Ten months ago, I reached the 5 million lifetime meter milestone on the Concept2 indoor rowing machine. Since then a lot has changed, including where I am doing my rowing these days while the gym where I’m a certified instructor — Greenville Indoor Rowing — is closed. I’m working out at home! So much is different and out of my control while this pandemic wreaks havoc around the world. But I can control what self-care and stress-reduction techniques I practice, so I’m keeping up with my workout schedule! During today’s session, I reached my next milestone: 6 million meters! 🎉 I really miss teaching classes, and the awesome crew at GIR. Can’t wait until we are together again! Row strong and live long!
❤️💙💛
children's book day: where the sidewalk ends
April is National Poetry Month, and today is International Children’s Book Day! So here is my very favorite children’s book of poetry, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, and the story of why I love it so much.
❤️
My 5th grade teacher, Ms. Sue Brimhall, had us all make hand puppets who accompanied us throughout the school year. My puppets were Gyb (named for the green/yellow/blue gingham he was made of) and Floral (sensing a trend …). And one of the projects from that year that left the biggest impression on me was that we (and our puppets, I presume, since they helped us with everything, including fledgling-10-year-old attempts at romance) each memorized and performed a different poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends. I’m pretty sure Gyb and I did Recipe for a Hippopotamus Sandwich. I fell in love with this book that fall, and my parents bought it for me for Christmas. After that, over the years I acquired a dozen more Silverstein books, but I’ve always loved the first one the most.
💙
About the photos, Gyb and Floral are still alive and mostly well after 40 years, but Floral is missing an eye, and maybe should consider going back to her original hairstyle of long yellow curling ribbon. And in the third photo, I’m the one kneeling on the right in the red blouse and white jumpsuit. I’ve got Floral, who by this point in the school year had switched to yarn hair from the ribbon, but didn’t yet have the drastic cut she sports today. My classmate two places to the left has Gyb. She must have forgotten her puppet on picture day! Ms. Brimhall, my all-time-favorite teacher, is at the upper right. (Oh and random fact, 19 years later I used some leftover yellow and blue gingham from Gyb to make bedding for my firstborn’s nursery.)
❤️
💙
💛
#nationalpoetrymonth #poetrymonth #poetry #internationalchildrensbookday #childrensbookday #shelsilverstein #wherethesidewalkends #poemsforkids #fifthgrade #5thgrade #bestteacherever #handpuppets #puppets #gingham #throwbackthursday
national poetry month kicks off — it's a new world
poster from poets.org by student poster contest winner Samantha Aikman, based on the poem “Remember” by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
April is National Poetry Month! This gorgeous commemorative poster is from poets.org by student poster contest winner Samantha Aikman, based on the poem “Remember” by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
✏️
So 2020 will be my third year celebrating by writing a poem a day based on prompts from Robert Lee Brewer, senior editor with Writer's Digest. Today’s prompt was to write a new world poem. I’ll post all of them on the “writing my grief” section of the website. You can reach it from the home page by clicking the photo of Rader and me.
✏️
Trees burst into leaf
Seemingly overnight
At the very moment of the equinox
Early on the calendar because of leap year
•
Birds are singing their heads off
Building nests
Including in places we don’t want them
Laying eggs there in the bush by the front doorway
Did I scare them away when I got a step stool and looked in the nest?
I didn’t mean for them to abandon their eggs
I could have used a different door
To leave the house for a while
It’s not as if I’m leaving the house much
Anyway
•
Parts of nature are
Proceeding as usual
And then parts of nature
Are doing things they’ve never done
And I don’t know how to feel about it
And I don’t know what to do about it
•
So I stay home
And I wash hands
And I sew masks
And I try not to dwell
On the fact that every day
My other half
Goes to his “essential” job
Where some days he’s at his office
Mostly seeing patients by telehealth,
But others, like today, he’s at the hospital
And we are pretty sure
That one day, maybe even today,
He’ll come home with this virus
And I’ll get it too
•
So we don’t see our moms
And our kid stays away at school
And we hope for the best
•
And in some ways I wish
That we could just have it and get it over with,
But it might hit us hard
Even though we are youngish and healthy
•
The world has never seen this before
And you just never know
•
You never know
❤️
💙
💛
Also I wanted to add that the "new world poem" prompt made me think of a song I love by Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas. It's a song that feels very optimistic to me. Check it out here. And while I was looking for that, I found a version from a year later by Nina Simone, still beautiful, but much more apocalyptic in tone. Do yourself a favor and listen to both. Which resonates more with you?
hear front-line stories from the nocturnists
thank you, doctors!
It’s Mario Monday, and today is National Doctors’ Day! Much gratitude to my husband and all the other doctors working in these strange days. Many of them chose this career path early in life because at the core of themselves, they felt a deep drive to help people. That hasn’t changed.
🥼
It’s a tough time out there for everybody. Thank you doctors, and all medical professionals, who keep showing up and doing what needs to be done.
❤️💙💛
#beheretomorrow
new resource: ADAA
I’ve added the Anxiety and Depression Association of America to our mental health resources page.
celebrating national craft month
Did you know March is National Craft Month? One project I’m thankful for is making these surgical-style masks for my husband’s medical practice. He’s a kidney doctor in a large group. They are not on the priority list for distribution of supplies.
🧵
I’m working on making enough so everyone who works there has several they can use during the day, and then clean and reuse them. This style of mask does not prevent the transmission of COVID-19, but is helpful for protecting vulnerable patients from everyday airborne germs of the medical providers. They also serve as a reminder not to touch your face!
😷
Added bonus, it’s the perfect opportunity to sort through and use up literally decades worth of remnants from sewing projects my mom and I have done! My fabric stash will be much smaller and better organized after this. My grandma, who taught me to sew when I was a little girl, would be so proud.
❤️💙💛
supporting your mental health and coping with COVID-19
resources from suicide prevention lifeline
good advice from stacie swift
I couldn’t pick just one piece of advice from illustrator/author Stacie Swift; here are four illustrations, with her accompanying words below.
💗
Stay at home — keep your distance, follow advice, stay safe at home.
💗
Things to stockpile — Stacie says, “Here’s a list of things you really need to stock up on. I’ll keep posting extra positive thoughts in case you run a little low, too. They’re replenished daily.”
💗
Wash, move … — “No more, no less. Don’t forget the basics; simple self-care is extra important. Particularly in these turbulent times when our reserves are low and our anxieties run high. Take good care of yourself.”
💗
And finally, “It’s okay to need some space. It’s okay to turn off your phone notifications, to take a break from your inboxes, to give yourself some breathing room, to stop and to recuperate.” — Stacie Swift
❤️
💙
💛
Mario Monday: Rader and his Mario shirts
Mario Monday! A couple days ago, I posted photos of the gorgeous Mario t-shirt quilt made for me in remembrance of Rader by his Grandma, Sue Nesbitt. I have a file on my computer desktop of Mario shirt photos, thinking one day I might try to match pictures of him wearing the shirts to the arrangement of them on the quilt. For today, here are four birthday photos in four different Mario t-shirts. These just happened to be what he was wearing on those days, if that gives you an idea of how predominant Mario shirts were in his everyday wardrobe. In fact I didn’t find any birthday cake photos from this era in which he is NOT wearing a Mario shirt.
❤️
💙
💛
letting go of what I cannot control
it's national quilting day!
Today is National Quilting Day! The @quiltalliance usually has a celebration at the @nationalquiltmuseum, but this year the observance is more of a grassroots affair. They're asking folks to hang quilts outside their homes to comfort and inspire their neighbors. And of course, showing them off online is excellent, too!
🧵
This quilt is a treasure made for me by Rader's grandma, Sue Nesbitt (a member of Pamlico River Quilters' Guild). For years, we had been saving all Rader's outgrown Mario shirts for her to make a quilt for him to take to college. Then he died right before his 16th birthday. I can't even express what it means to me to have this. It tells his story.
❤️
💙
💛
#nationalquiltingday2020 #nationalquiltingday #internationalquiltingday #internationalquiltingday2020 #quiltingday #madebygrandma #Marioshirt #Marioquilt #virtualquiltshow #madewithlove #lovegrandma #quiltsofinstagram #tshirtquilt #videogamequilt #nintendo #Mario #tellyourstory #remembrancequilt
happy international day of happiness!
Megan Devine: it's #perfectlynormal
advice from Building a Life Worth Living
how to feel less anxious at home
Mario Monday: @PappasParlor
Happy Mario Monday! Y’all know I have a special fondness for piranha plants. This one from Swedish artist Johan Karlgren (@pappasparlor on Twitter and Instagram, or pappasparlor.com) is so great! He made it for a charity auction to support some local hospitals in Italy. To learn more about that, visit https://www.planxartgallery.com/. The auction begins this Saturday, March 21, at 6 p.m. Italian (Central European Standard) time, which is five hours ahead of U.S. Eastern (so 1 p.m Eastern), and continues through Sunday.
Click here for Karlgren’s Instagram post about it, and scroll through to see his process. Then do yourself a favor and check out the rest of his work. His street art must be seen to be believed! I think you will love it as much as I do.
🍄
Posted @withregram • @pappasparlor Made a new Piranha for an upcoming charity auction with @planxartgallery and @marcorubino1 in support of local hospitals in Italy.
Keep washing those hands good people! #artists4italy 🇮🇹
❤️
💙
💛
#MarioMonday #piranhaplant #pappasparlor #johankarlgren #perlerbeads #hamabeads #fusebeads #pixelart #8bit #artistsofinstagram
hope will not be cancelled
❤️
To Write Love On Her Arms is a nonprofit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self injury, and suicide. It's one of the best resources I have listed on the mental health resources page of the foundation website. (From the home page, click on the photo of Rader sitting on the bench at Navy Pier.)
💙
Jamie is the founder of TWLOHA, a bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and a tireless advocate for suicide prevention and mental health. Sharing the credit for him and TWLOHA will help more people learn of the extraordinary work they are doing, and benefit from their other messages. If you posted Jamie's words without knowing the source, please go back and add credit now that you do know, and give others the opportunity to benefit from this excellent resource.
💛
"May we lean into the good stuff that remains." — Jamie Tworkowski
❤️
💙
💛
#jamietworkowski #TWLOHA #wisewords #encouragement #suicideprevention #mentalhealth #notcancelled #notcanceled #leanin #goodstuff