1. Truth: I have such a bad case of Spring Fever. And we could still get snow. There was one year that at the end of Spring Break we got three feet, so winter isn’t over yet. I know that. I’m not completely delusional. And yet, the few days recently when we’ve gone on a walk and it was warm and the skies were blue and I didn’t have to wear a coat, or it was so nice I drove around with my moon roof open and the heat turned off, or the dogs could take a Kong out into the yard and chew on it while lounging in the grass, it made me realize I was so ready for things to start blooming, to get outside more, to shed some of the layers.
2. Truth: The number on the scale means nothing to me, but it does to other people. It doesn’t measure if I’m healthy or not. It doesn’t measure if I’m happy or not. It doesn’t represent how hard I’m trying or how much I’m loved. There was nursing assistant being trained at my doctor’s office yesterday, and when she wrote down my weight, she transposed the last two numbers, making me much lighter than fact. I assumed she’d gotten it right, corrected herself when she checked it the second time, but when she tried to enter it later into my computer records, it flagged it as an error because the number was so much lower than on my last visit. I corrected her, and she looked confused. I knew exactly what was going on — it was a number she wasn’t used to, a number that when she saw it written down made her make certain assumptions about a person, and when she looked at me, I didn’t fit that assessment.
3. Truth: I can trust myself. And I’m much more content, healthier when I do. When I trust my body to tell me what it needs, trust my own wisdom to guide my choices, instead of listening to someone else’s hysteria, someone else’s criticism, I can balance my effort with ease. I’m much happier when I listen for what I need, trust the whisper I hear inside rather than being overwhelmed by the noise of my environment. I don’t have to justify to anyone why I’m tired and need rest. I don’t have to earn the right to eat when I’m hungry. I don’t have to ask for permission to take up space. As poet Mary Oliver says, “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
One wish: My friend and teacher Susan Piver has been posting daily wishes on her Facebook page. Yesterday’s is my wish for all of us today, “Please have a good day. Don’t be afraid of your own life. Allow the world to touch you. Look for the magic.”
So great to be partnering with Wanderlustto share this list with a larger audience.
1. Two really great classes with two amazing teachers starting on Leap Day:Brave Blogging with Andrea Scher, 30 days of creative prompts and blogging lessons, and Leaping into Leap Year: What’s Your Leap? with Patti Digh, “What’s the leap forward you want to make? Let’s define it, set up conditions for success, and leap on February 29th!”
2. A Caring Chorus. “We all have a voice inside, and the best teachers help us find it. One group of students took the time to recognize their chorus teacher with a performance she’ll never forget.” Her response when they start singing is precious.
6. WATCH: “This veterinarian knew he had to get this starving rescued puppy to eat something, so he did an experiment. He got in the cage along with her, put his breakfast in a metal bowl just like hers, and showed her that they are equals – both deserving a good meal, and a little love.” I can’t even…
12. One Big Reason Your Life Is Harder (And Busier) Than It Has To Be from Marc and Angel Hack Life. *Spoiler Alert* “Here’s the thing: Busyness is NOT a badge of honor. There’s zero honor at all in endless busyness. Busyness is just an illness that makes everything harder than it has to be.”
14. Don’t Fall into the Self-Esteem Trap: Try a Little Self-Kindness by Kristin Neff, who just so happens to be an expert on the subject of self-compassion. “Striving for self-esteem is about trying hard to feel special, above average. It’s absurd. We don’t need to feel extra-special or over the top. We need to touch who we really are in any given moment.”
15. Before You Blow Up Your Life, Do This from Jonathan Fields. “What if, instead of blowing up what lies outside, we broke open what lies within?” Is it utterly horrible to believe that he wrote this just for me?
16. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club, “Rest does not need to hold hands with guilt. We do not have to pay for rest when the rest is over.”
My epiphany was this: Oprah is one of the most accomplished, admired, able people in the world. She has an Oscar to keep all her Emmy Awards company. She creates magic for other people and herself on the regular. So if Oprah can’t do permanent lifelong weight loss, maybe it can’t be done. Oprah is also crazy rich. If Oprah can’t buy permanent lifelong weight loss, maybe it can’t be bought. And that sucks.
But it is also incredibly freeing if you, like me, have thought about your weight so many times throughout every day of your life that it becomes as maddening and distracting as if you’d stowed a beating telltale heart beneath your floorboards.
24. 10 Best Yoga Tunes of the Year, from Yoga Journal. “Early ballots for the 2016 Grammy Awards included nearly two dozen albums inspired by bhakti yoga. We listened to them all to choose our favorite yoga music for the year.” I haven’t listened to any of these yet, but I’m excited for some new music.
28. Syd Rocks. At 10 years old, Sydney was diagnosed with LCH, Langerhan’s Cell Histiocytosis, a rare blood disorder. The cause of the disease is unknown and it is estimated that Histiocytosis affects one in 200,000 children each year in the U.S. After treatment (not fun), Sydney is doing better, but she’s committed to donating 100% of the profit earned from her Syd Rocks necklaces to medical research to find a cure for LCH and pediatric cancer. She’ll have a booth at Wanderlust 108 Chicago on May 16th, or you can shop at her website.
The power of the paramita of patience is that it is the antidote to anger, a way to learn to love and care for whatever we meet on the path. By patience, we do not mean enduring — grin and bear it. In any situation, instead of reacting suddenly, we could chew it, smell it, look at it, and open ourselves to seeing what’s there. The opposite of patience is aggression — the desire to jump and move, to push against our lives, to try to fill up space. The journey of patience involves relaxing, opening to what’s happening, experiencing a sense of wonder.
31. Growing Together by Thich Nhat Hanh on Lion’s Roar. “In his introduction to the book, Love’s Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships, Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how we can use loving relationships to cultivate the seeds of buddhahood inside us.”
36. In Memory of David R. Tolstrup, D.O. My friend Jim’s brother died unexpectedly last week. “He was a much loved son, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend and will be very much missed by many. He was also a dedicated and compassionate physician who believed in healing the whole person and who often worked with underserved populations in his medical career. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you donate to Doctors Without Borders, an organization that works tirelessly around the world to see that some of the most vulnerable among us receive life saving care regardless of their means.”
37. Kickstarter: The Tiny Book Show. “The Tiny Book Show is a mobile museum of miniature books traveling across the US this summer in our 1965 Covered Wagon caravan.” One of my favorite projects by two of my favorite poets.
