Hi friends. So glad you’re here 

Any plans for the weekend? I’ve been back at work and inside a lot this week so its a dose of the outdoors for me and a dip in the sea pool.

First things first though. Here are a few things fresh, friendly and fun to get your weekend started on a relaxed note. 

A Good Word

Victoria Erickson

A Good Look

Did you know  meandering, (wandering casually or aimlessly  for the enjoyment of what’s around you not for the purpose of getting somewhere),  is the new power walking? Nope me either but lets try it anyway. 

Pic from Exploring Europe

 A Good Idea 

from Kristen Lavalley

Deposit Some Serotonin

We’ve been doing this thing, since early last year, when the world started going to hell, where anytime we wanted to do something fun that maybe felt out of place or out of budget, one of us would say “SEROTONIN!” and we’d just impulsively run with the fun thing we wanted to do or eat or whatever.

We’ve always prioritized joy in our family, and this past year we’ve given ourselves all the permission slips to overdo it, if joy can be overdone. We call it “making serotonin deposits” and it’s something I don’t think we will ever ever regret. For the rest of our lives. Even when the world is back to normal, I think we’ll look back on the past year and how we spent our time and just be really happy with the choices we made.

Cause delayed gratification is cool and all that, but when it feels like the world is collectively scared and stressed out and you have the chance to grab some serotonin, I mean… why not grab it?

So we do. We grab it. It doesn’t mean we spend a lot of money, we just try not to get married to our plans. Sometimes it’s taking the exit with the weird roadside thing. Sometimes it’s driving to Florida instead of Texas. Sometimes it’s hugging a friend and spending hours talking instead of doing whatever it is we needed to do that day. Sometimes it’s going to a farm and snuggling animals just to see (our girls) face light up cause her serotonin is ALL of our serotonin.

So we’re just really into serotonin deposits because they’re important and I think we could all use more joy and feeling light instead of walking around with a cloud of existential dread. The dread’ll still be there. The circumstances don’t change because we indulge and we laugh. But when you make regular deposits into your serotonin bank, you have a deeper well to pull from when you need it.

Deepen those wells.

Deposit some serotonin.

Lord knows we need it.

A Good Read

Swimming in Very Cold Water Keeps Me Sane

I’m standing with two friends in the 39-degree air on the edge of a lake in northeastern California in just our bathing suits. A lone fisherman in several layers of outerwear stares, drinks from a bottle of Racer Ale and says, “Tell me you ladies aren’t going in that water.”

We go in that water. It’s probably 56 degrees. It’s not the coldest water in the world currently being swum, not “My Octopus Teacher” cold — that guy swims in 48-degree water all the time, but hey, he’s in love with an octopus. What do you expect?

Still, it’s cold. I am always last, and I always scream the loudest. It is so cold, like jumping into a martini. The misery lasts about two minutes, and then you are just alone in a giant lake. Some people sneer at this lake for being man-made, but the water itself — pristine, cool, deep blue and tropically turquoise at its shallow edges — has no idea if the big hole it’s sitting in was dug by machines or by a glacier. It doesn’t know that the beach is ugly and covered with blasted rocks and studded with tree stumps. It’s just water, amazing water, fresh from the Sierra, and to have it to yourself is a pretty good return for agreeing to be uncomfortable for 90 or so seconds, before your heart just starts chugging away and a special, private warmth blooms inside you, – – – – Keep reading

Make 2021 the Year of Maximum Enthusiasm

Loved the spirit of this one from Outside Magazine but warning  lots of references to hiking and mountain climbing and the language is colourful in places.

Here’s a snippet

One Saturday morning last October, my friend Greg and I were running down the North Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon, close to halfway through 26 miles of trail. We had run four miles and would run about four more to Phantom Ranch, where we could double-fist coffee and Lemmy lemonade at the cantina before climbing 4,400 vertical feet back up the South Rim to finish a hike/run rim-to-rim.

I turned around midstride and said, “Hey, Greg!”

“Yeah,” he said.

“We’re running in the Grand Canyon!”

Sometimes I get to do awesome things, and I kind of forget how awesome they are. Do you? I get stressed, caught up in other stuff, and I forget how fortunate I am, how incredible life has turned out to be most days, and some of the special places I’ve gotten to see. Most of the time, though, I try to keep a pretty good handle on it—try to remember to turn around and yell to my friend that yes, we are running across the most famous hole on earth, and that’s pretty special. Or, you know, even reminding someone a few months later about something special:

Kurt Vonnegut, in a 2003 speech to students at the University of Wisconsin, said, “I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

In 2021, I urge you to notice when something is awesome, as it often is, and exclaim or murmur or just make a mental note of it. Isn’t it just goddamn fantastic that you have your health, for example? Or running water, or electricity? Or that you have enough money to actually pay someone else to make you a cup of coffee? Or if you want ice cream, you are at any time in America probably only five or ten minutes away from a place that sells some form of it? (Trust me on that one) – – – –  keep reading

Thanks so much for reading friends and remember you can browse through the previous articles and posts linked to in The Friday Recliner right  HERE.