Traveling Hokie

 

Do people even read blogs anymore? I guess that's TBD.

What’s saving my life right now? This is a prompt from Modern Mrs Darcy, a book blog/podcast I like.

I’m not sure anything is particularly lifesaving, in that nothing seems dire at the moment. Maybe what’s lifesaving is that I’m not trying to crush January. I’m not hibernating, but I am leaning into the cozy. I’ve read 7 books in the last 4 weeks, including two children's mysteries today. I’ve taken lots of naps. I’ve enjoyed walks in the snow. I’ve taken walks in the rain, but those are slightly less enjoyable. I’ve started listening to a new podcast. Work is going rather well, and it’s the less crazy time of year for my particular projects. I organized a section of my attic and hope to declutter another section soon. I’m enjoying not having to worry about my yard for a few months. It’s not that I don’t have goals and lists of things I want to do for the year, but this has just seemed a good time to be curled up with books and blankets. And honestly, that is actually on my to-do list- read. And lean into the seasons. There are some seasons for hiking, and others for snowmen and cozy reading. This is mostly a cozy time.

I realized I haven’t blogged much for a few reasons. One, I’m not constantly traveling and having random adventures like I was in Peace Corps. Suburbia just has a different vibe, you know? Also, I’m posting a lot of travel photos and such on Facebook, and it would almost seem like double posting to put them here also. Maybe. Maybe I’ll do some back blogging on my travels from the last few years. Also, the world has been shitty in a lot of ways the past several years, at least politically, and I wasn’t sure, still am not, how much I want to write about that. I think I want to write about my values more than the shitty stuff going on, but that may remain to be seen.

I’m guilty in paper journals of starting a new one constantly before finishing an old one. This leads to me having like 20 journals lying around that are a quarter to a third written in. I’m trying not to the same thing with blogs, since this is already the 3^rd one I’ve made in my life. I don’t see the need for a fourth, even if my voice and life is pretty different than when I left for Botswana 11 ½ years ago.

So we’ll see what this becomes. I am of the mind that I still want to post about adventures, be they overseas travels or new hiking spots. But I also believe that adventures can be new friendships or rekindling old ones, tackling things you’ve been meaning to do for months/years and experiencing the satisfaction of completely something, figuring out how to put actions to your values. Radical self acceptance may be the biggest adventure of all. So we’ll see where this goes.