Everyone is obsessed with the ’90s. I feel over it.

Maybe I don’t need another decade to escape into. Maybe I need to get better at being here.

I swear I cannot get a single minute on Instagram without someone asking me if I miss the 90s. Gwen Stafani waves back at me but not Gwen now, this was when she walking in the spiderwebs, way more grunge and way less Jesus. And a see through purple V-tech phone beckons me back. And Blockbuster comes up a lot. And Delia’s -which would probably make it if they came back actually. And Abercrombie has returned for us elder millennials minus the shirtless teens at the front doors and large moose heads everywhere. The algorithm very much knows my age.

I relished in it for a while.
And now, well, I feel kind of over it.

I get nostalgia and I so get the escape tactics, hello, I read romantasy books (I wrote 20 reasons why I do). And I do feel the joy from remembering having to dial up the internet and so many butterfly clips and clay yin yang necklaces. Yet, I keep bumping up against how many trends-devices-nostalgia-entertainment keep pulling me out of this exact moment in time. And I keep asking myself, why I am so easily distracted?

Okay not to prove my point to myself, but I accidentally looked online and just found out that Elon Musk and one of his space ships attachment things hit the moon, the actual moon - leaving a 60ft crater upon her. And now I am even more annoyed than the 90s thing.

Back to what I was saying: I am curious, does anyone like right now?

Believe me, I know we have a lot clapping back against the joy factors. However, let me take a moment to clean the proverbial lens and give a think about what is going well:

1. Last night, we took the kids night swimming and there was a frog on a rock and he had to be in mating season because the song he sang was so loud and righteous. I have never heard anything like and how cool to sit down and be surprised - dare I say delighted - to hear a sound in nature you have never heard before.

2. I recently heard that humans that had a hell of a time on Earth come back as trees so they can rest for a century. I like that.

3. I am currently reading a book about the history of the American book shop, It is aptly titled ‘The Bookshop’ and is written by Evan Friss. And today, I am going to a book shop!

4. My middle child wakes up so early and makes her bed, brushes her teeth and her hair, gets dressed and even puts her shoes on to complete her outfit.

5. Today, that same middle child was already ready before anyone, we are in Florida with family, and she and I grabbed a couple of bikes and cruised to the beach for a morning walk. We decided to sit down on the sand for a minute and right then and there, a dolphin jumped out of the water for air. Can you believe it?

6. Damn, the early bird does get the worm. Fact.

7. I got pooped on by a hummingbird recently. I shrieked with glee and then, I made a wish. My husband said, ‘that did not go how I thought it was going to’.

8. I led a call today and ran out of time. I love knowing we all could have talked for three more hours, truthfully. And while I want to be a good time keeper and be known as someone who hits her marks and ends on time, I really don’t know if the current structures of time and even directions will ever be something I am great at. I surrender, finally.

9. I have been secretly-ish resurrecting the Goddesses. All of them. And I don’t mean energetically, I am talking Artemis, Aphrodite, Oshun, Brigid, Athena, Hekate, Persephone, Boann, Frigg, Sēņu Māte and Kwan Yin…to name a few. Let’s walk counterclockwise, set up new temples, talk with them and see what happens.

10. Mushrooms are a communication system. I live for all the details and I hope one of them is the town gossip and she is the matron mushroom, the crone of hearts, the great grandmother mushroom of them all.

11. Airplanes have wifi. I am grateful as I recently utilized it for the younger kids to watch old school Beauty and the Beast while my oldest watched The Truman Show, so I could read my paperback book about book shoppes.

12. I am sure you have heard of a potbelly pig, but have you heard of a potbelly seahorse? They are real and to attract a mate, they inflate their bellies like a balloon.

    

    Photo x Shedd Aquaruim

13. My daughter received a snail mail response from her long distance best friend, she had placed gems and stickers all over the envelope and there was a neon yellow sticker that we owe the post office .49 and in handwriting it said ‘for the bejewels’. I love that.

14. I feel hopeful that someone is going to write a riotous poem about Elon Musk and the moon and I cannot wait to read it.

15. I took the kids to a public water park pool a couple week’s ago and a child pooped in the pool. Not a Snicker bar floater, nope. We are talking down the entire blue slide. Shut it on down. So gross and yet, the amount of people I have told and laughed with has made it all so worthwhile. By the way, there is a gorgeous coffee table book on poop I checked out recently from the library, you must see it.

16. My kids were in The Lorax play a couple of weeks ago after attending an amazing local theater camp. Fast forward, we met a new neighbor over the weekend and she said to my oldest, ‘hey, I recognize you, you were the Once-ler! You did so great!’. Community showing up and speaking up, more of this!

Your turn!
Share in the comments the good-good right very now.

Places I go for lens cleaning:

The Sun News

Any body of water

(at) goodnews_movement

My friends, my children

I just found out about Orion Magazine

The trees

I write a story with my own imagination.

About Jacki Carr
Hey there! I’m Jacki. By day, I run a creative coaching business and a writing club and a community club. By night, I take really hot baths and then indulge within my library books way too late, some times into the next day. Here though, I write about unleashing your creativity, crying in public, haiku collections, and the essential salt of community.

—

Feel free to like + comment on this newsletter so more Substack users can find it! ♥️