July 6, 2023

I’ve accomplished a lot this year. I’m proud of being pretty consistent in sending out these prompts. I am proud of the writing I’ve been doing and the paintings I’ve been making. I haven’t yet established a consistent arts practice, but I have been prioritizing that more and I’m proud of the strides I am making there. I’m proud of learning how to better listen to and resolve my body’s needs. I’m proud of how I feel like I’m finally getting a hang of keeping my home tidy and beautiful in a way that has been very beneficial to my mental health.

As always though, I think I’m most proud of my contributions to building the beautiful community I am a part of. For me, weekly family dinner’s serve as an important touch stone that anchor and ground my whole week. They give me a sense of stability and community. My high school health and fitness teacher, Robbie, introduced me to the idea of the wellness wheel, 7 interconnected categories that contribute to “a well rounded, healthy lifestyle and live a life of value and meaning.” The seven categories include physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, social, and occupational wellness. Family dinners strongly contribute to my social, emotional, intellectual, environmental (because if I only really deeply organize my house once a week, it will be for family dinner) and for a spiritual wellbeing in my life (lately we’ve started including a Quaker-style silence reflecting on the question: “What makes you happy to be a human alive right at this moment/today?”). I hope that they serve a similar purpose for everyone attending.