| I think one of the hardest things that came from having a kid who once fought for her life is the knowledge of what could happen. At the time, I couldn’t really process…and with everything going on, there hasn’t been much of a breath. I’m pretty sure you understand. Two of the books I read in the past year—The Body Keeps the Score and Try Softer—talk about how your body will tell you it’s struggling and it will get louder until you take the time to deal with the stuff. Well, I thought I was doing okayish until my ears started ringing and my gut was screaming. Of course I panicked a little about what could happen. Then my host of doctors told me that I needed to cut back and do a better job of listening to the stress signals in my body. I was, apparently, not okay. So We’re Starting Again I’m acknowledging that I’m scared and I’m stressed and it’s absolutely okay to take a second to breathe. It’s okay to tell work, “I’m gonna need a second.” Now I’m working with my kids to teach them self-care all while reminding myself to do the same. We’ve had sips of time for learning Euchre, made elbow room for counseling, and gained energy from quiet mornings over good books and a notebook. My girl (the same one who almost died) qualified for the state swim meet, and my dude played a little soccer. Not that it’s been perfect. Trust me, my basement office (now brightened by 2.1 million lamps and a cat) is not ideal and we didn’t get to be at the pool for my girl’s swim . . . but we’re making it work. And I suspect you have too. So maybe today we can take a sip of air together and find that we can breathe just a little better. Breathing Deep One of my all-time favorite rediscoveries this fall has been the power of breathing. Ancient practices like breath prayer have helped immensely. In a breath prayer you take a single mantra—like be still—and say it while breathing deeply. The mantra becomes your breath. And another is the 4-7-8 breath. You breathe in deeply for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds, and breathe out for 8 seconds. Repeat 4 times. Y’all. It’s magic. Wide awake at 3 am (like I often am)? Do the 4-7-8 breath and it resets your brain chemistry so you can sleep. You read that right. It resets your brain chemistry. So we can relax or sleep and have the space to do other things like: |
| Read I’ll admit that I’ve struggled to read, but here are some I’ve enjoyed in the last few weeks: Flight Risk by Cara Putman. This one has a lawyer and a reporter and twisty turns of truth. Such a fun, fast read. If you want to try a snippet, here’s a link to the audio version (and y’all know I love audio books). If you like John Grisham, you’ll love Cara Putman. London Restoration by Rachel McMillan. I’m a sucker for the historical notes in the backs of books…I think it’s one of the reasons I like historical novels so much. So imagine my joy when the historical note came FIRST! Happy sigh. And the book followed through on its historical promise with a bit of intrigue and unconventional romance (the characters are married but feel like strangers) added in. Or you can pick up a FREE historical read over here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/historyreads/w1h8ksra87 |
| Writing Of course I’m writing as much as I’m reading. At the moment, I’m working on a story in 1963 and plotting for a Christmas novella or two for the next few years. They are so much fun. Drop me an email and tell me how are you relaxing these days? |
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