This week, I was really struck by a thread about rest, written by psychologist Nicola Jane Hobbs. Specifically, I loved the way that Hobbs delineates different forms of rest, many of which I hadn’t considered. Hobbs writes, Physical rest is sleep. Stretching, Nourishing food. Mindful movement. Mental rest is any kind of non-thinking activity. Baking. Painting. Gardening. Single Tasking. Emotional rest is crying. Journalling. Therapy. Healthy emotional expression. Sharing rather than suppressing. Social rest is hugs. Solitude. Intimacy. Community. Activism. Employee resource groups….

I spent last weekend in upstate New York with my best friend and her kids. It was a low-key, happy few days in a place that I associate with feelings of safety and home. Weekends with Chloe and her family always fill my cup, but they’re tough to return from. Whether we go someplace together or I visit them, I come home to some melancholy. It passes, of course. But it can be poignant, and that’s how it was early this week. Between…

As I mentioned last Sunday, I’ve had some thought-provoking, deep exchanges with new acquaintances lately. One of these was a few weeks ago. I got on the topic of age with a woman whom I’d recently met. According to her, we each live many lives. She told me that she’s living one of her early lives. Her eighteen-year-old daughter, on the other hand, has lived a great many lives before this one. It was a very novel outlook for me. Yet the woman…