Author Archives: lydias

About lydias

I'm a sci-fi writer who loves lifting weights and hates eating Brussels sprouts.
May 20, 2017 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: May 20, 2017

Here is this week’s list of short stories, encouragement, and links from my favourite corners of the web.

Stop Doubting Your Greatness via ‪aford21‬. I loved this.

Summoning Demons with Sandwiches. What a creative idea for a story. I can’t stop giggling at it. No, it isn’t frightening at all for those of you who don’t like the scary stuff. Think of it more like a sitcom that happens to star a few demons who are nothing at all like the traditional depictions of them.

When You Can Only Do a Little via ‪zenandpi‬. This is an excellent thing to keep in mind on days when you can’t accomplish as much as you’d hoped.

I’m a Hill, You Can Roll Down Me. This sounds like a Pixar movie song.

Decades After Foster Care, I Found My Long-Lost Brother. If only this could be a full-length book. What a story.

Exercise Cuts Appetite for Fatty Food. It will be interesting to see if this study can be replicated in the future. I had never heard of this theory before.

From Stop Standing On Our Feet via ‪the_author_‬:

Imagine something with me – you’re standing in a crowded space, and someone steps on your foot. It’s not the first time someone has stepped on your foot that week, or even that day. In fact, people tend to step on your foot a lot, and always have. Sometimes you even avoid going certain places or engaging in certain activities, hoping to reduce the frequency with which your foot gets stepped on.

Imagine that this time, though, you decide to say something.

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May 18, 2017 · 1:00 am

The Handmaid’s Tale: Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum


This post includes spoilers for “Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum” (Season 1, Episode 4) of The Handmaid’s Tale. As usual, the link on the left has full summaries of all of the episodes that have aired so far. 

While this episode included several important world-building moments, it wasn’t as action-filled as the previous episodes have been. The picture on the left is one reminder of just how out of the ordinary “Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum” was, but we’ll talk about that more in a few minutes. Let’s stick with the slower pacing for now.

You see, Offred had spent the last 13 days banished to her room as punishment for not being pregnant. Women in Gilead weren’t allowed to read or write, so she had absolutely nothing to occupy her time during those long days and nights.

It was only after examining every last square inch of her room that Offred noticed the phrase nolite te bastardes carborundorum scratched into the wall in her closet. I loved the way they showed her staring listlessly at this phrase as she tried to figure out who wrote it and what they were trying to communicate with her. She had found out in the first episode that the Commander and his wife had a previous Handmaid, but she didn’t know what happened to her predecessor.

There was an important clue to the first Offred’s fate that was revealed to the audience when Martha discovered our Offred lying on the floor and assumed she was dead. Offred lied and said she had fainted in order to prevent anyone else from finding what she’d found in the closet.

The doctor’s visit our Offred was sent on to make sure she was healthy made my skin crawl.  Not only was the doctor creepy in a sad sort of way when he told Offred that he could try to get her pregnant, the rows of pictures of Commanders and Wives holding healthy babies in the waiting room made me wonder exactly how many Handmaids there were altogether out there. For some reason, I thought there were far fewer of them than all of those happy portraits hinted there could be.

They also made me wonder how many of those babies were genetically the doctor’s offspring. Once again I’m glad that I’m only recommending this series for the 14+ crowd. The failed ceremony scene was even more disturbing this week in light of the doctor’s comment about many of the Commanders being sterile. Assuming this is true of Offred’s Commander, then all of the trauma of those nights happens for no reason at all.

My favourite scene, though, occurred at the end of this episode when Offred decided to take the Commander up on his invitation to play a forbidden game of Scrabble after everyone else in the house had gone to bed. Knowing what his intentions were this time didn’t make their interactions any less strange. She was his property. He wanted her to be happy with the arrangement and with her unorthodox relationship with him. In fact, he couldn’t get an erection this month without the illusion that they had some kind of connection.

The nice thing about Offred realizing this was that she was able to use it to find out that the previous Offred committed suicide and that “nolite te bastardes carborundorum” jokingly translates to “don’t let the bastards grind you down.” It was through pretending to have a connection with the Commander that she was also released from her confinement to her room. His fear of another Handmaid killing herself was stronger than Serena Joy’s desire to keep punishing Offred.

Some of the other reactions to this episode that I’ve read have talked about feeling sorry for the Commander in light of how concerned he was about Offred. Given how much power he holds in this world, I had a lot of trouble feeling that way for him. He was so far up the ranks in Gilead that I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d played a key role in creating this world. No, I haven’t read any spoilers about the future episodes. It is pure speculation on my part, but he struck me as someone who fought for something that only sounded good on paper. Once he actually began to experience the world he helped to create, he seemed to feel some buyer’s remorse.

The thing is, the Commander hasn’t had anything important taken away from him. He still has his name, his identity, his family, and as much freedom as anyone can reasonably expect to have in this world. It will be interesting to see if my opinion of him changes in the future, but for now all of my sympathies lie with the Handmaids and everyone else who lost everything to this system.

I have not decided yet if I have sympathy for Serena Joy (who is pictured on the right). The way she treated Offred was abusive and abysmal in this episode, but I’ve also seen the men in her life treat her terribly, too.

That’s not an excuse for her behaviour, by the way. It’s simply an acknowledgement that all of the women in this society have been dealt a crappy hand.

The fact that she has stubbornly refused to help the other women in her house unless it directly benefitted her in some way makes me dislike her intensely. I also hate the fact that she feels so entitled to stealing and raising someone else’s child.

While I have sympathy for her inability to get pregnant when she so clearly yearns to be a parent, wanting to separate a baby from his or her biological mother when the mother has done nothing wrong and has zero history of harming children is horrific.

This is something I hope will be explored further in the future. There have been multiple examples of this sort of thing happening in recent human history, from the Plazo de Mayo mothers to the Baby Scoop era of the 1940s-1970s.

Overall, this was not my favourite episode of this series so far. It was still very good storytelling, but I’m hoping that next week’s episode will have more action in it for Offred’s sake as well as for ours.

Previous posts in this series:

5 Things I Want from The Handmaid’s Tale

Introducing Offred’s World

Gender Treachery

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May 15, 2017 · 1:00 am

When Is It Time to Move Up to a Heavier Set of Weights?

I’ve been asking myself this question over the past week or two. Since I work out at home instead of going to the gym, I try to be very mindful of what equipment I buy and when I buy it. My tiny apartment can only store so many items at once!

The last set of weights I bought also turned out to be a little too heavy for me at first. I ended up switching between them and my previous set of weights for a week or two depending on which part of my body I was using and how my form was looking.

It’s been my hope that I’ll be able to avoid this next time by spending extra time with my current equipment as I wait to grow slightly stronger.

There are a few different signs I look for when I’m deciding when to move up to a heavier set of weights versus when I should stick with my current set of weights and focus on adjusting my form for the time being.

Let’s go through them one by one.

Sign #1: My Workouts Are Getting too Easy These Days.

While there are still a couple of moves in my routine that I find a little challenging, most of them are fairly easy these days.

I’m not breaking a sweat as quickly as I was when I first moved up to this set of weights. I’m also not needing or wanting to take the breaks I sometimes incorporated into the workout the last time I did it with a heavier set of weights.

My endurance has definitely increased since then, so I would agree that my workouts have become too easy.

Sign #2: It’s Been a While Since I Felt Sore the Day After a Workout.

No, I don’t believe this is the only or the best indication of a good routine, but it can be one sign that you’re pushing your body enough to become stronger without risking injury.

This might sound odd, but I actually like the feeling you get the day after a tough, new workout. Even if your muscles aren’t necessarily suffering from DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), you can often feel them contracting and relaxing in ways that might not have felt so obvious last week or last month. Certain movements remind you that you need to use your arms, abs, or legs for them even if you’re not generally consciously aware of that fact.

If you do have DOMS, some of those movements are slightly uncomfortable or harder to perform than normal. If you’re not, you still often pay attention to your body in ways that are easy to miss on an ordinary day.

It has been a while since I felt this way after lifting weights. I hope my next adjustment is easier, but I’m also curious to see what will happen this time  when I move up to heavier weights. Does a body eventually get so used to lifting progressively heavier stuff that it no longer feels as sore when it’s asked to do something slightly harder than it was doing last week?

Sign #3: When I Finish a Routine, I Still Have Plenty of Energy Left Over

This is by far the biggest sign that I need to move up to a heavier set of weights. It’s one thing to have a little bit of strength left after a workout, but I’m at the point now where I’m not feeling all that challenged. I could easily do some more reps with the weights or add in more pushups if I’m doing bodyweight exercises that day.

Based on my answers to these three points, it definitely seems to be time to get some new equipment.

How about you? What other signs do you look for when you’re decide if it’s time to use heavier weights?

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May 13, 2017 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: May 13, 2017

Here is this week’s list of comic strips and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

A Theory on Teams. I couldn’t agree with this more.

Urban Biology Bingo. This is the perfect time of year to go wander around and see how many of these boxes you can tick off if you live in a part of the world where these plants and animals also live.

The Streets of Pakistan via ‪tayonthemove.This blog post includes many beautiful pictures of life in Pakistan. I think you’ll all really love them.

Have You Ever Fallen on Your Butt in Exercise Class? via ‪JenAmmoscato‬. If you’re ever felt like the least coordinated person in the room, this is the post for you.

More Unsolicited Advice to a Stranger via ‪seaangel4444‬. This post is the second in a series. If you like it, there’s a link to the first post in the body of the second post.

The “Lost Girls”: Ghosts of a President & His Wife Who Affected Presidential Policy. Fair warning: this post talks about the deaths of two children. I had never heard of this side of President McKinley’s life. It was somber but also intriguing.

From Yes, This Is a Particularly Horrendous Year for Seasonal Allergies:

This allergy season is dreadful, isn’t it? I have sneezed myself silly in the last couple of weeks and, anecdotally at least, here in New York half the people I know are clawing out their eyes and drowning themselves with neti pots. But isit worse than usual this year, or am I just a big baby?

From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Grads: Make Feminism an Inclusive Party –

Now girls are often raised to see love only as giving. Women are praised for their love when that love is an act of giving. But to love is to give AND to take. Please love by giving, and by taking. Give and be given. If you are only giving and not taking, you’ll know. You’ll know from that small and true voice inside you that we females are so often socialized to silence. Don’t silence that voice. Dare to take.

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May 11, 2017 · 1:00 am

The Handmaid’s Tale: Gender Treachery

This post includes spoilers for “Gender Treachery” (Season 1, Episode 3) of The Handmaid’s Tale. The link on the left will have full summaries of all of the episodes. I will continue to mostly use this series to talk about my reaction to what has been happening to the characters, although I have summered some of the plot today. All of the links in this post may contain spoilers as well. 

Offred’s main storyline this week revolved around whether or not she was pregnant. The Martha (cook) of her household was in charge of giving Offred her monthly supply of sanitary napkins, and when she didn’t ask for them at the usual time the entire household began to suspect that she might be pregnant.

Suddenly, Offred was being offered better quality food and having small whims obeyed. She was allowed to visit Ofwarren and the baby she had in the second episode, for example. Offred was even allowed to hold the baby, which isn’t something Handmaids are generally encouraged to do. It was surreal to see Serena Joy, the wife of the Commander, suddenly treating Offred with kindness and joy after spending the first two episodes bitterly resenting her presence in their home.

What made this part of the storyline even stranger was how quickly Serena Joy turned on Offred when Offred discovered that she wasn’t pregnant after all. I have had a handful of experiences in the past with people who assumed I was pregnant when I was not. It’s weird and inappropriate enough in our world when someone who isn’t your life partner or family doctor is that obsessed with what you will or won’t be doing with your reproductive organs. In Offred’s world, this sort of thing is downright dangerous due to how little power she has over what happens to her as long as Serena Joy doesn’t do anything that will damage her fertility. I can’t wait to see where this part of the storyline goes next. So far it is looking very promising, if also unbelievably creepy.

The most interesting part of this week’s episode by far, though, was what happened to Ofglen, the handmaid who was secretly part of the Resistance that Offred befriended in the first and second episode. At the end of episode two, Offred was shocked to meet a stranger at the end of her driveway for their daily walk to buy groceries. There was suddenly a new woman who was called Ofglen, and Offred had no idea what happened to the previous one she had been getting to know so well.

Offred was briefly tortured by Aunt Lydia and an Eye who were convinced she knew more about the old Ofglen’s criminal activities than she was letting on. As soon as they found out that Offred was presumed to be pregnant, though, the electric rod was put away and Offred was released.

I shudder to think what would have happened to her if this wasn’t the case. Handmaids are only valued for their reproductive abilities, as we’ve already been told and are also about to find out in even more excruciating detail.

So what happened to Ofglen, you’re probably wondering?

How was she caught? We’re not entirely sure yet. I am crossing my fingers that this will be mentioned in a later episode. We already know that Ofglen trusted Offred fairly quickly. Did she trust someone else too quickly as well, or was she caught another way? At this point, that is my best guess.

What was she charged with? She was charged with being a Gender Traitor. That is, the authorities somehow discovered that she was having a romantic and sexual relationship with the Martha who lived at her house. They were both taken into custody and disappeared permanently as far as the people who knew them are currently concerned.

What happened to them? Both characters were given a “trial” that consisted of nothing more than the authorities swearing on the Bible that what they claimed to have discovered was true. The “judge” for that case sentenced the Martha to death for her crime, and the punishment was carried out immediately after the trial ended. As an infertile woman, she was no longer of any use to The Republic of Gilead.

Ofglen’s fate was trickier. Even being a Gender Traitor doesn’t erase her value as one of the few fertile woman left in their society. The question is, how do you preserve that fertility while also preventing her from her acting on her forbidden sexual impulses in the future?

The final scene chilled me to my bones. The next time we saw Ofglen, she was waking up alone in a cold, white hospital room. I was relieved to see that she was still alive and still had use of her eyes, ears, and all four limbs.

As soon as she attempted to get out of bed, though, both she and the audience realized that something was terribly wrong. She could barely walk. Every single step was agonizing. I have three words for you: female genital mutilation. You see, you don’t need a clitoris to get pregnant.

There aren’t enough words in the English language to describe how horrified I am by this idea. What makes it even scarier is that there are millions of women around the world who have had this done to them. This is by no means something that was invented for the purposes of this storyline. It wasn’t part of the original story, but it makes perfect sense given all of the other awful things that happened to women in the book. I will be crossing my legs and wincing every time this is mentioned again in this series, but I do think it was a good addition to many other  horrors of living in Gilead.

On a final note for today’s post, I’ve been thinking about the lowest possible age range I’d recommend this show to since I first started watching it. Based on the dark and disturbing things that have happened so far, I can’t currently recommend it to anyone under the age of 14. As important as its messages about feminism, fundamentalism, propaganda, and fascism are, this is not something that’s appropriate for younger audiences due to how violent it is.

Previous posts in this series:

5 Things I Want from The Handmaid’s Tale

Introducing Offred’s World

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May 8, 2017 · 1:00 am

The Strangest Songs to Get Stuck In Your Head During a Workout

I don’t actually listen to music when I workout, so it’s odd to see how often strange songs get stuck in my head while I’m walking or lifting weights.

Some of the songs I’m about to share with you today have powerful memories behind them that help to explain why my brain likes to dredge them up from the past when I’m least expecting it. If they are connected to such a thing for me, I will tell you all about it.

Other songs aren’t so fortunate. I honestly don’t know why I remember some of them. Maybe one of you will have a theory for me!

All I know is that my brain is pretty good at doing this. From what I’ve read, the same can be said for many people. Today I’d love to know what random songs pop into your mind when you’re working out. After you finished reading this post, come over to Twitter and tell me all about it. Let’s commiserate on the weirdest songs we’ve ever started to think about while exercising.

“Jubilate Deo” is a song that my choir director had us practice regularly for the one year I reluctantly sung in my high school choir in order to fulfill the arts and music credit I needed to graduate.

There were a few songs he taught us during that year that I found myself enjoying at the time. This was not one of them, so I have no idea why I still remember the lyrics and melody so well.

Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch” has a funny story behind it.

My mother didn’t say a lot about the music my siblings and I listened to when we were teenagers. We were given a lot of freedom to decide which artists, bands, and genres of music we liked, especially once I was in my later teens and my parents relaxed their rules about these things even more than they had a few years before then.

With that being said, mom did have a vendetta against this particular song. I remember her giving us a friendly speech about sex being something more than rutting like animals. She was miffed by the idea that anyone would put that kind of a message into such a catchy tune.

I don’t know how she’ll react to this, but still think of her every time I hear this song. Although it is weird to have that memory suddenly pop up when I’m lifting weights or following a dance video on Youtube. A small part of me still expects her to start reading the lyrics once again and explaining why she doesn’t approve of them. Ha!

Justin Bieber’s “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”

There are three things I find strange about this:

  1. No offence to anyone who loves it, but I am not a fan of Justin’s musical style in general.
  2. Justin sang a Christian worship song in a secular concert to fans who had no idea what was happening.
  3. The beat of this song is far too slow for a workout.

I could understand getting this song stuck in my head when I’m mediating, relaxing, or trying to go to sleep. The fact that it generally only happens during workouts is quite the mystery.

Beyonce’s “Resentment.”

I am a fan of Beyonce’s music in general, but once again this isn’t a song that works well for something vigorous like a workout. It’s slow, heartbreaking, and has nothing at all to do with raising your heart rate or becoming more energetic.

If only my brain would decide to fixate on something fun like “Single Ladies” instead. At least that song has an uptempo beat you can dance to!

Fifth Harmony ft. Kid Ink’s  “Worth It.”

I have never liked this song. The few times I’ve heard it have been in circumstances where I couldn’t get away from it.

So why does my brain insist on bringing it up when I hit my stride on a long, brisk walk? There are dozens of other songs with similar beats that I’d be much happier to discover have become stuck in my head.

I sincerely don’t understand how the human mind works sometimes. If it were up to me, nobody would ever get a song stuck in their mind that they disliked, and they’d never think about slow songs when they were exercising or fast songs when they were trying to go to sleep.

If any of these songs are now stuck in your head, my apologies. I hope they wiggle their way free soon.

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May 6, 2017 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: May 6, 2017

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, essays, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

Disengaging from Readers: Dealing with Trolls, Cyber-Bullies and Other Web Cranks via EricaVerrillo. I couldn’t agree with this more.

Wait, What Did They Just Sing via ‪bjknappwrites‬. I misunderstand lyrics regularly, but they’re almost never as funny as these rewordings.

A Visitor in Outer Space. This made me giggle.

What Bullets Do to Bodies. Fair warning: this includes descriptions of some serious wounds. If you’re not squeamish, though, it’s fascinating.

The Midwife Who Saved Intersex Babies. I had no idea that intersex babies are still killed after birth in some parts of the world. This was such an interesting piece.

You Should Be Watching The Handmaid’s Tale via lavinia_collins‬. There are spoilers in this post. It’s a great analysis, though.

From The Fire Last Time:

The new unit was created to combat street crime, but it soon became infamous in Detroit’s black community as something closer to an execution squad. Though the initiative’s official designation was predictably anodyne and bureaucratic—“Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets”—the unit quickly became known by its more descriptive acronym, STRESS. It would prove to be one of the most excessive and lawless policing experiments in modern history.

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May 4, 2017 · 1:00 am

The Handmaid’s Tale: Introducing Offred’s World

This post includes spoilers for “Offred” (Season 1, Episode 1) and “Birth Day” (Season 1, Episode 2 )of The Handmaid’s Tale.

As I mentioned last month, I’ll be blogging my thoughts about this show. New episodes air on iTunes five days after they do on Hulu, so this series will be published about a week after each episode is released unless or until iTunes changes this schedule.

The first link above provides excellent plot summaries, so I’m going to use this post to focus on my analysis and reaction to what has happened to Offred so far.

“Offred” 

The opening scene of the first episode made me blink back tears. June – the woman we now know as Offred who is wearing the white bonnet in the image above-  attempted to escape what was formerly known as the United States with her husband and their young daughter. There was so much emotion packed into that scene: terror; love; hope; fear. I was so pleased with how it was put together. It was the best possible introduction to the characters and the totalitarian regime that had suddenly taken over that country.

What I found most interesting about this episode was how smooth the transitions were between Offred’s attempt to flee the country, the time she spent being brainwashed in the Red Center, and her repetitive but still frightening days as a handmaiden who has just moved onto her second placement.

Every setting was terrifying for a different reason. Watching her scream as her daughter was ripped out of her arms was heartbreaking. I couldn’t help but to wonder if the TV show would mirror what happened in the book when it came to the daughter’s fate. This is one of the biggest questions I carried with me through the first two episodes. I really hope it is at least somewhat answered in this season, although I won’t say anything else about it until I know where this storyline leads.

What stuck out to me the most about the Red Center was how effective The Aunts were at forcing the handmaidens to obey. Let me put it to you this way:  there are plenty of ways to hurt someone that will in no way affect their chances of getting pregnant in the future. As Offred and the other handmaidens are only prized for their reproductive capabilities, everything else doesn’t matter so much. I am very glad that these scenes weren’t shown to the audience outright. Seeing the characters react to the aftermath of them was more than enough.

The Ceremony was brutal as well. The book described it in much fuzzier terms, but what happened to the handmaidens each week was rape. This had been something that bothered me about the original plot, so I was glad to see it clarified for the small screen.

“Birth Day”

While both of these episodes do have independent story arcs, I strongly recommend watching them as closely together as possible because of how well they introduce the audience to the most important parts of this world. Gilead has a beautiful and mostly peaceful facade, but the things that happen behind closed doors in it are sickening.

For example: what do you do with all of the repressed anger that handmaidens carry with them? All of them were and are being abused. They are not allowed to defend themselves or protect themselves from future harm.

The Salvaging itself was shot nicely, but I would have loved to see more character and plot development happening before Offred and the other handmaids were told that the bound man before them had raped a pregnant handmaid and caused her to miscarry her child. The audience knew why they were viciously beating him, but they knew nothing else about what was going on there.

This scene happened much later in the book. It’s the only thing I’d change about the beginning of this show because new fans won’t know why it’s so significant to the plot. I can’t say anything else without possibly giving away spoilers if the show decides to follow the same plot as the original story.

With that being said, “Birth Day” also contained my favourite scene in this series. As I mentioned earlier, June/Offred gave birth to a daughter several years before the Republic of Gilead was formed. At the time, newborns were being diagnosed with serious birth defects at an alarming rate…if they were born alive at all. Out of all of the women giving birth in the hospital ward that day, June was the only person whose baby was perfectly healthy.

The nurse’s response to the birth was a strange one. Was the fact that she said “Praise Be!” a hint that she was a supporter of the religious movement that eventually brought about this dystopia? I doubt June noticed that phrase at the time, but once she was indoctrinated into using it that memory must have haunted her.

I am hoping to see more hints like this in future episodes. It was tantalizing to say the least.

How about you? What did you think of the first two episodes of this series? Are you excited that it’s already been renewed for season 2? Come let me know on Twitter.

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May 1, 2017 · 1:00 am

Confessions of a Meditation Dropout

I have a confession to make: I haven’t meditated in weeks.

It took me a while to figure out why I’d stopped. The slowdown in my routine was so gradual that I didn’t realize it was happening at first, but there have been some changes in my life recently that have lead to me feeling less of a need to meditate regularly.

Change #1: No Caffeine

I never drink coffee or caffeinated tea, but for a while there I wasn’t eating or drinking anything caffeinated at all. Even small amount of caffeine have been known to make me feel anxious, so I’ll often go several weeks or even longer without having any chocolate at all.

When my mind is calm, I don’t think about meditation as often as I do when I need to consciously clear out my thoughts.

Now that I’ve started to occasionally eat chocolate again as a delicious result of post-holiday sales and my local grocery store suddenly carrying a whole bunch of new chocolate bars that I’ve only begun to start tasting, I’m expecting to mediate again more regularly in the near future.

Change #2: Nice Weather

Spring has arrived in Toronto, so there have been some beautiful days here over the last few weeks. Meditation is a tool I’m more likely to use during times of the year when it’s too hot or cold to spend much time outdoors at all. When the weather is warm and dry, I tend to take a long walk outside instead of sitting at home.

Nothing clears my mind more quickly than being outdoors. There are many quiet, shady streets in Toronto to explore, and I love walking up and down them with no particular destination in mind. Not only do you meet the most interesting people and places  this way, it’ll show you a side of the city that is rarely seen elsewhere. Some of the buildings here have been around since the city was in its infancy, and they have stories to share about that time period in history if you know how to listen and who to speak to about them.

The peacefulness of these walks is wonderful as well. When you don’t have to think about crossing busy streets or dodging folks who stand on the street corner and try to talk you into something, it’s easy to let your legs carry you down the street and soak in all of the beauty around you.

This leads me to a question that has been rolling around in my mind for a long time. Can walking be thought of as a non-traditional form of mediation? I’ve read articles that agree that it can, and others that don’t think this habit is disciplined enough to count as a meditation session. What I can say is that both meditation and walking give me similar benefits.

  • They clear my mind.
  • If my mind can’t be cleared, they help me to accept the thoughts that stubbornly stick around.
  • They help me to live in the present instead of the past or the future.

I’ll leave it up to the experts to decide if long walks can be a form of mediation. For now, I’ll accept the peace that I find in these activities and leave it at that.

Change #3: Boredom

There’s a fine line between falling into a comfortable routine and beginning to feel bored when you do the same things over and over again.

As much as I enjoy the benefits of meditation, sometimes I honestly do need a break from it. Doing it daily would be like doing the same exercise routine every single day. Some people may be perfectly capable of doing that without ever growing bored or wanting a chance to rest, but I need to switch up my routines sometimes.

Taking a break from something – even if it’s something I deeply love that I know is good for me – makes me feel more committed to going back to it after I’ve had a chance to try other forms of relaxation.

Try, Try Again

Now that I’ve had the chance to mull over it, I don’t think of my breaks from meditation as a failure. I’ve had an on-and-off again relationship with this practice for years, and I’ve more or less come to accept the fact that I will occasionally stop doing it for a while.

My meditation breaks are gradually growing shorter and less frequent, though, and that makes me happy. I’d like to imagine that this means my meditation practices are changing my brain for the better.

Think of it like training yourself to eat a healthy diet or exercise regularly. There will be times when you fall off the wagon, so to speak, for any number of reasons. You might become sick or injured and be physically unable to exercise for days, weeks, or months.  Other things going on in your life might demand so much attention that you don’t have the energy to juggle it all for a while. You might be travelling and have trouble finding healthy food while you’re out of your element.

All of that is perfectly normal. Such a routine might not work for everyone, but it does work for some of us. Rather than focusing on what happened yesterday, think about what you’re going to do today.  The nice thing about meditation is that no one is keeping track of how often you do it, and there’s no reward or punishment for doing it a specific number of times a week.

There is always another chance to try again. This is why I’ve returned to this practice so many times after taking a break.

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April 29, 2017 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: April 29, 2017

Here is this week’s list of essays and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

My Birth Father’s Double Life via WomenWriters. What a story!

Politeness Isn’t Enough; We Now Demand Friendliness. And It’s Destroying Authenticity. I couldn’t agree with this more. I don’t see how this will change, but I sure hope it will.

Not a Human Metronome via MichaelTMiyoshi.

Why Millennials Are Avoiding Small-Town America. It will be interesting to see if this trend shifts as my generation grows older. I honestly don’t see it happening for most millennials, but maybe I’m wrong about that!

His Heart, Her Hands. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease. I was really surprised that this guy hadn’t written down all of his songs before he was given this diagnosis, but I liked the hopeful tone of this article.

The Medieval Sound of Silence via AprilMunday. None of the history books I’ve read have discussed this. I wonder what other differences we’d immediately notice between medieval times and our own that most people don’t think about?

So How Does a Centaur Eat, Anyway? Half of the reason why I’m sharing this with you is that I love finding other people who spend so much time figuring out how their favourite science fiction and fantasy stuff could work with our current understanding of the various branches of science. The other half of the reason why I’m sharing it is that  I couldn’t stop reading it. It was written so well.

From Bun. If the comic strip below is too small to read, click on the link on the left.

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