Friday & Favourites Vol. 57

Hello Friends,

I (Emily) have been in the mood for nothing lately. Everything is shrinking and drying up along with my motivation. I so badly want my mood to change to joyfulness—like a fresh pyramid of oranges at the supermarket, ambrosia apples, and lemons. All of those scents and colors link to memories—my grandmother peeling oranges after supper, me taking my eldest daughter when she was still a toddler to the apple orchard. Lemons conjure a stranger memory—remember that Frank’s Red Hot sauce commercial from a few years back? An old lady made lemon squares, and she said, “I put that sh*t on everything.”

If you’re a procrastinator, you know that procrastination can strike no matter the mood. Angry? Procrastinate so that you can spend time sending your sister voice memos ranting about everyone who wronged you. Sad? Procrastinate so you can lie on the floor and listen to Enya while weeping. The habit of procrastination can be broken, but it’s important to understand why it happens if you want to overcome it.

In my (Julia’s) experience, procrastination often happens because I set my expectations too high. In a moment where life is already overwhelming, I might think, “Oh, I wanted to write a poem today.” Even though it’s on my to-do list, I won’t get to it, because the goal of “writing a poem” feels like too much pressure. What would be better is to make the task less daunting. “Write for five minutes,” or “make a word bank.” Choosing to do one of those might be the thing that jumpstarts a productive writing session. Or it might not. I might write five minutes of the worst garbage ever seen. That doesn’t matter. What matters is breaking the habit of putting writing off just because I’m afraid it won’t be good enough.

Some of our moody favourites:

1. Book: Werner’s Nomenclature of Color

2. Poem: Dreamwalking Ballad by Federico García Lorca

3. My kids and I had fun watching Gentleman Broncos

4. Recipe: Masa harina cornbread

5. Music: The Phosphorescent Blues by The Punch Brothers

May you all have a blessed weekend!

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For our paid subscribers, this month’s zine, Mood Ring, is available for download here.