Nourish/Challenge: Week 12.

Spring began this past week. I didn't do well with my winter focus on children's books. I did finished Felicity's Story Collection, which made me feel old and young at once. My spring focus is young adult lit, and I hope to do better with that. Bruce and I have been reading a YA novel, The Memory of Light.

I had a scary night. I was putting Oliver to bed, and he had just fallen asleep. The door was locked (he tries to escape from us at bedtime sometimes), and it began to rattle as if someone were testing the door and getting frustrated. I texted Josh to ask if he had gotten home. He was ready to call the police. He called Bruce, who came right to me. He stayed with me until Josh got home. I felt so lucky to have such a close friend so nearby and so quick to come when I needed him.

I wondered if I could be hallucinating. I said that the people upstairs were being loud. Josh said that they sometimes make our doors rattle, so we concluded that that's what happened. The experience challenged me, and I was able to keep calm for the most part. Every time something scary happens to me, I get stronger and hopefully not more cynical.

I needed the nourishment of some good childhood memories, so I found the soundtrack to the original Charlotte's Web on Spotify. Lyrics came right back to me, and I felt light.

I'm still trying to watch a movie each week. I've been enjoying the soft sci-fi show Maniac with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. Bruce took me to see Us. Every scary movie challenges me. I've gotten better at handling them without going numb. Before Bruce, movie theaters weren't really a part of my life, but he's changed that.

Somehow, I failed to write about Dear Evan Hansen last week. But it will get its own post. The show gave me a kind of surge of energy I've not felt in a very long time.