Renewal

A week of sprinkling in joy as I returned to the outside world and a semblance of routine.

Ways I Found Joy This Week

Being feted by the nurses for “graduating” from my year of monthly shots that actually reversed osteoporosis

Receiving two moving personal notes from readers of Rising

Hosting the first ladies’ movie night of the year at my place

Stopping for a chat with the elderly man down the street whose authentic positivity is an inspiration and whose smile lights up the day

Buying fresh flowers for the first time in weeks and sharing the joy by surprising my neighbor with a little arrangement

Decorating my laptop with stickers that make me smile every time I open it

Sitting under the bougainvillea at the nearby French bakery, sipping coffee and nibbling a croissant while reading

Checking out a local arts festival and soaking up all the creativity

Spending time at the CWP’s apartment helping with organization and decorating

Things I Learned This Week

The basics of Adlerian psychology

That I’ve become exponentially more patient over the past several years

That I can learn and remember history when I consume it as a story

That you can start over as often as you want or need to

Ways I Moved This Week

Getting my daily step count back up

Returning to my Pilates studio

Quotes That Resonated This Week

Let your heart break so your spirit doesn’t.

Andrea Gibson

Freedom is being disliked by other people.

From The Courage To Be Disliked

…love will often look a lot like rage as it fiercely fights on behalf of those who are being brutalized.

John Pavlovitz

What I Watched This Week

The Princess Bride (tribute to Rob Reiner)

Labyrinth (40^th anniversary)

His & Hers (Netflix). This adaptation of an Alice Feeney novel jumped to the front of my queue when it dropped. Did not disappoint.

Key & Peele (a great reminder of the healing power of laughter—I hooted at least once per episode)

It-Welcome to Derry (HBO). Gruesome at times but so well done.

What I Read This Week

Finished:

The Courage to Be Disliked, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. I grabbed this title from my online queue imagining that it was going to bolster what I’d already learned about losing people as I grew and changed, but it’s so much more than that. It’s an examination, in the form of a dialogue between a philosopher and a youth, of the difference between etiology and teleology, or the idea that “people are not driven by past causes but move toward goals that they themselves set.” Especially loved the discussion of separation of tasks, or focusing only on one’s own responsibilities.

The Mad Wife, by Meagan Church. This tale of a 1950s housewife (“another woman lost to the epidemic of nerves mixed with boredom and madness”) began with a sense of foreboding which continued to build. A richly detailed period piece examining the silencing and dismissal of women.

Started:

Flashlight, by Susan Choi. The story of the family of a man (who has presumably been washed out to sea while walking with his young daughter) spanning decades, countries, and cultures. Gorgeously written.

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Thanks for reading!