Happy Friday! It has been a very busy post-holiday week. This weekend is one of our only weekends at home, with no concrete plans, and I am utterly thrilled. Have a great weekend!
- Listening to this sexy throwback cover by Caught a Ghost.
- Spiralizing vegetables and making our plantpowered life that much more fun. Last night it was organic Atlas Farms zucchini noodles with a Thai red curry peanut sauce. We have this spiralizer, but I've seen versions of this smaller handheld one as well out there that seem pretty effective too!
- Wondering if there's truth to this study on the physical stability of stable relationships.
- And finally, some tips from Parker Palmer on finding peace with the whole of ourselves:
"How can we learn to embrace with love the whole of who we are — a task that need not and should not await our elder years? Of course there are tried-and-true aids such as meditation, journaling and therapy, all of which have been helpful to me. Here are three others that I’ve found equally helpful, sometimes even more:
- Spend as much time as you can experiencing the natural world. Nature constantly reminds me that everything has a place, that nothing need be excluded. That “mess” on the forest floor — like the mess in my own life — has an amazing harmony and hidden wholeness to it.
- Move toward, not away from, whatever you fear. I try to remember the advice I was given on an Outward Bound course when I froze with fear on a rock face in the middle of a one-hundred-foot rappel: “If you can’t get out of it, get into it!” If, for example, you fear diversity, get to know “the other’s” story face-to-face and watch your fear shrink as your empathy expands.
- Reach out to the younger generation—not to advise them but to learn from them, gain energy from them, and support them on their way. That’s a life-enhancing act that Erik Erikson called “generativity,” an alternative to the “stagnation” of age that sooner or later leads to despair."