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618th Friday Blog Roundup

I have a new favourite podcast that I need to tell you about.  Maybe need is too strong a word, but it balances out the numerous times I have tried to get everyone here to listen to Gimlet Media projects.  This one came at the suggestion of my friend.  I love this podcaster’s voice as much as Manoush Zomorodi’s voice from Note to Self.  The podcast: What Should I Read Next.

Her guests talk about three books they’ve recently loved, one book they didn’t like (I kinda sorta don’t like this section because well… I don’t want to talk about things I don’t like.  I have 3000 things I do like, so I don’t have time for not liking things), and a book they’re looking forward to reading next.  The woman’s voice is so relaxing; I want to put on a sweater and drink tea the second she starts talking.

So if you’re looking for a new podcast, that’s it: What Should I Read Next with Anne Bogel.  Bogel, by the way, is Modern Mrs. Darcy, and I’m equally smitten with her daily newsletter.  It’s how I learned about and bought and read Sleeping Giants.

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I was standing in the allergy medication aisle at the food store, looking at my non-drowsy options, when a silver ring bounced several times and finally rolled to a stop in front of me.  I picked it up and turned to the boy standing at the end of the aisle.  “Got it,” I told him.

“Got what?” he asked.

“Your ring.  The ring you dropped.”

I held out the ring, and the boy stared at me strangely.  “That’s not my ring.”

I looked around, but we were the only people nearby.  I walked to other aisles, holding out the ring and asking if anyone had dropped it.  Everyone agreed that it was a gorgeous ring, but no one knew where it had come from.  I finally brought it to a manager, asking if anyone had reported a lost ring.  No one had, but she now has it behind the desk in case someone drops by.

The only other possibility is that it was resting on top of the allergy medication box when I picked it, dislodging it from its resting place.  Maybe I’m watching a little too much Dirk Gently, but it felt like the universe was trying to tell me something.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

Okay, now my choices this week.

Mrs Spit… Still Spouting Off wrote a post at exactly the right moment that I needed to read.  It was a post about failing, but being okay with it, and it gave me a whole new way of looking at the world.  This is the best part of blogging: when you read something that makes you say, “Oh, everything is okay.”

A Woman My Age has a post about not making her child a life story book; both why she hasn’t and how she wishes she had now that he has more questions about his origins.  I had chills go down both arms when he asked his question in the store, but I loved her ending: “I started his book tonight and instead of trying to make it perfect, I’m just going to do the best I can.”

My Path to Mommyhood has a post about things she has changed this year.  She writes: “I narrowed my life for no tangible reason. I mean, there was hope that something would change, which fueled this sense of CLEAR MY SCHEDULE!, but nothing did, which just left me feeling irritated and let down.”  It’s an important point (and an important post if you are also narrowing your life): that the waiting is even harder if you give up everything and all you have is the waiting.  I’m glad that she wrote this.  (And that she changed things this year and brought all this goodness into her life.)

Lastly, I was deeply moved by Family Rock’s post about marking the 7 year anniversary of her sibling’s death as well as all of the changes that have occurred (or temporary things that turned out to be more permanent) since adopting her children.  It’s an honest post, by which I mean that it is a raw post, and it may be hard for some to read.  I cried reading her final lines: “Even though it’s been 7 years, you never stop remembering. You never stop grieving. And you certainly never stop loving… that’s the only thing that keeps you going.”  It’s a really gorgeous post about grief.

The roundup to the Roundup: Download this book-filled podcast.  The ring that came from… nowhere.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between October 21st and 28th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

4 comments

1 Lori Lavender Luz { 10.28.16 at 9:55 am }

So mysterious about the ring….what do you think the message might be?

2 Peg { 10.28.16 at 11:03 am }

Thanks Mel:)

3 Northern Star { 10.28.16 at 10:18 pm }
4 Jess { 10.30.16 at 4:08 pm }

Whoa, that’s so weird. A ring dropped from the cosmos. I was in my classroom once and a black-and-white sign for another room clattered to the floor, where there is nothing above it. Never saw that sign before in my life, and it didn’t match anything in our school, so…uh…weird. It was like it fell from another dimension. Maybe the ring has some sort of message, or maybe it’s an alternate dimension saying hello? Smacks of a Twilight Zone, or maybe a Black Mirror to be more current.
Thanks for including me in the roundup! I was planning to write the post, but then I read Different Shore’s blog about limbo: https://differentshoresblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/infertility-limbo-or-stopping-so-that-you-can-carry-on/, and it totally made me feel like NOW I HAVE TO WRITE THIS ONE RIGHT NOW. So hers is two days before the cutoff, but I think it’s an important message. Also a second to Cristy’s post, which I loved. And Mali, who explained her Boom, Boom reference but also talks about childhood memories, with this being so powerful: “I prefer to appreciate memories of my own childhood for what they are, or for things I do now, rather than live in regret for what might have been. Life goes on, and it’s up to me to enjoy it.” http://nokiddinginnz.blogspot.com/2016/10/no-regrets-boom-boom.html

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
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