Is Birdwatching the new cool? I know I’m behind the game and am as surprised as you are, but I’m going to admit to you- I totally get it. Waiting to spot avian life may seem to some like a waste of time, but we need more moments that allow us to find beauty in the world.

I used to refer to myself as a music elitist (insert eye-roll emoji here). I can relate to the scene in the 2000 movie High Fidelity where music snob Rob (played by John Cusack) talks about the "do's and don'ts” of making a great mixtape —it is an art.

Playlists are my love language.

What started as CDs laced with doodles on the sides, and the cover, has evolved into Spotify playlists that are hours long with plans to light up your limbic system and take you on a journey.

I’ve grown accustomed to these sounds, so I lie awake on my first night in a hotel, the country or the jungle–anywhere I travel where I don’t recognize the creaks behind the darkness. Of all the senses, hearing is our brain’s around-the-clock connection to the world. Our ears are constantly online, even when our eyes are taking a break behind our mulberry silk sleeping masks.

I have to sweep her to the side in my zoom calls and sometimes let her locks grow wild and long enough that they dust the buttons of my keyboard. Every so often, I’ll turn one of her limbs into an impromptu mustache when I greet my work wife on slack video calls.

How are we greeting each other these days? Hugging? Shaking hands? Awkwardly air waving like the queen? Shall we lean in — place a kiss on one cheek, and plant a peck on the other–now that we have LIPS again?

Reflecting on a year made up of navigating a pandemic and trying to do more of the things that felt comforting and feel-good, the words Binge and Binge-watching took on a whole new meaning…

But when my mind starts monkeying and taking me away from the groundedness I’m feeling; Robert Downey Jr. totally narrates my power poses (anyone else?), it’s a thing.