My Work Here is Done

After a journey of over two years, yesterday I turned in my final assignment for my Master's program. I honestly don't know what to do with myself now. The last two years and then some have been as difficult and time consuming as I imagined it would be, but they've also been amazing. I've learned so many things, and hopefully positioned myself better for future career and service opportunities. Folks have encouraged me to take some time and take a break for a bit. And maybe I'll do that. Then again, I might not, lol. In the meantime, I'm off next week to walk in my Commencement and make sure I get that darn degree in my hot little hand.

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Tracie's Food Philosophy

I don't know that I've ever talked about it, but for the last 3 or 4 years, I've followed a diet all my own that I call "Mostly Vegetarian" or "Flexitarian". The idea is that for the most part, I follow a vegetarian lifestyle, with the occasional serving or two of meat when I feel like I need it. A few years ago, I was going through a rough patch. I had gained a few pounds, and my only vegetable intake was in the form of salsa or V8. So one January as I was trying to identify some goals for the year, I decided to eat 2-3 servings of vegetables a day, and I would start strength training. I started working on those two things, and an unanticipated result was that weight started to come off. I ended up losing about 15 pounds, and I found that I enjoyed vegetables so much (who knew?) that I started eating more of them. And the more vegetables I ate, the less meat I ate. Over the years, I've felt so good for the most part that I've stuck with it.

Tidying Up

If you've been watching Netflix much lately, you've probably seen the new series "Tidying Up", with Marie Kondo. She's an expert in cleaning, tidying, and storing stuff, and her method is quite inspiring. I enjoyed the show so much that I ordered her book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up", and spent several days trying to get my house more in order. Not that I'm a hoarder - I have a basically tidy home. But the Kon-mari method teaches you to look at your belongings and ask yourself if each particular belonging brings you joy. If it doesn't, it's time for it to move on. I went through all my clothes first, followed by my books and DVD's, followed by the office, followed by the kitchen and laundry room. Whatever didn't bring me joy or a happy memory went into the pile. And when all was said and done, I ended up taking an entire car full of stuff to the local Deseret Industries, to hopefully be re-purposed for someone else to find

The Heart and a Willing Mind

There's been a new show on PBS recently called "Equus: The Story of the Horse". In it, the host takes us through the history of the Horse in many different cultures and locations. One of which was a visit to a "Horse Whisperer" fellow, who specializes in breaking and training horses. He describes his method as less about breaking the horse's spirit, and more about making a connection with the horse's mind. It's a much gentler method, that helps the horse get to the point that it chooses to do the thing it is being asked to do, because of its connection with the trainer. This got me to thinking about the concept of "having a broken heart and a contrite spirit". I guess previously, I'd thought of this concept mostly as the breaking of a spirit. Say if you're watching an old movie western, and the cowboys jump on the back of the horse, and ride it until gives in and just stops bucking. But this comment had me thinking about it differ

Tracie's World

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