When I went rowing with my husband yesterday, we had a good workout on our windy river, but this morning I felt a bit tired. I did a midday erg workout and was going too fast because I didn’t have the best mental focus, which left me without energy on the last interval.

I had been planning to row this evening with my women’s double partner Deb, and although I didn’t feel much like going out, I thought I’d better go anyway because I didn’t want her to be disappointed. In the early afternoon, Deb sent me a text that said she felt low on energy and wanted to stay home and rest. Then I started to wonder—why hadn’t I given myself permission to do the same?

Word-art that says, "May you have the courage this week to begin breaking patterns in your life that no longer serve you. Give yourself permission to pause and reflect today. And remember, taking care of yourself doesn't mean "me first;" it means "me 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.”

It’s often windy when I go rowing on the river with my husband, and sometimes it can be a challenge to get up to speed during the faster workouts. That’s all right, though—we’ve gotten better at rowing in windy and choppy conditions, and it doesn’t feel as intimidating as it once did. As with anything, more depth of experience leads to feeling more confident.

Word-art that says, "When the root is deep, there is no reason to fear the wind."

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’ve been feeling calmer and more settled this week. When memories of past difficulties randomly wander into my thoughts, I am taking a moment to ask myself, “Okay, how is this relevant to what is happening right now?” My internal voice does not ask this in a snarky or critical way, but with a more accepting mindset, like I am kindly opening a door to give my subconscious a fresh view and more choices. Maybe there’s no answer—but good things can come from just being open to listening.

Word-art that says, "The moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door will open." -Rumi

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.”

May 9, 2023 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

I woke up in the middle of the night, face down with my arms stretched out wide, in Superman position. I felt as if I had been flying. But unlike Superman, I did not have long-range vision to see everything on the ground. Instead, everything below me was foggy, and I had no idea what was down there.

Photo of fog over treetops.

That didn’t worry me, though. It seemed like a good thing, actually, because I was in motion and not stuck in some tiny, isolated spot way down in the trees. Maybe I didn’t know where I was going, but at least I had the potential of finding somewhere better. Super possibilities ahead!

For this week’s Nurturing Thursday entry, I decided to change things up by posting a word-art image that makes fun of motivational sayings, rather than quoting one. It’s a satirical twist on the popular advice to find one’s passion and follow it wherever it leads.

Word-art that says, "Find what you love and let it kill you."

Although I’ve often had an intuitive sense that I needed to find or do something more, I never felt that I had, or was searching for, one grand lifelong passion. Instead, my experience is that I’ve had distinct interests at various times, most of which reached a logical stopping point before I moved on. What’s more important, perhaps, is to find where we need to be in the moment.

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.”

Before I started my workday on Wednesday morning, I noticed that my house was in need of vacuuming, and I also had some general thoughts rattling around in the back of my mind about how automation and artificial intelligence might impact jobs.

So, when I got this word-art image in an email soon afterward, I saw it as a timely reminder not to take job tasks and titles too seriously!

Word-art that says, "Deep Thoughts: When you clean a vacuum cleaner, you become a vacuum cleaner."

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.”

April 25, 2023 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

I saw a family of mallard ducks a few days ago, with a dozen little ducklings, a mom duck watching them—and two adult male ducks. That left me wondering what was going on there. As far as I know, mallards are generally monogamous, so the mom wouldn’t have had two mates. But I watched them for a while, and they behaved like they were all part of the same family, with the mother duck looking after the little ones and the males guarding the perimeter.

Photo of mallard ducklings with three adult ducks.

The number of ducklings was more than usual, so I wondered if perhaps they didn’t all have the same mother. Maybe half the ducklings belonged to a single father whose mate had died, so he was staying close to a mated pair to improve his offspring’s survival chances?

Or maybe one of the adult males was an older sibling of the ducklings, and he hadn’t wanted to grow up and leave home in the previous year. We certainly see a lot of that with humans these days! Anyway, I’ll never know, but it was fun to imagine a bit of duck family drama.

I mentioned in a January post that I had applied for an open position with my current employer. Although I went through three rounds of interviews, ultimately one of the other finalist candidates was chosen. That led me to think about improving my coding skills; my current position is not a tech job, and why not have more options with the world changing so quickly?

So, I signed up for a tech mentoring program and mentioned it to my manager. Not long afterward, she assigned me to a technical writing project because she thought that would be a good fit, based to some extent on my participation in the mentoring program. I don’t have experience in technical writing, but it looks structured enough to be learned quickly, and I expect it will be an interesting adventure.

Word-art that says "Why" and "Not."

(Image credit: John Hain)

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.”

April 17, 2023 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Several times in the past week I’ve had dreams in which I am walking along a hallway or up a staircase. Sometimes it is dark, but there is light ahead. I wake up with a clear spatial memory of the area and some visual details, but I have no idea of my destination.

Black and white image of a dark staircase with light shining down.

(Creative Commons image via flickr)

I meant to write a dream-interpretation post over the weekend, about being on a journey with much to be discovered. That post never got written, though, because I wasn’t in the best mood on Sunday. I went to get groceries in the early afternoon, with a storm blowing in and the temperature rapidly dropping. I made it back to my car just as the rain was beginning to fall, which was all right, but the house felt kind of blah when I got home with howling winds outside. Soon afterward, past grudges and self-pitying thoughts crawled out of their subconscious lair, leaving me grumpy for the rest of the day.

On the way back from the supermarket, I had been listening to the old song “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe. Somehow it got into my sleep on Sunday night. I dreamed that I was a murderer who poisoned a young woman. Other people in the house hadn’t yet realized she was dead; they thought she was just sleeping later than usual. I was wondering if I ought to leave the house or if that would be too suspicious. Maybe it would be better to stay there and play innocent? I hadn’t yet decided when I woke up.

That one is harder to interpret, but I’m guessing that the murder victim is my poor pitiful younger self who disturbed me with memories of feeling like a powerless victim on Sunday. Rather than showing compassion for this past version of me, I probably had a subconscious wish to kill her off! As for wondering whether to leave the scene of the crime, maybe I felt conflicted about owning such feelings. Anyway, writing this all down might help me to sort through them.

The weather has been warm and sunny all week, just right for getting out on the river to row with my husband after work. Today I had a low intensity cross-training option on my workout plan. I took the opportunity to putter around in the yard (which, according to my Fitbit, put my heart rate into the proper easy training zone) and just enjoy being out in the sunshine. It’s time to bring the flip-flops up from the basement closet where they gathered dust all winter. Yay!

Word-art with a beach picture that says, "Life is better in flip flops."

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.”