What is much more interesting to me now is to consider who I am today because of that terrible night, exactly 25 years ago.
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Watch. Hit rewind. Play again.
We repainted our bedroom yesterday; a task we have been talking about for nearly as long as we have been married (one week short of 12 years). Social isolation has given us the time to do a ton of house projects, and I am grateful. The verdict is still out on the bedroom for me, despite the fact that I picked the color, but I am glad we did something in there. Aside: When Quinn was young, he was obsessed with Space Jam and watched it over and over for about three years. Dr Marry tells this funny story of one of the first nights he was babysitting. They were building LEGOs and…
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Just some (more) existential thoughts from this week
On a walk with Dr Marry, I had one of those exploding lightbulb moments where I realized that my entire adult life I have self-sabotaged my own success, my next move. The roadblocks I have encountered have not been accidental: I have absolutely designed and installed them to keep me from pursuing so many things. That infuriates me to think of all I haven't achieved because I stopped myself.
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Forming new habits to carry on
I can’t be the only person who has almost forgotten what “regular” life used to be like, can I? Am I the only one who has fallen into the new normal as if getting up for spin class, coming home to shower and rush out the door, tearing home to let the dog out and grabbing something quick for lunch, packing my work into days that spilled into post-dinner more often than not, hurrying to put something on the table for supper and sometimes grumbling about another thing I have to do/event I have to attend in the evening never really existed? Is anybody else trying desperately to figure out…
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e2: Joel Liestman and Ryan Newton Harris
Listen to the podcast here. Please meet two of my longest friends (makes them sound stretchy, doesn’t it?😂), Joel and Ryan. They were interesting nearly 30 years ago, and that hasn’t changed. To call them quirky and idiosyncratic is not hyperbole; they really are both of those things. And, of course, I recognize those traits in myself, so I am naturally drawn to our like mindedness. Plus, they just plain make me laugh out loud, and I adore that quality in anyone. Here’s some stuff from our conversation: I don’t like most musicals from the 1980s. No thanks to Les Miserables, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera. I could tell…
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Getting past the road block
A good friend texted me yesterday to tell me that they have been awarded a major, and highly competitive, regional fellowship. I am beyond thrilled for my friend who has lived an incredible life, has overcome unimaginable challenges and will do phenomenal things with this opportunity. But even as I was typing my congratulations, my heart was racing and I was having a hard time breathing. This is the same fellowship I have twice been a finalist for; the same fellowship I have twice been denied. And my joy at my friend’s success had to make space for my ongoing anguish at my own failure. Failure. Twice. I just can’t…
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e2 podcast: Sandra McCutcheon
Listen to the podcast here. Please meet my new friend Dr Sandra McCutcheon, or Sands, as Dr Marry calls her. Sandra is someone I have known of nearly as long as I have known Dr Marry because they did their PhDs together at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England. He has always spoken highly of her, so when she reached out while we were doing our addiction/sobriety series, I was keen to get to know her for myself. I wasn’t disappointed. Sandra left her super science-y life behind a number of years ago when she began to practice mindfulness, at first out of necessity and then out of choice.…
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Sweet lemon aid
This story originally appeared in the May/June 2020 issue of Inspired Home magazine. As you read this, we’re either still in or have just come out of an unprecedented global pandemic. Think about that for a minute. What other event in our planet’s entire history has literally brought the entire world together and absolutely isolated everyone simultaneously? Not every country fought in either of the World Wars and, while there have been other isolating pandemics, we didn’t have the benefit of technology to connect to people anywhere on the planet like we do today. So, what has happened because of this pandemic? There’s been a run on, of all things,…
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An added bonus amidst the stress
Before I had my current job, I was primarily a freelance writer and actor. That meant I had a lot of time at home to peruse the Internet, thinking about dinner (much of the world)/supper (midwesterners and definitely my mother) plans nearly every day. I love to read recipes, backstories, comments and reviews, and I have really missed that leisurely stroll through food blogs in the nearly 10 years since I started at The Arts Partnership. I still am the primary cook (Dr Marry will want me to tell you that’s because I don’t particularly appreciate his style of cooking, which is to throw nearly everything but the kitchen sink…
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Some things I am grateful for
I woke up early this morning, but it was already a little bit light out. This is one of my very favorite things about springtime—the coming of longer days. So I laid in bed for a minute and thought about all the little and big things I have come to be grateful for in this uncertain time: A much slower pace. In the morning, for example, Dr Marry and I have time to enjoy a cup of tea because we’re not running out the door to spin class. Multiple daily walks with Dr Marry and our pup Lilly through the neighborhood. Bread baking. Time to think about making lunch and…