Advent Prayer

I heard Joe Durepos on a Podcast I enjoy, AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast.   He shares this prayer for Christmas Eve, or the Christmas season in general.  

"On Christmas Eve, as we prepare for the culminating mystery of Advent, we pause and notice that a certain calm settles upon us after the crush of getting ready for Christmas Day.  This seems impossible given the frenzy of the holiday season and yet there is that moment of quiet certainty that something momentous, something miraculous, however improbable, is about to occur."

Our first dusting of snow today reminds me that the simple beauty of it all is in every way momentous and miraculous.  

Then you turned 11

My J, you turned 11 this month!  Growing up right before all of our eyes.  You've still got the biggest heart, you're kind to all, and your creativity bursts.  Last night, instead of watching a movie you wanted to tell ghost stories!   You make me laugh 100 times a day with your funny expressions or observations.   You remember all the details, you love your Grammy and cousins and I cannot, for even a moment, imagine life with a different son.  You are everything good about every Cassidy and every Campos.  Happy 11th birthday to my angel!  

  

Transparency

"Transparency doesn't mean sharing every detail.   Transparency means providing the context for the decisions we make."  - Simon Sinek

Teamwork

 A team is not a group of people who work together, a team is a group of people who trust each other.

Valentine's Dedication

S shared this one with me today.  I'm a lucky lady.   To my partner, for making the day to day the best place to live.  

(art by Kerri Rosenthal)

Busy Phillipps on Michelle Williams

 

What a love letter to a friend.   

Mary Karr

Stumbled into a fantastic podcast with the, unknown to me, poet Mary Karr which led me to the rabbit hole of reading more about her.   In the spirit of a day filled with much to-do, I will leave this line of hers right here and hope to come back for more later. 

“Faith is a choice like any other. If you're picking a career or a husband - or deciding whether to have a baby - there are feelings and reasons pro and con out the wazoo. But thinking it through is - at the final hour - horse dookey. You can only try out.” - Mary Karr.

Stutz

 Netflix has a documentary style movie starring therapist Phil Stutz.  Though I wanted more of the special, one piece stayed with me.  I'm paraphrasing here but something like: 

True confidence is living with uncertainty and moving forward.  The winner is not the one who makes the best decisions or looks the best, the winner is the one who works that cycle....

I believe that something missing from today's youth is a comfort level with being wrong and persevering.  It's ok to be wrong.  In fact, if you're not wrong often, you're not playing high enough stakes. 

Feeling motivated

 We've all heard the expression, people will overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year.  I'm starting this 2023 season with more clarity than years before, perhaps because we have been derailed by COVID for a few years and we finally seem back to normal and I'm not spending energy trying to get masks off children in school and other unfortunate political dramas.  

In any case, I'm motivated this year to read more, write more and work a bit harder and with more focus to get things accomplished.   

"People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe."
 Simon Sinek 

Back to closing rings

 I don't remember when I took off my apple watch.  I know it had something to do with the hassle of remembering to charge it.   I bought a Garmin, I do prefer the look but as since I am so analog and tech-uninterested, learning a new operating system was just never in my scope. 

So today I'm powering back the ol' Apple Watch.  Hoping to stay accountable for to steps and heart rate and other things that make us healthier.   There is some gratification in the closing of those rings!  

Love is: changing the coffee machine

 Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, is in my opinion a modern day saint.  His writing is consistent in its peacefulness and loving message.  I turn to his books or his TED talks from time to time, when either I need a calming message or I just want to have an uplifting morning. 

It's Sunday in January.  S has left before me for a week long work conference.  The week ahead will surely be stressful and require mental focus.  And yet, before he leaves at 6am, he manages to read the manual of the new coffee machine and adjust the settings because I couldn't quite figure out how to get to my preferred drink. 

Love is sacrifice.  Love is waking up and doing something for someone else.  

Father Boyle writes through his stories of the work with the most hardened communities about love and boundless compassion.   He writes that he only tries to teach these men and women to see themselves as God sees them: worthy of being loved. 

He quotes the poet Rumi writes, 'Find the real world, give it endlessly away, grow rich flinging gold to all who ask. Live at the empty heart of paradox. I’ll dance there with you—cheek to cheek.”

I have been a living witness of this paradox.   Love multiplies by loving.   It's a simple message, truly.  

It is hard to love when you're not loved.  It is easier to love when someone changes the coffee machine for you.   Too many are unloved.   Boyle writes, "just assume the answer to every question is compassion."   2023 goals. 

Adam Grant

 "A common source of disappointment is recency bias: weighing the last week more heavily than the last year.  Zooming in on the immediate past magnifies slumps.  Zooming out farther reveals upward slopes.  Progress is rarely visible at a snapshot in time.   It unfolds over a lifetime" - Adam Grant 

Farmgirl Flowers

Just ordered a Farmgirl Bouquet to arrive around my birthday because fresh flowers make me truly delighted!!   Cheers to more of the good stuff!  

2023

To start off 2023, we have filled all of our slots and have a waitlist at the St. Francis House Soup Kitchen volunteer shift on MLK weekend.   I firmly believe there is a gap between people wanting to help and people having easy options to do so.   Solving that brings me joy. 

 "Great tasks are rarely achieved by cynics"   

Cheers to many accomplishments in 2023! 

 

Year in Review - 2022

 A January tradition to recount my year and reflect on all that was good and done.  I wish I had done it in 2020 and 2021 but here we are.  Ready to recap a most wonderful 2022

Travel:

Happy to say that travel has become a staple in our life.  Each year, we aim to take a few longer trips as well as mix in plenty of smaller trips.  In 2022, we had an amazing trip all over Switzerland - Zurich, Interlaken, Appenzell, Zurmott....two trips in the Bahamas with the boat.  One trip was to the Exumas - remote and low-key while J was in Brazil for Feb break and the other was to the Atlantis resort with Joe....and Joe's first visit to Spain to celebrate Santi's First Communion.   Everything was spectacular, as usual.     

Our smaller trips again included the Red Cottage in the Catskills, a week in Nantucket (with overnight in Onset harbor - a working town with a magical vibe), a wonderful Cassidy family week at Lake Winnisquam, and probably others that are just escaping me...  All of this to say, travel has become an integral part of what we do. There are times it requires a push, but it's never regretted.  I look forward to continuing to explore in 2023. 

Life:

The last time I did one of these recaps, I was inching my way out of a darker place.  I was discovering a career, figuring out who I wanted to be in my post first-marriage life and inching towards a better place.  The main reason I was absent from this space was working from home and not sitting down in front of the computer like I used to - but the second reason was because I did not feel I had as much to work out.  I was happy again. 

Here I am, a few years and a global pandemic later, happier than ever.  Now I feel I have "leveled up".  It's kind of a lame expression to use but I don't know how else to explain it.  I was climbing here and having glimpses of it but now I feel here.  I am loved.  I am secure. I am good.  It's always nerve wracking to type these words, as though a lightening bolt is going to come and take it from me but even if that were to happen, I think it's worth recording that as I turn the page into 2023, life is wonderful. 

Art:

We've been members of Broadway in Boston for a few years now which has been a total treat! We see about 6 shows a year, many of which we probably wouldn't push to see but blow us away.  This year SIX was that for me!   We also saw the Nutcracker for the first time in a few holiday seasons and I think it was the best yet!    We took Joe to his first concert (Imagine Dragons) which was so much fun and I look forward to sharing more live music with him.   We saw Bruno Mars, my first opera, a visit to the ICA


Work:
 We wound down a big program at our company which resulted in managing the first lay-off in my career.  It was tiring and unpleasant and we all walked most of the year with a lot of trepidation.  But here we are, with an FDA approval and an exciting year ahead.  I'm in a good place with a job that challenges me and leaves me with a lot of independence and time and I'm happy to be where I am.   

Service is important to me and as I enjoy a job in the for-profit world, I have found ways to craft service into my schedule.  I'm co-leading the Villanova Boston Alumni Service Chapter which has been a fun way to get individuals involved with service opportunities.  We held a successful event at Cradles to Crayons with 30+ volunteers and in January we will serve meals at the St. Francis house.  It's been a way to bring something I would have liked to see - service opportunities and a stronger Boston/Villanova connection - to reality.   I also was fortunate to join the St. Augustine's Campus Ministry Team. Each Tuesday at 3pm, we meet with 6th, 7th and 8th graders to share ways to help their communities, bond together in a positive way, and think about each other as neighbors.   It's been a highlight of my year - I love the kids and the teachers I have met doing it.  It's a way to come together each week in a peaceful and productive way. 

Parenting:

Joe is 10!  It's hard to believe my boy is in 4th grade - doing long division, taking science tests etc!   But as always, he's a joy with his kind heart, creative mind, and overall wonderful attitude.   I can only feel gratitude and pray nothing changes.  He is just the greatest gift.  

A new category: Relationship

S and I got engaged this year!  I would have never seen it but it feels exactly where we should be.  Our relationship is mature, fun, non-dramatic, loving, open, and balanced.  Joe's response to the engagement was, "I didn't know you had feelings for each other".   We are happy.  together.  and committed.   Life is good.  "Fall in love with someone who is both your safe place and your biggest adventure"  

Cheers, 2022.  You were a good one.