Full Summer, No Blog
Nothing like coming back to my blogging after completely walking away from it for, um, MONTHS! Six whole months, in fact, without writing a thing. What can I say? When the summer gets started, life gets even busier for this life coach because it’s time to SWIM every chance I get! This past summer, I expanded my “regular” swimming to include a new (to me) lake in Flat Rock, NC, on the grounds of the lovely Highland Lake Inn.
What’s funny about adding this swim spot is that many people warned me there were snapping turtles in the lake, but I never saw one at all. It’s a lovely lake on a gorgeous piece of property that I now have access to any time I like, and it’s only about 20 minutes from my house in the woods, so it’s super easy to roll by and have a swim while I’m on my way to or from other places, which makes it both fun and easy. It reminds me that one of the rules to form new, healthier habits is start by making things EASY on yourself. You’re much more likely to do a thing if it’s easy to do it! yay! New swim, easy peasy!
Anyway, now it’s cold and dark again, and I’m finding it necessary to get back to writing and reminding myself and others to DO THE THINGS THAT MATTER, no matter how “busy” you are. Writing matters to me, so it’s on my list of winter things to do to keep the Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay… writing in the sunshine as often as possible. (That’s not happening tonight - though I am writing in my sun lamp, which stays on all day, every day during the winter. I need the light!)
As if swimming isn’t enough to keep me away from blogging, I also got a kitten! And boy has he kept me and my big cat busy! His name is Gustus (short for Augustus Bobberton the First, Bobtailed Tabby Spectacular!) and he’s a gray tabby wild man! He’s got a very symmetrical pattern of stripes and a tiny head on a long, floppy body, with very soft fur. He’s a talker, and he’s very interested in water: he watches me in the shower and hops in as soon as I turn off the water; he loves to watch the toilet flush and I should potty train him; he enjoys sitting in the bathroom sink while I brush my teeth and gets quite wet before he will get out of it an let me spit out my toothpaste. He’s adorable. And he’s annoying, too. He bites my nose around 3am almost every single night! Just to make sure I’m still alive, I guess. It always wakes me up and makes me pick him up an toss him off my bed! He’s brought a lot of joy and fun into my household, for sure.
I hope you all have had a wonderful summer filled with friends and family.
The end of the summer here in the mountains turned into a nightmare when Hurricane Helene came barreling through and totally destroyed lots of my favorite places. But, she spared my home and most all of my friends’ homes, and we are slowly recovering. I am getting a lot more steps in since the storm destroyed the bridge of my driveway, so now I have to park at the street end of the driveway and walk over the creek on a newly built post-storm footbridge and walk up my driveway. It reminds me every single day to express my deep gratitude for being healthy enough to make this 1/3 mile hike to get out into the world. We’re all deeply aware of how precious water and food are, and some places here were without water for months. My Asheville friends have dealt with much harder losses than I personally have had. My biggest positive takeaway from the storm experience is simply to love your people and trust your instincts and do what you an to help who you can as you can!
Happy to be here and happy to be back! I’ll start publishing regular posts again! Be well!
Namaste.
