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Beth Kephart's avatar

oh my god

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Inez Garzaniti's avatar

Dude. I feel the same way - life is so brief and wonderous and when Im struggling with depression (side note - the word depression is far to vague and monolithic and clinical a name for the dark riptide) it just feels like such a waste of that precious time. Grief is different. Sadness is different. Lows and fallow periods can be enriching in the way decomposition is necessary for the life cycle of any living thing.

Also I've been SUPER into Dante lately so the name of your crow mind is *chef kiss*. You're probably already aware of it but Mark Scarborough has an AMAZING podcast that walks line by line through Commmedia. I highly recommend it.

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Lex Orgera's avatar

Agree! I talk about this in the herb book I'm writing. There are natural lows--the griefs, sadnesses, melancholies (my go-to), and then there's depression, which can be stoked by these things or seasonal or just rise up like that riptide. Yuck. I don't know about this podcast! I'm not a huge podcast listener, actually. I am going to look it up. Sounds amazing!

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Michelle's avatar

❤️

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L.W. Lillvik's avatar

I never knew the Italian pronunciation of Beatrice! Life-changing!

I've been working on a negative thinking elimination exercise myself!

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Lex Orgera's avatar

Ha! I forget not everyone’s Italian. Lol. What’s your exercise?

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L.W. Lillvik's avatar

Well I grew up on the Jersey Shore so I'm Italian by proxy but only my friend's grandmothers actually spoke it and they were scary wraiths that floated around the kitchens when we were little.

This is the thought thing I'm doing: https://mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/the-30-day-mental-challenge

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Lex Orgera's avatar

Oh man, this is great. I'm gonna do it too. It sort of gives a structure to the idea of controlling only where we put our attention. Thanks for sharing!

Scary wraiths floating around kitchens is a great description of the nonnas.

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L.W. Lillvik's avatar

It's been super helpful, sideling the negs has become nearly automatic already!

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Lex Orgera's avatar

I wrote it down on the index card and everything. Also just read your last post about a visit home. Pizza, flounder alla francese, Italian subs and cannolis. Things we do not properly have in the south.

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L.W. Lillvik's avatar

Yup, I did the index card too! After 30 years in Portland, OR some decent facsimiles have arrived in re: pizza and subs, but still always missing some intangible magic. No flounder anywhere.

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Jeannine's avatar

Lex, all this ! But the part from the reel you 'stole' that stopped me right there, in the moment of hearing it: ''In my back pocket is a love note with every word you wished you'd said.''

OMG! How many times have I thought about this- when I lost my mom, my dad, two of my dear friends, and even my mother-in-law; about telling them all the loving things that I never said to them and every word I'd wished that I had said ! I had to replay this reel several times. All I can say is that I needed to her them say that, many times. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and a piece of Andrea Gibson that I had never heard before.

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Lex Orgera's avatar

Love that line too. There's so much healing to be found in that stolen reel ;)

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