Day 20: Five things I love about life right now.
- Vanilla iced lattes with oat milk are readily available.
- When I’m at home I can have a cat to pet pretty much whenever I need one.
- When I have good days I’ve learned how to appreciate them more and not sink as low when I remember they won’t last long. I’ve spent decades learning to think of my mind as the sky and my mood as the weather – always changing, never one way for long. Even a torturous summer or the depth of winter will eventually give way. I’m not always successful but I’ve gotten SO much better at navigating the forecast.
- My most recent hobby – making miniatures – is really fun and I’m still enjoying it immensely. My big project is just about done but there are always plenty more little ones to try!
- In spite of everything seeming to get worse about the world, I still see little acts of kindness and beauty, little works of art, little moments of grace all over the place. Sometimes the hope of those little things is all I’ve got where humanity is concerned, but as long as you have hope for the world, there’s hope for the world.
Day 21: The best thing about Summer
The end of it.
Oh and also snow cones.
Day 22: It’s embarrassing but true…
I haven’t read a single book this summer. In fact I’ve only read two or three this whole year. Isn’t that awful? Normally, I at least read nonfiction – I love learning about new things and history and archaeology and all sorts of philosophical and metaphysical topics. The last one I remember reading was a book on process theology by Carol Christ, which I think I mentioned a couple of months ago. Months!
Also a bit embarrassing: I hardly ever read fiction. I’m not sure why, although it might have similar causes to the fact that I almost never want to start a new TV series. Both require a massive emotional investment, or at least they do the way I enjoy things. And I almost never read urban fantasy because it starts leaking into my own work; I’d rather be inspired for my novels by Marvel movies or mythology and have to figure out how to twist those ideas into the kind of fiction I write. (Also I am incredibly insecure and often reading novels makes me despair for my own talent, which stops me from writing.) I can’t actually remember the last novel I read.
So embarrassing.