Meg Evans

On Monday night there were multiple tornadoes here in the Dayton, Ohio area. One of them came very close to my house. My next-door neighbors lost their flagpole. My house and yard had no damage, which was very lucky. We didn’t even lose power.

It took my husband (who usually has a short commute) about two hours to get to work Tuesday morning because there were fallen trees and other damage all over the area. Meanwhile, I was sitting at my desk working from home. There was no water because Dayton’s pumps had lost power. I had a plastic water bottle on my desk, next to a bowl of first-of-the-season cherries, and I was counting my blessings.

Water was restored to my area Wednesday afternoon but was still under a boil advisory today. My husband mowed the lawn this afternoon when he got home from work, and he told me that he had to pick up several pieces of debris from other people’s wrecked houses that had blown into our yard. Some residents of ruined apartments were standing outside in the rain with all their belongings, which they couldn’t even move because there was such a long wait for rental trucks. Meanwhile, some of our not-so-thankful neighbors were complaining about how long it took before they got back their water.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Earlier today I spent a few minutes looking at my rosebushes. They are not in bloom yet, so I wasn’t literally taking time to smell the roses; but they do have healthy-looking buds and appear to be flourishing in the damp and cool spring weather, which was good to see.

I had to replace some rosebushes three years ago, as I mentioned here. The replacements are still rather small, probably because the past few summers have been hot and dry. They’re making good efforts, though, so I gave them an impromptu pep talk.

“You’re doing just fine, roses, keep on going,” I said.

Maybe that was silly—but then again, maybe we can all benefit from getting more words of encouragement. So I decided to share some this week:

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

The rowing club had a board meeting yesterday. My husband (who has been one of the trustees for the past two years) told me that the meeting might run long because there were several things to talk about, but that he’d like to meet me at the boathouse after the meeting and go rowing in our double anyway.

I wasn’t sure how realistic that was, considering the fact it would get dark before we could do much rowing. I was picturing a chilly, windy night on the river, with mosquitoes, skunks, and other undesirable nocturnal wildlife. But then I decided to change my mindset and imagine having a pleasant evening instead.

The meeting did indeed run long; but as it turned out, we had a good row. There was very little wind, it was still comfortably warm even after sunset, the water was calm, and there was plenty of moonlight. We had the river all to ourselves (though we made sure to put blinking lights on the boat anyway, just to be safe). A mosquito did get my husband once, but they left me alone, and we did not see any skunks.

It all goes to show that, even though negativity may seem like reality, there generally are many other ways to frame our experiences.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

My husband mentioned today that one of the rowing camp members had said, in a recent conversation, that I seemed to be the kind of person who would be good at whatever I did.

It was quite a nice compliment, and somewhat unexpected because I see myself as someone who takes a while to feel confident when I do something new. I don’t often jump into something and find it super-easy from the start. Usually I do keep at it until I’ve given it a fair try, even if I feel anxious, because I know that it will get easier with practice. I suppose that’s a kind of confidence too.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

When I opened the dishwasher yesterday evening to put in a cup, the door suddenly fell down with a WHAM! I looked down and saw a big spring on the floor. The spring itself was in one piece, but the part that attached to the spring obviously was broken. Not a good day, I thought.

Then my husband came home from the gym a few minutes later. After looking at the broken piece, he checked online and told me that a local store had the replacement kit, it wasn’t expensive, and he would fix the dishwasher door when he got home on Thursday.

Then we went out for a walk. It was getting dark, and there was a bit of light rain, but we enjoyed getting outdoors in the fresh air anyway. It turned out to be a good day after all, with no need for worries.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

After not getting enough sleep last week, as I mentioned in my previous Nurturing Thursday post, I’ve been making more of an effort to stay well rested. I wear a Fitbit at night to keep track of my sleep; it’s not entirely accurate, but close enough to let me know when I should go to bed earlier.

Meditation also helps with restful sleep. I find Reiki very refreshing, and a few days ago I browsed through a collection of animated sleep mantras, which I enjoyed. Here’s one of the images from that page (reposted with permission). Very soothing—I could definitely doze off looking at it.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

After a fun mini-vacation with my husband in Tennessee over a long weekend, in which we got outdoors a lot and enjoyed the warm weather, getting back into my regular routine has left me feeling a bit unfocused. Some of that is because we got back home late on Tuesday night and didn’t get nearly enough sleep. Because I have been reminding myself that there’s no need to do everything all at once, I decided to share this useful reminder for this week’s Nurturing Thursday.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I slept late on Monday, which left me starting the week in a bit of a rush. My husband was busy too, and when we went down to the river to row after work, it wasn’t as early as usual. So I still felt rushed, instead of being able to fully relax and enjoy being out in nature; there wasn’t much time left before it would get dark, which meant we had to row briskly.

We got back to the dock just as the sun was beginning to set. The sky turned to a beautiful mix of colors, deep blue and pink. Then it seemed as if I had all the time in the world, though of course time itself hadn’t changed—just the way I was thinking about it happened to be different.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Today at work there was a team meeting in which one of the main topics was developing new skills. Sometimes that can feel intimidating, either because of uncertainty about what skills would be the most useful, or maybe just because things always seem harder when they’re new.

It can be a challenge to imagine future versions of ourselves becoming comfortable in new situations. We’ve had to do it, though, in one way or another, ever since we grew up—and when we look back and reflect on how far we have come since then, our younger selves deserve credit for believing it could happen and for doing a pretty good job of getting there.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

A dark, rainy, chilly morning had started to clear by midday, and I went out for a walk in the early afternoon. By then it was mostly sunny, and the wind felt much warmer. Every now and again I would stop and look at a bright spot of color where some crocuses or other spring flowers had come up.

I found myself thinking—what if I had gotten busy and not taken the time to get outdoors until next week? By then, that peaceful early-spring moment would have passed me by, and everything in the landscape would already have changed as the season moved on.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.