New notebook, new calathea plant, new me?
I have to admit: I thought I finally hand a handle on the new-normal we’ve been experiencing. My work-from-home routine has found its rhythm, I go on outdoor social-distance coffee-dates with my friends, the meal planning is going smoothly.
And yet.
This week has been…a lot. I’m doing a final edit on my latest work-in-progress before I send it to my agent in T-minus-4-days. My cat was in and out of the vet all last week and has some after-care considerations that have thrown things off a bit. On top of that, I haven’t been sleeping. All week, I kept feeling really proud of myself for taking all these hiccups in stride.
Then, yesterday, our power went out.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I was in the middle of a busy workday. I hadn’t showered yet and had spent all morning sweating in the sun and doing barn chores. I was meeting couple friends later for a social-distance-drink. I had a lot to do before I left the house.
At first, I kept thinking: It’s all right. The power will come back on soon.
Then we learned an entire power pole needed to be replaced in our area. This wasn’t a brief interruption—it was an all-afternoon inconvenience.
All that meal planning? I knew our old fridge wouldn’t keep our food cool for long.
All that work I had to get done? Pre-COVID-19, I would’ve driven to a nearby cafe to use their wifi…but that wasn’t a possibility anymore.
That shower I desperately wanted to take? Not possible.
At this point I was thinking, Okay, this is your opportunity to practice mindfulness and flexibility. Go with the flow. You’re always saying you want to slow down—now’s your chance! Don’t spiral.
Don’t spiral.
Don’t spiral.
I totally spiraled. Waterworks and all. All the stress, the lack of sleep, the urgency of a big to-do list, and the worry all conspired to take me down. And I mean down.
I’m fine now, I promise.
(But boy, oh, boy, did I hit a low point—and definitely shed a tear when I had to throw out basically a whole warm fridge full of food.)
The silver lining? This whole spiraling debacle got me thinking about something my husband has been doing lately: journaling.
You’d think, as the writer in the family, I’d be the one with a journaling habit—you’d be wrong. I don’t find myself very interesting, so I never felt drawn to journaling. Since COVID-19 happened, my husband has gotten really into the practice, and his approach is a little different: it’s all about identifying the *small* moments out of each day that resonated.
And I mean small. Tiny. Miniscule.
A cool-looking bug on the edge of a flower pot. The smell of the grass first thing in the morning. The cute way a horse nudges your shirt, looking for treats.
What’s the point of recording these small moments of appreciation?
Well, just that: appreciating the often-overlooked parts of your day.
You know who doesn’t care about work deadlines, showers, power-outages, and meal-planning? The bugs, the grass, the horses.
Still, those things bring me joy. So I recently started journaling about them, too. And I’ve found it really therapeutic to look at my days with more presence, mindfulness, and appreciation. I even find myself pausing in an otherwise busy blur of chores to think, Maybe this is what I’ll put in my journal tonight—the way the sunlight is peeking through the trees right now. How pretty is that? I find myself putting new value on things I would normally overlook.
I’ll admit: I didn’t write in my journal last night, when the power went out. I didn’t have the heart. I was too beat-up from throwing away hundreds of dollars worth of food and feeling sorry for myself and the deadlines I missed. Maybe if I had cultivated the journaling habit earlier, I would’ve felt more inspired to jot down a few things before bed. Because despite having a rough day, there were plenty of nice moments:
Eating takeout with my husband, surrounded by tea candles (so romantic!)
The water pressure in my friend’s shower (and the fact that she was willing to let me use it during a pandemic)
Having a social-distance-drink with my girlfriends after all, and the humor and support they brought to my harried mood (and the compliments on my new face mask!)
The opportunity to reflect on how to better handle inconveniences (I mean, we all need to work on that, don’t we?)
Going to bed early in perfect power-free darkness!
So, tell me: what’s been keeping you grounded lately? Have you taken up new practices and habits that have helped you gain new perspective about yourself and things you care about in life?