Five Things for the Smoothie that is Life

Blend in a little gratitude with your sorrow, be inspired, be hopeful, be still.

Life is not a balance of good and bad, it’s more like a blend. Sometimes you can’t separate the positive and negative; they’re more like the ingredients in a smoothie.

I’m leaning in to gratitude, focusing on what’s been good about each day, and intentionally writing each day’s highlight—all while feeling very strong feelings of physical pain, sinus misery, brain fog, exhaustion, and sorrow over all of the previously mentioned. It’s all there in the smoothie of life, and it’s delicious!

My knee jerk reaction to last month’s Five Things article was regret. I hate leaning in to the negative. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as the words were on the page that I’d been feeling tired my symptoms intensified. Most nights I’m wanting to crawl in bed two hours earlier than normal, and I’m dragging myself out of bed an hour or two later than I want. This is ON TOP of the exhaustion I was already feeling when I wrote to you before. And all the things that have helped previously—creatine, exercise, adaptogens—aren’t working. Even 10 minutes of moderate exercise causes even more fatigue for two or three days afterward. I’m beyond frustrated. And somehow I wanted to blame the fact that I wrote to you about it in this blog last month.

Once I quieted my soul, and listened for what God would say, revelation came. A year ago, I had the same experience. I was even verbally disciplined for low productivity at work in the month of May. Now I know why. SEASONAL ALLERGIES, which affect about 25 percent of adults! I’ve only had them in the fall previously, so I wasn’t really on alert for the symptoms in my “off season.” My editor is gracious and assigned me a story on hay fever, and what began as a shame spiral turned into a growth opportunity. Some basic common sense strategies I learned in my reporting: don’t go outside, close the windows of your house (or use these special designed pollen-trapping screens—I’m going to try them!), be mindful of other allergies (like to animals and food) to lower your total allergen load, and if you do go outside (I must…it’s my happy place even with all the pollen!), shower before bed, don’t wear clothes you had on outside in your bed, don’t sleep with your pet that’s been outside (or bathe/wipe them down), and wash your sheets often. Makes sense—we spend about 1/3 of our day in bed and sleep is supposed to give our body restoration. We ought not contaminate this space!

I also tried standard antihistamines which made me insanely fatigued, but I found these supplements that have proven ingredients in them. I’m on day 5 and they seem to be helping.

Here are five other things I’m up to:

Something I’ve been doing: My little one, Tatum, and I have been taking weekly hikes in local forests. We’re studying topics of interest—like moss and fungus—and dreaming up a fictional family and pretending our findings are their science adventures. Our plan is to roll it all into a science curriculum that we’ll finish (hopefully) this summer with elements of easy hands-on fun and weekly penpal letters. One thing I know for sure—allergies or not—the woods is the most calming place for me. Slowing down to explore is the joy my soul didn’t know it needed and a reminder of all the best memories of my own childhood.

Something I wrote: “How an 80-year-old doctor fought prostrate cancer.” Meet Dr. Holick, who is the most sweet, sincere, positive, energetic, caring guy. Back story: I stumbled onto his work with vitamin D (he’s a big fan of regular sun exposure—yes and amen!) as a bone doctor; I interviewed him for a fascinating story on how our skin makes its own sunscreen. Dr. Holick has been adamant with his prostrate and breast cancer patients (who saw him because of the damage hormone therapies do to bones) that exercise is the best way to protect bones—and gain energy in cancer treatment and beyond. He had to take his own advice when he was diagnosed, increasing his weight training, adding in 5-8 mile walks daily and eventually training in a run-walk-run method to complete THREE Boston Marathons. I knew I had to write about his personal journey, and his heart and advice is top-notch.

Something I tried: I took Dr. Holick’s advice and started a run-walk-run after walking a mile. On day two, I seriously hurt my piriformis muscle and could barely walk uphill for a week. I mentioned exercise has been very difficult for me (I still do my coffee exercises of jumping, arm circles and squats and nightly hip exercises), but I hate that the things I know I need or want to add seem to backfire. But I am leaning into the one thing that never fails: walking. I walk at least 2-3 miles a day, and I’m planning to join the YMCA and take some Zumba classes. Maybe I will once again be able to try the run-walk-run technique! My advice: just move your body every day and try to increase it as tolerable. It’s the least we can do, and it can be very therapeutic for the body, mind, and soul!

Something I read: Here are a couple excerpts from C.S. Lewis’s “On Writing and Writers” that I just finished reading.

In his review of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”: “As for escapism, what we chiefly escape is the illusions of our ordinary life. We certainly do not escape anguish. Despite many a snug fireside and many an hour of good cheer to gratify the hobbit in each of us, anguish is, for me, almost the prevailing note. But not, as in the literature most typical of our age, the anguish of abnormal or contorted souls: rather that anguish of those who were happy before a certain darkness came up and will be happy if they live to see it gone.” (emphasis is mine!)

I also liked this quote in the book: “If good novels are comments on life, good stories of this sort (which are very much rarer) are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experiences.”

Something I’m curious about: Tara-Leigh Cobble’s Bible Recap reading plan has been so good for my faith. This year I bought her very simple journal to record what I learned/loved/noticed, questions I want to research, and God shot. I’m finding that I have a childlike curiosity about the Bible, inspired by the prompt to look for things I want to research. For instance, it occurred to me in 1 Samuel 28:19 that the Bible hints that Saul will go to heaven. The point is debated among Christians, but it’s reassuring to me that even though we know the Bible speaks truth, there’s a lot we may never know or understand, that asking questions is how we deepen our relationship with Jesus and even how we can extend more grace and love to others.

Speaking of grace, give some to yourself today. Look for the reasons to love yourself and those around you, lean into imagination, train yourself to look for the good in life (I promise it will fit in the smoothie right alongside the pain), and find some time to just be still so you can take in all the goodness He has to offer.

Shalom,
Amy