There is, apparently, a book about late bloomers that just came out, which explains some of the recent posts about late bloomers. But the rest are untied to Rich Karlgaard’s book. It’s just a weird coincidence; a moment in time when people are speaking about achievement later in life.

According to a multitude of authors, being a late bloomer rocks. Charles Duhigg points out:

Late bloomers learn resilience. Early disappointments force concessions, as Duhigg notes, and they reshape expectations. It is no doubt sad that the best way to gain strength is by falling and continually bouncing back, practicing, working around obstacles. But this flexibility is critical to long-term success.

Being a late bloomer puts you in good company since all of these articles also include a list of people who have achieved great things later in life. And it saves you from all of the drawbacks of being an early bloomer that are also listed in these articles. (Because you can only prove how great being a late bloomer is by putting down early bloomers.)

I’m being sarcastic mostly because I’ve always felt like you don’t know what sort of bloomer you are until you’ve bloomed, and because we bloom in cycles, blooming in different parts of our life at different times, declaring ourselves one or the other spotlights our life with one accomplishment instead of acknowledging that we make big and small contributions to this world every day.

Though I do like Karlgaard’s explanation of the two types of forces that make people bloom at different times:

It’s the difference between feeling being pushed — which I don’t like and I think a lot of people don’t like — versus being pulled by some vision and dream and higher purpose.

Pushed vs. pulled.

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

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I just learned that fantasy birding is a thing. As someone who wants to be a birdwatcher but is incapable of convincing herself to wake up early to go birding, I am fascinated. Oh, and I get a little nauseated looking at the world through binoculars. But I really want to be a birder and like to play games. This is how it works:

Using eBird, a citizen-science database run by Cornell University where birders log their sightings, players select single locations on a map each day, and get credit for a bird if a real-life birder spots that species within a 10-kilometer radius that day.

Sign me up. As in, I just signed up for an eBird account. Now to use it.

What are you trying to get yourself motivated to start?

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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.

Josh asked me a few years ago where I would live if we couldn’t live in D.C., and I promptly told him that it would be somewhere in the North Sea or Northern Atlantic like the Shetland Islands or Faroe Islands, though I could easily be talked as far south as the Outer Hebrides. He was a little taken aback and admitted that he thought I’d throw out Boston or Philadelphia. Something a little more realistic. A little more in our home country.

And, like, yeah, I think we’ll probably end up living in this country forever, but my heart home is somewhere very cold with otters, puffins, and not a lot of sunlight in winter.

Like I said on Friday, it’s when you know you’re from one place but you always sensed that your heart is from somewhere else. That, for me, is Scotland since I was a little kid. That’s why I cried so much when we were in Scotland last year. It was like my heart for the first time was where it belonged. Like I brought it home.

I think if I could live anywhere in Scotland right now, it would be the Island of Yell in the Shetland Islands.

Do you have a heart home?

I am still blissed out after seeing Alan Cumming on Wednesday. He was in town, performing his new(ish) show, Legal Immigrant. So different from the one we saw last year around this time, but, again, I had the same reaction to his voice. He begins singing, and I just feel happy. There was no huge sadness to climb out of, so it was more like a vitamin. Like all of a sudden, someone dumped a bucket of happiness on me, and I’m still covered in it.

Two songs he sang that I didn’t know that I loved. The first was Dougie MacLean’s “Caledonia.” I love Scotland and consider it my “heart” home — like you know how you’re from one place but you always sense that your heart should have been born in another place? That’s how I feel about Scotland.

The other was a song from Moana. I don’t know anything about Moana, but even Josh’s mouth dropped open when we heard the lyrics because they are so personal and specific to my life. So having a singer who makes you so happy introducing you to a song you’ve never heard before but that describes a chunk of your life? That was a little mind-blowing.

So riding the happiness into the weekend.

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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:

• “Ticket in Hand” (Inconceivable!)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Life Without Baby answers her often asked question: why didn’t you adopt after infertility? Her reason is so simple, so straightforward, based on the “most important piece of advice we were given.” And she points out this fact so well: “Adoption isn’t the next logical step on an infertility journey; it’s a step off that road and onto another completely different path.” Go read the whole post to understand.

It’s Inconceivable has a post about holidays when you don’t have a lot of family members. She examines how holiday celebrations and etiquette have changed over the years, and she writes, “I’m used to my own company nowadays, I just wish society was a bit more inclusive of others who don’t fit into family shaped ‘moulds’.” Important words everyone should hear and think about the next time holidays roll around.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a post about a surprising way of receiving a birth announcement; one that could only exist in the digital age. Go over and read the post (and adjust your settings!) about this happy news.  As she writes about the “glee and grief”: “I am so happy for them. I am SO terrified for them.” Doesn’t that sum up hearing someone else’s pregnancy news now?

The roundup to the Roundup: Covered in a film of happiness thanks to Alan Cumming.  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 April 19th and 26th) 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.

Speaking of not embracing change, I loved this article a few weeks ago because I eat the same thing for breakfast AND lunch every day. Breakfast never changes: a container of yogurt. Lunch may change if I need to meet someone for a meal, but if I’m at home, it’s a bowl of Special K. A scoop of peanut butter and raw fruits and vegetables are snacks. The only thing that changes is dinner.

I think of my meals in the same way I think of the benefits of wearing a uniform. It frees you from making decisions.

(I also don’t have a lot of variety in my wardrobe. I bought a dozen of the same black shirt and same jeans and mostly wear the same thing, day after day. I try to never buy new, seasonal clothes.)

I wake up in the morning, and I’m going to put on the outfit. I sit down at the table and I’m going to have yogurt. There are no decisions I need to make. I like not needing to think. I never get bored with the sameness. Instead, I think of it these moments in my day a little like a never-changing ritual. Now the yogurt is visiting. Later, the Special K will come around.

Do you eat the same thing for one or more meals each day?