To be honest, the end of January is coming too quickly for me. I have lots of items on my to-do list for the month that have not gotten done, and I don't know how much I will get done before the new month. In part, this is because I ended up spending all day reading a book for one of my book clubs, which is meeting tomorrow early in the afternoon.
In some cases, it is easy to throw away the plan, for example, not getting to as much organizing as I was hoping to, while other parts of the plan are harder to throw away, like realizing that, unlike the past several years, I may not get to only read books by Black authors in February in honor of Black History Month because a few I have out are popular at the library and I won't be able to renew them.
No matter what step we are on, from making a plan to following Captain Cold's wisdom to throw away said plan, when in doubt, we can also remember Jason Mraz's wisdom, bump up the music, and simply dance.
Every time I feel myself gettin' frantic
Maybe too much coffee did it
I bump up the music, bump up the click
I pick up the speed 'til I'm deep in it
Then I give it a hat tip and just like magic
I feel it come back in it, my body's electric
I'm feeling elastic and super fantastic
And flipping like I know gymnastics
I like to shake a leg, I like to nod my head
I like to shake a leg, I like to nod my head
I like to make a snow angel while lyin' in my bed
But don't give me no smooth talk
Unless you got a good moonwalk
And smile with your hips, smile with your hips, smile with your hips
I recently read "The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics," which I really enjoyed, and I think there should be a ton more anthologies of these kinds of comics and stories. I was reminded, yet again, by this collection that I relate to gender differently than most people do.
On a personal note, I go by She/Her/Any pronouns and don't feel a strong connection to being a woman but don't particularly feel any stronger connection to being considered a man or nonbinary, so I identify as a cis-gendered woman when I am asked to identify.
In many of the personal stories in this collection, there was a real conflict between what society says about gender and the experience of the authors with their gender. Often, before discovering they were trans or nonbinary, the authors experienced an intense period of not feeling like they fit in with the gender society assigned them. Many of these stores involved individuals finding great joy when they learned they could express their gender (however they saw it) in whatever way made them most comfortable.
In reading these stories, I realized that I always did what was most comfortable for me at any given time and was often in a place of privilege where I did not have to pay attention to what society said I should be doing.
This is especially true when it comes to clothes. I had great parents who did not care what clothing was labeled if it fit me. Growing up, I often went with shorts labeled for boys because they covered more and had more pockets than ones labeled for girls. And even today, I tend to find T-shirts that are unisex fit much better than ones labeled for women.
Personally, recognizing my privilege, I am aware that things such as clothing are often gendered, but I rarely if ever cared what gender I presented as, so I really didn't pay attention other than having a few pet peeves, such as that in general, women tend to have larger chests than men, so why do women's T-shirts always have so much less material to cover that area? and the universal Why Doesn't "Woman's" Clothing Have Real Pockets?
Another example is the fact that I don't care if body products, candles, etc. are gendered or not; I simply pick what is cheapest or what smells the best to me. I really don't think using "male body wash" is any different from any other body wash, nor do I think "crushed mint and rosemary" is more of a male scent than a woman's scent.
So while I don't feel strongly connected to being a woman, I also have not felt strongly that I was expressing being a woman incorrectly. I always thought people should just wear what makes them most comfortable. Clearly, this is not the case for all people, and thinking about my own relationship to gender and society has been interesting.
Today I am continuing to share good news stories because we all need more good news stories. Today I am highlighting advances for nature globally in 2023 as shared on the site gapminder.com.
The European Parliament approved a landmark deforestation law to ban imports into the EU of coffee, beef, soy and other commodities if they are linked to the destruction of the world’s forests.
White rhinos re-introduced to the Garamba national park in Congo 17 years after the last one was killed by poachers.
First national holiday in Kenya for people to plant trees. 150 million free seedlings available to the public.
Wild tiger populations increased in India and Bhutan.
Big declines in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in 2023.
Tobacco companies to be charged to clean up cigarette butts off the streets and beaches of Spain, according to new environmental regulations.
EU agreed to ban exports of plastic waste to poor countries.
US President Biden signed a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality.
The Saiga antelope changed status on the IUCN Red List after populations in Kazakhstan went from 39,000 in 2005 to a population of nearly 2 million today, thanks to conservation efforts.
Microbes that can digest plastics at low temperatures discovered by scientists in the Alps and the Arctic, which could be a valuable tool in recycling.
A conservation project to move golden eagles to southern Scotland has helped the population reach the highest number for centuries.
The Scimitar-horned Oryx had been classified as “”extinct in the wild”” since 2000, but after they were reintroduced and the focus of conservation efforts in Chad, there are now 600 of them roaming in the wild and their status changed to “”endangered.””.
Today I watched Barbie (2023) for the first time. It was showing at my local branch of the library. I want to start by saying I did not grow up playing with Barbies so I don't have the same nostalgia that many viewers seemed to have.
This means that I am sure I missed the importance of many of the references because Barbie is just not one of my fandoms. On the other hand I did love the 2001: A Space Odyssey reference at the beginning.
The movie asks do Barbies show those who play with them (typically young girls) that they can be anything they want including president ? Or are they a tool of the patriarchy to make girls think anything is possible when the system is set up so no matter what they do they will fail?
My Different Relationship To Toys:
For me the movie highlighted how I have a different relationship with my toys, characters, stories than many others. For example you will rarely find me without my Captain Cold POP figure or my Fidget the Fidget Dragon but I don't use either to express who I am per se.
While I love the character Captain Cold and I am deeply inspired by the actor behind the character Wentworth Miller, I have never thought of getting into robbery or being an actor because of that love LOL. Instead I carry my Captain Cold as a form of comfort.
My Captain Cold is a physical representation that I am not facing the world alone. A reminder of Captains Cold's wisdom to "Throw Away the Plan" and Wentworth Miller's wisdom "gentle, gentle" etc. Or maybe Captain Cold is an anthropomorphic personification for me to hang with.
My Different Relationship To Being Woman:
Selections from Gloria's monologue from Barbie (2023):
It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.
It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.
I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.
For me the movie also reminded me that I "wear" being a "woman" differently than others. I can recognize that systems are not designed to support woman (even the temperatures of most offices which are based off of “the metabolic rates of men” so women end up feeling cold). Also I can recognize there are so many contradictory messages about what a "woman" is supposed to be. But I experienced / experience those expectations differently from others because of the intersections of my other identities such as being Ace and Autistic.
Ex. I remember years ago a trip to NYC with my grandma and she asked me if she should get shoes that hurt her feet but were fashionable or ones that were comfortable but not fashionable. I answered the comfortable ones, which even I was able to tell was not the answer she wanted. In hindsight I recognized her response in buying the fashionable shoes that hurt her feet as being just another thing about people I did not understand then put her in a metaphoric bubble or box and labeled it "people being confusing" and moved on with my life.
In many cases instead of "tying myself in knots to please other people" in my head I went I am confused, I don't have the bandwidth to deal with understanding people, so I will hang in my own universe because the joint universe we call reality is not really designed for me. This means that overall the struggles that are faced by women feel more intellectual. Or maybe it is better said I have been privileged to not have to be aware of those struggles in my life. I was always the "weird" barbie/human hanging in my own corner of the multiverse.
This morning I listened to a free webinar around loneliness and social connection and while it was focused on in person connections I am grateful for the connection and community I gain from characters both fictional and real.*
In comparison to many others, the ratio of "character" social interactions to "real life" social interactions I need to thrive is shifted towards the "character" side of the equation because characters help me understand others, help me express my feelings, and always are available.
* "Real Characters" include creative people I follow on social media. No matter how many details they share and I incorporate into the version of them I interact with in my imagination, I am interacting with a "character" version of them instead of interacting with them directly.
Characters Help Me Understand Others:
I am someone who often struggles to understand other people (and being neurodivergent can make this even more challenging LOL). I sometimes say I struggle to people, I struggle to human. With characters I often end up with a deeper understanding that is rooted in both how the character is portrayed in the book, comic, movie, or TV show they are from, and how they are portrayed in fanfiction.
Fanfiction is great because when you read as much of it as I do you are able to pick up information about and interpretations of characters that you might miss on your own. For example highlighting the trauma that various characters have experienced (whether or not that trauma is directly referenced in canon.) This helps explain their choices to me and helps make those characters more relatable for me.
In other cases fanfiction provides the typically unspoken context for a lot of human behavior. You get inside characters heads, through inner monologues, in a way that you don't get into the heads of others. There are often many versions of a character so you can do a study of why versions behave differently. With characters that are not completely human you also often get explanations of how their behavior is similar or different from most humans.
Characters Help Me Express My Feelings:
I am someone who often struggles to identify and then articulate what feelings I am feeling. With my characters I don't have to identify or articulate those feelings. I can metaphorically wave my hand and have my characters feel what I am feeling directly. In addition I can share how I am feeling knowing that my characters will understand what I am experiencing because they have experienced something similar. I also know they will never judge me for what I am feeling even if what I am feeling is not what the majority of people would feel in a situation.
This means my characters allow me to follow one "Real Character" Wentworth Miller's Advice which he gave at a speech many years ago at Oxford:
What I will say is that self-expression is huge. Having a container in which to put what is boiling up inside of you, your anger, your fear, your guilt, your shame, finding ways to get that out – maybe it’s on paper, maybe it’s on a canvas, maybe it’s a jog around a school track – just get it out of you, as soon as it bubbles up, work to get it out.
I personally have found being able to get feelings out even if I don't know what they are can be powerful. Sometimes it is in my journal, sometimes it is in a daydream, sometimes it is in another form but being able to share with my characters that I am feeling "somehow" or I'm feeling "here, here" or just that I am "feeling feelings" and being able to explore than without having to name those feelings can be very helpful for me. Sometimes after "talking" to my characters I have a better idea how I could name what I am feeling but that is not the point.
Characters Are Always There For Me:
As Wentworth Miller also said in his Oxford speech:
I’ve been a good friend to people, and when a friend is in crisis, I know how to be there for them, I know how to hold space that looks like listening, it looks like support, it looks like back and forth, maybe it just looks like a hug, maybe it looks like being silent and just holding their hand.
My characters are able to be that type of friend even if I could not say what I am in need of. Characters have done all those things for me, listened, supported, hug me, simple held me. My characters know if I need someone to simply sit next to me or if I need to be squeezed like I am going through a black hole, if I need to be "gentle, gentle" with myself or if I need to stretch outside my comfort zone. They have been in the hole and know exactly what I will need.
While which characters I am hyper focused on at any given moment changes I know all my characters better than I know or are known by many people I interact with in the "real world." Some of this is simply proximality I have immediate assess to my characters 24/7 and the intimacy that proximality creates. Personally some of my best friends are "characters" and these characters help me find connection and community in the wider world.
Yesterday evening was the Three Avenues Bookshop book club meeting for The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. In my small group, we had an interesting debate about whether we should always be able to have empathy for characters.
Now, I think part of the debate was because we were using the words in different ways, but for this blog post, I am going with "Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another," and I find that personally, I can't always "understand" the feelings of others.
Note: There will be spoilers for The Berry Pickers.
Let us start with a summary:
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
So, as I figured out by simply reading the summary, Ruthie and Norma are the same character. The debate at book club was around whether we all could feel "empathy" towards the woman who kidnapped Ruthie and raised her as Norma.
I found that I could "empathize" with the bad choice of kidnapping Ruthie because the woman had experienced multiple miscarriages, stillbirths, etc. and clearly was experiencing an acute mental health struggle when she made the choice to take Ruthie.
I can understand feeling big feelings and having meltdowns or shutdowns. I can also understand characters who express those big feelings in unhealthy ways, such as by turning to alcohol or drugs. So while I 100% disagree with the kidnapping, I can understand, on some level, why the woman did it.
But I lost my ability to understand the feelings of the woman (and the woman's husband, who supported her by having a birth certificate created and moving the family to another town where no one knew them and would question the appearance of this 4-year-old).
I fundamentally can't understand why the woman, her husband, or others who later knew what happened didn't wake up the metaphoric next morning and go, "OMG, WTF, this is wrong. We must rectify the situation." I truly can't understand why no one went; the woman made a mistake, and while we understand she is suffering and is "fragile," she can't kidnap a kid in response.
I think some of my reasons for not being able to empathize with the woman after the initial kidnapping include:
Historical Baggage: I am aware of some of the ways that religious and state-sponsored schools have historically "kidnapped" indigenous children, stealing their culture and identity and horrifyingly causing the death of many of these children. In a different context, I am also aware of how, during slavery, children were often taken from mothers and sold. So for me, kidnapping kids is a clear wrong.
Distance From The Issue: On one hand, I have never wanted to have kids and never plan on having kids in the future so I struggle to understand the impact of miscarriages and stillbirths on the woman. On the other hand, I know of several people who have been open on social media about miscarriages, stillbirths etc., and while each has made different choices, none of them Kidnapped a child. So I would say I cannot understand the kidnapping, even if I can understand how the woman would have been experiencing big feelings when she did so.
Other Character Development: In the book, we get to really see the consequences of the choice to kidnap the kid, while we don't get inside the kidnappers head to the same degree, so personally, I am able to understand and empathize with the other characters, especially Joe, and the guilt he felt at feeling like he was the one to lose his sister, even though he was 6 years old at the time, impacted all his future choices. Seeing all the ripples of the woman's choice makes it harder for me to understand her choice, even though I know the woman did not see those ripples.
The Woman's Own Lack Of Empathy: In addition, clearly, the woman understood the impact of losing a child to miscarriage or stillbirth, so I can't fundamentally understand why the woman could not then understand how having your four-year-old child stolen would impact you in a different but related way.
Different Standards For Realistic Stories Than For Other Fiction: This story is "realistic" and feels like it could have happened, which I think oddly makes it harder for me to empathize. I think since it is realistic, I struggle to understand why the choice was made. When characters are in worlds filled with superheroes, aliens, anthropomorphic personification, gods, etc., I can understand and buy the conceit that they didn't see better options available when they made their choices and can't say I would have done it differently. In this case, I know there were other options, so I don't understand why those other options were not used.
So while I know it is important to be able to empathize with people in general, and there are times when I understand why someone made the choice they did even if I would never make that choice myself, I know I can't always empathize with others. I can't always feel what others feel. I don't always relate to other people or to the world in the same way others do. And so personally, I don't think we can all empathize with all characters at all times.
Today I am continuing to share good news stories because we all need more good news stories. Today I am highlighting advances for our rivers, oceans, and other waterways globally in 2023 as shared on the site gapminder.com
Release of 5,000 Polynesian snails was biggest ever release of an ‘extinct in the wild’ species. They had previously been driven away by an invasive species
It was revealed that a record number of river barriers were removed across Europe in 2022, allowing rivers to flow freely and migratory fish to reach breeding areas.
For the first time in a century, Paris is making the River Seine swimmable thanks to a major cleaning operation. It should be ready for next year’s Olympics.
38 new countries joined the world’s largest freshwater restoration and protection initiative
A mammal (the water vole) facing extinction is thriving two years after being reintroduced to a Hertfordshire river in the UK.
Countries signed the High Seas Treaty which aims to protect more of the ocean than ever before.
Australia rejected a coal mine near the Great Barrier Reef due to risk of ‘irreversible damage’.
A new law to phase out commercial gillnet fishing in the Great Barrier Reef world heritage area by mid-2027 to create new net-free zones to better protect endangered marine species.
Australia signed off on plans to almost triple the size of a marine park off Macquarie Island.
A tanker adrift in the Red Sea since 2015 was drained of one million barrels of oil, averting the threat of a disastrous spill.
On Monday Sir Elton John got his EGOT aka winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Here is an exploration of all the music that he won for in each of the EGOT categories sorted by year..
I have to say it is interesting that he did not win his Grammys for many of his classic songs like Rocket Man, I'm still standing, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (with Kiki Dee), Crocodile Rock, Levon, Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Bennie and the Jets ...
E
Emmy 2023/2024*
Outstanding variety special (live)
Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium
Can be found on Disney Plus
*Since it was given in 2024 but was the 2023 Emmy ceremony because of the strike
Today felt good because I saw the result of some "small activism."
Monday Do312 a local events webpage shared a list of local Black organizations to support for MLK Jr. Day. When I looked at the list I saw that Lighthouse Foundation which is a Black LGBTQ+-led, multiracial social justice organization that advances justice for Black LGBTQ+ people across Chicagoland, was not on the list. Nor was it on Do312's list of local LGBTQA+ organizations.
At the bottom of the page they had one of those generic "Did we miss an organization or charity that belongs on this list? Please let us know by reaching out to ..." messages. So I actually sent an email and said here is the info for Lighthouse Foundation which is missing from these two lists and said if they needed any additional info I could connect them with Lighthouse Foundation leadership.
I sent the email late in the evening Monday and this afternoon got the above message that they added Lighthouse to both guides. So potentially more people will now know about Lighthouse Foundation and again potentially some of those new people might choose to donate. This was a cool reminder of the power of small activism.
Sending an email saying Lighthouse Foundation is missing from your guide was quick and easy for me and yet I have already seen an direct result of that email in Lighthouse foundation being added to both guides. And this has the potential to make a direct impact if even one person learns about Lighthouse Foundation via the guides and decides to donate even a small amount.
Right now locally I am in the middle of a wave of below zero temps. When it is so cold outside I seek ways to warm up. Either physically warm up with cups of tea and warm blankets or mentally warm up by finding ways to escape the cold without leaving my apartment. To that second point here is a selection of music from around the world that "feels" warm to me.
Note: Since I only know English, while I feel it is unlikely, I would not be aware if there was anything problematic in the songs/song lyrics. If there is anything problematic I apologize.
As I said last Friday, many of us have a feeling that 2024 is going to be a year filled with challenges. My plan is to post a few "good news" stories each Friday because 2024 feels like a year we are all going to need as much good news stored up as possible. (Though we will see we know what we do with plans LOL "Gentle, Gentle")
Today I am highlighting advances for women globally in 2023 as shared on the site gapminder.com (Yes, in many cases it is sobering it took until 2023 for these things to happen, but they are still advances we can celebrate)
Paid menstrual leave introduced in Spain: Spain became the first European country to introduce paid menstrual leave for women experiencing painful periods.
Women finally allowed to vote everywhere: The last state to allow women to vote was the Vatican City, which in 2023 finally granted women the right to vote, meaning that women now finally have the legal right to vote in every single country in the world (although the Taliban has been removing the rights from women in Afghanistan that they first won in the 1960s)
Game-changing new league for India’s female cricketers: Professional women’s cricket league, the Women’s Premier League (WPL), launched in India
More equality in earnings among married couples in the US: Husbands and wives are equal earners in a growing number of US marriages, according to new Pew research.
Free maternity care to mothers in DRC: Pregnant women across the Democratic Republic of the Congo are now offered free healthcare in an effort to cut the country’s high rates of maternal and neonatal deaths.
Fewer Brazilian women handwashing the laundry: Brazil is one of the world’s most populated countries, and more households than ever (70%) now have a washing machine – an invention that releases time for women in households almost everywhere!
Female Leader in Bosnia & H.: First female leader elected as Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Same pay for female sports in Wales: For the first time, Wales’ men’s and women’s senior football players will be paid the same for representing their country.
More women in parliaments: Globally, 27% of politicians in national parliaments in 2023 were women. Back in 1997, it was just 12%
Gender gap in science closing: New research showed a sharp increase in gender equality in science.
On Sunday, my church started a January sermon series, "New Year, New Me: Strategies for a Fresh Start." The sermon was focused on how our church community could think about what we used to look like pre-Covid and how we can move towards a "greater" version of ourselves in the future. I found the sermon provided useful tools for thinking about my own personal life.
I tend to struggle to remember the past unless I put in a lot of effort. This occurs on a micro level, such as not quickly or easily remembering what I did this morning. As well as on the macro level, such as not remembering what I did several years ago or as a child. So as a community, looking back was useful to help me "remember" my "pre-Covid self."
During the sermon, it was highlighted that many of us are doing less, especially less social activities, than we did "pre-Covid." Pastor J heighted the importance of noting "the difference between being thoughtful about what you do and being fearful of doing anything."
Personally, instead of "fearful", I simply am less in the mood to deal with social situations and less in the mood to deal with too much peopling. Covid was a period of time where I had a lot fewer interactions with people, and that new normal became very comfortable for me.
Being social is often a very draining situation, especially at first, and sometimes not wanting to put in the social energy means I don't do the social thing even if I know I will feel better after doing the social thing in the long term. This is something I have to relearn how to navigate.
Another quote from Sunday was "We deserve (and were created for) community in ways that work for us." Community is complex, and what we need at any given moment from it is ever-changing. Thinking about what we can get from being in community is useful because I often only think about what I can or should do for the community.
When I am only thinking about what I can or should do for the community, it becomes a burden. On the other hand, if I can think about what community can do for me, community can become metaphoric Möbius strip where we all are able to thrive more fully.
What did you look like pre-Covid? What do you look like now? What do you want to look like in the future? How can community help you reach your vision for the future and help you become a "greater" version of yourself?
Today I took advantage of the fact that The Art Institute has "Free Admission for Illinois Residents" on weekdays (Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays), January 8–March 22, 2024. I would recommend The Art Institute if you have some free time during the week. Being surrounded by art is good for the soul. "Gentle, Gentle"
I ended up visiting all the free spotlighted exhibits (so no special Picasso exhibit since that cost extra) as well as my old buddies like Ganesh and Van Gogh.
One exhibit that stood out to me was the one on Camille Claudel (which runs until Feb 19, 2024). I listened to the free audio tour of the exhibit which is found on the Art Institute App. The tour provided lots of context for the art by specialists in many different specialties, which was useful because while I enjoy art I don't always know what I should be noticing in a piece.
As the gallery notes stated:
The trailblazing French sculptor Camille Claudel (1864–1943) defied the social expectations of her time to pursue original and powerful explorations of the human form.
Claudel’s biography—her passionate and complicated relationship with her teacher, Auguste Rodin, and her forced confinement in a psychiatric institution for the final 30 years of her life—is popularly known today, but her forward-thinking artworks have received less attention in the United States.
Many of us have a feeling that 2024 is going to be a year filled with challenges. Starting today my plan is to post a few "good news" stories each Friday because 2024 feels like a year we are all going to need as much good news stored up as possible.
(Though we will see we know what we do with plans LOL "Gentle, Gentle")
Today I am highlighting some good health news from around the world in 2023 as shared on the site gapminder.com
New malaria vaccine approved: A new, cheaper, more effective malaria vaccine was approved for widespread use by the WHO
Cervical cancer drug advance: Biggest breakthrough in treatment of cervical cancer for 20 years, with trials showing it cut risk of death by 35%
First whole eye transplant: Surgeons successfully performed the first every whole eye transplant in a human
Bangladesh became the first country in the world to eliminate the tropical disease “”kala-azar”” (the medical name is Visceral Leishmaniasis).
Major breakthroughs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: Two new medications proved they are able to slow down cognitive decline from Alzheimer’s disease.
In a medical first, a paralyzed man from the Netherlands walked again thanks to implants in his brain that could read his thoughts
The WHO certified Belize as malaria-free, following the country’s over 70 years of continued efforts to stamp out the disease
First vaccine against RSV: RSV is a common respiratory illness that can make babies and older adults very sick and the vaccine will help prevent severe illness.
Vaccine factory in Africa: Africa’s first mRNA vaccine factory opened in Rwanda
Suicide no longer a crime in four countries: Another step was taken towards breaking the taboo around mental health, when Ghana was one of four countries to have decriminalized suicide in the past year – Malaysia, Guyana and Pakistan are the others.
(Photo by Dreaming Ace of Dreaming Ace's 2024 Daily List)
(Despite me writing 1/1/23 LOL)
For me my daily list helps me find the right balance of structure and unstructured planning for the new year. I have been doing daily lists for several years now and this is in part why I don't need to have New Year's Resolutions. I have worked on my lists until it covers pretty much everything I hope to incorporate at the beginning of the year.
My daily list includes a few categories I want to do each day, and the list does change slightly over the course of the year depending on particular seasonal focuses I want to have. For me I find open ended categories to be more useful than being super specific but it comes down to knowing yourself.
After working with daily lists for years I have come up with categories that I can accomplish no matter what kind of day I am having, how many spoons I have, or how busy I am. What you choose for your own list could be anything really. For me the key is is categories because for example I might not have a cup of tea everyday I can do something related to "self love".
My 2024 Daily List for January
Fitness:
I include any fitness activities I do, walking, yoga, stretching, dancing, an fitness app etc. (I use a great fitness app that includes all types of fitness routines from cardio and strength, to stretching and meditation. In addition there are fitness routines of all lengths including 3-4 min stretches that work even on the most low energy days)
Health:
I include taking a multivitamin, brushing my teeth, using mouthwash etc.
Self Love:
I include getting outside, having a cup of tea, using lotion, self-massage, going to a free wellness/selfcare event, etc. Lots of small doable activities that show myself self love.
Food:
Honestly I started this after reading about how historians love having data on what people actually ate (There are amazing historical mysteries such as a condiment that was once used by pretty much everyone but no one bothered to write down what it was because at the time everyone "knew") so this category is for future historians. (You're Welcome LOL)
I also find this category helps me check in and see what I have eaten each day This is never about judging what I eat instead it is just about self-awareness and making sure I eat food every day in a semi-timely manner. I fall firmly in the there are NO "bad" foods (other than ones you are allergic to and therefore "bad adjacent" for you personally)
Everything Else:
This is a list of everything I accomplish in my day, everything from listening to a podcast, or writing a blog post, to going though email, or doing chores. I find "Everything Else" useful because I am the type of person who quickly forgets what they have accomplished and defaults to I didn't do anything today, this week, this season etc. Writing it down both means I have proof that I have gotten stuff done and tends to motivate me to do more things so that I can write them down in my journal.
