Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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leak stop & friday 5 at the farm

Hello, and happy Friday! I have one million thoughts and feelings to share but will distill them a bit.

This week my cup is full, running over actually, and I am humbled beyond words. The outpouring of love from people in my inner circle has been so fierce that I almost cannot look straight at it all. I know what a gift it is right now, how it is meant to be accepted and kept, and I intend to keep it refilling my heart for a long time. So with some deliberateness, I am storing it up. My normal tendencies might have me diluting it all and leaching it away with negative self talk or listening to critics too much; so instead I am applying a leak stop to keep that from happening. Just thoughts and intentions, really, but it matters.

Five Stories This Week I Forgot to Tell You:

  1. KFOR visited the farm. News anchor Ali Meyer and her very cool photographer Travis spent a couple of hours with us on Tuesday, and we made lots of happy memories. I can’t wait to tell you all about this.
  2. Date Night! Also on Tuesday, Handsome and I had a date night exploring Factory Obscura in Midtown then feasted on Tex Mex, late in the evening. Have you been? To Factory Obscura? (I assume if you read this blog tat we have plenty in common and you have eaten Tex Mex at least three thousand times.) Factory Obscura is a fantastic immersive art exhibit absolutely bursting with texture, creativity, stimulation, everything. My husband liked it ok, haha, but he also was glad we attended for free with Yelp. It’s not for everybody. It is very much for me. I want to go again. Go with me?
  3. Chores around here are pleasantly caught up for mid-January. (Side note: I accidentally typed MUD January, and almost let it stay. Because it’s so true.) Christmas is tucked away, the fields are 80% clean, the animals are fat and happy (except for Zsa Zsa, who recently had a moment of conflict with Pacino), and the house is pretty organized and clean. I feel those happy, late winter urges to scrub walls and purge clutter, to add green houseplants and order seeds for spring. It’s great to be caught up so all of this can be enjoyed day to day.
  4. Marathon training is warming up. I feel amazing. On week four now, my mileage is solid, and the speed work and tempo runs are so exhilarating! I think I have a good plan going (Hansons Advanced), and I certainly have all the support I could possibly dream of. The race is in 99 days. Eek!
  5. Books! This week I am rotating between Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr. It’s like approaching the same goal (wholeness and vitality) from two very different and complimentary angles (spirit and discipline). Next week I’ll read The Alchemist to be ready for a discussion dinner.

Okay, Handsome just left the room to make popcorn. I need to be part of that rainy day luxury. Thank you for touching base!

Oh! Bonus story, make this soup:

modified greatly from the original Run Fast East Slow cookbook

Happy weekend, friends. You are loved.

“Most people think they lack motivation
When what they really lack is clarity.”
~James Clear in Atomic Habits
XOXOXOXO

grievances & a luscious start to the new year

Hello, friend, and happy new year! How has your crossover been so far? Ours has been light and easy and anchored by a few of our favorite little rituals.

Last night we watched part of a fun burlesque show in Oklahoma City (thanks to our friend Mer for the tickets!). Most of the women attending were dressed in flapper style dresses and beaded, feathered headbands wrapped around the fronts of their foreheads. Really pretty! I’m inspired for the decade just by that!

Ducking out early, we cruise through a very festive Bricktown party then made it home and into our bed for the midnight countdown. Klaus was ever so grateful we were home at a reasonable hour. Amanda Shaw performed on TV! She is a New Orleans musician who we saw perform live on the West Bank several years ago. Her lively Zydeco rendition of Auld Lang Syne last night was so perfect. I do miss the Quarter.

We fell into a deep, efficient sleep which lasted all the way to six this morning; then while waiting for daybreak, we sipped strong coffee, enjoyed a growling fireplace, and read each other last year’s grievances. I want to talk more about that in a minute. After a while, we ate a slow brunch together and walked around the farm, telling all the furred and feathered residents, “Happy New Year!” It has been a bright and blustery day so far. Warm, windy, intense light. An auspicious, energizing start.

Every year, our Grievances are a good, strong mix of details. We both write spontaneous memories of work and play, memories big and small. (Which means they’re all big. You know.) We love it.

This morning I noticed a few themes in our 2019 Grievances:

  • Lots of sensuous rain and thunderstorm notes (it was an especially wet year)
  • Lots of joy from entertaining (we hosted tons of parties and family gatherings this past year, which we love doing)
  • Lots of celebrating a long list of heavy farm projects. (Some of the things we fixed or built or created this year, already seem like they’ve been around much longer. It was a productive year!)
  • Lots of xxx romance (that’s not blog rated ok)

Some years our grievances seem to orbit the overcoming of stress or grief. Sometimes that’s just how life is. And we accept it all as part of the masterpiece.

This past year, based on how we seem to feel and also how these scrappy little Grievances played out, our energy was really constructive. Definitely stronger, more deliberate, plenty outbound and of the carpe diem flavor. I love it.

This makes me curious about what this next year might hold. I’m not writing resolutions, because intention setting and meditation have been so much more fruitful. I’m keeping with that. And I am paying attention to the flow of energy. The rhythms of life. We have good reason to believe that a few wonderful answers are on the horizon’s razor edge.

But even without that, we would continue to feed hope. We would continue to choose joy. Those dark, more difficult chapters grew us to inhabit this one. This chapter of strength and so much celebration, ready and waiting for even more.

So happy new year to you, friend!! How is your energy today, and how have you been able to take stock of this threshold? I hope you are filled with peace and contentment, enough energy to work and play, and all the assurance that Love conquers literally everything. Light drives out every shadow.

Ok. Signing off. Talk soon about books worth reading and marathon training?

XOXOXOXO