On encouragement

Dear readers-- thanks for your feedback via text, email, and facebook. Keep it coming, and remember that there's also a discussion forum on the blog (if you're so inclined)

Today I thought I'd write a quick post on the power of positive remembering. More than just positive thinking, recalling good moments of my recent past helps me refocus on the benefits and blessings of my present. I'm even using a really cool app to help: grateful160. It sends a text message once a day to ask what you're thankful for. In a text of 160 or fewer characters, you reply. At the end of the week you get a synopsis of your week measured in gratitude. For someone who has a tendency to fall into self-destructive, isolating melancholy, I find this an important tool in my fight against won't-leave-the-house-or-be-productive depressive moments.

I've also been keeping busy with appointments and house-updating. Terminix, a consignment store, and flooring people all came yesterday. Even though I'm behind on my reading, I find myself better prepared to fight the "I can't ever do this" feeling with the knowledge that reading is my primary, but not only, commitment.

And speaking of consignment stores, check out our new space!

Notice that big, beautiful couch is gone? Yep. I'll be posting updates about this room as the summer continues; I'm so looking forward to its progression!

And here are some photos of the new front yard (subject of my last post on yard work):

New pine straw, new mailbox plot, new mailbox plant (named Cliff-- get it?)

We also changed out the plants by our porch. A plot that once hosted two large but scraggly roses (who, I admit, look quite lovely for about two weeks of the year) and a few random bushes is now home to four promising shrubs. Most importantly, we've covered up most of the giant, black, plastic drain pipe. Hooray.

Another part of my self-encouragement strategy is to invest time in projects whose return is both quick and lasting. I love, love the new yard. I am constantly excited about the new TV room. Writing down what I've read for exams on a "hall of fame" board makes me feel more productive than crossing off something from a baffling, four-page reading list. I do something everyday that helps me (grocery store, allergy shots, dry cleaners). I reach out to friends and schedule get-togethers in advance. I'm keeping busy, and even on days when I oversleep (ahem), having so much else to do me keeps me afloat. I'll have to remember that on days that get really difficult.

Until next time, wishing everyone fond memories of projects past.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, readers! Hopefully most of you have been able to spend some quality time with your own maternal figures.  I just returned from Belize with my mother and mother-in-law (in addition to stepfather, father-in-law, sister, sister's bf, and husband). I was simply thrilled to share the perfect vacation with perfectly wonderful women.

My mom, ever-adventurous, first took me buddy diving in Belize almost two decades ago.  Now certified, I find diving with her both delightful and dear-- it's an activity  she has always spoken of highly, and one I dreamt of sharing with her for most of my childhood (dream realized below).

She's done all the great mom things-- helped me through horrible times,  celebrated the better ones, never, ever, EVER given up on my potential or my happiness. But her contribution to my live is so much more than her role as mother. It is also as teacher, friend, and eager passport-stamper.

Indeed, nearly all of what she's taught me (like how to identify marine exoskeletons, above) has revolved around adventure, travel, and natural science.  She used to point out all the constellations and tell me to scuff my feet in the shallows; she made me swear up and down that I'd never night swim in the ocean and taught me how to handle snakes; she assured me that the whole world was worth seeing and saving, and I--ever curious of her globe-trekking footsteps--have tried to follow close behind in order to do so.

My mother-in-law is simply awesome. A working mother and wife for over thirty years, she has paved another road for me to follow. Her commitment to family is inspiring and a little intimidating-- could I do what she's done and still have a perfectly level and loving head on my shoulders?  I've got some time to prepare myself for the adventure of working parenthood, but I'm glad to have another kind of model before me.

My stepmother, too, has been a great setter of bars.  A ridiculously talented, totally genius architect, she has literally made a mark on our world. She's shown me how important it is to push myself professionally, even within an extraordinarily difficult field that is far from family-female-friendly.

Of course, the mothers in my life are not limited to these three wonderwomen. I am ever-grateful and humbled by the grand feats of my sisters and friends.  I feel empowered and encouraged by all of the examples you set the many roads you paved, and the constant, love you show.  

Until next time, may you find yourselves surrounded by as many good mothers as I.