Summer is officially here. Time to rest, reset, and hopefully find a whole lot of joy in the doing.

If you have been in my world for any length of time, you know I disappear to Berlin for three to five weeks every summer. My husband is German, his whole family is still there, and his mom just turned 90 this year. So I am packing my bags shortly to go be with them. (We are sneaking off to Prague for a weekend too.)

Before I go, I want to share some of what occupied my time this month.

Watching... 

"Earth, Wind & Fire (to Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World),” by Ahmir (Questlove) Thompson on HBO

Earth, Wind & Fire was the soundtrack of my youth. Their music is still on my playlist for my morning walk. Recently my daughter treated me to a concert they gave here in Berkeley. It was not the OGs, but the whole room was feeling that 1970s funk again.

The documentary centers on Maurice White, the founder, and it is part his story, part the band's. What got me was how spiritual he was (hence the name), and how the music grew right out of that. I have sung those lyrics my whole life and never once stopped to notice how much positivity and joy was built into them. Turns out that was on purpose. He was deeply into affirmations and manifestation, and you can hear it in the sound. It left me wanting to be more consistent with my own journaling and affirmations.

Here's the link to the documentary. 

Article...

People Magazine

I have been a People magazine subscriber for close to 30 years. The fashion, the recipes, the Hollywood stories, the true crime, the brain teasers, the feel-good stuff. It has been my bedtime ritual for as long as I can remember.

A couple of months ago, one story stopped me cold. Cara Ryan, a 36-year-old teacher, was diagnosed with a 2.15-inch tumor in her cervix and needed a radical hysterectomy, all because she kept putting off a checkup out of embarrassment. She had symptoms. She knew something was wrong. But she went down the rabbit hole of self-diagnosing instead of booking the pap smear that eventually caught the cancer and saved her life. By then it had already spread.

It is the embarrassment part that stays with me. Something I always say is that we do not need more courage, we need to get over our fear of embarrassment. I even wrote a blog about it a few years back. Fear of embarrassment is what kept me from learning to ride a bike as an adult. Sure, I was scared of falling. But I was more worried about what the neighborhood kids would think of a grown-axx woman wobbling around on two wheels.

That fear kept me from something most people learn before they are old enough to even feel embarrassed. And that same fear is keeping you from something too. For Cara, it was a pap smear. For me, a bike. What is it for you?

You can read the article here.

Recommending... 

Truths and Contradictions: Life-Changing Experiences in Afghanistan by Pamela Thompson (Audible)

Pamela Thompson is a colleague of mine and she asked if I would share this with you. Pamela is a Canadian consultant who live and worked in Afghanistan. She tells the story through the eyes of a character named Minerva, drawing on her own years there and on real interviews with Afghan men and women about what it was like to live through the Russian invasion and both Taliban takeovers.

It is a book about the courage and resilience of Afghan women and men. For those of us in North America who have only ever known true freedom, freedom of choice, and freedom of thought, it is a gut-check. What we take for granted is not a given in most of the world.

And with the United States marking 250 years of independence next week, it is a timely reminder not to hold those freedoms lightly. Our country is far from perfect, but we have basic freedoms a lot of people never get to know.

Here's the link to purchase the book.

Request... 

I have a favor to ask. I am about to be on a very long flight from the West Coast to Berlin, with four Audible credits burning a hole in my account and no plan for them. Whatcha got that is fun and light? It is summer, and I want something that will not make my brain hurt. If you are loving something you have read lately, hit reply and tell me, so I can download it before my flight.

And one thing to sit with before you go. Using the seasons to schedule intentional time to rest, recharge, and get grounded is a real high-performance habit. Most of us only get intentional about it around summer and the new year. So here is my challenge to you: put your seasonal resets on the calendar on purpose and give yourself the energy each new quarter is going to ask of you.

Wishing you a joyous season of Summer!

All the best,