unplugged

The Lake: good for the soul

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sunset

People, I’ve found, are passionate about their lakes. I mean that quite literally, “their lakes”. Once you’ve grown up somewhere, had a magical experience there, or worked hard to spend your retirement years at a certain dream location it becomes “your lake”. The possession doesn’t end there, because “your lake” becomes the lake by which all others are measured. I’ve been to algae laden rivers, lakes overrun with party cruises, and oversized ponds just to watch people puffed up with pride as they shared their bit of paradise with me. I smile politely, as one does when someone is looking at a hairless dog named “baby”, because you know what you have is better, bless their heart.

Being by a lake is good for the soul. I don’t put much stock into astrology, with people being a water sign or some thing, but I do believe that some people need a lake (or an ocean or a river) to reset themselves. I am one of such people. I’m fairly simple in this regard. If I’m intolerably bitchy I either need a nap, a snack, to go off and read, or to go in the water. Snack, sleep, read, rinse and repeat.

I haven’t written in two weeks (bet you missed me!) because I needed more water and less connectivity. More than that, as a mental health provider, I believe in prescriptions and therapy, but I also believe in the power of being outside. I watch my son pour water in and out of buckets all day and think that he’s probably on to something. Some kind of real life zen garden.

So, dear readers, since I want only good things for you… I hope you are packing up soon, unplugging in the near future, and heading out on the lake. Any lake. Your lake.

Keep sharing moxie.

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Getting kids outdoors: Camp is magic

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This is why our future is in better hands than you might think, because of kids like these… Here’s a group of young adults sitting down and watching a sunset last night. They weren’t talking, just watching and taking in this truly magnificent sky. They weren’t told to sit down, they just collectively stopped in their tracks, sat down, and said “wow”. These are some outdoor kids. The lake, the sunset, it’s all part of their employment package. They’ve eschewed higher paid summer jobs for this perk you can’t put a price on.

I was asked to conduct a Mental Health staff training at wilderness based camp this week and was privileged to meet these young adults. They will guide teenagers on canoe trips all summer long, thereby unplugging themselves and the hundreds of kids that show up on this secluded island for a wilderness adventure. These young adults may take have grown up with iphones, but have taken more pictures with fish than their own pouty duck faces. They know how to use a compass, pitch a tent, and cook over a fire that they have built themselves. They’ll teach kids how to paddle, how to portage, fishing, and tell them that “yes, you can do this” even when the campers don’t believe they can. They will be silly and ridiculous and encourage others to be crazy and sing. Just sing. Loudly and off key works just fine.

“I wake up on my own at camp, with the sun. If I looked at my phone at home, I would roll over and go back to sleep, like every single time. Here, the sun is brighter and the dark is, like, black. You can’t see a thing unless the moon is shining. I feel better at camp than any place in the world.”

Did you have a camp? A place where you packed your bags and stayed in a old cabin with a group of kids and a counselor that was the coolest grown-up you had ever met? Man, I hope you did.

I’m old and I just went to camp and met some of the coolest counselors ever. Camp is magic. That part never changes whether you are 10 or 4X10. Camp is magic.

Keep sharing moxie.

 

 

No shame in my game…

~ sharingmoxie ~ 5 Comments

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I love books. Confession: I love books more than people. Note, not more than most people, more than people, period. Unless we share DNA this is unabashedly true. I have skipped out of formal dinners to read in bathrooms. I’ve ducked out of weddings to finish a good book. Indeed, I have read books half naked while having various medical procedures completed. At any given moment, I would rather be reading than doing almost anything else.

There is a shared language of readers. Either you speak it or you don’t. I won’t judge the car you drive or the house you live in, but if you’re not a reader, well… we don’t speak the same language. Non-readers, you can stop reading this post now. Readers, carry on.

I can talk books for hours. Can you? Do you remember the first delicious all-nighter you spent with a book? I was 12 and it was Emily of New Moon. I had loved my Trixie Belden adventures, Sweet Valley High was fun, but Lucy Maud Montgomery knocked my 11-year old self on my ass. THIS was poetry! I’ve since read all of her books again, and, while enjoyable, it’s like an old boyfriend, great memories, but distance. You have the right books for specific times in your life, just like people.

I like big books and I cannot lie… Actually, I read classics. I read trashy novels. I read medical studies. I’ll read the back of cleaning bottles in a bathroom if there isn’t anything else to be found. A reader must read, just like a true runner must run. “Books wash away from the soul the dust of every day life.” Sorry, Pablo, I just jacked your quote there. Art is wonderful. Beautiful writing is art.

I buy books because I love to see all of my mini adventures lined up on my shelves. It’s tangible and it feels better to me to hold a book than an e-reader. Mostly though, I love to share my books. What better gift to give than something that has resonated and touched your soul? It’s no small thing to share a great book. It’s you extending yourself saying, “I loved this, I hope you do, too.”

The right book at the right time is magic. Share your favorite with another. Tell me yours.

Keep sharing moxie. Image result for book quotes

 

 

Phone Detox

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IMG_6585Picture yourself here, with a drink in your hand. It’s warm and there is a slight breeze. The people you love are running around playing. Ping! You look down at your phone. It’s an email from work and instantly you’re upset. You’re back in your office. And your pina colada sits there melting while you type a response.

Confession: that’s me, folks. A couple of weeks ago I was in this beach chair and I caught myself wasting time on a work e-mail on vacation. This is , admittedly, 10 kinds of pathetic. To add insult to injury, I’m a mental health provider.

PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF…

I have a few vices, like many others, they are as follows: caffeine, chocolate, wine, and…my phone. On the spectrum of maladaptive human behaviors or indulgences, I’m pretty small fry. The phone though? It’s getting to be obnoxious, even to me.

I’ve given up caffeine before. I’ll bet many of you have, too. The first few days are rough. Gah, the headaches can reduce you to tears. Going on a phone detox is similar, minus the physical pain. You don’t know what to do with your hands. You want to click through pages and stay caught up, but you resist. Or, even better, you’re in a place with no reception, forcing you to look up and around at other people.

My husband and I vacation differently. He wants to exercise every day. I want to read with a fruity drink in my hand. I’ve decided I like my husband and my kids more on day 3 of a vacation. They would say the same. I can’t run off to the Caribbean every week, so I’ll add that I also like myself more when I don’t have a phone in my hand…constantly. I’m working on it.

Some day I may look back on this beach moment as “hitting bottom”. This is where I realized how ridiculous the swirling whirling shitstorm of work and constant connectivity really is. I’m back to my real life now. I still carry a phone, but I am looking forward to next weekend for Easter. I have a planned three-day phone detox. Won’t you join me??? I’d love to hear how you feel after three days of being unplugged. I’ll still be consuming a load of Cadbury mini-eggs, my Caribou coffee will be present in my cup each morning, and a bit of wine will be in my glass at Easter dinner, but I won’t have my phone on. I think it’s a fair trade. One can’t cut out everything all at once. Right? Yes, that’s right.

Keep sharing moxie. Really! Send your friends to http://www.sharingmoxie.com so they can join the fun. A giant shout-out to my four new followers from Brazil! Olá! Obrigado!

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Me: day three of vacay. Much better. Don’t be a ninny like me, leave your phone at home (or at least in your room) when you go on your next vacation.

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