Happy Brunch Sunday from Florida! Raise your mimosas or mugs and let's clink a cheers to a bit of connection between work, notices and ads in your inbox. Written with a London accent in my head. Reading with an accent is completely your (next best) decision.
I apologize in advance if there are too many exclamation marks in here--lots of caffeine happening this morning.
How are you?
Today, I am pro-nature. Yesterday, I was pro-nature. My brain is crying out for bird-tweets and frog-belches. Well, perhaps not that last. Belching frogs drive me insane. Which makes me selectively pro-nature. Truly, I am an indoor girl who enjoys the safest, cleanest, touch-free nature.
Last night, I spoke up and took the remote controls for our collective TV. With all of us Home For The Covid, it is a rare evening that I hold those little grey joy sticks. Which is not what this story is about.
I chose a nature movie about Hawaii with two parts, one on the volcanic land life and the other on the foreign sea. As those around me fell asleep or got lost on their phones, I slipped into a muscle relaxation without a pharmaceutical.
I mean, the narrator's voice was utterly annoying, and his script was worse, but I lowered the sound. I heard less of the dramatic music as one swimmer ate another. I could sense the humidity in the forested natural parks between the lava, drips falling from leaves.
I was stunned. But in a Valium sort of way.
This morning after walking the dogs, I walked myself. I carefully dodged the webs of spiders that connected the swamp to the roadside oak trees across from my house. A big buzzer flew past my ear. I slapped my arm and rubbed it, chasing away a biter. I stopped at the pond and watched the biggest black fish struggle to swim in the shallows, her back rising above the water and tummy off-roading through the dirty bottom, kicking up wet dust.
Then I emerged out of the shade of the trees. Blasted by the sun, I turned for home and did it all again.
Today's Deep Breathe: (Here's a practical juju nugget, a collective Next Best Decision.)
Since our last, my phone reports that I spent 2 hours and 28 minutes less on screen time than my usual. Coincidence?
Yes, I have focused my social media time on things that matter more to me, and to the future of our people and planet. I have followed and witnessed and watched, but I have scrolled less and participated substantially less in commenting. I was aware enough to feel my breath getting erratic and an increase in my heart rate.
It is essential to become more aware of our own threshold, how much we can handle of other's opinions. But perhaps it is entirely more helpful to try to delve into why other's opinions make us uncomfortable to begin with.
Being uncomfortable with change is natural, a part of our human brain nature. Instead of shutting down our voices or trying to shut up the other, instead of reacting and lashing, let's take a break and think about what it is we truly desire. Are we in favor of the argument, or are we collectively desiring a better way?
Until next time,
Tami Lowe