Courage 2022

, ,

Sorry I’ve Been Busy, I Joined a Choir!

, ,

Over the summer, I started going to church (I actually found it by googling “chuch for agnostics” and learning about Unitarian Universalism) and I ended up joining the choir. We’ve had weekly rehearsals and I’ve noticed my mood is always noticeably improved afterwards. I’ve been meaning to write about it for some time, but I found myself enjoying being swept up in another creative expression hobby and letting my (published) writing go more by the wayside the last few weeks. On top of that, our holiday concert is coming up and we’ve been ramping up rehearsal time.

We’ve been working on holiday songs for the December choir concert since September so I’ve joked that I’ve been microdosing on the holidays for a while now. Since my church has members of a number of different faiths, we have a selection of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Yule songs. It’s very similar to the holiday concerts I did in public school choir, though Yule songs are a first for me, I think!

, , ,

What Do YOU Need to Hear Right Now? - EOL004

, , ,

Ever wake up wanting to talk to someone and have them tell you everything is going to be alright? If words of affirmation are your love language, you may know exactly what I'm talking about.

Since losing a friend earlier this year, I've been finding a lot of comfort thinking about what she might say if she were still with us. She was so supportive of everyone in our friend circle, and she could be counted on to hype anyone up if they needed it. I picture her enthusiastic smile and how she would probably say something like, "Emily, stop spending so much time being sad and go live your life happily! Enjoy your kids, make more podcasts, and write another book already!"

, ,

Seasonal Ailments, Back-to-School Overwhelm, and Introvert Adventures: A Quick Fall Update

, ,

Is it possible to be both incredibly overwhelmed, but also enoying the season? I think it is in the fall in the Northeast.

Originally this week, I was supposed to be at She Podcasts Live, but the conference was postponed until June of 2023. But my husband still took the week off so I have a bit more breathing room than I’ve had in a while to hopefully catch up (as I say every week).

,

Not-So-Quick Blog Update + Top 20 Introverted Mom Blog Announcement!

,

First off, thank you to Anuj Agarwal for including Emily: Out Loud in Feedspot’s list of the Top 20 Introverted Mom Blogs!

Secondly, seeing that inspired me to write a quick update (Note: I thought it would be a “quick” update when I began writing it. My writing brain had other plans.)

,

Courage in March

,

MY WORD OF THE YEAR WAS COURAGE. WHAT TOOK COURAGE THIS MONTH?

No one prepares you for when a close friend dies suddenly. I didn't need to search hard for what gave me Courage in March — my fear of losing someone close was realized and it threw me into a tailspin. Courage was what helped me find self-compassion to sit with the big heavy feelings and know I could make it through.

, , ,

Courage in February

, , ,

MY WORD OF THE YEAR WAS COURAGE. WHAT TOOK COURAGE THIS MONTH?

Seriously considering going to grad school and opening up to my partner about this little daydream.

It’s been an inkling of a thought ever since graduating college, but I had a hard enough time finally deciding on a major in college that making a commitment to even higher education would mean finding something that I truly, truly wanted to go into tons of debt and give my precious time to.

Even writing that, I am amazed folks do this. I’m pretty sure ADHD is why I was never able to give a consistent answer to the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

For a while, I told myself that I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up because back in the 1980s, no one had ever heard of a podcast. And maybe that’s true. But also, I’ve started questioning if I wanted to be in podcasting for the long haul and what that would look like.

,

Courage in January

,

My Word of the Year was Courage. What took Courage this month?

Taking my podcast off Spotify and posting about it.

Yes, this was scary for me. I knew how some folks in my life felt about Joe Rogan and even though I didn’t have the time nor energy to fight with people on the internet, my hyperfocus this weekend ended up being preparing for a fight, just in case.

Actually, all that preparation came in handy when I was in my DMs a lot more than usual over the weekend talking to other indie podcasters who were thinking about doing the same thing. Many of them ended up doing it, too!

, , ,

Marking the New Year and Picking My 2022 Word — COURAGE

, , ,

Is it weird that I still carry a tiny glimmer of hope for the new year? For a lot of December 2021, I wasn’t sure I would. I wasn’t feeling the same excitement about a new year, even though I can’t say I was a huge fan of much of 2021.

But nonetheless, I found myself looking forward to the start of a new year. And it is nice to bid farewell to the past year and feel that sense of new beginning

I don’t do resolutions anymore for the new year and I’ll talk more about that in a bit, but I do have a few traditions. The first two are very mundane and tedious if I’m being honest. But they’re still my own traditions that have oddly helped me bring in the coming year with a sense of newness, and you’d be surprised at how satisfying it is when they’re done.