Felicitations Newsletter #1

The only resolution I made for 2021 was to buy a sponge holder

Jan 21, 2021

I have a history of making insanely ambitious New Year’s resolutions. In 2013 I put “Learn Karate, Japanese, Spanish AND Flamenco dancing” on a list, and those weren’t even the most difficult top 4. Of course, I knew deep down that none of those goals were going to be achieved AT ALL, but it gave me the ability to start a new year with a huge list that basically told me, “You’re not good enough the way you are, Day! Get cracking!” Any positive feelings of new beginnings I could’ve brought into 2014 were immediately quashed by desperation. “Donde esta la Tae Kwon Do studio, Onegaishimase?!”

I did same thing new year after new year after new year. And THEN… 2020 came around.

It seems soooo 2020 to crap on 2020, so I won’t go into details, but it was a LOT ya’ll. In having to abandon all personal and profession plans (because who can make PLANS anymore amiright?) my life got pared down quite a bit. But because of being forced to slow down, I started finding this strange feeling of…contentment?! Where it felt okay to not be constantly making lofty unattainable goals for myself? Where I could feel pretty okay by just…existing?! WHAT WAS THIS STRANGE MADNESS?!

So of course I immediately gained five pounds by baking too much. Because “contentment”.

But then I started noticing all the little ways I have been completely ignoring my brain. Because it was constantly telling me little things that I would just blow off like a bad friend. “Hey that doorknob is loose”, “You haven’t shaved your legs in weeks”, “What is that smell? Is there a pork chop rotting behind the deep freezer?”

The great thing is that since the world had stopped clanging at me for a while, and since so little was going on in my life while I was trapped in my house, I stopped reflexively throwing away these thoughts and began to collect them. I would actually NOTICE at the sink, “Oh, this really bothers me how the sponge always gets icky at the bottom of the sink, I should do something about that.” and “Hey, I should get my kid into an extra science class for her brain,” and “YO! It wouldn’t be insane to start some cord management out here because your office looks like a mad scientist den.” The accumulation of all those little things, never being addressed, seemed to add up to “Hellooo, it’s your brain. You never listen to me so I’m not having any more cool thoughts until you take care of that g-damn rotting pork smell!” And that led me to think, “Hmm. Should I do something about all this stuff?!”

So I decided that my 2020 New Year’s resolution was: Do the little things. And do them now. So you enter the new year with a sense of DOABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT. UNDERLINE ALL CAPS TO SELF.

So I did the following things December 31, 2020:

Got Calliope into an online science class (1 hr of research)
Ordered a sponge holder (2 minutes of online shopping)
Investigated that weird smell behind the fridge (It was, indeed, two rotting pork loins. Not edible.)

Boy oh boy did that enable me to start 2021 with a self-righteous feeling of “I GOT THIS MOFOS!”

And guess what? A week later, since my brain was like, “Oh! You actually did that stuff! Cool!” I started getting new ideas again. Because my daily pattern of behavior was not being interrupted by all the little things that would plague me over and over, there seemed to be room to have new thoughts. WOW ITS LIKE I READ A CHAPTER IN MY OWN CREATIVITY BOOK AND I CLEANED OUT THE TRASH!

So basically for 2021 I’m urging you ground yourself and address the small things in your life. And pay attention when your brain tells you something over and over again. Feeling stuck because you’re thinking about the same thing over and over is a waste of brain juice. Do the thing and move on. Or throw the thing out entirely. Like dirty rotten pork chops.

Also, true story, sponge holders are the SH&!T PEOPLES! GIT IT!

INTERESTING LINKS I FOUND THIS WEEK:

FELICIA LINKS (ALSO INTERESTING):

I have TWO bi-weekly podcasts downloadable wherever you get podcasts. Felicitations! is my personal podcast and Undressing Bridgerton is my show with Tom Lenk about Bridgerton the Netflix show. Open your earholes to them and if you like them please spread word and leave reviews.
My Twitch streaming schedule is HERE. I’m currently playing Cyberpunk 2077, Rust and Among Us with The Guild on Sunday nights.
Lastly please spread word about subscribing to this newsletter. It’s a WIP clearly but I’m having fun with it and hope you are too!

See you in two weeks, and on my Discord channel in between for chatting and friendship! <3

oxox
Felicia

Felicitations Newsletter #1

The only resolution I made for 2021 was to buy a sponge holder

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