What I Learned This Month

I am linking to Emily Freeman's monthly "What I Learned This Month" roundup. 

Walking is good for the soul. It's even better if you take your camera along. It's not just that I capture great photos of nature-type stuff, it's that with my camera in my hand I'm more likely to look for it.

You should listen to your husband. He knows you better than you know yourself sometimes. There was an event about an hour and a half from our home that I mentioned wanting to go to. But as the event neared I rationalized that it would be better if I stayed home. There was lots to do, we hadn't had a lot of family time of late, yada yada. My husband gave me that knowing look and said, "You need to do that." And right then and there he got on his phone and made the hotel reservation. The next morning, before I really could register what was happening, I went. I ended up having the best time, met some great people and was so completely happy I went that I had to thank him for pushing me to go.

Just because you feel a certain way a certain day, you probably won't feel that way forever. On low energy, bad mood, edgy, no motivation, listless days it's ok to listen to your body and ease up on yourself. Chances are if you rest and take stuff off your to-do list without beating yourself up for being a loser, you'll more than make up for it the following day. (Ask me how I know.)

Listening to Disappearing World by David Gray (my favorite) in a rare moment home alone is a restorative thing. Also finding out that Annie Lennox covered Downtown Lights by The Blue Nile (my other favorite) is a gift you can give to yourself again and again.





(You're welcome.)

Speaking of musicians...
Dan Rather's series of interviews with musicians called The Big Interview is fascinating no matter who the musician is. I was as riveted by the interview with Kenny Rogers as I was by the one with Josh Groban. Musicians are creative people and hearing their journeys, wisdom, and inspiration is good tv. (I find these interviews on my AXS cable channel. But if you don't have cable, many of them can be found on the good ole You Tube.)

Speaking of tv...
I really, really like shows by the BBC (Broadchurch, Grantchester, Luther, The Fall, Call The Midwife etc.) This is both wonderful and awful. Wonderful because they're so good and awful because I remember my father watching shows on PBS done by the BBC and thinking he was 1) old and 2) weird. Who wants to listen to a bunch of Brits talking? Come to find out, I do! Apparently I've now reached the "old and weird" phase of life.

Finally, life is short. Of course we all know this. We don't need to "learn" it. But sometimes we need to be reminded. When this happened in my home church, though I didn't know the woman it happened to, a dear friend was supposed to be meeting her for dinner that very night. Her last text to her was "happy hiking." As you can imagine, my friend was pretty wrecked and the tragedy felt that much closer to home. My friend and I went out to lunch after the funeral and talked about the many things we want to do differently, more urgently, than ever before.

Life is short. What do you need to do that you're putting off or too scared to do or keep forgetting to make happen? Maybe today we could all honor this woman's legacy and go do whatever it is. In that way this tragedy will feel just a little less tragic. Though I don't know her, I've heard a lot about her from our mutual friend. And I get the feeling that's exactly what she would want.