The Fortitude to Flourish

Thoughts on spring, self-care for the 8 dimensions of wellness, and a recipe for cheater crust quiche

but first professional news & housekeeping…

• I am hard at work tightening up the first draft of my next book; please keep cheering me on! It is a collection of essays reflecting on the tightly interwoven themes of lack and abundance; grief and hope; celebration of the living body and loss of the living body; fear and desire; and alienation and relationship. The through line is food and appetite. It has been hard and rewarding work and it is very exciting to be at this part of the creation process.

• I made an e-zine for you!¹ Subscribers will get a second email to access them! It is Magic Cookie Bar fanzine! ²

• I had the pleasure of giving a book talk for the Clinical Health Psychology Team at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. If you think your workplace would appreciate learning more about building interoception and resiliency through intentional exercise, please reach out.

The Fortitude to Flourish

Reflections on Spring

I invite you to think about the spring. What do you associate with it? I imagine vibrant tulips standing at attention in a vase on my kitchen table and stealing glimpses of skittish does and their fawns grazing in my backyard. I smell lilacs.

When I lived in Washington D.C. in the early aughts any memory of winter was erased when the city trees would erupt with pink cherry blossoms during the first week of April. In New York City in April, people plant pansies in container gardens and in the beds of sidewalk trees. Even though the trees are slower to bloom there than in D.C, residents usher in a season of vibrance with pansy varieties like Majestic Giant and Inspire.

But now that I spend every other week in Western Massachusetts, where spring is also known as mud season and snow still sneaks up on us in April, I have a more nuanced understanding of the season. Spring is not just the product of rebirth—the bright blooms of early perennials—but of harnessing and then channeling tremendous amounts of energy to create, to transform, and to bloom.

Spring started not with blossoms but with dirt and longer days on March 20. We shook off the sleep of winter as increased daylight helped fortify us for our reentry into the world. Spring is a slow build because it isn’t easy to create art or life or to heal, grow, and bloom. I was reminded of this every day last week on my way to my writing studio. I would step outside wearing sweats, holding my coffee in an insulated mug, and my computer tote bag slung over my shoulder. Then I would turn to my left, and as I descended my front steps I said, “Good morning,” to the mourning dove whose nest is in a tree growing on a trellis alongside my house. The bird, it could be mom or dad,³ is often hunkered down low on cold on thirty degree mornings. It is spring and birds are working to maximize life in this world, but the hatchlings still have a while to go. I appreciate the daily reminder of how long it takes to make good things sometimes, because then I get to work on revising my manuscript.

Left to right, top to bottom: the mated pair of mourning doves nesting, my writing studio in sharp morning light, a view from my desk, one of many pots of pansies I planted

Spring is a season of hope and a reminder that it takes fortitude to flourish in this world.

Yes, spring is exciting and inspiring and it can also be hard. It is always a busy time for me and as much as I love to feel the sun on my face, I find myself frequently struggling to balance heeding the call to create art with fostering relationships, and needing to rest and recuperate, so I can keep on blooming all season long.

I imagine that I am not the only one who both loves spring and tends to deal with burnout by summer. And I know that I am not the only one who has an annual period that lends itself to emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion, whether it lines up with the weather, holidays, or the fiscal year. To that end I created a list of self-care suggestions to help fortify us as we work, learn, grow, and heal. Find it below, and grab a screenshot of it and keep it handy on your phone, or print it out and leave it somewhere you will see it midday, or hang it in the breakroom at work.)

In the name of taking it easy I have also included a recipe for Cheater Crust Quiche (my girlfriend calls frozen crust, “cheater crust.”) It is an easy recipe and uses fewer eggs than you might suspect. As always I end with a roundup of things to watch, read, and listen to.

Screenshot Me!

Here are eight things you can do to support your wellness. Each one falls under a different dimension of wellness but there is often crossover.

If you know someone who will appreciate this, please share this whole newsletter using the share button, rather than simply sending a screenshot. Sharing this free newsletter really helps support my work!

Leftover Bits and Bobs Cheater Crust Quiche

The name isn’t sexy but it makes a damn fine lunch.

Sweet Potato, Cheddar, Spinach, and Onion Quiche. A tad too brown but perfect inside!

The recipe was born from my need to conserve energy and to use up a lot of things that were on its last legs in my fridge. If you have a crust, four to five eggs, and cream or whole milk, you can make a quiche. For add-ins you can use 2 cups of the chopped and diced vegetables and/or meat you may already have on hand. Just be sure to cook your veggies or uncooked meat first. If you include meat, be sure to drain excess fat before putting it into the crust.

Ingredients:

For basic quiche recipe you will want

• 1 frozen pie crust or you can make your own

• 4 large eggs

• ⅔ cup milk

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

• 1/4 tsp salt

For add-ins I used

• 1 sweet potato peeled and diced into approx ¼” cubes

• some rosemary I couldn’t believe was still good finely chopped (maybe 2 springs worth)

• olive oil

• salt

• 1 sad onion halved and thinly sliced

• 1 sad bag of baby spinach leaves that aren’t completely gone but you wouldn’t eat raw anymore

• 4oz of weird raw milk cheddar shredded as best you can bc its kinda crumbly

(This was more add-ins than I could use in the quiche, so the next day I tossed the leftovers with a package of ravioli for dinner, and topped it with fresh ricotta.)

Start by cooking your add-ins.

I roasted my sweet potatoes tossed with rosemary, salt, and olive oil at 400 degrees for 20 minutes until they were soft but not brown. I sauteed my onions in a glug of olive oil slowly over medium-low heat letting them soften and become clear without browning. Once they were clear I added spinach and salt and cooked until the spinach wilted completely.

Then assemble quiche.

If you are using cheater crust like me, make sure you don’t have to blind bake it first. If you do, follow the instructions on the package. If you’re making your own crust, do blind bake it. I did not have to with the crust I picked up.

Preheat the oven to 375 when you are ready to assemble your quiche. Place the crust in its tin on a baking sheet and add your add-ins. I put a layer of potato on the bottom, then a layer of onion and spinach, and then a layer of cheese.

Beat eggs, milk, nutmeg and ¼ tsp of salt in a large bowl and pour it over your mix-ins.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. If it is starting to brown too much, you can cover the quiche with foil, but you want to make sure the crust is fully baked and the egg mixture set but custardy.

Until Next Time…

READ Stand in My Window: Meditations on Home and How We Make It, by

LaTonya Yvette

, an intimate and inspiring collection of lyrical essays and accompanying photographs on home, lineage, and memory.

LISTEN TO Rift, my favorite Phish album which I haven’t thought about in decades until I read Amanda Petrusch’s brilliant profile of the band for The New Yorker.

WATCH Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld on Netflix. I am watching this action-packed, awesome animated series with my teenage daughter, and we are on the edge of our seats! At its core are wonderful characters, humor, teen angst, and a Chinese-American immigrant story. I hope there’s a second season!

Let me know your recommendations for shows to watch in the comments. I am running out of things to watch!

1. Zines are handmade, non-commercial, inexpensive, traded, or free publications that are usually dedicated to something the creators are passionate about. They have their roots in early twentieth century labor organizing and had quite the heyday in 90s. I was involved with a few zines in the 90s: No Labels a hardcore music fanzine and Slip of The Tongue, my college’s queer zine.

2. While I feel like we are missing out on the tactile and analog aspects of traditional zines with an e-zine, I can more easily distribute this publication to all of you.

3. Mated pairs of mourning doves take turns incubating eggs.