First, a thank you for the kind comments and wishes last week, as I was venting about hitting a wall. That mood carried right through the early part of the past week. By Tuesday evening, I felt as though I was only a few millimeters away from a good, old-fashioned meltdown.

And then it was Wednesday. And there was the inauguration, and Amanda Gorman’s beautiful poem, “The Hill We Climb,” and a sense of relief that was more profound than I expected it to be.

I wouldn’t say that everything felt different on Thursday, but something had shifted. I felt more hopeful and energized, as though I was greeting the day with a fresh pair of eyes. I had more focus and emotional resilience. I was able to immerse myself in creative work. By the end of the week, I could also take comfort in knowing that my mom had gotten the first dose of her vaccine.

I don’t have a very insightful point to make about all of this. I’m simply trying to point out that things change.

The best piece of advice I have about mental health struggle is to remember that whatever you feel isn’t what you’ll feel forever.

Sometimes it’s easy to hang onto this. Sometimes, when things have felt a particular way for a long time, it’s not easy at all. You start to accept present circumstances as the only circumstances. They start to feel like a fact of life, a certainty.

But they’re not a certainty. The only thing that’s certain is uncertainty and flux, the fluid nature of life. Circumstances, feelings, bodies, leaders, weather, relationships, seasons—they all change.

Things changed this week, both around me and within me. I’m still on the weary and anxious pandemic wavelength, but it feels as though I’ve set down some sort of heaviness and walked away from it.

It’s appropriate that a reader kindly emailed me after I published this post last weekend and reminded me, “this too shall pass.”

It did.

Entering the new week with a spirit of openness and a willingness to be surprised. Happy Sunday, friends. Here’s to change. And here are some recipes and reads.

Recipes

A lovely looking roasted cauliflower soup.

I could put these balsamic roasted mushrooms in every winter salad and bowl (and I just might!).

A new recipe for my air fryer!

Love the looks of Steven’s hearty beefless beef and broccoli.

The prettiest vegan pear muffins.

Reads

1. Some things have changed with the new year, but overwhelming grief remains. I appreciated Nicole Cardoza’s eloquent plea for white people to honor the grief of marginalized communities and to invest in their healing.

2. Loved this glimpse into the history of San Francisco sourdough and the starters that have sustained it.

3. This article takes a peek at how intermittent fasting can be fuel for disordered eating, and I think it’s worth sharing at a moment when fasting is as popular as it is. I don’t recommend intermittent fasting in my dietetics practice, though I’ll support a client’s choice to practice it if I think it’s safe and appropriate for that individual’s physical and mental health.

Still, any kind of food restriction can be either a trigger or an outlet for disordered eating, and it’s crucial to weigh this significant risk against any potential benefits of fasting.

4. I was interested to read about one chef’s mission to harvest rice from the sea—I had no idea what eelgrass was until reading. Yet also, a warning that the article contains detailed descriptions of the chef’s work with animal foods (thank you to a reader for pointing this out—it’s important to note).

5. The New York Times reports on making and sustaining friendships mid-pandemic.

It’s later than I thought it would be when I published this, and I’m pretty tired. Some things change, and some things are pretty constant, at least for these times 😉 Look forward to resting tonight, so that I can share some new food this coming week!

xo