What’s bringing you joy?
Wedding prep
The home server im setting up. I can finally break free of the clutches of cloud storage.
I have about 2 months left of college (Canada). Going to be graduating with about a 3.9GPA. Finally going to have a degree to my name and hopefully going to be having a job right away when im finished.
I’m teaching guitar to a couple of students in town. I’ve started doing an active listening at the end of our shared class. I’m introducing them to all kinds of music they haven’t heard and I love it. They’re responding and listening to some new albums outside of the genres they’ve liked.
Thank you for the opportunity to share some good. :)
Post surgery sick leave. My body is still a bit fucked but it’s also the most time off I’ve had in one go in years.
My crow bro, Kenny. Most days I go for a walk after work and meet up with him to feed him some peanuts or dog food.
The possiblities. The potential. Recently I have overcome my trauma and I have energy to spare on doing things I want to do.
I think I’ve done a reasonable job improving my dovetail jig.
That 12 inch Porter Cable model; it has some problems with repeatability. The reference marks are quite wide and positioned in a way to give a lot of parallax error. There was no real way to quantify how far you’ve moved the template in and out, which meant it’s basically guaranteed to come out of alignment. So I took a knife to it. Scribed the alignment line around all the tines and put graduation marks on the brass thumb wheels. It’s a lot easier to be deliberate in adjusting this thing now.
It still needs a few other things here and there, and I need to put those alignment marks on other templates. But it’s a start.
I’m working on a project that’s really important to me - and I think that there’s a good chance I’ll see it through to completion at this point.
Admittedly, outside of that project… my life has not really been doing much for me lately. I’m glad to have something right now that’s helping keep me stable and sane in a world that really feels like it’s falling apart, but sometimes it really feels like I’m working to finish it and get it out there before life becomes a bit too much.
What’s the project?
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Not a damn thing. There aren’t enough words in the English language to express the animosity I feel towards this world.
The bees. All our hives made it through winter and a fairly mild spring so far has given them a boost. Queens are laying like crazy, workers are working hard.
I’ve started wearing very thin gloves while inspecting the hives after realising that they make it less likely I’ll be stung, because I can be gentler. A bonus is that I can feel the warmth of the bees, and that really does bring me joy.
omg you’ll be among the saviors of the world, given the way bees are going according to the news.
I have a ticket out of the US
Cycling now that the weather’s warmer. My family and pets. Coffee and word games.
Thanks for the reminder to look for the good. I often feel like there should be so much more, but I know that’s more than some people have, so I should feel lucky.
Sobriety. 2 years 3 months since I’ve drank.
Still relearning some aspects of being an adult. Figuring out who I am. Picking up old hobbies again and trying new ones. So many things bring me joy nowadays where it used to only be alcohol that triggered the ol happy brain chemicals.
I’m in a much better place than I was a couple years ago when I was abusing alcohol as a coping mechanism.
Dude, you and me quit at almost the same time!
Nice! Congrats my dude. Would’ve been closer to the same day but someone gave me a bottle of whiskey for Christmas that year and I hadn’t told anyone I was trying to quit yet
Oh hell yeah congrats! I dated an ex alcoholic (very close to dying) and his thing now is running, eating ultra efficient nutrients like honey and liver, and not using soap ever for anything. He’s one of the happiest guys I’ve seen in a long long time. Though, he does preach a bit, I can understand his zeal hahaha
Thanks :) I don’t really talk about my sobriety with a ton of people in person, still some shame associated with who I used to be, appreciate being able to share online.
And yea exercise in various forms is one of my big things now, definitely relatable, I try not to be preachy about it. Lifting, swimming, and rollerblading recently. I need to do more yoga though… I’m in wayyyy better shape than I was two years ago, feeling almost as good as my college athlete days.
If it means anything, I’m of slim-average build and working in my 20s (painter in construction) destroyed my knees and I’ve been walking a few times every week for the past month to rehabilitate them because I’m tired of not being able to do stuff. We can do it! It’s worth it!
Heck yea! Walking around the block is where I started again a couple years ago. It’s definitely worth sticking with it. Life got in the way a few times and I had to be gentle with myself and repeatedly remind myself that progress isn’t linear, and that doing something is better than nothing.
What do you think about the idea that people need to actually realize their mortality before being able to really live?
Not sure. I’ve never really reflected on that idea. It certainly seems to be true for me personally.
My alcoholic years had some pretty ugly parts and could have killed me several times. Severe depression, self harm, suicidal thoughts, wrecked my car (thankful it was just me and a steep curb, no one else involved, that could have been so much worse), a hospital trip, walking 2 miles home by myself at 3am almost every weekend while hammered in the middle of a US city known for its crime and lowkey wanting someone to try to mug me, etc. Let alone the physical damage that 50-100+ standard drinks per week at my worst was doing to my body, luckily none of that seems to be permanent, I was scared to get my blood work done for the first year alcohol free, but it came back fine.
I don’t like looking back on that period of my life, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that it happened and I can’t change that and mostly been able to forgive myself.
So while it was ugly and could have killed me, shit at parts of it I wanted it to kill me, at the same time… I wouldn’t be who I am today without all that (and a lot of therapy and self reflection and journaling and all that fun stuff). I really genuinely like who I am today. I haven’t been able to say that for the majority of my life. And I find a lot more appreciation in the little things that I used to be too numb to see. I’m doing things I enjoy solely because I enjoy them, not because my family or parts of society say it’s what I’m supposed to be doing.
I don’t think I want that statement to be true for humanity as a whole, at least not in the way that I faced my mortality, I hope there are other ways people can get to a point where they feel truly alive. But yea I think it’s true for me.
