What a Relief

I prefer brunettes to blondes, but at the end of the day Biden will work just fine!

National Theatre

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I am kind of living for the drama.

I am waking up without my phone, spending at least an hour doing something productive or just putzing around while I listen to the tense silence of my willful ignorance. (You can tell how anxious I am by how meticulously organized my apartment is.) After my mental summer camp, I set the stage with a cup of coffee by my computer, opening the front page of The New York Times in quiet anticipation. Still nothing, still nothing.

Maybe it's the lack of live performance in these past many months that has left me hungry for suspense — not the kind that hurts people, but the kind that feeds the ego. In truth, we have plenty of time. But we want to know now, and the tension of not knowing has created a national theatre in which our insatiable desire for certainty can perform her one-woman show.

I wanted there to be a decisive blue wave so I could fall asleep three nights ago full of some optimism and a lot of pinot grigio. But as this year has shown us, disappointment and patience are the names of the game. So I'm going to get my popcorn. And I hope that when the fat lady sings, she'll be singing the national anthem, for a country with a new president.

Hallows' Eve

I feel like I've written this before but Halloween is truly the night I wish I had a boyfriend that would look up at me and say, "Do you want to just stay in tonight?”

Of course this year is different. Everyone with any level of respect for themselves and others is staying in or staying back, and I hope you find a way to make it fun or funny or anything that's different from normal but also definitely not actually scary.

I also hope that by my next writing we'll have a new president elect. In any case, I can guarantee that I will have taken another trip to the grocery store, and between sale candy and the chip isle I will have gathered many a comfort food. Bon appétit, loves.

Fwd:

I just want to reiterate that there will be a day when it's warm, you'll see smiles, you'll give hugs, the election will be over, the work will be continuing, and you'll be so, so happy.

Discipline

Doing something even when you don't want to is the definition of discipline, and waiting until the last moment to begrudgingly do something is the definition of whatever I've been doing.

Dreamscape

It's an interesting part of the dream now where it's past the point of being shocking yet still before the point of total resignation. It feels like the new work is staying in that space, not shocked, not resigned.

Make sure you vote, and make sure you spend some time totally zoning out. Cheap advice, but affordable!

Karma

It'll always catch you, baby.

How to Say Nothing

Wow, what a truly unprecedented time in which we find ourselves. During these times, it is more important than ever that we remember what connects us, who we are, and why we do what we do. Throughout these many months, I have been continually inspired by the myriad ways in which we have all adapted to this new normal, each recognizing our unique capacities to contribute to the common good while also continuing to confront unfamiliar and even uncomfortable realities with kindness and resilience. And while this is certainly not the future we envisioned, it has presented us with new opportunities to do more, and to be more. While the future may be uncertain, one thing is clear: words are words and wordy word word, word wordy word, word word word.

I Just Gotta Say

If you’re finding any moments of joy, relaxation, peace, calm, delight, solitude, togetherness, smiles, laughs, deep breaths, long pauses, soft pillows, hard floors, shinning light, deep darkness, surprise, serenity, hope, or longing, that means you’re still here, and that’s still good.

Just a thought

If you can, try looking at a flower today.

Back to School Again

It's back to school again for me and for everyone. The Tuesday after Labor Day always hits hard, and this year it is a certified iron fist.

The threat of imminent death around every corner certainly has a way of muting fall's typical sense of possibility.

Seriously

I don't know who needs to hear this, but you need to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Like, seriously.

Tardy

Have you ever been late to something?

When you looked at the clock and realized, "Oh, shit"?

Or you looked at the date and said, "Oh, shit"?

When you thought you were in the clear but really you weren't?

Or you felt like you were organized but really you weren't?

When you fully intended to do something?

But then realized that apparently obviously you didn't want to?

I haven't.

Off

Page Turner

Endings...            and beginnings.

August

August off is a pipe dream but one that feels especially odd right now given that the divide between “off” and “on” is so blurred that everything feels like a peculiar swimming through the ushy gushy part of a lake. The heat is a nice thing but only in the right doses, and the same goes for activity and silence, too. August, August, August. The time before, the time between.

Both Things

IT'S FUNNY HOW YOU CAN BE LOUD EVEN IN SILENCE.

For Certain

     I find that when I go on a run, I’ll go a different way, and then the next few times I’ll go that same new way again. It feels like I’m looking for a new set of train tracks, when in fact I’m swimming in open water.

     My desire for certainty can feel insatiable, and much like Doritos, I try to limit myself to reasonable portions — predicting minutes and hours rather than days or weeks.

     I’ve also learned that stillness is not the same a serenity. I have learned a lot, though I am thankful that there won't be a written exam.

Incubator

     I feel like so much of the way home is letting go of the need to understand the world as rational or fair. As I first heard from Byron Katie by way of Iyanla Vanzant by way of Oprah: When you argue against reality, you will suffer. So much pain is generated by the denial of what is, and the courage to accept what is often liberates us to make a conscious choice about what to do next.

     Each one of us faces so many choices right now, as small as the fabric over our faces and as large as the impressions we aspire to make in our lives. This time has forced me to sit with myself in a way I never have before, and while I have arrived at few conclusions, I am learning to trust the implicit incubator in which I find myself. I accept that I am in one, and that when I emerge, I will be the same, and I will be different.

Firework

There's a lot of work to be done, and there must also be space for not doing any work. Whatever it means to be "off," I hope you are off. And trust that when you come back on, it will be beautiful.