Category Archives: Sunday Reflections

Remembering

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new-york-1332374_640

My Sunday reflections typically involve coffee, a record, and a look back on my week. Today is different. Today marks the 15th anniversary of 9/11, a day which changed the world as we knew it forever. Anyone you talk to can tell you where they were that day when the shocking news hit, how they spent the hours watching the coverage, who they were with and how they were impacted by the tragic events. In honor of this day, and those who lost their lives, I will refrain from my usual post, but instead will share a handful of links to stories of others who survived or were closely impacted by the attack.

It is so important that we do not forget this day and, as horrifying as it was, how these events brought so many of us together.

Esquire – Michael Wright’s Escape from the 81st Floor of the World Trade Center

NJ.com – An Arizona 9/11 Survivor Story

The story of Gary Welz

Yahoo News – Final Survivor of the South Tower, Ron DiFrancesco

Slate – The Marine Who Found Two WTC Survivors

Survivor Stories – Shannon Loy

The Blaze – Courageous Firefighter Survives Collapse

Sunday Reflection

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As I sit with my coffee, Cowboy Junkies, and thoughts early this morning, I am not only pondering over just this recent week, but the past two weeks and all of the ups and downs that came with them. My birthday celebration with my husband and friends kicked things off so perfectly, I felt nothing but love and happiness, then last weekend I hurtled into a low quite unlike anything I can recall experiencing. The root of this low was based on something within my professional life, something completely ridiculous and based solely on one person’s unjustified perception – but it impacted me, severely.

Cowboy Junkies

I found myself last Saturday morning curled up into a ball on the couch, near the verge of tears and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to leave this place. I was trying to fight off the feelings, but they were so overwhelming. I was genuinely overcome with sadness, and while I had every right to feel this way and then some, it was overtaking me far more than I was comfortable with. I didn’t want to write, I didn’t want to eat, and I definitely did not want to work out. But after several hours of this gloom and doom, I forced myself out into the garage to at least try to muster up the strength to do a bit of weight lifting, because I knew it would help…and help, it did. It didn’t miraculously turn things around, but it did help me turn the corner. It took a few days before I was able to fully shake things off, but by Wednesday of this week, the outlook was much brighter.

I’ll have a large hormonal shift with a side of work stress and a small anxiety, please.

I told my husband that it made me question things about myself – was this the start of some hormonal shift within me now that I’m 42? It’s called perimenopause, right? Is that even a real thing? Or, is it some sort of mild bout of depression, or just something related to the anxiety that I’ve carried with me in my life? I’ll say this, my personal life is incredibly happy and pleasant, and typically my professional one is pretty okay, but it’s not without it’s serious stresses, and I’m not sure if the stress is just starting to finally wear on me, or if it’s one of the above possibilities. Maybe it’s just a combo – I’ll have a large hormonal shift with a side of work stress and a small anxiety, please. Whatever happened, I’m not sure this is something I need to be overly concerned with as it was one bad episode, but it definitely caught my attention.

I’ll make a back alley deal to score some endorphins any day of the week…

So what are my next steps here? Number one, I’m due for my annual visit with the OB/GYN, which is always a party, but a perfect setting to talk about hormones. Side note: I hate hormones. Next up, meditation. I’ve tried to jump on the meditation train in the past to help manage stress, I bought the pillow and found a space where I could zone out and develop my mad meditation skills. But after a week or two, the pillow starts to collect dust and the only time I zone out is when I watch a mind-numbing episode of the Real Housewives flavor of the week. I’m challenging myself to take meditation more seriously as I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m going to need it. Finally, I’m left with exercise. I’ll make a back alley deal to score some endorphins any day of the week – those suckers are worth it, but they don’t always come easily. But hard work pays off, right?

Here’s to hoping that the hormone talk is not yet necessary, and that the rest of my self-prescribed treatment does the trick and keeps things in check. Only a little over a week in and already 42 is hard.

Some worthwhile reads (somewhat) related to this Sunday’s reflections:

Feeling Not Quite Yourself – So, perimenopause might be an actual thing.

10% Happier – A book by Dan Harris that I greatly enjoyed a couple of years ago, and one I plan to revisit.

Oh no, Not You Again – Okay, so totally unrelated to my post above, but a blogger that I’ve grown to love reading, and her latest post took me a bit out of my own head when the mood needed to be lightened up around here. This is a fun and sometimes dirty blog, in a very southern Carrie Bradshaw sort of way.

 

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Sunday Reflection

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Sunday mornings are always the best for reflecting on the week gone by and sometimes planning for the week ahead, but today I don’t intend of focusing on things to come…I just want to embrace this long, full day I have yet to enjoy. As I always like to start my Sundays out with a vinyl selection and coffee, today I’m spinning something new to my collection – Portugal. The Man.

Portugal

 

Speaking of coffee, my husband is still sleeping upstairs, so I’ve had to resort to making my own coffee this morning – which tastes just fine, but there is something about it that’s always better when he makes it. Although, I think he’s good at everything he does. In fact, I want to mention that I am quite proud of him. I briefly commented in a recent post that he was away over a weekend for a class, well, that class was the CrossFit Level 1 certification course. I always thought he’d be a great “coach” (they can’t technically be called coaches, but that’s the term I’m using), as he has a natural ability to lead and a personality that people are just drawn to. He’s been doing CrossFit for years under various training styles/methods, and we both talked about the coaching possibility about a year ago, and finally the timing was just right. This past week, he started coaching at a local gym (or box, if you prefer), which he plans to continue doing as it fits into his schedule – and I think he really enjoyed it. I know that I was sure excited for him!

As much as I’d love to do something like this too, I am not exactly coach material, but my husband is an inspiration to me and I am so grateful for his drive and ambition. I tend to get stuck in my little world of work and home, and his actions encourage me to step outside of my box and seek out new experiences. I’ve been thinking this over quite a bit during this past week, and while I haven’t jumped into anything just yet, I am considering a handful of opportunities. I’ll have more to come on this in future posts.

This week I also spent some time reorganizing the plan for this blog – plus I switched themes, once again. I loved what I had previously, and then ran into a problem with the link colors, and it pretty much ruined everything for me. I’ve gone with this simple format, which I think should serve me well for some time to come. *Fingers crossed* Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my new plan, it shouldn’t change much, but should at least create some consistency. Now I just need to be sure to spend the time necessary to keep up with it!

As part of my new blog plan, I’d like to start sharing posts and sites that I find particularly noteworthy during my week as a part of my Sunday reflection. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

This week’s reads: