Yes to everything in this post. Yes to believing that 2020 would be defined by the Australian wildfires. The virus was still a quiet news story back in January, whereas the fires were immediate. They were horrific. They were all we could talk about. Even if you told me at that time that the virus would eclipse the wildfires, that it would become the defining news of the year, I couldn’t have fathomed what that meant.

But what I loved from this post was the capturing of how we can feel two very different things at the same time: Anger and tenderness. Grief and joy. Fear and calm. The wildfires and COVID shock. She writes:

The coexistence of two seemingly disparate emotions may shock us, yet we’ve proven how it’s done over and over: Our enraged bodies are still tender enough to scratch a dog’s ears and our devastated hearts still beat wildly at the sight of mountaintops from a plane window.

Which leads to her point: our feelings are just feelings. They aren’t immutable facts. And we can feel two different things at the same time, and neither feeling cancels the other one out. And then she travels into the damage done by purity culture and the either/or thinking, and its emergence online. How it plays out online. How we process it online.

It’s really a breathtaking piece, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I am a rule follower. If you tell me to close my fitness rings — no, if you even hint that it may be a good idea to close my fitness rings — I will close my fitness rings. This weekend, I hit 365 days in a row of closing all three rings, which means I started wearing the watch about 365 days ago.

I am really proud of myself. I mean, yes, I’m a rule follower, so I was going to hit this milestone. But a little over a year ago, I was barely exercising at all. And I went from morning yoga to morning yoga and afternoon walk with random dance or biking challenges thrown in for good measure. My thought is now, “How will I get my exercise in?” and that is a HUGE change for me. All because I put a band around my wrist that gives me a reminder that I need to close my fitness rings every day. Huge thank you to my sister for passing along her old watch and getting me moving.

Because my natural inclination is not to move or go outside. And while I still rarely go outside, I fight against my desire to sit and read 100% of the time every day.

It may be a little win, but it’s my win. With my sister’s help.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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For most of my adult-ish life, I’ve made mishloach manot for Purim. Except the last two years. I delivered all of my mishloach manot before COVID hit back in 2020 — I was early that year — but no one was dropping off packages last year. And even this year felt too soon. Like the world wasn’t ready for cookie deliveries.

I made a double batch of hamantaschen for Josh and ChickieNob, and chocolate chip cookies for the Wolvog (like me, he doesn’t groove on fruit in pastry). And called it a day. I didn’t attempt to go to a Purim event at shul. I just sat at home and read a book, like every other night.

It made me sad, but it also made me relieved. Making hundreds of cookies and candies every spring was exhausting, and I don’t have energy to spare right now.

But I miss that feeling when the last ribbon is tied and all of the packages are lined up at the door, and I know my treats are about to go out into the world.

Maybe next year.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from February.

Reckless Girls (Rachel Hawkins): Summer is coming up, and this is the perfect beach read. I mean, yes, I read it on my sofa, so clearly you can read it on a sofa, too. But it’s a great thriller, speeding you through the plot line. Are there thing you will guess way ahead of time? Of course. But that just makes it an even better thriller because it lets out some of the tension.

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (Mario Giordano — author +
J. Maxwell Brownjohn — translator): This is the first book in a series. (Thank you, Rebeccah, for the recommendation!) It took me a little time to get into the story, but once I did, I fell in love with the character of Poldi and wanted to spend more time with her. And go to Italy.

Piranesi (Susanna Clarke): I’ve read this before — and reviewed it before — but this time I listened to it as audio book. Is it possible that it was even better this time around? Maybe — Chiwetel Ejiofor has a voice that falls somewhere between sexy and relaxing. ChickieNob and I paired listening to the book with walking videos in Greece. We would get completely lost in the story and forget to stop walking.

The Violence (Delilah S. Dawson): This was incredible. It was one of those books where your brain gets confused after you stop reading and you can’t remember what is real for a moment. Sort of like Age of Miracles. It’s not an easy read because at its core, it’s about abuse. But it’s an important read. This book will stick with me for a long time.

The Invisible Library (Genevieve Cogman): Another first book in a series with a lot of complex world building. If you like Jasper Fforde but often feel frustrated by how much random, distracting, unexplained stuff exists in his stories, this is the book for you. Everything makes sense because everything fits together. I have a feeling I’ll like future books in the series even more because this one slowed down a lot to explain how the world works. But it’s super clever.

What did you read last month?

Just as Bea was telling me about Encanto, I received an email from Hulu asking if we wanted to add Disney+ for a teeny tiny amount. Years ago, I said I would never give in and have streaming services. And now, suddenly, we have several of them. I’m not sure where this train jumped the track.

Part of me likes the streaming life. I don’t feel cluttered, though I have access to tons of entertainment. And part of me feels like I want clutter. I want to feel weighed down. I want to pay for something once and own it.

It is hard to feel such different things at the same time.

I am leaning towards accepting the Disney+ offer because there is a movie with a red panda in it. And red pandas are kind of my heart along with quokkas, foxes, puffins, bears, otters, and 3000 other animals I’ve told you are my heart over the years. But I also kind of feel like I need a good talking to about this.

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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “In Our Own Time: One Couple’s Fertility Journey” (McSweeney’s) — don’t get confused about it being on a funny site. A (the commenter) found this, and it’s a beautiful series
• “Empathy: The Glue That Holds Humanity Together” (Silent Sorority)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Many people marked the two year anniversary of the pandemic. Family Building with a Twist reflects on the last two years. She lost her husband during this time period as well, and she writes, “Jimmy did not die from COVID, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to separate his death from the last two years. It’s all tangled up together and part of my pandemic experience and memory.” It made me think about how much our personal history gets tangled together with the collective history, and we live these two realities at the same time.

Infertile Phoenix also looks back on the last two years. She has a profound thought about restaurants at the start of the post: “It represents that every routine and element of structure in my life changed entirely. Over a weekend. It’s a lot for all of us to absorb, process, and endure.” Yes. I mean, on one hand, it’s just a restaurant. But on the other, when I ate my last meal out, I didn’t realize that two years later, the closest I’ve gotten to a restaurant is eating takeaway in the car. Her year contained other moments including a toxic co-worker (three cheers to not explaining yourself), but I kept thinking about the restaurant line.

Finding a Different Path learns how her story has helped others as friends use what they learned from her. It’s a powerful feeling to know your words have helped another person. She writes, “I’m pretty damn happy with where we landed, how my story has evolved, and how it’s used for a good greater than me.” She should be!

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ writes about making bread, turning it into a metaphor for life. She explains, “Even decisions over which bread am I going to make are influenced by the fact that I don’t have children. Okay, I know realistically any kids I might have had might not be living at home any longer. But I could have had years of baking bread for them or with them before they set off for university or careers or travel or love.” I hope she made the bread, and I hope it was delicious.

The roundup to the Roundup: Mixed feelings on streaming services. 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 March 11 – 18) 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.