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…
Personal Writing
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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?š), 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, weāre either still in or have just come out of an unprecedented global pandemic. Think about that for a minute. What other event in our planetās 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 didnāt 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? Thereās 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 springtimeāthe 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…
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e2 podcast: Heather Zinger
Listen to the podcast here. Meet my friend Heather Zinger. Artist, entrepreneur, healer and joy maker. Heather is the most intrinsically artistic person I know because she pursues her path from a total commitment to artistic integrity. A lot of it I don’t particularly “get,” but I love that she’s so authentic and real. And I think you’ll enjoy that, too. I’ve known Heather since she made her way to Fargo in 2012. I have learned so much from her because she practices art in very public ways and treats the public as a canvas for art-making. Heather is absolutely instrumental for so much of what I am pursuing these…
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Huh, that’s weird.
“We have defined weird as a tool to force people toward the center…but the center is boring. When you care, you care by going away from the center.” ~Seth Godin I completed Seth Godin’s AltMBA earlier this year, and it was an incredibly important four-week sprinting marathon of work, learning and connecting. Because I took that class, I am now part of this massive, dynamic, kind of overwhelming and far-reaching online community. And while I am still in the exploratory phase of learning about the site, I really love the opportunities I have already taken advantage of and the people I am starting to feel a real connection to because…
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Stay present; stay alert
Do we really want to return to all of that? Are we, as highly privileged Americans, really so blind and numb to all that was wrong with before that we will, like lemmings on a cliff, jump right back into what is surely the continuing death of our individual and collective humanity not to mention an enormous amount of the natural world?