I spent some time outdoors with friends today, in a cheerful group talking and laughing. This image seemed to suit the mood—I hope you enjoy it and are having a wonderful evening, too!
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
Last week’s road trip to Oklahoma City for the Stars & Stripes rowing regatta went well. I came in second in both my women’s double and my mixed double, and I was happy because I rowed better in the wind. Although the Airbnb did not have a long driveway like the one we rented last year, there was plenty of space to park the mini trailer on the street.
Things went smoothly on the trip home until we reached Ohio, where there were five (seriously, five) crashes that blocked the highway—one right after another. When we finally got home, we had to wait a day for the air conditioner to be serviced, but the problem turned out to be a bad capacitor that was easily replaced.
I would call this a good week; the indoor temperature is cool and comfortable now, and we can look forward to a pleasant holiday weekend.
Wishing everyone a happy Fourth!
Tuesday evening, although still hot after I finished an outdoor workout with my husband, felt lovely and peaceful anyway. Wednesday morning wasn’t the most comfortable because the heat wave is still going on, and we woke up to find that the air conditioner wasn’t working. We already had planned to leave early in the afternoon for a road trip, however, and we have a service appointment scheduled for when we return.
I’m still anticipating a fun, magical trip with no worries!
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
The clock on my computer went past midnight just now, so this post will have to be published with a Friday date because I didn’t get around to doing it earlier. For a moment, I thought about cheating—that is, setting the date stamp for this entry to Thursday so my readers wouldn’t notice it was a delayed post. But then I decided that was silly. After all, it’s not like anyone expects me to be perfect.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
I dreamed about a litter of rambunctious puppies running all around, getting into places they shouldn’t be. Former President Biden was trying to corral them, but he wasn’t having much success.
Puppies in dreams generally have to do with animal energy, new things, and playfulness. But what did President Biden represent? Traditional politics and its limits? Older people trying to keep up with the demands of a changing world? Just another authority figure getting yapped at?
I decided to ask Fannie, my imaginary 119-year-old future self. I found her sitting on the “Be Kind” park bench in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which I mentioned in a blog post in 2022.
At her feet, Maxie the robot poodle realistically appeared to be dozing, with closed eyes and a tail that twitched a little. When I came closer, Maxie opened an eye but did not otherwise move. I sat down next to Fannie and told her about my dream.
“It’s a big job, trying to corral the future,” Fannie said sympathetically. “Politicians try, but they don’t get very far. We also put time and effort, as individuals, into sorting out what we think might happen. But mostly, the future just does whatever it feels like doing. That’s the way of things. We may get farther than we expect, though, if we can simply be kind and invite the future to spend a little time playing with us.”
My husband had a good laugh at my expense when we were rowing in our double this evening. We were just about to start a set of two 1K rows when I saw a hairy spider on the side of the boat, next to my leg. Rather than touch it, I tried to flick it off using a hand towel. That didn’t work because it jumped on the towel, and then I got startled and clumsily dropped the towel in the river. Then my husband came to my aid and gallantly squashed the spider, which was still clinging to the wet towel.
He was still laughing about it when we got home, but I suppose that’s all right. Better than complaining, anyway—and we could all use a few more giggles.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
The June rowing plan that I’m doing with my husband, created by our online coaches, has different exercises than those we had gotten comfortable doing in past workouts. They have more sets of intervals, and the focus is on building power at lower rates and improving form. The sudden change left me tired earlier in the week, but not so much today. That’s how growth happens…
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
I have to admit, this is not the Nurturing Thursday post I had in mind to write when I sat down at the computer. After choosing a different topic, I couldn’t get the words to flow. So, instead, I left that post for another time and decided to give myself a reminder about patience for today.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
After writing blog entries mentioning Anne of Green Gables last week and wondering why I felt more interested in reading novels than composing my own stories earlier this month, I began to see those two topics as related. A few years ago, I bought a Kindle collection of the Anne series, which included some later stories that the author wrote after World War I.
I had enough familiarity with the awful history of that time period to feel that maybe I should leave well enough alone and not even glance at the bonus books. Of course, leaving books unread is easier said than done—so I looked at them, only to find my first instinct was correct. Many people at that time still had notions of war as glorious and manly. Women often shamed young men into enlisting by giving them white feathers for cowardice, apparently without qualms about sending friends to die in a trench or on a foreign beach.
The 1920s began with a flu pandemic and got worse, with horrendous racism, lynching, eugenics, political corruption, organized crime, gang violence, and gross social inequality. It was far beyond anything happening today, and I don’t believe we are doomed to repeat that generation’s fate of a Great Depression followed by another world war.
Still, we are certainly not immune from the sort of cultural angst that seeped into most writing of the 1920s, and I wonder if that may have something to do with why I haven’t been as interested in creative writing this year. Better to leave stories unwritten, perhaps, than to let dark themes seep into them.
When I went out to get groceries this morning, I drove along a curving road beside the river, with trees arching overhead in a lovely green tunnel that reminded me of the description of trees along the country lane in Anne of Green Gables. Although I go that way all the time and usually don’t think much about it, today its natural beauty made an impression on me. I felt fortunate to have such a peaceful break from my workday, even if I was just doing the grocery shopping.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
