Hello from the middle…
The Art of Noticing 01 | On reclaiming the beauty and meaning found in everyday moments—without bypassing your emotions and weight of what is.
Hello from the middle of a world that sometimes feels like it keeps being turned upside down in ways that could even gaslight gravity.
I was writing this post Friday to send it your way Saturday morning. Then, lawmakers in the state I hope to live in were gunned down in a brazen act of targeted political assassination.
And the words on my screen no longer felt right for the moment we are in.
So I’m sitting down in the middle of a pile of partially packed boxes to write you some new ones.
Hello from the middle.
From the middle of a country I barely recognize.
Though, seeing the millions come out to peacefully, beautifully use their voices on Saturday all over this nation (and indeed around the world) was watching hope rise in real time.
Hello from the middle of news feeds that serve up whiplash with their headings and breaking alerts.
Hello from the middle of a partially packed house, waiting to see which doors I knocked on might open and make a way for me to move to Minnesota.
From the middle of a season that makes my brain feel like it needs a mud room…
From the middle of foggy diverging paths with no signposts…
From the in-between space, at the threshold where I wait.
However, my waiting isn’t passive. It’s more like pacing. But in a small room. So perhaps walking in ovals?
Hello from the middle of not knowing where things are going to go, feeling like I’m suspended in space and can't really move forward because I don't have all the information I need yet.
But it’s a need to know basis, and apparently I don’t yet need to know.
So I wait. And I breathe.
And I put all the things that might be in a basket on a shelf in my mind until it is their time to speak.
Wonder is in the waiting because I am in the waiting, and wonder only exists where my toes are now.
Dress for the job you want…
When you feel like you are stuck in a timeline of cold molasses, you are not alone. If distraction is a thousand buzzing bees in your brain, you are not less than.
You're not weak or lazy or a procrastinator, even if you procrastinate. It is so easy to default to defining ourselves by the things we struggle with.
I struggle, therefore I am that struggle.
No, you are not. You are not your struggles. You are not your failures. You are so much more expansive than those things alone.
If you try to crawl into a box defined by your problems, all of you will never fit. Because you are not your problems.
Our brains build narratives out of the stories we tell ourselves. To change that narrative, we need to change those stories.
I remember sitting on the blue marble Formica countertop surrounded by powder blue wallpaper starting to peel in places in our family bathroom when I was 10 or 11.
My mom meticulously curling her hair like it was battle armor. In a way, it was.
She always said when she felt off, she’d put on a favorite outfit, maybe even some makeup, and show up in a way that would help her feel better.
Sometimes getting unstuck and telling ourselves better stories feels almost like playing dress up.
So if I don't feel like cooking a real dinner, I find my favorite apron and cosplay the role I need to be acting in to get that dinner made. And I’m going to make something I haven’t made before to go with it because curiosity is a huge motivator for me.
If I don’t feel creative, I dress up in a whimsical dress and paint apron and show up for the thing I love, but at the moment, don’t feel like doing.
And just that action will get things going in the right direction.
Sometimes thinking about all the things will keep you shut down and stuck.
But making baby steps towards the edges of working on the goal is often enough to get your motivation moving.
And that is just one tiny way to romanticize your life… especially from the middle of
So let’s dive in to our first lesson in The Art of Noticing series.
And because it’s SUMMER around here… I’m playing with adding videos for some of the content.
Here is an introduction to The Art of Noticing,
The Art of Noticing | 00 Introduction to why romanticizing your life isn’t just an aesthetic…
The Art of Noticing | 01 — Why I Fired My First Neurologist
& What Seeing Red Cars Has to Do With Wonder
The Art of Noticing | 01 Extended Content — The science behind savoring and the stories we tell ourselves
In this extra 15 minute segment for our paid subscribers, I share 3 practices to help unlock the resilience superpower of intentionally savoring the small things. And why the stories we tell ourselves can change EVERYthing.
The support of our paid subscribers is the thing that allows me to offer so much of this content for free. They get extended prompts, special content, and additional community access.
But however you are here… thank you for spending time with me. See you in the next post! 🥰