Meg Evans

My daughter, who is married and lives in Cleveland, came for a visit yesterday. She crammed all kinds of random food into the refrigerator and cabinets, she almost ran the icemaker out of ice, and one of her dogs spat up something nasty on the kitchen floor. Rather than being annoyed about that, I’m just being mellow and feeling grateful that she visits regularly, which puts all the small stuff in perspective.

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 weekend I traveled with my rowing club teammates to a Saturday regatta in Tennessee, the Dogwood Masters. My husband and I had been competing in it for several years, racing our singles and our mixed double; both were in the morning, so it had been relatively quick and easy. We got more ambitious last year, also racing single-sex doubles and a mixed quad, for a total of four races each.

Ambitious would be an understatement for what we did this year. Because we had a large group of teammates, my husband and I competed in five races each, adding single-sex quads to our schedule in the sunny Southern heat. We did well, taking first place in our mixed double. My women’s double also came in first, and the mixed quad took second place at the end of the day. Then we took the trailer back to Ohio, getting home after midnight.

It was all fun, but definitely a bit much; I still don’t have all my energy back. That’s all right, though, because I feel stronger than in past years, and it’s great to travel together.

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.”

When I was growing up, I had a wooden bed with carved pineapples decorating the four posts. It used to be my mom’s bed when she was little. I read storybooks before going to sleep and imagined that the bed had magical powers to carry me away to fairyland.

Last night I tried to imagine myself as a child in that bed, flying away on an adventure as a fairy princess with a golden crown. Not surprisingly, all that happened was that I fell asleep; but I woke up much refreshed and felt that I was standing taller.

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.”

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?

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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!

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 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.

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 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!

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.”