Spring Update

I’ve got three books that I’m actively studying right now: The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind; The Courage to Be Disliked; and Unmasking Autism. I’ve been playing with different ways to take notes and think about the content, and have settled on a sort of public notes system here on my blog.

Each of these books has been meaningful to me over the past year, though I have to confess that I have yet to complete my first pass through Unmasking Autism. I’m excited to finish it soon. The past couple of years have been rough on me, mentally. But it’s also been a time of growth. A lot of that growth I think I can attest to the lessons in these three books.

I am excited for Spring. It’ll be nice to not be so cold all the time but I’m also excited to get out and play in the yard. I want to plant a pollinators garden out back and put Mom’s birdhouse back there.

The past couple of years, particularly the last few months, have been suffused with grief. I’m not sure what more I want to say on that. I have difficulty processing and understanding my emotions, but I definitely have them, pure raw uncut emotions that overwhelm me. And the way you are supposed to learn to have these feelings is just to have them?

From The Courage to Be Disliked, I’m trying to learn how to successfully interact with other people, in particular my family. I’m starting with a small sample set. But already the lessons in this book have paid dividends both in terms of my parenting but also healing an old rift that’s been a huge part of the grief the past couple of years. It’s not solved, but it’s better, doesn’t hurt as much.