HOME + TRAVEL

A quiet beginning to my day starts with sensory practices that help me navigate with more ease and a calmer and more open presence. I wake up around 5:30 am and make my way upstairs to my office. If I’m lucky, the moon is waiting outside my window to greet me. In that early hour I fill the time with reading, writing, and research fueled by curiosity and inspiration.

Once the birds begin to sing, I know it’s time to move back downstairs to begin my day. After taking my son to school, I spend time walking our dog, strolling through or watering the garden, and making time to move my body through dance or a workout.

The birds begin singing again around 11:30 alerting me to feed myself lunch and to fill up the feeder in the backyard. Around the time I begin hearing the Carolina wrens sing and watch them flutter around the backyard is the time I need to pick up my son from school. Not every day follows this rhythm, but enjoying the days that do help me to balance out the days when unexpected events pop up.

Weekends allow for more freedom and less structure around enjoyable activities. This article on taming your weekend ambitions and trying out slow indulgences instead feels like a good shift for the weekend.

On weekend mornings I like to start my day a little more slowly than those during the week. I find going to Hamimommy’s You Tube Channel on Saturday mornings when her video drops helps me to calmly move into a weekend mindset. There is an art to domesticity and simple daily routines and viewing household chores in that way changes my perspective.

The experience of watching someone work through their daily rhythms helps me to appreciate the beauty in my own. Many times when I’m not feeling up to tackling more chores on the weekend, the videos will help motivate me to tackle my list at a weekend pace.

Taking my time on the weekends makes house chores meditative (and entertaining if I listen to an audiobook or podcast) because I’m using my hands and have moments to think and process my week. I love the way Hamimommy explains in this video how she can tell the rhythms of the day without a watch. I’ve often thought about the way the light moves through the house or the sounds outside feeling like markers for time in the day. (*link to video has sound)

50 simple things that make you happy (*link has sound) What is on your list? Share in the comments below this post.

Filling your home with joyful light. I used this article recently to choose lights for our hallway.

My favorite shoes for traveling and relaxing around the house this spring are OluKai sandals and slip-ons. They’re pricey, but they last! This year I’m adding a pair of slides to wear in the house. (The high arches in my feet and my lower back will thank me.)

GARDEN

WELLNESS

Libraries, especially in rural communities, serve as a community hub for learning and gathering. What if libraries provided mental health resources in addition to books and community events?

The St. David’s Foundation here in Austin is piloting a program that will offer mental health services to those without access to clinics.

Reimagining Mental Health Care Delivery Through Public Libraries

“If we are to champion health equity within our region, we must recognize the many unseen barriers to accessing care. We must commit to breaking down those barriers in innovative ways that use the full range of community assets, including spaces, relationships, and information. We also need to go out where our residents already gather in trusted, welcoming environments such as public libraries. We are excited to partner with public libraries to reimagine the delivery of mental health services in their facilities to help our residents thrive.”

-Abena Asante, MHA, Senior Program Officer, St. David’s Foundation.

CREATIVITY

We were excited to spot a female (or maybe it’s an immature male) painted bunting enjoying a cool drink and a bath at our birdbath this week. This little bird reminded me of the bird collages I created two years ago that included a male painted bunting. I find nature to be an inspiring muse.

BOOKSHELF

Somehow we’re already to the end of April, so that means we’re wrapping up National Poetry Month.

I listened to the replay of a Poetry 101 class featuring the poet Tanya Runyan with The Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club and picked up a few tips on enjoying poetry.

“Poetry: the best words in the best order.”

-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Tanya Runyan described reading poetry as a way of inviting all of your senses to an experience of organized sound that evokes emotion.

Before you remember back to English classes that encouraged you to break apart poems into pieces and force meaning out of them, try out a few of Tanya Runyan’s tips from her book, How to Write a Poem, based on a Billy Collins poem called “Introduction to Poetry”. Tanya Runyan invites poetry readers to first enjoy a poem rather than feel intimidated by the language or structure.

To experience a poem with all of your senses, she encourages hesitant poetry readers to follow Billy Collins’ guidance in his poem to “hold the poem up to the light like a color slide”. Imagery and vivid descriptions in a poem can evoke visceral reactions, personal connections, or memories helping us to see ourselves or a different perspective through poetry.

Listen for the sound of the words like putting your ear to a beehive. Experience the way the carefully chosen words sound together when read aloud and the way they play with each other.

Pay attention to any moments where you feel a light bulb come on inside of you when you relate to a line in the poem or begin to sense your own connection and meaning.

Poet Billy Collins asks the reader to “water ski across the surface of a poem waving to the author’s name on the shore” in gratitude for the experience.

Tanya Runyan reminds us that poems are not puzzles to decode. Instead poems are sensory experiences to enjoy.

If you’d like to make reading poetry a daily habit, Tanya Runyan mentioned a good resource for daily poetry, and I thought I’d share. Tweet Speak Poetry is available for just $5.99 a year.

Check out Typewriter Rodeo here in Austin, Texas! This talented team creates custom poems on vintage typewriters.

Give your kids the green light to play with words. A Poem is a Nest by Irene Latham invites kids to play with words through poetry! She begins with four seasonal “nest” poems. From those poems she creates “nestling” (or smaller) poems using the words from the “nest” poems. Latham explains that when we write, the words become twigs to build our “nest” or poem. If you’ve ever heard of “found” or “blackout” poems you’ll know that they are made using words from another text and then transformed into something new.

I’m sharing a few of my favorite lines from an Irene Latham “nest” poem in hopes it will encourage you or your kids to write a few “nestling” poems for yourself. Latham suggests circling a few of your favorite words and beginning from those few words. If you’d like more tips on how to find sneaky words, turning nouns into verbs, creating your own unique words, and other ways to play with your words, I encourage you to pick up her book of poetry wordplay.

“New adventures call, and, one by one, the robins wing away.

Off they fly past sun and moon, tiny stars in a vast seaglass sky.

Empty nest becomes nothing more than a morning house of light.”

-excerpt from “Summer” by Irene Latham

Max’s Words by Kate Banks and Boris Kulikov was a family favorite when my son was young. Young Max is envious of his brothers’ collection of coins and stamps, so he begins a collection of his own. As Max’s collection of words grows so does his imagination and the stories that emerge. This book would be a great ongoing literacy game to play with your children. Encourage them to add to their word collection every day!

This week I finished up yet another book by one of my favorite authors, Stacey Lee, called Outrun the Moon. Based on the 1906 earthquake that tore apart San Francisco, this YA novel proves that even in the worst circumstances, people can find community.

I love Stacey Lee’s writing because she can have you smiling and laughing at the same time she is bringing to light the heartbreaking elements of humanity that divide us. Mercy’s fierce and determined spirit make her character reminiscent of all of the strong female protagonists in Stacey Lee’s novels.

COMMUNITY

Are you an auditory learning? Wishing you could read that long email, PDF, or article AND enjoy the outdoors or walk the dog? I just found Speechify and I’m intrigued. It makes my heart sing when tools are created to meet the needs of all learners.

I’m taking next week off, so I’ll see you for Season 19 in two weeks. Enjoy your weekend!

Get involved in your community. VOTE. Speak out. Volunteer. Take action.

“Do your little bit of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” -Desmond Tutu