Inspired By In November

Thinking About:

Breaking the Chain

I’ve been in a shame spiral all week about not posting last Thursday. It was my first missed deadline here. But it was Thanksgiving, and I had just returned from Portland, and I was tired and hadn’t been writing my 1K Words a Day, so I was lost. 

I had no thoughts. 

Two mornings ago, I had a stern fountain pen talk with myself in my pink Standard Issue.

My inner wisdom said, “Kath, honey, darling, baby, let it go. Next year, make it a rule you won’t post on Thanksgiving. Now, just keep going.

And I felt better. 

Word of the Year

I’ve also been thinking about my word of the year. I don’t do resolutions, I pick a word instead—some north star word to guide my life.

Last year, it was MUSCLE.  

In 2021, it was PRO. 

In 2019, it was WONDER. 

I’ve been trying to track down my 2020 word, but I can’t find it anywhere. I must have had one, right?

But 2020 was such a disaster. 

This morning, I was looking through Spotify, and I saw the Keep Going On Song, and when I played it, it took my breath away. 

We were so alone, then. So quarantined and socially distanced and scared and full of rage. We didn’t know how long our isolation would last. 

And then these brave, crazy, talented people on YouTube sang songs to us to help us all keep our shit together. I remember playing this one over and over and tearing up every time. 

Doesn’t that time feel so long ago? That time when we all lived on Planet Pandemic in our astronaut suits with our bubble helmets so we wouldn’t die?

Aging Fantastically

I cannot stop thinking of this woman. She is everything I want to be as I approach the end of my life: Cheerful, self-effacing, honest, happy, engaged in her projects, her work, her friends, and her community. I would give anything to sit and have tea with her and learn how she became that way. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/864869718641033

Eating and Drinking

There seems to be no time to cook, no interest in thumbing through cookbooks for recipes. Instead, I eat cheese, salami, cashews, and eggs. Yesterday I had oatmeal for the first time in ages

Reading

Yesterday I finished listening to Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Meryl Streep narrated and she was fantastic. The story gripped me. I gave it four stars on Goodreads, even though it made me sad. A mother of three grown daughters, tells them the story of how she was once an aspiring actress who left acting to become the wife of a cherry farmer and their mother.

The end was poignant. And right.

I am also reading Let Us Descend by Jesym Ward. This is the book group pick. I’m halfway, and it is riveting both in the plot and the style.

Watching

I’ve returned to The Morning Show.

I don’t want to finish Lessons in Chemistry, so I’m letting those episodes pile up.

Suits still engages me, and I’m only in Season 4 so there’s lots of that to watch. Of course, Survivor on Wednesdays.

I am also watching the season go from fall to winter. This week with the snow, we’ve officially turned that corner. The solstice isn’t for another three weeks, but for me, winter has started. The house is sparkling with Christmas lights, we’ll get our tree today.

I am watching the fire, the snow, the dogs.

Dog Walk on campus