April 2023 month in review
2023 has somewhere to be and based on her current rate of speed, she plans to arrive early.
Here we are the first week of May and when I look back at April, she was quick, rainy, and filled with more doctor visits than I would have liked!
Life.
Life in April included getting sick twice leading to three different doctor appointments, getting back to running consistently, enjoying “Me Mondays”, my first time back on my Peloton bike in months, discovering the joys of the carwash with my littles, more free tacos (the story on that here), a delicious tea that I’m enjoying both hot and cold, finally buying and trying local honey for my allergies, starting a Poshmark closet after looking at my “really nice things” pile from previous closet cleans, lots of (literal) rainy days, watching my friend shine in an art competition, and the (somewhat quick) passing of our next door neighbor.
April was filled with laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn. The older I get the more I see how this duality of joy and grief are so intertwined into our daily living. I’m grateful that joy has the capacity to coexist with sorrow, grief, sadness, sickness, and the like. I’m grateful that I can smile and rejoice even with tears rolling down my cheeks.
As I mentioned our neighbor passed away in April and she was in her early 40’s which adds a level of “feeling some kind of way” to it. I’m in my early 40s and most of my friends are or are approaching their early 40s. When I tell you to please live your life now, get clear on who you are and what you want NOW, I mean it. Tomorrow is not guaranteed and life is far too short to “I’mma get to that one day” it.
Our street placed purple ribbons on our mailboxes in remembrance of our neighbor and every day I turn onto our street I am reminded of how support and love in action doesn’t have to be loud; that simple display to let her husband, sons, and family know that we mourn with them, we are here for them, we remember her, is enough to make me cry all over my keyboard. Love in action is my favorite and I’m grateful to have witnessed it so many times in April both on the giving and receiving end.
Giving you the tea (literal, not figurative)
I recreated a tea that I saw on Instagram and it turned out to be refreshing (both cold and hot) so I’m giving you the details on my version. You decide how much of each ingredient to include:
ingredients: orange slices, lemon slices, fresh ginger peeled and sliced, local honey and chamomile tea (loose leaf or bag). I couldn’t find loose leaf so I used organic chamomile tea bags from Trader Joes.
if using a bag of chamomile tea, boil water and steep tea bags separately. in another drinking dish put your orange slices, lemon slices, ginger and honey and pour the hot tea over it and let it all infuse together. Pour and drink.
if using loose leaf chamomile tea pour all ingredients into a drinking dish and pour in boiling water to let it all infuse together.
Enjoy warm or let it come to room temperature and refrigerate to enjoy it cold.
Work.
Work in April included prep for my New York trip this month, creating the Sheet Sample Pack to help the thousands of people in our audience who are watching on the sidelines decide what products may be best for them, making some hard decisions, learning from the women I work with, welcoming new clients for the Teams Program, pitching the Anytime Today® Journal to a handful of bookstores and sharing the benefits of the journal all over the place, and I’m sure there’s more if I looked back through my Best Today® Guide.
A fun new practice.
I ended April with a cool new practice that I’m talking about in an upcoming episode of the Best Today® Podcast but you get the 4-1-1 early! I used my Anytime Today® journal to write a goodbye letter to April and a hello letter to May. I love this new practice of using the last day of the month to sit and reflect and write a “goodbye” letter and the first day of each month to write a “hello” letter.
Typically I begin with “today I am…” welcoming in May. I then write what my feelings, hopes and expectations are and it feels so nice to begin each month communicating to the month how I want it to go, being honest about where I am emotionally, mentally or spiritually and starting with intention, self-awareness and honesty. I highly recommend giving it a try.
On my Mind: Being Safe vs. Staying Safe
During a run last week I felt my calves telling me to stop running. In my ears my instructor Kirsten was saying “keep going” and I had to decide, is my body telling me to be safe or stay safe, there’s a difference. Be safe looks like— you’re doing something that your body cannot handle and continuing on could injure you. Stay safe looks like—we’re running at a new and faster speed and it’s uncomfortable, let’s stay in our comfort zone, we like it there, we know it well and it doesn’t’ require moving past this new feeling.
Most of the time it’s the “stay” safe thoughts that get our attention and cause us to stop, fail to start or give up in the process. While running I knew immediately that it was a “stay safe” communication from my calves so I kept going. Getting back to running reminds me that the lessons translate to so many areas of my life and because I overcome the challenges with being a runner who has had to start over many times over the past three years, I can overcome other challenges in life and kindly decline the thoughts that try to tell me to stay in my comfort zone.
What I’m looking forward to in May
I have a lot of upcoming discovery calls with leaders and founders who I’m so excited to work with and help their teams become more efficient, streamlined and optimized. I’ll be in New York for a week with my fellow Goldman Sachs scholars and I am SO thrilled. I haven’t gone a full week with wearing “real” clothes every day in a LONG time so I’m excited to pick out clothes that aren’t athlesiure or a hoodie dress! I’m also looking forward to consistent warmer weather (please!) so that weekend hikes and bike rides can commence with more consistency! Alright May, we’ve already talked in my journal, let’s see what you’ve got!
What would you say to May in your journal entry? Open up your Anytime Today Journal and write May a little entry!
