September 27, 2025
I had a particularly packed week with many meetings and an atypical number of breaks that involved social interaction — so this introvert went into meltdown mode and had to start meditating again. During my PhD, I learned that meditation is the best way to quiet my mind — to cut all inputs and outputs and then focus on breath. I’m glad that I have a reliable method for centering myself because I was back on track for burnout by Thursday.
One of my most fun breaks of the week was Julie Berry’s book event at Maynard Public Library. Julie and I overlapped in grad school, and then we worked on the same New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference organization team. It was lovely to see her and to run into so many familiar faces from grad school and conference organizer days. Her talk was fantastic and her reading was fun, and I felt like I’d time traveled back 20 years. There are moments when we most feel ourselves, and this was one of them.
I realized how glued I'd been to my laptop all week and managed to step away by knitting while listening to an audiobook. I wasn’t working on anything fancy — I’d started a simple scarf years ago and had never finished, and I decided to knit to the end of the skein at long last. I haven’t done much knitting by hand recently, and it was relaxing.
M had two soccer games this week, and it rained through almost all of the midweek game, and that was actually quite fun — there’s a certain camaraderie that develops from being outside in weather. And I realized that at some point I began to believe that there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing; it took living with a New Englander for years to understand how to properly dress for weather.
M & I watched a Champions League match replay on Saturday evening (after M’s second game of the week), and while watching the game, we assessed and analyzed the middle school game, and that was also quite fun. M is learning to critique (books, soccer, music, etc.), and I really enjoy hearing M’s ideas and arguments. We can disagree and bounce ideas off of each other — the kid makes some interesting observations and has some good insights.
Our block party was also on Saturday, and the weather was perfect, and the food was excellent. It was our second annual event, and it really is lovely to meet people from our immediate area (we invite everyone on our street and a couple of intersecting streets). People sign up to bring supplies and/or food — tables, pop-up tents, folding chairs, mains, sides, desserts, and drinks — plus some lawn games, sidewalk chalk, and coloring pages. I really like having intergenerational time — seeing the newly mobile toddlers, meeting the folks who just moved in, and chatting with the neighbors who have lived here for decades. The mail carrier was unable to drive his van to a couple of houses because we’d blocked off the cul de sac, and he hopped out to hand deliver the mail, and I invited him to join: There’s plenty of food — come have some! He did. A neighbor said: He’s part of our community, too.
