My favorite pick-me-ups

For days when life is a little too much

July’s Mediterranean recipes drop tomorrow in the Cooking Community. Join now to get them in your inbox!

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The warm, frothy, gently sweet latte cupped in my hand is helping the tinge of turmoil leftover from an eventful and emotional weekend. Lest you think you’re the only one with flair-ups in your otherwise peaceful existence, I assure you, you are not. Sorry. I hate when people are vague in these letters. But personal dirty laundry needs to be washed before it can be hung out to dry.

Even though I’ve been through enough of life’s difficult moments to recognize both their fleeting and relentless tendencies, the barrage of Monday morning emails “hoping they find me well” is a jarring reality check that they’re actually finding me a bit run-down.

I’m distracted… circling around what needs to be done, and staring into a void of tasks and to-dos that feel momentarily insurmountable.

Perhaps a bit of escapism into some high-quality fiction is the solution?

If you have any solid recommendations, please leave them in the comments! I beg you. I want a stack of books a foot high by my bed for the hot, summer afternoons ahead in which I will retreat from the heat… and momentarily, from life.

In all seriousness, our life isn’t a straight line. It’s tangled and messy, getting snarled up in miscommunications, unmet expectations, and varying ideals. It doesn’t matter what our particular snarl is at the moment — as soon as this one is untangled, another will come. This is the natural ebb and flow of life as a human.

Instead of trying to force life onto a straight path or ignoring the disruptions that will come, I’ve found it helpful to put my hands to work. I bake bread, mop my floors, iron the laundry that’s been stacking up, or hose cobwebs off the front porch. The work is mindless and seemingly unimportant, but when my hands are busy, my mind can process emotions.

I like to put something productive in their place. Something delicious… uplifting… or inspiring. Sometimes it’s a calming playlist — other times, it’s a perfect roasted chicken thigh. The point is an intentional filling up with something that I find to be good, true, or beautiful. Sometimes, that’s enough to help my problems loosen their grip on me.

So, in case this email finds you a bit unwell as well, here are a few of my current favorite pick-me-ups:

• Listening to this Madeline Peyroux playlist

• Reading The Flower Sisters (I finished this a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it)

• Watching Gardeners’ World

• Burning these candles

• Organizing family photographs and actually getting them printed (currently using Artifact Uprising)

• Ironing laundry with this linen spray, using this amazing iron I bought ages ago (talk about a homemaking pleasure)

• Eating Italian stewed peppers on repeat

• Adding in an extra weight-lifting session each week on my Tonal

• Reading this devotional

For a bit of further escapism, I’ve been cooking lots for Summer on the Mediterranean in my Cooking Community. A new month of recipes and instructional videos will be released tomorrow (July 1). Just in case you’d like to trick your tastebuds into thinking you're somewhere else for the moment…

I hope you’re having a wonderful day. If not, that’s okay, too. At least we’ll end up with clean floors and a tasty supper…

Love,