Happy Friday! Goodness, I am so glad it’s Friday. It was another long week of job-hunting with no real results, which can be a bit discouraging at times, and I am seriously looking forward to a couple days off to read and recharge, so I can hit the ground running – with a positive attitude! – again next week. My book of choice for this weekend is an advance copy of Michele Cushatt’s Undone: A Story of Making Peace With An Unexpected Life. I’ve heard great things, and am really looking forward to reading it (and posting a review for you soon)!
I found the loveliest thing on the internet this week: an interview with Anne Lamott on a new show hosted by Kelly Corrigan: Foreword. I love the concept of the show itself, and this interview is fantastic:
I mentioned last week that my friend Arman and I are co-hosting a weekly link-up for Lent; I’m sorry to say it’s off to a slower start than I had hoped, but it has sparked some good IRL conversations. This week we started off by writing about what we’ve decided to give up for Lent and why we think it’s important, and this coming week we’ll check in again to start talking about what we’re learning along the way. I’d love for you to join us on the journey! You can add your posts to the link-up here, or tweet/post about your Lenten journey with the hashtag #adventuresinlent.
As I’ve continued to learn how to listen to my life over the past few months, I’ve been asking God: “What is my one thing? What is the one thing that I’m supposed to be about – the one thing that I need to write about?” I’ve felt for so long that while I do care about everything I write about here, my blog has lacked any real theme. I have a lot of friends who blog, and while some write posts that are more of an online journal about everything and anything, many of them have a key issue or two that they really care about, and it shows up in the majority of what they write.
It occurred to me a few days ago that the answer may have been staring me in the face for more than a year – I said it myself when I designed the cover for my Facebook page:
Happiness really isn’t all that complicated. The exact things that make us happy may vary from person to person, but there are core needs that everyone has that – if met – are the root causes of happiness. And whether I specify it in every post or not, this is what I write about… I think?
I finished all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls ages ago, and have since been binge-watching The West Wing. I’d started watching it way back when with my dad, and then lost track of the series when I went to college. It’s been fun catching up on the storyline after all this time.
I’m not really a politically-minded person per se, but the characters on this show are believable and personable, and watching so much of it in such a short span of time highlighted something I hadn’t picked up on before. The President has a phrase that he uses from the very beginning of the show, and it usually crops up whenever a crisis is resolved: “What’s next?” I’m at the beginning of Season 6 now, and I noticed: the rest of his staff are starting to use it, too.
We emulate the people we respect, and this fictional President’s attitude towards dealing with problems is one worth emulating. I’m not kidding about this: I’ve been using that phrase for years – because of The West Wing.
Which is my new justification for watching entirely too much television: I might learn something life changing… 😉
Speaking of which – if I’m going to honor my 40-day #adventuresinlent intention tonight, I’d best sign off and go wind down… with just one more episode.
Have a great weekend!
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