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Essentials

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We all have parts of our regular life that are essential to us, and I think most of us differ on what, exactly, makes up those essentials. For some it’s a killer pair of jeans, or a specific workout, or maybe a particular app on their phone. Looking at this list I see a lot of contradictions, although needing both sides of the bell curve, avoiding extremes, and trying to find balance seems like a healthy way to move forward, not a contradiction. Right? (RIGHT?!) Lawsy, I hope so. Otherwise I’m a walking contradiction fueled by Diet Dr. Pepper…not that there is anything wrong with that.

My Life Essentials:

Putzing: This is my quirky way of unwinding; I pad around the house, imagining updates and new paint colors, sketching out blueprints and planning renovations in my head. Or I’ll wander around the produce section of the grocery store touching the fruit and veggies. I wander around my own head, touching old memories and looking at old ideas, testing them to see if they still work. I make lists just to cross things off, I imagine fantastical things. Putzing is my alone time, my detox time. I can putz for hours.

Adventure: As a definitive counter-point to putzing, I also crave adventure like, woah. I love exploring new places and trying new things, that could be a city across the country or it could be a new restaurant with some kind of exotic fusion menu. I am an interesting mix of homebody (see above) and adventure seeker, and it can sometimes be hard to figure out which will solve feelings of restlessness or anxiety. But, I need both. I desperately need both.

Books: I remember the first book I ever bought with my own money. I was working two jobs, saving up for my first semester of college and decided to buy The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series and re-read them before the first movie came out in theaters (what up, 2001). I bought the cheapest version the bookstore had—a $4.99 half-sized paperback—one at a time over a few weeks. In the last 15 years I have amassed a considerable book collection and a bonafide library in my office (and the living room). Sitting in front of those shelves, running my fingers over the spines, reorganizing my “To Read First” shelf (yes, shelf) and reliving the stories and memories associated with previously read titles is one of the most calming things I can do at home. (See: putzing) Does this make me materialistic? Maybe. Do I care? No. I’m a paper-and-ink book person and I’m not willing to fight it.

Inspiring and Interesting: My walls are covered in art and my shelves are crammed with books; I’m kind of a bad minimalist that way. But I cannot explain how much joy I get from art on my walls and books on my shelves. I love learning. I love learning about new things, new people, new words, new ideas. I love learning old things for the first time, random facts, chronology of world events, social or geographic history or myth of far-flung places and interesting factoids close to home. I am also trying to have at least one piece of original art in every room of our home, and so far that plan has worked out splendidly (yes, even the laundry room, it’s a tiny watercolor of lavender fields that is just lovely on the lavender walls). (Yes, my laundry room walls are intentionally lavender.) (Stop judging me, they are perfection.)

Razor sharp kitchen knives: I love to cook and I find mincing vegetables therapeutic, but only if my knife is crazy-sharp. I found a gentleman pretty close to me who has a knife sharpening hobby out of his spare room, he is my favorite Arizona discovery so far. For $3-$5 per knife he does his honing magic and I continue to mince.

Chapstick: I’m not talking about lipgloss, or lipstick (neither of which I have worn for years). I’m not talking about Chapstick brand stuff that is pink with a waxy flavor. I will wear Bert’s Bees in a ruby grapefruit color, but I prefer Natural Ice, although it is next to impossible to find in grocery stores, gas stations, big box stores, or boutique stores. Sometimes I’ll find it at REI and stock up. Last fall I finally got the brilliant idea to order a dozen tubes of Natural Ice from Amazon. They are now nicely lined up in my dresser waiting to rescue my chapped and dry lips.

Diet Dr. Pepper: My caffeine source of choice, preferably with a tremendous dose of fresh-squeezed lime, and a straw. I know, I know, “Soda is so bad for you!” and “Aspartame will kill you!” but I can’t help it! The heart wants what the heart wants! To my credit, I have drastically reduced my DDP intake, I now have a 12-ounce can (and a whole lime) at lunch, and drink water the rest of the time. Well, except for weekends, more soda on the weekends. And on road trips. And when I’m stressed or sad…ok, so I might have a DDP consumption problem….

Sunshine: I am one of those people who will never go tanning, I wear sunscreen always. However, just a few minutes of sunshine will lift my mood in amazing ways. I do some of my best putzing sitting in a sunny spot. Seattle weather would probably be better for my skin (and save me thousands on tubes of sunscreen), but

Sparkly Unicorns and Pegasus Ponies: I am (mostly) kidding on this one. (Or am I?)  Hmm…actually? Not really kidding at all, but I should probably define this need as “whimsical sarcasm” instead. A generous dose of whimsical sarcasm is a pretty good explanation of why I send hundreds of funny, snarky, sometimes dirty, and generally giggle-inducing photos and texts in any given week. Yes, hundreds. I guess this is the reason Tumblr was invented, but there is just something about getting a laugh-cry inducing text from a friend that subscribing to a social media feed cannot provide.

 

My Favorite Non-Essentials:

High Thread Count Sheets: Several years ago my older brother found 1,000 count Egyptian cotton sheets on Amazon for something crazy like $100 dollars. He ordered them immediately. I ordered them immediately. Several other family members ordered them. They are heaven. I don’t care if 1,000 count sheets don’t come in cute polka-dots, or fancy stripes, or chevrons, or mod floral graphic print. I have a hard time sleeping in scratchy sheets and silky sheets are right out. I need 1,000 count Egyptian cotton, preferably white because I’m high maintenance like that.

Office Supplies: I have an unhealthy obsession with office supplies. Stacks of college-ruled paper, packages of Sharpie’s in a rainbow of colors, boxes of unsharpened pencils waiting to be ground to a point and fill a notebook with ideas. I love office supplies.

Fresh Flowers and/or Live Plants: I love having fresh flowers on my dining room table. I have very rarely had anything fancier than a small bouquet from the grocery store, but even $6 dollars worth of tulips will keep me smiling for two weeks. About a year ago I tried my gray-ish-green thumb at houesplants, and except for a few tragedies, I have managed to keep a couple of them alive for quite a while, move to ARizona be damned! We’ll see how long that lasts.

 

Things I Could Easily Live Without:

Smart Phones: I know, it sounds nuts, but I am becoming more and more anti-smart phone. It’s not that I don’t like the convenience of having a mini computer-communicator-television-navigational system-word processor-camera the size of a credit card, it’s just that after sitting at a computer for 9 hours a day with the expectation to respond to email promptly and answer the phone by the second ring I kind of relish the idea of walking away from technology for a couple of hours. I don’t know, maybe I’m not using my phone the right way, but I very much prefer a larger screen for most of my online needs (actually, my dual-screen set-up has spoiled me forever for even a laptop screen, maybe that means I’m getting old and short-sighted, but a 2×4″ screen just cannot compare to TWO large monitors and task lighting. Sigh. I’m old, aren’t I.

Voice mail: I hate voicemail, hate it. Remember when voicemail used to be an add-on? My cell phone is now also my work phone and I have to retrieve messages, but it is one of my most loathed tasks.

Popcorn: I haven’t had popcorn since I was in junior high, and I don’t miss it. I like the smell well enough, I won’t gag at the movies or anything, but I have absolutely no desire to try it. None.

 

What are your life essentials? What can you life without? It just occured to me that I haven’t listed people anywhere on here, and maybe there is some deeper psychological flaw that I should be concerned about, but for now I’m just going to disclaim* that Some People are essential, Others are hit or miss, and A Few I could easily do without. (*Disclaim is a verb, right?)

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Format for this post inspired (okay, blatantly heisted) from Stacy at The Cat’s Meow.

If I Had A Million Dollars: Episode 2

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I have a very important announcement: I did not win the lottery. I do not have one million dollars. But, it’s fun to spend imaginary dollars anyway, zero guilt and zero product depreciation and no buyer’s remorse. One of my favorite day dreams is generating a list of what I would do or buy with the following sums of money, were they to magically appear in my wallet/off-shore account: $100, $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, and $1,000,000. The last time I wrote this list was almost two years ago, it was interesting to see what would stay the same and what would change.

$100:

I am embarrassed to say that this is the exact same thing as it was two years ago: all new underwear. Have I bought new underwear in the last two years? Um, yes? At least, I’ve bought a few, and I tossed some of the more threadbare ones…but I still feel like I have grungy underthings. That is a very very sad state of affairs to face every morning for TWO YEARS. To my credit, I did invest in two new sports bras, no cheap purchase for necessary job requirements (hello, bazoomas!).

$1,000:

I’d absolutely spend this on things for our yard. I’m talking citrus and pomegranate trees, leafy palm trees, oleander and jasmine, and bright bougainvillea everywhere. I want some grass to relax on, a fire pit, and some patio furniture so we can spend time out there without resorting to camp chairs. I realize that in just a few short months the temperature will be in the triple digits almost constantly, so we’ll probably need one of those mister systems as well so I can sit in the shade and be misted with cool water and have someone fan me with a palm frond and feed me grapes. I’m gonna need more than $1,000 for this, aren’t I. Hmmm.

A note: Blue Eyes and I upgraded to a California King sized mattress a few months ago, and it is heaven. This was my $1,000 wish from two years ago, and hey, look at that, wishes do come true! So, by the same logic, in two years my backyard should be GORGEOUS!

$10,000:

A new master bathroom. Now, the room is not nearly as offending as the yellow-tile monstrosity I lived with for almost 10 years in Salt Lake, but it certainly is in need of an update. The shower is fiberglass and permanently stained and mucky around the edges. The tub is hardly deep enough to cover my nickles when I get into it. The vanity drawers are wonky, the counter top is yellowing and stained, the faucets for the double sinks don’t match, the lights aren’t hung evenly, and the whole thing is just a little too creamy for me. I did paint it all a brighter gray instead of the sad brown it was, and that did wonders. But I would love a free-standing claw-foot-like soaking tub, a shower with a seat in it so I can easily shave my legs, and a shelf to hold all my bath potions. I would like to update the vanity and have the counter top raised about 6 inches to prevent crouching whilst negotiating my mascara wand or toothbrush. I want more than one outlet (!!! WHY?!) and better storage options and I want everything to be a lot brighter and cleaner. Don’t worry. Every single time I go to Home Depot I walk through the tile and vanity section swooning over anything that isn’t standard builder’s fare, circa 2002.

$100,000:

How would I spend $100,000 right now? Well, the beauty of this list is how easy it is to change, and how often you can re-imagine your shopping list. And, my list doesn’t have to be at all practical or rational, so, here it goes: I would quit my job and take a series of international adventures. I want so desperately to go exploring, I want to go to Iceland and Scotland and Scandinavia. I want to go to Turkey and Greece and Jordan and Morocco. I want to spend a month, at least, wandering around China with a jaunt up to Mongolia and another over to Japan. I want to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Inca Trail, I want to visit Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands, and I could spend a month in the museums of Paris, or Rome, or Cairo (or Moscow or Beijing or, basically, any major city you can imagine). Can I live in a village in Nepal? And wander around New Zealand? I want to go SCUBA diving in Belize and take the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Vladivostok. I’d take the longest North American road trip that ever was planned and see everything and everyone I possibly could. I’d visit all the US and Canadian National Parks, including the ones in Alaska and Hawaii.

$1,000,000:

  • I’d enroll in a Master’s Degree program as soon as possible, ideally one with major chops and a lot of research involved. I’d love to spend my days as a student again, or, really, for the first time. I worked all through college (like, 40-50 hours a week, not 10-12 hours a week) and to be able to just spend my days studying and writing and learning…well, it’s my Millionaire Dream.
  • We’d pay off our house here in Arizona and finish up the remaining projects (those listed above, and a few other tweaks here and there, mostly cosmetic). This isn’t our forever house, so I don’t particularly want to go overboard, and I doubt we’ll stay in Arizona for very long after Blue Eyes’ kids are in college, so I don’t really feel the need to upgrade to a different house either. But, a few improvements to make this house a little better and still maintain a solid resale value, that I’d definitely do.
  • I’d buy land for our forever house, somewhere with unobstructed views of stunning rocky mountains with year-round glaciers or snow-pack on the peaks. My dream house has a two-story library and plenty of space for a full-size grand piano. I want a hot-house for year-round tomatoes and limes and a big, bright kitchen for all my culinary messing around. Plenty of bedrooms for visitors, a sunny art studio for me, large garage and shop for Blue Eyes… I’ve been sketching some version of this house for at least twenty years, another ten won’t really matter too much in the end.

So, how about you? How would you spend such sums? And please, even if you would probably sock it away in a retirement account, or pay down your mortgage or put it aside for your kid’s tuition….give me something FUN to chew on, mmmkay? It’s imaginary money, dream big!

Harriet sig

A few things I hate. Sorry, Valentine's Day.

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We all have things that drive us batty, right? Sometimes a bit crazier than average? Well, I seem to be in a cranky-puss mood the last couple of weeks–yes, my ribs still hurt like hell; no, I haven’t found a medical professional in Arizona who can bring me any relief; yes, I’ve tried every combination of over-the-counter medication; no, I’m not super enthused about needing narcotics every single day; yes, this has been going on for almost a month solid!

So, instead of trying to get my hearts-and-flowers-and-smooshy-Valentine’s jam on, I’m just gonna work with what I’ve got. Irritation and general annoyance. *For the record, I actually like Valentine’s Day, not the huge romantic gestures part of it, but things like frosted sugar cookies and construction paper hearts on every conceivable surface.

  1. Ribs, skeletal issues, body parts that hurt and will not be comforted. Ya’ll, I’m nearing the part where I am literally driven crazy by a back and neck and shoulder that just will not quit. I can see how people with chronic pain will go to drastic measures for a chance of reducing the pain. If a fairy-doctor told me to climb Mt. McKinley and locate the rare blue flower with red leaves, make it into tea, and then pour it over my head, I would book airfare to Alaska immediately.
  2. Pants that are too short. I realize the capri and ankle-length pant have been “in” for quite a while, and I’ve tried, I really have, but I just feel like my pants are too short.
  3.  Nasty drinking water. Yes, it’s wet and nourishing, but I don’t want it to taste like iron, or dirt, or feet.
  4. People who don’t use their blinker. JUST LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PLANNING ON DOING BEFORE YOU SWERVE YOUR ENORMOUS, MOVING, HUNK OF STEEL RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.
  5. “Just for show.” I see stuff all over the place that is styled or Photoshopped to within an inch of it’s life in order to sell a particular idea, feeling, or encourage some kind of purchase. This drives me crazy; it just seems so fake and disingenuous.
  6. Ditto pockets on clothing that are not actually pockets, just pretend pockets. STOP LYING TO ME, POCKETS!
  7. I won’t eat chicken, or popcorn, or spicy food, or raisins, or blueberries, and half the time I will pick olives off whatever food they have sullied and the other half of the time I’ll put one on each finger and eat them like lollipops.
  8. Donald Trump. Just, no. No, no, no.
  9. The nine prickly hairs that incessantly grow on my chin. And the one dead center in the middle of my chest. Why!?
  10. Autocorrect. Hate, loathe, despise. Refer to it as Autocucumber at all times, out of spite.
  11. When people ask questions that can EASILY be answered by Google. I mean, I suppose I appreciate the thought that you assume my brain has the all-reaching power of a supercomputer, but why can’t you just look it up yourself? This is particularly annoying when people ask this kind of crap online/on social media.
  12. Those pop-up windows asking you to join a mailing list/download the mobile app  after you’ve been on a website for approximately 2 seconds. Um, hello? I don’t even know who you are/what you offer/how you live your life. WHY WOULD I WANT TO AGREE TO GIVE YOU MY EMAIL ADDRESS OR ACCESS TO MY PHONE APPLICATIONS!?!?!
  13. The suburbs. I am not adjusting well.
  14. Emojiglyphics. The cute little smiley faces are fine; adding a heart or a prancing pony or whatever after your message is fine. Substituting words for sort-of-applicable pixelated images? Stop. (Also, why is this a default setting in my phone!?)
  15. Dark tan paint, the kind that covers the interior of almost all households in Arizona. I would take builder’s beige in a heartbeat over this yellowy-brown, it’s seriously the color of sad cardboard and was on every. single. vertical surface. I’ve got 2 rooms left to repaint and they are taunting me.

I’ve made a list of things I hate before; the carry-overs are popcorn and  chin hair, although I have more chin hairs now than I did then. (Sob!) What do you hate? What drives you crazy? Pet peeves? Annoyances? Eye-roll generators?

Harriet sig

2016 Resolutions

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For the last several years I have been pretty good about thinking about, selecting, and writing down resolutions at the beginning of the year complete with action plan. I have been less successful with actually keeping those resolutions, but overall I think I do okay at it.

Last year I had a single resolution: live deliberately, with passion and grace. I was not graceful for 365 days of the year, but I did much better than previous years; I felt I was more deliberate, more passionate, and moderately more graceful dealing with the hurdles and joys that were thrown my way. I am going to mark my 2015 resolution with a big, fat COMPLETE!

This year seems like a much bigger Fresh Start. Blue Eyes and I are finally living together, I’m  in a new state, new (to us) home, new work environment, new schedules and commitments and priorities. I have been working on a list of resolutions that will both stretch my physically and emotionally, but will also help solidify some positive patterns and habits.

2016 Resolutions

  • Sweat four times per week: running, yoga, exercise class, whatever
    • For the first time in a decade I think I may join a gym, I think the interaction with other humans will be good for me after hours and hours of working at home by myself every day.
  • Consistent meal planning and healthy eating
    • Mr. Blue Eyes and I are in this one together, we both have some nasty sugary/chips-and-salsa/mac-and-cheesy based habits we’d like to break.
  • Consistent writing: blog, notebook, and/or personal journal (minimum 5 times per week)
    • I received a few empty notebooks as an early Christmas present and have been doing this for a few weeks already. I forgot how much I like writing down my thoughts and frustrations and dreams. And I mean writing, with an actual pen, in a leather-bound notebook
  • Set and stick to household budget, bulk up savings and retirement plan
    • Living under one roof will drastically change our finances, we have a Budget Meeting already planned to figure this out. Sexy, no?
  • Family camping trip with the kiddos
    • Bonus for a backpacking trip with gorgeous scenery involved
  • Visit two new National Parks
    • Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
    • Saguaro National Park, Arizona
  • Learn Spanish
    • Ok, I know I can’t become fluent in one year, but I want to work on improving my skills regularly, and hopefully by this time next year I will be more conversant. (Blue Eyes gave me the Rosetta Stone-Spanish box-set for Christmas and a coworker has promised to practice with me, this is a calculated move!)

Looking over this list, it seems like most of my resolutions fall under the key word consistency. Consistent exercising, consistent healthy eating, consistent writing, consistent budgeting, and consistent practicing Spanish. It’s just as well, I suppose, the last few years have been so full of ups and downs and loop-de-loops and reverses and roller coaster explosions, a little structure and consistency* will probably do be good right now. With some adventures thrown in for good measure, of course.

*Dear Universe: Please don’t throw me a massive curve ball in February, just because you can, mmmkay?

Do you write resolutions? Do you keep resolutions? Are you a one-resolution-per-year kind of person? Or do you make a list of 19 things?

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Best of 2015

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I think by all accounts, 2014 was one of the worst years on record for me. By comparison, 2015 has been a dream, even with the bumps, bruises, and emotional roller-coasters that are the norm for making our way through Life. In some ways, 2015 has been a holding pattern and a waiting game, but in most respects I tried to pack as much as possible into 52 weeks, spending my time exploring, hanging out with friends, and soaking up every minute I had with Mr. Blue Eyes. While I’m excited for the coming year and all the challenges and triumphs, I am also a little sad to see 2015 close. So, I decided to come up with a “best of” list of some of my favorite things from the last twelve months.

Muir Woods National Monument_feistyharriet_July 2015 (5)Muir Woods, California, July 2015

Best Experiences of 2015:

Geez, I really don’t know how to narrow this down. However, I can say with confidence that the best times of my year have everything to do with spending time with the people I love.

  • Adventures afar and nights at home in jammies with Blue Eyes.
  • A 6-state Midwest road trip with a girlfriend.
  • Spending a whole week as the full-time caregiver for my stepkids, it’s more time than I’ve ever spent with them, and a few hiccups aside, it went smashingly!
  • A long weekend laughing with my best friend and her family in California.
  • Book club, always and forever.
  • Designing and costuming a competitive (and award-winning) Shakespeare team comprised of 50 teenagers with one of my oldest, best friends, for our 10th year running.
  • Planning and executing back-to-back smash success events for work; one a giant professional development conference, the other a state-wide event for 20,000 high school students.
  • Spending the evening with my four siblings, the first time we have been together in YEARS.
  • Crashing with dear, dear friends for a couple weeks between moving all my things to Arizona and moving my actual self.
  • The homemade welcome party that awaited me when I finally arrived here in Arizona.

Best Books of 2015:

Goodreads tells me that I read 111 books this year (!!), a total of 36,000 pages (for reference, my 2014 totals were 38 books and 13,000 pages). My shortest book was the Pulitzer Prize winning play Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, the longest was the behemoth War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. My most frequently-read categories this year were Russian literature and history (especially of the Romanov family), feminism, and slavery and racism. I also read a number of books about North Korea, Darwin and evolution, elephant psychology, Joan of Arc, neuroscience and psychology, the Iranian Revolution, and China prior to/during Mao’s cultural revolution. Yes, I have eclectic taste. No, I won’t ever apologize for it.

BestBooksof2015

  • Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
    Tolstoy is a master, and in my opinion, this is his best.
  • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs
    More than any other slave narrative, this one rips my heart out. Harriet’s anguish and turmoil over leaving her children behind, of rescuing her children, of keeping her family together, this will change you in all the right ways.
  • The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan
    Refugees, war-torn middle-east, historical context for the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and a lot of “Humans of New York” type stories and sharing from in-depth interviews on both sides. Absolutely recommended.
  • The Martian, by Andy Weir
    Hilarious, scientific-nerdy, perfection.
  • The Master and Margarita, by Mikhaul Bulgakov
    Magical realism and political satire in communist Russia? Gimme!
  • Middlemarch, by George Eliot
    This is why people like 19th century English literature.
  • Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
    This book is very much an acquired taste, but I loved it. Yes, even the 600 plus pages about the history of whaling, the anatomy of whales, the economy of whales, the works. Loved it.
  • Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
    So dark and moody! So delicious! I can’t believe I hadn’t read this one before.
  • Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, by Charlotte Gordon
    Dual-biography of early feminist icons from the 18th and 19th century? Yes, please!
  • The She-Pope: a Quest for the Truth Behind the Mystery of Pope Joan, by Peter Stanford
    Did you know a woman became Pope in the 11th century!? This story and the research to piece this story together are so fascinating!
  • Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup
    At times I am baffled that slavery existed in the United States, that humans were perfectly fine owning other humans. This book details some of the most monstrous atrocities and a few gentle kindnesses from white freemen to their black slaves.

Of these books, which should you read? Well, world events being what they are, I think you should read The Lemon Tree as soon as possible. It shows both sides of Arab and Jewish tension and the history behind it. Honestly, it made me much more sympathetic to both sides and the war-torn refugee people who are caught in the middle. If that isn’t your cup of tea, I’d definitely read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a rare first-person slave narrative from a woman’s point of view.

Best Vacation of 2015:

MidWestRoadTrip_Carhenge Nebraska_feistyhaarriet_June 2015 (18)

This is probably a toss-up between an awesome road-trip across the Midwest with a girlfriend, and a delightfully low-key weekend in San Antonio with my sweetheart. Last January I had high hopes for a warm, international getaway, but more practical things like bills and buying a house and maintaining two households for 14 months took precedence. Hopefully 2016 will see a little passport action.

Best Photos of 2015:

I have had the chance to travel around to a number of different places this year, hauling my camera with me. Of the thousands and thousands of photos I snapped this year, these are probably my favorites, along with the others in this post.

Capitol Reef Fruit Orchard_feistyharriet_March 2015 (6)Capitol Reef National Park, Apricot Orchard, March 2015

Grand Canyon North Rim_feistyharriet_October 2015 (4)Grand Canyon North Rim, October 2015

IMG_0039Boone Hall Plantation, Charleston, South Carolina, September 2015

Bryce Canyon National Park_feistyharriet_2015 (9)Bryce Canyon National Park, Thor’s Hammer in the fog, October 2015

Agave teeth_feistyharriet_San Antonio Botanical GardensSan Antonio Botanical Gardens, agave teeth, November 2015

Best thing I learned:

You will never truly feel better about something until you do the work to actually change it. I’m sure some philosopher has said this much more eloquently and concisely, but I learned (or, re-learned, rather) that buckling down and getting my hands dirty and elbows greasy brings me an incredible amount of satisfaction. Granted, there are some things that we cannot change and must simply learn to work around or live with; I get that. What I’m saying is that we as humans are capable of an incredible amount of forward progression if we put our minds to it, pool resources, and reach out to friends and loved ones. Here’s to 2016, more forward and more progress.

Harriet sig