“Perhaps grief is not about empty, but full. The full breath of life that includes death. The completeness, the cycles, the depth, the richness, the process, the continuity and the treasure of the moment that is gone the second you are aware of it.”
—Alysia Reiner
In this occasional series, I share what I’ve been reading, watching, thinking, and doing.
What I’m Reading:
What I’m (re)Watching: Arrested Development
What I’m Listening To: Simple Families Podcast food series; HerMoney — Cait Flanders interview about her shopping ban (also interviewed on The New Family podcast)
Where I’ve Been Recently: St. Augustine, FL (pre-baby trip in December/January); family excursions to Black Mountain College reHappening and Knoxville Opera Rossini festival
What I’m Looking Forward To: Taking the baby on his first big roadtrip to meet my family and friends in Pennsylvania
Latest Personal Project: Learning more about plant care and garden maintenance and trying to get my landscaping in better shape
Recent Moment of Joy: Interacting with the baby, hearing him try to talk, seeing him smile at me, and watching him gain skills. Yesterday he started trying to pick up his toys and put them in his mouth.
Currently Inspired By: All things minimalism/simple living (though you’d never know it by walking through my house!)
Grateful For: The ability to work from home for a while so I can spend more time with my little one
Cheers,
Alexis
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
― Dita Von Teese
“The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are.”
—Thomas Dreier
I’ve written a lot of posts about steps I’ve taken to improve my day-to-day life and overall wellness, like reading books, meditating, language-learning, and exercising. I’ve even described myself as a bit of a self-improvement junkie. I am constantly consuming media about the latest health-related studies and how to become more efficient and effective in my professional and personal life.
I believe this continual learning and experimenting adds value to my life, but it’s easy to let these habit-related, day-to-day pursuits distract me from long-term planning. Setting big goals and grand-scale intentions is something that I haven’t done very often in my life, though I know it’s important. I’m talking about envisioning my life decades from now and asking myself what I want it to look like. What contributions will I have made to the world? What kind of lifestyle will I be living? If I could call myself an expert at something, what would it be? Read more