Overview
The month of November was jam-packed with excitement and productivity for me. I visited my grandmother to celebrate her 40th year of sobriety, visited family in Louisiana, and reconnected with several friends. Throughout the month I also completed the values of Integrity and Service. Both of which were interesting and rewarding.
I spent the time embodying the idea of Integrity by being more purposeful with my thoughts and actions. Through exploring what integrity meant to me, I determined that the two major aspects of being integrity were firstly establishing a moral code and aligning one’s actions and thoughts with it, and ensuring that one is consistent with that alignment regardless of the environment. The definition I created for it was: establishing a moral code for oneself and aligning one’s thoughts, words, and actions to it regardless of the environment, situation, or people present. If you are interested in learning more about my experience with Integrity, click the link above.
The second value that I worked with this month was Service. Rediscovering my love of service through volunteering was amazing. I had the opportunity to help and meet so many incredible people. While meditating on what Service meant to me I came to some interesting conclusions. The definition I landed on was: Actions taken that benefit others and are motivated solely by the desire to spread love. I thought the motivations behind the service played a very important role. You can read more about Service through the link above!
Best Meals
I started a food journal this month to be more aware of what I am eating so there are many amazing meals to choose from but I will do my best to pick out the tastiest looking ones! The first picture on the left was a meal that included a warm and hearty butternut squash soup. I combined that with some locally caught, raw salmon that I cubed up and a kale, pepper, pickle salad. The next picture is of a meal that I helped put together with my cousins. It was an everything bagel with dill, lemon, and red onion cream cheese with smoked salmon on top and a side of expertly poached eggs. Honestly, this was one of the best bagels I have ever eaten. The final picture is one of my new go-to meals and it consists of an oven-baked piece of salmon seasoned with salt, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, and a little brown sugar with a side of broccoli and a piece (really 2/3 of a piece) of sourdough. Smoked salmon is quickly climbing up my favorite foods list but they will have quite a mountain to climb when they get up to avocadoes.
Highlights
- Spending time with my Grandmother and celebrating her 40th year of sobriety was extremely special for me. Seeing all of the people that looked up to her and how inspirational she has been to so many people, myself inculded, reminded me just how lucky I was to have her in my life. She always remains level-headed and is good for an intellectual and engaging conversation any time of the day.
- Reconnecting with one of my best friends from college, Joanna, was certainly a highlight of this month. We had the chance to go on a 4 hour hike through some beautiful terrain and talked about life, death, and everything in between. She has never failed to offer amazing advice and match my light-hearted, curious appraoch to life. She is a joy in every moment I spend with her and am so grateful our paths crossed.
- This month I led friends and family through guided meditation sessions for the first time and it was incredible. Entering the role of teacher helped me really dig into my understanding of meditation and hearing their feedback was extremely motivating. I am grateful they gave me the opportunity to learn and grow with them and look forward to future sessions.
- Writing and posting my first “thoughts” post exploring Internalized Expectations. I greatly enjoyed working through some feelings within myself by writing about them. It was helpful to see everything I was feeling written out and helped me in a lot of ways and hopefully helped even one person who read it. It is my most viewed post and I cannot wait to explore more things through writing. Click the link if you would like to read it!
Phatasic Photos
Upcoming in December
My father will be returning and I will be officially moving out to my Granpa’s land and beginning my homesteading experience. I could not be more excited to begin this vision my brother, my friend, and I have been talking about for the better part of the past year. I will also be finishing out my last 4 values before the end of the year.
Make Today Your Best Day Yet!
“Life is a series of fresh starts, the frequency of use is up to the individual”
~Zak Keller aka amusingmonk~
Amusing Monk 
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