Feeling a bit sh*t? The open-up โ€˜keep tryingโ€™ edition

Look, itโ€™s been a while since Iโ€™ve done Feeling A Bit Sh*t, partly because things have been sh*t for so many people and itโ€™s not something to be made light of. And partly because I have been distracted. But there is no time like the present to launch into a fresh episode of this bolstering favourite. Letโ€™s do that โ€ฆ

1/ I have a new motto.

A motto is not just for sports teams or sorority houses (areย they for sorority houses? We donโ€™t have them here, so I donโ€™t actually know.) Anyway โ€ฆ my motto. It is new and itโ€™s actually pieced together from two sentences I misheard in aย YouTubeย reading of a poem byย Joe Brainard.

In Joeโ€™s poemย Autobiographyย he wrote โ€“ โ€œWhat I want most is to open up. I keep trying.โ€

I heard โ€“ โ€œOpen up. Keep trying.โ€

So that is my new motto.

โ€œOpen up. Keep trying.โ€

You can have it as your motto too, if you want. Itโ€™s totally non-sh*t, donโ€™t you think?

2/ Convenience store cats

Who knew that some geniuses have been documentingย cats who live in busy shops?ย Itโ€™s honestly the cutes thing. Cats are so nuts, arenโ€™t they?

3/ Skillshare online classes

There areย heaps of classes you can takeย and brushing-up on or learning new skills is always a non-sh*t idea. Choose from things like illustration, childrenโ€™s book writing, film making, graphic design, photography and much, much more.

4/ The Biggest Little Farm is on YouTube for rent now!

I loved watchingย this movie!!!ย Have you seen it? Itโ€™s excellent. There are a couple of sad bits in it, but I still wholeheartedly recommend it because itโ€™s about growth and perseverance, things that seem top of mind right now.

5/ Dinner on the driveway is a thing

This is such a cute idea. I saw a โ€˜drinks in the drivewayโ€™ report on the ABC a little while ago, and it seems people are going all in and havingย dinner in their drivewayย too. Itโ€™s sort of like having a family meal in the worldโ€™s roomiest restaurant โ€ฆ with bonus trees and things.

This seems to me to be a guaranteed way to lift mood, shake up boring routines and delight passersby (and yourself/your gang). The gloves are well and truly off thanks to the pandemic, withย people putting their bins out in evening gownsย and rainbow-ing or teddy bear-ing their homes. Perhaps you want to driveway dine and take your pandemic positivity to the next level? (If you feel like being positive. Perhaps you donโ€™t and that is totally understandable and just ignore me.)

6/ Love at first sight

โ€œBest. Video. Ever!ย Just found this of when we bought our goose George a girlfriend called Florence & it was love at first sight ??ย pic.twitter.com/INtwKPhT72ย โ€” Dolitics (@dollytheis)ย February 20, 2020

7/ Potatoes are still allowed!

Phew. These areย Smitten Kitchenโ€™s Crispy Crumbled Potatoesย and Iโ€™m excited about them.

8/ ย Julia Louis-Dreyfus does her own glam

I think we can all agreeย this turned outย pretty great?

9/ Shop tiny

I canโ€™t stop looking atย this tiny house real estate site.ย Sometimes I imagine spending my golden years in one of these, parked on someoneโ€™s busy-beachy land somewhere.

10/ Help for healthcare workers

There are initiatives popping up to support some of those on the frontline and our healthcare workers have beenย a popular and deserving focus of some of these.ย Adopt A Healthcare Workerย connects us to local doctors, nurses and the like. You can find out what these legends need help with and put your hand up to give them a hand. Take a peek at Facebook and search for Adopt A Healthcare Worker in your state. Hereโ€™s the one forย Victoria.

In New Yorkย Frontline Foodtrucksย are positioning themselves outside hospitals and feeding medical professionals delicious and healthy food to keep them fuelled up.ย Many other brilliant organisationsย are doing similar excellent things.

(Related โ€“ Donate toย Meals on Wheelsย in your area, if you possibly can. Theyโ€™re under more pressure than ever and are trying to support the elderly and vulnerable during these tricky times.)

Hope you are managing okay! See you back here very soon.

x Pip

This post was written by Pip Lincolne for Meet Me At Mikes & is republished here with permission.ย