Day Two: Connect to the Past

Audiobooks are saving our lives over here. Our library has Libby, an online portal that lets us download ebooks and audiobooks for three weeks at a time. We all take our personal space by popping on headphones and letting someone else do the reading.

As for me, I’m listening to Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser. It’s not a happy read, as it follows Laura Ingalls Wilder through her real life, not the child-friendly version she recounted in Little House on The Prairie. It adds context to what was happening to families just like hers. I’m reminded that our individual stories are not so different from the lives of generations just making it through times of upheaval and unpredictability. I’m reminded that even when systems fail and governments make big, big mistakes, us humans have a way of making it work. We build, we connect, we sacrifice and then we get through it. I need that reminder today. Living through history, in Magnolia’s words, sucks. But it’s not like it hasn’t been done before.

So find a book or movie today, whether fiction or non, that celebrates and explores the very ordinary lives of people triumphing over difficulty. Because we will get through this. We really will. And together, we might get through it stronger, more compassionate and more aware of our ability to do hard things.

Day One: Connect to the Future

Today I want to encourage you to think about a medium term project in your living space that you could be making some progress on. Around here, that’s redoing the girls’ room to turn it from Purple Paradise for toddlers into a Teal Tween Hangout. The girls have long been clamoring for more space but living in a very expensive housing market means there is never going to be a house for them where everyone has their own room. We sat down last month and talked about what they really need. And that thing is small areas that are just theirs. So, we’re turning the bunk beds into loft beds, repainting the room into a more grown-up color, and getting better storage furniture that meets the needs of now instead of 5 years ago when we did it up the first time.

I am utterly overwhelmed by doing this with 3 kids at home plus a husband trying to work in our guest room/office/playroom across the hall. But it’s helping us to focus on the future. There will be a day when life is normal again. And since it’s not right now, why not take advantage of the chaos and make a positive change?

Do you have some plants you want to start? A closet you want to reorganize? A craft project that’s been sitting on a shelf? A piece of art that’s waiting to be started?

Set a goal. Break it down into day by day. Get started. Your future self is out there thanking you for using this time to make their life better.

Welcome!

Hi everyone!

Probably most of you know me already but welcome to my blog! I plan to use this space however I damn well please but the first project I’m going to explore is becoming a connection builder. I’ve long been interested in how we individually and systemically try to figure out the loneliness of American life. After working within systems, alongside them and occasionally in opposition to them, I’m realizing, like so many modern problems, no one is coming to save us. There are no institutions that can bring about the cultural shift we need to build the deep connections that support and sustain us as human beings, friends, parents, and community members. We are our own saviors. To that end, we must begin to take our roles as connection builders seriously and work to change our neighborhoods and communities. This will take nothing less than a million small choices. Choices to be curious instead of indifferent, generous instead of self-protective, appreciative instead of judgmental. I’m hoping this blog will spur conversation and action, encouraging each of us to build our webs of relationships so that we can make sure that no one we know falls through unnoticed.