What Sister Melvina Said...
Good morning you weary travelers.
I was talking to a friend a while back and as conversations go these days, we found ourselves diving into the bigger questions of life. I was probably lamenting feeling that I’d lost valuable time to the “whole cancer thing” as I’ve been calling it. But, feeling robbed of time seems to be the only thing on which all of us can agree.
Because, for so many the concept of time feels like some cross between Alice in Wonderland and Inception, where days last for years and years somehow last mere days, things feel like they happened yesterday and yet somehow yesterday was three years ago. And how we spend our wibbly-wobbly time feels on one hand super boring, and yet it’s also somehow more impactful and meaningful than anything that’s come before.
Hearing this, my friend told me a story of what happened when her class jokingly asked the nun in charge, Sister Melvina, what the meaning of life was. Steadfast and unruffled, Sister Melvina answered simply: When it was your time, you would be asked two questions… and how you answered these two questions would determine how well you lived your life. Those two questions are:
“What did you do with the talents given to you?”
“What did you do with the time given to you?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about what Sister Melvina said, so when I heard Mikaela Shiffrin - the embattled downhill skier from the US - being interviewed after her final failed run at this year’s Olympics - her words stuck into me. Paraphrasing - she talked about failing, and feeling like a joke, but then she described being the most disappointed not about the medals, but because she just wanted a good run.
A good run.
Whenever I feel that pang of missing some wave or wasting precious time, it’s always the medals in life that I’m focusing on and not whether I’m having a good run. I think because we mix up the two, right? We think a shiny medal TELLS US we’ve had a good run, but (deep down) we know that to be untrue.
A good run is all about something only we can feel. That click, that electric thrum that buzzes through our bodies, there’s a weightlessness to it - an elsewhereness. An honesty, a joy, a vulnerability… a presentness. A fullness where life almost feels puzzle-piecian and somehow your little jagged edges fit perfectly into a moment that feels as if it were made just for you. And for most of us, we shrug it off because those moments tend to happen in the most mundane and every day kinds of ways.
But, I think that’s the crux of what Sister Melvina is trying to say. That a good life isn’t about the medals, it’s in finding the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane and every day kinds of ways.
That it’s about having a good run.
❤️❤️❤️
If you have the funds, please consider donating to help the people of Ukraine.
Each month, I’ll gather:
❤️funny tweets
🤩stuff to watch, read and listen to
🤝great follows on social media
🌈 music to soothe
🕯calming things
*****
❤️
🤩
I’ve been on QUITE the bender of British cozy mysteries and have absolutely loved the new Father Brown spin-off, Sister Boniface Mysteries.
And Agatha Raisin is back for another season. And I watched the new season of Reacher - pretty good!
I also loved the newest documentary on The Band, Once We Were Brothers.
Here’s the thing about only watching shows on narrow-boating for several weeks - the recommendations you get begin to skew towards, let’s just say, people of a certain age using slow transportation to see pretty places. Right? How great does that sound? If that sounds good, then you’ll love Grand Tours Of Scotland’s Lochs and Vintage Roads: Great and Small.
A friend recommended the book The Big Leap and … phewwww.
It will also surprise no one that I quite enjoyed this three-episode mini-season about Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues.
🤝
Follow The Kris Life for all things gardening, home decor, gorgeous flowers and an absolute timeline cleanse.
Follow Casa Burr - if you loved Richard the Builder from Great British Bake Off, this is the account of him and his wife renovating a new house.
Follow Shaina McCoy for gorgeous art.
🌈
Happier Than The Morning Sun - Stevie Wonder
Kyoto - Phoebe Bridgers
I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
🕯
Trying to find what people have been known to call “A HOBBY” (am I saying that right?) I bought THIS lovely beginning embroidery kit. It’s going about as well as you’d expect.
Now I give this link with a caution: This is a link to a PEN site. If you, like me, HAVE A PEN PROBLEM be warned - but I went on the site to find ink for a pen a friend gave me for Christmas, and oh look I also bought THIS and THIS.
Yes, I also still have a candle problem. My niece gave me THESE TWO candles for Christmas from this company and I LOVE THEM. They smell so pretty, without being cloying and the vessels are gorgeous for usage after the candle is done. These are my favorite candles so far!
I also tried out PF Candle’s California Classics - and I really loved the Golden Coast one (smells really CLEAN) and was pleasantly surprised by the Ojai Lavender one. (The LA one… didn’t really do it for me) The lavender one was SUBTLE - so don’t worry about feeling like you’re living inside a soap, it was a super delicate throw (as the experts say).
🥰 I am here. Together, we will endeavor to just do the next right thing. 🥰
See you on the last Monday of every month.
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