• Christmas lights

    How I Costco

    Park in the very last row because it’s Saturday and, of course, the entire lot is full.

    Walk into the bustling superstore with a list. Fully intend to buy mostly meat, baking supplies and paper goods.

    Spot the holiday decorations aisle near the entrance and make a beeline for all that joy.

    Fill my entire cart with Christmas decorations. Agree — reluctantly — to leave the giant sled and reindeer I’ve been wanting for four years because it won’t fit in the cart, the car or the shed.

    Purchase everything else and cram it into my Prius.

    Take cart back into the store and buy the stuff I actually planned to get in the first place.

    Walk out feeling accomplished, excited for the holidays and a little wistful about that sled/reindeer.

  • skull

    It’s still 2019 and my telomeres are shortening

    I have not been sleeping well this year.

    Like many of you, I’m dismayed by the current political climate and the changes in the actual climate. Chronic stress, particularly at work, makes it hard to breathe. Dread fills me whenever I pick up my phone to look at the latest news alerts or when I prepare to start another shift. What terrible event awaits? The death and destruction beat has always been something I’ve been able to handle with long decades of practice, but now, I feel brittle and worn thin.

    Add to this the difficulties of any year — financial ups and downs, helping the ones you love deal with illness or displacement, the loss of those you hold dear — and the effort to unwind becomes that much more difficult.

    Oh, the things I do to decompress are still enjoyable. The kitties snuggle, the cakes rise, the pages of the books turn and I take great pleasure in them. I love where I live and have thoroughly enjoyed the beauty and wonders of Autumn. My family and friends are golden, and thankfully, for the moment, I still have my health (not counting the migraines I’ve suffered since the mid-’90s and the annoying cough).

    Yet the stress does not dissipate; instead it temporarily freezes like ice on Friday morning and melts back into being once the weekend ends. And when I try to sleep, the nightmares come. I toss and turn; I repeatedly wake. My lower back aches from contorting myself into uncomfortable positions, my neck and shoulders exist in a permanent state of tightness no matter how many massages I obtain.

    There is no rest.

    Still, I press on. As M recently said, this could be the best we ever get. There may be even tougher times ahead and we need to prepare for that. I know he is right, which is why I gird myself for what’s next, try to make meaningful changes, help others whenever I can and, hardest of all, attempt to remain hopeful.

    Photo by Ben Earwicker, Garrison Photography, Boise, Idaho.

  • reading

    The need for a secular sabbath

    “If you dread a day of rest from the digital world, then you probably need one.” –Sharon Samiento

    Most of my daily life is plugged in to technology. I spend a minimum of 10 hours a day working, sitting at a desk, utterly focused on my computer and cellphone. When I’m “off the clock,” many of life’s pleasures also take place in front of screens: writing, reading on a Kindle, watching movies or Netflix, browsing the internet or playing video games.

    Such a technology-based life feeds my curiosity — and pays the bills — but when combined with the madness of the news cycle, it can be hell on the body and soul. I don’t breathe normally anymore, in that I have to remind myself to do it, deeply and purposefully, or else the air I consume is shallow. Sitting upright in a chair takes mindfulness; the posture of slumped shoulders is so easy to assume when you’re focused outside of your body.

    I crave quietness more than I used to, quietness of environment and of the mind. At least for a little while.

    So, I’m going to reclaim a day each week to unplug and decompress. Abby Falik takes a similar secular sabbath. The founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, a nonprofit that channels teenage wanderlust toward social good, recently told the Books of Your Life podcast that the practice had made her more productive in the rest of her life.

    Just what will I do with that day? Why, I’ll read, of course, but books in a dead-tree format (paperback and hardcover) rather than an electrical one (audio and ebooks). I’ll bake new recipes instead of just collecting ideas from food blogs. I’ll write letters and poems, stories and novels in longhand; such scribblings can easily be transcribed into the computer later for editing purposes. And, I’ll do my best to get outside more. As a writer, it’s so easy to become homebound and isolated. Yet inspiration comes from outside forces as well as imaginative ones.

    Trying new activities, exploring unknown places and generally saying yes to non-techy adventures will, I hope, make me a little less stressed and a lot more inspired.

  • lighthouse at night

    Quote of the day

    “Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.” –Patricia A. McKillip