These are a few of my favorite things:

Thinking. One of my greatest fears is to lose cognitive abilities. I can’t volunteer in nursing homes or hospitals because I get so scared to see people who aren’t fully “there” mentally. I value my ability to reason so much that the prospect of it even being possible not to think terrifies me. I recently heard a sermon by Rev. Dick Foth that challenged my feeling that the ability to think is essentially what makes you human. I can’t say that it doesn’t still scare me to be around people who don’t have their mental faculties completely intact, but I think that if I had to do it, this sermon would help me get through it.

Reading. I need to read regularly. My favorite is fiction. I think storytelling is the most powerful way to say something meaningful. If I read a non-fiction historical account of something, there’s a 10% or less chance that I’ll remember anything about what happened. But put those same events into a fictional account that includes people’s feelings and the impact of events on someone’s personality and life, and suddenly I remember every detail, because now I see how it matters. Some of the best authors I’ve read of late have been: Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Kahled Hosseini, Conor Grennan (who writes non-fiction but in a very fictional way), Chimamanda  Ngozi Adichie, and Anchee Min.

Writing. I’m trying to be more disciplined about writing. I love to do it, but it’s also a very vulnerable thing. Especially with the internet making your writing so much more accessible, I sometimes get writer’s block simply because I don’t want to say something that will get me in trouble with anyone. (Not legal trouble, more like relational trouble.) It’s hard to be a good writer, in my opinion, without being brutally honest and not giving a rip what people think of you. One of my greatest struggles is the idea that I have to make people happy with me all of the time.  Until I get over that, I think my writing will always feel a little squelched to me.

Singing. I’ve always had a natural interest in music and singing, but I really learned how to sing in high school. I was blessed with a choir director, Mr. Tom Coe, who loves music and loves teaching music. In middle school, my choir director never tried to teach us how to read music. She told us to mouth “watermelon” if we couldn’t remember the words. Mr. Coe would have probably kicked us out if we had mouthed “watermelon.” Every day before class started, we were expected to practice sight-reading, which got progressively harder throughout the school year and as the years passed. We had quizzes and tests on basic music theory. We were expected to know and care about our music. Everything I know and still use regarding diction, breath support, dynamics, and whatever else you need to sing well, I first learned in high school choir.

Traveling. I hate sitting still. So traveling works well for my personality. I like to see new things and to take note of how people do things differently in different places. And then, of course, I like to think about it and write about it. Sometimes even sing about it.