I love your brain

September is somewhat of a “birthday season” in my relatively small and extended family. Dan, Cole and I all have September birthdays, added to those of my brother, father-in-law, and sister-in-law, and our god-daughter. It’s a lot of celebrating and new beginnings.

This year feels even more significant in terms of new beginnings. With Cole back in the throes of in person school and outside activities like iDance, and my office preparing for us to return in some sort of hybrid fashion back to some in person office days next month, it just feels like we’re starting to shed the past eighteen months of truncated hibernation. With that I feel like I too am moving towards shedding some layers of fear, uncertainty and introversion, welcoming the idea of being around people I haven’t seen in person throughout the pandemic.

Moving back to a more normal life has been thus far been a slow, mitigated process. At first we saw almost no-one, adding a couple of close families and only outside visiting. Once we were all vaccinated, earlier this year, I actually started going to a few stores and ate at a restaurant (outside) for the first time since March 2020! Cole’s still not comfortable to run errands, though it does cross my mind that it’s a handy excuse for him not to run errands! Things feel fairly safe here – masks are required nearly everywhere and people in our neighborhood are largely respectful of this. My office has a vaccination policy in place, a fancy temperature station when you enter the building, and masks requirements for all indoors. I’ve gone in here and there recently and am reminded of how much I enjoy and miss the camaraderie of my peers. I miss my ducks too!

Birthday season often finds me contemplating my place in life and this year is no different. More so than, say New Year’s, birthdays lead me to consider what’s working in my life and what I’d like to approach differently or change or embrace or explore. This year, like some past, it brought me back to this – to writing. I need the brain overload outlet. I learned that exercise is a very beneficial outlet for stress and a welcome antidote for sitting all day, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect on what’s going on inside my head. I’m looking forward to seeing how exercise and writing work together! My hope is that 2022 will find me edging towards a healthier, happy me – that we all will be moving forward towards finding joy.