I love…

I love the mountains…

This video was made nearly two decades ago. And it still rings true to me. Somedays it’s hard to remember the good. And yet, if I focus on the things I love, it gets a little easier. So… I love the mountains…

I love books.

I really love books. I love fiction. Nonfiction. Picture books. Graphic novels. Novellas. Collections of essays. Poetry. Memoirs. Series. Stand-alones. You name it. I love books.

I love learning new perspectives. Discovering something new about history. Or the world today. I love the different perspectives and the way an author can take you somewhere new. And how that exposure to new thoughts and ideas can change you. Just by reading a book. Books are powerful.

Books are under fire today. Lists of banned books are increasing. I never thought I would live in a time when people are trying to erase books from our present, remove them from circulation, and quiet voices that sing clearly from those pages. I thought book bans and book burnings were a thing of the past. I read about them growing up and felt grateful I lived in a time and place where that was not happening. Because I loved books. I thought we, as a human race, had evolved past that. Apparently not.

So, I ask you, now more than ever, to seek out new and different books. Read them. Seek out authors you wouldn’t normally read. Seek out people different from you. Seek out views that are different from your own. Seek out a list of banned books and read them all – figure out why they have been banned and see if you agree (or not).

Read. Reflect. Learn. Possibly grow.

Borrow books from your local library. Buy them used. Buy them from an independent book seller. Or an online retailer. Share them with others. Create your own home library of banned books. Before they slowly disappear.

I love books.

I love my self…

Quick confession. That’s not quite true. This is what I would call an aspirational painting. I am trying to love my self. You would think after writing a blog called “if I were my own best friend” for over 14 years I would have that on lock.

Nope. Still a work in progress. Sigh.

Did you know there are cultures where people just grow up loving themselves?!? They don’t know any different. Seriously, it’s true. It’s simply part of the culture. Of note, it’s really hard to explain the idea of not loving yourself to someone who grew up in a self-loving culture. They are completely baffled by this concept. I met someone recently who told me she does not understand American women and their lack of self love or their dislike of themselves. She told me she couldn’t understand it.

“You are who you are,” she said to me. “All of the time you are with you. So why would you not like you? It would be exhausting to be with someone you do not like, all of the time. Why do you not just like yourself? Accept you. Just like that.” (Then she clapped her hands and smiled.)

Hmmm. Just like that.

Well, if I were my own best friend, I would tell myself what my friend just told me. Accept yourself. Just like that. (Then clap your hands and smile.)

Then, imagine the peace. Imagine all the energy you’d get back. Imagine what it would feel like to use that energy to do something good in the world (instead of being at war with yourself). Imagine the power you would hold (if you weren’t so busy not liking yourself).

Imagine… Boom de yada.

This blog is a hand-crafted, heart-centered piece of work written by a human (not AI). The writing is my own, as are the mistakes and (inevitable) typos. Thank you for supporting a human who writes things. And paints things. And draws things.

If I’ve mentioned any products in this blog, they are things I wanted to share. I don’t receive any compensation. They are simply things I liked and/or choose to write about.