Uncertainty feels like one of the harder aspects of this pandemic. It is an undercurrent to every waking day on a psychological, economical, and societal level. I wake up with the sun now and quickly do a body scan. Aches ? Was I this congested yesterday? Maybe its from the tulips in my bathroom. Is my throat always this dry when I wake up or this just what thirst actually feels like. Now that I have 15 hours a day devoted to wondering if that tickle in my throat is actually the tickle of death, I have never been more acutely aware of my body. However, two weeks in and I still cant decipher what a normal breath should feel like.
Not knowing what the next few weeks hold let alone what life will look like 2 years from now, I imagine we all are needing as many distractions as we can get. I'm unsure of the frequency, but I am going to start sharing links to stories, recipes, old houses, etc. Please feel free to share and comment !
1. First up is this forgotten female mountaineer that mapped the grand canyon with her husband. Click through the link to read about how she stumbled into a life of adventure and mountaineering.
2. This quaint lakefront stone house This first photo stopped my in my (scrolling) tracks, I quickly started imaging a warm care free summer here. A summer filled with sunset dinners overlooking the lake with family and friends, dogs running under foot trying to beat the other to dropped bits. Neighbors stopping by, their kids bursting past you in the front door straight through to the kitchen. Every stereotypical summer experience that feels so very far away right now. If you want, take a minute and close your eyes and imagine your life here in this little house. Think of how much sweeter these moments will be once we are on the other side of this.
3. I can't stop listening to this sweet little girl singing " I wish you love "
4. An interesting series that shows both sides of a breakup.
5. An idea for kids : Write out the alphabet across several sheets of paper and have them search for objects around the house/yard that start with each letter of the alphabet and place on the according letter.
6. Click through for more photos of this dreamy Georgian house in Somerset
Photos by Michael Sinclair
7. Live animal web cams ! You can watch a water hole in Africa, puppies, sheep etc. I find it soothing and its a nice reminder that life is still happening outside of my house.
8. I love these curved paintings by Peter Gronquist
9. This pandemic has me thinking about the climate crisis a lot. We are told that the world can't just shut down to save our planet, that we'll never be able to make drastic enough emission cuts. But here we are, country by country shutting down non essential business, travel, etc. causing a drastic reduction in emissions. It's showing us that we can indeed take swift and drastic measures to save our planet. I am going to start highlighting green initiatives and innovative businesses here in hopes of inspiring others.
( these will not be sponsored )
The first company I would like to highlight is Karst Stone Paper. ( they are also certified B corp ! Information on why that's important here ) This company creates paper notebooks from recycled stone and resin that is infinitely recyclable and get this - water proof. I saw a video of someone smearing a raw egg and coffee over the paper and rinsing it off to reveal a clean wet sheet of paper that they proceeded to write on. It feels like magic ? The benefit of using recycled stone is that they don't use ANY trees or water. The pulp and paper industry is the 5th largest consumer of energy world wide and uses more water per ton than any other industry. I would love to see more and more companies shift to this method !
Thats all for this round, stay healthy and remember - we are all in this together.
