This morning the birds are sending their calls into the cold air and for a moment I sense the scent of doughnuts before the air smells simply cold.
Alt text says this week’s photo is a group of mugs on a shelf. I say it is three cups representing the joy of choosing a cup that suits mood or drink.
The photo of three of my favourite cups came to mind because today can be thought of as Brew Monday. I first saw this particular name in a post from The Samaritans and I rather liked it. It can be considered a counter response to the term Blue Monday, a label once given to the third Monday in January in the Northern Hemisphere. I understand the blue label in relation to the weather being cold, spring seeming distant, new year’s resolutions perhaps being unrealistic and Christmas behind us, and I must say I like the reframing of this to Brew Monday. There’s joy to be had in taking time out for a hot drink with someone. For the listening, for the laughter, for the sharing of time.
Yesterday the moon was new which means today it begins to wax again. I too seem to have particular times of waxing and waning and have been thinking about the importance of knowing what makes a difference in such times. I am quite good at knowing what I need, but sometimes have to actually give myself a nudge to crack on and attend to it!
Sometimes in the morning I find my pyjamas are twisted around me in a strange manner and I have hit the snooze button more times than is helpful for getting up and getting on with the day. I can counteract this by switching off the alarm straight away and heading for the shower with my eyes still firmly closed, but sometimes I have to boss myself into action.
I am currently midway through Mental Health First Aid Training and this has prompted me to pay extra attention to the different things that are on my self-care list and to ensuring I give myself a nudge towards the one that I know will make a positive difference at a given time. After all self-care isn’t just needed on one particular Monday in January.
I always know it is helpful to me to have a walk, to clear my head, before joining a group of people in a zoom room, and this week I was giving myself a hard time for not having got up early enough to fit in my daily walk before the session started. I then realised I definitely had time to do at least a third of it so I did that instead. This also got me thinking about the different kinds of walking that are restorative to me. At one end of the continuum there’s the long leisurely walk for time out and pure walking joy, and at the other there’s the fast paced ‘I have a thought I need to walk with because there’s far too much thinking in my head’ walk. And perhaps one of the most important things to recognise is the huge space in between for all kinds of walks that can be useful and fun in all kinds of ways.
Today is apparently National Popcorn Day and since going to the cinema is on my self-care list, and I love popcorn it seems a good sign to indulge in both these things.
Here’s to listening to what we need to balance our days and to all those people who we lift our cups with along the way.
And here’s the poem that goes with my relationship with the snooze button…
EVERY DAY A NEW BEGINNING
And yet my eyes are stubborn
against the cold, dark morning.
I want only to hamster in bed.
Let the snow stay unimprinted with my footsteps.
Sue Finch 