Friday's Coffee Break

Coffee & A Calmer Holiday You

11/29/2024

The Holiday P's in Varying Shades of Anxiety

On this Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday you are either out grabbing up Black Friday Sales, putting up your Christmas tree, or out and about holidaying hard with your family and friends.

Or you could be like me and hope to simply hide away from all the noisy holiday hullabaloo by

pretending it's not happening,
procrastinating about decorating and gifts or
petrified you - or the kiddos in your family - are going to miss out on a wondrous holiday.

Or maybe a bit of all three Holiday P's in varying shades of anxiety?

A Self-Sustaining Holiday

A self-sustaining holiday often focuses on buying and decorating green - it's self-sustaining in what you do. But I think there is a foundational part of self-sustaining we forget - how do we take care of our immediate needs so that we can also meet our own future needs as well as those of our children and grandchildren?

The idea of creating a self-sustaining holiday means prioritizing taking care of yourself first! Hard to do, I know. But think about how important being your best self is for YOU!

Grab a cup of coffee, a quiet place to think, a bit of gentle music in the background and a way to create a list you can post on your fridge!

What list you say? A list of five 5-minute activities you can do whenever one of the Holiday P's creeps up on your spirit.

Ideas or Suggestions

I'm sure there are hundreds of ways to pause for a quick refresh, but here are a few of mine:

Drink a glass of water - hydration is soothing! How many times do we offer a sip of cool water to a child or friend who has a boo-boo of one sort or another? Water really does help.
Go outside, sit on the porch or walk around the block. Breathing in some fresh air settles us whenever we are caught in a loop of fretfulness.
Tidy up - choose a smaller space to put in order. The physical act of organizing and putting away clutter brings back a sense of order for me.
Stretch, stretch, stretch.
Laugh - it's usually The Boss who will say or do something to make me laugh when I'm feeling out-of-sorts. Unfortunately, Boss is one of a kind - you will need to find another way to get your laughing muscles active!

May your holiday season be calm,
Nonna

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Coffee & Hope

11/15/2024

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A Starry View NGC 1333 is a nearby star-forming region in the Perseus constellation. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope surveyed a large portion of NGC 1333, identifying planetary objects using the observatory’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana

Hope doesn't die, but it can be lost

Hope is both ephemeral in our hearts and material in our actions.

Hope is a thought process built on setting your goals, a steadfast sense you can accomplish what you want and developing strategies - plans to overcome the obstacles towards your goals.

Strong hope crowds out fear and impotence.

And, yet. Hope is only as resilient as

the strength of our vision for a better future
a purpose-filled mindset, and
our will to act.

Hope doesn't die, but it can certainly be lost along the ways of life. It's not just major disasters that can cause us to lose hope - constant day-to-day life can take our eyes off the horizon just long enough for hope to get dropped along the pathway.

The Future of Hope

So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for On Being with Krista Tippett podcast series about "The Future on Hope" and how to hang on to hope.

The Future of Hope podcasts ran from September, 2021 through April, 2022, just as we were emerging from the heart of the pandemic shutdown.

All five podcasts are lovely - filled with hope when facing losses, hope nourishing the possibilities of life, the layers of hope and hope driving change!

May you find hope in all of your holiday celebrations,

Nonna

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Coffee and Fire

11/8/2024

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Photo by Marc Szeglat on Unsplash

Lava from Kilauea creating something new on the Big Island; photo taken in 2017.

No more sugar-coating

I don't know about you, but my coffee needs a bit extra to even deal with this election dumpster fire. The post I previously wrote for today was all about self-care in light of an undecided election - I threw it in the dumpster to burn alongside all of the pundits' articles currently dissecting what happened.

Just so you know, I feel betrayed by a few writers and podcasters whom I have admired for some time - their current blame-game is intellectually specious at best. And pandering at worst - aka covering their backsides before the January 20th inauguration.

Sorry - the sugarcoating is gone. I am angry.

Writers I am still reading & following

Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson. Richardson has been writing and speaking since 2016 about our elections and government. She is a national treasure.
The View From Rural Missouri, Jess Piper. I grew up in the Mid-west and began following Piper as a way to connect with back-home. She's a blue dot in a red sea.
beloved, Brian Recker. I started following Recker's deconstruction posts a couple of years ago and recommend his articles about Christianity based on love, not dogma.
Today's Edition Newsletter, Robert B. Hubbell. I just recently began reading Hubbell's newsletter - he's an optimist and a realist. And encouraging in the midst of this insanity.
Is My Kid the Asshole?, Melinda Wenner Moyer. I began following Moyer because she pushes back against unrealistic parenting advice on social media.
And, finally, I've started reading Monica Parker's The Power of Wonder: The Extraordinary Emotion That will Change the Way You Live, Learn, and Lead. Find it at your library, local bookstore or Bookshop.org. No affiliate connection on this one.

Grab a cup of coffee.

Do what you need to do to take care of yourself.

Surround yourself with friends and communities - in person and online - who will stand with you to turn this dumpster fire into something new.

And know that on the other side of your grief is the opportunity to channel your anger into a powerful resistance to what is coming down the road.

We are not going back - we are going to create something new out of this dumpster fire,
Nonna

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Coffee & Candles

11/1/2024

Photo by Udayaditya Barua on Unsplash

November 1, 2024 is a big day:

All Saints Day
Day of the Dead
Diwali
oh, and my Sister's birthday! (Happy Birthday, Little Sis!)

I think the thing these celebrations have in common is a big picture of community - and candles -

honoring the communion believers have with the whole panorama of the Church's Saints;
remembering ancestors, known and unknown; and
over a billion people worldwide celebrating light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance.

We are each a part of a tribe, a community of souls where we are important, valued and loved. I hope you find time today to light a candle, drink a cup of coffee, and say a quiet 'thank you' for your community, your tribe.

(Oh, and sing Happy Birthday to my Sister!)

Nonna

Coffee & Pangolin Moments

2/24/2023

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Blade Runner Pangolin drinking coffee. Published: Jul 16, 2022 By SuperFeature. Given the pangolin's habit of curling into a ball when threatened, it's a bit humorous to think of one as a Blade Runner. BUT not really all that fantastical when you think about their other, bolder characteristics!

What the Heck is a Pangolin?

... and why should I have Pangolin Moments with my coffee?

Every day I read a single entry from "The Little Book of Joy: 365 Ways to Celebrate Every Day" - more about this children's book at another time - and learned this week that World Pangolin Day is a big deal! I didn't even know what a Pangolin was, let alone that there is a special day that celebrates these cute little mammals.

So I did a bit of sleuthing on the internet and realized these scaly-skinned mammals are the perfect spirit animal for Mothers who just need a break! They are sweet, friendly and curious. David Attenborouh says they are "one of the most endearing animals I have ever met." But I think they should be Mom's Spirit Animals because the Pangolin is a very determined mammal with an excellent memory and is a great problem solver - sound like any Mom you know?!

One of their more common habits is to curl up in a ball when intimidated or overwhelmed. So grab a cup of coffee and curl up in a ball for a little rest today - you may not feel threatened, but a Pangolin moment will do you good!

More Interesting Facts to Go with Your Coffee

The Pangolin is considered the most trafficked mammal in the world, thus World Pangolin Day is designed to call attention to the need to protect these animals. You can learn more or even "adopt" a Pangolin at WWF.

And I was surprised by this result when I typed in pangolin + coffee in my search engine: Pangolin Cafe in Reno, Nevada!! I will certainly check them out when I am next in Reno - anyone who operates a coffee shop in honor of a critically endangered animal is worthy of my coffee money!

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<<Previous

Coffee & A Calmer Holiday You

The Holiday P's in Varying Shades of Anxiety

A Self-Sustaining Holiday

Ideas or Suggestions

May your holiday season be calm,Nonna

Coffee & Hope

Hope doesn't die, but it can be lost

The Future of Hope

Nonna

Coffee and Fire

No more sugar-coating

Writers I am still reading & following

We are not going back - we are going to create something new out of this dumpster fire, Nonna

Coffee & Candles

Nonna

Coffee & Pangolin Moments

What the Heck is a Pangolin?

More Interesting Facts to Go with Your Coffee

Purpose

May your holiday season be calm,
Nonna

We are not going back - we are going to create something new out of this dumpster fire,
Nonna