The Morning Muse

There’s a collection of random thoughts and realizations that are too short to get their own posts, but that I want to share nonetheless, so I am going to share them all here! There’s no particular topic, and if you find this in your Reader, consider yourself tagged (remember blogging tags?). I’d love to read your own version of this!

#1 Fiction is Cheap! – The more I read, and the more seriously I take my reading, the more I realize that fiction is cheap–literally. I don’t mean that derogatively. I love fiction, I read a lot of it. But it’s much cheaper than books on political science topics, history or economics, books that really expand your view of current events and more. It makes sense since many of those are written by academics and are heavily research focused, not to mention publishers know they won’t sell as many books and so need to sell each unit at a higher price to recover profits.

#2 You don’t always get what you pay for – My yoga mat was on its last legs. After 2+months of daily practice and laying it out for over an hour a day, my cats had taken to scratching it very badly. I began using a yoga towel on top of it to prevent further damage, but things were already pretty bad. I picked up a new one at Marshall’s for $24, and that was a $26 discount on my previous mat. The Marshall’s one is from Gaiam and much, much nicer than my old mat (which I still have–too attached to get rid of it).

#3 The more yoga I do, the better my body gets at releasing during yoga – I used to think the effect of physical release and catharsis in yoga should be immediate. When it didn’t happen, I thought my body just didn’t “take to” yoga (or maybe that others were exaggerating their experiences). After all, if you’re new to the mat, chances are you’re carrying more stress and tension than someone who has been practicing for a long time, so shouldn’t you have more to release and more quickly? But I’m here to tell you, it wasn’t like this at all in my experience.

#4 There’s never been a better time to start a blog – I seriously feel more excited about blogging than ever, and not just on a personal level. I think there’s never been a better time to reach an audience and speak our truth, inspire others, teach them, whatever your blog is about, there’s never been a better time for it. Social media is losing its value! People are hungry for authentic voices like yours and mine, real people (not AI) sharing their thoughts and experiences without the constant pressure of the algorithm and echo chamber filled with bots.

#5 My new laundry routine is turning old clothes into new – It took me 30+ years to discover OxyClean, and while I am looking for a more natural alternative, there’s no going back from using stain removers. If you’re clumsy like me, food stains are a daily occurrence. I’ve taken to spraying all stains (and also worn white socks–anything with a colour change) with OxyClean spray. Then I put about 1/3 scoop of OxyClean powder into the drum. I use a regular amount of detergent and cleaning vinegar as a softener. It’s amazing–gets stains and smells out of gym clothes!

#6 Purina Beyond cat food – I switched my cats from their Purina Pro kitten kibble to Royal Canin on their vet’s rave reviews of Royal Canin a few bags of cat food ago, but I decided that I would rather stick to Purina. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s that I know just how much Purina puts into pet food research–I trust them. I couldn’t find the Purina Pro at the store I went to, but looked at the ingredients for both Purina One and Purina Beyond and really liked what I saw with Beyond. My cats have been loving it!