Howdy! These are your show notes for Episode 28 of Adventures With My Forties. I have not posted a new episode in two months so let’s see if I remember how to do this…

The calendar year might begin on January 1, but the first day of school is the true beginning of the year. My kids returned to school yesterday on August 12, 2021 — it was Julian’s first day of kindergarten, Pippa’s first day of third grade, their first day attending the same school ever, and the first day of “normal” school since March 2020. Whew!

It seemed like an auspicious time to reflect on the 2021-22 school year. After some journaling and pondering, I came up with a mission statement for the 2021-22 school year is: Kicking Ass and Healing. I did not start journaling yesterday with the intention of crafting a mission statement. It just emerged organically and now that I have a mission statement for the school year, I actually feel more empowered and ready to enjoy the year.

In this episode, I first talk about Healing, with a close look at the method I used to obtain some closure on the 2020-21 shit show. I was inspired by an episode of Unfuck Nation to write out all my thoughts and feelings about the 2020-21 school year. I wrote and wrote until I felt empty. Then I took the pages to the kitchen sink and set them on fire. This was very cathartic and therapeutic and I’ll probably use this ritual again.

Disclaimer: The podcaster is not responsible if you do something dumb and burn your house down or start a wildfire.

I talked extensively about healing in my last episode, Episode 27, so I am not going to belabor that subject here. (I do have a novel to finish revising!) And if you are interested in what “kicking ass” during the 2021-22 school year means to me, and how I intend to go about kicking said ass, listen to the episode! But not with your kids. I get a little swear-y because that’s how I roll.