My dad recently shared that “Lent” comes from the Old English “lencten,” because the days are beginning to lengthen in spring.  I’ve been meditating on the simple pleasure of light through a window. After a long dark winter it is a relief to have more sun on my face…

1. What Reader Species Are You?, Laura E. Kelly. I love this infographic! Which species matches your reading style? I’m definitely the comfort reader, mixed with the library lover (no surprise there).
2. How to integrate HIIT exercise into your daily routine, Quartzy. This is an interesting report on incorporating more “incidental movement” into your daily routine. “Even brief sessions of 20 seconds of stair-climbing (60 steps) repeated three times a day on three days per week over six weeks can lead to measurable improvements in cardio-respiratory fitness. This type of fitness indicates how well the lungs, heart, and circulatory systems are working, and the higher it is the lower the risk for future heart disease is.” My new workplace is full of stairs, so I’m taking note of that finding! There are some other good practical tips in this article too, so click through if you’re curious.
3. Akiko Busch: The Invisibility of Older Women, the Atlantic. “If the gaze of others wanes, Gray suggests, one might choose to “acquire instead a deepened inward gaze, or intensify our observation of others, or evolve alternative means of attention-getting which transcend sexuality and depend, as the mentors of my youth taught me, upon presence, authority, and voice.” This excerpt makes me want to read the book! There’s another point Busch makes further in the article that invisibility might prompt us to be more empathetic and humanitarian. I never thought about it like that before, and I think about being/becoming invisible all the time.
4. The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief, GQ. What a good long read, about temptation and beauty and stolen art. “The pleasure of having,” says Breitwieser, “is stronger than the fear of stealing.” Whoa…what a character. I feel different about the thief by the end of this story than I did at the beginning. Highly recommend reading it!
5. Don’t Wash That Coffee Mug!, Naval Historical Foundation blog. Um, have you all heard about this? People (particularly in the military, particularly in the Navy) not washing their coffee mugs and letting them “season”? I think these are all black-coffee drinkers, since no one who drinks milk and sugar in their coffee wants to see that on the counter tomorrow. If any of you reading this have a seasoned coffee mug I would love to see photos of it! Contact me here.