what I’m learning and loving: july 2017
It’s time for our monthly round-up of what I’ve been learning and loving. I hope your July was wonderful, and I would love to hear what you’re learning and loving these summer days.
What I’m learning
What we resist, persists; what we accept can be changed. Those words are Martha Beck’s, but it also summarizes much of Man’s Search for Meaning which I’ve been reading (and will need to reread every year). This pretty much applies to everything.
Momentum breeds energy. And the converse is true, especially as it relates to procrastination. I listened to these Brooke Castillo videos (the title on that landing page is a bit misleading – the videos are worthwhile to listen to all by themselves, and she doesn’t really pitch her school all that much) several weeks ago. Somewhere in there, she teaches about the motivational triad, and how the way our bodies have evolved actually hurt us in today’s world where we don’t have to spend so much time and energy finding food, shelter, keeping ourselves warm and alive.
She explains it much better, but the main takeaway for me was that getting into action breeds more action. So many times, I avoid doing something because I’m tired or the task is boring or I just flat out don’t want to. But once I get into action, just moving in the right direction is energizing and motivating. The opposite is also true. The more I sit in inaction, the less motivated I am to do anything at all. This might be very obvious to you, but somehow, connecting the action to the flow of energy helped to crystallize it for me.
This goes for tasks, but also for relationships. If I’m feeling frustrated with one of the kids, I typically really want some time to myself, but if I instead go and spend some time playing or reading with them, we are usually back on the same page much faster. I’ve also noticed this when I am in a funk. Instead of beating myself up for being in a bad mood, I’ve tried to do something about it, typically a walk or a short time meditating. I’m not doing this to try to tamp down the feelings, but instead to get some energy flowing in a more positive direction.
Self-care for self-care’s sake. This shouldn’t have blown my mind, but it did. It is geared toward women, but I think it’s true for (at least some) men too.
What I’m loving
July. I love July in Indiana. I grew up on the lake, so just thinking about July feels like long days spent jumping off the dock, that lake smell that doesn’t really come out of your hair until school starts, homemade popsicles on sunset boat rides, and games of water tag that last for weeks. We don’t live on the water now, so I wonder what July will feel like for our kids when they’re all grown up.
Richy. (What Grant and I have taken to calling Richard Rohr, stolen from Rob Bell). I have been starting my day with the emails from the Center of Action and Contemplation for most of the year, and more days than not, my mind is blown by something in this FREE daily email. Richard Rohr has become one of our favorite teachers, and it makes for some great conversations between Grant and me since we’re both reading these most days. His teachings have broadened and deepened my faith, and the life of faith he espouses is so much freer than what I grew up with.
Accidental note taking practice. I love my bullet journal as a one-stop-spot for all of my journaling, from the mundane to the deeper stuff. But I don’t always have it with me, so I started just taking notes on podcasts or books on scraps of paper, whatever was close by. Then I set aside a morning to transcribe all of those scraps to my bullet journal. This started accidentally, but now I love it because it forces me to review my notes before putting them into the bullet journal. For one thing, this makes for much more organized notes, but it also helps me better retain whatever it was that I was taking notes on to begin with because I’m writing them down twice.
Homemade popsicles. I bought some popsicle molds earlier this summer because our previous ones have disappeared. It has become such a fun thing to do with the kids, and an easy dessert when friends come over too. Here are some fun gourmet recipes we’ve been trying.
Our garden. Our garden isn’t producing like crazy yet, but I love every minute I get to spend out there.
Thanks for reading and share your favorites in the comments!
