š» what I'm up to š»
This month I learned that seasonal affective disorder gets to me more than I thought. The sun came out in early February and it is wild how much my overall state changed. WILD. Also wild how havenāt clocked that before. The sun gave me so much energy, its brightness making me feel brighter. Itās not an instant magic depression-healing tool, obviously, but it helped. A lot. So, I spent a lot of February getting to things my brain could not handle the past couple of months. Deep cleaning the house, taking care of some emails, getting taxes in orderāthe kinds of things that are the less glamorous but no less vital forms of self care.
Itās a little thing but cleaning and rearranging the sunroom felt amazing.
Iād say I even did some deep cleaning of my soul, assessing my values and priorities and reconsidering how much power I was giving to other people and entities over my well being. Too much. But Iām feeling more in control, my focus determining my reality in much healthier ways. āHey Judeā has really been my go-to this month, helping to keep me out of the dark corners. And watching Rainn Wilsonās The Geography of Bliss when it came out last May got a lot of gears turning and itās taken a lot for the existential crisis that show sparked to manifest into action (itās still a work in progress).
Iām trying to connect to my community more than ever and be more in service to other people, animals, and the planet. Doing this comes with balancing my time so I can work and write and then volunteer as much as I want. This comes from wanting to do better and put more good into the world and because, selfishly, it brings me such joy, pride, and a sense of completion.
Anyway, thatās where my rambly brain is these days!
š my book things š
You know, Iām over here waiting and drafting as per, sometimes in the opposite order. Publishing is an exercise in endurance and I currently feel like Iām hanging by my nails over a gaping canyon, but I will Tom Cruise through it and succeed.
šŗ what I'm watching šŗ
Yellowstone
I recently clicked into Peacock intending to rewatch Parks & Rec for some uplifting vibes and somehow I found Yellowstone instead. Is it uplifting? Absolutely not. Am I highly entertained and almost through all five seasons? Absolutely yes. Itās a soap opera in the most stunning setting you can imagine. I was just thinking about how I appreciate the food in the show and I was wondering if thereās a tie-in cookbook and there is and now Iāve learned the Dutton family cook is a real-life chef playingā¦ himself? And heās the showās caterer, apparently. What a world.
š what I'm reading š
Scythe series by Neal Shusterman
I have been in the worst reading slump of recent memory. Itās been SO rough. But before that slump, there was the Scythe series. In fact, I enjoyed the trilogy so much it left me with a bit of a reading hangover. The story is set in a world where a benevolent AI runs the show and has cured mortality. But to control the Earthās population, folks still gotta die so the Scythedom handles this with random(ish) reapings. The worldbuilding is fascinating, the characters rich and developedā¦ I couldnāt get enough.
Hopefully I get back to my TBR this weekend.
š³ something whalesome š³
I like wholesome things and the whale emoji is cute so: whalesome!
I visited Boulders Beach in Cape Town (I was in South Africa for work) this month and watching African penguins do their thing was v. cute.
š quote of the month š
āIn time, all storms settle to a pleasant breeze.ā - Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead
Nothing stays the same forever.
Please reply or comment and let me know what youāre reading and how youāre feeling heading into spring!
That quote from Thunderhead is wonderful.
I've also been enjoying the return of proper sunlight, feeling pretty positive going into this Spring and for the rest of the year. The gears had been turning but now the machine's actually moving. Reading-wise I've still got about ten books to go in my Rick Riordan read-through, but I've also been reading up on ancient Rome for my fiction so that's been pretty cool too. I'm hoping to visit later this year but time will tell!