Tristan Prettyman

#2 - I Was Gonna Marry You - song by Tristan Prettyman that I've had in my head all day.





#3 - How my writing is coming together. Every few years I feel the need to write about what I've been thinking or learning, and then I send it as a letter to my friends (or really anyone that might read it). I was working on my current one today and I got excited about how it is coming together.






#4 - I realized the difference between these letters and most year end letters sent out by people (besides the length.) Most of those letters are exclusively focused on what people did which is interesting and important. However, what often gets left out is what people are feeling, what people are thinking about. I wonder why it is so rare to put that in those kinds of letters?

I am a Town

#1 - A while back I posted Yummy Earth Organic Wild Peppermints as a gratitude.  Let me add to that...when I stick one on the roof of my mouth it lasts for a while and if I take a sip of cool water and hold it, the flavor permeates my entire mouth.

#2 - I am a Town by Mary Chapin Carpentar - that song washes over me, asks me to breathe deeply and always has.

#3 - This slowing down reminded me of catching a train with friends.  We were going to miss it, so we ran.  Well two of us did, one didn't.  "She refuses to be in a hurry anymore," her partner told me.  I understood this.  I respected this.  However, we would have missed the train had the two of us not run ahead to buy tickets.

This got me thinking about the nature of hurrying and how it is almost always stressful.  But I remembered another occasion - transferring from a train to a ferry.  It was a large station with multiple floors.  We didn't have much time.  So we ran.  It felt like I was in a movie.  It felt like an adventure.  It felt fun.

#4 - I had a really yummi breakfast that I've probably been grateful for before, but I will still describe it - full-fat vanilla yogurt, strawberries, walnuts, rolled oats and currants.  I'll add to this that I have been taking short showers, because I have been taking cold showers, because it has been so hot.   Since over half the nation is in some state of drought that can be a small contribution. And Carrie Elkin - Company of Friends  (song). 

#5 - Being Available - I remember in college when a roommate of mine needed to go to the hospital for some reason.  I wanted to be available and support her fully and I had my own college workload in the back of my mind.  Luckily I worked ahead of time so I go with her without sacrificing much, but it really bugged me that if it had been a bigger sacrifice I couldn't give it unconditionally.  I thought I would still make the "right choice", going to the hospital with her, but I didn't think I would be there fully.  I didn't have a word for "presence" yet, but I was knew that it mattered and that just being there physically wasn't enough.

I still don't have the answer to this - how to be available for what is really important in life.  Or rather, I have an answer but I don't particularly like it - have a job that doesn't pay much and isn't very important, don't have anything in your life that requires too much of you.  Some days I don't like this lack of direction/commitment.  Other days, I get an email from a friend, which she has sent to a lot of friends, talking about going through a hard time and asking for support and I think, "I'm on it!"

Fiasco

#1 - Lemon Berry Cream Pie - I try to consume as many berries as possible while they are in season because it goes by so quickly! This recipe actually came from a cookbook called Clean Food and also does not actually contain any dairy so I'm not so sure about the "cream" name.  (Michelle Obama is simply an appropriate backdrop.)

#2 - Fiasco - an old This American Life episode that I listened to the first segment today which made me laugh out loud.

#3 - I laughed again later thinking of it while making this pie.

#4 - I got really upset last week when I learned that someone I knew sent an email while on a meditation retreat.  Could she not wait five days to tell people how great it was???  Could she simply not enjoy the greatness for a while???  Anyway, I was already grateful last week to find a way to send her this message without the anger or frustration I felt, and today I got her reply which said.

"So funny……I got on my little Ipad for 10 minutes one night, and then realized…..no way. J

You are very astute."

#5 - "When all the dangerous cliffs are fenced off, all the trees that might fall on people are cut down, all of the insects that bite are poisoned...and all of the grizzlies are dead because they are occasionally dangerous, the wilderness will not be made safe.  Rather, the safety will have destroyed the wilderness."  - R. Yorke Edwards

Quiet

#1 - I think it is from listening to the first 20 minutes of Quiet : [the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking] / Susan Cain. (which I really enjoyed), that I have been thinking about introverts/extroverts recently, especially in noticing how early this is apparent in my friend's children. I'd say by three years old it is pretty clear. I was talking to my teenage cousin about this yesterday telling her how I was pretty sure she was an introvert and that one of her sisters is an extrovert (and the other sister I'm not as sure about).

Anyway, my cousin wasn't really buying it so I just called her on the phone to see if she wanted to take one of the online tests. She was watching the Olympic trails so she said not now. I was going to end the conversation then, write my gratitudes and go to bed, but she was watching gymnastics, one of her favorite topics, and an hour later she was still talking to me. I had to laugh because it reminded me of myself. I remember telling my best friend in high school about people thinking I was so quiet and her saying that she didn't see me that way because I talked all the time! Same with my cousin, when I am with her and her sisters, she doesn't say a lot, her sisters are generally louder and more demanding of my attention. But on the phone with me tonight she talked non-stop.


#2 - She could relate when I started telling her how society often undervalues introversion, and that the Quiet book sounds interesting.


#3 - At the end of our conversation my cousin said she wanted to take the Meyer Briggs (an unofficial/free version) online with me later this week. I said, "Okay I'll call you some evening this week." Then she proceeded to say that we would need to do it by Wednesday because... and Monday and Tuesday there was...., basically thinking through her week. I said, "See you are a "J" (Judging), this is exactly the way a Judging person thinks." It was fun to have concrete examples of what I was failing to explain to her in the abstract.


#4 - We were asked to take five deep breathes at the beginning of yoga and think of a gratitude for each breath.


#5 - My niece loved the carrot juice, banana, lime, ginger smoothie her mom and I were drinking and kept signaling for more.