their dreams a reality.” I believe that, at my core, and I think I forgot about that – we are so much stronger than we think we are.

Thank you… And you… And you…

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As a kid, thank you notes always brought up the angsty uncomfortable idea of making up bullshit, and I wasn’t too good at yet, and still have an aversion to it now. But as a bride (19 days to go), writing thank you notes is waaay up there in things to do, right up there with tanning.  Beloved family and friends from both sides are shoring us up in love and support, and beautiful new dishes! (Seriously, I am so excited for these dishes and I love them.)

So, while I don’t tan, I have been writing thank you notes regularly, and have come to appreciate the process more than I used to, even look forward to it!

I sit quietly with a pen and some cards, hopefully under a window, and write by reflecting on the gift, the person who gave it to me and what it means to me. I get to relive the event for which I’m thanking the gift-giver (in this case, bridal showers) and reflect on the jokes and dirty stories we shared. I’m usually scrambling for addresses (in the digital age, who has anyone’s address?!) and that’s frustrating, but I save that for the end.

Like writing a story with a word limit, brevity is the order of the day in a thank you note, and I think I’m going to try to get more creative and humorous with them.  Here are some examples of funny ones; perhaps they will inspire my future efforts.

“Thank you oatmeal, for looking like I eat you before I eat you.” (Jimmy Fallon)

“Dear McDOnalds, Thank you for not selling hot dogs. I don’t think I could order a McWiener with a straight face.” (I don’t know.)

“I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you, my heart has no bottom.” (Aww! And I don’t know who wrote this initially.)

What is the best thank you note you have ever gotten?

Last Words to my Dying Grandma

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My grandma’s dying. Not just in the sense that we’re all dying, but she’s ready to go now.  She’s signed her DNR papers. She’s getting a last communion tonight. All her daughters are with her right now. I had called my mom for details and was kind of regretting not being there to see grandma before she goes, and mom offered to let me talk to her. I felt a surge of sad gratefulness that I could talk to her again. But what would I say?

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