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Thankful Thursday

/ Tracy Abell / 9 Comments

I haven’t gone for a run in months, mostly due to the unhealthy air quality from our wildfire-filled summer and autumn. But we got snow on Sunday and Monday, and the air is better than it’s been in a loooong time, so I got Zippy to join me on a run.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

We look nothing like this couple. And our workout was nothing these two incredibly fit individuals would do, but that’s okay. We drove to another neighborhood that’s flat (ours is a constant up and down) and ran for 5 minutes then walked for 1 minute. Repeat. Our pace was slow, our muscles felt tight and heavy, but we were out on a beautiful blue-sky day. Moving. Breathing hard. Feeling (mostly) alive for a grand total of 3.45 miles. Woot!

Today I’m grateful for clean air and running once again!

Just because

/ Tracy Abell

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

I went in search of a free photo image that suited the post I was going to write, then happened upon this photo and immeditely fell in love. This little boy in the trash-bag cape and glasses beats the hell out of what I had planned.

You’re welcome.

Sunday Confessional: a toast to comfort food

/ Tracy Abell

Photo by Buenosia Carol from Pexels

I’ve been leaning on comfort food more than usual these days. And I guess it’s time to admit that my dalliances with sourdough toast and strawberry jam have become a daily thing. There might be a day here or there in which I don’t toast my bread and eat it too, but more often than not, I indulge in that crunchy, sweet comfort food.

The best part? I’m completely at peace with my newly acquired discipline.

The fighting artist

/ Tracy Abell

Photo by Heloisa Freitas from Pexels

If you are born an artist,
you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.
~ Lana Del Rey

Per my experience, this feels like a true sentiment. There’s an inner urge/drive/motivation that doesn’t seem to ever go away. No matter what.

However, some days it’s harder than others to put on those boxing gloves and assume the fighting stance.

Today I aim for GENTLE

/ Tracy Abell

Novels are such mysterious and amorphous and tender things.
~ Arundhati Roy

True that. And not only am I treating my novel gently today, but also myself. This revision doesn’t need to be perfect, and will never be so. No nasty voices allowed.

What will matter most at the end of the day is that I showed up.

I changed my mind

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Just now, I sat down at my computer and went to pexels.com in search of a Lamb’s Ear photo. My plan for this blog post was to publicly declare my new-found hostility toward that invasive plant, and to describe how I’d ripped out AT LEAST SEVENTY GAZILLION of them from my garden today.

But when I got to pexels.com, my search results from several weeks ago were still there; I’d been looking for images for the characters in my work-in-progress.

And this guy was the very first photo:

I’ve decided to drop my rant and, instead, dedicate today’s post to this delightful child.

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