The January Good Batch
Because we could all use some good right now
Welcome to the January Good Batch!
Each month, I gather up the best conversations with women over 40 doing remarkable things, the ideas fueling our courage, and what I can’t get enough of right now.
Between chilling ICE raids in Minneapolis and all around the country, and record snowfall blanketing large parts of the US, things have been feeling really cold this month. So, since we’ve made it through the 10 darkest weeks of the year, I thought it might be a good time to share the ways I’ve been warming up my heart and rekindling my belief in humanity.
8 Ways I Found Warmth This Month
1. Solo dates with the people I love most
A slushy Light of Day music festival in Asbury Park with my husband to benefit Parkinson’s research, where very famous musicians and very-not-yet-famous musicians came together to raise money and hope. Putting on frilly floral dresses and traipsing through the snow with my 15-year-old daughter for high tea at Oasis TLC, a farm designed and built by and for adults with autism.
2. Celebrating young authors
An art gallery on the Lower East Side filled with friends like Carla Zanoni and The Point | Rachel Lipson and food luminaries like Alison Roman, Martha Stewart (!!), Annie Shi, and Asmaret Berhe-Lumax reading work by young authors (mostly from Title One schools) who were guided in telling their own stories through 826 NYC. This organization is a beneficiary of this year’s Uplifters Live, and seeing their work up close reminded me why we do what we do.
3. Moving softly through the hard stuff
Listening to Katherine May read her beautiful book Wintering on Audible while shoveling feet of snow, something I’ve never had to do before in my life. Her guidance to move softly made even snow removal feel joyful and aligned.
4. Practicing becoming the 90-year-old I want to be
Taking on my grandmother’s soft daily practices from her 90s in my 50s. Small rituals. Gentle movements. The hula hoop keeps spinning.
5. Planning Uplifters Live
I’m designing this day for midlife women who find small-talk and know-it-alls and AI bots boring. Who want human conversation with big dreamers who do things scared and ask for help and share generously. I created this day because I craved all of that, so it’s been incredibly heartwarming to discover los of other women do too. If this is you too, join us. We still have a few tickets left. All the info HERE.
6. Asking what each moment is perfect for
Celebrating snowy days with both of my children still living at home and the luxury of them wanting to play with me. These are the days I’ll miss someday very soon, so I’m soaking them up now.
7. Running through winter with my community
Hikes with new friends and neighbors, looking for little moments of magic, and running outside on snowy days to absorb some much-needed vitamin D and vitamin C-ommunity. Turns out people are really excited to cheer you on when you’re navigating slush mountains and accidental ice rinks. “Good job, kid” shouted by a passing neighbor or a nod of solidarity from another frost-bitten hiker always warm me.
8. Listening to stories of new beginnings
This month on The Uplifters Podcast, we heard about courage in all its forms:
Sahar Delijani (Listen HERE) on what life-and-death courage teaches us about daily bravery in midlife
Mandy Fabian (Listen HERE) on creative courage at any age
Dawn Veselka (Listen HERE) (co-founder of Cards2Warriors) on starting a nonprofit after 40
Karissa Pfeffer (Listen HERE) on starting over when she discovered that her corporate burnout symptoms were actually perimenopause
Coming in February: LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
Next month, our theme is 💓LOVE💓 in its broadest, most human sense. We’ll explore:
Mother love with Ruthie Ackerman (author of The Mother Code) on understanding the women who raised us, reconciling feminism and mothering, and reimagining this path in a way that feels right and true for ourselves
Friend love with Patina with Dina Aronson + Dina Alvarez on how later-life friendships and collaborations can unexpectedly change our creative paths
Self-love with Wendy Harrop, who said a giant yes to herself and her dreams even though it meant courageously ending her marriage, moving across the country, and upending all the personal and professional structures she built in the first half of her life
Human love in the age of AI with Susan Ruth, host of the Hey Human podcast
Romantic love with Alyssa Dineen, a midlife dating coach who helps us rethink the stories we’re telling ourselves about navigating the mysterious and messy world of modern dating
Let’s Keep Finding Warmth Together
The world is cold right now. But, writing this reminded me that we get through this winter by doing the most counterintuitive thing: getting out of our cozy bubbles, and instead, getting out into nature, connecting with friends and neighbors, making things that scare us a little and then sharing them with other people.
What’s warming your heart this month? Comment and tell us, so that we can cozy up to it too.
With love and courage,
Aransas
We all look so warm, but it was so COLD! :) Glad we got to spend a little time connecting with work that matters. I think that is the only way.