-The Beautiful Silly Ties That Bind

Hello my friends!

I hope this finds you having a joyous, memorable, and restful holiday weekend.

I’m spending a short time in Los Angeles with my family, soaking up the quality time and taking in all the classic family stories like… the time I cried nonstop on a roadtrip from Northern California back south… the time my dad fell on my on a San Francisco bus and I was so deeply embarrassed I couldn’t deal… reminiscing about the purple casserole my mom made the one time and we’ll never let her live it down… you know, just the classics. The stories that seem silly, but bind us together as humans in the world.

My family is also recently obsessed with their ancestry.com reports and there’s all sorts of paperwork scattered about and talk of percentages of this and that and England and Sierra Leone and remember how Aunt Carrie claimed she was Cherokee and… it’s a mash up- that’s as much as I know.

Here are some Internet reads for you.  I hope this day finds you resting well still in Christmas pajamas perhaps with a plate of Savory French Toast.  I’ve got high hopes for you:

•  This is supremely interesting and very challenging:  How Much Ambition Can A Marriage Sustain?

•  Evidence of the Superiority of Female Doctors.  It’s all in the quality of care, as evidenced by the pair of fuzzy socks a female doctor will give you if you have to put your feet in those dang stirrups.

•  Let’s say yes to that dinner date, ok?  How Social Isolation Is Killing Us.  

•  The Nordic Way To Be Good At Winter.  Light lots of candles, drag a tree inside, and get cozy dammit.

•  Talk amongst yourselves, I’ll give you a topic:  Red Wine Hot Chocolate.  Also… I wonder if this could also be part of the Nordic way to be good at winter.  Yes?

•  What is your capacity for pain and discomfort and fear?  Ask those that push themselves there:  How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond The Gym.

•  Listen, if you don’t want to cook for a vegetarian, just don’t invite them over.  Don’t use chicken stock in the risotto and not tell them.  That is, in fact, a jerk move.  Chicken stock doesn’t count as meat.

•  Here’s a recipe for a soup I made this week and very much enjoyed: Turmeric Broth Detox Soup

•  One-Pot French Onion Not-Detox Pasta!  Just to balance things out.

• I spent a day last week running errands with headphones on, binge listening to this wonderfully interesting, very well-produced podcast about organized crime in Providence, Rhode Island:  Crimetown.

•  It’s the time of year when we all try to figure out what the heck happened to us and around us for the past 300some-odd days.  The NYT Year in Photos is as good as it gets.  Also, here’s Digg’s list of The Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists.

•  Currently listening to Rising Strong on audiobook read by Brene Brown.  It’s like a long session of real talk / pep talk.

This quote from Theodore Roosevelt, featured in Brene Brown’s first book Daring Greatly is an important token to carry into the new year:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…”

Get in the arena and do it- all the way… at least, gear up and I’ll see you there come January.

xo Joy