Hi friends.  Welcome.

How are you all?

One way or another its been quite the  week hasn’t it? So I’m here to offer you a comfy seat, your favourite drink and a cool cloth for your brow.

And as always here are a few good things to enjoy as you head into your weekend  – – –

A Good Word

From  Story Solutions

What’s one less thing you could do this weekend that would do you good

A Good Look

Nothing deep tonight just this sweetie with a winning smile wishing you a relaxing weekend

See more of this cuteness at Swedish Piggy Mafia

A Good Idea

By Joanna Goddard

Take a Gander

For the past few months, I’ve been trying something new…

I’m definitely the type of person who can get — and stay — in her head. Are you? Is everyone? After a hectic workday, I would come home but still feel keyed up, running through my mental checklist, feeling compelled to check my phone, and having a hard time being in the moment.

But nowadays, when the boys and I are hanging at the playground, or Alex and I are walking to a restaurant, I’ll stop to look around. REALLY LOOK. I’ll notice a neighbor returning from the store with a rotisserie chicken. A garbage truck grumbling down the street. (Fall) decorations that nail it. A dog careening around the corner.

It’s funny how such a small thing — taking a moment to take it all in — can pull you right out of your head and set you up for a calmer, more present, more relaxed evening. After a busy afternoon, it’s like splashing water on your face.

And, honestly, seeing the world is just nice. “I do get a deep pleasure from looking,” says artist David Hockney. “I mean, I can look at a little puddle on a road in Yorkshire and just have the rain falling on it and think it’s marvelous.”

Do you ever truly look at the world around you? It sounds like such a non-event, but my life has felt really different because of it.

A Good Listen

I really loved this episode of Out Of The Ordinary Podcast which of course is about so much more than carbs.

Episode 98 Our Favourite Carbs

Quotes from the show:

“How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?”  – Julia Child

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Listen HERE or on your favourite podcast app

A Good Read

She Wanted a Man With a Good Job Who Is Nice to Animals

From The New York Times Modern Love Series

Here’s a snippet

“Stay here and guard the castle,” I would say to my dog, Dusty, every time I left our condo. Over the years, his eyes — one blue, one brown — had become washed with gray, his sight was failing, and his hips were becoming tight. He was hardly a guard dog.

When I came home, he no longer greeted me at the door but would raise his nose in welcome. I gave him peanut butter for his bravery, sometimes with painkillers to help with his hips.

Eleven years earlier, I adopted Dusty-Danger Dog (his full name) from the Town Lake Animal Shelter in Austin. I stopped by the shelter one day, came back the next, and Dusty was the only dog who remembered me. He had pointy ears like a giant fox and was at risk of being euthanized.

Since then, he and I traveled the country in my bumper-stickered Toyota pickup, visiting 28 states while putting 290,000 miles on that truck. During our years in Austin, Dusty became a local legend, helping to raise thousands of dollars for nonprofit organizations such as Austin Bat Cave and the Fusebox Festival. For a monetary donation to the nonprofit, Dusty and I would take someone’s dog on a special date, and I would write an essay about it for the donor. This raised a surprisingly large amount of money – – – Keep reading

Reclaiming 2020

By Christine Bailey

Back in July, yes 7 months into the year, I decided on my “word of the year.” The fact that it took me that long to choose a word shows just how much of a prime candidate I was for reading Anne Bogel’s newest book, Don’t Overthink It, in which I found this quote:

“What if instead of wasting our time overthinking, we focused on the good we might do? Small destructions add up—but so do acts of renewal. What if we sought out these small acts of reclamation? How great might the ripple effect be for our families, our communities, our world?”

As soon as I read that paragraph towards the end of the book, I knew I’d found my word.

Reclamation.

It jumped out at me, and now I’m seeing it everywhere. We’ve lost a lot this year. It’s time to reclaim some of what’s been lost       – – – Keep reading

Remember you can browse through the  previous articles and posts linked to in The Friday Recliner right  HERE.

And if you enjoy The Friday Recliner would you be kind enough to copy the link and send to a friend to enjoy as well.

Till next week friends, have a beautiful weekend, rest up, do something you love xx