My fingers press to my stomach
Under four layers of clothing
The core of me is warm and giving
My hands are freezing
I walk like that for a few minutes
Hugging myself through the juxtaposition
Of heat and cold across the skin of my belly
Austin to Atlanta
Traveling alone in the past has felt a little lonely to me. In college, it was a zone between worlds. My family and my fiance in one state. My friends and my burgeoning self in the other. No matter which way the plane flew I was leaving something behind.
Practicing Practice
I lead a monthly lunch & learn series at work for past graduates of our in-house leadership development program. It’s a discussion based program where I curate content – often a First Round article or Ted Talk – and we eat sandwiches and share our thoughts. It’s relatively well attended, though I couldn’t get any interest in the month I chose the theme diversity (the general squeamishness indicative of a bigger problem).
The Best Compliment I Ever Received
Brené Brown writes that shame drives two big tapes: “never good enough” and “who do you think you are?”
Pomodoro Technique
The more I try to cram efficiency into my days, the more I see how natural distraction comes to me. Even things like picking up a book and reading I’ll find myself getting distracted by thoughts before I pick up the book. As I wrote about previously, I’m interested in doing more deep work and decreasing my phone time every day. All in all, strategies like scheduling focused time, locking my social apps during the day, and shutting my office door occasionally have helped.
Writing Update: Progress is Progress
I’m making it a habit of writing about writing on Tuesdays. It’s been two weeks of writing at least a sentence of fiction every day. My accountability trick has worked since I’ve always written more than a sentence … the first one is the hardest. The last one is hard to pick so I’ll write another and another until I’m satisfied and the plot has moved another 200 words.
The Machine
What are the mechanics
Of creating my own voice
What gears do I need to turn
What sounds do I need to hear
Until I recognize the sound
Of my thoughts loud and clear
At the Ritz
The first time I went to the Ritz theater in downtown Austin I went alone. The Ritz is one of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters, […]
No Need To Burn Down The House
It gives me hope. Life is not only trauma and healing. Even the memories that used to burn me don’t hurt to look at now. My therapist once said to me, about my divorce, that someday I’ll get to the point where it was just something that happened. Not fresh and acidic in my thoughts. I admit I didn’t believe her.
The few and hopeful strategies of a girl who does not want to get sick
Sickness often comes at me like a train on tracks I’m shackled to … I tug at the chain but really all I can do is wait until I’m flattered. I don’t really have consistent strategies on early prevention when I get sick. I’m the person who always googles ‘how to stop a cold’ when I’m already cresting the worst of it. Then there are rumors of Emergen-C packets or Airborne or chicken noodle soup … some things are probably true.