#bloganuary

What does it mean to be brave?

/ Brienna / 3 Comments

How are you brave?

Today’s #bloganuary prompt has sent me down a rabbit hole!

First thoughts, how is bravery different from courage? Is bravery being bold with an absence of fear? Does bravery imply physical danger? Why is the only thing I can think of the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz? The internet has a lot of opinions on these topics. I’m not entirely sure all of this is right, so perhaps I should ignore it.

Do you know what I realized? This rabbit hole, like rabbit holes so often are, is simply a distraction from the uncomfortableness that rises when I try to answer the question.

How am I brave? How am I brave? How am I brave? How am I brave? Well, changing the question’s emphasis is not making it easier to answer. Which leads to “am I brave?”

While I would like COURAGE to be one of my core values, it makes me uncomfortable. Does that mean I need to be courageous or brave all the time? What if I fail? And reading my self-talk written out like this, I notice two things. One, there is some imposter syndrome going on here, and two, I see some fixed mindset beliefs jumping out.

Some of the best self-help advice I’ve read recently can be paraphrased as listening to your self-talk and then rephrasing it as if you were talking to a friend or loved one.

So, instead of beating my self up with negative self-talk, I’m going to think about this as if I were talking to a loved one.

Some might consider it brave to be posting this and sharing this sort of vulnerability.

Who cares what the internet thinks is brave?! Choose your own definition and roll with it.

Of course, you’re brave! You do a million brave things every single day. Ok, maybe not every day, but you get my point!

A core value of courage could be similar to an intention word, and help serve as a reminder to keep courage in your heart and your life.

Photo of two skydivers looking up at the underside of the plane they jumped out of. The tail of the plane says "the dark side".
I would probably call this reckless more than brave, but it certainly took courage to make it out of the plane.

PS. I’m not sure I’ve actually answered the question!

Oh, look, it’s 2023!

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

It’s New Year’s day, and with that normally comes new year’s resolutions.

I’m not a big fan of resolutions and usually focus on goals instead. While I have goals this year, I’m also picking what’s known as a word of intention for the year. This word sets the theme for the year and is much broader than any set of specific goals.

This word should help me on my journey and should be something that can provide a focus to my choices throughout the year.

For 2023, I’ve chosen HEALTH as my word of intention. In support of this, I have some goals to eat better (no Monster – day 1 is today!), exercise more (yoga, running, walking), and make sure that I’m taking care of my mental health.

Today is also the first day of #Bloganuary, a month-long challenge from Automattic and WordPress.com to blog every day in January. Each day comes with a writing prompt to help inspire.

What is something you want to achieve this year?

This writing prompt ties in nicely with my intention word. What do I want to achieve this year? I want to live a healthy life. In achievement terms, that means eating better, losing weight, improving my cardiovascular fitness, being mindful of getting enough sleep, and meditating more often.

I haven’t set specific metrics for anything, preferring to let my intention be my guide and see where it takes me. I don’t want to fall into the trap of self-loathing due to numbers on the scale, calorie counting, or missed goals. Each day is a new opportunity to make healthy choices.

To kick off the year with an intention of health, this morning I started a 30-day yoga challenge from Yoga with Adrienne. Skipping is totally allowed, so this might take more than the next 30 days to complete.

P.S. Here’s a great, related video that Wil Wheaton shared with me. It’s short, and while they call it a theme instead of an intention, it explains the concept well in this very short video.

A tale of three Comets

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

Today #Bloganuary asks about my favorite photo. As soon as I saw the prompt, I knew this would be both difficult and easy at the same time.

I take a lot of photos. Mostly just throw away photos, but there’s a lot. Photos of food, photos of pets, flowers, whatever I want to remember.

And that really is the essence. For me, photos are all about capturing memories. So asking for my favorite photo is like asking for my favorite memory.

I can’t pick just one. However, you’ll see there’s a theme.

These three photos are all of Comet. From left to right:

Comet under my seat on an airplane. This was our first trip home together, flying from Baltimore to San Francisco. I was reading Harry Potter for the first time!

Comet with his red raincoat. Oh boy, he hated that, and he wouldn’t pee outside with it on. Sort of defeated the point!

Comet covered in mud. My other dog Bailey had been playing in the creek at my dad’s house, and as he would dart out of the water, he would run a bit with Comet. Comet never got in the water, just at the edge, but he ended up like this, while Bailey came out fairly clean.

Comet is the origin story for this blog and its name, Adventures of Cometgrrl. It used to be Adventures of Cometgrrl and Comet. 🥲

I don’t know that I loved Comet any more than Roxy or Indy or Dexter. I have tons of photos of them too! However, the photos and memories of the living are not quite as precious as for those who are gone.

It’s been over 10 years, and I still can’t watch this video without crying.

When you can’t eat anything else, you make a salad.

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

I’ve been suffering from acid reflux, chronic sinus issues, and IBS. A few years ago, a doctor recommended an elimination diet. Well, the acid reflux and the IBS got a LOT better during the elimination phase.

Then I did a really shitty job of adding things back in and went crazy with pizza and wine. As far as I can tell, the IBS symptoms are most likely caused by corn, dairy, and/or not having enough fiber. When I was doing the elimination part, I ate an apple every day, and lots of lentils.

So, here I am trying again to get to the bottom of this and find the mysterious thing that’s making me sick. At the very least, this is a good opportunity to kick the caffeine habit. My doctor thinks that’s the most likely cause of my acid reflux issues, which might also be causing the sinus issues.

This time around I am doing a much shorter list. For three weeks:

  • No gluten
  • No dairy
  • No corn (it’s hiding in everything, this one is hard)
  • No soy (also hiding in a lot of things)
  • No eggs (easy, pretty much don’t eat them already)
  • No caffeine
  • No fake sugars (like sorbitol)

This time I am allowing alcohol, sugar, nightshades, and refined oils. Hopefully, I will still get some results. Once the three weeks are up, the key is to add things back one at a time and monitor for any symptoms.

Since I can’t order a pizza, tonight I made a salad. Roxy really enjoyed getting some scraps of green beans. I swear, she’ll eat anything if she thinks it’s people or cat food.

Lemony Dijon Dill Bean Salad

  • 1 can butter beans
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1 to 2 cups green beans
  • 1/2 red onion (diced)
  • 1 cup sliced radishes
  • 1-2 TBSP Old Style (grainy) mustard
  • 1-2 TBSP Dijon mustard
  • juice from 1 lemon (or 2 TBSP)
  • 3 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 2 TBSP dill (chopped)

This salad is really easy to make. If you don’t want to do ANY cooking, leave out the green beans.

  • Trim and cut the green beans into bite-size pieces. Blanch by boiling for 2 minutes, then transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water until cool. Pat dry and then place in a bowl.
  • Drain and rinse the canned beans, and place them into your bowl.
  • Add the onions and radishes.
  • Mix the mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and dill. Toss w/ salad or serve on the side.

You can top this with some vegan cheese, l went with Minimalist Baker’s vegan parm.

Not a fan of red onions or radishes? Try celery or carrots instead, to keep the crunch.

Today’s #Bloganuary prompt is to write about something mysterious.