Filling One's Cup
Filling One’s Cup
In the past few weeks I’ve noticed people on social media using the phrase “cup filling,” as in “this thing I’m doing is re-filling my cup.” Similar posts involve words like “nourishing” and “restorative.” The concept is not new, but I’m seeing this specific phrasing more often lately.
Things are a bit bleak in the U.S., so finding ways to pause and restore what’s been depleted - whether it’s time, energy, sanity, faith in humanity, etc. - is not just “self-care” in a Spa Day sense, but a necessary part of survival. Most of us can’t personally change the many, many things we wish to change all at once, so we need to find peace where we can.
The exact phrasing I keep seeing around might not be words I plan to adopt any time soon, but they’ve led me to thinking about the concept of restoration and what I’ve done to re-fill my cup, as it were, this summer. So, for me, a bit of July highlights that perhaps wouldn’t have affected me so deeply if we were living in more stable times. (But, truthfully, probably still would have.)
Amy Sherald’s American Sublime exhibit at The Whitney, and the unexpected way my breath could be taken away by portraits alone.
Annahstasia - Tether (album) For the Nina Simone and Tracy Chapman fans out there who didn’t think they made voices like theirs anymore.
4th of July at Coney Island, the true melting pot of New York City and the beautiful chaos of it all.
Hudson Valley rendezvous with my favorite old friend of twenty-five years, and the ways we pick up where we left off no matter how much time passes.
Seeing my niece perform on stage and having the best time doing it, and seeing her find her place in the world.
The weird thing about this list is that I know all of these things happened in July, but some already feel as if they occurred months ago. Yet other things, like opening my current writing project and discovering I hadn’t worked on it since June, take me by surprise with how much time has passed when it seems like only a week should have. When every week provides a year’s worth of headlines, and public conversations switch multiple times an hour, time can feel disorienting.
August is usually the month I need to push myself through the most, so if you see me looking a bit haggard out on the streets of New York, remind me to refer back to this list and remember to refill.
FUN STUFF:
What I'm Reading: The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein
What I'm Watching: Dept. Q (Netflix)
What I'm Listening To: (Besides Tether) Good Hang with Amy Poehler (podcast)
What I'm Eating: Leftovers