Monthly Archives: June 2025

Wading birds in a pond with green mountains in the background.

Fun With Family and Friends

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This year, as part of my 25 in 25 list, I made a goal to visit Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Although it’s an ambitious goal, given that I can’t take long trips during the academic year, I felt confident that I could achieve it.

Why these particular states? Well, PA and TN are where my family and Heath’s family live. CT and NC are where friends who are like family live. Nebraska and Oklahoma are the two remaining continental US states I have yet to visit.

We’re almost halfway through 2025, and I am crushing this goal! I spent Spring Break in Connecticut meeting Lucy Honey Bee and reminding Annie I’m her #1 fan.

A golden retriever puppy on the left and an adult golden retriever on the right share a stick while out in the woods.

Lucy Honey Bee (left) and Annie (right).

An adult golden retriever walks down a hill in the Norfolk, CT, woods.

Despite Lucy being ridiculously cute, I made sure Annie and I went on special “No Puppies Allowed” walks.

Heath and I took a weekend jaunt to Scott’s Bluff, NE, and found ourselves marveling over the rugged beauty and delicious food.

Badlands rock formations against a blue sky

Scotts Bluff National Monument

At the end of May, I headed to PA for a somewhat impromptu visit to my family. When I looked at my calendar and considered my summer teaching schedule from July 8-August 8 and how quickly the fall semester would start after that, I realized I might not get the opportunity to visit later in the summer.

Highlights from that visit include going to the Hershey Gardens with my mom and niece, playing games, birdwatching at Wildwood Lake, visiting with my mentors from college, eating the below birthday cake cinnamon roll at the Hershey Pantry, and then enjoying the experience so much, that we returned to the Hershey Pantry with even more people for their afternoon tea.

Collage of photos - clockwise from upper right is a snowy egret in a pond, a close up of a yellowish orange rose, an old fashioned carousel horse pulling a carriage of flowers, three cinnamon rolls covered in birthday sprinkles, a three-tiered serving tray with sandwiches and pastries, an expansive stone building with green roof with a fountain, tiles from a memory game that all say the word "honey," butterflies sitting on a green leaf, and a young woman facing away from the camera and sitting on a beam while looking through binoculars.
And last weekend I was in NC for a teaching conference at Duke University in Durham, NC. With the conference schedule, I was able to squeeze in visits with many of my friends and it was so much fun to see them again.

I also received a delightful perspective shift. On Saturday morning, when I walked around Duke’s campus on my way to the conference center, it was nearly empty. I saw its beauty in a way that I had never appreciated before, having walked across the campus at least a dozen or so times during grad school and my sabbatical.

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I don’t know if I would have prioritized any of these trips if I hadn’t set such an ambitious travel goal. These visits may have been more of a back-burner idea, and without conscious effort, it’s likely they would have stayed simmering as desires rather than concrete plans. Which goes to show that setting intentions can make a difference!

Up next on the list is Oklahoma. Heath and I have a trip planned for August to see a meteor shower at one of their state parks. I’m sure August will be here before we know it.

In the meantime, stay cool during these hot summer days, and if you have a travel goal this summer, I hope you get there!

Stop and Smell the Lilacs 2

Stop and Smell the Lilacs

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One of the small things that I knew I’d miss when we moved from Norfolk, CT, in May 2023, was the lilacs I walked by every day on my way to work at the library.

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Lilacs are my favorite flower fragrance, and purple is one of my favorite colors. Stopping to smell the lilacs was one of my favorite sensory experiences, taking just a few moments of my time yet filling me with joy.

I also knew I’d miss the half-mile commute to my job because I could walk it in less than 10 minutes. I loved walking, and then I’d be at the library!

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Sometimes, it still amazes me that I was a librarian. I couldn’t even say that was a dream job. In the realm of possibility, it seemed impossible, given that I don’t have an MLS.

And now that I’m a professor again, I’m once again amazed. I swore to myself that I would NEVER return to teaching. I was done with academia. It wasn’t a good fit for me.

Except, I never really left teaching. At the library, I started an online media discussion group at the beginning of the pandemic. We read books such as The Now Habit, watched the Top 10 Ted Talks You Need to Know, and listened to psychology-themed episodes from podcasts such as Hidden Brain, The Happiness Lab, and Gretchen Rubin. We’re now five years in and still continuing on.

I also developed and led a Books & Boots program where we would read a book and then walk in the woods to discuss it. It makes me so happy that this program is still going strong today.

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Books & Boots, Ells Crane Trail, August 2022

Then there were the in-person workshops that I led, on topics such as The Psychology of Stuff: Why We Have So Much and What We Can Do About It and Spring Cleaning Hacks: How to Get Started When You Don’t Want To.

And, of course,  there was my other part-time job at the Congregational Church as the Director of Community and Creativity. I led multi-week discussions on Great Courses such as the History of the Bible and World Religions. Not to mention, I gave a few sermons that were some of the best public speaking moments of my life!

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Church of Christ, Congregational (UCC), Norfolk

In hindsight, it shouldn’t amaze me at all that the job I ended up in again was teaching. It’s so clearly a part of who I am – I just wasn’t in the right teaching job the first time around.

And I still had some growing to do because the person I was when I quit teaching in 2016 is not the person I am now.

That person was limited in creativity and imagination. She didn’t KNOW who she was, and she felt more than a little lost in this great big world.

That time off allowed me to gain clarity on who I was and what I wanted.

I never once regretted that I quit my tenured associate professor position in 2016.

But those lilacs I would be leaving behind on my daily walk-commute, I would regret leaving them because of how much happiness they brought me.

Except…

There are lilacs on my walk across campus to the psychology and neuroscience building!

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Lilacs outside the UMC building on the CU campus.

A walk that I take after I ride a bus. A bus ride in which I read a book or answer emails, or stare out the window in wonder that I now live amidst the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, on the way to a teaching job that brings me a lot of meaning and purpose.

All to say that I still walk to work and my commute isn’t awful! In fact, it’s mostly enjoyable.

So, you better believe I stop to smell those lilacs.

Because not only are they one of my favorite sensory experiences, but they also remind me that you don’t know what the future has in store for you. What you worry about may never come true. And what happens may be better than you ever imagined.

Enjoy these last weeks of spring, my friends.

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Waneka Lake, May 28, 2025