On bubble wrapping your holidays
The power of counting spoons, clickety keys, & gentle Christmas trees
Little did I know December would bring its own kind of winter storm to my home here in North Florida.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I have had a long struggle with chronic health challenges, with nervous system and inflammation issues for starters.
In an effort to try to reduce said inflammation, my neurologist started me on super low-dose naltrexone. Yep, a baby dose of Narcan made specially for me.
For many it is anti-inflammatory and works wonders for chronic pain.
But for me, just a few pills did the exact opposite.
I have been off it for weeks, but it still feels like every nerve from my head to my fingertips is being regularly dipped in acid.
Y’all, I have a high pain tolerance. And it has had me curled into balls for hours at a time. It’s part of why this space has been so quiet.
When I say making wonder a habit literally saved my life, I do mean literally.
And I am again holding on to every tiny glimmer like a person finding a drop of water on day 3 of wandering through Death Valley in summer.
Naltrexone changes the way your body processes pain and messes with your opioid receptors. The thought is for many people, it will jump-start their bodies into producing more of their own endorphins and modulate inflammation.
Instead, for me, it turned every pain receptor on at once, restarted my trigeminal neuralgia, and threw my nervous system off a cliff.
I can only hope my special nervous system somehow learns how to sprout wings on the way down. Because there is nothing that can be done medically to stop this.
Literally… just “Wow, regrets that happened. You must be very sensitive.” Um. No duh.
And my fridge died. And the internet has been temperamental.
That’s how December has been around here.
All my Christmas plans went out the window. And this wonder-loving girl is slightly cranky about that. So I made some new ones.
If you have had a December too… I’m coming in with some things that might help. At least this is how I cope in seasons such as these.
Also. I am not advocating shutting the world out forever. Just long enough to get some equilibrium and give your body/heart the care it needs.
Get the clickety keyboard.
I’ve been on the lookout for years for a clickety keyboard that didn’t hurt my wrists.
I found one! It’s hard to tell if it is aggravating or not because everything hurts at a level 11 right now, but I do not think it makes things worse.
And the feel/sound is SO delightful.
I look forward to writing many letters and books on this beauty.
LESSON: Find one thing that delights and makes your senses light up just a little.
Count your spoons.
Those of you who are in the chronic health or neuro spicy communities will already know this one. Most of us have PhDs in spoon math.
Spoon theory was a term first used in a 2003 essay by Christine Miserandino. You can read an archived version of it here. It’s a way to understand the impact of chronic illness and pain on everyday life and longer-term capacity.
Basically, someone who is well overall has virtually unlimited spoons. But someone who has chronic pain or health issues might only have 10 spoons a day. Washing your hair takes 2 spoons.
I washed my hair today.
Because some things are deeply difficult right now, I literally have turned everything down to zero to live below my spoon count.
That has had this incredible side effect of turning up my joy in the little things. And giving me a virtually stress-free holiday to rest and only do the things I feel I have capacity for.
Cue naps, paper crafts, painting, reflective journaling, Christmas movies I never got around to watching (or ones I love).
I call this bubble wrapping my nervous system. I can assure you it is a life skill I think everyone who has a nervous system should learn. Because we all have hard days at some point.
LESSON: Be aware of your capacity and honor it. Not as a weakness, but as a way forward through hard things into joy.
If this is a topic you resonate with and you don’t know my friend K.J. Ramsey, you need to immediately go follow her and sign up for everything she writes. The woman has a gift with words and wisdom that weaves stunning beauty with raw insight wrenched from her own journey and her training as a trauma therapist. Literal GOLD.
Go gentle with the Christmas tree… and everything else.
I put my lovely prelit pencil tree up and plugged it in. But right now I don’t have the energy to put all the ornaments on. It feels a little strange.
But. I was sick the first half of the year with other issues and didn’t actually take my Christmas down until October. So I trust they won’t feel unloved if I let them hold their stories and rest until next year.
If you need to slow down. Slow down.
If you need to say no or change your mind, do it.
Holiday. The word comes from holy-day. Contrary to some corners of modern popular opinion, the word holiday is not a slur to Christmas.
It means holy day or religious festival. There are many ways to count a day holy. To set space apart and celebrate that which is sacred.
And friend, your well-being is absolutely sacred.
You are sacred space worth caring for.
And I hope you know how much you are loved. It might sound strange for someone you just read online to say this, but…
I love you. I’m beyond grateful you are here. And your presence matters so much more than you know.
All my love,
PS. Something fun is starting over on my Instagram January 1. I’ll be writing about my experience here periodically in addition to more content about wonder and creativity and beauty and all the things… but these particular prompts go out via a dedicated email list.
2025 has been a lot to handle. My goal is to live more fully off my screen than on it next year. Maybe yours is too?
More 1990s and notebooks. I’m not ditching tech. I just want to use it way more intentionally. Turn down the noise to focus more on what matters.
So I’m committing to take 1 tiny action each day offline to find more wonder, care for my nervous system, and make the world a little bit brighter.
If you’d like to jump into this experiment with me and find more wonder than worry in the new year, consider this your invitation.
It’s 100% free and you don’t need any special skills or supplies.
Every week, I’ll send you a list of simple, whimsical things you can do to be more creative and find wonder every day. All of them can be done in 5-10 minutes, or you can take as long as you like if one lands particularly well.
There are no homework police. You shape what works for you.
Our getting started guide drops December 25.
The first email goes out Sunday Dec 28 at 8 AM (I need deadlines 🤣) and we start Jan 1, 2026! 🎉
Prompt & Ponder subscribers… your prompts will start getting delivered at 8 AM Saturdays starting this week. Here’s to embracing more concrete scheduling in 2026! If you’re wondering what the difference is… yours are themed, deeper, and there are WAY more of them to choose from. 🥰