A bunch of weird random I may eventually delete since my interior landscape feels like a quaking misty wilderness. Maybe something will resonate with you, but if not, hey, I’m UP AND TRYING with a bunch of stunning interiors too. 🙂
UP AND TRYING Reflections + Interiors Inspiration
About these interiors trending in late winter on my FB page: is it surprising to learn Hello Lovely followers have different tolerances than blog and Pinterest followers?
Here are the interior designs percolating over yonder.
Coping in Chaotic Seasons
Maybe it’s just me reaching for one more coping mechanism in the 2020s, but it helps me feel a little less cynical about America’s disunity if I imagine a masterpiece is forming.
Who has a comfort level for chaos? At my age, I have seen enough instances where growing tension and combustion create new horizons, landscapes, and perspectives. But oy!
Trending interiors tend to reflect the type of shelter we long for as anxious uncertainty grows.
But do we even know what we truly need to feel ease? Today’s information overload from a mix of artificial and authentic sources feels unprecedented in its ability to shape appetites.
Evolving Relationships With Social Media
This morning I am feeling overwhelmed by modern modes of communication we somehow tolerate.
How will I transform negative energy by treating it like my baby rather than my enemy?
In my work, I can’t separate from social media the way I can personally. Algorithms must be fed for the apps to show my content to hungry sheep. (Fairly sure this aint what Jesus had in mind for me when he said feed my sheep).
If you don’t understand a word of this, it’s a very very good thing.
This blog is a small business like a local antique shop or diner, yet social media creates a competitive landscape of numbers and traffic for it that feels anything but quaint or satisfying. Just when I begin to think I understand a bit of the landscape? BOOM, algorithms change or baffle with a curve ball.
In a recent strange turn of events, I realized an actor with millions of instagram followers fetches tons of traffic and likes from bots. What surprised me is how this person seems to be someone of integrity who would not seem to care about purchasing likes.
Then I realized the likelihood they are innocent and have no idea about the bots! If this person hired a social media manager to grow their account and that manager buys engagement with bots, the actor may have no clue their traffic is not purely organic.
For me, this reflects the complexity of discernment in virtual worlds we inhabit. We’re quicker to point fingers and grow argumentative because a gray mist has descended on us all. There are illusions within illusions within illusions we simply cannot see. Artificial intelligence, social media, and our phones are blurring connections, leaving some of us a little cuckoo in the mist.
Thoughts on Capacity & Wellness
I don’t know an influencer who ever approved of the label ‘influencer.’ But kittens, influencers aren’t simply Twitter stars who become president or TikTok Millennials making millions. Since the dawn of the internet’s Kardashification, anyone using social media exerts influence.
Or un-influence.
Un-influence? Ahem. If you’re reading this and you secretly despise me, I’m an un-influencer. Lots of folks follow blogs, FB friends, or celebrities they don’t respect. We aren’t always aware we are un-influencers since frowning followers lurk without leaving footprints.
Doesn’t it feel gross to think of someone reading your posts or scrutinizing photos of you with scorn in their heart? Is this the sort of connection we want to encourage?
I am UP and TRYING
Social media apps are designed to addict, seduce, and reinforce impulsive behavior.
How to give less of ourselves to them? Good gracious, even my closest friends don’t stop checking their phones when we’re together and engaged in delicious conversation. It makes me feel sad and unimportant.
I’m looking in the mirror. And I’m interested in exploring fresh ways to connect, calm my nervous system, and feel free.
I’m making more time for connection, yoga, books, music, somatic work, and healthier habits.
Does this exploration sound rather mature and orderly?
The reality is actually messy and quite humbling.
Some days I’m simply ‘up and not crying.’ AND IT’S OKAY because I refuse to judge myself harshly even if I’m up AND crying since the truth is I’m up and trying.
Are you up and trying? I am with you.
Even when our hearts are in it, change is hard.
If you’re wobbly, I bet you’re also growing.
You are.
Think about your personal growth in the past. For me, it came in wobbly seasons. My feet weren’t firmly planted at all. Things were quaking all around.
They’re quaking now. But things break open like seeds, yes?
What is Mine, and What is Yours?
As long as I stay curious, keep my defenses in check, and am humble and generous with love so compassion and God may have their way?
I don’t need to fret about whether I’m enough or too much or even balanced. Find me UP AND TRYING.
There will always be someone in my life who sees me as an un-influencer. Someone surmising my best isn’t enough.
I’m going to let them believe their beliefs since those beliefs belong to THEM. I am only in charge of mine, and newsflash: WE’RE BOTH ALLOWED TO MAKE MISTAKES.
We’re allowed to make mistakes, okay?
Don’t give up the ship! Unless surrender is the next right thing to do…at which time you should definitely GIVE UP THAT DAMN SHIP (so to speak)! I love you.
Peace to you right where you are.
-michele
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God bless you.
Author
Thanks for reading. 🙂
Preach it sister. I am fortunate to be old and don’t live in your world of bots, likes, followers. (that doesn’t make me humble BTW 😉 The virtual so-called ‘social media’ world is such a deceptive, mean spirited world in so many ways. AND FAKE! AND NOT AT ALL SOCIAL. I disdain the word influencer, to my ears it sounds arrogant. I recently asked a 20 something friend about the elaborate wedding of her cousin “wow, so young, what do they do for a living?” Oh, they are influencers. While it did explain the mega wedding and model-like photos splashed all over social media I still had no idea what they actually do. “It makes me feel sad and unimportant” was probably the thing you said that carries the most weight for me and started my rant. It makes me sad too and I feel unimportant too when those I’m with prefer the virtual world inside their phones to me and my company. Just plain old me is not enough for them. It makes me sadder still when I see parents doing it to their kids. What a damaging message they are unknowingly sending their children. I often wonder when do people actually think these days? Why all the noise?
Author
thanks for reading! right? social? if you became an influencer at the right time, you could be making millions simply reviewing granola from your phone. folks sitting in different rooms of their home eyes glued to devices is “social?” the noise of the internet is numbing for sure. we all know these devices are disconnecting us from each other but we understand less how they are disconnecting us from our own bodies. we’re dissociating and not socializing. we need to get curious about our patterns since we will keep doing things the same way even if it makes us miserable. algorithms and apps are designed to be addictive so we have to be careful to not point fingers at good humans using them but see that we are vulnerable.
And oh yes, even though 2025 has not yet been kind to my health I am up and not crying, well maybe a wee bit of crying, but definitely trying 😉
Author
yay to UP AND TRYING with or without crying. tears are baptizing goodness. xox