What a great month it has been! This is year four of my tradition and I am doing better each year. I went into the month having some broad ideas of what I wanted to experience. New and old places, experiences, people. I was open to breakthroughs and aha’s. I got out of my habitual schedule, and slowed down- even taking my time, at times!!
I love schedules and having a plan and a schedule and am right back to it, but allowing many days with an idea of what I wanted to do, but no real time line to do it was so refreshing for me.
I took time for days devoted to thinking, writing, and reading.
I love summer in Vermont and that was why I picked August to have this time. What did I do with all of this time? I will confess, I did a bit of work and mostly kept my newsletter going!
Here’s what else I did in between having some days to just stay at home and do projects that have been lingering. The main one has been cleaning out clothes. A lot of has accumulated and it is time for a refresh.
I stayed at the Inn a Shelburne Farms for a week. It is less than 10 minutes from my house and right on Lake Champlain. It made a lot of sense to me to do this. This is my third year. The first year I went away for a retreat I drove 3-4 hours to Maine and though it was beautiful, it took time away from retreating.
Also, I took road trips to many Vermont towns, working away at completing the Vermont Bookstore Tour! I actually got out of my car in Brandon, Vermont for the first time after driving through practically all of my life. I found the charming bookstore and also amazing art! I am definitely going back there!
I was in NYC and stayed in Times Square for the first time in years. I got to see Michelle Williams in Death Becomes Her with two great friends and colleagues who I teach coach training with and Michelle was one of our students! We got to go backstage to see her and it was a big highlight. I LOVED seeing a Broadway show again and it reminded me how much I have missed it! I will NOT be staying at Times Square again. This age self did not enjoy it! I did enjoy another old favorite, though, Sardi’s for dinner.
While in the City I got to visit the Morgan Library– amazing. I also got to the Met and missed the exhibit Sargent in Paris by less than a week. No worries, I searched out all of my favorites. I had my favorite coffee at Ralph’s- the one right across the street from St Patrick’s Cathedral and then I went to Mass- it was beautiful. It was a full two days, one night trip.
The other big trip was to Orlando for the International Maxwell Leadership Conference– I wrote about it last week. A real game changer is Breeze Airways direct flight to Orlando. It made the trip so much more enjoyable!
Other things- I took a long walk on the Colchester Causeway trail for the first time, took three of my favorite humans out for a steak (requested) dinner, went to the fair with Joe Joe, the Pinwheel restaurant (twice- such an awesome breakfast!), Boxcar Bakery and the Rokeby Museum’s Pie Fest- a yearly tradition. Millie and I went to Farmer’s Market each weekend, went to a movie in the theater and spent more time at the gym.
I also walked 122 miles (tracked workouts on my Nike Run app) and did a couple of good walks with my weighted vest each week.
And I read- a lot! 8 books and two almost finished. My clear favorite- Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. It captivated me. I read a mixture of fiction and non fiction. I wrote, I thought, I thought of plans and challenges for the future. And plenty of stillness.
Next week I am going to share my biggest takeaways from the month as I continue to process and decide on actions. One action I did take was to put myself on the notify list to get to sign up to be in the draft to maybe win the chance to buy Savannah Bananas tickets for next year! LOL I even watched a couple of their games on TV now! So fun!