Ya’ll, I’m in the tub and deserve an award just for figuring out how to post on my phone. I’ve been sick all weekend with a head and chest cold and am just feeling horrible and was resigned to dumping this challenge for the day but thought, I’ll just get one in under the wire. It’s been a weekend of wishing I could get up and do stuff, berating myself for being sick and not being able to do stuff, sleeping, and drinking hot this and hot that, and watching a never-ending number of Star Trek Voyager episodes. I have decided to allow myself to rest, get a sub for tomorrow, and sleep when I need to and just not beat myself up about it because it’s life. 

thankful for it. And this bowl of lemon, ginger, honey and hot water. 

its 11:47pm and yay for being alive! 
​xoko
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)Yesterday with the wind kicking up and the sunny weather after a few days of rain, I couldn't stop sneezing, like 5 times in a row in fits throughout the day until in the evening my throat was burning and my body was sore and tired. I headed to bed and throughout the night and this morning am feeling like I have a cold but I think it's just allergies (which I've never had before, but it could also be a cold thanks to "return-to-school-cooties.")

Just sharing that I truly believe if we don't listen to our bodies, they'll start yelling at us -- because the body knows when we need to rest ad to take care of ourselves.

Yesterday I was in zoom meetings all day, one particular one that was just full of unprofessionalism, bullying, high volume voices talking over one another and berating each other, and just a lack of respect for the circle of individuals in this meeting, and I thought -- this is not healthy for me or anyone else, and how come others aren't just demanding professionalism and kindness?

Maybe it's "magical thinking," but I truly feel that being in that kind of a space full of toxicity and is overlooked by kind and good people contributes to the body and the mind getting sick.

So -- rest is important and protecting yourself and your energy and surrounding yourself with only good energy is important. 

That's what I'm doing today. Luckily I have a wonderful and supportive partner, and so I know that today I will be able to sit in quietude, that I'll be looked after and loved, and that I can work on getting rid of the toxicity of yesterday and the pressures of last week. 

It got me thinking about what my perfect environment would be for my optimal happiness and health -- and it got me thinking about what my perfect space would be for my optimal happiness and health. And it also got me telling myself: "you have permission to stop working with/being around people who are toxic, abusive, bullying, disrespectful, or quiet in the face of this kind of abuse." 

What is your perfect environment, space, and people or your perfect health and happiness? If you're not living in it now, what can you do to get closer to it?

​xoko

The last few weeks I've been watching the Live Cam of CA Big Bear Eagles Jackie & Shadow hatching their 3 eagle eggs. It's been a quiet and peaceful joy to watch the tiny beaks of the little fuzzy grey blobs pop through their eggs and come alive in the snowy nest atop a very tall tree in Big Bear. 

So beautiful to see the co-parenting of these two eagles, their fluffed feathers full of down, heating their snowy nest to keep their babies warm. 

Something about this gives me hope in a world that is currently a super shxt show. 

This morning I saw Jackie tug at the frozen flesh threads of a fish near their nest, the curved beaks tucking strings of fishy flesh into the crying open beaks of their babies. 

That is all. Just this little moment of life! life! life!

My sweetheart's Cartoon Site sequential-life.com/

 I'm lucky enough to have an artist as my sweetheart, and he loves cartooning. Years ago when I'd go away regularly in the summers for about nine weeks to teach at a writing camp, he would keep me up to date on the happenings at home by drawing little four-panel cartoons with his own "slices of life." Over the years they became more sporadic, but they do paint a fairly accurate picture of some of our shared experiences over the years with each other and our cats (both of whom recently passed -- and yes, we are still grieving and so so sad). 

When he stopped doing the sequential-life cartoons on his website, he'd still cartoon for me. Since I work from home about half my schedule, I occasionally get to sleep in, and when I wake up there's sometimes a sticky-note cartoon on the coffee pot, and I smile and joyfully stick it on the wall or our calendar. 

Now the cats have passed, I thought I wouldn't get another one as they were always of our beloved cats; but the past couple of weeks they've popped up and blend the world goings-on we've shared with our activities. For example, "Engage" and "A Warriors Drink" (below) are both nods to our recent binge re-watch of Start Trek: Next Generation. The cracking egg and the eagle looking on -- "Coffee?" references our joy the other night watching live video cam of the two famous California Big Bear Eagles, Jackie and Shadow, and seeing their eggs hatch. There's also "Computer, Coffee, Hot" which references our move to rewatching the season-run of Star Trek Voyager. And of course -- a little cartoon of my sweetheart. There's also the double-sticky cartoon featuring my sweetheart in profile with a cat in profile in a car riding by -- an older favorite I've kept up on the wall, referencing TV Show BOSCH and Chief Irving's hilarious drive by's and side eyes (featuring my beloved Wyatt LOL!)

When I look back at these cartoons and the ones at my sweetheart's website Sequential-life, I just feel LOVED. Like, my life is shared with someone and it matters. 

I do this same thing he does with my journaling and my diary-keeping and my poems, but there's something about the daily or semi-daily sequential nature of his cartoons that fills me with such joy. He has some REALLY old ones at sequential-life.blogspot.com too -- and I just want to put all of these into a little book with a big heart on it. 

​How do you "keep time" with the smaller moments in your life?