Blog Introductions – The Green Study

The Green Study Summer Song: Last Intros of August

The loud song of cicadas is drilling into my head and summer has decided that it’s not going down without a fight. Hot temps are on tap for the week ahead. We went up north over the weekend, in need of a getaway from all the heavy discussions about elder care. We found a little-known event called the Northbound Caravan arts and music festival. One of the four bands performing was “i like you” and is a local favorite of ours.

The weather was perfect and the company lovely. It was nice to be reminded of one of the best things in my life – my family. We laughed, lounged and talked. Things are about to change for the three of us. Comfortable routines upended, a new normal established, the shuffling of work and school schedules, contractors and nursing homes and the desperate scrabbling of a fledgling writer, oh my.

Endings and beginnings. I feel fall telling summer that it can take its cheeriness and just shove it. Delicious melancholy is seeping in and heat or no, I hear the wind in the trees that whispers soon, soon.

It was a pleasure to introduce and meet so many bloggers this month. I’ve tried to keep my interaction to a minimum, but I wanted to say thank you to those who left comments. It’s my usual practice to respond, but self-preservation demanded that I step back and take a breather. I have two remaining blogs to introduce and I’ve recapped the previous introductions.

I will return to regular blogging as soon as I can write about something other than how damned hot it is.

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Meet Chana at Little Duckies: Parenting, Polyticks, and the Everyday Busyness of an American-born Mom in Israel

I’m a mother of two and live in Israel. I blog about my thoughts on living here in Israel, which, unfortunately, has meant that I post a lot on news lately and less on parenting. I am waiting for the day when the news gets boring, and trying to think of ways to work in the parenting, until the situation calms down (and if it isn’t clear, I am very anti-violence. As if it helps).

Mom-life Identity Crisis : My dilemma, which many parents go through at some point. Stay home, or keep my terrific job? Daycare, or no way? Can I make working from home, actually work?

Schlomo’s Reaction to the Sirens: Rocket attacks from a kid’s perspective.

A Tongue-Tie Survival Story: How we made it through awful tongue tie . . . even though, apparently, we’re still not done (I post on mastitis in the works).

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Meet Tippy Rex at When You Stop Digging: Stories of sex and love addiction, and how to tell when you’ve reached bottom

I write a blog about addiction to male attention. It’s about sex and travel and breakups and the need for connectedness. As my ex would say, “everything is a love story.”

A recent dispatch from Rome (I’m out seeking geographic solutions to my problems): Minimal Baggage: Rome

Two favorites:
Like Lord of the Flies, But With More Alcohol

Ten Completely Awesome Things about Being Single

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August Blog Introductions

Ellen Hawley at Notes from the U.K.

Pheonix at Struggling to Thrive: A parent’s journey raising a Failure to Thrive child.

Alison and Don at Adventures in Wonderland ~ a pilgrimage of the heart

Catherine Cheng, M.D. at Healing Through Connection: The Inner Work of Physician-Patient Relationship

Honie at HonieBriggs

Donna at A Year of Living Kindly

Sandy Sue at A Mind Divided: Artful, Conscious Living with Bipolar Disorder

The Pragmatic Hindu: A Practical Journey Through the Bhagavad Gita

Susan at Often on the Bottles…: Colourful news and clues from Susan

Greg at Almost Iowa: Where irrationality trumps reason

Alice at Coffee and a Blank Page

Evan at The Urban Vertical Project

Kirizar at The Dust Season

Carrie at Philosofishal

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See you in September!

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015

Michelle at The Green Study10 Comments

The Green Study on Break: The Blog Days of Summer

It’s a fortunate thing I’ve taken a break from writing full blog posts, which would likely be an unending string of complaints followed by an occasional whine and a dollop of self-pity. Transition to nursing home. Transition to middle school. Transition to my own personal hell of over-scheduled, chaotic days and lots of interaction with people I don’t particularly care for – I’m apparently legally related to a lot of them.

Stress brings out the best and worst in me. For sheer making-things-happen moxie, I’m the person you want. Details, information, follow up on meds, money and hygiene? I’m the bullet. I reserve gentleness, what I have of it, for those I care for and love. But I am also impatient, have little regard for sentimentality and am likely an eye roll away from punching someone out. As I’ve said repeatedly to no one in particular “shit does NOT always take care of itself”. For those who think that the universe will work everything out on its own, you’ve never dealt with the mind-boggling bureaucracy for aging humans.

And here’s a tip: If a waft of urine rolls over you when you open the front door of a nursing home (euphemistically now called a Care Center), this might not be the place for your loved one. Also, if the employees’ name tags are handwritten on pieces of paper taped to their uniforms, this might indicate also NOT A PLACE FOR YOUR LOVED ONE. I saw both during tours yesterday.

So, onward and upward, my friends. I continue my month of blog introductions with 4 more blogs – a blogging buffet, with a little something for everyone.

Meet Alice at Coffee and a Blank Page:

Coffee and a Blank Page: I am a feminist memoirist and academic who writes about sex, bodies, minds, and violence. In that process, I also think I write about hope.

Most of my posts fall into one of three categories, so I’m linking to a sample of each:

ATTN: Men, This Is Not How Doors Work [feminist and ranty]

Portrait of the Statue as a Young Girl [memory project]

This Is Not a Poem [though yes, it actually is a poem]

Meet Evan at The Urban Vertical Project:

I run a blog about urban vertical farming. Through vertical farming, I truly believe we have a way to save the world. Agriculture contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the highest water polluters in the world. But, there are tons of awesome ideas bouncing around about how to save the planet through farming. I try and share those with people and give them some inside information about how they can get started themselves.

Check out:

The first vertical farm showdown: Why you need to know what’s happening in Singapore

Fresh Water Greens: A Hydroponic Success Story

and, for a summary of the potential for vertical farming in general: How to convince your friends vertical farming is the next big thing

Meet Kirizar at The Dust Season:

My blog is a platform for all the voices in my head. I’m tired of listening to them and they need a new audience, so it’s a win-win, really.

You can listen to the inner nattering of my SciFi Geek Girl finding humor in embarrassing situations in: Captain’s Log: To Boldly Go…

Or, you can enjoy my whimsical (read: borderline bad taste) humor in Friday Fictioneers: Jolly Green Giant Dead at 55

Lastly, you may admire my honesty or scorn my openness in: On How To Shave Your Legs When You are Middle Aged.

Giving you a window into my soul will give you a greater appreciation for people who keep their drapes closed.

Meet Carrie at Philosofishal:

My blog spans reviews and reflections on the arts; teachings and resources on writing; samples of my creative work; my thoughts on dogs, birds, and sea otters (all things that eat fish, oddly enough); and tributes to free speech, reason, and blogs I enjoy.

Three posts provide a good starting point:

Play-Write: A Reply to “On Treating Writing as a Form of Play” – A core theme of my artistic philosophy includes links to several posts on the topic.

Wild Verses: Bits of Nature Poetry, 6 of 10 – A poetic sample links to the first 5 showcased excerpts of my nature poetry. I’m currently featuring a similar series of famous poets’ work.

Scotland’s Burns and Outlander Rival Shakespeare’s Bawdy – A fun, racy resource, and a related post, decodes and glosses a slice of the TV show Outlander.

I ran out of Wednesdays for all the blogs offering up intros, but I’ll post again on Monday, August 31st to introduce the rest and wrap up the month.

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

August 26, 2015August 30, 2015

Michelle at The Green Study9 Comments

The Green Study Spa: Take a Moment and Put Your Feet Up

canstockphoto4134306 — Japanese Beetles have mastered self-care in my garden. Bastards.

August has been a bust for taking a break. The heat, the bugs, the looming non-magical birthday (no trip to Hogwarts or surprise inheritance) and I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of care-taking, as my family goes through a big transition with my mother-in-law.

One of the hardest lessons for me to learn is taking care of myself in the face of others’ needs. Care-taking sounds all very dedicated and honorable, but I am the Empress of Overkill. It always ends in tears and/or rage as I burn myself out and fill up with resentment.

Self-care boils down to taking time, if only a moment, to see to one’s individual needs. I’ve learned in the last few years that there are some daily basic things I need, to feel okay: sleep, writing, exercise and a period of solitude. What do you need, to be okay?

I continue my month of blog introductions, with this week’s post on 4 blogs: an artist who is a student of self-care, a healer who talks about Aura-Soma (something I never knew about), a spiritual pragmatist, and a humorist, because I never underestimate the curative power of laughter.

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Meet Sandy Sue at A Mind Divided: Artful, Conscious Living with Bipolar Disorder

Managing my mental illness is my spiritual practice. I try to be honest about the weird convolutions it takes while finding a few answers and even more questions. I stick my artwork on most posts, and there’s also some fan-fiction for those so inclined. My life is an Adventure, and I share it all.

Here are some samples:

Radar Day

Failure Seeds Tidal Waves

A Case Against Kindness

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Meet the Pragmatic Hindu: A Practical Journey Through the Bhagavad Gita

My blog is about learning to reconcile the modern world and all its challenges with the age old traditions and expectations that come with being a woman. I look to the Bhagavad Gita and its wisdom and reflect on how that ancient wisdom can be applied to everyday life for women of all faiths and all cultures.

Does Duty Ever End?

Keeping Up Appearances

Zero Expectations

Five Wishes

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Meet Susan at Often on the Bottles…: Colourful news and clues from Susan

I’m a chronologically mature Australian woman with a love of colour and words. I am combining these passions with no particular end game in mind, although to teach about the Aura-Soma colour care system that I work with would be a bonus.

Most Recent Post:

blue watermelon Something in the way blue moves

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Meet Greg at Almost Iowa: Where irrationality trumps reason

Most often, the comment section of a blog is a place for readers to interact with the writer and while that is a great idea, it is a greater idea to ask your readers to “talk among yourselves” while you take a break. So with that in mind, I will leave a few links for “yourselves” to talk about.

My Lawn Tractor

The Clutter Cycle

The Mosquito Refuge

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Thank you to the participating bloggers for taking the time to share a little with the readers here.

Tune in next week for more blogs you can put on your coffee table!

August 19, 2015August 30, 2015

Michelle at The Green Study7 Comments

The Green Study Catnap: Talk Amongst Yourselves

The August hiatus has been short-lived. My mother-in-law had a medical emergency which dictated that sleep is fleeting for all of us, often a nod-off in any available hospital chair. Watching someone you love getting poked and prodded, dignity stripped away, these are moments that belong to a forgetful summer haze. If we remember them, we would not want to love again. It’s a prick to the psyche. Or a psychic prick, which sounds funnier but like a different website altogether. Holy batshit, I need sleep.

So, as I continue to gather my wits and drool on myself, while snoring at inopportune moments, let’s continue with my month of blog introductions. Last week, we met Ellen, Pheonix, Alison and Don. This week we have a doctor of medicine and meditation, a gardener/writer/wonder woman with attitude, and a blogger who wants to make kindness cool. Sounds like the perfect prescription for any psychic pricks. She giggles hysterically to herself, slumps over and commences twitching like a dog dreaming of rabbits.

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Meet Catherine Cheng, M.D. at Healing Through Connection: The Inner Work of Physician-Patient Relationship

I only started my blog in April, and the learning curve has been steep and fun. The community has welcomed me and I look forward to contributing as a good citizen. I am an internist in Chicago, mom of two, and seeker of connection. I started my blog and aim my writing to reclaim the healing physician-patient relationship. I approach it mostly through self-reflection, and a desire to start conversations between people about why we do what we do, what we all need, and how we can serve one another best.

Below are three representative posts:

The Premise

Bring What Ya Got

Gratitude, Generosity and Peace

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Meet Honie at HonieBriggs:

HonieBriggs.com is a mashup of rants and poetry and photography with some navel gazing thrown in for good measure.

I think maybe these three are a fair representation of what readers will find on my blog:

The Long and Short of It

Remembering Longfellow

Caution: Contents May Shift During Mood Swings

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Meet Donna at A Year of Living Kindly:

After about a decade of thinking about how important kindness is in this ever-shrinking planet, I decided to publicly commit to “A Year of Living Kindly”. It’s not that I’ve been a bitch all my life and am now trying to change my ways; I’m actually a nice person, but nice isn’t enough if we want to change the world. One can be nice without expending too much energy or effort; one can be nice without risking. Kindness sometimes takes risk, courage, and a willingness to be vulnerable. It also takes a good dose of humor whenever possible. So that’s what I’ve been exploring.

Here are three representative posts:

Choosing to Be For or Against…

Kindness and Curiosity

Extending Kindness to All

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Thank you to the participating bloggers for taking the time to share a little with the readers here.

Tune in next week for artists and healers!

August 12, 2015August 30, 2015

Michelle at The Green Study8 Comments

Mingle at The Green Study Summer Social

During the month of August, while I take a break from writing scintillating and not-at-all researched blog posts, I’ll be introducing some bloggers to you. A few of them have been kicking around awhile in the blogosphere and others are brand shiny new, but I’m delighted to make introductions.

If you would like to be introduced to readers in the month of August, please read this post for guidelines. To keep my homework manageable, I’ll be introducing 3 blogs each week, so if you’ve requested an introduction and are not yet in this post, I’ve just made you stand in a virtual queue. What a jerk, right? Keep your eyes peeled in the following weeks – you’ll be there. Because you’re special and I like you. Now get back in line.

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Meet Ellen Hawley at Notes from the U.K.:

The header I liberally copied off of Ellen’s blog. I’ll give it back, I promise.

I’m an American living in Britain. I blog about the spidery corners of the culture, the stuff tourist brochures ignore, and general intercultural mayhem.

Calling a cat in two cultures: http://notesfromtheuk.com/2015/06/19/cross-cultural-cat-calling-how-americans-call-a-cat-in-britain/

On being a writer pulled by two vocabularies: http://notesfromtheuk.com/2015/07/14/does-my-vocabulary-look-british-in-this/

Low crimes and petty misdemeanors in Britain: http://notesfromtheuk.com/2015/07/17/crime-in-britain/

Ellen was polite in not mentioning the three books that she’s published, so check out her About page to find out more about those.

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Meet Pheonix at Struggling to Thrive: A parent’s journey raising a Failure to Thrive child.

Another header swiped. Pheonix is a relatively new blogger. Maybe she won’t notice.

I specifically started my blog for the purpose of sharing my experiences as a special needs mom. When my son first had his feeding tube placed around three months old I had an impossible time finding resources and support. I had no idea there were so many children without a diagnosis who have feeding tubes. I felt completely alone when I realized the feeding tube was here to stay for a while. So, that’s my best foot forward. There’s a little more in my, “About Me.”

Here’s a sampling of posts to share with you:

The Importance of Personal Best

A Special Needs Mom’s Never Ending Battle with Feelings of Inadequacy

Eating Out with a Tubie

I’m so glad that there are blogs like this one out there. So often our life experiences feel unique, isolating and at times, unbearable. Blogging is a great big “You are not alone!” and helps us find each other.

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Meet Alison and Don at Adventures in Wonderland ~ a pilgrimage of the heart:

When I, Alison, was 61, and Don, my husband, was 69, we sold our car and apartment, and sold or gave away all our furniture and other possessions. We felt we had no other authentic option as to how to live our lives. We certainly had no other financial option. It came down to ‘have a home or have a life’. Since that time four years ago we have been travelling the world as intentionally-homeless nomads. It has been the most rewarding, challenging and enlivening thing we have ever done. Our blog is the ongoing story of our journey, both inner and outer, a mixture of travel stories from around the world, and the inner changes and adjustments that this lifestyle has compelled us to make.

Three posts to share:

Together twenty-four seven

Empire of the Sun God: Machu Picchu and Pisac, Peru

Tent City: the Mela at the Pushkar Camel Fair, India

After reading their website for the last couple of years, I was extra delighted when they did a live interview at Huffpo. I’m just a little bit in love with them. Perhaps it’s because in middle age, I’m starting to wonder what is down the road for me. When I read about their adventures, it fills me with hope and longing. And I think that’s a good thing.

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Thank you to the participating bloggers for taking the time to share a little with the readers here.

There’s more to come next week! If you’d like to be introduced, please read this post.

August 5, 2015August 30, 2015

Michelle at The Green Study9 Comments

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