Body Love

Hello there, beautiful person.

It’s been a big week — so please know I’m thinking of all of us with Covid, political unrest, vaccine news and just all the things that we can’t seem to control right now.

But…

Is it okay if we have a little talk about our bodies today? In a topsy-turvy world, sometimes it’s good to centre in on what we can take care of to make things a little better.

Let me tell you a story: I’ve always been wiggly and a mover. My childhood nickname was Squirmie, and I remember talking so much during mealtime that my plate was always mostly full when everyone else was finished because…hello, Fun! Even though I tried most things (volleyball, basketball, figure skating) I hated sports and I was terrible at anything with a ball, but I loved to walk for hours. Fast forward to adulthood, and I’ve always done the basics. I’ve been a runner, exercised, went to fitness classes, dance classes, women’s rugby, group training in the park, Zumba, and now training in our at-home garage gym—which is really just two mats, some weights and a couple of machines.

So I’ve put that exercise tick in the box, and about half of it was done grudgingly.

But this morning I slept in, and in that delicious well-slept and dreamy state I had a big realisation. I want to step outside my own body this year…and actually learn to love it.

The Year of Body Love.

Not health, not weight loss, not exercise, not doing something gruelling because it’s good for me. Nope. I’ve had a mindset shift. I want to take my own body by the hand and treat me better.

For me, what does that look like?

• I want to see moving my body as a privilege that I “get to do”.

• I want to discover what I might feel like if I were truly strong.

• I want to work on my posture.

• I want to move more every day — long and slow, outside whenever possible. I want to breathe more fresh air, sit less and definitely stretch my arms above my head so much more often than I do now.

(Check yourself: how many times a day do you stretch your arms above your head? For me, not enough.)

Body Love isn’t about another resolution to do better because we’ve been bad at taking care of ourselves. It comes from a different place.

Like this:

I’m intrigued by this, and a little excited to try.

I hope you have a relaxing, peaceful Sunday…and that this CRAZY first week of the new year held some joy.

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Hello, new people!

• I’m in the middle of reading Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and I know wny the world is loving it. Have you read it yet? It’s giving me the most amazing dreams about my own ‘sliding doors’ life and what could have been…

Happy New Everything

Well, Happy New Year to you!

Since so many of you are new here, you’re getting this little newsletter from me (Catherine Greer) because you enjoyed my book, The 10 Minute Fix (available here in America, Canada and Australia) and you subscribed to my blog at Love Our Age.

This is a sneaky hello because I’m officially on Christmas break, but I wanted to let you know I’ll inspire you with weekly posts every Sunday in 2021. The rest of the time, I’ll be working on new books, running my copywriting business and teaching an online writing course or two.

Deep breath!

But for today, if you’re at all like I am, which is up to your neck in promises you’ve made to yourself about how disciplined you’ll be in 2021, then it’s time to pause the overwhelm.

Instead, let’s focus on this simple fix, my friends:

Take a moment to think about it. What’s the best you can hope for?? It’s good for us to dream.

Wishing you blue skies (or blue nail polish, if that’s not possible) and so much joy over the simple things in 2021.

Love Catherine x

PS.

• New — I’ll write to you once a week (not twice) in 2021! I need to get some books written!

• Check out all my previous posts at Love Our Age.

The Year of (Blank...)

Hello my friends, and hello everyone new this week!

So much is happening just now here in Sydney:

• Darn! There’s a Covid cluster in the Northern Beaches, so for us that means a teen who can’t skate and can’t have his mates over…that’s where they all live.

• I stepped on a tiny piece of glass this week and have to hobble to the doctor to get it dug out of my foot — youch.

• And Christmas is nearly here….hooray!

Honestly, I can’t wait for next week when our little family of four is ready to settle in for Christmas movies, treats, card games and general fun.

At the same time, I’ve been thinking about 2021 and I was inspired by Rebel Wilson when she talked about her Year of Health in 2020.

I think I’m going to have a Year Of Cheering Myself On.

I need to write more books, and I want to get better at taking really good care of myself. I need to be my own best cheerleader. That’s my plan for 2021.

What about you?

(If you want to share, I’d love to hear about your plan for 2021. Inspire me…for you, what is it The Year of?)

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Some Christmas fun — I got this top and my sons say I look a bit like Snow White but it’s super cute in person.

• I made peanut butter balls last week (my husband’s Christmas favourite…they’re kind of like Reese’s peanut butter cups). I found a delicious recipe here.

• If you need some sweet gifts for girlfriends, everyone is loving The 10 Minute Fix. Here in Canada, and here in Australia.

It's the little things, baby.

Today will be a busy day, but in my heart I’m quiet.

Last night I had the most beautiful walk with the guy I love…through the neighbourhood streets, past the kids riding bikes, watching the sun sink orange and low, hiking through the bush at the end of our tree-filled suburb.

Kookaburra song.

Rain and sun showers, then a rainbow.

Oh, 2020, you’ve been a wild and sometimes scary ride.

It makes me think of a line from a song I used to love: It’s the little things, baby, that give you away…when you try to deny how you feel.

How are you?

How are you right now, this second? I’m asking in case no one else has…

How I feel is this: glad we made it, and wondering about 2021. Hoping for a safe vaccine for the rest of the world and all the people I love. Ready for a rest and a new laptop. I’ve worn this one out with all my tapping. The decorations are up, the gifts are wrapped and my favourite season is on the way. Christmas-Summer is lovely, if you want to know. I miss a white one, but a green one with kookaburra song is also really good.

We are lucky here in my little circle in Australia, and we’re used to celebrating Christmas as an island of four. We’ve done it for years and years. If you’re a little worried, a little tired, or wondering how you’ll feel in this season where everything is different this year, I’ve got a simple idea.

It’s the little things, baby. Notice the tiny and beautiful. It’s there—peace—waiting for you.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• Our tree out front is so pretty but hard to capture in a photo. Wish you could come over at night for a cup of tea and a sweet treat.

• Missing this Hyams Beach sunset. A little thing, and so very pretty.

My personal Before & After

Hi everyone, and a huge hello to all the new people this week. In case someone hasn’t asked you this weekend, how is your heart doing?

Me? Yesterday I felt a little low, so I did what I usually do — my ‘go to’ trick to feel better. I give myself a personal Before and After. I like to call it this: Clean up what you’ve got.

It can take as long or as little as you like — a true 10 Minute Fix! Here are some quick ideas:

• Wipe out the cutlery drawer.

• Stand in your closet. Quickly hang your clothes in order of item type, then colour. Boom!

• Get rid of any coffee mugs you don’t love. Same for towels. Donate, repurpose, recycle.

• Move the furniture.

• Are there old papers you need to shred, papers that are holding you to your own past? (I’m talking old bills, tax returns from years ago, or something that makes you unhappy?). Let yourself be free of those things.

Yesterday, I just had this urge to purge.

I wanted to be DONE WITH THINGS. So I reordered my clothes in my closet, wiped out the cutlery tray, recycled two mugs, cut up an old towel to use as rags and then I did is this: I learned to use the pressure washer. Normally this is a job that I would kinda sorta pretend I don’t know how to do and leave it to my husband but…I wanted a really great Before & After.

So I took myself outside and learned how. It felt mesmerising. I’m laughing at myself thinking how silly I am that clean tiles make me feel so much better BUT…they did.

Is it time to give yourself a little personal Before & After?

Do you have the energy today to clean up what you’ve got?

I promise, it’s a great little 10 Minute Fix.

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Still loving my tree swing chair!

• Fun tip — Covid is rotten but Facetime can make it better. I took my lovely Canadian mum & our friend Marlene on a “tour” of the Christmas decorations at Bonds Nursery (Flower Power) yesterday. I showed them the prettiest gum leaf wreath, but I should have snapped my own photo for you here because the website photos are awful! But it was so pretty in person. And this oyster shell wreath was also beautiful.

• We can all help entertain people who aren’t getting out much with a quick video tour of something fun…a winter walk, the decorations in our neighbourhood, all of it.
  

"That's for other people."

Hello from sweltering Sydney!

Today, as half of you rest after Thanksgiving, and some of us roast slowly in the heat or have the aircon cranked to high, and some of you walk through a wintery day…I had a thought I wanted to share.

This week I sat in the parking lot at the mall talking with my cousin in Canada about why her family of origin (who lived so close to a community ski hill) never learned how to ski. And she said something that stopped me in my tracks.

Whoa. Stop everything.

How many times in my life have I not done something because I thought, “That’s for other people”?

Sometimes the thought is completely subconscious.

I started to make a list.

• skiing. That’s for other people.

• training to the point of actually feeling like an athlete. That’s for other people.

• buying and selling multiple homes (flipping houses). That’s for other people.

• taking care of my body as a priority, to the point of being naturally slim. That’s for other people. (I do this one partially, not completely because…that’s somehow selfish, or too time-consuming, or too self-focused, and for other people???)

• playing an instrument. That’s for other people.

This question resonated with me so much.

You might be different, and not get this at all. You might be a super logical person. You might just do whatever the heck you want, when you want.

But me? I have stopped myself because deep inside I think, “Oh, that’s for other people. Not for me.”

I have to admit it: a lot of life’s opportunities that are fully available to me I shut down automatically. I don’t even LOOK AT how to get there, or THINK ABOUT what I could do, or what I want because— “That’s for other people.”

Your turn.

Do you limit yourself, too?

Are there a few things you could do that you just don’t (yet)?

Here’s the promise I’m making to myself: in 2021, I am going to do some things that I’ve always secretly thought were for “other people.”

Will you join me?

When I think about what I’d choose or where I’d start, my brain feels like this:

This could be fun, but where do I start?

But you guys, it’s the Mary Oliver line from her poem, “The Summer’s Day”:

“Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

— Mary Oliver

If 2020 has brought us anything good, it’s this: we have more time to think about things, and make some decisions about the future.

Happy Sunday!

(If this resonates with you, drop me a note if you have time. I feel a little vulnerable sharing this idea with you, but maybe you feel the same about your own life? Is there anything you’ve stopped yourself from doing?)

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Hello to all the new people this week! You are so welcome here at Love Our Age.

• Tree’s up in our home and I’m loving our early start to the holidays! Fun tip if your family is struggling a little: a puzzle, whether you finish it or not, somehow makes people feel like there is space and time in the world. Puzzles feel jolly, and holiday-like. You probably have one lying around the house somewhere. The piece of felt means you can roll it up anytime…or just box it up when you’re tired of it.

The thing we lost recently...

So here’s a weird true story for you with a metaphor for life…

We moved into our family home 14 years ago, and the owners had a double door between two bedrooms that locked with a special key. Our two young sons wanted their own rooms, but often would play together with those double doors open between their rooms.

That key was the only way to keep the doors closed, and with two young kids, we guarded it with our lives.

What if we lost the key?

What if the boys were playing with it, locking each other in and out and they lost the special key?

Fast forward 14 years to yesterday, when we were replacing the carpet on that side of the house. We needed to open the doors between the boys’ rooms, which had been locked since they became teens.

But we couldn’t find the key.

It wasn’t in the special key spot we’d used for years (a hidden mug on a shelf). Frantic texts to the boys yielded a no from both of them. My husband tried a zillion different allen keys, with no luck.

The worst had happened. After worrying we’d lose the key for 14 years, we finally lost the KEY. We’d have to remove the doors from the hinges to get the carpet installed, and then…

My husband googled ‘round key with ridges double doors’ and found that Bunnings carries THOUSANDS of them.

For $3.

In fact, we must have walked by walls of those keys every Saturday for 14 years when we were at the hardware store.

Yep, it’s a metaphor for life.

Most of the things we worry about never happen. All that time is lost.

And even if we do actually lose the key, sometimes it is laughably easy to just FIGURE IT OUT.

If you’re worrying about something today, is there a chance that maybe it isn’t such a big worry after all? Maybe it’ll be easy. Maybe the solution will pop up before you have to rip doors off their hinges.

Maybe this time, it will be a simple fix with no downside.

I hope so! You deserve every good thing, especially this year when life has been hard.

Happy Friday.

Love Catherine x

PS.

If you’re in Sydney and you need to replace carpets, you may want to get a quote from the guys who helped me this week. The price was almost 40% less than the exact same carpet installed from a provider in my upper north shore suburb. What?! Email me for info — happy to help you!

And because everyone loves a good before & after…(my older son, the one whose day job is law school and hobby is becoming a BBQ pit master, spilled a tray of meat and juice on this carpet six months ago. That’s why it looks SO BAD.)

Before…

After!

It’s hard to take a photo of carpet that shows the colour properly. It’s actually lighter than it looks here…but so much better!

"I'll figure it out."

Hello & happy Sunday.

Well, here’s some irony for you…I’ve spent the last hour in tears trying to write a blog post telling all of you guys that one of my favourite phrases ever is this:

First, let me tell you why I love this idea so much. (Then I’ll tell you why I’ve been crying.)

“I’ll figure it out” is a little mantra I whisper to myself all the time. When I don’t know where the next client is coming from in my business, “I’ll figure it out.” When I’m not sure what to do (if anything) to help a child with a broken heart, “I’ll figure it out.”

When I’m sad or scared or lonely, when I worry that COVID means I’ll never get back to Canada to see my mum, when I don’t know what the future holds for authors and who will buy books during a pandemic…when I worry about all of it, I whisper to myself: “I’ll figure it out.”

Try it. It helps every time. You can whisper, “I’ll figure it out” and I promise you’ll feel a little better about your challenges.

Honestly, it works.

Except for computers. This is where we get to the part about me crying this morning. (I’m laughing now at how dumb I am, you guys, but here it is…)

I’ll figure it out does NOT work for my stupid computer. When there is an automatic system upgrade, and suddenly it has become 10,000 times harder to snap a photo of my beautiful Aussie native flowers on my kitchen table and quickly make it smaller so it loads faster in a blog post I am sending to you on a Sunday morning — and it NO LONGER WORKS because of the new computer upgrade — then, my friends…

I WILL NOT FIGURE IT OUT.

Because I hate technology. Because it makes me want to tantrum. Because it literally makes me cry and want to throw my laptop in the pool that is almost warm enough to swim in now in our Aussie springtime.

So instead, I did the next best thing: I cried. I drank coffee. I made my long-suffering husband’s eyes roll back into his head as he tried to google and fix this thing that used to be so easy to do before the computer upgrade. (IT IS NOT AN UPGRADE IF IT MAKES MY LIFE WORSE, BILL GATES. JUST LETTING YOU KNOW.)

Oh my lord, I am now laughing at myself and crying all at the same time. Literally, laugh-cry. Grrrrr, agh!

Thanks for letting me be honest about my not-so-perfect life.

I hope this photo didn’t take too long to load for you today, and that you’re able to read this and find a little inspiration.

I hope you start to tell yourself, “I’ll figure it out.”

Now I have to go and actually try to figure it out. (Thank goodness for my husband. I appreciate him so much when it comes to tech. Honestly, he’s a gem.)

Enjoy your Sunday.

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• The Aussie native flowers were a gift from a beautiful young couple last weekend when we hosted a dinner for my husband’s team at work. They’ve lasted so well! If you’re overseas, I thought you might like a peek—our native flowers are so unusual and so gorgeous. Wish you were all here to have coffee (while I cry about tech) and see them! Let’s believe that one day this virus won’t stop us from visiting the people we love. I truly hope you and yours are coping. Sending love.

How I Comfort Myself

Hello, my friends.

It’s Friday morning in Sydney, and—remarkably—I have the house all to myself. One teen is at school, our older son is at his new part-time job in a city law office, my husband is in the city for work…and I’m here in the very quiet home office writing to you.

Covid has meant that the house has been full 24/7, and what used to be a quiet workspace for me on my own has turned into a ‘family office’ of sorts. It’s been great, but also the peace is nice today. I’ve lit an orange-blossom candle and poured myself a big glass of water.

Let’s talk about how we give ourselves some comfort, okay?

For a very long time, and this is embarrassing to admit, I didn’t really understand that feelings were for feeling. I was so quick to run from them or try to wrangle them into something resembling happiness so I could feel ‘safe’.

This looked a lot like:

• Buying Cadbury Fruit & Nut bars and stashing them in the fridge.

• Talking obsessively to my ever-patient husband, who is the wisest person I know and gives the BEST advice on everything. (Yes, the whole world agrees with me on this point. If you know him, you know! People queue up for his advice and always have.)

• In my head, saying mean things to myself about not being faster, smarter, better.

And then one day I realised I had to learn to comfort myself. Since this is fairly new for me, and I’ve only been at it a few years, I thought I’d share my Comfort List with you.

Maybe my list will help inspire you to create a list of your own.

1. I make myself a coffee. (I keep decaf on hand, too, for any time of day)

2. Light a candle, or as many candles as I can. Pretty light always makes me feel better.

3. Weird one (learned from my DOG! Ha!) — I literally shake it off. If I have a yucky conversation or feel awful about something, I’ve learned to actually stand in place and shake everything…get that negativity out of my body physically. I jump up and down, shake my arms, run in place, probably look like a maniac but TRY THIS. I mean really do it: shake it off. It works. It helps so quickly and is way more effective than thinking.

4. Listen to a song I love. (Remember, even if you don’t have Spotify you can listen to any song on Youtube. Google it and feel better.)

5. Go on a rampage of appreciation from The 10 Minute Fix.

So curious to hear what you do to comfort yourself! What am I missing? What do you know that I don’t? Tell me, if you have time. I love learning.

Enjoy your day,

Catherine x

PS. Furry summer slippers…in Australia it’s time for them! Aren’t my jade ones pretty? They’re from Target. Link here if you’re curious. Not an #ad, just for fun. Oh, and here are some on Amazon.

We know this, don't we?

On this rainy Sunday that feels like winter has returned to Sydney, I’ve been thinking about icebergs and shampoo.

We got up early, made toasted sausage sandwiches on sourdough rolls with hash browns for the skateboarding teens who slept over, then walked the dog in the drizzle.

And while I was in the shower after all of that, I thought about a simple fix that always makes me feel better: the smell of shampoo and conditioner.

To me, shampoo smells like hope.

It means — I’m going to give this thing another shot, scrub up and head back out there. It means — the day could be good (or even great, or better than I expected). It’s a small bit of hope in a bottle: the smell of your own fresh, clean hair or the smell of a child’s hair after the bath. Isn’t that scent a gift?

Because for all of us the icebergs exist.

Most of what is going on in our lives lies beneath the parts of ourselves we share. Think about social media, and all that perfection (the crop, the filter, the angles). Think about the last conversation you had with a friend and what you didn’t reveal.

Whether or not we do it online or do it in real life, it’s easy to fall into the trap of Being What We Think The World Expects.

But here’s the thing: we can be who we are. Right this second, in our own internal worlds: we can be all of it, the iceberg and the shampoo. Today, we can let our shoulders drop and be imperfect.

Be the one who has a hard time when she tries to change herself.

The one who still criticises, or overeats, or over-drinks. The one who meant to start working out three months ago and has done it twice. The one who said the wrong thing and didn’t get the project finished (or even started).

You are loved right now, like you are: imperfect and trying. So am I.

Yes, yes, you can do better. We all can, and we will keep on trying. But for today — hugs to you where you are.

The iceberg is real, but so is the shampoo. Fresh starts are here for all of us.

Sending you rainy day best wishes today.

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• No judgement at all, but if over-drinking is a thing you’re thinking about coming into the holidays, my incredible cousin at The Bubble Hour podcast has written a helpful book called The Unpickled Holiday Survival Guide. Today it’s on super-sale at amazon for $7! You can find it here.

• And hey, it’s Jacaranda season soon. My picture book, Jacaranda Snow, is available online everywhere and in bookshops Australia-wide. Free delivery worldwide on Book Depository!

Do overs, and why I need one.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Today, a very quick tribute to this beautiful country…

I walked into a shopping mall in Sydney and on the way to the ladies’ room found this on the wall.

Reset! Take a moment to relax and just breathe.

The sign got me thinking — first I swelled up with pride because Australia is amazing, and how wonderful is this sign in a shopping mall? I mean…how thoughtful. The wall could have been blank, millions of people over the years could have just walked by, but instead, someone had the idea to use a WALL to HELP PEOPLE.

Australia, you’re cheeky and fun and also inspiring.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to reset. Maybe to do-over. To take off the things we no longer need as if we’re shedding a huge hot jacket on a climb up a hill. I watched a favourite Instagrammer, Mel Robbins, talk about it this week.

• What should I shed?

• What could I try to do over?

• Is it time for a reset?

Today I’m sitting with these questions, and I wonder if they might also be helpful for you. I don’t have any answers for us, but often I find the questions are the best place to start.

Rest, relax and enjoy your day. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in fifty years of living, we can actually find a way to do-over a lot of things (once we know what needs doing)!

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Fun stuff…I did some early Christmas shopping in the Amazon Prime sale days this past week, I got my favourite OPI nail polish for my own Christmas stocking. Love this colour!

• In case you missed it, I wrote about nail polish and mum life here.

We All Need This Question

Hi there — for fun today, here’s a gorgeous screen shot of the talented Marilyn Monroe from a film I don’t recognise.

THAT OUTFIT.

Doesn’t she look like a woman who is owning her day?

This photo makes me think so many things:

1. Why do we judge beautiful women?

2. What stops us from being a little “extra”? I mean, the nails, the bling-y jewels, that sash, the colours…everything Marilyn is wearing says, “MORE can be GOOD!” I forget this all too often, and sometimes devolve into a colourless life.

3. Is it time to add a little spice to our day?

But more than these questions, the photo of Marilyn makes me think this:

Judgement.

Same old habits.

Forgetting that I can choose a little bling, a little bright lipstick, a fun song while I’m walking.

Am I ready to let go of the way I’ve always been?

What — exactly — am I ready to let go of?

What are you ready to let go of?

(This question makes my brain buzz with possibility!)

Ohhhhh, wish you were here at my kitchen table because I’d love love love to hear your answers! Tell me, is there one thing YOU’RE ready to let go of?

Love Catherine x

Martha Beck's Secret to Life

Hello there!

In case the world feels a little crazy to you right now, I thought I’d share a quote I heard this week and absolutely loved.

“If there’s a secret to life, it’s this:
Find people you like, and do stuff with them.”

— Martha Beck, bestselling author and speaker

Simple and absolutely true.

Have you found your “people you like”? For me, 100% it’s my own family. I love (but also really really like) my sons. The older one is precise and analytical — a reader, a thinker, a talker, a breaker of chains. I can’t wait to see what he’ll offer the world. The younger one is warm and street smart — a reader of people, a creator, a builder, the one who draws together a circle of friends. He’s the glue everyone needs. And my partner is my truest friend — so smart, with wisdom to make the long shots I can’t even see, a foundation and a bridge for hundreds of people at work (and for us, too).

The family I chose and made …those are “my people.” It’s a little insular, but there’s nothing I love more than spending time with them. If you read my new book, you’ll know my favourite time of day is twilight. This photo captures one of my favourite memories with my people — dusk at Hyams Beach, three kilometres of deserted white sand, just us, laughing and running. There was a good dinner ahead of us, spaghetti bolognese cooked by me, a family movie night, beds to snuggle into, warm baths, clean sheets. This little trio — husband, son, son — is my greatest joy.

Today I’m thinking of Martha Beck’s secret to life.

Choose your people. Choose well. And do stuff with them. That really is the secret.

Happy Friday, everyone. I know things are tough out there, so that’s all the more reason to hang on to the people we love. Or this — go and find “your people”. I know they’re out there.

Enjoy your Friday.

Love, Catherine x

PS. It’s time for 31 Crush, and Victoria (the creator) is “the Victoria” in Chapter 2 of my new book, The 10 Minute Fix. She’s a creative dynamo, so lovely and so much fun! You can be coached by Victoria for the month of August — pay what you can — to fall in love with a new activity, habit or pursuit in August. Email Victoria to learn more. I did 31 Crush last year and it was magic!

Is This Something You Do?

It’s a rainy winter Sunday for us in Sydney. My older son just got back from a two hour hike (packing 30 kilos of weights) in the bush; my younger one is sleeping in after a late-night skateboarding session in the garage with a mate.

I’m up with coffee and candles, lamps on, watching the early morning rain.

Resting.

Is this something you do? Do you prioritise rest?

Do you give yourself permission to slow down and actually enjoy resting? I’m bad at this but I’m trying to get better. I’m learning that rest needs to be deliberate and planned in order to feel like a break (for me). Now that work has spilled over into our home lives in the past decade—and even more so during COVID—it’s important to decide when we’ll rest.

We’re trying to take Sunday as a rest day.

No work. No emails. No sneaky copywriting to get ahead for the week. No book writing.

Are you going to rest this weekend? Can you plan a rest you actually enjoy? (Coffee, candles, a good book. A nap, a walk, some time to daydream.)

I’m sure you deserve it.

Love Catherine x

PS. Thinking of you all as the world turns and Covid surges back and forth. I hope you and yours are well. If work is a problem, I hope you find a way to create something new. I’ve been there during the Global Financial Crisis and it’s so hard…when you’re stressed and worried and can barely think through all that fear. Reach out if you need a little encouragement. I’m here.

13 Ways Of Looking At Everything

Last week, Yvette brought me tulips—and look at them. Don’t you love their sense of independence? Don’t you love how they find their own way?

They fling themselves about as if they don’t know they’re pretty.

Behind the tulips and above my kitchen table, you’ll see the poem I wrote about in The 10 Minute Fix. These four framed stanzas are from Wallace Steven’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” published over 100 years ago in Harmonium in 1917.

I wrote about stanza II in my book, but my favourite at the moment is stanza XIII, covered by tulips.

“It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat in the cedar-limbs.”

— Wallace Stevens

If you were here this morning, we’d have a coffee together. We’d sit at this table and I’d offer you something delicious on a china plate. We’d talk like friends do, first about one of us, and then the other. We’d trade stories and remind each other that Covid can’t last forever, that people are basically good, that every day something wonderful happens to someone.

We’d admire the tulips.

You’d make me laugh and I’d make you another coffee. (I’m a lot of things, but hardly ever funny.)

We’d find 13 ways to look at things and together we’d fix up our worlds.

Isn’t friendship everything?

Aren’t we lucky?

Right now, after you finish reading, please text a friend you love. Let’s just do this—tell the women in our worlds that we appreciate them. It’s a 10 Minute Fix I didn’t write about, but should have.

We’re all so busy, flinging this way and that, but the heartbeat of our lives is staying connected.

Enjoy your Friday and stay safe out there.

I’m thinking of you.

Love Catherine x

PS. If you’d love to pick up a beautiful book of poetry, try The Ember Ever There. The author, Jean McCarthy, is my beautiful cousin and friend. You can find it here in Canada, in America and in Australia.

Ta Da! The Winners are...

It’s winter school holidays in Australia, and we had a little beach break this weekend.

Walking these three kilometres of pure white sand with my parka on made me yearn for a beach home. I don’t know about you, but as every year passes for me, I’m looking for more simplicity in the little things. Nature. A drive to a beach for the day. Fresh air!

Oh, I would love to live near this beach! But…it wouldn’t be easy.

Or would it?

Are some changes far easier to make than we think?

I love this question and I’m learning to ask it more:

“What would this look like if it were easy?”

— Tim Ferriss

• What if book sales were easy?

• What if talking with my teen was easy?

• What if finding a partner was easy?

• What if getting healthier was easy?

• What if buying a beach house was easy?

My mind always jumps straight to this will be hard. But…what if it was easy? How would that look?

If we open up to the possibility and ask our minds the question, it gives our brains a chance to come up with some solutions.

Try it about your biggest challenge right now. Ask yourself, “What if <insert here> was easy?”

It makes you feel different, doesn’t it? It makes me think there’s a chance for a victory, and also helps me see a bunch of good ideas I haven’t seen before.

Before I head off into my Sunday, full of house cleaning, gardening and dog walks, I have a 10 Minute Fix Book Giveaway to announce!

I love giving! For everyone who entered to win a copy of The 10 Minute Fix for yourself or a friend who needs a boost, here are the 5 winners. (I’ve emailed you asking for your postal address!)

• Jennifer

• Leah

• Heather

• Carolyn

• Laura

Enjoy!

Love Catherine

PS. LOVE hearing your feedback on my new book! Got this message this week: “I love Fix #90—you are not for everyone. Literally walked out of my bedroom and talked about it with my teenage daughter. It’s the lesson I wish I’d learned at 16. It would have saved me so much grief.”

Okay, book sales! (“What if book sales were easy, Catherine???”) Available online or in select Aussie bookshops:

• For Canadians: on amazon.ca here.

• For Americans: on amazon.com here.

• For the UK: on amazon.co.uk here

• For my Aussies: on amazon.com.au or Booktopia.

• For free delivery (but a higher price!) on Book Depository.

A Secret...

Hello and wow, haven’t we all been learning and growing lately?

2020 has been a lot to process. So I thought I’d pop by this morning and tell you a little story about my world here in Sydney. (It’s not a BIG story, but I thought you might need a breather from all the news, so if you do, please read on!)

In the last few months, my side of the bed slowly turned from refuge into war zone.

Why? Mid-life, waking up in the night, feeling too hot…just uncomfortable.

Really, between the poor sleep and the nightly waking up and the blankets I just didn’t love and the floppy duvet cover, I was feeling awful in the mornings. In fact, I was feeling so awful that I dreaded getting into bed at night because I thought I was going to have another poor sleep.

This went on for months. Literally months.

So this is what I did—and it’s GENIUS. And it’s so simple that I’m surprised I didn’t see this earlier. I realised an important truth:

To change things, I have to CHANGE things. (I know, basic, right? But why did I overlook this?)

• I stripped off all the blankets from our bed.

• I washed the duvet cover and got it ready for the donation pile.

• Then I drove to the mall, walked into my favourite bedding shop (still open as an essential business during COVID), and bought the softest, snuggliest grey winter blanket I could find. See it up there?? That one. It was surprisingly inexpensive.

I came home, laundered everything and remade my bed. The duvet that had been driving me crazy is gone. In its place is a very affordable new blanket—so soft, so big, so warm-but-not-hot. And I have slept so much better every night since.

Such a small fix to such a huge problem, but the change had to start with me.

The fix: to change things, we actually have to CHANGE things.

We have to say ENOUGH, make a decision and activate ourselves.

We have to decide, then do.

Is there a small change you need to make to feel better now? Or a bigger change? You can do it. (Decide, then do.)

Sending you love today from my home to yours.

Catherine x

PS.

• Still excited to share my special project with you—coming soon!

• New people, I’m so happy to see you here. Take a look at what you’ve missed so far!

How are you?

In case you haven’t been asked, I’m asking.

How are you?

You may be feeling like I am: overwhelmed, sickened, sad.

But also this—I have hope. I believe people can choose to be decent and learn. We can offer grace to each other.

We can support with our money, our focused listening, our words, our silence, and our care. There is so much we can do: seek out businesses to buy from in America (here is a fantastic list of women business owners and their lovely products on Instagram via @younghouselove—go to the Make Change button), get curious, buy books, question our assumptions, talk to our kids and grow. March. Ponder. Listen. Donate. Think deeply. Change.

We can be kind, right now, right this second, to the person in front of us.

That’s how we begin.

Thinking of you today. I hope you are okay.

Love, Catherine x

ps. Please notice that the world is still a beautiful place. The moon rises, the oceans swell and surge, the trees are lace at twilight. We can change together.

Something special is coming soon...

Right now: hot black coffee and a beautiful cool autumn, a teen at a sleepover and a goodie bag of homemade rocky road given to us after a dinner with friends.

It’s a dog on lap kind of morning.

And this is what I’m thinking.

We can be who we ARE right this second.

Let’s let our shoulders drop and be imperfect.

Be the one who has a hard time when she tries to change herself. The one who still criticises, or overeats, or drinks. The one who meant to start working out three months ago and has done it twice. The one who said the wrong thing and didn’t get the project finished (or even started).

It’s okay.

We are loveable right now, like we are: imperfect and trying. Human, like everyone else.

Yes, yes, we can do better, and we will keep on trying.

But for today — hugs to you right where you are.

This is where we begin.

Love, Catherine x

• Stay tuned — next Sunday, there’s something special coming for you! Yayyyyyyy!

• Thank you for joining my Facebook Group. Now I need to figure out how to throw a party in there?! Yes, I’ll still blog here twice a week—every Friday and Sunday, Sydney time. Everyone is welcome to join.

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Girls

This week, I listened to Cheryl Strayed speak with Margaret Atwood, my favourite Canadian author. (My dream came true when Margaret wrote to me about my novel, Love Lie Repeat…you can read about that here if you’re interested.)

On the podcast, Margaret explained that her mother used to say, “Roll up your sleeves, girls!”

It’s a little bit old-fashioned, but I love the sentiment. How does it strike you?

As I said a while ago, I’m a do-er during quarantine, not a pause-r. Both responses and everything in between are absolutely valid, but for me, doing really helps me feel better. So while everyone else on the Internet made sourdough, I did, too.

And actually, it’s easy.

First you make a starter, which is just equal parts flour and water exposed to the air for a few days so you catch natural yeast. You keep it on the bench top and feed it more flour and water every day until you get around one cup. That’s the minimum amount of starter you’ll need to make a loaf of bread. You can save the rest in your fridge and feed it weekly if you want to make more loaves.

The truly interesting part of the process was how complicated writers and foodies are making this whole sourdough thing sound. Search around the Internet and you’ll find complex videos and blog posts galore. A zillion of them.

But I’m a woman who had a “Roll up your sleeves, girls” mother — just like Margaret Atwood did. And I spent my whole childhood on the farm, watching her routinely take four loaves of bread out of the oven AT A TIME every Saturday morning. For me, a total beginner, baking ONE loaf of bread felt like no big deal.

So I just did it. Found a recipe, cut out the complicated parts, made a starter with flour and water, fed it for a couple of days and then made a loaf of bread.

And this is the power of example.

I watched some one do it, so I could do it, too.

It’s a really important reminder. It’s easy to see someone else doing something and think it’s too hard, rarified, only for experts, impossible for us to do. Or we can feel jealous — as if the person we’re watching has superpowers that we don’t.

But if we roll up our sleeves, we can do so much.

Figure it out.

Give it a go (or give it a shot, if you live in North America).

Baking bread, writing a book, starting a business, making a tough phone call, healing a relationship…the first steps are all the same.

Baby steps.

If someone else has done it before us, we can too.

Time to roll up your sleeves, girls. Today might be the perfect day to tackle something you’ve always wanted to start.

Sending love to you and yours on this beautiful weekend. I hope everyone is keeping well and safe…and I’m thinking of you.

Catherine x

PS.

• Want the recipe I used for sourdough? Let me know!

• And if you want to read my first novel, a YA thriller, you can find it here. My first picture book is here. Currently working on a new non-fiction book and I’m excited to share that with you :) It’s very different from my novel. Stay tuned!