Friday Finds & Feels #2

A weekly collection of discoveries, musings, and moments that have sparked something in me this week. May these small moments of joy, inspiration and thoughts light up your weekend

Hello friends, it is so good to be back. It is difficult to sum up what walking 225 miles across Spain meant to me and what it was like, so I am going to save that for another essay where I can fully commit to indulging in all the details and revelations. My friend asked what 3 words I would use to describe it and after much pondering I settled on these: Inspiring, Expansive, and Nourishing. Safe to say I am already planning my next Camino. It is addicting. The quiet, the escape from the hustle and bustle, the built in community of people from all over the world. It truly was such an immense privilege to get to experience. I am excited to be back on Substack sharing with you all every week and thank you for your patience as I took a month off to disconnect and come back refreshed.

This Week's Joy: I am lucky enough to have an amazing mom who put a lot of time into planting and tending to a garden this summer. I feel especially grateful after walking through countless small villages full of individual gardens, knowing that many of these people still live off the land around them. My dream of owning land someday where I can grow fruits and vegetables of my own was reenforced tenfold by witnessing the bountiful gardens along the path. Upon returning home, we weren’t sure what would be left to harvest and were pleasantly surprised by all the goodies we found. So far we have made homemade tomato sauce and tomato soup (not pictured here was the absolute insane amount of tomatoes I picked). I will be using the carrots and potatoes to make a lentil soup and can’t wait to roast the beets and pair them with a goat cheese and balsamic drizzle. There is something deeply satisfying about growing, harvesting, and cooking your own food and I hope that my life is filled with many more opportunities to do this.

Something to Ponder: I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be “happy” and what does it take to be “happy”. I put this in quotation marks because I simultaneously ponder whether happiness even is what we should be striving for. Maybe what I am actually wondering is what does it take to live a good life and learning to define what a good life looks like to me.

What I'm Exploring: Work boundaries? When you are working at building a life where you are self-employed, I think the most important thing you need to do is establish very firm boundaries for designated work time. That being said, this is something I have never really done. So instead I make myself feel as though I should be working 24/7 and if I am not working in my free time than I should feel guilty. It is not a very fun way to live your life and I don’t recommend it. So I am buckling down, opening up my Google calendar and blocking out time for work AND time for play in the hopes that I can better give myself permission to not be working all the time and enjoy more of my free time (guilt free!)

A Little Treat: this truly brightened my day. If this baby sloth doesn’t bring you a little slice of joy, might I suggest unplugging yourself and plugging yourself back in again?

In My Journal: I would be lying if I said this Camino changed me. That I came back a new person. As I suspected, upon returning, it didn’t take long for my anxiety to come knocking on the door as I welcomed it in like a dear old friend. I feel like we expect experiences like walking 225 miles to change us immediately, to fantasize about coming back an entirely new person. But that is not how things work. This experience has taught me things and has helped shape the person I am becoming, like all experiences do. I gained insight and inspiration, yes, but am I wholly changed? No. And that is okay. I feel like I am that much closer to understanding who I am and what I need to feel satisfied in this life. I am excited to walk more and to integrate the lessons I learned into my daily life in whatever ways I can. At the very least, I hope to remind myself every day that it is okay to slow down and that things take time and to give myself that grace.

Here is where you can read all of my Notes aka the space where I try to convince you that Substack is better than any other social media app out there.

My friend Stephanie is on Substack and is out there putting out great pieces of writing. You should check out Note to Self here!