A few times a week I’ll pose a different question in the SheHive Facebook group to get the conversation going. The questions are always crafted with the intention of being a bit disruptive… to shake women out of their everyday thoughts - even if just for a moment - so that they can take a breather and ponder something that, I hope, is important to them.
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A while ago I asked the question, “What topic could you talk about passionately for 17 1/2 minutes with preparing?” The responses starting pouring in - Chinese medicine, African American history, finding your inner Magic, why we need more women in the film industry, board game design... It went on and on and on.

One of my favorite things in life is a road trip with the Mister. I love discovering new things – new landscapes, new people, new cultures. I love the freedom of being temporarily off the grid and not beholden to strings of urgent emails and phone calls. I love the “just two of us time” – being the center of each other’s universe for a thousand miles.

It all started a few years ago when I decided that 2018 was going to be MY YEAR. I Googled “things I should do every day,” compiled a list of everything that was mentioned in the articles that showed up on the first page of the search results, and made a plan to randomly try a different, new activity every week. 

The intention was to find out what would stick and help me become a better me. I even started a side project - a blog called Fluff the Cushions - to track and share my progress. It was named for what I believed to be the most inane of all the suggested "shoulds" - I should fluff my couch cushions every day.

​I’m a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I dislike the never-ending stream of “have to do’s” – the shopping, the decorating, the way too jampacked social calendar, the gift wrapping, the perpetual feast of baked goods that leave me feeling like a bloated toad by the end of the year, and the pressure to create Instagram-worthy moments of a perfectly coiffed family, smiling in front of a pristinely-decorated Christmas tree, in matching pajamas, while lovingly holding up a gaggle of ever-so-thoughtful DIY gifts crafted from the most perfectly-muted pastel macramé.

Pandemic, elections, working from home while homeschooling kids… worries about your job, your health, whether or not you’ll ever leave the house again… No matter which way you turn, stress rules our lives these days. And as hard as we try, we just can’t fake our way through it anymore - nor should we.

​Chronic stress doesn’t just harm our mental health, it takes a toll on our physical health - particularly our immune system. And if there’s one thing none of us need right now, it’s to further compromise our immune system.