Things That Are Saving My Life Right Now: 01.
Pens! Fun beverages! A book! A habit! There's like, a bunch!
I’m not the first person to do this, & I probably won’t be the last — but I always love reading a list of What’s Saving My Life from others…including Emily P. Freeman, Modern Mrs. Darcy, The Lazy Genius, Shauna Niequist, and others. Rachel, my Substack September buddy, has even done this on her blog!
The origin of this question - “What’s saving my life right now?” comes from Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, Leaving Church… but this transcript from The Next Right Thing with Emily P. Freeman tells me there’s a more complex origin.
Whatever the origins may be… right in the here and now, I love hearing others talk about their answers to this question.
When I think about what makes this list… for me, I think it’s almost aligned with glimmers — a micro-moment that sparks joy, safety, and connection. What is making my life - even marginally - better? Where am I scrunching my face up with joy about something? What am I screaming about from the rooftops because I love it so so much?
Here’s a smattering of what’s saving my life right now.
Phone Down night: One night a week when we’re both home and have no plans, Dave and I put our phones down for the night. About the time he gets home from work, we put our phones in the office and shut the door. We cook dinner, tidy, read, go for a walk, watch a movie, play a game. I often take a bath, Dave does his thing. I end up going to bed early! It’s just one night a week, but putting our phones away for 4-5 hours of the night is maybe one of my favourite things. I look forward to it every week.
Shirley Temples and Coca Cola with lime wedges: I work from home, and adding a little pizzaz to my daily drinks has been such a joy. I love getting the Shirley Temple gradient colouring just right, much like Swiss Chalet does it. And I love the fresh feeling a lime wedge gives in my crisp Coca Cola.
Getting the tickets to the things: A few weeks ago, I had a day where I grabbed tickets to SIX: The Musical with a friend, and grabbed tickets to an upcoming Jonas Brothers concert with another friend. I love having these events and time on the calendar to look forward to. Often, I talk myself out of doing the fun thing, especially if you have to buy tickets or coordinate schedules. This reminded me it’s always worth it.
Friday lunchtime library visits: After I recently renewed my local library card, I realized that I just missed making the time to browse in a library. I’ve been primarily going to pick up holds… or just using my Kobo for e-reads. I missed having time in an actual library, to browse. So I’ve been making a point to go on Fridays at lunch time. I love that it doesn’t have to be a long trip, and that it’s just a little end of week fun for me.
Writing a one page manifesto, outside: Fine, I’m shoe-horning a lot into this one. Last Friday, I grabbed my favourite chai latte in the city (from The Colombian, if you’re curious) and took Pippin to walk to a nearby fountain. There, I sat and wrote a page… a good kind of manifesto as to what I wanted September to hold. It was 15-20 minutes, and I really have to savour outdoor writing time while I have it (because winter is coming, Edmonton!!) But it reminded me of core things that always save my life: being outside, writing one page, dreaming about the future with loosely held goals.
Making playlists for friends: If you have the audacity to whisper in my direction that you’re into a certain kind of music (and it’s the kind of music I feel like I have a lot to share with you)… uh, wait 15-20 minutes and you’re getting a highly curated playlist. Hence why three of my last four playlists are, “songs for meagan”, “katherine’s drew primer”, and “katherine’s sad songs”. (related: is it time for me to bring back the playlist exchange? Do I have capacity to do that again? Do you even know about the playlist exchange?!)
Pentel Energel Clena pens: I JUST LOVE PENS! How often has a team meeting been sidetracked because I’m talking about pens with co-workers? How often has a client meeting been interrupted because I've noticed what pen they’re using and would like to talk about it? The limit does not exist, people!Dave has asked me to please stop buying them; I will not be. It’s because of
and that I picked up a 0.3 and a 0.4 of these... and I just got refills and extras of them, and a 0.5 size, because I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. It should bring me joy every time I write with something… with this, that’s the case.Afternoon walks with Pippin and voice memo with Lauren time: There was a big chunk of time this summer where I walked Pippin at the exact right time for me to go back and forth on voice memos with
. I have a mental block with phone calls & responding to texts (I think it’s because I spend a lot of time at work on calls/communicating) but going back and forth with voice notes is perfection for this phase of life… and at that time of day.Saying things out loud & writing them down to get the anxious feeling out of my body: Well, that really sums it up. But the way I’ve been thinking about this is — as soon as I share this, I get out of my head and I give this thing less power. It’s been a very good practice for me to remind myself that not everything needs to be all bottled up in me.
The book, Written: A throughline of my life right now is: I want to be writing more. Maybe you’re picking up on that throughout the writing of this piece. So I picked up a book. (You’d think the obvious answer would be to write more, but no, this is where we are.) Specifically, I picked up Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit that Lasts. Often, I fall prey to the idea that a book will fix a life problem (lol). But what I’ve loved about this book is that it’s an expansive and non-prescriptive approach to the writing life. I’ve already have one phrase from the book (time confetti!) that I cannot stop thinking about and talking about… and I’m only halfway through. I’m grateful for the inspiration to just do it a little more.
Photos on Film: At the beginning of the summer, I picked up a film camera and spent time documenting my summer with this silly little practice. I… love it so very much. Here’s a little snippet of what my camera has been seeing this summer. Next up: getting film for my vintage Polaroid camera that I picked up on a special summer adventure day.
Anyways! That’s it for me. I’d love to hear, what are the things that are saving your life lately? I cannot wait to hear. 💌
finally had time to read through this. Hannah, I always love your words, thanks for sharing them! what’s saving my life right now? my para educator in my classroom, long walks with friends on a nearby trail, my favorite coworker at my part time job, praise music, and Trader Joe’s pumpkin cream cheese
friend! sorry it took so long for me to eventually read this even though I was hollering about it as soon as you posted on ig. life is busy lately (i write, as if life isn’t always busy for me from mid august to early june... hold us teachers in your ts&ps because we’re tired). but this is me, showing up on a sunday (my day of margin, at least that’s the goal) to say that I WILL MAKE ROOM TO HELP WITH A PLAYLIST EXCHANGE. i’ve recently been listening to the playlists i made and received that winter, and wow it’s felt like a warm hug. embracing the friendships i had at the time, those i continue to have, and even the random pairings has felt like good practice and a reminder of the beauty in life and humanity.
so i guess i could say that the great playlist exchange of 2021 is what’s saving my life, but also the new click clack keyboard that i treated myself to for school (which can connect to different devices so I also treated myself to a matching carry case and am currently typing on my ipad at a coffee shop), the fall menu drops at all the cafes and breweries, and my new moth tattoo (even though it’s itchy).
sending love & the joy of good pens.